Frozen Hearts
By- An Unknown Foreign Beauty
Chapter 28- The act of true love
Kristoff had seen his parents die in a car accident; he knew the signs of a possibly fatal wound, and even while his mind feared that she would not live, Kristoff couldn't give up hope yet. Holding her hand in his own, his heart hammering in frantic rhythm with the refrain pounding in his heart: Don't die… don't die… Don't die…
The ambulance ride was a nightmare of déjà vu, and Anna was in so much pain that she could only gasp, eyes clenched tight and cheeks wet with tears. They had given her as much morphine as they dared, but it did nothing. Her eyes were wide with fear, and she was mumbling something about Elsa being in danger. But Kristoff could hardly pay attention to her words. When they reached the hospital, she was immediately taken inside. Kristoff had no idea that the Kingsleys were such an influential family in the country. There were police and media everywhere. Kristoff was immediately separated from her as soon as police and media swarmed around her like insects. Cameras continued clicking around them continuously. Anna had opened her eyes and said something that was too soft to be heard through the oxygen mask, but Kristoff knew what it was. She was saying goodbye.
They had rushed her through the doors then as Kristoff stayed helplessly behind with his world crashing down around him. He collapsed in the chair in the lobby, holding his head in his hands. Police followed him, so did the media asking him various questions. But Kristoff could answer none. In his mind he was the guilty. He was supposed to protect her. She trusted him, she gave him her love. He could have save her if he was cautious enough.
And now he was going to lose her. Why all the good things never existed in his life for long? Why? Kristoff didn't know the answer.
Elsa arrived exactly 57 minutes after he had called her, while her cousin and her husband took the charge of dealing with the media. She grabbed his arm, and pulled him aside.
"Have you seen the shooter?" Her voice sounded so pained.
Kristoff was so much relived to be rescued from the media, and looked at the woman standing in front of him. She didn't look like the graceful, majestic woman he had seen in the newspapers; instead she looked more like a broken woman who was at the verge of losing everything.
Kristoff shook his head. "She was shot through the window. There was no one when I found her."
Elsa nodded, and sat beside him, lowering her gaze to her hands clasped in her lap, trying hard to keep them from shaking. Tears gathered at the corner of her eyes, she lowered her head to hide her tears. She had no idea who was trying to kill both of them. She didn't know what she would do if something bad happened to Anna. She just got her back!
She spoke again without looking up, her voice stretched tight with fury. "How could you allow this to happen?" Each word was a separate missile aimed straight for Kristoff's heart.
"Allow what?"
"Getting her shot?" Elsa was feeling so angry with him, with herself, with everything. Why things went wrong with her always? "You are supposed to take care of her, aren't you?" She looked into Kristoff's eyes and whispered. She didn't know how to tame her anger. Her face was red from rage. She jumped from her seat, and grabbed Kristoff's collars, shaking him hard, "Tell me why you can't save her?"
Kristoff cringed under her glare, but didn't flinch away. He didn't protest either. Instead his brown eyes softened, as he looked away from her. "I'm sorry, Miss Kingsley. It is my fault." He sounded like he was taking all the blame she was putting on him, unconditionally. "I was supposed to protect her. But I failed."
His voice startled Elsa. She raised her eyes, and gazed at the blond young man who was supposed to be in love with her sister. Her hands slipped from his collars. He sounded so broken. Elsa was shocked to see how much Anna's accident was making him to suffer. Beneath his crown of golden hair, Kristoff's face was chalky and his brown eyes were glazed with pain and sunken into deep, dark hollows. She knew those feelings were real. She had seen that same expression in her face too.
Kristoff was ready to take any blame that Elsa wanted to put upon him. He was ready to face any punishment she wanted to give him. Instead, Elsa's gaze was unfocused, like a woman looking inward. He had identified the reason of her sudden outburst. Not anguish or fury.
Guilt.
Elsa wasn't saying that Kristoff had put Anna here. She was placing that responsibility upon herself.
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm sorry,Miss Kingsley." He shook his head, taking her hand, trying to feel the other woman's pain. "I'm so sorry."
