[two: very Narnian looking]

Pavements move as a great river of humanity, the roads rivers of cars. These buildings that have seen the modern age pass, standing in silent witness, weathered rocks stretching toward blue sky. Here in the capital, in this canvas of life, the art of each face was something to truly savour.It was one nation in all  colours and faiths, all British under this spring sunshine, appreciating the golden daffodils who wave from beneath the trees. There is a pride many chests, for their country who fought various times to be one family, to choose love over hate and discrimination. For that was what the true heart of London was to all

A car horn suddenly blares and breaks squeal as a driver slams on his breaks to avoid hitting a young girl who was racing across the street, her hair platted in braides as she ran to find her older sister and brothers in the city of London that day. The young Lucy Pevensie had certainly grown in the last year, herself becoming remarkably taller as her hair now surpassed her shoulders unlike the short hairstyle she had before her adventures to Narnia a year ago. 

"Watch where you're going!"

"I‟m sorry." Lucy apologizes before she races across the street to find her sister before they headed towards the station to catch their train.

Likewise the now older Susan placed across the over side of the road reading a magazine, her hair placed in one simple braid as she ignored everyone around her in her introverted demeanor - unaware as a boy walked up to her carefully - his hands fidgety and clammy as he stared at the beautiful Pevensie girl who he had undoubtedly began to fancy. 

"You go to St. Finbars." The boy stated and Susan lifted her eyes to look at the boy with an awkward smile, uninterested in the conversation he was trying to start.

"That's right."

"I go to Hendon House across the road. I've seen you... sitting by yourself." The boy stated as he pointed to the school and Susan followed his gaze before sending the boy a tight lipped smile.

"Yes well, I prefer to be left alone." She insisted, hoping to get the hint across to the boy who only sent her a toothy smile in return.

"Me too!" He said and Susan immediately rolled her eyes as she refused to further the conversation, which only urged the boy to think again. "What's your name?"

"Phyllis." Susan lied swiftly and the boy was about to reply again before somebody spoke to her in the distance.

"Susan!" Lucy shouts as she finally reaches her sister, her breaths ragged due to the running she had done as she pants for a moment with her eyes still wide. "You'd better come quick!" 

Susan and Lucy run across the street towards the station with worried looks in their eyes as they look for their brothers around the outskirts. A stone lion stands outside the station and Lucy's eyes gaze upon it for a moment, the facial features reminding her of Aslan as she smiles slightly before venturing forward again with Susan who tightly grips the younger girls hands. Inside, a couple bullies are fighting Peter and Peter appeared to be losing. Lucy watches with a horrified expression whilst Susan just looked unamused, already used to the amount of fights Peter ended up in - most of which he managed to start himself due to his inflated ego. In the midst of it all,Edmund approaches the fight with a determined look on his face as he pushes through the crowd to help his brother and joins the fight.

"Edmund!" Lucy screams as Edmund hits one of the bullies who tries to latch onto the locket around Edmund's neck, which makes Edmund's blood boil with anger as he fights back one of the bullies and subsequently almost knocks him unconscious.

Nobody messes with his wife's locket.

However in the midst of it all, the crowd begins to disperse as the soldiers march through the station, their bodies broad and strict as they follow their Captain - who looks towards the fight and rolls his eyes before the soldiers break it up.

"Act your age!" One sneers towards Peter as he grips his shirt before dropping Peter to the ground and Lucy and Susan help him up before they walk across the platform towards a bench where Edmund sets down some luggage.

"You're welcome." Edmund remarks sarcastically as Peter sends him a glare as the four sit down.

"I had it sorted." Peter stated and the three siblings roll their eyes at the same old excuse, sick of Peter starting fights for no reason.

"What was it this time?" Susan asks as she meets her brothers eye.

"He bumped me." 

"So you hit him?" Lucy asks incredulously and Peter rolls his eyes snarkily as he shakes his head at his siblings.

"No. After he bumped me, he tried to get to apologize. That's when I hit him."

"Why can‟t you just walk away?"

"I shouldn't have to! Don't you ever get tired of being treated like a kid?" Peter asks heartily and Edmund just gives him a look.

