Chapter 41

A/N: Fair warning, this might get a little uncomfortable to read. I dunno if anything in it will warrant a trigger warning, but this chapter does have very strong language and some uncomfortable scenes.

I know I already said uncomfortable, but I honestly couldn't think of a better word for it. So read at your own discretion.

Anna: Had to take Rapunzel to the hospital. Nothing major, but she wasn't feeling good so we gotta make sure the baby's okay. Sorry babe, will make it up to you soon ;)

Elsa put her phone away and sighed. Of course she was disappointed, but she wasn't going to tell Anna to leave her pregnant best friend all for a field trip. Besides, even if Anna could make it, they'd probably be too busy focusing on each other to get any work done.

Plus, that wink was intriguing; a sign of a much greater payoff down the line.

Knowing the area well enough, it didn't take long for them to make it to Oaken's Haven for Children. The massive front yard was patchy and unkept, the hedges looked as if they hadn't been trimmed in a long time. Close to the entrance of the school, children played and bickered while tired workers did their best to keep the peace. At the roundabout was a cherub statue looking longingly towards the gate.

As soon as Elsa exited the car and took a good look at the mansion, she was struck with this feeling of hollowness and despair; like there was a dark cloud looming over the school on this clear-skied day.

Another good reason for Anna to miss this visit: If she loved this school, and Oaken, as much as she said she did, seeing the state it was in would have killed her.

"Marshall's gonna find a place to park." Hannah said, emerging at her side, "You ready for this?"

"Not entirely." Elsa responded honestly, "But I want to know how Hans did this, and I need to see how I can stop this deal from happening."

"And you know that if you don't do this right, it could be career suicide?"

Elsa took a deep breath, "Yeah...yeah I know. Now come on, let's go inside."

There was no one to greet them as they entered, although that was to be expected since she never made a formal appointment to meet with Oaken today. She figured that if she didn't announce her visit, she could get an honest presentation on how the school was actually running.

In the kitchen area children picked miserably at stale bread and pasta, she overheard one of them ask when the nice ladies with the cookies were coming back. The rooms were converted into small classrooms, and the already-built classrooms were being used as storage space and living quarters. At the center of the mansion, they saw unsupervised kids eating chocolate on the stairs. When they saw Elsa and Hannah, they scattered.

The school's prestige had left long ago.

At the top of the stairs was a large room with double doors and chipped metal handles. She couldn't explain it, but Elsa felt an ominous presence coming from behind those doors. Her mind was saying to turn back, but her body kept moving forward.

"What's up? You think Oaken's up there?"

"I don't know." Elsa said as she placed a hand on the railing, "But it's the biggest room here, and I just...feel like something's in there. Or someone."

"Friend or foe?"

"No idea." Step by step she climbed up until Elsa somehow found herself at the top. Her heart was racing, her mind was now screaming at her and saying this wasn't a good idea. She didn't listen. "I guess we'll find out."

"Elsa maybe we should wait and see-"

Too late. With a turn of the handle, Elsa stepped inside the room without waiting for Hannah to catch up. As soon as she took stock of the room, she already knew one thing:

She should have listened.

Oaken was definitely in the room, but the hulking Scandinavian wasn't alone. As he sat at his desk whimpering, there were two figures that that stood over him menacingly. One figure had very familiar sideburns who almost matched Oaken in stature and roughly gripped his shoulders to keep him from standing. Another was hunched over the desk waving a finger at his face.

Even in the dim, dreary room she could see the glint of the ruby-embedded ring.

All three men looked at her at the exact same time.

"Elsa! I wish you'd called beforehand, I would have had more time to clean up a bit." Hans stepped away from Oaken, so dejected and defeated that he couldn't even look up from his desk. He gestured to his bodyguard to keep him down.

"What is going on here?" is what she wanted to say, but her throat locked up when Hans set his sights on her.

"Oaken and I were just having a friendly chat and going through some final touches on the contract." Hans said successfully, "You know, I've always been a big fan of the education system. Wouldn't be anywhere today if it weren't for teachers like Mr. Oaken here pushing me to be better. Always pushing…"

Every step the terrifyingly confident man took towards Elsa made her retreat further and further against the door. She had to fight the instinct to leave, to show any weakness and lose the minuscule amount of footing she had.

It was because of this stubbornness, however, that she was now trapped. Hans was only a few feet away, but he showed no signs of getting any closer.

"What's the matter Elsa? Is this suit taking your breath away? Oh no that's right, you've told me before that you're interested."

Somehow she found the strength to finally speak, "Why are you here?"

