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Sins of the Past
-:-
Chapter Eighteen
I froze midstep in the doorway between the kitchen and dining room, before turning my head to glance back at Elsa.
"Uh..." I began, scratching the back of my head with my free hand. "Are you sure? It's kinda early to be telling me your life story, considering how we've only known each other for like a week."
Elsa stared back at me confusedly.
"You displayed three hours ago a clear disregard for my personal privacy. What holds you back now?"
"Well, it's because, like..." I floundered for a bit, searching for the right words. "I did something that was bad to you, so shouldn't you be upset at me? I don't understand why you're basically rewarding me for what I've done."
Elsa merely shrugged.
"Perhaps, but truth be told it makes no difference to me. I was always taught to turn the other cheek and not allow grudges to cloud my judgment, as pettiness is not conducive to a flourishing business."
"So you're letting me off the hook, just like that?" I asked, incredulously.
"Yes." Elsa replied simply. "Unless you would prefer otherwise."
"...Well, okay then." I shrugged. "If you put it that way then I'll definitely take you up on your offer."
"Very well then, I will be waiting for you in the bedroom." And with that Elsa ascended straight up into the ceiling, leaving me alone in the kitchen. I hurried to rinse the breadcrumbs off my plate and raced up the stairs after her.
Elsa instructed me to lie down on my bed while she hovered above me, psychiatrist style, once I got up to my bedroom.
"What is this, a bedtime story or something?" I snarked, as I laid myself down onto the sheets. Elsa chuckled in response.
"No Anna, but close. A bedtime movie would perhaps be more accurate."
"Movie?" I echoed. "What do you mean?"
"Back when those silly boys visited my bathroom every other night for their 'Bloody Elsa' myth, one of my favourite tricks to play involved induced auditory and visual hallucinations, of my choosing." She explained.
"Really?" I asked in surprise. "That's actually pretty cool. Why've I never heard of this before?"
"I know not. Perhaps try asking your friend Rapunzel when you two next meet." Elsa coughed. "But that is besides the point. Please name to me a common household object as a warmup exercise."
"Warmup exercise?"
"Precisely. It has been quite some time since I've last had a... visitor, besides yourself, and as a result I may be out of practice."
"Uhh... okay then, I get it. How about an orange, then?"
"Very well." Elsa closed her eyes and slowly fluttered down like a sheet of paper on the bed, assuming a kneeling position as she landed. A light shimmer rippled across her body.
"Tell me Anna, what do you see?"
"...Not very much to be honest but—oh god, what's going on?"
The edges of my vision had began to cloud over and darken. I flailed my head around in a panic as the colours of the world then began to desaturate.
"Relax, Anna." Came Elsa's voice. "Whatever you are seeing right now is normal, and should pass soon. Please try not to injure yourself in the meantime."
I did as was told and relaxed, trusting in Elsa. As predicted, my vision eventually cleared, and soon the image of a perfectly spherical orange against a pure white background materialized into view.
The experience was... really trippy to say the least, and is also really hard to properly describe. The best analogy I could come up with to describe what it was like would be to say that it was as though I was suddenly wearing a weightless and invisible VR headset since no matter where I turned my head, the image of the orange followed suit, staying perfectly engrained in my vision.
Again, really trippy.
"Okay. I'm seeing an orange." I reported to Elsa, after which the image immediately began to fade away. I gasped out the second everything returned to normal. "That was really freaky."
"As it should." Elsa laughed. "Now let us try something else. Give me a scenario, this time more complex, and as well describe to me a background to go along with it."
"Uh, okay." I thought for a moment. "How about the two of us in the middle of a wide snowy field, with a newly built snowman between us?"
"Understood. Please hold..."
The previous uncomfortable events began to repeat themselves. Elsa's body shimmered, my vision clouded over, and colours of the world again began to desaturate. I really had no idea why or how this was all happening, but I shrugged internally and went along with it.
Soon I was looking at an upfront shot of an adorable snowman, with a blonde adolescent teen standing proudly on one side and a redhead of a similar age jumping for joy on the other. Snowflakes were slowly falling in both the foreground and background, lightly building upon the ocean of snow surrounding the two girls.
"This is beautiful, Elsa." I gasped in awe.
She chuckled quietly to herself. "Idealistic, isn't it?"
"Can you see all this as well?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Then can you make the redhead hug the blonde?"
"...Anna?"
"Please?" I insisted.
Elsa sighed. "Very well."
As was asked, the redhead in the vision promptly walked over to the blonde and pulled her into a tight squeeze, murmuring happily. The blonde looked taken aback at first, but soon came to her senses and reciprocated the hug, smiling as well.
"There." I smiled myself, satisfied. "If I can't do it in real life, then I'll do it here."
"How very thoughtful of you, Anna." Elsa laughed quietly. "Heartwarming as it may be however, I believe this to be a satisfactory warm up. Do you wish to move on?"
"Aw man. Fine." I replied reluctantly with a pout. I savoured every last second of the vision as it faded from view, trying to forever burn it into my memory. "So, now you were gonna show me... what happened on Valentine's Day, right?"
