A/N: I've been fighting myself with this little chapter for quite sometime. Now that I've been forced to start everything over, I've decided it wouldn't kill me to put this here. Anyone who recognizes this story for what it was will know what I'm talking about. If you're new, then don't worry about it.
A little history lesson: After I finished reading the Final Battle, and found out that everyone but Susan had died, and the Pevensies had gone to True Narnia, I began thinking about Susan and the effects this had on her and the families of the others who'd died. (i.e. Eustace's Parents and Jill's.) Then I began to tie it in with this story, and the result of the mix intrigued me, to say the least. So therefore, I'm putting this up, as a sort of prologue to the original story. Review and tell me what you think, 'kay!
Werewolf of Suburbia.
Susan stared blankly at her reflection in the mirror. The pale, drawn figure staring back at her looked nothing like her. There were bags under her eyes from the lack of sleep, something she hadn't been able to do since getting word of the accident. She was losing weight too, unable to eat properly, but she couldn't bring herself to care. Not really. How could she possibly care about staying healthy when her entire family had been taken from her with just one accident? Just one BOOM! and they were gone. She could snap her fingers faster then that. And yet, it had taken her entire family from her.
Today was their funerals. They were combining funerals, so that her parents and brothers and sisters were together, followed shortly thereafter by Eustace and his girlfriend and the Professor and his. Two funerals for 10 people. 5 at each, one right after another. It was horrible. And it was today. Today, the anniversary of their first time together in Narnia. Their first time together, Susan and her sister Lucy and her brothers Peter and Edmund. When they first met her adopted sister Amber.
Sure, Susan gave off the attitude of thinking Narnia some silly child game, but she still remembered. Aslan, the White Witch, being Queen Susan the Gentle, Rabadash, the whole thing. It wasn't hard to remember, to believe in the magic, not when her adopted sister transformed into a fully grown wolf every full moon.
Susan nearly lost it—again—when she thought of her siblings. Of their last thought of her, and how they thought her having abandoned Narnia for grown-up things. Of parties, make-up and all such things. No more Narnia, no more childish games of pretend. And that's the last impression she had had on them. And now they were dead. Dead and gone, and not coming back, and she wouldn't get a chance to prove that she had not abandoned Narnia, had not stopped believing. How can she, when they were dead?
The first funeral was starting soon. Everyone was milling about and talking in hushed whispers as they waited for the priest to show up. Many had come to see her and give their condolences. Susan had paid them no mind whatsoever. She was on automatic, barely even acknowledging what was happening around her.
She was to give a eulogy for her family. All 5 of them. She was barely functioning, and she was expected to get up and talk to a bunch of people she barely knew, seeing as most of the guests were friends of her parents. Susan had no clue what she was going to do, or even if she could do it. She was barely able to stand here and wait for a pastor to say a few words.
The coffins were laid out for public viewing, but they were closed. Susan's request, as she had to see the bodies to identify some of them. The only one the train accident had been kind to was Amber, and Susan expected that to have something to do with her werewolf abilities and the magic she had from living in and later seeing Narnia so much.
They were beautiful coffins, her siblings'. Her parents had pre-paid for them ages ago, when they had all been little. Later, they had each gone and added to the original, after their adventures in Narnia. Amber had been bought her own coffin upon being adopted into the Pevensie family, and had gotten the choice of what hers looked like. Her parents had gotten simple white oak coffins for themselves. White, like the Witch and her everlasting winter.
Peter had chosen a beautiful maple coffin, with brass finish. Painting it himself a golden color, Peter had added several carvings after Narnia. A beautiful crown made of thistles and twigs was carved in the side, next to it a beautiful throne. His crown and throne at Cair Paravel. Is sword and shield were also on there, on the other side. And on the back, where the heads go in those sorts of things, a depiction of a young Peter fighting a tall and unearthly beautiful women, twice his age, his sword versus her staff. And on the front, where the feet were always placed, a carving of a grand and magnificent lion with kind eyes that made you want to smile and feel happy, despite the sad occasion. The lion was the same on the others. Same lion, same place. Only the carvings themselves differed some, made by Susan's siblings themselves.
Edmund had also added carvings. At his head, was a depiction of a young him, sitting with the same women Peter was battling in his, (in his own carving style) on a sledge pulled by several white reindeer and driven by a weird little dwarf. He was enjoying some sweet (Turkish Delights, Susan knew), while she told of something grand, given her posture. On the sides were his crown and throne, both but a bit tarnished, and opposite that, a vial of liquid that made hot chocolate and Turkish Delights from the snow. His was pine, colored bronze and had a gleaming sliver finish.
Lucy, dear, sweet, simple Lucy, had chosen with her crown and throne a vial of liquid quite dissimilar to Edmund's, that healedall of one's wounds. Along with that was her handkerchief, one that was very important in the grand scheme of things. Her headboard depicted her first meeting with a Faun, one Susan knew well was Mr. Tumnus, with his packages scattered about on the snow and in his arms. Hers was cherry wood, colored the beautiful green of the ocean at Cair Paravel, and had a gold finish.
Amber's was, quite appropriately, dogwood, and colored a beautiful pastel pink. Amber had always enjoyed pink, and it was always her color. It had a emerald finish, and encrusted with the same, this time real ones. She did not have a crown and throne, for she had never been Queen in Narnia, though she was treated like one and seen almost as good as one. Susan and her siblings had always allowed her to have a say in their decisions, so that she ruled just about as much as they did.
