It's not as if they talk constantly through the day. Elsa has a job, a girlfriend, heroing on the side. Anna has a tendency to get distracted by the new and wonderful things she still somehow manages to discover in Darrow, years after they first arrived. Elsa loves her for that, among the hundreds of other reasons to love her sister. To her, the world is always fresh and beautiful and exciting. For Elsa, it's wonderful and frightening in equal measure, still a place to be negotiated with caution, no matter how much better things might get.
So not hearing from Anna for a few hours isn't cause for too much concern. She might have forgotten to check her phone, distracted by something or someone new. The battery might have died. There's no knowing what it is now, though Elsa can't help it if it still unnerves her when her texts go unanswered for so long. That heavy, sick feeling in her stomach only grows as the time passes. She leaves work and there's still no answer, and it's not as if this has never happened, but it still frightens her. There is more in her world now than her sister, but Anna is, will always be, the most important part of her life. No matter how much time they have together, she still sometimes feels as if she's catching up, trying to make up for all the time they lost. All that time... it's the one thing that still makes this power sometimes feel like a curse, remembering what the fear took from them.
Anna's supposed to meet her at the flower shop, though, and though she's sometimes late, she always arrives eventually. They'll walk home and Anna will regale her with breathless, mixed up stories of what she's been up to all day. Whatever's kept her must have been exciting.
So Elsa waits outside the shop, not wanting to miss catching sight of her sister. The first glimpse of that red hair and that bright smile always helps to soothe the uncertainty.
But the minutes tick by and Anna never arrives. 30 minutes, 40. Elsa picks up her phone and this time she calls instead of texting. Even with her sister, she's not fond of phone calls, but sometimes it's easier anyway. But it rings and then it clicks, and before Elsa can get out a hurried greeting, a placid voice is speaking. The number you are trying to call...
And the pit in her stomach turns to ice.
The rush home passes in a blur of fear and frenzied thought. She's heard of this, of course, but it doesn't mean — it can't mean —
Her sister is gone.
The apartment is dark and still, with nothing to suggest Anna has been back at all since the morning. Elsa hurries back outside onto the street, looking up and down. There has to be some sign of her. It has to be a mistake. "Anna!" she shouts, walking to the end of the block and stopping herself short. She doesn't want to wander too far from home. Just in case.
The rain has softened from drops to snow, but Elsa ignores the wind howling around her as the snow comes down ever harder. There's more and more of it with every passing minute, until she can hardly see up the street, and she knows she has to stop, she has to stop it, but she can't. She can't even think about it, clutching her phone in case it rings, running to the other end of the block.
"Anna!"
So not hearing from Anna for a few hours isn't cause for too much concern. She might have forgotten to check her phone, distracted by something or someone new. The battery might have died. There's no knowing what it is now, though Elsa can't help it if it still unnerves her when her texts go unanswered for so long. That heavy, sick feeling in her stomach only grows as the time passes. She leaves work and there's still no answer, and it's not as if this has never happened, but it still frightens her. There is more in her world now than her sister, but Anna is, will always be, the most important part of her life. No matter how much time they have together, she still sometimes feels as if she's catching up, trying to make up for all the time they lost. All that time... it's the one thing that still makes this power sometimes feel like a curse, remembering what the fear took from them.
Anna's supposed to meet her at the flower shop, though, and though she's sometimes late, she always arrives eventually. They'll walk home and Anna will regale her with breathless, mixed up stories of what she's been up to all day. Whatever's kept her must have been exciting.
So Elsa waits outside the shop, not wanting to miss catching sight of her sister. The first glimpse of that red hair and that bright smile always helps to soothe the uncertainty.
But the minutes tick by and Anna never arrives. 30 minutes, 40. Elsa picks up her phone and this time she calls instead of texting. Even with her sister, she's not fond of phone calls, but sometimes it's easier anyway. But it rings and then it clicks, and before Elsa can get out a hurried greeting, a placid voice is speaking. The number you are trying to call...
And the pit in her stomach turns to ice.
The rush home passes in a blur of fear and frenzied thought. She's heard of this, of course, but it doesn't mean — it can't mean —
Her sister is gone.
The apartment is dark and still, with nothing to suggest Anna has been back at all since the morning. Elsa hurries back outside onto the street, looking up and down. There has to be some sign of her. It has to be a mistake. "Anna!" she shouts, walking to the end of the block and stopping herself short. She doesn't want to wander too far from home. Just in case.
The rain has softened from drops to snow, but Elsa ignores the wind howling around her as the snow comes down ever harder. There's more and more of it with every passing minute, until she can hardly see up the street, and she knows she has to stop, she has to stop it, but she can't. She can't even think about it, clutching her phone in case it rings, running to the other end of the block.
"Anna!"
