The room was, as usual, pitch black. Susan laid on the bed, pretending to be asleep. She didn't want to talk to Peter tonight. She felt little pangs of guilt every time she heard his voice now. Guilt, not for something she had done, but for something she was doing. She was waiting until he was sound asleep, then she planed to climb carefully out of the bed and creep over to where she'd hidden the tinderbox and a spare candle earlier that evening. She did all of this when she was certain he was no longer awake.

Holding the tinderbox in one hand in and the little candle in the other, she started walking back towards the bed. Then she stopped mid-step. She couldn't do this. He'd told her something terrible would happen if she saw him. There was still a mark on his hand from the burn he'd gotten putting out the lit candle on that walk they'd taken together. Surely there had been a real reason he'd suffered for that. He had to have been avoiding something worse. But not knowing the answer to this mystery was killing her. She didn't believe he was a troll or a faun or even ugly. Those were all stupid suggestions that didn't bother her in the least. But it did bother her that she was engaged to someone whom she'd never even laid eyes on. See was knowing, wasn't it? Then why did she feel so terrible about this?

Just one quick look, Susan thought, no one will never know; not even Peter.

She took a deep breath and used the tinderbox to light the candle. The small yellow flame shone against the back-drop of the dark room like a slowly falling comet in the night sky.

Now all Susan had to do was walk closer to the bed and hold the candle over Peter. Then she'd see him, blow it out, and go back to sleep.

One step. Two steps. Three steps. She could hear her heart pounding like a drum. Boom. Boom. Boom. Why did her feet feel so heavy? Would she be able to lift them all the way over to where Peter laid? She felt weak, cross, and sleepy. She should just turn back now. This was stupid. So what if she hadn't seen him? Did it really matter? Yes, it did. She had to do this. She was in too deep to get out now. This had to be done. It seemed almost fated. But what was fate doing here? What would she see when she held up the candle to his face? The realization that if she ever saw Peter in his human form in the daylight walking towards her she might not even recognize him vexed her and gave her the strength to take the final steps towards him.

Looking down into the puddle of the candle's light, Susan saw him. He was most certainly human. He looked like his siblings, she realized. Not an exact match, of course, but he did share some familiar traits with them. The major one being that he had the same nose that both Edmund and Lucy had.

Speaking of Edmund, he had been right when he'd said the night-shirt which was too big for him would fit Peter. It fit him perfectly. Susan remembered the night he'd thanked her for it as if it was a gift she had set out purposefully for him. Remembering and thinking about Peter's voice made Susan feel horrible about what she was doing now. The memory of the look the white bear had given her when she'd run away that first day broke her heart. And she knew that she was betraying him far worse now.

She couldn't explain it, but the feeling of terror kept growing and growing in her until she thought it would choke her to death from the inside out. Something terrible was about to happen.

But how could anything bad happen if he didn't even know? No one knew. They were alone in the room. All she had to do was blow out the candle and it would all be over, wouldn't it?

Suddenly a sharp crack, like the sound of thawing ice echoed through the room. It took a moment but Susan figured out that the sound wasn't ice at all. It was the glass on the windows and the glass on the mirror. She looked over at the mirror and then back at one of the bay windows. Both had large fractures as if they'd been slashed with a strong knife. As if on a cue of some sort, all of the glass shattered and fell to the ground at the same time. The wind, which had become strangely powerful and cold, whipped one of the fragments in Susan's direction. It hit her left cheek giving her a slight sharp cut.

She was so startled and bewildered that she let out a cry and shuddered; her hand shook making the candle holder shake with it. Three drops of hot tallow escaped and landed on the high king's night-shirt.

Susan's wail, the sudden cold from the wind, and the sudden heat from the tallow all hit Peter at once and caused him to wake up. When he saw Susan standing above him, holding the candle, he knew what was happening, even though she didn't.

Their eyes met and Susan wanted to weep. The rest of his face was only familiar in what she could compare to his siblings but she knew those eyes. They were the white bear's eyes. And they were filled with more despair than ever before.

He looked up at her in disbelief. This wasn't happening. No, this was a nightmare. It had to be. Susan wouldn't do this! He was going to wake up any second now and find... The wind hit his cheeks; it was a winter wind... No this wasn't a nightmare after all. Susan had really betrayed him.

Knowing there was no time to waste, Peter leapt out of the bed and swung open the wardrobe. First he pulled something long and hard out of it and thrust it into Susan's hands. (She had already put down the candle.)

Susan wanted to ask him what the object was but couldn't get the words out. She opened and closed her mouth only to find that she could make no sound. Feeling very frightened, Susan clutched the object Peter had handed her so tightly her fingers ached.

Quick as a whip, Peter rushed over to the chamber doors and opened them.

The doors just opened at night with Peter here! Susan realized in a terrified state of panic. They never did before. They were always bolted.

