Anna woke early on a bright Monday morning in January after getting very little sleep. She had gotten all of about a half hour sleep after finally drifting off again after her third nightmare that night. It always happened at this time of the year. A memory that her parents had refused to talk about since she was six years old, but she remembered. She refused to let herself forget.

She sat up in bed and pushed her messy ratted hair out of her face. Her light red hair was still in the two braids she had put them in when she went to bed the night before, but they were all in disarray now due to her thrashing around in bed that night.

She wondered if it would always be like that, remembering that night her sister disappeared. She opened her nightstand and pulled out and old photograph. In it were two children, one with silvery hair tied back in a single braid. She was wearing her favorite hat of an ice blue color with a snow suit to match with a snowflake design. She was standing next to a little red-haired girl who was dressed in a similar outfit of forest green and red. They had just build their first snow man that year and proudly showed him off in the picture.

A tear came to Anna's eye as she looked at the picture. It was one of her and her sister Elsa back when they were young, innocent and happy, but that was ten years ago. It wasn't long after that picture was taken that Elsa was removed from her life forever. Anna could still remember that night, even though she was only six years old.

She had gotten up to get a drink of water when she saw a strange light coming from her sister's room. It wasn't the usual light from the lamp on her nightstand, but more of flashing light that moved about erratically. She was always the curious type so she went to investigate, and that's when she saw it. There was a strange man holding Elsa, but her sister wasn't moving and her eyes were closed. He looked straight at her right before he climbed out of the window taking her sister with him.

The only thing she could think of to do was scream, and she didn't stop screaming until her parents awakened and came to her aide. Anna was so traumatized by the experience that she couldn't even talk for months, and when she did finally speak all she could say was three words. "He took her."

For more than five years her parents did everything they could to find Elsa, but it was no use. She was gone and there wasn't any trace of her. After a while they just stopped talking about her. Not only that, but her pictures were all but removed from the family albums, stored away in the attic where no one could see. Her room was locked up and rarely entered again and left in the same condition as when she was taken. Anna was only permitted in there once a month to clean any dust that had accumulated.

She was convinced that Elsa would return one day, and when she did she wanted her things to be in pristine condition, but even if her sister would have returned that day she would have no real use for the toys and little girl dresses hanging in the closet. She would be seventeen and would be even more grown up than Anna who just turned sixteen last September.

She would give anything to see what her sister looked like now, and would even look closely at girls who would be Elsa's age and wonder if this could be her sister. Whoever took her would have probably altered her appearance by changing her hair color with a quick dye job or even making her wear color contacts. She had seen enough children abduction movies to know that.

She picked up her purse and put the picture in her mini photo album that she always carried around. There she slid it in between the photo of her parents and the one that Kristoff took of her and her cousin at the beach. She looked over at the clock and saw that she only had an hour before Kristoff came to pick her up for school. He would often complain that she was the reason he was always late, but he would always insist on picking her up for school.

So she quickly ran down the hall to take a shower and change her clothes. It wasn't too long before she heard her mother calling her from the bottom of the stairs, just as she was braiding up her hair. It was still damp from the shower but it was always better to put her braids in while her hair was still wet.

"Anna, Kristoff is here," her mother called up to her. If her bedroom door hadn't been open she may not have heard her.

"I'm coming," she called back. Just then she heard a car horn honk. It was and long honk followed but two short ones. That was Kristoff's code for her to get her tail out there, or they were going to be late. She grabbed her purse and book bag and ran over to the window and opened it up and yelled down to him. "I'll be right down."

He looked annoyed as she could tell even from this distance but he still had a smile on his face, so she closed the window really fast and ran downstairs to grab her coat and hat. Her mother was standing in the doorway with a plate of fresh muffins.

"What about breakfast, young lady?" she scolded while asking the question.

"Mom, I don't have time," she said but she got a whiff of those chocolate chip muffins, "but I'll take a few of these." With her purse and book bag strapped over one arm she grabbed several muffins in each hand and walked out the door. "See you later."

With that she sprinted to the car to see Olaf sitting in the backseat singing along to the song on the radio, but he sang some made up lyrics which made her laugh. "You silly, that's not how the song goes."

"Sure it does, but nobody knows that but me," he said, but Anna just rolled her eyes as she got into the car.

"Here, have a muffin," she said and tossed it to him. "He managed to catch it but barely." She also gave one to Kristoff.

Olaf was an odd sort of character, but in truth he was the best friend she had, next to Kristoff. She never saw a boy before with silvery white hair or skin as pale as his, but he could always make her laugh when she was feeling terrible. Whether he was making up some stupid song that made no sense or telling a silly joke he was always there. She had met Olaf was she was about ten years old. She was just a lonely girl with very few friends but then this goofy kid approached her in the playground wearing a clown nose and a black top hat and started singing show tunes for no particular reason and she laughed hysterically at his antics.

Since that day they were best friends, and even after she started going out with Kristoff it had remained that way. Olaf was small for his age at fifteen, but he was brave and never backed down even if he did get roughed up a lot by bigger kids.

Anna was a little quiet on the drive to school, but Olaf didn't notice because he was enjoying the music too much, but Kristoff noticed and turned to her as he turned the corner.

"So, what's going on, Anna?" he asked as she bit into her muffin.

"What?" she asked after she swallowed a bite.

"You look like you haven't slept," he said and she suddenly had that guilty look on her face. "I'm right, aren't I?"

Anna took a deep breath but at the same time rolled her eyes. "How do you do that?"

"Do what?" It was Olaf's voice that she heard from the back seat.

"Never mind, Olaf," Anna said and tossed him another muffin. His eyes grew wide as he caught the muffin and almost immediately devoured it. "Just go back to your music."

"Sure thing, Anna," he said with a bit of muffin hanging out of this mouth. Anna just laughed at his antics, but when she looked back at Kristoff he still had a look of concern on his face.

She stayed silent for the rest of the ride which was only a few more minutes. As she exited the car she heard Olaf's excited voice. "Well, well, look who I see, the goddess Molly Forbes."

"Go for it, stud," Kristoff said jokingly. Before Anna could open her mouth to speak Olaf was off in pursuit of the fair-haired maiden. It left Anna alone with Kristoff. She would usually see it as a good thing, but she didn't want to discuss her somewhat sullen mood. "So are you going to tell me what was keeping you up at night?"

"It was just a nightmare," she said, not even trying to lie to him. "It's no big deal."

"Anna, you're always having nightmares this time of year," he said as they reached her locker. She placed her bag inside and took out her books for her first two classes. "Would you please tell me what it was about?"

"Just old memories," she said and gave him a quick kiss. "So stop worrying about me."

"I can't do that," he said with a half-smile. He took her hand just as the bell rang.

"I have to go, but I'll see you at lunch?" she asked with a hopeful look in her eye.

"Surething," he said and she raced down the hall. She didn't want to really tell himwhat was bothering her, but she knew eventually she would have to.

More to come in the next chapter. Will Anna find out whatever happened to Elsa?