Ice Cold (A Jelsa Fanfic)

Chapter Fourteen

The funeral was on a chilly day, the wind whipping through the air. Anna looked up at the sky, watching the clouds form above her. The wind blew her black dress back and fourth.

“A perfect day for her…” she thought, shivering. She stood next to Elsa’s grave with her head down, staring at the dew covered grass. The citizens of Arendelle had all paid their respects, and even a few from others from different cities. Her cousin had come all the way from Corona.

That had all been earlier that day. She just couldn’t get herself to leave Elsa’s side. Elsa was buried next to her parents. Her grave stone read Elsa, free at last. It was Jack’s idea to add that last part. Anna’s fingers brushed the cold stone. Hot tears streamed down her face as she thought of Elsa, buried deep under the ground in an unmelting ice coffin Jack had made her.

She sunk to the ground and leaned against the stone, hugging her knees to her chest.

“Do you want to build a snowman?” she whispered, but no one answered. The silence was painful. It came crushing down on her as heavy as a boulder. It weighed down on her chest and rang through her broken heart. The wind began to howl around her, but she didn’t mind. She wiped the tears from her eyes and scanned the sky, looking for Jack, but to no avail. She hadn’t seen him all day. He hadn’t come to the funeral or come to visit afterwards. Anna began to wonder if he had already left.

After a while Kristoff came to get Anna and bring her inside. He found her asleep leaning against the headstone, dried tears on her face. He picked her up and carried her back to the castle.

Jack flew down to Elsa’s grave. He’d been avoiding it all day, but he knew he had to talk to her one last time. He landed on the ground and hesitantly reached his hand out to touch the rough, cool stone of her grave. Grabbing his staff, he ran it along the rock, creating snowflake patterns of frost all around it.

“I miss you, Elsa,” he told her. “You were the first person who could ever see me. You’ve changed my life and now I can never properly thank you for it. You were… the most amazing person I had ever met. And I will never stop loving you.” He sat in the quiet night for a second.

“You should see Anna,” he began. “She really loved you. But you as well as I know that she’s strong and she will eventually get past this. And you were right about that Kristoff guy. He seems pretty alright. She’s in good hands. I hope you don’t mind, but I think I’m going to distance myself for a while. Anna doesn’t need me. Eventually she’ll probably stop being able to see me anyway. But I promise you, Elsa, as I promised you before. I will never ever leave you or forget about you. This promise I’m going to keep.”

And that promise he did keep. It started out as once a month he would come back and see her. Anna never saw him, though. Jack didn’t want her to see him. He thought it might bring back unwanted memories. But Jack would check up on Anna now and then, and report back to Elsa. He would tell Elsa about his travels, about the changing world, and about the snow. He told Elsa when Anna got married, had her first child, and then her second. Her grave stopped seeming like death to him and more like an escape from his loneliness. She was the only one he used to be able to talk to, and he didn’t want that to change. He told Elsa about the stories Anna told her kids about the beautiful Ice Queen and her friend Jack Frost. He told her how happy Anna was now, and how Kristoff had never left her side. Even when Anna got sick, Kristoff was there for her. Jack thought that would make Elsa happy. He told Elsa when Anna died, although he figured she already knew. They were buried next to each other.

As time went by the visits lessened to once every couple months. After a while it became once a year. But he broke his promise. He would always come back to tell her things, even after their graves were overgrown with nature, even when cities were built over it. He knew she was still there, and she was always listening. He told her about becoming a guardian, and about Pitch. He told her about Jamie, the kid who believed.

“Oh, Elsa,” he exclaimed to her one night. “Someone can see me again! He’s such a great kid, too. I think you would have liked him.” He smiled. “Yeah, you would have liked it. Only if you would have been here to see this all with me…” He looked off into the distance. He tried to picture her white hair, her beautiful eyes, the feel of her in his arms, but it was distant and fuzzy. Her image had faded throughout the many, many, many years since she’d been gone. But one thing was for sure. No matter how distorted or lost his image of her was, or how many years since he’d last seen her or Anna, his love for her would never die. He would never truly forget her.