"Edmund!" he shouted down the corridor. "It's happened!" Then he turned back to Susan with tears in his eyes. "How could you?"

Susan finally found her voice. "Peter, I...I didn't know..."

"Yes you did," Peter said, his tone bordering on angry now. "I warned you. I told you something terrible would happen. I needed you to trust me."

"I did trust you," Susan blurted out. "I...I...I just-"

Peter glared at her. "I believed in you, Susan. I thought you were going to save us all. I thought you understood me. I loved you." He shook his head in disgust and bitterly added, "But don't worry, I wont make that mistake again."

"Peter, I-" Susan was desperate to tell him that she hadn't meant to betray him. That she'd only been curious, maybe even a little frightened. She'd only done what she had thought she had to do. She wanted to beg him to explain what was going on and how to stop it.

Before she could get the words out, Edmund raced in dragging a sobbing Lucy behind him. He panted for breath, slowing down just a little as he reached the doorway.

"I knew you couldn't do it," Edmund said sadly to Susan, grabbing onto her elbow and pulling her and Lucy towards the wardrobe.

"Su," Lucy wailed as though her heart was breaking. "Couldn't you have held out just a little longer? You were so close. There were only two months left!"

"What's happening?" Susan cried out, unable to take one more second of this torment.

No one answered her. Edmund pushed aside some coats that had been blocking the very back of the wardrobe, reveling a small wooden door with a tiny key hole.

Shaking with sobs, Lucy took the key out of her pocket and unlocked the door.

The sound of sleigh bells started echoing through the castle. Lucy let out a gasp and then another sob.

Edmund gulped.

Peter shouted, "Be quick! I want you three safe no matter what happens to me."

"Peter," Lucy wept piteously. "Can't you run away?"

"No, sweetheart." Peter tried to comfort her but knew he could not. "It's part of the curse. There's nothing I can do about it." He looked over to Edmund. "Take good care of her, you're all she has in the world now."

Edmund began to cry now. "Goodbye, Pete."

"Goodbye, now go hide before she gets here." Peter nudged him and Lucy closer to the unlocked door, which they opened and traveled down sixteen steps to the bottom.

Susan was right behind them and was the last to see Peter. He gave her one last broken stare in the moon-lit room before walking out of the chamber, slamming the doors behind him.

She wanted to chase after him and probably would have if Edmund hadn't grabbed her elbow again and pretty much pulled her down the stairs.

They were all in a dark cellar-like room. Squatting very low into the left corner of the strange room, one could see a strange window-shaped rafter with wooden slits that you could peer outside through.

Edmund and Lucy were on their knees looking out of it, watching something as though spellbound.

Susan walked over to them, got on her own knees and looked out. What she saw made the blood in her veins run cold.

The ground was covered with frost and there was a giant silver sledge pulled by white reindeers the size of Shetland ponies with little silver bells tied to their feet. Seated on the sledge dressed in white velvet from head to toe, was none other than Jadis, the white witch herself. She wore a triumphant smile on her face as though she'd just won a great battle.

Approaching her was Peter. Shivering and frightened looking, he wobbled over to her. His teeth were chattering slightly from cold or else from fear.

"What's happening?" Susan whispered to Edmund.

"Don't you understand?" Edmund whispered back. "By looking at Peter before the spell was broken, you've handed him over to the White Witch."

"What?" Susan whisper-cried, thrusting her face into her hands and letting out a sob.

Through her fingers and the slits, Susan saw the White Witch say something to Peter. He nodded and climbed onto the sledge beside her.

"What is he doing?" Susan whisper-demanded bitterly, removing her hands from her face.

"He doesn't have any choice," Edmund reminded her.

"This can't be my fault," Susan whispered in shock. "It just can't be. I wouldn't do this to him. I wouldn't hurt him." She decided to try to call for him, "Pe-"

Edmund quickly put his hand over her mouth before she could finish. "Keep your voice down. The last thing we need is for her to find us here. She'll turn you, me, and Lucy into stone for sure if she sees us hidden here."

"But what about Peter?" Susan whispered back. "What will she do to him?"

Edmund shuddered. "Worse. She'll marry him."

"What?" Susan said a bit too loudly, resulting in getting Edmund's fingers smashed up against her mouth again.

"Shhhh!" He hissed.

"Why would she want to marry him?" Susan whisper-asked.

"Because," Edmund explained, "the Narnians won't go against him; he's their rightful king. She'll use him as a puppet."

"What have I done?" Susan whimpered.

With a flick of a whip at the reindeers, the sledge took off. The White witch looked straight ahead. But Peter looked back at the castle looking down into the cellar slits, he saw them looking out at him. He have them one last pathetic hopeless glance before the sledge and the sound of jingling bells vanished into the distance.

After he was gone, Susan glanced down at the object she still held in her hands. For the first time she saw what it was. Peter had given her his sword.

AN: Please review! I want to hear your thoughts!