Price of Freedom

Chapter 6

Elsa woke with a start. After she noticed that she was hyperventilating, she put her left hand on her forehead in an attempt to calm herself down.

As her breathing slowed, she swept sweaty strands of hair away from her face. Once her heartbeat was back to normal, she sat up in bed.

On the right side of the room, opposite from where she sat, Anna's belongings lay untouched, as they had been for six years.

Even looking at her sister's bed sent a wave of despair upon her, and she looked away to her left, out the window.

The dream had first appeared the day Elsa had learned of her family's disappearance, and highly suspected death. It would plague her for weeks at a time, then disappear until she thought it was gone for good. The dream never ceased to frighten her.

Slowly climbing out of bed, she softly touched Anna's bed as she walked past, through her bedroom door.

In the hallway, she slowly walked with the silence of midnight hanging in the air. With her right hand cradling her left hand to her chest, she would have terrified anyone she encountered, due to her extremely tousled hair and wide, empty eyes.

As Elsa reached the west wing of the castle, she could feel a distinct change in temperature. Maybe it was her, unconsciously harnessing her power, or the eeriness emanating from this part of the castle. She had stayed far away from the west wing because it contained the portrait room, Anna's favorite place to play when she wasn't outside, and her parents' bedroom.

She stopped for a second in front of her parents' door, hand on the doorknob, when she stepped back. She wasn't sure if she would be able to walk into that room which still smelt so strongly of her parents without bawling like a baby.

When Elsa finally reached the portrait room, she closed her eyes and quickly opened the doors.

Hesitatingly opening her eyes, she slowly took in the appearance of the room she had last been in with her sister.

"Elsa, come on! We have to say goodbye to them!"

"Anna, we already said goodbye to Kai and Gerda."

"No, not them, Joan and the rest of them!"

"Anna, they're paintings."

With a gasp, Anna stopped running, almost causing Elsa to crash into her.

"Elsa, shhh! They can hear you! Don't hurt their feelings! Like that one time you told Joan what happens to her? She was devastated." Anna scowled at Elsa and huffed.

Elsa laughed at her sister's expression. One could never take Anna seriously when she looked so comical.

"Now you're laughing at me! Fine, I'll go say goodbye by myself." Anna dramatically stomped away.

"Anna, wait!" Elsa ran after her sister and grabbed her hand. "Okay, I'll apologize to Joan and say goodbye to all of them. Just please don't be mad at me."

Anna's mouth twitched into a smile, and Elsa knew she was forgiven.

"Okay then. Let's go!" And she continued to pull Elsa down the hallway.

When they got to the portrait room, Anna thrust open the doors with more vigor than usual.

"Goodbye everyone! Come on Elsa, Joan first!"

Anna skipped over to where the portrait of Joan of Arc was, while Elsa walked behind. When the two were in front of the painting, Anna cleared her throat.

With quick sideways glance at her sister, Elsa began her apology.

"Joan, I'm sorry I told you that you will be captured and -"

"Elsa!"

"Okay, I'm sorry I told you that. And goodbye. We'll miss you."

With a wide grin, Anna pulled Elsa to each painting to say their goodbyes. After an hour, they reached the last one: a portrait of their family when they were children.

"Anna, do we have to say goodbye to ourselves?" Elsa asked with a grin.

"Yepp. Goodbye to the people we are now. When we come back, we'll be different."

Elsa paused. "Sometimes, you can be very mature."

"Thank you madame," replied Anna with a low bow. However, she had thrown off her balance, causing her to fall forwards onto the floor.

"What?! -" -thunk-

Elsa clapped one hand over her mouth as she witnessed her sister literally fall onto her face.

After a moment of silence, Elsa erupted into peals of laughter. Tears streamed down her face as she crouched down in front of Anna.

"Anna, are you -laughs- are you okay?" Elsa breathlessly asked.

Anna looked up from her spot on the floor and scrunched up her nose.

"Ow, not the nose again...are you laughing at me?"

"No, I'm not, I swear." Elsa continued to giggle behind her hand, despite knowing what Anna would do.

"Oh yeah?" With a playful grin, she pushed Elsa's shoulder, and watched her usually graceful sister fall onto the floor.

"Anna, you don't understand, how could you fall like that?" Elsa barely managed to get the words out between laughs.

"You act like I've never fallen before." Anna laid down next to her sister, both of them staring up at the ceiling.

After Elsa finally finished laughing, Anna got up and pulled Elsa to her feet.

"Woah, Elsa, your hand is really hot."

"What? It's fine." Elsa pressed her hand to her cheek.

Anna slapped her hand onto Elsa's forehead, resulting in a groan from her sister.

"Elsa, you're burning up! We need to tell Mama and Papa."

"Anna, I'm fine." Elsa started to walk to the door, but slowly teetered to one side.

"That's it, we're going."

With a sigh, Elsa let Anna drag her to their father's study.

That's all for this chapter!

Thank you for visiting. :)