"Uh, we are kids." He states profoundly and Peter just rolls his eyes once again - clearly a habit all Pevensie children had.

"Well I wasn't always..." He whispers softly It has been a year. How long does he expect us to wait?"

"Hopefully not much longer, I need to see her again." Edmund says as he fiddles with the locket around his neck which he refused to take off as it was her most prized possession - and he wasn't prepared to let her down again.

"Edmund she's still an adult remember, who knows if she's even alive still." Lucy whispers and Edmund's eyes snap up to hers incredulously as he shakes his head at his younger sister.

"Don't say that! She's alive! I know she is." Edmund says and there is a small pause between the four siblings for a moment, three thinking of their times in Narnia whilst the raven haired boy only thought of the wife he left behind. 

"I think it's time to accept the fact that we live here. It's no use pretending any different." Susan states simply as she looks up and rolls her eyes as notices the geeky boy approaching."Oh no. Pretend like you're talking to me."

"We are talking to you." Edmund states matter-of-factly and Susan only rolls her eyes as the geeky boy smiles at her again.

"Ow!" Lucy shouts as she jumps up from the bench, her hand immediately going to her side.

"Be quiet, Lucy."

"Something pinched me!" She accuses before Peter is the next to jump up, sending a glare to Edmund who looks at him in confusion.

"Hey, stop pulling!"

"I'm not touching you!" Edmund states with a disbelieving tone in his voice as he pulls his jacket back from whatever was trying to pull him.

"What is that?" Susan asks as a train starts moving past, the gust of wind surrounding it feeling so familiar to the four children who stare in bewilderment.

"It feels like magic." Lucy whispers as Susan quickly places down her luggage and extends her hands to her siblings.

"Quick, everybody hold hands."

"I'm not holding your hand!" Edmund states as he eyes Peter's hand, still angry from Peter not acknowledging his help earlier and Peter only rolls his eyes as he grabs Edmund's hand anyway as the train races past and the bricks surrounding the station are pulled away. 

The luggage, the seat, the platform, and the station completely vanish and the four children find themselves on a beach. They step out into the sunlight. The sand is softly golden with just the right comforting warmth. To rest on the beach feels like a cosy hug, one only matched by the sunshine filled sky. Susan and Lucy smile at each other, and run off as Peter and Edmund follow, the latter knowing they were in Narnia excited to see his wife again. They jump into the water and start playing. 

Then they heard a scream.

+++

"Genny?" A knock on the door interrupted Genevieve from her thoughts as she stood in front of a mirror, adjusting her hair as her sad eyes looked into the mirror and over her exterior - hating the fact that she looked beautiful. 

Ronald Lee walked hesitantly through the door dressed in a smart suit and tie, a sad smile on his face as he looked at his older cousin with worry. In the past year the two had become inseparable, as close as siblings as if they had know each other for much longer even though they hadn't. The young Ronald was only a year younger than Lucy which comforted Genevieve slightly as she didn't feel so alone anymore and yet Ronald shared many qualities that her son had back in Narnia - which made a brief smile alight on her face.

There were days Genevieve awoke and her memories weighed heavy, the sheer thought of whether she had made the right decision leaving Narnia and returning to England being a reoccurring nightmare that haunted her most nights as she remembered her son and the poor Narnian people - not knowing whether they were okay and safe in Cair Paravel or whether they were still alive and the very thought frightened her. Whilst many of the memories were happy, it seemed harder to remember the times she spent with the Pevensies as they held such emotional value to her as she remembered her good husband who she would always love and if the stars ensured they meet again, she would try to forgive - though the whole in her heart told her not too.

She would describe her sadness like death by a thousand paper cuts, for every time she remembered her loss it was another cut to her already damaged mind. None were enough to kill her, but overtime their accumulation bled her of the humanity she had once had. She once was gregarious and generous natured, now she was just gaunt and melancholy in a small body.

"Genevieve are you okay?" Ronald asked her again and Genevieve snapped out of her trance and just nodded as she sent a small smile to Ronald - who obviously knew it was fake. "You don't have to do this so I don't understand why you are."