Hans looked at her with a surprisingly accurate representation of confusion, "I feel like I just said that. And why are you here for that matter? This isn't some ArenCorp property where you can just come and go as you please. This is- well it will be- Corona property. My property."

"Nothing's set in stone." Elsa said with a low growl that she did her best to hide. "This isn't property, it's a school. A school you're going to run into the ground."

"That's a very hurtful accusation, Elsa." He placed a hand on his white suit-vest, "How could you say things like that without any proof?"

"Because I know you. I know how you work." Her body was betraying her, every sentence she spoke was quieter than the one before.

In the dimly lit room she could really only see his eyes, his voice may have sounded playful and amused, but he was looking at her the same way a predator looked at its helpless prey.

Elsa came in here with no plan at all, no cards to play, and because of that Hans could toy with her before going in for the kill. She hated how much control he had in this situation, and wanted so badly to just leave and make something up to Anna about how Oaken wasn't there, or say that the meeting went fine and try and regroup someplace more public.

But her legs were frozen in place, she could only watch as Hans once again began to advance. He chuckled, "Are you sure you know how I work? Are you sure you know how to stop me?"

"I…" Her mouth opened before her mind could emerge from its hiding place. She didn't know how to respond, she could only try her best to look Hans in his penetrating eyes.

Sensing her weakness, Hans opened his mouth to speak again, knowing that it was time to put his prey out of its misery. But before he could go for the jugular, another voice spoke from behind them.

"THIS IS A SCAM! YOU HAVE BROUGHT PAIN AND SUFFERING TO THESE KIDS AND I WILL NOT STAND FOR- GAH!" He was silenced once more as the grip on his shoulders tightened them.

With frightening quickness, Hans turned around and paced back towards Oaken. He dug a finger into the barrel-chested man, who glared at it with a look so intense Elsa could swear he was about to pop a vein in his head.

"One more word out of you, and the first thing I'll do is burning this whole fucking place to the ground!" Hans growled, "Do not test my patience again, understand?!"

Oaken matched Hans' glare, it was a jarring sight to see this sweater-clad man with playful facial hair and a button nose look so menacing. But he could only match it for a second before his lip began to quiver, and he buried his face into his hands.

Watching this all unfold finally snapped Elsa out of her trance, she didn't have to think twice about opening the door and walking out.

"What happened in there?" She heard Hannah say, but she was too busy bounding down the stairs to respond. She walked past the depressing bedrooms, the rowdy classrooms, the dirty kitchen, pushed the front doors open, and found herself desperately catching her breath while leaning on the cherub statue.

The expansive forest around them was crowding around her, she felt her vision getting blurry. Even though she'd left the room, Elsa still felt trapped and she hated it so much. There was no escape, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. She couldn't think, couldn't speak, couldn't-

Breathe, Elsa.

That voice. It could only belong to one person.

Elsa looked up to try and find Anna, hoping that the doctor visit had ended up being shorter than expected and her girlfriend had shown up to surprise her and calm her down.

But there was no one there.

And yet, just the thought of hearing Anna's voice was enough to bring some much-needed ease to Elsa's mind and, especially, her lungs.

She could breathe again, think again, if only for a moment; and unfortunately a moment was all she had.

"Elsa! What the hell happened back there?!"

Hannah was walking towards her, both curious and worried.

Elsa used her sleeve to wipe away the tears that had formed at some point. "Hans was in there." She replied, still trying to catch her breath. "And so was his bodyguard. They were, I don't know, threatening Oaken. I didn't get a chance to talk to him."

"Holy crap…" Hannah remarked, placing a cautious hand on her shoulder, "Did they do anything to you?"

Elsa shook her head, "No...nothing physical anyway. Hans wouldn't think about harming me, but...he was still really creepy. And aggressive."

"That's horrible. I'm sorry for not going in there with you, I could have...I don't know. But I could have done something."

"It's okay Hannah, besides I wouldn't have wanted to put you in that kind of danger anyway. This was…" She took a very shaky breath, "This was a really stupid plan."

Hannah took her hand off of Elsa's shoulder and leaned on the statue with her. "How were you supposed to know that Hans would be here?" she reasoned.

"I couldn't have known, but I still should have expected it. I should have been much more prepared. I know that now, so next time when I come here-"

"Wait, next time?! What do you mean?"

Elsa shrugged, "I need to do this. I need to find a way to make sure this deal doesn't happen, and I want to see Hans pay for everything he's done. So I have to keep trying."

"Elsa I really don't think that's such a good idea."

"It probably isn't, but at least I know better now. I can't just...barge into this without a plan. Or at least without a developed plan. I have to be smart, find a way to stay one step ahead of Hans."

