A/N: This part got a little bit darker then I originally wanted but I needed something to give Anna as her nightmare and I'm a bit horrified I ever came up with this idea for her. Anyway, if you don't like the idea of someone being... Forcefully taken against their will... Skip over it. You'll know it starts where that 'Phantom of the Opera' quote begins. For Anna's part just jump to where Aslan speaks her name and for Caspian where he falls into darkness and faces his father (or find this symbol ▶words◀ and skip whatever is between them). Got that? But remember, both these scenes are necessary to the plot. End A/N
VI: Temptations and Nightmares
Anna slowly crept through the mansion, night having fallen hours ago. She knew this was a bad thing she wanted but she had to... wanted to... needed to... Remember...
The blank in her mind was bothering her too much not to do something about it.
Finding her way back to the library she looked down at the Book of Incantations, blew on it, and opened it to the index. She ran her finger down the pages til her finger fell over the spell she wanted.
"Page 563." She muttered.
The pages suddenly flipped on their own before stopping on said page. She looked over the page and mentally read the incantation. Giving a nod to no one, she took a deep breath and recited, not seeing the green mist creeping up her body.
"Just as the Green Leaves of Spring
Look back on the Gray Tree of December,
I now Bare my Heart to this Spell
So that I may finally Remember."
With the scent of clovers in the air, the memories returned... Painfully.
~Anna's POV~
What I remember, what I saw sent shivers down my spine. Truly, I hadn't missed minutes in my memory... but months!
Without thinking, I chanted as the pain of the memories brought me to the floor.
"Hear these words,
hear this plea,
I ask you to help with thee.
Remove these memories from my mind,
the awful memories that would haunt me until the end of time."
I gasped. As the memories disappeared, as if locked behind a steel door, only the memory of pain and betrayal burned in my mind and encouraged me not to try the Remembering Spell again. I hastily stood and rushed back to the room Coriakin had given me for the night and jumped under the covers. Sadly, I knew I wouldn't get anymore sleep that night.
~Time Skip~
Coriakin had given us supplies and some magical protection for the ship earlier this morning. Before Caspian, Edmund, Lucy and I returned to the ship, I stood in front of the retired star and handed him the one thing I knew he could keep safe. Handing him my book, I said, "The book isn't safe on the ship. We're going strait into the snake pit, so to speak. As much as I would like to bring it, I can't."
As we rowed back Lucy asked, "Why did you give him your book, Anna?"
"In the wrong hands, that book could be used to aid the mist. Perhaps it's good I forgot what will happen. This way, the knowledge can't be used against us."
I twitched at the word 'forgot' and missed Caspian's worried look.
The next two weeks passed slowly, mostly because we had run into bad weather. Very Bad Weather. The storm made me sea sick, but the rain gave me the flu. I was guessing that I definitely had a weak immune system, adding to the fact I never had a flu shot. Lucy gave me a few drops from her cordial but I still gained a bit of a head cold. Caspian stayed at my side most of the time but I insisted he go help the crew.
Almost everyone seemed to be in a bad mood. Tensions were high as the sea tossed the ship so hard, it almost seemed like it wanted to toss most of the crew overboard into what I knew was icy cold water so we wouldn't be able to go on. Reepicheep seemed to be one of the few who weren't feeling miserable. He often was with me, telling me tales of his youth.
Halfway into what would have been week three, the waves let up a bit and though it still rained it was now softer like how one would like it pitter-pattering on the window as you read a book by the electric fireplace.
So I sat by the fire in Caspians' cabin, in my nightgown, reading a book of Narnian fairy tales I had found on his bookshelf. Shame there was no hot chocolate and marshmallow's on board... Had they even been invented in this world yet? Mmm... Hot Chocolate with marshmallow's... Better yet: S'mores!
~POV Change~
In Caspian's study, said man was sitting on the couch-like leather window seat, starring out the window.
"So,' exclaimed Drinian after a long boring talk, placing a silver ship marker on the map on the table, 'we're stuck here...' he turned to look between Caspian and Edmund. 'at half rations, with food and water for two more weeks, maximum.' He was jolted forward by the storm picking up again forcing him to grab hold of the ceiling, 'This is your last chance to turn back, Your Majesties."
Caspian didn't reply glancing to Edmund who glazed back holding onto the ceiling as well.
