Always You

xix. Prisoners

Elsa

I was so happy for Anna, so happy for her, but I couldn't be completely happy. A piece of me was consistently worrying over Jack; was he okay, did he miss me, why did he leave? I seemed to be driving myself slowly insane by asking all these questions, and yet I couldn't seem to stop asking them! I couldn't forget about Jack for even a second, I was even dreaming about him. I needed a distraction.

In search of just that, I walked into my parent's old bedroom. It was dusty and abandoned, no one had touched it in years as were my orders. The bed was large and still made, my father's papers strewn on the desk. I saw the grand piano in the corner, but I couldn't seem to recall if either of my parents played the piano. Maybe they had only done that when they didn't have a rambunctious ice child to care for. 

Walking over to it, I pressed a few keys. The piano was out of tune, dusty, and maybe the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I sat down o the bench, my long fingers playing over the keys and picking out a song immediately. I played four a long time, too long maybe, before I got the keen sensation that someone was watching me. I stopped playing to look up, but I saw no one.

"No, please, keep playing." A voice spoke, causing me to yelp a little in shock and fear. "Please." The voice pleaded, sounding so tired and worn-out that I did what they asked. I let my fingers press lightly on the keys, once again getting lost in the music. I didn't know how I knew what to play, but I was picking up piano quicker than I had learned how to use my own powers. Maybe I was a virtuoso, I thought for a moment before realizing how improbable that was. 

"You're wonderful." My father's voice spoke, clear as if he was standing beside me. I stopped playing and jumped up, heading for the door in my fear. I didn't know why I was hearing my dead parents but not wanting to stick around and find out.

I walked the halls, finally making my way into the castle's enormous library. My mother had loved to read, spending hours curled like a cat in her favorite chair as she read books and read to me and Anna. These were some of my fondest memories, and just walking in the room hit me with a huge wave of nostalgia. I wound up in my mother's chair, tears streaming silently down my face as I wept for the time I'd lost, my dead parents, and the beautiful boy who had left me not a week earlier.

I fell asleep there in the library, waking up as the setting sun shone in my face. I thought I caught a glimpse of a skirt disappearing around the corner, but when I stood to look no one was there. Something was starting to get to me, I thought, hearing voices and having hallucinations. The next thing I knew, I would be seeing my dead parents appear in front of me. I was already going crazy over Jack, I didn't need a haunting on top of that. Still, the thought sparked hope in me, somewhere deep down. What if I could see my parents one last time? Talk to them? I shook the nonsense from my head as I picked up the mess of books I'd made.

Jack

I woke up in a small bedroom, my body propped up in  a corner and Holly's in another. She stirred as I did, looking over at me with her bright green eyes. She looked like she wanted to say something, but I looked away. The room was small and bare, white walls and a white carpeted floor. There were no windows, and the light was nothing but a bare bulb with a string.

"Listen, Jack, I'm so sorry about my mother. I tried to hold her off," She spoke, her voice her own again. She sounded feeble and small, like she was a child instead of a young woman. I didn't know what she thought she could control her mother with, but I turned to her anyway.

"You're fine. I mean, parents can be crazy, I've heard." I joked with her, and she gave me a small smile. She crossed her arms, muttering to herself as she sank to the floor. She seemed very confused, but I was too and I needed a moment on my own.

I was here, but where were Sandy, Bunny, Tooth and North? Was Pitch involved in this? Was Elsa okay? There were a billion questions zipping through my head, but these were the ones I could hold on to. My head pounded and I longed just to go back to sleep; I knew that wasn't an option, though. I had to figure something out.

"How old are you?" I asked loudly, scaring both Holly and myself, a little. She seemed shocked that I was talking to her.

"Um, I, uh, I'm sixteen." She said, nervously standing and walking over to me. I nodded, wishing she hadn't come so close to me.

"Who's Elsa?" She asked, innocence dripping from her voice. False innocence, that is.

"You can read minds? Where does that even come from?" I asked her. She shrugged.

"Mom is a bit of a scientist. She experimented on me a lot when I was little." She ran her hand through her long blonde hair.

"Oh. Listen, Holly, we've got to find a way out of here. We have to save your dad and the other Guardians." I told her, and she looked confused.

"Why would we do that? My dad left when I was a baby, and my mom says the Guardians act like they're the good guys but really they just want to stop everyone else from ever doing anything fun." I scoffed.

"Listen, kid, I'm the Guardian of Fun and I can assure you that is not what they're doing. Your mom is a little," I carefully chose my words, "misinformed." I said, deciding that was a good idea. Without warning, Holly's hair burst into flames.

"Don't talk about my mother!" She screamed in a high pitched double voice before extinguishing herself and becoming the sweet girl who had stood next to me a moment before.

"What the hell was that?" I asked her, terrified.

"Experiments." She said again, as if that was the obvious answer. I put my head in my hands, kneading my forehead. This was going to be harder than I thought. 

"Okay. What kind of powers does your mother have?" I asked her, switching gears abruptly.

"Um, what powers doesn't my mother have? She can do pretty much anything. I don't even know how they managed to keep her locked up for so long." She said, and the tone of her voice made it seem as if she didn't care at all. It was of no issue to her was happened to us, or her mother, and I was suddenly struck with the feeling that Holly was a very selfish young girl. After all, she had had her entire life to do whatever she wanted, why wouldn't she be?

"Elsa is the love of my life. And I left her to come here. And I need your help to get back to her." I told her, wondering if she was a hopeless romantic. I hoped so.