"I'm sorry, Kristoff." Elsa clasped his hand tightly. Two tears rolled from her eyes, "I'm sorry. It is actually my fault." Then she moved closer, and hugged him, "But still, I'm so happy that my sister has you."
There was no mistaking Elsa's sorrow now. Kristoff had come to know the feeling well over the past few hours. The killers had only missed her heart by a few centimeters. Elsa's outburst was justified, so he hugged her back.
"Miss Kingsley," he whispered, tension ebbing from him on a rush of empathy. "Anna will be alright."
Elsa melted in his embrace, and cried. Both of them cried together, for the woman they both loved, until they were interrupted by Anna's surgeon Doctor Peebie coming toward them. He was not smiling, and Kristoff's heart turned over. It's too soon. She can't be out of surgery.He turned to face the inevitable.
"She made it through surgery," Doctor Peebie mercifully began, "But she is not out of danger."
Elsa had sunk back into her seat at the doctor's first words. Kristoff felt like a man who had just slipped the hangman's noose.
Peebie took the seat next to Kristoff, turned toward both of them with his clasped hands dangling between his knees. "It was a close shot; she needed four units of blood to keep her blood pressure up. Her heart is suffering from the stress of massive blood loss. I have her on a low dosage of morphine to avoid lowering her blood pressure any further, so I'm afraid she's still in some pain. She's on meds to stabilize her heart and his pressure, but we're still walking a tightrope." He spread his hands. "All we can do is waiting."
Elsa blinked. Kristoff was silent. Peebie stood. "She should be out of recovery in the next hour. I'll leave orders that she can have two visitors at a time."
Neither of them spoke for a long moment after he left them. The tension wasn't gone, but it had a new focus.
Slightly more than an hour later, they were allowed to visit Anna. Elsa insisted that Kristoff take the chair at her bedside. Elsa broke the silence first, her voice sounded so calm. "Anna loves you. You must stay with her." It was so clearly an approval, as well as an offer to surrender her place at her sister's bedside, that Kristoff was stunned.
He cleared his throat. "I know that Anna will be happy to see me, but she will be happier to have you at her bedside," he said quietly.
Elsa shuddered at the thought. Memories of the night of Anna's accident flashed in her mind. Old fears were returning again. "No," She shook her head violently, taking the chair near the window and whispered, "I…I will be alright here."
Kristoff read the fear in her eyes. He didn't know what it was for, but he didn't push her. Elsa sat by the window, watching Anna sleep, while Kristoff held her limp hand.
It was hard to watch. The sleep wasn't peaceful either. Kristoff kept hold of Anna's hand, and he knew every time the pain crested. Anna's grip was weakened dramatically by the drugs and blood loss, but her long fingers would clamp down a second before it showed on her face. There was nothing Kristoff could do.
Elsa was suffering right along with his sister, too. At one point, after a particularly intense wave that left Anna gasping, Elsa stood up, and turned her head away. Suddenly her knees felt very weak, and Elsa steadied herself leaning against the window. She didn't know whom to blame for everything, she had so many things in her mind. She just had her back, slowing reconciling the lost bond with her. Why she needed to get shot now? Why did everything good her life never last for long? Memories of their shattered childhood began to return in her mind, she wrapped her arms around herself to stop herself from shaking. Hot tears streamed down from her eyes, she couldn't even wipe them away.
It was her fault. Always. Or why she let herself betrayed by Hans, and brought their lives to this point? Now her little sister was suffering the result of her stupidity.
When the silence became unnerving, Kristoff got up and went to intervene, "Miss Kingsley, why don't you take a break? Go get some coffee. Have some air. I'll call you if anything changes."
Elsa hesitated, her gaze fixed on the bed where her sister was fighting for her life.
"Miss Kingsley, you look terrible. I can deal with this."
Elsa looked at him. She would go mad if she had to see Anna like this for another moment. She was already breaking inside; she couldn't deal with this pain anymore. She grasped Kristoff's hands, and looked into his eyes, "Promise me, you'll watch over my sister in this while I'm gone?" Her voice was full of plea.
"I will, Miss Kingsley." Kristoff assured her.
When Kristoff returned to Anna's bedside, he found Anna's eyes open wide and fixed on him. She looked pale, and her gaze was unfocused with all the drugs. He rushed to her side. "Anna, I'm here. What do you need?"
