"I'm back, I'm back! It's alright!" Lucy called out as she ran through the hallways looking for her brothers and sister. 

     "Shh! He's coming!" Edmund hissed, glaring at his sister from his hiding place. 

   Lucy looked at him, confused. 

      A few moments later, Peter appeared. He looked first at Edmund then Lucy, surprise and amusement written all over his face. 

   "You know, I don't think the two of you have quite gotten the idea of this game!" Peter said. 

  Edmund sighed and stepped out of his hiding spot, giving Lucy a look of annoyance. 

     "But, weren't you wondering where I was?" Lucy asked, puzzled why her brothers weren't panicking or worried that she had disappeared. 

    "That's the point! That's why he was seeking you!" Edmund exclaimed, turning to his sister, frustration clearly seen and heard. He sounded like he was scolding and explaining something to a four year old, instead of his sister who was only a year younger than he was. 

     Susan suddenly appeared behind Peter.

  "Does this mean I win?" She asked, a smile on her face. 

      "No, it means I win!" Elizabeth grinned appearing suddenly, "what on earth is going on here?" 

   "You're guess is as good as mine!" Edmund exclaimed, "First she wants to play hide and seek, the next she comes running down the hallway saying she's back and questioning us if we were wondering where she was!"

    "Back? Back from where?" Elizabeth looked puzzled. She turned to her sister. "Lucy, we've just started playing this game so we can get rid of Susan's boring word game, what do you mean you're back?" 

    "But I've been gone for hours!" Lucy exclaimed, looking terribly confused.

  Elizabeth and Edmund shared a look. 

     "Is she loony or what?" Edmund rolled his eyes. 

   "Ed!" Elizabeth chastised him. 

  "I don't think Lucy wants to play anymore," Peter said slowly, looking towards Susan.

      "Come on! I'll show you," Lucy grabbed Peter's hand and started to drag him off. 

   The others, puzzled as to what was going on, followed.

       "I was looking for a hiding spot, and so I went into this empty room. Only, it wasn't that empty since there was a huge wardrobe inside it. Well, I went in it to hide, and I backed into a wood!" Lucy explained in a rush.

    Elizabeth was slowly starting to wonder whether Edmund was right. Made her sister had completely lost it. 

     "And it was snowing, I met a faun, we had tea together, and I've really been gone for hours!" Lucy insisted, as she stopped right in front of the said wardrobe. 

     "Should we get a mind doctor?" Edmund gave his sister a side glance.  

   "You mean a physiatrist, but still, no. And be nice!" Elizabeth playfully glared at him. 

   "Here! Take a look yourselves," Lucy threw back the door and motioned for them to go in. 

  Susan looked at Peter before she hesitantly stepped into the wardrobe. She moved aside all the coats. She felt that back of the wardrobe, to see if there was anything there. But... nothing. 

   Edmund went round and started tapping at the wood to see if there was a false back. He looked at Elizabeth and shrugged. 

   "The only wood in here is the back of the wardrobe," Susan stepped out again, looking down at Lucy. 

    "One game at a time, Lu, we don't all have your imagination," Peter said gently.

  "But I wasn't imagining!" Lucy looked upset and confused. She was certain she hadn't dreamed, and she couldn't understand why it wasn't there anymore.

   "That's enough," Susan said, trying to grab the situation before it spiralled out of control. To Elizabeth, and she could feel that Edmund felt the same, Susan sounded like a grown up. 

   "Lu, you must have imagined it, there is nothing there. And anyway, it might have felt like hours to you, hiding in the wardrobe, but it was barely a minute into the game," Elizabeth placed a hand on her younger sister's shoulder, but she shrugged it away. Susan was already by the door and Peter was just about to follow her. 

     "Well I believe you."

   Everyone turned to look at Edmund. 

      Elizabeth raised on eyebrow. "What are you playing at?" She tilted her head. 

   "You do?" Lucy looked at him, a glimmer of hope in her eyes. 

  "You do?" Elizabeth copied her, not quite believing her brother at the moment. 

     "Yeah, didn't a tell you about the football field in the bathroom cupboards?" Edmund smirked. 

   Elizabeth couldn't help herself and she had to hide her giggles as coughs and sneezes. 