Hers held instead a Full Moon and a beautiful Snow Leopard. On the opposite was collar and attached to it was a leash. And next to it was a face portrait of the women on the boys' coffins (Which Susan knew as the White Witch), leering and with eyes full of hate and anger. Amber's depiction was of a howling wolf, streaking under the full moon, looking free and utterly happy.
As the pastor said his thing and introduced Susan to read the eulogy, Susan looked on these carvings with great sorrow and grief. The carvings that had defined her siblings during their times in Narnia. Their times as some of the best rulers of Narnia, and of who Amber had to become in order to survive. Susan couldn't stop the tears now.
"Thank you." she started to the polite applause. "I guess there's nothing to say. And yet, there's everything to say. They were my family. They were also my friends. My parents, who were always there for me when I needed them. But it was my brothers and sisters that are the true heroes for me. When the war came, and we were sent to the country side, my parents weren't there. Sure I don't blame them, but the fact of the matter is they left me. Left us."
"Living with the professor was okay. Then it got to be rainy and wet, leaving us bored to tears. So, we played together, my siblings and I, and a grand game we had too."Susan inwardly begged Aslan to forgive her for passing him off as fantasy, for passing off all their grand adventures in Narnia as make-believe.
"Such was the game that Peter and the others went on believing, even after I had given it up. We discovered Amber this way, and discovered a part of life we hadn't before. It is why these carvings are so significant, to them and to me."
"Peter was a hero in our story, fighting a brave battle against evil, in the form of a witch. He became High King of a fairy tale land known as Narnia, and was one of its greatest rulers, along with Edmund, Lucy and I. We met Father Christmas in Narnia, for the Witch made it always winter but never Christmas, and her power was weakening. He gave Peter his sword and shield, and Peter used that sword to become knighted by the good side's leader, a lion named Aslan. He was knighted 'Sir Peter, Wolf's Bane.' He was knighted after a brave battle with the Witch's wolves. A battle he willingly fought to protect Lucy and me. He became High King, and was known as King Peter the Magnificent."
"Edmund had been so withdrawn from us that year. And it showed in our game when he followed Lucy to Narnia and met up with the Witch. She gave him Turkish Delights, making them with magic drops from her snow, and he was going to betray us all to her. He became King Edmund the Just after he redeemed himself and came back to us."
"Lucy…what can I say about Lucy? She was always so innocent, so willing to believe the best in people. She became known as Queen Lucy the Valiant in Narnia, and everybody always loved her. She was the first to 'discover' Narnia, by stumbling into it through a Wardrobe in the Professor's house. Edmund found it by following her once, after she had gotten in a second time. She met a Faun there, and he became a great friend of hers. His name was Mr. Tumnus. She gave him her handkerchief and it was important later on to prove to us who are our real allies were. Father Christmas gave her a small dagger, and, more importantly, a vial full of fire-flower juice that healed all physical wounds. It would come in handy later on. Later on when we met our sister Amber."
"Amber was new. She introduced to us a whole new view on society, on the world. Offered us insight to the more horrible parts of human nature. We met her in Narnia, when we were introduced as the Son of Adam and Daughters of Eve prophesied to overthrow the Witch and restore peace and spring to Narnia. She had been turned into a werewolf by the Witch, which is why she has the Full Moon and the wolf carvings, as symbols of what she was. However, the most important part of her history was the horrible abuse she suffered under the Witch."
"The Witch put her in a sliver chain and collar set. Sliver was painful to a werewolf, and in certain amount could be deadly. Amber held herself out though, and managed to be saved. Aslan turned it into a different metal and when the Witch died, snapped it off completely. We never caught her true abusers, although we managed to find out who had murdered her parents, which is what lead to her being abused to start with. They are in jail, and providing leads to other in the terrorist group that did the deed, and many other horrible sins."
"I know this funeral of for all of them. I know that Narnia does not exist. But for the moment, I would like to go back. Back to a time when even our father was at war and his future undecided, back when our mother could not protect us without first sending us off. When Peter, Edmund, Lucy and I were a team. When we had one another and counted on one another. Back when we found Amber. And so I present to you our adventures in Narnia, starting first with when we first discovered a whole world hiding in the back of the Professor's wardrobe."
Susan held up a book. On the front were artist depictions of the four Pevensies, surrounding a tall woman fighting the same lion that was carved on all their coffins. A young wolf stood off in a corner, hiding in the shadows under a full moon. On the top of this impressive piece of artwork, was the word NARNIA. The font was so that the tail of the 'R' was drawn out and ended with a tuft of fur over the 'I', like a lion's tail. There was a wolf tail on the last 'A', and the first 'N' had wolf ears.
"This is one of the first copies of Amber's book, due out in a few months, on our tales in Narnia. There are more in there as well, for after awhile, Aslan told us we were too old to come back. Amber was not. She would never be, and as magic—being a werewolf—could come back anytime. The tales you shall hear today are Amber's own writings of our time in Narnia, and I will also point out some things when and if I can."
Susan placed the book down and opened it to the first page. "Now let's begin the tale of our first discovery of Aslan the Lion and the abused young werewolf named Amber…"
There. What do you think? Please review and tell me!
Werewolf of Suburbia.