Anna gripped his hand with surprising strength, her eyes were wide with fear.
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With Rapunzel and Eugene still dealing with the police and the media, Elsa decided to walk to the cafeteria alone. The security was doubled after Anna's arrival, curtsy to Rapunzel's father, who was a prominent political figure in the local community. So, the usually crowded hospital cafeteria was deserted, except some anxious relatives here and there. Elsa bought a cup of strong coffee, and took the elevator to the roof. She needed air. Everything was so overwhelming….so overwhelming. Cold night air blew to her face as she sipped the coffee. Was it really Hans who tried to kill Anna too?
Elsa closed her eyes, trying to remember the passionate moments they shared. Every kiss, every promise, and every word he said to her when she was spiraling into the bowel of depression after Anna's so called death. He held her upright when she was falling, his smile, his embrace….could everything be so false? How could someone fake such deeper emotion like love? She trusted him. She loved him. She carried his babies. Was it the ultimate price you get when you fall hopelessly in love with someone? Tears rolled down on her cheeks unknowingly, she didn't even wipe them away.
"Elsa." Suddenly a voice spoke. Startled, Elsa whirled around to find a man in the darkened corner of the roof, his arms crossed over his chest, feet braced slightly apart, gloves clutched in one hand, idly tapping his hip. Only dimly aware there was something familiar about that stance, she continued forward, her heart beginning to hammer with fear and apprehension.
She took three steps forward. So did he. Elsa stopped cold at the sound of his solemn voice. "I knew you will be here."
"Hans!" Elsa mumbled; the paper cup slipped from her hand, spilling the coffee everywhere.
For a split second, her feet felt rooted in the ground—then she walked near him, and slapped his face so hard that his head jerked sideways, then she took an automatic step back from the rage in his face and held her ground, her chest heaving with fury. "You are a heartless, evil monster. You tried to kill my sister. I'm going to hand you over to the police." A muscle began to tick in the side of his jaw, but Elsa wasn't finished and she was too infuriated to care that he looked murderous. She whirled around and ran, rage and shock propelling her with unusual speed, but she still couldn't outdistance him. She reached for her phone to call the police, but Hans caught her just as she neared the door and pulled her back around, his hands clamped on her arms. "Let go off me." Elsa cried, her chest heaving with each tortured breath.
Quietly, he asked, "Will you stand here and listen to what I have to say?"
She nodded; he released her, and gazed into her pained blue eyes. She tried to dial 911 again, but this time he had expected it and recaptured both her arms. With a pained look in his eyes, he said, "Don't make me restrain you."
"I'm not making you do anything, you loathsome—despicable—lech!" she raged, trying ineffectually to twist free. "If you are here to murder me like Anna, remember I'm not giving up without a fight."
Hans looked hurt. "I'm not here to kill you." He said quietly, "I was never intended to kill you. It was Duke Weselton's men who shot Anna. He will do everything to stop you from going to the auction. "
"I don't believe you." she raged, not giving up her futile physical struggle and facing him in a fury of helplessness. "I saw you with a gun under my balcony. And now my sister is lying in the hospital bed with a bullet wound in her chest." She chocked several times, hot tears raced down her cheeks. "After all the lies, all the revelations, how do you expect me to trust you, Hans?" She stared into his green eyes, trying to freeze her under her icy glare. But his hands grabbed her wrists, his fingers were like iron manacles around her.
He winced at the mention of his past, but he went on talking almost as if he hadn't heard her. "I beg your pardon for what I've done to you and Anna. Now Elsa, stop calling the police, and listen to me." He shook her so hard that Elsa felt like a rag doll in his arms.
"I've heard all this before!"
"No you haven't!" he said. "Please Elsa," He whispered; increasing the pressure on her elbow, "You and Anna must fly to Florida tonight." His voice was full of plea, and his eyes were begging for her forgiveness. "Please, Elsa, you must do what I tell you." His voice was broken. "I promise you after this I'll walk out of your life forever."
Elsa tilted her head to look into his eyes. His green eyes were full of sorrow, his face was pale, and he looked so broken. She realized at that moment he was not lying, and an awful feeling of betrayal began to seep through her as he confessed his fear for her.
