Elsa

Thirteen

The wind has finally stopped whipping around me. Snow is still falling, but gently now. My tears have stopped. I wipe my face clean and take a deep breath, standing up. I look around. The trees that were laden with snow are now buried in it. I didn't know I could make so much.

It interests me. I look back in the direction of the lodge, as if someone would have followed me through the hurricane of snow.

I may be a monster, but I'm not under their bed anymore. I'm out in the middle of nowhere. I can't hurt anyone here. 

I turn my palm back and forth, letting ice and snow roll over it in wisps. I try creating designs, and enormous snowflakes, and structures of ice. With a twist of my hand, an icy wall rises from the ground. A sweep of my palm and archways climb towards each other. A thrust of my fingers and stairs swirl into being.

I'm so caught up in my powers I don't realize the shadow that suddenly looms over me. Then a voice breaks the silence, breaking my gaze from the ice.

"Elsa!"

I jump and look up. Up? How could anyone be above me?

But Jack is there. He's suspended in mid-air, slowly descending towards me.

"What are you doing here?" I say, still in shock that he's here at all. "How did you get here?"

"I flew."

"How-"

"You don't know what your powers can do."

I look around my castle of ice. "Actually, I think I do."

"You don't understand, Elsa," he says angrily, hitting the ground and coming towards me. I back up a step. Why is he angry?

"Don't come any closer," I state, thrusting out my hand. A shard of ice spikes into the air towards him, but he's not phased. He sweeps his hand across the air, and his own ice collides against mine. It shatters and moves away. 

I catch his eye. He knows how to use his powers better than me. But my guess is that I'm more powerful.

I send a wall of ice towards him and he's knocked off his feet. He pushes himself out of the way but I don't let him get his feet under him before another block of ice rams into him. I think I'll be able to pin him against the wall, but then the ice block splits. It breaks into pieces and Jack climbs forward.

I hold out my hand to shoot him with spikes of ice. He faces me. The ice doesn't make it to him. He deflects it with his own. For a second the ice seems to float in the air, each spike shattering against each other like glass.

Jack runs forward. I'm about to shower him with ice, but he's too close and he grabs my wrist. "Let me go!" I shout.

"Elsa, everyone at the lodge is in danger. You have to stop it," he yells at me.

That makes me stop. He lets go my wrist.

"Stop what?" I demand. "I'm miles away from the lodge."

"There's a blizzard raging. Trees are splitting in half. Everyone was on the ski slope when it hit. They were trying to find everyone, but-" he cuts off.

My heart beats wildly inside me.

I look at Jack. My lips tremble, my voice is hardly audible. "I don't know how to stop it," I whisper.

He grabs my hand. "I do." He holds out his palm, creating a swirl of snow and making it dissipate into thin air at his will. "I'll teach you."

I look into his crystal blue eyes. Everything in me wants to turn and flee. That's what I've always done, and apparently that's the only thing I'm good at because now I'm standing here wanting to do it again because if I stay then I'll have to listen to what he has to say and risk everything and I don't know if I can-

I swallow.

I hold out my palm.

I decide to trust him.

***

The ice is hitting against my face, and at first I can't understand why. My own ice never comes back at me, even when it's swirling in the air. I guess some subconscious part of me makes sure it never comes close to my face.

Jack is holding on to my wrist, pulling me through the air. Back towards the lodge. We're suspended in air, and I'm sure if he let go of me I would fall to my death, because no matter how much he tries to convince me I can fly, I really, really don't think I can.

Another drop of ice smacks my face and I cringe. I use my free hand to rub it away. Wait- this isn't my ice. I didn't know I could tell the difference, but my ice... it's different. I don't even know what it is. But this isn't mine. It must be Jack's.

Wait, is he hitting me in the face on purpose?

I don't have time to think about that anymore because he starts to descend and I look down. Beneath us is a hurricane of ice. The menacing grey clouds whip in furious circles. It's incredibly loud. I cling to Jack's arm suddenly, afraid of what's there.

"No," I say desperately. "Jack, I don't want to go down there."

He looks at me, but doesn't stop. We drop into the middle of the wind.

Of course, the wind shifts and begins to circulate around me. Because I'm the eye of the storm. Jack has to move closer to keep out of the wind. I step back instinctively, but the whirlwind catches him again and he has to step back towards me. I suppress my movement. He may be close to me physically but emotionally, he's ice cold.

"You have to let go of your fear," he yells at me.

I look up at him. It's obvious I'm terrified. If the answer to this problem is 'don't be scared', Jack better say goodbye to the lodge because I will never be able to rid myself of this bone-chilling fear.

I stare at the walls of ice spinning darkly around us. This is my fault. I thought I could run away from my problems. I thought- 

I don't know what I thought. If only Pierce were here. He was the only one who could make me use my powers. I put my hands over my ears, trying to block out the storm, trying to think what Pierce would do.

I have to find Pierce.

"Elsa," Jack says. I snap my gaze up at him. He's looking at me with some compassionate sort of pain. He puts a hand on my shoulder. "I've lost people too."

But my walls are already back up, and I don't listen. I turn and flee. But this time I'm not running away. I'm running towards.

Towards Pierce.