Chapter 1:

It had been only one week since her uncle and aunt had passed away. They were the only family Anna had left since her parent's death on a ship wreck seven years ago, but she never visited them, not since she was a little girl. However, the notary had called her the day prior, telling her that they had named her their heir and that she had to go to their house (well, actually it was a mansion) to receive the inheritance.

All her life she had been living in a small department at Arendelle's capital, so now that she was seeing the big and luxurious mansion in the middle of the forest, near the North Mountain, she was very impressed, mostly because now it was going to be hers, just as the millions of dollars the notary was just telling her about. It was like a dream come true; now that she had finished the career of photographer at the university, she didn't have to search for a job, she could just spend her time taking photos as a hobby, just as she had always wanted.

Formalities were made, papers were signed and soon the inheritance was hers. Anna walked through the big house amazed by all she saw, since the big garden with a little pond and porcelain figures of ducks, to the spacious room all covered by paintings, including one of Joan de Arc, which she talked to.

It was nearly midnight, but she wasn't tired yet; she never went to bed early, and she could never sleep when she was excited about something, just like now. But she was sure she had already explored all the mansion… or maybe not, after all it was a very old house, perhaps it had some secret passages?

She started searching. First the kitchen, to make sure there wasn't any secret room full of chocolate and other sweets. She wasn't that lucky, but indeed there was a little chocolate hided inside a jar on the cupboard. She ate the half and kept the other inside her pink hoodie's pocket.

She then searched at the library, hoping there was a secret entrance hidden behind a bookcase, as in the movies. She moved every book on every bookcase attached in the wall, but nothing happened. No secret entrances.

She kept searching for two hours. She searched at the living room, at her uncle's bedroom, the great hall, the dining room, the hallways... but she found nothing.

Finally Anna gave up, and started walking to her bedroom to try to get some sleep, when suddenly she passed in front her uncle's studio. She hadn't opened that door because it was locked, but she had found a key at the library and now she was thinking maybe it could be the key for this room, so she pushed it into the keyhole and rotated it.

The door opened with a loud squeak, which made her shiver, but she instantly told herself that there was nothing to be afraid; it was just a sound produced by a door with very old hinges… a very scary sound, just as if it was meant to be scary.

She entered the room and pushed the switch to turn the lights on, but they didn't. However, the moonlight was very luminous that night so she could see everything in that room. There was a window that looked to the garden covered by thin white curtains, a wooden desk covered by papers and books, and, on the opposite side, a painting representing a man with copper hair and mustache (Probably her uncle; he was very similar to her father), a woman with brown hair and beautiful ice blue eyes and… what was that? The painting's right bottom corner was completely black, as if it had been burned. Anna walked to the painting and looked at it closely. She could see a little hand wrapped in her aunt's big one, but the owner of this little hand probably had been painted on the burned side of the picture.

Anna suddenly remembered that her uncle had a daughter called Elsa, just three years older than her, but she had died before Anna could meet her, at the young age of five years. Probably this picture represented the happy family they had been once, but the pain of losing their only daughter may had made them burn the painting.

She passed her fingers through the picture, touching her uncle's face, his body and then her aunt's dress, her neck… there she stopped. The neckless she wore had a hole in the middle, impossible for the eyes to see, but possible for the fingertips to feel… maybe a keyhole? But it had to be a very small key, probably the size of a spire… A spire! Maybe she could open it with a spire, she had seen some of them in her aunt's room.

Anna walked (almost ran) to her aunt's room, not too far from where she was, opened the door and started searching a spire. She took a chair, put it in front of the closet, climbed it and grab the wooden cage that was over it. Then she fall from the chair trying to get down of it.

The cage fell as well, making a loud crash sound and cracking badly. Anna got up and grabbed the cage seeing the precious wooden item terribly broken.

Good job Anna. It's your first day here and you have already brokensomething because of your clumsiness… and probably this cage was very expensive, the wood seem like mahogany.

Anna started reprimanding herself because of her clumsiness while she was watching the results of the disaster, when she saw that the fissures on the cage reveled a secret compartment on it. Separated from the place where sewing things were kept by a wooden table, there was a little space with only something that seemed like a pin.

She took the little item and walked to the light to see it better. It wasn't a normal pin: its head was snowflake-shaped, and it was totally plane with irregular boards. It actually seemed like a key.

Could it be? Anna thought Could it open the painting's lock?… well if it is actually a keyhole, and not only a hole.

She exited the door, walked to her uncle's studio, reached to the painting and introduced the small key on the neckless' hole. Then, she turned it and the painting opened, as if it were a small door, reveling a cubic hole in the wall with a lamp and a lever on it.

Anna took the lamp and turned it on. It actually had batteries. Then she inhaled deeply preparing herself for what could happen when she pulled the lever. She pulled it. The wall in which the picture was, cracked loudly, reveling an entrance with the size of a door.

She tried to gain some courage and walked through it with the lantern in her right hand. It was a stairway, which descended for meters and meters before finally turning into a passage. It was dark (the only light was her lantern) and damp, Anna was sure she was now walking under the mansion.

She pointed her light to the walls and saw strange symbols grabbed in the stone, together with messages saying things like "The death is at the end of the way", "Many years of isolation" and "Beware the frozen heart". Anna gulped loudly and thought that maybe she should return to her bedroom and come back other time, preferably not in the night. However, she reasoned, probably the passage was as dark and scary during the day and she was already there, so she kept going.

Anna started shaking; with each step she took, the more cold she felt, and suddenly she regretted not bringing a jacket with her, but it was summer so she never thought it could be this cold in any place.

Suddenly, when Anna thought she was going to catch frostbite, she found a door completely made of iron. She took the doorknob and instantly pulled her hand back; it was so cold it was almost impossible to touch, but she had come this far and nothing could have stopped her from placating her curiosity.

She grabbed the doorknob again, letting a little squeal scape from her mount and opened the door.

A/N: Thanks for reading, and if you want to see some fan art, you can find it in my DeviantArt account, Tania Hylian. See you :)