"I don't trust you!" She burst out; shaking her head, her heart trying to deny what her mind was realizing must be true. "You've already used me and my sister for your own purpose, now you are making another story to stop me from saving my father's legacy. God," she said, her voice breaking, "You are such a devil…Will you ever stop? I can't believe why I'm still taking with you…"
"Don't say that!" he cut in, his voice raw. "Please don't say that. I'm not conspiring against you anymore." He gazed at his wristwatch, "The flight is at 3:30 am. The auction will be at 6:30 am tomorrow. You must hurry."
"Liar!" she cried.
Hans was shocked and looked at the unforgiving woman standing before him. He lost her trust permanently. He decided to walk out of her life forever after this. He would even miss her rage. Something inside Hans gave a kneeing cry, mourning at the loss of her. "No," He said, desperately. He needed to make her bent to his will this time.
"You must trust me this time, Elsa. I'm here to help you." He grabbed Elsa's shoulders, and shook her hard, as if trying to drive some sense into her thick head. He slipped his hand in his pocket, and pulled out an envelope. Placing it in Elsa's hands, he said, "Take this," he continued his face white with strain, "It contains two tickets to Florida, along with the necessary papers to retrieve Arendelle."
"I don't want—"
"Yes you do." he said, giving her a shake, just as his full meaning sunk in. "Take this and fly to Florida. Make sure everything is alright." Elsa looked at the papers in her hand, and realized that the loans had been paid. She felt a brief spurt of joy before the memories of his betrayal came back to her. Confusion addled her mind, and she wrapped her arms around herself, feeling as if she were crumbling into pieces.
"Why are you doing this for me?" She whispered fiercely.
Why was he doing this? Hans wondered savagely. What the hell was he doing up here, saying goodbye to the only woman he ever loved? In answer to her question, he put on his gloves, and smiled sadly. "Maybe I'm just trying to make a good impression before I leave. And by the way I have not killed Sofia. I don't know who did."
"Take care, Elsa." he clipped, already stalking the three steps to the elevator.
Wait! Don't go. Are you really telling the truth? Or is it just a mare trick to gain my faith? She had to ask him. She needed to know if he ever loved her.
Did she ever love him? Elsa didn't know. But why her heart was breaking to say him goodbye? She didn't tell him to stay. She knew she would cry if she tried to do that, and she shook her head and started to turn away, to find somewhere to weep out her anguish in privacy. Slowly she walked towards the elevator, and pressed the button. The door creaked open, slowly, a few inches; a familiar bald head peeked through the opening, then a pair of glassed eyes, and Elsa's eyes widened like saucers as she recognized the man.
"Miss Kingsley," Duke Weselton said in a voice so low it was a deadly whisper. "We meet again."
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"Anna what do you need?" Kristoff took Anna's hand gently, but she clamped down to his hand with surprising strength. "They are here…." Her voice was weak and raspy.
"Anna, no one is here-" Kristoff tried to calm her down, patting her hand soothingly; "You are safe here."
Anna wasn't giving up. "No…." She inhaled sharply as she rode out another wave of pain. "They are going to kill us."
She clung to Kristoff's hand helplessly; her chest was rising and falling heavily with each tortured breath. Her eyes were wide with fear, and the pain was building inside her chest. Even the morphine drip to which she was hooked up couldn't dull the pain. She turned her head on the pillow, and saw a shadow moving there, and her panic increased.
"Anna…Anna… it is a hospital. There are security guards, police. No one can harm you here." Kristoff tried to calm her down, but she tossed restlessly in her bed. "Please, Anna try to sleep. You are hurting yourself."
"But they are here…." Anna's eyes suddenly became more and more focused as she turned her head over the pillow, and gazed at the window, "Over there…"
It was hard to watch Anna rambling deliriously like this. Kristoff wanted to cry, but he knew nothing could help her now. So, he bent down to kiss her burning forehead, and whispered, "You are dreaming, Anna. Please try to sleep. I'm going to find the nurse."
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Elsa cried out in surprised pain as Duke stepped forward, and wrapped his hands in her hair and viciously yanked her head back. His face was only inches from hers, as he bit out, "You humiliated me many times in public, let's see how I can humiliate you now." and with a cruel jerk of his wrist, and he flung her sprawling onto the floor, her hip landing painfully on hard ground.
