The House of Frost vs. Light in the Darkness

[SnowQueenSCW]

Frost No More

”The Empty Side of the Bed”

The Frost Forever Home
Manhattan, New York
July 18th, 2026
11:48pm

Nighttime brought about a different kind of noise through the Forever Home. During the day, children moved through hallways, doors opened/closed, David watched TV, Amiliah sang absentmindedly, and Elsianna would turn the pages of whatever book she was reading...

Sometimes there was more noise, sometimes there was less, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that the house seemed alive during such times!

But at night... silence was the mainstay.

With a sigh, the redhead quietly closed the dishwasher. She stood there for a moment, hands resting lightly against the granite countertop, allowing herself to simply breathe. The interview she had recorded earlier with Jessica Winters, the promotion/publicity meetings for RtG, going over costume and entrance ideas for the big show... she had had so few moments to have the chance to just simply exist...

The clock above the stove read 11:48 as she glanced instinctively toward the hallway. How many years had she lived in this house? Well over a decade. She intended to live and die here (named ‘Forever Home’ for a reason). As such, she knew every spot of it well.

Casting her eyes upward, she heard no sound from the upstairs – where her children were, no doubt, sleeping.

Good. Deanna thought, running the list through her head again. David has soccer in the morning. Amiliah has summer classes. Elsianna has her training with me...

Despite the ‘itinerary’, she reached for the dish towel hanging beside the sink. It wasn't dirty, yet she still dried the countertop one last time. A habit, of course, and one Selena used to tease relentlessly.

"Red..." Selena would lean against the kitchen island, arms folded, watching with that amused smile. "You've cleaned that spot three times."
"Have not."
"Four."
"You're exaggerating."
"Five."

Deanna would pretend to glare. “You're counting?"

"I'm married to you." Selena's laugh had always arrived before the punchline. "Of course I'm counting."

The memory disappeared as quietly as it had come, yet it caused Deanna to look down. The countertop gleamed beneath the overhead lights.

She sighed gently. "Five." She folded the towel neatly before hanging it exactly where it belonged.

Old habits... came the thought. Funny how they survived.

Her task done, she switched off the kitchen lights, transforming the room immediately as warm moonlight spilled through the windows. She knew she should go upstairs to rest. She had so much to deal with tomorrow with her children and Breakdown – Gods... Breakdown... why did I say yes? – and RtG and...

She found herself wandering into the family room. A blanket had been folded over the arm of the sofa. Without any real thought, Deanna fixed the corner that had slipped loose - Not because it needed it, but just because she noticed.

Her eyes drifted toward the mantle – for the millionth time this week. Photographs. They hadn’t changed since the last time. Birthdays, vacations, school plays, championship celebrations, Christmases, Yuletides, Halloween costumes... The children growing older almost frame by frame.

She picked up one she'd looked at a thousand times: Disney World.

Elsianna couldn't have been older than seven, David was missing one front tooth and  Amiliah had insisted on wearing princess shoes through the entire park. And Selena...

Deanna always laughed quietly as this part. Selena – the mighty Snow Queen turned Blue-Eyed Devil - had somehow convinced herself she needed matching Mickey Mouse ears with everyone else... Even after pretending she thought they were ridiculous.

"You looked adorable." whispered the room’s solo occupant... The room, predictably, offered no reply.

Carefully, Deanna set the photograph back, then straightened it... then tilted it one degree to the left.

“Perfect.” she stated without thinking, but then froze. Slowly, she blinked – a realization dawning on her as she eyed the frame.

"Really?" she asked, her voice still barely rose above a whisper. Because, in reality, the picture hadn't been crooked - Not really. Not enough for anyone else to notice.

Only Selena would have...

"Red."
"Hm?"
"The picture's crooked."*
"No it isn't."
"It's absolutely crooked."
"You're impossible."
"You're avoiding the issue."
"I'm ignoring the issue."
"Because it's crooked."

Deanna closed her eyes, exhaling a long breath. "You're rubbing off on me."

No - That wasn't true really. If she were honest with herself, Selena had been rubbing off on Deanna for well over a decade.

Without another word, the redhead walked away before another memory could catch her. The hallway stretched ahead, more family photographs lining one wall. She didn’t go downstairs – she had cleaned it earlier that week... before Breakdown.

She had even cleaned the room that had served as Selena’s office. Why? Deanna shrugged at her own question. There wasn't really a reason if she thought about it.

Nobody used the room.
Nobody had in months.

Yet every week, without fail, she dusted the books, straightened the pens, polished the awards and replica titles and trophies.