 "Edmund!" Elizabeth looked at him, mirth written all over her face. 

     He grinned at her. 

   Lucy looked crushed. She looked down at her feet, clearly upset that no one was taking her seriously. And Peter noticed. 

      "Will you just stop?" Peter reprimanded his brother, giving him an annoyed look, "You just have to make everything worse, don't you!" 

   "It was just a joke!" Edmund snapped, quickly becoming defensive, a scowl quickly spreading across his face, faster than lightning. His brother took a couple of steps towards him.

    "When will you learn to grow up?" Peter shook his head at him, anger and annoyance all over his face. 

    "Shut up! You think you're dad, but you're not!" Edmund yelled into his brother's face before he stormed off, shoving past Susan and disappeared down the hallway. 

     "Edmund?!" Elizabeth called after him, worry quickly replacing her amusment. 

   "Well that was nicely handled!" Susan said sarcastically, giving Peter a look before she too disappeared down the hallway. 

    "What was that for?" Elizabeth angrily asked her brother, turning on him with a look of rage. 

  "What do you mean? And why are you angry at me? Edmund took it too far!" Peter defended himself.

     "He was only joking, and you had to reprimand him as if he's a little kid. And you acting like dad isn't helping!" Elizabeth snapped. 

     "So you're blaming me for him walking out?" Peter looked mad. 

  "Yes I'm blaming you! Do you see anyone else in this room called Peter? You know Ed misses dad so much since he left for the war," Elizabeth looked down at the floorboards before looking up again, "Why can't you just ease up on Ed? It's bad enough there's a war going on at the moment and we've had to leave home, there is no need for the two of you to start a mini world war three! You both used to be inseparable, and then... I don't know what happened." And with that, she stormed off in search of her brother. 

   She tried their bedroom first, then the living room, the kitchen, but still no sign of him.

 "Ed? Eddie where are you?" Elizabeth poked her head into another room before shutting the door again after seeing a room covered in dust sheets. 

   "Miss Pevensie, what are you doing?" Mrs Macready suddenly appeared out of thin air. 

  "I was looking for my twin brother, Edmund. He got into a small argument with Peter and then he ran off," Elizabeth explained. 

    Mrs Macready's stern gaze softened a little bit. "I think I saw him dash outside, though what has possessed him to go in the pouring rain is besides me. He'll catch a cold. You go find him, and I'll make you both hot chocolate to drink when you come back," She said, patting Elizabeth's shoulder before walking off. 

   'In the rain? What is he thinking!' Elizabeth dashed back to their room, grabbed her coat and Edmund's one, and ran outside. 

     How was she supposed to find him? The estate was huge! 

  "Edmund?! Edmund where are you?" Elizabeth yelled over the sound of the rain. 

      She tried communicating by telepathy, but got no answer. 

   She tried not to panic, knowing that she had taught her brother to block his mind if he wanted to keep her out, but he had never done so, until today. 

    "Ed!" Elizabeth screamed, running around. 

  After running around for goodness knows how long, she finally found him sitting, soaked to the skin, leaning against a tree by the lake. 

     "Eddie?" She whispered, tentatively. She approached him slowly, not wanting to anger him. 

   Elizabeth carefully sat down next to him, as close as she could without annoying him. 

       "Did Peter send you, oh wait no, he doesn't care about me. Susan? No, she's too stuck up. Lucy? No, she probably hates me," Edmund's voice dripped with sarcasm. 

    Elizabeth stayed quiet. He was right. None of them sent her, she came to look for him on her own will. 

     "Why does Peter have to be such a jerk?" Edmund mumbled, glaring into the distance. 

   "I don't know. He's probably stressed, trying to look after us all," Elizabeth gave her thoughts. 

       Edmund just scoffed. 

    "Want to see something new?" I looked at him, waiting for a response.

  There was nothing, until he slowly turned to look at me curiously. "What is it?" 

      Elizabeth brought her hands together and began making swirling motion. Soon enough, a misty barrier appeared, shielding them from the rain.

     Edmund grinned. "Cool!"

  Elizabeth smiled. "Come on, Ed, let's go back inside."

💛

This chapter was pretty much done, so I tweaked a few things and decided to post it!

SURPRISE!!!

Clara x