For a moment, Elsa simply sat there, staring at Duke through fear widened eyes, unable to assimilate what was happening. "Do you think you can outsmart me? By conspiring with your silver tongued fiancé?" He jeered smoothly, snatching the envelope from her hand. Elsa let out a cry in protest, but the little man tore the envelope, a devilish smirk lacing his lips.
But it was soon gone, as he read the papers. "What is it?" He practically yelled, and threw the papers in Elsa's face.
"Do you think that you can fool me with false papers? Where are the originals?"
False papers! Elsa gasped. So Hans lied to her again. There were no papers; no bank loan had been paid. He made up lies to fool her, to fool Duke. He did that to divert Duke's concentration from her. For a moment she remembered his face, his sad green eyes. He was begging for her forgiveness. He was telling her a lie. But like other time it was not to manipulate her.
Maybe I'm just trying to make a good impression before I leave.
This time he lied to save her.
Elsa's heart flooded with affection for him, but she kept her face straight. "I don't know." She shrugged casually, "Now please, let me go. I've a flight to catch."
Duke looked disappointed, but the evil gleam in his eyes was not gone. "You can go, Miss Kingsley." He stepped away from the exit, "But don't blame me if you have to regret later."
His tone was dangerously calm, and it sent a chill through her spine. "What do you mean by that?" Elsa stopped, and turned. Duke only smiled in reply.
"Follow my eyes." He gazed at the horizon, and Elsa followed his eyes to find two men in the opposite roof, clad in black, matching perfectly with the darkness of the night. She narrowed her eyes to have a closer look, and realized what they were holding. Guns!
"I assure you, Miss Kingsley, my men have excellent aim. They will make sure what they failed to do first time.
"You want to kill Anna."…." She hissed, realizing the delicate trap he set for her.
"Oh…no…Miss Kingsley." A devilish smirk laced Duke's lips, "Not only Anna."
Elsa only let out an angry sigh from her mouth. Her heart trembled with the worst possibility. "Rapunzel." She whispered.
"Everyone." He let out a throaty laugh.
"Eugene."
"Everyone." He continued, with a satisfied smirk in his face, "Three gunmen, three bullets, three victims. Nothing can stop them until you agree with me. They will die, and it will be your fault."
There was infinity between what he said and when Elsa reacted. She looked at the horizon, where the snipers waited. Anna would die, it would finally happen; the nightmare would turn into reality.
She remembered Hans leaving her on the rooftop, she remembered the pain in his eyes when he said goodbye. She remembered Anna's determination when she went out there to collect money. Hans left her to save her papa's legacy. Anna took the bullet to save papa's dream. Elsa failed. In the end it was always this. It was always heading here. She failed to save Arendelle, she failed to save Anna.
Again.
There was only way she could save them. She was on her knees, the cold floor was beneath her, and the cold reflection staring back at her was all she had left, her own guilty blue eyes producing tears. This was it. Her worst nightmare. And there was no escaping from it.
She took a deep breath, and looked straight into Duke's glassed eyes. "Tell me what I must do?"
The little man walked closer, took her hands in his, and led her to the railing, waving to the city glowing with electric lights. "According to your father's will, the trusty board will own the property if the heir dies without any child." He whispered close to her ear, "You are the heir, Miss Elsa Kingsley. And you have no child. Will you just jump off this roof for me, to make the story complete? I don't want to get my hands dirty."
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Anna wasn't dreaming.
She had seen them- clad in black, larking in the shadows. She saw them outside her window before she got shot. She wanted to close her eyes, trying to blot out the thought from her mind. But she couldn't. She couldn't take her eyes off the window either.
Who was out there, standing in the rooftop, clad in white, making an odd contrast against the darkness of the night? Her silver hair was flying in the wind. She looked so familiar.
Elsa!
The pain inside her chest was gradually increasing. She was shivering in her bed practically. She needed to look, she needed to see. "Kristoff." She whispered. He had not returned yet.
She needed to tell him. She needed to find him. With shaking hands, Anna pushed herself up in the bed. The intravenous line snapped, as she forcefully slipped out of the bed, leaving a fine trail of blood on the sheets.
