Second Best

Chapter Seven

She ran and ran and ran, never knowing what she was so afraid of, but knowing that if she stopped everything would end in flames and death. So she ran, and didn't stop, though her legs were starting to cramp and she could barely stop herself from stumbling and falling down into the abyss on all sides of her precarious ice castle. It was crumbling around her, drips of water plopping on her as she ran, each barely unable to withstand the onslaught of heat burning everything in its path.

In the endless distorted reflections the ice showed her there were a million terrifying images of all the people she cared about hurting and in pain. Screaming in terror and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Deep down she knew it was her fault they were in pain in the first place.

"Elsa!" she frowned and continued to run from the nameless fear that had haunted her her whole life, herself.

"Elsa!" the voice seemed even more panicked now, maybe she should pay attention to it? She shrugged and kept on running, knowing that all true monsters never gave you a second chance. It was do or die, all the way.

"Wake up! Please wake up..." the voice begged, seeming distraught beyond measure. Who could possibly care about her that much?

*****

She woke with a start, staring at the unfamiliar ceiling for a moment as she  tried to orient herself with her surroundings. Eventually she gave up and directed her gaze in the direction of the voice that had woken her from her nightmare.

The handsome face of Prince Eric stared down at her, concern etched onto his features until he saw that she was awake. Then suddenly his expression morphed into that classic bored royalty look that she was well familiar with, having grown up with it. Her parents had always worn it when they had public outings, as she'd grown older she'd begun to resent it, wondering why they had to act like robots when anyone who wasn't a member of their family was around. That was why Anna was so refreshing and managed to make everyone love her, she had a way of treating everybody like the human beings that they were.

She would like to treat everyone that way, but as Queen it was expected that she act a certain way. On a completely different note, at least now she knew that Prince Eric cared about her. Then again, maybe her people were right and he could be just like Prince Hans, just after her throne. Though as the eldest in his line of succession, no matter what he was going to inherit, so why would he want her kingdom? She so hated conspiracy theories. Why couldn't people just be exactly what they said they were?

"Feel better?" he asked, cleaning out his fingernails much like she had yesterday when she'd first met him. So much had happened since then it felt like this was the dream and the nightmare was reality. It was so hard to tell sometimes.

She tried to speak, but found that her voice wasn't online yet so instead she simply nodded in reply. Her eyes felt groggy, so she closed them to avoid the brightness of the light. Who ordered such bright sunlight? Somebody call the chef and complain!

"Close the curtains! Can't you see that Queen Elsa wants to sleep?" Prince Eric snapped at a servant. So they weren't alone after all. She still didn't know where she was either, and she prided herself on knowing all the hiding places in the palace. Call it a misguided childhood.

She reached out a hand, not expecting for a warm hand to grasp it gently but she wasn't complaining.

"Where am I?" she murmured, surprised to find that her voice was scratchy with disuse.

"Sssh," Eric told her quietly. "You gave us quite a scare. You've been asleep for three days."

She snapped her eyes open, blinking to adjust to the lack of light in the room. She could just make out the features of Prince Eric in amongst the shadows, concerned for a moment then quickly becoming the blank expression she was so used to. She supposed she deserved it after the way she'd treated him.