"So does that mean that we're heading back? Because I called Marshall and he's bringing the car back around right now."

"Yeah, yeah it does. Let me just…" Elsa sat up from the cherub and almost fell back down, her head was still reeling from the events that just occured. "Alright on second thought, let me go find a bathroom inside first, I need to clear my head."

"Alright, want me to come with you this time?"

Elsa walked back up the steps, "No it's okay, I think I've got this."

She opened the doors one more time, trying to ignore the fact that the inside felt like it was deteriorating more and more with every walk through. There was no bathroom in the kitchen, which was her first stop, but a tired kitchen worker was nice enough to redirect her to the closest one.

Once she found it, she opened the door and walked to the nearest sink. A little girl walked past her sniffling, her eyes were red and puffy. The restroom was just as depressing as the rest of the place. The trash was overflowing, one of the fluorescent lights was flickering on and off, and the mirrors were dirty with one of them having a deep crack on the bottom left corner.

She turned on the only sink with two working handles and splashed lukewarm water in her face, taking some more much needed breaths in the process.

This whole situation with Hans was getting to her way too much, she had never felt so lost and helpless in her life. It was hard to admit, but his unpredictability and aggressiveness scared her, made her doubt her own abilities. And she could talk all she wanted about wanting to take him down, vowing to be the one that brings him to justice, but the truth was that she had nothing. No plan.

Even with Anna's help, she was still nowhere near ready to confront him.

Still...she had to try. Hans couldn't keep getting away with this, and even if it meant ruining her own career in the process, she'd stop at nothing to finally see the day that he'd get what was coming to him.

With a newfound amount of pseudo-courage, she took one last look at herself in the smudged mirror, the crack at the base distorting her reflection, and walked out. Tomorrow was another day, she told herself.

She opened the door, and walked back in the direction of the front door.

One step.

Two steps.

And that was all she took.

Suddenly, she felt herself being pushed against a wall. Suddenly, she felt her arm being pinned behind her back. Suddenly, she heard the labored breathing of a relentless maniac. Suddenly, she felt the smell of whiskey violating her sinuses. Suddenly, she felt something pricking at her neck. Suddenly, she saw the glint of that damn ruby-embedded ring.

Once again, suddenly Elsa found herself helpless.

"I told you Elsa." Hans hissed right in her ear as she struggled to break free. "You're playing a very dangerous game."

"What the fuck are you doing?!" She said, trying to sound brave. But her voice betrayed her, letting the man pinning her against the wall know that she was scared. Really, really scared.

"Stay away from this place, stay out of my business, or else I swear to you…" He pressed the knife- was it a knife? The blade felt sharp enough but she couldn't see much- right under her jaw, not enough to break the skin but enough to punctuate his threat.

"... the blood I spill will be on your hands."

"Let me go…" Elsa didn't know what hurt more: the knife at her throat, the vise grip on her wrist, or the fact that she knew where Hans was going and couldn't stop him.

"You start taking things away from me, and I take things away from you. Things that you love. That's how this works, got it?" He forcefully pushed her back against the wall and tightened the grip on her wrist. "How's that girlfriend of yours? Think she'd remember me if I paid a visit to her bakery?"

"Stop, please don't hurt her." Her body continued to betray her as she felt herself beginning to cry.

"I won't. At least not yet." He laughed, this one sounding more threatening, more real, than his previous laughs. "I will burn everything else down around you before I get to her. And when you have nothing left, I will make you watch as I take the one last thing in this world that you give a damn about. And guess what Elsa?"

He flipped her around and pressed his hand against her mouth. "There's not a damn thing you can do to stop me."

The knife was no longer in his hand, in its place was something much worse. He pulled his phone out and brought it to Elsa's face, unlocking it to reveal the security footage of a bakery.

Anna's bakery.

Elsa's screams were barely muffled by his hand over her mouth.

"You see, I always have eyes on your girl." He grinned, "I know her every move, at all times, I've seen her more these past few weeks than you have. And if you want that to change, then you're going to stay out of my fucking way. One word from me, and you'll never see her again."

He locked his phone and put it back in his pocket, all the while Elsa was screaming obscenities and death threats that never made it past that damn ring.

Mercifully, he finally pulled his hand away from her mouth and wiped the hand with a handkerchief in his breast pocket. "I'm glad we had this talk, Elsa." Before he walked away, he winked and added, "We should do this again sometime."

Seconds passed. Maybe minutes. Maybe years. Elsa slid down the wall and wrapped her arms around her legs, trying and failing to control her breathing. The walls had closed in completely, and for the first time in her life she knew that there was no hope.

Hans had won.