Belle had packed as much as she could, filling the contents of their suitcases with as many warm articles of clothing as possible; or as many as she could find inside their closet and drawers. There wasn't much. It was strange for her imagining him in an outfit other than an Armani suit or something involving crocodile skin, however, some of those warmer clothes did exist for him and she folded them neatly into his suitcase. Somewhere in the distance she heard a soft chirping. At first she thought it was a bird, but it sounded more electronic. Her phone! She ran downstairs towards the sound, straining her ears for it. Her phone gave another 'chirp' confirming its location and she found it wedged in a couch cushion which had fallen out of her purse. The Kriss dagger had propped open her bag, allowing the contents inside to spill out onto the couch. She looked at the dagger in disgust and she felt foolish to have "accidentally" left it exposed like that. She couldn't believe she had just left her bag here, unattended, exposed to anyone who dared peek inside their home. Of course, she was sure that he had placed heavy protective spells and charms on their home to prevent that very sort of thing from happening, but still the disgust she had wasn't for the dagger, it was for herself. While she was distracted with getting ready for their wedding, she completely forgot the safety of the dagger. She should have brought it with her, even to her wedding. It was at that moment that she decided to just bring her purse wherever she goes. It made her even more determined.
She opened her phone, which silenced the constant chirping, to discover four missed calls. Two missed calls from Emma, one from Leroy, and the other from Ruby. She was about to hit the playback button to her voicemail box when she heard a strange, muffled cry coming from the basement. Curious, she tossed the phone back into her purse containing the dagger, grabbing it and its contents and the thickest jacket she could find in the house and headed out the front door. She wasn't about to make the same mistake twice leaving the dagger behind.
Belle had only glimpsed into the basement when she caught Rumple practicing magic that one time in the middle of the night, but she had never physically been down there. There was no need to. The basement contained whatever work he brought home, and that included dark magic. She wasn't about to touch or clean his workplace unless he consented or was there to tell her what was safe to touch. Since he constantly worked with dangerous materials, she concluded that it was all dangerous and it was simply safer for her if the basement's contents were left untouched. Until now.
Belle peered through the small basement window like she did before, and saw… a young woman! "Elsa! Help! Anybody!" A young woman with auburn hair looked around aimlessly in Gold's, confused and trapped. Belle ran to the outside door leading down to the basement and opened it. "Hello?"
"Elsa?"
"No. My name is Belle. How did you get down here?"
"My name is Anna. My sister must have said my name. She needs me. I was magically frozen by Rumplestitskin so that my sister and I could be reunited. She must be close by," said Anna looking around curiously. The temptation to touch all the foreign objects in the room was starting to become overwhelming. But before Anna could do any damage Belle pleaded, "Please don't touch anything down there, you might hurt yourself. Please come upstairs where it's safer and we can continue talking."
"Who are you? What am I doing here?" asked Anna walking up the stairs towards Belle and into the daylight, "The last thing I remember was making a deal with Rumplestiltskin at his castle to reunited me with my sister."
"I'm Mrs. Gold. I'm Rumplestiltskin's wife." Anna widened her eyes out of fear, doubting her decision to go with this stranger. Belle, noticing her reaction quickly responded, "But you've no reason to fear! He's different in this land. He's changed, and to what I imagine, he's changed a lot since the last time you've met him. I'm his caretaker."
"How can you be married to such a… a…" Anna was searching for a word that matched her disgruntled non-approving face. But before she could finish her inevitably insulting remark, Belle was gladly able to finish it for her, "…misunderstood man?" Belle raised an eyebrow at Anna.
"Well," began Anna sounding completely dissatisfied with the description. But as she thought about it, she figured it wise that Belle had finished her sentence and not her. It was, after all, that same kind of knee-jerk judgment that got her into the predicament she was in today. So Anna decided to practice acceptance and tolerance, hoping to be more receptive and understanding. She wanted to be the better person and right the wrong that was placed on her family long ago. If people were more understanding of her sister, she wouldn't be in this mess. She figured that tolerance started somewhere and decided to start with herself first. So Anna decided to do just that giving the justice her sister never got, "…yeah," Anna finished, more understanding this time.
"Anna, have you ever heard of the saying, 'You can't judge a book from its cover'?" asked Belle as they stepped outside and into the snow.
"Yeah, I think I know exactly what you mean. My sister was misunderstood. She's cursed with powers to manipulate ice and snow. I think that may be why you're experiencing snow at the moment. She's here, I just know it." Anna was glancing down the snow-blanketed neighborhood when she clutched at her heart and moaned.
"Are you ok? What's happening?" Belle worriedly asked. Anna moaned, struggling to breathe, as a streak of white magically stained a portion of her hair. As soon as the white stopped highlighting her hair the pain stopped. "I'll be alright for now. It's part of the enchantment that Rumplestiltskin put me under. He told me that the consequence of a frozen heart would be that I wouldn't have much time. This is why I need to find my sister as soon as possible."
With a determined look on her face, Anna marched down the foreign street into the snow. Belle followed after her. "Wait! Where are you going? If you don't have much time, let me help you, I know this land better than you. We'll get to where you need to go much faster with a point of destination in mind."
"I told you. My sister is magical, and her expertise is dealing with anything frozen. If there's anybody that can help me, it's her."
