Frozen Heart (Dark Side of Fairytales Collaboration)

Chapter Twelve

"PRINCE HANS? I-I don't know who that person is." Her forehead wrinkled in confusion. "B-but how is he---"

"How is he my son?" He scoffed, remembering his ex-wife's treachery. "His mother, my former wife, took him and left me and went on to marry the king of the Southern Isles who already had twelve sons."

Elsa hesitated but in the end she said, "D-during the party, Anna said that---"

"That Prince Hans was also missing in the room," the duke interrupted. "I knew from that moment that your sister perfectly devised a good setup. Where is he?"

What? Anna did? But why?

The duke repeated his question but Elsa remained silent. She keeps asking the question in her mind; why would Anna do such a thing? Could it be that she knew all along?

"Your sister was the last person to see him. Otherwise, she wouldn't have known him."

Elsa deeply swallowed before finally opening her mouth to speak, "I-I'm sorry but I really have no idea of my sister's scheme."

Nettled by her answer, the duke's hand flew across Elsa's cheek, causing her lips to crack and bleed.

"You monsters!"

The duke lunges at the queen and they tussle within her cell with the duke mostly gaining the upper hand given that Elsa's both hands are concealed inside her chains. The furious duke overthrows Elsa on the cold floor and tenaciously thrashed her stab wound, causing it to reopen and bleed. Elsa's cries of misery are overheard outside but the guards standing by paid ignorance.

The duke's loud grunts stopped after a moment had passed, and silence dominated again. The guards were compelled by curiosity and opened the door which they immediately regretted. The duke's lifeless body has been pinned on the wall--- he's been frostbitten! The queen stands in the middle, blood-red eyes brightly glowing along with the crystals on her face and head.

Queen had to step out to save Elsa.

Terrified, the guards endeavored to flee but Queen wouldn't allow a person to evade her grasp. They begged for mercy to be spared but Queen was too malevolent to comprehend the meaning of mercy and silenced them all, ending them in the most brutal way.

Piles of dead bodies lie scattered in the corridor of the basement. Queen normally walks past them. To her, they appear as nothing more but provisions--- the provision of warmth, human warmth.

As Queen ascended the stairs, Anna arrives just too late and immediately takes notice of the frostbitten bodies of their soldiers behind her.

"Elsa," Anna's voice trembled.

Queen instantly retreated, her face reverting to normal as Elsa comes out.

She was startled at first. Queen took over her body when the duke attacked her in the cell.

A painful smile brushed upon her lips. "She's not going to stop, Anna. And I can't stop her. She's too powerful. I am truly sorry for hiding all of this from you. I don't want to hurt anyone again. So, please j-just kill me. Just kill me, Anna. End this madness before it's too late. Before Queen takes over me again."

The weather outside the castle reflected Elsa's sadness, the sky turned more gloomy and dark, the intensity of the falling snow doubled and the breeze grew even colder than before.

A moment or two of silence and Anna finally spoke, "Are you out of your mind? Asking your own sister to kill you? Are you insane--- oh, of course you are."

She breathed in. "You're making this more difficult for me."

"You already created the worst-case scenario, what harm could a little difficulty do?" Anna crosses her arms. "I want you to be honest with me. I want to hear all."

"Anna, please---"

"I deserve to know the truth, Elsa!" she yelled. Wiping the tear on her cheek, she continued, "Our parents isolated us without telling me the reason. I waited day after day. I never stopped hoping that maybe one day your door will finally open. I never lost hope, Elsa. And now when I'm finally given the chance to be with you, you're suddenly asking me to kill you?"

Elsa sniffed and whispered, "Because I'm a monster..."

"No. No, you are not the monster here," Anna insisted.

"You don't understand---"

"I perfectly do," Anna cuts her off. And for the first time in forever, Anna finally held her sister's hands. "You don't have to be afraid anymore because starting today, I will be right here."

"And I need you, Elsa," Anna finally confesses. "Why can't you understand that?"

"Why would you need a monster like me?" Elsa replied, teary-eyed.

She smiled. "The answer is too simple... because I love you."

The queen was quite taken aback; her sister's answer was not what she had expected. Love? What is love? Is this what love feels like? Warm?

Elsa glances down at her chest to where her frozen heart is. When Anna expresses her love to her, she felt a small thump from within and a tiny amount of warmth engulfing her frozen heart.

"You're not afraid of me?"

Anna shook her head. Her smile was genuinely warm and comforting and Elsa was compelled to pull her in for an embrace without worrying about absorbing her soul. Shocked Anna was still for a second but in the end, she wrapped her sister around her arms, so tight like she never wanted to let her go again.

"You have no idea how long I have waited for this moment," cried Anna.

Their heartwarming reunion lasted for longer than a moment or two. Neither of the sisters could afford to release the other, fearing that as they do so, it would be the end of it. Anna tightens her grip. The warmth is just as exactly as she had dreamed.

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