The Invisible (Jelsa)

Chapter LVIII

Jack never felt cold, but he felt the immediate change in temperature when the whirling stopped. A long lost memory shoved up his throat, and even though he could not see, it was as if everything was in a good place. The air was a warm summer breeze, and he could only hear the click of birds and the scuttling of squirrels. Elsa touched his eyes, a motion to let him open them.

It was every happy memory, this place. It was the most perfect day, even for a frost creature himself. It was the hours when he had been human he and his sister Emma had ran through the meadows, before he caught her and they rolled and laughed on the grass. The meadow went on for miles, a perfect shade of green grass that was soft and moved in waves with the wind. The trees on the edge of the field waved hello in the warm air, and to his left great mountains rose high above him. A pair of robins darted past his nose, spiraling up until they twittered away. Jack felt as though he had never seen a place more beautiful than this, more perfect. Even his fortress of ice paled and melted in comparison.

"Elsa...this is..." He breathed, unable to form words.

"All the good memories of the world. The best of care-free summer days." She murmured in his ear.

He gazed up, the sun a blinding ball of white fires burning miles away, but not so much that he knew it would hurt him. There was not a cloud to obscure the sun in the sky, which was a perfect hue of baby blue, as if someone had tacked a piece of paper where the sky was supposed to go.

"I can see...but where is this? Exactly?" He questioned, turning to his wife. Elsa looked at him, and she softly touched his arm.

"It's..." He eyes twinkled with all the stares in the sky that could not be seen here, and when she spoke it was if the air around him had swirled and simply breathed effortlessly from her lips, "...On."

A thousand voices seemingly spoke, but it was Elsa.

The depth of that singular word rocked him to the core. It was just two letters, one exalted breath, one seemingly unconnected idea but with everything it was the most soulful thing Jack had ever heard, and his eyes pricked with tears.

"I never thought a place like that could be so...amazing." He admitted, "Is this where you were, before today?" He asked.

Elsa just smiled and nodded in response. Jack, in his awe, almost wondered why she'd leave a place that even from him could evoke the most passionate and haunting emotions.

Jack felt Elsa's hand slip into his own, and he clenched it hard, and then let go, to let it simply rest comfortably in his palm. She gently tugged him.

"Come Jack, there's something to see here."

Jack walked with her. "Is it ever night here?" He asked, wondering about something Manson had said.

"Not often- one day here is a thousand days there, or sometimes only three. I had no sense whatsoever of how long it had been. 100 years! Here I thought it had perhaps been only thirty. Time is non existent, which means I can come here whenever I would like."

"So this is where Manson goes." Jack surmised.

"Ah, yes. That too. I had met him a couple times before he created me like this. I don't think he was holding my creation hostage, but it would have been difficult to explain what needed to be said had you not accepted him yet." Elsa explained, "But I wouldn't have complained. There are things here that are worth staying."

"The happy feeling?" Jack guessed. She kissed his cheek gingerly, "I've never felt more...home."

"More than this." She assured in a soft whisper, nearly inaudible, "More."