Anna was abruptly dragged out of darkness by an overwhelmingly bright light that seemed to be hijacking her entire sense of vision. A burning sensation in her eyeballs became so strong that she felt the urge to shed tears, but couldn't as her body was apparently too dehydrated.

Wait. A bright light? Burning? Was she...was she dead? Was...was she going to...?

"Alright, she's awake. Make sure she's secure. We don't know what she might try."

"Relax. The poor girl must be too exhausted to attempt another prison break with how much blood she lost."

"Yeah, yeah. It's always the sob story with you medics."

Anna couldn't quite see who was talking, but neither voice sounded familiar. She forced herself to blink several times, hoping that might improve her eyesight, but it only increased the pain.

"What...what happened?" She barely muttered the words, finding her voice was a hoarse as her throat felt.

"A better question would be what didn't happen. But as a start, you survived. The same can't be said for many others."
"Elsa? Where...where...where is she?"

"Your sister? That is of no concern to you."

"But...but..."

"Oh, come on, Detective. Have a heart. She can at least hear that her own flesh and blood is okay."
Anna was at long last able to vaguely make out the figures who were speaking to her. One of them, a man, was dressed in blue scrubs and was, presumably, a nurse of some kind. Although she had never set foot there before, she had to guess that she was inside of Frozen Heart's medical ward. It was then when she found that her feet and arms were bound to the bed by chains, snugly but not painfully so, and that she was without any clothing.

"Why...why am I naked?"

The other person, a well-dressed woman in heels, grunted in response.

"You're welcome for having someone get that filthy piss-soaked pair of stripes off of you. And your nudity is mandatory for the time being. The prison is going through an indefinite lockdown while we try to sort this mess out."
Anna groaned, almost longing to drift back into oblivion.

"Am I...am I under investigation?"

"That depends on how much you're willing to cooperate." The woman cleared her throat, pulling out her cell phone and placing it on the bed inches away from Anna's feet. "I'm not one for formalities, but I am required by law to tell you that I'm a detective, and I am recording this conversation starting right now. Can you remember where you were before you blacked out?"

A detective? Oh shit. From where? Did they work for Lord Fergus? Did his arms really stretch that long? Waig, Fergus. Merida. Oh God. Merida was dead. Anna had killed her. Hadn't she?

"I...I think I was on a roof? A fence?"

"Are you deliberately avoiding the question?"

"What? No! I'm just...I'm feeling fuzzy, okay? Maybe if we waited until later when I'm more..."

"I'm not here to abide by your schedule, inmate. And to help jog your memory, you were found unconscious on top of one of the prison walls. You were lucky you didn't roll off the edge."

"Oh. And...Bloody Mary? Um, no, I'm sorry. I mean. Merida. Is Merida...?"

"The chain gang gathered what they could this morning. The pieces will be buried in an unmarked grave here in the prison cemetery. I'm sure...certain people of importance will have some unkind words about that, but it's the law. Lifers are permanent residents here, even after death."

"Oh. And...um...the other guards? Like...the ones she shot?"

"One giant inconvenience that is going to keep me busy for months. We've got more bodies than I know how to handle. And we don't know how many officers within the deceased were compromised. Merida, it seems, didn't care who she killed, regardless of if they were an ally or not."

"Well, she was an evil bitch."

"Watch your language! You're being recorded, remember?"

"Oh. Right." Anna found it hard to believe that this woman was really that offended by minor profanity. "Look, do you want me to confess to pushing Merida to her demise? Is that it? I mean I'm sure the security cameras have everything."

"We have no security footage from any of this. All of the cameras were shut off. Unfortunately, I can't easily inquire with others as to how such an act happened, since many of my potential witnesses are currently in the morgue."

"Elsa! You should ask her!" She suddenly felt her heart start to pick up speed. "Wait, she is alive, right?"

The nurse gave Anna's nude knee a gentle pat.

"She is, sweetheart. You don't need to worry about that."

"I missed the part where you were the one in charge of this investigation, medic!" The woman grabbed the phone and began scrolling around on it before shoving its screen in Anna's face. "This man. Does he look familiar?"

Anna nodded, narrowing her eyes.

"That's Officer Kristoff. I should know. Elsa trusted him. And he was part of it. He made sure I was in my cell last night. I think she wanted to place...me in protective custody? Was that it?" She realized that her head was a lot fuzzier than she initially might've thought. "Look, can we please do this later?"

"What makes you so certain that Kristoff was involved?" Clearly this detective had no interest in delaying this interrogation.

"Well, I mean, he kind of told me. At least...I think he did. Where is he now?"

"That is of no concern to you. I will be the one asking the questions from now on. What did he tell you?"

"I...I can't really recall. I'm trying! Honest! I think Merida must have threatened him. In the same way she threatened me."

Panic overtook Anna as her body shot upwards, testing the strength of her bondage.

"Rapunzel! Is she alright?"

"Who?"

"Rapunzel! She's...she's a prisoner! She, um, she is in another facility following a terrible injury! Merida told me she would have her killed if I didn't cooperate!"

The detective let out an obviously frustrated sigh.

"Honey, I'm not here to talk about the safety of other jailbirds. If your friend is in another prison, I'm sure she's alive. Well, in a manner of speaking. But Merida's unable to give an order to have a hit taken out on anyone anyway."

"Her father is!" The slightest amount of spit was spraying from Anna as she was exhausted the strength of her voice with each breath. "He's going to blame me! He's going to know I killed his daughter! She won't be safe! I won't be safe!"

"That's being overly dramatic, don't you think?" The detective turned her phone off, seemingly giving up on getting any further information out of her subject right now. "And besides, Lord Fergus has no reason to assume you're the one who murdered Merida."

"I...but...why not?"

"Because your sister has already confessed to the crime."