Kings & Saints ➢ Peter Pevensie [3]

Chapter XXV - The Haunting

"Peter." I barely managed. Expelling water again. "Peter!"

My eyesight found the personnel that surrounded me. All started at me with wide eyes and no movement. No action.

"Get Peter now or I will justify your lack of action with death at my own hand," I screamed now. My hands ignited into a flame I did not intend. I was long past caring. Three medics ran out the doors and two more ran to Edmund's side checking his pulse. They confirmed it was present and I fell back onto the ground. Closing my eyes and trying to comprehend what had taken place.

I heard several footsteps flood into the room and when I opened my eyes, Peter was beside me. "Tash, I thought you were dead." He sighed, putting my wet body into his. I felt helplessly dizzy and wasn't entirely sure of my surroundings.

"Edmund- He- I don't know."

He kissed my forehand, holding me in his arms when I realized we were both shaking.

Edmund's body switched to the left of us, altering everyone in the room. My voice was so soft I didn't even recognize it. "Edmund?"

"Edmund." Peter reached for his hands, but he jumped away. Peter reaches harder now, grabbing his hands and holding him there despite his attempts to get away. "Feel my grasp. Ground yourself. You are here and you are safe."

"No, no, no." He tried to pull away again, pushing aggressively against the ground and Peter.

"It was a dream. A hallucination. It wasn't real." Peter declares thoroughly, keeping Edmund in line of sight. "You are here."

"It wasn't a dream." Edmund winced.

"Yes, it was-"

"No, it wasn't!" Peter lost his control this time, the sudden aggression scaring him into defense. Edmund scrambled backward, knocking into a table, "It wasn't a fucking dream."

His eyes ran wild, jumping between the medics surrounding us to the guards that flanked Peter before returning to his brother.

"She was dead! Gone! No breath, no heartbeat, nothing! I felt your fucking pulse myself." He braced himself on the table, hanging his head and blinking away the flashback. "Possessed by the one person I could never defeat."

That's when little things started to make sense. I'd gone into the water and emerged. The similarities I'd noticed in the mirror were on full display with my hair slicked back. I'd not been lucky enough to inherit my father's features. I was a spitting image of the villain of the past. Someone we both hated to recognize.

My screams for help from the nurses for guards were ignored because their King was taking action. They all stood around, unsure of how to handle the King properly. Even if they wished to end my suffering, duty had stunned them. They were sworn to him and his safety. Sworn to never act against him or his motives. In life and death, for better or for worse.

"Now you're back and I still can't heal from your death." His eyes found me now, broken and hurting. "Everyone else is fine! Better than fine! Celebratory even. Battles I can only repetitively lose."

"You are not alone, Ed." Peter tried to ease his pain but it was overflowing.

He pushed away from him, giving me a disbelieving look.

"Lucy found Theo against all odds. Ashton came back to life for you. The only thing that came back to me was nightmares of her dying over and over again." He pointed at me, a type of rage coating his despair. His eyes locked on mine, "Even you came out of the other side with less damage."

It struck my heart in the most tender part. He seemed to regret the words instantaneously. Words he spoke too quickly and with too much emotion. Part of him believes it truth, or he might not have ever thought about it at all. I had assumed he knew the recent breaking of my heart but I'd only spoken the words out loud once to Peter. It was entirely possible he didn't know.

"Edmund." I shallowed, adjusting the words in my mind before spitting them out. "I can't have kids. Not now, not ever."

"What?" His astonishment took over, glancing between Peter and me. The hardening of Peter's gaze must have told him all he needed to know.

"Side effect of dying." I finished, using the side of the ice bath to haul myself off the ground.

Edmund stuck to the silence, a new kind of crisis overtaking him. I could not stay to watch. I needed space. Space from him and all those who would have let me die in such a terrible way.

I turned to leave, Peter rushing to my side to help me back to our rooms. The battle was to come in mere hours, yet we can barely escape each other. Perhaps I'd been overconfident in Narnia's fight for freedom.

I didn't speak one word for the rest of the night, crawling into bed, wet clothes and all. Peter tried to get me to speak but I had nothing to say of value. Peter had clearly seen his side of Edmund before, never warned me about it.

A familiar feeling snuck into my bones. Those dead are supposed to stay dead. And I couldn't fight off the feeling that I no longer belonged in Narnia. I was out of my time, out of my era. I fear I am living on borrowed time. My heart could very well give out at any moment.

The only person I wished to speak to was Allie, who'd been dead and buried for more years than I could count. Allie would provide unmatched advice in this situation. And if I had a choice of another companion, Allie's father would be next in line. I spent too much time ignoring, snarling, and annoying Robin to take any of his advice to heart.

The Hood's were pieces of history but still lived in the hearts and minds of those in power, making them something greater than Saints. Legends and lessons to be learned.

╣╠

PSTD. Because this is a healthy reminder that all the Pevensies and Ashton were CHILDREN. I aged them up for my retelling of the books but in the original series, Peter was only THIRTEEN. Lucy was EIGHT. They were all babies in war and were all likely traumatized. EDMUND WAS TORTURED, ENSLAVED, AND SOLD BACK TO HIS FAMILY FOR THE WAR EFFORTS. 

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