"Ron sweetheart," Genevieve whispered as she walked over and sat in front of Ron and took his hands in hers as she gave him a pointed look. "When you get older there are some things that have to be done for the good of others and this just so happens to be one of them."

"But that wasn't your view when you were in Narnia." Ronald stated and Genevieve only shook her head whilst the younger boy looked at her in confusion. "You were so against betrothals there so why are you suddenly allowing this to happen in England?"

"The difference is Ron that in Narnia I was a free woman. I was able to do as I pleased and was ot being controlled by anybody." Genevieve said as she inhaled and exhaled deeply. "In England, things are a little different."

"How?"

"In England and most of our world, men are seen as superior to women. I can't do the same things here as I did in Narnia because the views on young women are different here. Fathers are able to dictate their daughters lives here Ronald." She whispered and Ron only looked to the floor sadly before meeting Genevieve's eye again.

"It's not fair."

"Sadly Ron life isn't always fair." She said solemnly as she tried to block out the memories that were trying to haunt her as she walked to the mirror again and smoothed down her pink dress again - the sounds of voices outside the door getting louder as the engagement party started downstairs.

"That mirror," Ron mumbled as he walked over to it and traced the outlines. "How long have you had it?"

"It was my mothers," she said as she watched him do so with a smile. "she said it always made her feel a long way away, an escape almost. It's very Narnian looking isn't it?"

"From what you described yes." Ronald stated happily as he looked at the silver lion incrested into the top. "I wish I could go to Narnia, can we go find that wardrobe?"

"Things never happen the same way twice Ron." Genevieve laughed as she looked in the mirror again, something catching her eye in the corner. Genevieve lifted her hand to the top corner of the mirror where the mirror was wearing out and brought a piece of paper out that was wedged into it.

"What does it say?"

"Sometimes the easiest escape is to take a step into you reflection." Genevieve read and furrowed her eyebrows slightly as she looked at her reflection for a moment before pressing her hand against the glass.

Suddenly the glass frame dispersed as her hand seemed to fully submerge itself past the glass itself, her body melting into the reflections passageway that opened up to the two only moments ago. Ron quickly took Genevieve's hand as he followed the older girl through the mirror - their reflections disappearing as the ventured forward into a dark cave that seemed endless except from the infinitesimal hole of light at the end of the tunnel.

"Genevieve, I'm scared." Ronald whispered as they walked through the dark cave, a small whimper in his voice as he clutched to the older girl.

"It's okay Ron, I'm here." The girl reassured her cousin as they walked out of the cave, a lot layer of warmth hitting the two as they walked into the sunlight.

They appeared to be on a beach.

A golden blanket outlines the silvery sea, creating the picture perfect image. The golden medallion of a sun was perched high in the sky, blazing like Titan's fiery wheel. The sun beat down on the calm ocean as a gust of wind forced itself past them.  The enclosed beach is silent. The celestial fireball blinding as they emerge, rising like a glowing medallion on the distant horizon. Topaz sunbursts of light smash against the calming blue of the ocean, lighting up the sea into cylinders of flax gold light. Crashing against the shore, small waves wash the night's debris onto the land. Untouched golden sand covers the floor as far as your eyes can see. Soothing, a gentle sea breeze rustles through Ronald's hair, messing it up but he didn't care as a smile formed on his features before he quickly poked Genevieve's side.

"Tag, you're it." Ronald screamed gleefully as he ran off in one direction, Genevieve running as she removed the heels of her shoes and looking up - seeing that Ronald wasn't in sight and she frowned.

"Ron!" She screamed as she sped off in the direction he went, hoping he wouldn't get lost in the Narnian lands she remembered too well. Suddenly she slowed as she spotted five figures in the distance and she stumbled back for a moment.

"Edmund." She whispered as her eyes locked with the brown orbs that stole her heart many moons ago. Her heart begged her to go forward but her feet refused to move as many emotions emerged in her stomach from happiness to sadness but most of all to anger as she dropped her shoes into the sand with a thud.

She wasn't ready to face him and forgive him yet.