Chapter 1: I'm Not Alright

An ominous buzzing noise filled the air of the streets in Finchely, England before the sound of air raid siren blared, sending the citizens below into panic. A squadron of German bombers tore through the clouds above the city, out of sight.

In a middle class house, Susan Pevensie, a girl of fifteen years, grabbed a flashlight and a book off of a shelf next to her bed before rushing down the stairs with her younger sister, Lucy. Her two brothers, Edmund and peter, scrambled down the stairs in front of them, Peter shoving Edmund forward as they went. They raced out of the house and into the cold night air, Lucy and Susan in their nightclothes, while their mother waved them urgently towards the bomb shelter. Edmund skidded to a stop.

"Dad!" The dark haired boy yelled, mostly to himself. He broke his brother's hold and made a mad dash back to the house without a backwards glance.

"Edmund! No!" Helen Pevensie screamed after her youngest son as her two daughters pulled her in to the bomb shelter. She gave a pleading look to her eldest who glanced back at their house hesitantly. He then steeled himself before breaking off in a sprint towards the house to catch his brother before he got himself into more trouble. Or worse.

Edmund scrambled into the sitting room and snatched a framed photo off of the mantle. It was of a man in an RAF uniform. He stopped for a moment to listen to the anti-aircraft guns that were pounding outside. He walked slowly and absentmindedly over to the window. He stared in awe as flame shot from one of the bombers and it wobbled in the air. He watched the burning plane as it plunged out of the air until he realized that it was coming straight towards him. He stood frozen as the plane smashed like a gigantic fireball into the building directly across the street.

"Edmund!" Peter yelled, snapping his brother back to life. Edmund looked at his blonde-haired brother just in time to be plowed into and knocked to the ground. In the next second, glass rained down over them. The photo flew from Edmund's hand as they hit the ground and smashed on the floor, the glass shattering. He sent a seething glare at his older brother as he scooped up the frame and they both ran towards the shelter in the back yard.

As soon as they were both safely inside of the shelter, Peter slammed the door shut. He shoved his brother on to one of the small cots that were placed around the single room and sent a glare that could have melted ice Edmund's way. Susan and Lucy stared at Edmund with wide eyes, and his mother pulled him close while Peter ranted and raved about how he could have gotten them both killed. He looked at the crumpled photograph in his hands and tears welled up in his eyes. He had one thought on his mind at the moment. This is the worst day ever.

He didn't know it at the time, but there was a girl in another place, in another time, that he would soon meet. She would be thinking the exact same thing not too far into her future, and they wouldn't realize it at first, but they would come to rely on each other to stay alive.

Ariana Knight stared out of her bedroom window, a troubled expression on her face. Her normally bright green eyes had lost their shine, and instead bore a stormy look, much like the clouds looming outside of her house. Her lips were mashed into a thin line, which could mean one of two things. She was either extremely mad, or trying to hold herself together. In this occasion, it had been the latter.

If one had looked closely at her eyes, they would have seen the tears starting to form there. They would have also seen the determination there to keep them from spilling over. At fourteen, she had made up her mind that she wasn't going to break. Not anymore. She'd seen enough in her short lifetime to know that the world was a frightening place, and if you weren't strong enough, then you'd get eaten alive.

She thought about the grave that was in the cemetery down the street, and why the body in it was rotting there today. A life was cut short because some joker in a suit thought that he owned the place. It had torn her family apart, but held them together at the same time. Her eldest brother was the first of their family to leave the world, protecting her sister. The bullet passed through his skull like it was nothing more than a piece of paper. She could still hear her mother's sobs, her dad's screams of rage, and the choking sound in her own throat as she realized the gun was pointed at her next. The only reason she was still alive was because her dad decided to be a hero and plow straight into the guy.

Life had never been the same. Her mother was just going through the motions, no matter how much she denied it. Justin and Marcus, her two remaining brothers, were practically broken beyond repair. Kaitlin was too little at the time of the event to remember much about it. She didn't understand what was going on. As for Ari, she was just thankful she was alive, but the demons that haunted her at night would never go away. Her dad on the other hand seemed to act like nothing had happened at all. He would go out on his tractor to plow the fields before it was time to plant, pretending that it wasn't Devin's job before he was gone.

Breaking her vow to herself, a tear slipped down Ari's unnaturally pale cheek. She took a shuddering breath before she steeled herself, the tear already forgotten. She grabbed her coat, bag, and the pocket knife that she carried everywhere with her. She quietly made her way down the stairs to the back door that was rarely used. She opened it, wincing when it made a creaking noise. The rain pelted her face as she began walking towards the woods at the back of their property. Her feet sloshed through the wet Georgia mud, but she didn't mind. Most girls would freak if even a small bit of mud or clay got on their clothes, but Ari wasn't a city girl. She was a third-generation farm girl.

She often came out to the woods when she needed time to think. It was like a second home to her. She walked down the path through the woods, not caring that she really couldn't see where she was going. She knew all the tricks to surviving in the woods so it wouldn't really matter if she got lost for a day or two. She'd eventually find her way back to the house and everything would be fine. No damage done. It wasn't unusual for her to disappear into the forest for a couple of days at a time. So she wasn't too worried about what her parents would think when she didn't come down for breakfast the next morning.

She pulled her coat closer around her as the rain soaked her through. She shivered and rubbed her arms. Was it getting colder? She shook her head and kept walking. The tree house that she had in the woods shouldn't be too far ahead. She closed her eyes, which wasn't too smart, and walked on. Her feet slipped out from under her and she hit the ground with a thud. Her head ached. She put a hand up to the spot where it hurt the most and pulled it away, seeing red. The world was spinning as she lay there on the wet ground. Her vision went blurry and the last thing that she saw before the world went completely black to her was the little flurries of snow falling from the sky.

Author's note:

Well, hey guys. It's been a while. Hehe... After many requests of my friends who have read this new version (Or what I have typed of it...) I have decided to post it. This is probably my best version of this story that I have ever done, and it actually makes a whole lot more sense than the previous versions. I started it a while back, just to see where it would go if I rewrote it. I wasn't actually planning on ever posting it up here.

I might as well come straight out and tell you guys, the main reason that you haven't really seen me post any new fics or updates for any of my already published works is because I have been battling some pretty severe depression. In my case, I didn't want to admit it, but it was still there. But I've moved past it now, and I can get on with my life. I'm an adult, and I should act like one.

Now, this is for you guys. It's for the reviewers who stuck by me through thick and thin. Don't expect too much out of me, since I've still got a lot going on, such as various medical problems that I need to sort through. But, seeing as this story is nearly completed already (seeing as I've been gradually working on it for quite some time now), I might as well start posting on it. Who knows? Maybe having you guys review and tell me what you think will get my drive going and I'll start writing completely new works again!

I hope you enjoyed it. I've written pretty much the entire story up until the battle. I'm working on that, slowly but surely. I plan on completing this story, and actually having a close. So, I hope you guys will stick with me this time. :)

I just had to throw in my signature 'leave a smiley if you liked it!' at the end. So there it is!