"I Will Always Be Here With You."

Chapter 11: Cracks

Anna's POV:

I breathed in heavily as I clasped my arms around my sister. Her grip tightened, and I inhaled, preparing to gasp as the spasms started. I waited several seconds. Nothing happened. I breathed out a sigh of relief. I had no idea why my body wasn't wracked with pain, or why the spams weren't controlling my every movement. I wasn't going to ask questions about it, though. This was the most painless I had been in days.

My body relaxed as we drew apart and looked at each other. I stared into my sister's face and was shocked to see that her normally flawless face was flushed red, with streaks staining her cheeks and nose from crying. She still had some teardrops clinging to her eyelashes, like dew on an early morning leaf, and the effect was astonishing. Her eyes, which normally reminded me of hard crystal and locked doors, were over large and shiny, the salt water emphasizing her pupils and the violet flecks in her dark, sapphire eyes. They were like small diamonds caressing her thick, dark brown lashes. Something else was different about them as well. The hard, closed look they normally showed had shattered, leaving everything she saw uncovered and open. They were now almost welcoming.

I had to look away from her gaze. She looked as if something inside her had collapsed, or shattered. She looked so vulnerable.

My eyes caught sight of the clock next to my bed. It's glass face was broken, with fragments of it scattered around the table. It's hands worked perfectly fine though, and my heart stopped when I saw the time. 7:15. I had barely an hour before the ball started!

I turned away from my sister and started running around the room, tearing things out of my closet and and rummaging through my chest of drawers. I nearly jammed my hand in the door of my closet when I felt a hand grip my shoulder. I tensed as I slowly turned around to face the only other person in the room.

Elsa's gaze was hard, but her voice was steady when she said "Anna. What do you think you are doing?"

I blinked in surprise. What did she think I was doing? Spreading potpourri around the room and singing a song? I kept my voice even as I looked her in the eyes.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm getting ready for the ball."

Her gaze was sickeningly piteous, almost as if she felt sorry for me but was intending to humor me anyways.

"No, you are not." She said steadily. Her voice was calm, but I detected a small note of anger in it.

"Yes, I am." I replied, my gaze hardening to match my sister's. I clenched my hands into fists, my fingernails digging into the soft flesh of my skin. Who was she to tell me what to do?

Her eyes sharpened, and I could tell she was trying hard to keep her temper under control. She took a deep breath and replied;

"Anna, there is no way I am allowing you to go to the ball tonight. Look at you! You collapsed in the corridor and couldn't get up. You've been asleep for hours. Your temperature was scorching hot. I thought you were going to die!" Her voice caught on that last word. You would think I would feel sorry, or ashamed at what had happened. I didn't. I felt angry.

"Elsa, I'm sorry that you had to go through what you did earlier. But you have no right to tell me what I can and can't do." I said as calmly as I could, my voice shaking as I tried to keep my anger in. I had no idea what was happening to me. I felt this inexplicable rage. I didn't want to just yell at my sister. I wanted to hurt her.

Her eyes blazed as she took that in. My shoulders felt wet, and I started when I realized that snow was soaking into my skin. No, not snow. Ice. Her gaze was like white hard ice chips, equivalent to what was now physically digging into my skin. Each time a piece landed on my flesh, it immediately dissolved into steam due to the heat I was feeling, both inside and out.

She continued to stare at me, appalled by what I said to her. All vulnerability that I had seen in her eyes was gone; I am starting to believe I had imagined it in the first place. Sharp steel irises pierced my own gaze, clashing with my anger soaked eyes. I felt a sudden stab of pain in my chest that caused a sharp gasp to come out of my mouth. I had to grasp the edge of the table to keep from collapsing. My knuckles turned white as I fought to remain standing. I tilted my head up towards my sister, glaring at her as though this was her fault. Her shoulders rose as she inhaled, and I braced myself for the verbal attack.

"Anna, I am going to say this one last time." She hissed. Her shoulders were shaking, and I could sense that she was so close to cracking. Her lank hair fell in sweaty strands against her flushed face, her ears a violent shade of red.

"You. Are. Not. Going. You are staying here, and you are not going to the ball! That is a command by your Queen!" Her nostrils flared outward as she heavily breathed in and out, her hands clenching and unclenching as her shoulders continued shaking in anger.

Hot blood roared in my ears, blocking out any sense or reason. Rage clawed it's way out of me, and I realized that I had no control over anything anymore.

That was it. I couldn't take it anymore. I cracked.

Elsa's POV:

I felt the pain before the shock actually registered. It was hot and intense, like coals were being pressed against my face. I could hear the sound of the slap, echoing in my ears. The force of the blow sent me collapsing to the ground, and as I landed hard on my stomach, a soft scream escaped my lips.

I slid across the floor and came to a stop as I slammed into the table. It was several seconds before I moved again. My first realization was that I was laying in something hot and wet. A red cloak of blood caressed the ground around me. Callous, bitter liquid filled my mouth, and it took me a minute to realize what it was. My blood. I had been biting my tongue to numb the pain I was feeling ever since my sister hit me with a strength I didn't know she had.

I struggled to sit up, and gasped as pain flared in my fingers and the palms of my hands. I looked closely and saw the shards of glass that lay in the soft, sticky flesh of my hands. Crimson blood leaked from the cuts, pooling into small scarlet lakes on the ground around me. I felt around my abdomen and saw with revulsion that some of the shards stuck out of my stomach from when I had landed in the pile of glass.

I turned my head and looked into the remaining pieces of glass on the floor. In the cracked and twisted image I was able to see the harsh, ugly red mark her hand had permeated on my face. It stretched across my cheek and down onto my jaw, and I saw in horror and sickening astonishment that it was vaguely shaped like a hand.

I turned my head slowly to face my sister. Anna stood stock still, her hand still raised in the air. Her mouth was agape, as though she couldn't seem to grasp what she had done. I looked into her eyes, and saw nothing. No pity, no shock, not even revulsion. Only anger.

Her eyes were empty slits of darkness, with anger existing from them like the open flames of a fire. I swear I saw a flash of red replace the blue, but I don't know if it was real. I didn't know what was real anymore.

All I knew was that in that moment, in the way we looked at each other and into each other's eyes, the cracks that had always been there were gone. Something between us had shattered, and our relationship would never be the same again.

Author's Note:

Hey y'all! Okay, this was a major part in the story, and will really effect what happens later on. Sooo intense! Tell me what you think!

-Brenna 😍