Cold Against Dark (a Jelsa Fanfiction)

Chapter Eleven

You know when you think you're alone, but there is a prickle on the back of your neck, and everything seems to be louder and more suspicious? That time when even though there are others in the room, you're being watched - you know you are. You even know who is watching you.

It's like they've been watching you, all your life, waiting for the moment, that exact moment, where everything would fall into place.

This was the moment and he was there. Pitch.

He watched as she laughed with her sister.

He watched as she spoke to Jack, holding back from embracing him.

He watched as she talked to the guests, just as she had done all night.

She knew he was there. Out the corner of her eyes she could see him lurking in the shadows and she chose to ignore it, not wanting anything to go wrong. She couldn't hurt Anna, not again and she wouldn't hurt her people.

Jack had left Elsa be after their conversation, not wanting to stress her out anymore and so he watched her from another side of the room, unaware that Pitch was lurking.

As Jack continue to observe, his ear pricked up at a conversation between the two sisters that was starting to become heated.

"No one's brothers are coming to stay here, no one is getting married," Elsa stated. She couldn't allow it, not here - anywhere but here.

"Wait, What?" Anna asked, her face confused. It was clear from her voice she was hurt by her sister's answer.

"May I talk to you? alone?" Elsa looked at her sister, needing to get her alone. She was trying to remain calm, but Anna was beginning to cause tension.

"No. Whatever you have to say," she linked arms with Hans and Elsa winced, "You can say to both of us."

Elsa inhaled and the exhaled sharply, she was just going to have to rip the band-aid off her sisters rose tinted view of love, "Fine. You can't marry a man you just met"

"You can if it's true love," her sister insisted.

Elsa just rolled her eyes slightly, "Anna, what do you know about true love?"

"More than you. All you know is how to shut people out!"

Elsa gasped at her sisters' tone. Anna knew nothing. Elsa knew of love, whether it was true or not, she didn't know, but she knew of it.

Love was not marrying someone you'd just met, not like every other fairy tale she'd ever read. Love was not jumping for the first man who pays you any type of attention. Love was not fast or anything like falling. Love was certainly not instant.

Love was spending endless days with a person, getting to know them. Love was knowing their flaws and their faults that made them themselves. Love was growing up with someone... even if they didn't grow old with you. Love was waiting years for that person to come back, love was spending years missing them, putting yourself at the receiving end of fear just in the hope that he would come back to you some day.

Love to Elsa was Jack.

With a deep breath, she calmed herself," You ask for my blessing, but my answer is no," Elsa composed herself, "now, if you'll excuse me."

Hans spoke up, "Your majesty, if I may ease your-"

Elsa cut him off, "No, you may not, and I think you should go," she started to walk towards the door, the hurt inside her building up, her fear mounting, "the party is over, close the gates."

Jack waited with bated breath. He was watching it unfold before his eyes and he couldn't do anything about it. It was coming, the story book moment, Elsa was living up to it and going through with the storyline and Jack couldn't stop her. Jack ran outside quickly to warn the other.

"Elsa. No, wait!" Anna ran after her sister and in trying to grab her hand, she pulled off one of Elsa's gloves.

Elsa inhaled, the cold air touching her skin and she looked at Anna, suddenly panicked, she couldn't hurt anyone. "Give me back my glove!" As she lunged for it, Anna moved back ,stopping her from reaching it.

Her breathing was becoming unsteady and, in the shadows, Pitch skulked; he was ready.

"Please, please, I can't live like this anymore," Anna pleaded, her emotions taking a hold of her. She was close to tears. She had only just gotten her sister back and she felt like she was losing her all over again.

Pitch watched excitedly as Elsa's face dropped and became full of despair as she spoke, "Then leave."

Elsa's reply was firm, and Anna moved away in surprise at the coldness. Elsa turned away from her sister, not wanting to register the hurt in her face. She began to walk away again, her arms folded, covering the hand that was now missing a glove.

Instead of backing down, Anna composed herself and began to speak again – she wanted answers.

"What did I ever do to you?"

"Enough Anna!" Elsa warned her sister, her fear levels, reaching a climax.

"No. Why? Why do you shut me out?" Elsa tried to block her out, it was no good, she knew that Pitch was lurking and watching, ready to pounce, "Why do you shut the world out? What are you so afraid of!"

"I said enough!" Elsa swung her hand that was bare of a glove, no longer begin able to control the emotions that had built up inside.

Ice shot from her finger tips, creating a wall of sharp spikes around her, almost hitting Anna. She watched as the fear spread across the faces of her people in the room.

This is what she had been dreading her whole life.

Pitch smirked and met Elsa's eyes as she searched for answer, terror in her face.

Not knowing how to cope, she fled the ballroom quickly, running as fast as she could. She ran through the castle corridors and as she did, she heard Jack calling her.

"Elsa!"

She stopped running briefly and exasperatedly cried out, "Jack, please, leave me alone!"

Jack held out his hand gingerly and approached slowly, "Elsa, just, please come with me. You can change the story, you can change what you read"

She shook her head, "I can't it's done. What happened in that story has to happen, It's too late. You were right..."

She turned from him and continued running, bursting out of the castle doors to the courtyard where all the people of Arendelle were waiting to greet their queen.

Everyone began to clap a she frantically searched for a way past the crowds. The whole time she was trying to get away, she fully aware the Pitch was running beside her.

"Look at them Elsa. All those people you're going to hurt"

She ignored him and stumbled upon a lady with a baby, who asked if she was okay. Elsa just backed away, not wanting to cause any more damage but Pitch tripped her.

She stumbled backwards, her hands touching the fountain behind her.

It spiralled upwards and froze instantly, inciting a gasp from the people watching. The lady with the baby held the child away from the queen as it began to cry.

She watched with fear in her heart - She really was a monster. Jack was right, she shouldn't have read the story, no one was strong enough to defy the future, especially not her.

With pain in her eyes, she scanned for an opening in the crowd, fleeing as fast as she could with no particular destination.

She could hear Anna and Jack calling her name, both one after the other, both concerned, but she just kept running until she reached the ford surrounding the castle.

Anna called her name again and Elsa looked up at the castle, walking backwards. The castle looming above her represented the fear inside her. She had been trapped behind these walls her whole life and now the rest of her life depended on the choice she made next.

Stepping away gingerly, her feet touched the water and it instantly froze. Seeing an opportunity, she didn't think twice and began to run across the water all the way to the other side, leaving behind Jack and Anna and everything else she had ever known.