Just then, a huge gust of wind and snow blew in their direction, blinding them briefly. When the mini blizzard cleared a human body became visible taking its place. "Anna?" said the entity.
Anna uncovered her eyes and blinked into the snow. A smile lit up upon her face as she shouted, "Elsa!"
The two sisters ran into each other, embracing for the first time after what seemed like an eternity.
"I can't believe I found you. I thought I lost you forever," Elsa tearfully said into Anna's ear.
"We're together now. That's all that matters."
"We're no longer in Arendelle," Elsa said pulling away from her sister, "We're in this place called 'Storybrooke'. Oh Anna, how are we ever going to go back home?"
"We don't need to go home. We have each other. My home is with you."
Elsa smiled and the two hugged each other once more. Elsa looked up, noticing there was a spectator. "And who are you?"
Anna turned facing Belle, standing next to Elsa at her side. "This is Mrs. Belle Gold. Wife of Rumplestitskin."
"Rumplestiltskin," Elsa's voice quickly turned angry and her eyebrows furrowed.
"What? What's the matter?" asked Anna. Elsa's eyes became focused on Belle. Not paying any attention to Anna tugging at her dress, she stepped aggressively towards Belle. Elsa shouted angrily at Belle, "Did you know that you're husband trapped me in an urn for eternity?"
"What? No, I didn't. That was before he met me," said Belle stepping hesitantly back. Anna quickly jumped in between the two women, defending Belle. "Elsa, listen to me," Anna implored, "of all people, we shouldn't be the ones to judge. People from our land didn't understand your abilities and their ignorance drove you away from me. Please, just let it go! We're here and we're together. My heart can't take it if you run away again!"
"What's wrong with your heart?" Elsa broke her stare. She glanced over at her sister in concern, noticing the white streak in her hair.
"I had Rumplestiltskin freeze my heart. He told me that it would freeze me until you spoke my name out of love. It was so that we could be together. It's why I'm here with you right now."
"He did that to you?" Elsa replied, repulsed by Rumplestiltskin's repugnant act.
"Yes. But you have the ability to harness all things ice and snow. Surely you can cure me!" Anna assumed.
"I… I can't Anna. That's why I sought out Rumplestiltskin's assistance in the first place. He was to help me, but instead he trapped me," her retort was out of helplessness and it tormented her. Her distress gave fuel to her anger, which made her even more determined to go after Rumplestiltskin. "And now he's hurt you. I want to know why! I demand an explanation for these atrocities. I need to see Rumplestiltskin and he must come to me on my own terms." She turned toward Belle with a menacing look.
"Please," Belle threw her hands up to protect and distance herself from Elsa's threatening pose, "you don't understand, he's changed. He won't hurt you anymore!"
"Anna," Elsa spoke without breaking her predatory stare at Belle, "I don't want to hurt you in the process, so I need you to go away. Find someplace safe, because I'm not safe to be around right now."
"What?! No! Please don't shut me out," Anna begged, but before she could grab her sister, Elsa disappeared in the snow taking Belle along with her. "Elsa…" she said, finding herself alone once more. Devastated, she cried into her hands falling to her knees.
… …
Two vehicles were driving down the street towards Mr. Gold's Victorian house. A girl sat on the porch of his house and watched as the two horseless carriages pulled into the driveway. Frightened by the contraptions, Anna stood up and backed away from the vehicles as if one would jump up and eat her. Her heart heavily pounded when she saw a man resembling Rumplestiltskin exited the carriage.
Belle was right. He has changed, Anna thought. But then a second man from the second carriage hopped out of his truck. "Anna!" the taller man exclaimed, a smile beaming on his face.
"Kristoff?!"Anna shouted back and they both ran towards each other falling into an embrace. "Is that really you?"
"Yes. I've waited a long time to see you again." Centuries of pent up tension melted away the instant Kristoff held Anna in his arms. Relief flooded his face and he felt he was able to breathe once again. They continued hugging, rejoicing at the sight of each other. As much as he didn't want to let go, they pulled from each other. They looked into each other's eyes as if preparing for a kiss when Mr. Gold interrupted, "Where's Belle?"
Anna pulled completely away from Kristoff and turned to look at the new Rumplestiltskin. She wiped away a tear that lingered on her face, "You were right. My sister found me and we were reunited, but…" she hesitated before looking at Rumple again, "When she found out that Belle was your wife, she left me and took her. She wants to see you and nobody else. Not even me. I don't even know where she is right now." Anna gave out another gasp in pain, holding her chest as another white streak stained her hair.
"She seems to be suffering from the same infliction as Regina," observed Mr. Gold.
"Yeah, no thanks to you," said Kristoff bitterly, "I'll take her back into town and take her to see the Blue Fairy. Hopefully, she'll be able to help her." He looked over at Mr. Gold, "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to go get my wife."
Hey guys! It's been brought to my attention that occasionally I write from present to past tense in some of my previous chapters. My Bad! I'm going to go back and edit them. That's what I get for editing and posting at midnight. Sorry!
Also just a couple of shout-out thank you's to Montreat11, Grace5231973 and BreathingintheSun for reviewing! I'm finding it very challenging to polish, post and write all under a deadline, but I'm going to try and post a chapter a day. That's my goal. Thank you all for following me. And for those of you afraid to review, don't be! I don't bite. I want to hear your thoughts and opinions, good and bad. Look forward to hearing from you soon!