Silence || The Chronicles Of Narnia

19: You're hiding something

Edmund groaned slightly as he woke, blinking in the light and forcing back a scream at the pain.

It took a moment, but Edmund eventually managed to sit up and lean against the wall, taking deep breaths and rubbing at his eyes.

He realised after a while that he couldn't of been unconscious for long, perhaps not even five minutes, because there was no one knocking on the door and stood outside shouting for him... but he knew there was only a matter of time before Peter would find him.

So pushing passed the dizziness, he stood and slipped off his tunic, ridding himself of the chain mail before grabbing the same flannel as before and wetting it.

Biting down hard on his lip to stop himself from screaming, he wiped away the blood that had coated his stomach, before frowning.

The wound had obviously had to have opened up a fair way, for him to be in that amount of pain and for him to bleed that much, which is why he was confused when he saw it had more or less healed itself.

He thought on this for a moment, before sighing. Jadis wanted him alive for when it reopened fully, so if the wound just kept opening, and was bleeding all the time, he was sure to die of blood loss before the witch wanted him to.

Sighing a little he flinched. The wound may of almost closed over again, but it was still much too painful for his liking, and he was wondering just how he was going to keep the pain from Peter, from all of his siblings.

But the most important thing right now, was how he was going to explain his running off.

Guilt hit him like a ton of bricks at the thought of how much he'd probably just worried Peter.

He'd heard the panick in his older brothers voice when he'd called his name, and winced at the very fact.

But after a moment he reminded himself that as much as he hated lying and hiding the truth, he couldn't let on what was happening, not if he wanted his siblings to survive.

Shaking away his thoughts for the moment, he hurriedly found some place that Peter would never find to hide his blood soaked tunic, as well as the now dark red cloth.

He'd hide them there until Peter was asleep tonight, and then get rid of them before anyone found them.

He had only just finished hiding them when he heard the bedroom door burst open, crashing against the wall beside it. "Edmund?"

Edmund swallowed hard at the sheer panick in his brothers voice, and lowered his head, only for it to snap back up again when Peter began hammering on the bathroom door. "Edmund if you're in there open this door right now!" He demanded.

Edmund took a deep breath and slowly walked across the bathroom, unlocking the door and opening it, coming face to face with a distraught looking Peter.

Peter relaxed considerably at the sight of his brother, and reached out for the door frame to steady himself. "Oh thank Aslan." He muttered to himself, before: "What an earth was that all about!" He cried, his voice cracking.

Edmund stared at him for a moment. "I - I threw up." He choked. "I'm sorry."

"You threw up?" Peter questioned. "So you felt the need to frighten the life out of me by running away, sobbing and crying, past a now terrified Lucy, and up the long way to our room, I thought you'd gone to the library! I was searching in there for at least two minutes!"

Edmund swallowed hard and lowered his gaze to the floor, knowing Peter was gonna want an answer, and so he had to come up with one fast. "I'm really sorry Peter." He whispered. "I don't know what happened, I just knew I was gonna be sick. I - I couldn't breathe much either, and I couldn't think straight because of it. I didn't even realise I'd ran the long way until I reached the room. I - I really am sorry I scared you, and Lucy."

Peter stared at him for almost a minute before he somewhat calmed down. "You don't need to apologise Ed." He whispered. "It's not your fault."

Edmund gave him a small smile but didn't say anything.

"Why - Why an earth did you throw up?" Peter asked, leading them both over to sit on the edge of his bed. "You were absolutely fine earlier."

"I - I don't think breakfast agreed with me." Edmund choked, finding himself wanting to scream that he'd never thrown up and had instead passed out from pain, but he clamped his mouth shut.

"But - you have that almost every morning." Peter mumbled.

"To be honest," Edmund said, and this certainly was the truth. "Eating lately hasn't been agreeing with me."

Peter sighed sadly. "Are - Are you sure you told me everything that happened in the witches castle Ed?" He whispered.

Edmund's heart pounded as he slowly nodded his head. "Yeah." He murmured.

Peter frowned. "Ed you're hiding something." He said slowly.

Edmund felt like panicking, and quickly came up with the first excuse that came to his head. "She cast a temporary spell on me." He blurted out.

Peter's heart skipped a beat. "What?" He whispered.

Edmund swallowed hard. "The spell makes me tired all the time, makes me not being able to breathe all the more likely." He said. "It also makes everything ache, that's why I've been flinching so much, she did nothing to my arm, I lied, I didn't want to scare you. But It'll only last a week or two though, I'll be fine in no time."

Peter blinked at his brother before taking a deep breath. "Oh Ed." He whispered. "You should've told me sooner."

And with that he pulled his brother into his arms, placing a kiss to the top of his head. "We'll get through these two weeks together alright?" He mumbled. "I promise you'll be alright."

Edmund nodded. "I know I will." He sighed. "It's not bad anyway, promise."

But it was bad, so, so bad.

He wanted to scream, wanted to cry into Peter's shoulder, wanted to curl up into a ball and disappear.

But he couldn't do that, and he couldn't make the pain go away, so instead, he would just have to suffer in silence.

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