"Kristoff." She called. He was out there to call the nurse in the third floor. Anna turned her eyes to the window to find Elsa climbing the railing.
It wasn't hard to put two and two together. Even Anna's delirious brain could do it.
She knew Elsa. She knew what she could do. She was so predictable. She always blamed her for being so cold, for snatching her love away from her. Really Elsa, you are jumping off a roof for me, without telling me how much you love me? And now Anna had to get to Elsa, because Elsa had to know those things she was dying to say. She had to protect her from those men and tell her one last time I love you.
She pushed herself up against the wall, and stumbled into the corridor. It almost sapped rest of her energy to do that. Her heart was beating wildly in her chest, her pulse had gone erratic. The pain in her chest was unbearable. She took a deep breath, and placed her hand over her chest where the pain was. And something warm was seeping through her fingers which she realized as her own blood.
She just tore the stitches, and was losing blood fast.
"Anna…" It was Kristoff who was calling.
"What have you…" She looked back to find him running towards her with a nurse in tow. He looked so concerned. Her whole body was screaming to find some rest, to be lost in a drug induced sleep, cuddled in his arms.
But she couldn't. She closed her eyes, and Elsa climbing the railing flashed in her mind. She couldn't let that happen while she was alive.
"Sorry Kristoff." She whispered as she made her way towards the elevator with the little strength she had.
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Jump, Elsa, just jump. What are you thinking? If you don't jump now, you'd die eventually. With Anna being dead, with Rapunzel being dead, with Hans being dead, you'll be nothing but a living dead. Only your sacrifice can call off the snipers.
Below the roof the city was covered with snow. There was not a single living being in the sight. Media people were gone, so did the police. Only a few security guards were yawning at the gate.
No one knew she was here. No one could find her until her body hit the snow covered pavement below. No one would suspect. Everyone knew that Elsa Kingsley was suffering from depression since the loss of her babies. She jumped off the roof to set herself free.
Even Anna wouldn't know.
Does dying hurt?
Possibly not. Anna would be hurt if she died, but she could make up eventually. She had Kristoff. Rapunzel and Eugene would be happy with their new baby. Even Hans could find someone new. She gazed up at the sky. She had many people up there- mama, papa, her mother, her babies….maybe she would also find happiness with them. She looked around her, savoring the breathtaking view. Aurora Borealis lit up the northern sky, and from this height, she could see the top of her ice hotel the North Mountain.
Cold wind blew to her face, and she inhaled deeply. Possibly it was the last time she breathed in this air.
Falling is like flying.
And she was ready to fly.
"NO!"
Someone yelled. It was loud, it was strangled, and it was desperate. It was familiar. Elsa lost her balance, and tumbled backwards.
"Anna!"
And then everything got worse. Anna clutched her chest tightly, and fell to her knees. The front of her hospital gown was stained with red.
Elsa practically fell on her sister's bleeding form. She couldn't find the strength and she clung to Anna's limp body. She placed her ear over her heart, desperately trying to find a heartbeat. She heard words coming out of her own mouth but wasn't sure what they were through the sobs.
It was all so real now. Elsa was fourteen years old again clinging to the bleeding body of her dying sister. This was the grown up version. It was all too real, Anna was truly dead and Elsa was truly alone. She didn't care now, if Duke decided to kill her.
She didn't hear the old man's joyful laugh or the satisfied words he was mumbling to himself. All she knew it was her turn.
So, she closed her eyes when she felt the muzzle of the pistol pressed against her skull. She wouldn't cry anymore.
But the bullet didn't come. Instead a gun fired behind her, followed by a soft thud.
Elsa opened her eyes to find Duke Weselton lying on the ground with a gaping hole in his forehead. Hans was standing at the door, with a smoking pistol in his hand.
And suddenly there were people all around them- media, police, doctor, everyone. Cameras clicking, doctors gathering around Anna, trying to find any sign of life. "You are safe now." Hans smiled sadly, raising his hands in surrender as police surrounded him.
Elsa stood there, alone. She had no idea what to do. What could she even do? Her sister was dead, and the man she ever loved became a murderer.
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