The realization settled quietly in her chest. She wasn't preserving an office. She was maintaining a place for someone who wasn't there.

Not waiting... Maintaining. she told herself. There’s a difference.

Wasn't there?

Maybe that’s all people saw this whole thing as. Her ‘maintaining’ the world title spot for Selena until the Snow Queen came in to grab reign number 7. Accomplishing amazing things like winning the Shot of Adrenaline Tournament earlier this year, followed by the Taking Hold of the Flame royale, even this latest thing on Breakdown – all to get Selena back on top. To make her the ‘champion’ she had failed for the last near two years to be...

Except now, Selena was saying ‘no’ and Deanna was now the one fighting in the main-event at Rise to Greatness.

For the first time...
No idea how to perform at that level...
No idea how to actually win...
No idea how to actually be world champion if she even managed to win...

A soft sigh escaped her. "If you walked in here tomorrow..." She looked around. "You'd probably complain I moved something." Another pause and another glance to another corner. "Even if I didn't."

That was just how Selena was. She could identify if a book had been moved half an inch. Her recollection of past events in her promos certainly proved her attention to detail.

Deanna missed arguing about things that didn't matter. Those had always been the best arguments... where there was no terrible punishment or crime for being wrong. Where making a mistake in a decision didn’t cost you your marriage, your trust, or something else vital and dear to your heart.

She kept walking throughout the house, turning off what few lights remained on as she passed their respective switches, eventually turning around the winding stair-rail and ascending the steps one at a time. The children's doors remained closed as she reached the second floor of the house, and the redhead was sure that her walking by would not wake them up.

As she passed David's room, she noticed a pair of shoes sitting outside the doorway. She picked them up automatically and set them inside, not making a sound.

Across the hall, Amiliah's door stood open just enough for Deanna to see inside. As quietly as before, Deanna peeked in, seeing the smaller girl wrapped in her blanket and snoring a little, one arm hanging dramatically off the bed – like Deanna slept countless times, including the snoring (according to Selena).

"Genetics." She smiled to herself before gently pulling the blanket higher over her daughter's shoulder and tip-toed out.

Elsianna's room came next and the door was closed. However, to Deanna’s mild surprise, music played quietly beyond the door. For a moment, the champion considered knocking, her hand hovering just a ways away from the door – wondering if/why her daughter was uncharacteristically up so late...

But the hand never came down to rap on the red-coloured wood. Some things still deserved privacy. Deanna reminded herself, letting her steps take her away from the last of her children’s doors and towards the room at the far end of the hall.

The master bedroom.

She hesitated - for reasons she couldn't quite explain – but only for a moment. With a turn of her hand, she opened the door, seeing the moon’s pale silver ran across the comforter. Everything rested exactly where she'd left it that morning.

Nothing has changed... her mind stated – though it could have been a chastise if Deanna dwelled on it, which she was not determined to do tonight! Instead, she crossed the room, changed into an oversized T-shirt, and tossed her clothes over the nearby chair – which caused her to catch herself.

"Seriously?" she asked, tilting her head at her ‘handiwork’.

She used to throw clothes over the chair. Selena folded them.

Every time. And what would follow would be the same: Another argument. Another laugh. Another piece of ordinary life.

And again, she could not dwell on it. Other people needed her...

Clumsily, she climbed into bed, though not onto her side like she usually did. No, this time it was into the middle. She stretched long, sprawling across the large Queen-sized mattress. One arm rested behind her head, while one leg bent comfortably...

The entire mattress belonged to her. And all she could do was stare at the ceiling.

It felt... Wrong. Not emotionally... but physically!

There wasn't enough weight pulling one side of the mattress. There were no sleepy complaints about stealing blankets. There were no cold feet searching for warmth. There were no absentminded hand finding hers before either of them had fully fallen asleep. There was no pale arm wrapping around her waist from behind to pull her in closer, simultaneously stealing and giving warmth.

By herself, the bed felt too large. Too unoccupied for someone of her small frame. She frowned at the realization and shifted slightly.

No. Still wrong! Another minute passed, the redhead tossing this way and that, trying to find something and having no idea what it was she was even looking for!

Then - almost without thinking - Deanna simply rolled back all the way until she occupied only the right side of the bed.

Her side.

The realization came slowly and gently to her, almost like a slow dawning in her mind.

Even after the divorce.
Even after Selena left.
Even after Houston.
Even after everything.

She had never once slept in Selena's place. Not once. Not because she'd decided not to, but because it had never occurred to her. Because somewhere - beneath thought and grief and hope - she had always left room.

