Crossroads

Chapter 7. "No matter the world, I just hope I get to meet you."

Hey guys!!

Just a small chapter before the actual thing begins and so I don't keep you guys waiting any longer.

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Chapter 7. "No matter the world, I just hope I get to meet you."

During the following weeks, that little cafe just a few blocks away from their schools became their safe haven.

Going back to school was proving to be more difficult than either Edmund or Lucy could have imagined. They pretended otherwise but well, as we all know, healing is not a linear process. And their schools, just like every aspect of their lives, they were haunted. Haunted with the memories of their siblings. Haunted with the stellar performance of Susan in every academic aspect. Haunted with Peter and his radiant presence that demanded respect, even when not likeability.

Lucy and Edmund, they were quick to understand just how much in the shadows they had been when with their siblings.And still, they would have done everything to go back in the shadows, to have their siblings back. Yes, they had outshined them. Yes, they had thrived where they could only survive. Yes, they had been the oldest, amazing Pevensie siblings.

But they had also been their biggest cheerleaders. Lucy and Edmund had not gone a day without knowing what it was like to be supported without reserve. The Valiant and Just King had grown knowing that they were loved and that they were safe, because there was nothing the Gentle Queen or the Magnificent King wouldn't do for them.

Oh, how they wished for that back.

Because, now that that support was gone, there was hole in their lives, so big, so dark that it's pain was unparalleled.

Susan and Peter, until they met again, had been reduced to memories. Thousands of memories, scattered across thousands of moments in their lives. Memories that now filled their schools with even more melancholy. Memories that seemed even more intense because, when Susan and Peter made the choice to remain in Narnia, all memories of them were lost to the people who shared their lives in England.

Now, Susan and Peter were nothing but memories, memories only shared with Edmund and Lucy.

Now, the Pevensie Family had been shifted.

Father was Martin. Mother was Helen. Children were Edmund and Lucy.

To the world, that had always been the case.

Edmund and Lucy were not only haunted by memories, but also haunted by the fact that they and they alone were the keepers of their siblings. To the rest, they had never even existed.

So, the cafe became their sanctuary. A small, fickle, temporary sanctuary but a sanctuary in any case. It became the safe haven in which they could feel as the Queen and King away from Home, and not as the small children they had become once again. It became the place in which they could take those memories that haunted every single second of their lives and share them with the others. It became the place in which they could lay down their burdens for a second, take a deep breath, and carry on with their haunted lives for one more week.

On the third Saturday since their weekly meetings began, Lucy was already sitting on their usual table when Edmund came rushing through the door. She didn't look up from her hot chocolate as her brother reached her and, when he finally sat on his chair with an ungraceful squeak, Lucy could only shrug her shoulder as she shot her brother a small smile. "Anne has been working her wonders again. I just need a second to shake it off."

Edmund's worried frown quickly turned into an angry glare. "I'm done with this. If she doesn't cut it out, I'm going myself to that horrid school to set the little weasel straight before she gets any other ideas."