Remember me? It's been a while, I know. In fact, I believe we're going on three years. Apologies. This is something that's been stewing for a while and this chapter finally came out. It's not complete, but I'd like to have some opinions before I continue. If enough people want to read more, I'll work on the next chapter.
For those of you following Finding: Faith-I have every intention on finishing this series. Please bear with me a bit longer.
I stopped to look at the candy bars stacked in the station's small convenience store, studying both the wrappers and the prices of each piece. It would be nice, I thought, to have a quick snack before our trip. I just happened to have enough coin to pay for a bar of chocolate for each of us. It could be a surprise for each of my siblings; Susan and Lu were bound to enjoy the gesture, in the least.
The platform bench I would be meeting my siblings at was just a five minutes away. Turning down a tunnel and making my way through the crowd, I began to search for the three most important people in my life. In my distraction I didn't notice a couple boys my age-or rather, my England age-coming closer until I had bumped into one of them and nearly tripped.
"Oi!" I stumbled back to my feet, regaining my balance. "What-"
"How dare you!" one of the other boys said, his face unbearably close to mine. "I saw you! That was your fault! You pushed him!"
"Me?" I asked, incredulously. I could feel my hands tingle, my fingers pulling themselves into tight fists. "I'll do no such thing! If your mate here had been watching where he was going, maybe he wouldn't have run into me in the first place!"
The boy who had bumped me was brushing off his shoulder as if I had personally assaulted him. He scowled at me as he straightened to his full height. "Say you're sorry!" he demanded, his voice low and dangerous. He was about two inches taller than me and had the advantage of several buddies on his side, but I was itching for a fight and knew I could take them.
There was no way I would even consider humbling myself to this ignorant prat. I didn't even dignify his words with a response.
I punched him in the face.
It was a rather satisfying punch. There was a small moment of stunned silence, not counting the boy now grabbing his nose and gasping for breath. His eyes had closed, but they quickly opened in a shocked, hateful glare, the pain from his now bleeding nose evident in the wrinkles around his eyes.
His friends first looked at him, confusion spreading across their faces for a moment. They turned their attention to me once their confusion had cleared and, as if they had practiced their technique before (later I realized they probably had) they jumped at me in unison.
They had fast and practiced blows, working in perfect harmony to corner me against the tunnel wall and drag me to the ground. I was immediately put on defense, blocking their fists and dodging their feet as much as possible for the first minute before I began to see openings in their attack and threw a few fists of my own.
It was exhilarating. I felt alive for the first time in months and I relished the rush of adrenaline that was bursting through my veins. I hadn't realized how much I missed this, fighting for power and control and the glory of victory. It had been a year since we left Narnia, a wait way too long for me to believe we would ever be going back. If I couldn't fight for Narnia, for Aslan, if I couldn't fight for a cause, I could at least fight to remember what it felt like, could bring back memories from long ago.
Memories were all we had left now, but even those were starting to fade.
I grabbed a hand that was aimed for my face and twisted it, trapping the boy with his arm behind his back before pushing him to the side into one of the others so that they fell onto the ground in a pile of limbs. Another two boys stalked toward me, one on each side, and I took several steps back as they both lunged simultaneously, taking a moment to watch as they ended up fighting each other and wondering at how simple it had been to do so.
A crowd had gathered, momentarily distracting me as I noticed the wall that had formed around the fight. Dark black hair grabbed my attention, and I stared into the disappointed eyes of my younger sister for only a moment before someone grabbed me from behind.
The hands grabbed my arms and pushed me toward the ground, an arm quickly wrapping around my neck and cutting off my windpipe, obviously in an attempt to weaken me so the boy could trap me against the floor. I jabbed my elbow backward and hit the boy who had a grip on my neck, causing him to fall backward with a choking sound. The hands holding on to my arms continued to push me forward. In a move of desperation I stomped my foot backward, blindly hoping that it would hit home and allow me to free myself from at least one of the boys. I missed, feeling my food hit hard against the unforgiving concrete floor but felt the weight lift off my back moments later anyway.
A whistle blew several times in a row as I spun around in shock, pulling my fist back and punching a boy coming at me from the side. I could see several blurs rolling on the ground but couldn't afford to give it much thought as I felt a fist strike me in the stomach, knocking the wind out of me.
Several loud, commanding voices joined those of the crowd surrounding the fight but I couldn't understand the words that were being said. A second blow to the back followed the one to my stomach, and I was soon pushed to the ground, my head over the edge of the platform as I felt two boys forcing me to stay down.
Suddenly I felt the weight of the two boys lifted off of me and a strong hand pulling me to my feet and pushing me firmly a few feet away.
"Stop it! Break it up! That's enough! Come on!" several men yelled, pulling some boys off of another who I could recognize by his pitch black hair. "Act your age!" one of the men yelled in my face. I glared at his back when he turned around, wishing I was still young enough to petulantly stick my tongue out at him.
Well, as long as I was in England...
I turned away, refusing to look at my brother or the two girls who had made their way through the receding crowd, instead choosing to walk several paces away and lean against the brick wall, closing my eyes as I caught my breath. I waited there for several minutes, intent on clearing my mind and calming myself down before I returned to my siblings.
Edmund was just placing some of our parcels on the ground next to the bench Susan and Lucy were sitting on when I came back. He slumped onto the bench next to Lucy and rubbed his shoulder briefly when he thought no one was looking.
"Your welcome," Edmund said.
"I had it sorted."
"What was it this time?" Susan sighed.
"He bumped me."
"So you hit him?" Lucy demanded.
"No. After he bumped me, they tried to make me apologize," I faltered before I finished my sentence. "That's when I hit him."
"Really, is it that hard just to walk away?" I could almost feel waves of disappointment rolling off of Susan.
"I shouldn't have to! I mean, don't you ever get tired of being treated like a kid?"
"Um, we are kids," Edmund said, loud enough for anyone nearby to hear.
"Well, I wasn't always," I grumbled. "It's been a year. How long does he expect us to wait?"
"I think it's time to accept that we live here," Susan said. "It's no use pretending any different."
Susan's words reminded me of my thoughts from earlier. They left a bitter taste, as if we were admitting defeat, surrendering to our fate here in England.
"Oh no," Susan said, turning her whole body to face us. "Pretend you're talking to me."
"We are talking to you," Edmund said. Susan merely glared at our brother.
That's when everything fell out of control.
"It feels like magic!" Lucy finally exclaimed after several minutes of confusion.
"Everybody hold hands," Susan ordered.
I reached over to Edmund to grab his hand, and he recoiled as if I had a dagger in my hand. "I'm not holding your hand!"
"Just..." I didn't finish my sentence, instead lurching closer to him and forcing him to take hold of my hand. The train station began to dissolve before our eyes, pieces of tile ceiling and brick walls falling away as wind blew around us.
I had been wrong to assume Aslan had forgotten us.
We were back home.
Right now, this is (obviously) movieverse and I intend to keep it that way. If the fight scene wasn't exact, please excuse me. I'm fairly certain about the dialogue (I memorized this scene, and a couple others) but, of course, do let me know if there's any glaring mistakes.
And tell me what you think!