The room, itself, hadn't changed. The same soft blue walls. The same curtains Selena had insisted were "just a little darker" than the ones Deanna had originally picked. The same dresser. The same framed photographs on the wall...

The same silence. her mind and heart reminded her in unison.

The only difference was - Deanna couldn't stop looking at the empty side of the bed. Not because it was empty... but because she'd never realized she'd been protecting it.

Slowly, she reached her hand across the mattress, her fingertips resting lightly against the untouched sheets. Her hand lingered there before she quietly withdrew it.

"How long?" came the familiar whisper of a question -  one she genuinely didn't know.

Weeks?
Months?
Since the divorce?
Since Selena first walked away?

Had she ever once allowed herself to spread across the bed? To take something – a place, a spot – that had originally belonged to Selena? The redhead slowly searched her memory and found... nothing.

Not a single day. Not a single night. Because she had never even considered it.

Not because it meant she hadn't moved on – she had! – she was certain of it! She was moving forward every day! She laughed with her children, defended her championship, trained, lived, tried to do the right thing each and every time - Life hadn't stopped just because her heart had been broken so many times!

Yet somewhere underneath all of that... and despite everything... A tiny part of her had quietly continued making room...

The realization should have embarrassed her. Instead, it just was something that made sense in the saddest way to her.

She closed her eyes. "Maybe...” she whispered to the dark and the moonlight. “Maybe, I still love you." She felt a sad smile cross her lips as she shook her head against the gentle fabric of her pillow. "You're still impossible." She smile faded. "And somehow... so am I."

How else could she think of Selena and herself? Deanna had gift-wrapped ANOTHER world title shot for her – placed it at her feet. Better! It was a singles world title shot, one the Snow Queen hadn’t received - despite her incredible winning streaks – since the birth of ‘The Blue-Eyed Devil’ two-and-a-half years ago. AND it was the Rise to Greatness main-event!

If ever there had been a time that Deanna felt she couldn’t fail to reach out to Selena after all these months, this had been it!

And Selena had said ‘no’! Refused. Insisted that Deanna take what she had won and earned – Even though I won it and earned it for you... – and now Deanna was set to fight for the world title against one of her closest friends... who had taken Deanna’s accomplishment at the royale, laughed in her face, said it didn’t matter and that she was a coward and ‘not ready’ to fight for the world title... and, just like Amelia to back up her words, had challenged The House of Frost to a tag-team title match – without asking Luz... and Deanna had accepted – without asking Selena...

“So who’s more impossible?” Deanna sighed into her pillow. You for suddenly caring about me... or me for getting you another title shot for a world title the second I had the chance?

The bedside table caught her attention, specifically her phone resting face down beside a half-finished novel she'd been trying to read for almost three weeks - trying being the operative word. She had read the same chapter five separate times and every time, her thoughts had wandered elsewhere.

Picking up her phone and unlocking it, she spied the YouTube video she had kept on her screen – Amelia’s interview with Jessica...

And the challenge...

It all came down to one thing and it wasn’t her opponent at Rise to Greatness or the woman that had beaten her at last year’s Rise to Greatness in Luz. It wasn’t the massive challenge before her against, in Deanna’s opinion, the greatest tag-team in SCW today.

It was the simple notion of what the name ‘The House of Frost’ meant: Deanna Frost and Selena Frost.

Not opponents. Not ‘exes’. Partners.

The thought settled heavily inside her.

Partners. She tried to imagine it:

Walking into an arena together again.
Standing in gorilla position again.
Waiting for their music again.
Hearing their names announced together again.

And only then did she feel the ghost of a smile, despite herself – which immediately dropped as another thought followed:

The travel.
The airports.
The limo bus.
The hotel hallways.
The training sessions.
The conversations.
The silences.
The breakfasts.
The tiny moments.
The ordinary moments.

Those frightened her far more than wrestling at Breakdown or even at RtG. The match wasn't scary... Life afterwards was.

And all she could do was laugh quietly at it. "Gods..." She rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I'm actually afraid you'll say yes."

There it was...

The truth she'd been circling for days. Everyone assumed she feared rejection. That Selena would disappear again or not even show up.

Not Deanna... She wasn't afraid of hearing no. She was terrified of hearing yes.

Yes meant proximity. It meant allowing hope to take physical shape again in the form of a shared space, a shared purpose.

She wasn't afraid of losing a championship match. She was afraid of winning it. She was afraid of remembering what it felt like to belong beside Selena... only to lose it all over again.

She lowered the phone. "It’s not fair." she whispered to herself honestly.

