𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 ━ edmund pevensie¹

Six

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𝕴 𝖉𝖔𝖓'𝖙 𝖐𝖓𝖔𝖜 𝖜𝖍𝖆𝖙
 𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖞 𝖆𝖗𝖊 𝖈𝖆𝖑𝖑𝖊𝖉, 𝖙𝖍𝖊
𝖘𝖕𝖆𝖈𝖊𝖘 𝖇𝖊𝖙𝖜𝖊𝖊𝖓 𝖘𝖊𝖈𝖔𝖓𝖉𝖘—
𝖇𝖚𝖙 𝕴 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖐 𝖔𝖋 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖆𝖑𝖜𝖆𝖞𝖘
 𝖎𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖘𝖊 𝖎𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖛𝖆𝖑𝖘.

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━━━━━━━１９９０

"IT'S ALMOST December, you know," Susan said over the phone. In the past year, Stephen had wired a telephone into the home in thanks for 'fixing' his daughter. The only drawback to that was now Cornelia spent quite a bit of time talking to the older woman on it.

"You don't have to remind me," she replied quietly, her gaze focused on the marble counter before her. Their phone was in the kitchen.

"I— I've been thinking that maybe we should go to Finchley this year. You're sixteen now and it's almost the fifty-year anniversary of the crash—"

"Su..."

"I know you still dream about him, Lia," she continued gently, "you haven't learned to live, even though I know you've been trying. This might help you to have... what do they call it?"

"Closure."

"Exactly. Maybe if you visit him—"

"I can't," Cornelia breathed into the receiver, the one word holding so much pain that it made Susan's heart hurt for her friend.

"The only outings you have are to go see the lions. Otherwise you just stay at home and study. You haven't spoken much about Maggie or Samuel and so I'm assuming that you aren't seeing them—"

"Writing's helped," she tried to argue.

"But it's also made it worse because you can't move on. I know you don't want to but moving on doesn't always mean forgetting. It just means being able to carry on past the hurt."

There was a pause before she whispered, "I'm scared, Su. I don't— I don't want to see his— his—" her throat caught on the word grave.

"You have to face reality eventually, Lia. Life is real. Death is real. You'll always experience it before you're ready, but you won't be alone. I won't let you go through this like I did."

"Promise?"

"Of course," Susan agreed firmly, "I didn't have anyone when they died and no one deserves that, least of all you. Afterwards we can go visit the house in Finchley or our old schools, if you'd like."

"I would," she said, almost shyly.

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December tenth came sooner than Cornelia could have thought possible. Her stomach was in knots as she sat next to Susan on the bus and her pointer finger ran continuously over her soulmate's name embedded on her skin.

"Su?"

"Mmm?"

"If Eddie's well— y'know. How come my soulmark isn't gone? Because if he is, then shouldn't I not have a soulmate?"

The older woman looked up from the magazine she had in her lap. While she hadn't been reading it, she hadn't wanted to travel on the bus with nothing. She studied the girl next to her with a soft gaze, "maybe it's got something to do with time," she suggested, "it's funny in— in you-know-where, so maybe it's not as linear here as people think it is."