"Correct." Elsa replied. "Where exactly do you wish to begin?"
"How about the beginning? As in the day where you first met Belle. When was that again? July something?"
"July 24th, 1928."
"Right, of course you of all people would remember." I chuckled. "Yeah, if you could start there then that'd be great."
"Do you wish for me to place an emphasis on narration, or on the visuals?"
I thought about that for a moment, before replying. "This is your story. I think it's only fair for you to tell it how you want."
"Understood. Please make yourself comfortable."
Another shimmer flashed through Elsa's body.
Elsa's method of delivery really was reminiscent to that of a movie, in which all that I needed to do was to kick back, watch, and enjoy the show.
The first scene Elsa showed me began with a first-person view (all following scenes also proved to be shown in the first person) of the very same bedroom that the two of us were currently occupying, albeit far more clean and organized. The absence of any currently existing technology, as well as the presence of a typewriter sitting where my laptop should normally be, clued me in to the date even before Elsa spelled it out.
"We begin during July 24th, year of 1928." Elsa narrated. "My biology tutor had failed to arrive for our regularly scheduled evening lesson, and had more egregiously also failed to notify us of this fact whatsoever. As a result, I found myself with an unusually generous extra two hours of free time on my hands."
"At a loss as to what to do, I decided to head out and explore town. Such a journey was unprecedented, as I never before had the opportunity to do so since I rarely ever had free time to myself during the day."
Our movie protagonist, who I assumed was Elsa in the past, exited her bedroom and made her way down a familiar hallway, albeit now meticulously polished instead of horribly dusty, before descending down a similarly familiar flight of stairs. On her way out she met a rather chubby old man with a ridiculously large nose guarding the front door.
"Good evening, Ms. Elsa." the man greeted with a bow, confirming that the protagonist/cameraman was indeed Elsa.
"To you as well, Kai." she replied.
"Out and about this late at night?" Kai asked. "How very unusual."
Elsa chuckled. "Indeed."
Kai nodded, and like a cool old uncle kind of guy smiled conspiratorially before stepping aside. "I do hope you enjoy yourself tonight, Ms. Elsa."
The view then dipped, which I guessed was from Elsa curtsying in response or something.
"Thank you, Kai." said Elsa, as she exited out the front door and into the night.
"I wandered town for some time, though there was little to see this far into the evening. I eventually came across an establishment that I would later discover to be a dance club of sorts, if highly archaic now by modern definitions."
The next scene was that of Elsa walking down a darkened and desolate street, passing by several roadside shops that had closed for the night. She paused momentarily to stare upwards at the bright pink neon sign belonging to the one establishment still operating at this hour.
[DRINK! DANCE! SING!]
She looked around, and seeing nothing better to do, entered the building.
Elsa was greeted by a typical nightclub scene upon entry, if you took into consideration the fact that this was during the 30s. In one corner there were crowds of people swinging and dancing to an acoustic band, and in another there were people socializing and drinking at a bar, and in the middle lay a stage where a select few people stood singing their hearts out. Elsa stood there by the entrance for quite some time, analyzing and taking stock of her surroundings, before ultimately heading towards the bar furthest from all the yelling and screaming to presumably get herself something to drink."
"I sat at the bar and nursed a gimlet for exactly 17 minutes, still not knowing what else to do, before she arrived."
"Tu es trop belle pour avoir l'air si ennuyée." Came a sudden voice to Elsa's left. She turned around quizzically, staring at the petite brunette that had just taken the seat beside her.
"I am too beautiful to be bored?" She translated amusedly.
The girl whirled around in surprise, before tensing up and timidly asking. "Parles-vous français?"
"Oui." Elsa replied.
The brunette's cheeks blossomed, and she covered her face in embarrassment. "Merde."
Elsa laughed, not unkindly.
"It's okay." She reassured. "I'm rather flattered, to be honest. My name's Elsa."
The girl sighed in relief.
"Je m'appelle Belle. It is nice to meet you, Elsa."
"Likewise."
The girl swiveled in her seat. "I wasn't lying though. It is a crime for someone as beautiful as you to be so bored."
"Then perhaps I am forever doomed to life in prison." Elsa lamented. "As I do not often visit these establishments, and therefore am somewhat at a loss as to what to do."
Belle laughed, now visibly much more at ease. "Come on then, I'll show you. The constable shall not lay their filthy hands upon you today if there's anything I can do about it."
And with that, Belle grabbed a giggling Elsa by the hand and dragged her to the dance floor.
"Tu es trop belle pour avoir l'air si ennuyée" was google translated. I highly doubt it is accurate, but oh well. C'est la vie.
The other phrases are far simpler (as in, Canadian grade school level simple) so I'm much more confident that they're correct, but for those who need it:
Parles-vous francais = Do you speak French?
Oui = Yes.
Merde = Shit. (This was not part of the curriculum, by the way!)
Je m'appelle Belle = My name is Belle.