She looked toward the ceiling for what felt like an hour before she rose from the bed. Sleep was, clearly, not happening. Bare feet padded softly across the hallway. The house greeted her with the same silence as she descended back down the staircase without turning on a single light.

Back in the kitchen, she filled the kettle and set it on the stove. Reaching up to the cupboard, she was surprised to see the box of green tea and the box of orange-pekoe... Selena's favourite.

She blinked. "Why do I keep buying this?"

She couldn't remember. She drank green tea or Earl Grey, or camisole, but never orange-pekoe. Yet every grocery trip, she’d bought it. She opened the cupboard further... just to spot the four more unopened boxes that sat behind the first.

"You're kidding me." She leaned against the counter, shaking her head sadly. "I've been grocery shopping for a woman who hasn't lived here in years."

She already knew why. Love wasn't always grand gestures. Sometimes, it was accidentally buying someone's tea because your heart still remembered before your mind did.

She carefully placed the orange-pekoe back and made her tea before carrying the mug into the living room and settling onto the sofa. Only, out of the corner of her, to see Elsianna standing in the doorway, wearing an oversized hoodie and pajama pants.

"I thought I heard someone." Deanna smiled softly. “Did I wake you?”
The young girl shook her head. "Couldn't sleep."
"Nightmare?"
"No."
"Thinking?"
"Yes." Elsianna nodded.

Deanna sighed, watching Elsa wander further into the living room it sit beside her mother. Neither spoke. The silence wasn't uncomfortable. It was common these days between the two of them.

"You almost made orange-pekoe again." Elsianna remarked, eyeing Deanna’s mug.

Deanna's head turned slowly. "You noticed?"
Elsianna smiled sadly. "I noticed months ago."

That surprised the redhead.

"You always buy it." the eldest Frost-child added. "And you always put the box in the same place. And you always throw it away unopened when it expires."

Another pause, Deanna unable to really explain her actions. The bad blood between Elsianna and Selena was more than known. And no matter what she tried, there just wasn’t-

"I miss her too." Her thoughts ran off the tracks at the whispered-confession from the young girl sitting beside her. "I don't mean the person she became. I miss... Mother."

It wouldn’t have made much sense to anyone else listening in, but Deanna understood perfectly. She was always ‘Mom’ or ‘Mama’ and Selena had always been ‘Mommy’ or ‘Mother’ to Elsianna. Like a person’s name, Elsianna had devised her own system that David and Amiliah inherited.

"I miss the woman who taught me to ride a bike.” Elsianna continued to admit. “The one who stayed up helping with science projects. The one who made pancakes shaped like dinosaurs even though they never looked like dinosaurs."

A tiny laugh escaped both of them. "They really didn't." Deanna shook her head. "They looked like blobs."

The laughter faded. "I hate what happened." Elsianna stated.
"So do I."
"I hate what she did to you."
"So do I."

"I hate that I don't know how to feel anymore." Her daughter breathed, eyeing Deanna. “What if this actually works?” she asked her mother. “What if you help her? Get her titles or whatever she needs... and nothing changes? Or it does and I... I never figure it out?"

"Then you don't." Deanna shrugged. "It's okay to love someone and still be hurt by them. It's okay to miss someone and still be angry. They aren't opposites. They’re... They're family."

It wasn’t really a solution, but Deanna couldn’t give one. Not when she felt those same emotions towards the platinum-blonde. Not when a million ‘what-ifs’ rampaged through her own mind and heart. Fortunately, it was enough for her daughter as the twelve chimes of midnight came from one of the older clocks in the corner (again, Selena’s tastes).

Elsianna yawned, resting her head against Deanna's shoulder – allowing the redhead to wrap an arm around her daughter. Within minutes, Elsianna was asleep, her light breathing sound in Deanna’s ear.

The older woman remained awake, looking toward the hallway leading upstairs:

Toward the bedroom.
Toward the empty side of the bed she now knew she'd been protecting all this time.
Then she looked down at her sleeping daughter...

And a smile found its way back.

Maybe the empty side of the bed wasn't the important part after all. Maybe what mattered was that the other side was never truly empty.

Not while her children still found their way to her. Not while this house continued to hold love within its walls.  Quietly, Deanna gently kissed the top of Elsianna's head. Then, without waking her, reached for the blanket folded over the back of the couch and pulled it over them both. The sofa would do.

And somewhere, between putting the mug of tea on a coaster on the table with her free arm and falling asleep beside her daughter, in a place she couldn't see, she allowed herself one quiet hope.

Not that Selena would come back tomorrow.
Not that everything would somehow be fixed.

Just... that when Selena finally stopped running...

She'd still remember the way back home.