"There's no guarantee we'll spot the Blue Star anytime soon. Not in this storm. Needle in haystack, trying to find this Ramandu place. We could sail right past it and off the edge of the world."
"Or get eaten by a sea serpent." exclaimed Edmund. Thunder rumbled in the distance as Caspian gave him a dry look.
"I am just saying,' emphasized Drinian through gritted teeth as he strode passed Edmund, 'the men are getting nervous. These are strange seas we're sailing, the likes of which I've never seen before."
Caspian stood, his face calmly stern but one could still hear the anger in his voice as he said, leaning over the table to Drinian, "Then perhaps, Captain, you would like to be the one to explain to Mr. Rhince that we are abandoning the search for his family."
Drinian's cold demeanor softened for a moment. He nodded to Caspian before saying, "I'll get back to it.' Turning an taking his jacket from the hanger on the door, 'Just a word of warning.' Caspian straitened, 'The sea can play nasty tricks on a crew's mind. Very nasty." Throwing up his hood and leaving to rejoin the crew on deck.
Edmund glanced at Caspian before heading out of the room. "I'm going to check on Lucy."
Later that night, Lucy stared up at the ceiling of the bedroom she, Gale and Anna shared. She couldn't sleep, she was thinking too much about the page she had tore from the Book of Incantations. The spell that would make her just as beautiful as Susan. She looked over at Gale to see she was sound asleep, a small smile on her face looking quite peaceful, which was quite contradictory to the world outside their temporary quarters. She then looked over at Anna, who was sleeping on a pile of pillows and blankets near the window. She was turning restlessly in her sleep, flinching when lightning flashed through the window and whimpering with the sound of the thunder. She had admitted to the girls earlier, when they were having a Truth or Dare game to entertain themselves, that she had a fear of thunder and lightning as she had been camping with her family when it started to storm and a bolt of lightning had struck a tree not two yards from her tent. Yet not once did she wake up fully.
Lucy sat up slightly, staying under the covers, reaching to pull out the page and reading aloud the words written on the paper.
"Transform my reflection, cast into perfection,' Lucy recited, not seeing the green mist as it curled around a lantern near her and over Anna, "lashes, lips and complexion. Make me she whom I'd agree holds more beauty over me."
She glanced down at herself, but was disappointed, not seeing her appearance change at all. She sat up and looked up at where a mirror stood on the wall of the room. She got out of bed, and walked over to it, not noticing how the storm had suddenly calmed. She watched as her nightclothes changed into a light blue dress polka-dotted with white flowers. A dark green ribbon wrapped around the front of her dress in a nice bow and golden buttons ran down the center of her dress top. A dark blue flower was pinned to her left breast just above her heart and dainty white shoes appeared on her feet. She looked at her face in the mirror, seeing it transform, making her just as beautiful as her sister, her long dark wavy locks and her perfect porcelain like face, large, glittering blue eyes and rose red lips.
She reached out and touched the mirror, and was surprised to see it open up like a door to her own World, where lively music, 'In the Mood' by Glenn Miller if she was not mistaken, played in a large park along what appeared to be a river or lake. She walked out of a large white pavilion, where at the edge, a man sharply dressed stood.
"Ladies and gentleman," the man announced, "Miss Pevensie."
She smiled as her entrance was applauded. Her smile widened as she overheard some of the young soldiers marveling how she was 'Quite a looker' and how 'swell' she was. She looked over in surprise as Edmund came up next to her, wearing a sharp grey suit, taking her arm.
"Edmund!" She said in surprise.
"You look beautiful, sister." He said with a smile.
"As always." A voice said from behind her. She looked behind her and saw Peter coming up behind her taking her arm, wearing his own suit.
"Peter!" She said happily.
"Excuse me, Miss,' A camera man said, coming over to them, 'Can I get a photo?"
"Oh, Mother's going to love this!' Peter said as the three of them stood still for the man to take the photo, 'All her children in picture."
She paused.
"Smile!" The camera man said, preparing the camera to take a photograph.
"Hang on, where am I?' Lucy asked, looking up at Peter, who looked at her confusedly, 'I mean, where's Lucy?"
"Lucy?' Edmund repeated in confusion, 'Who's Lucy?" The camera flashed and she tried to move away from her brothers, suddenly finding herself very uncomfortable.
"Susan, what's wrong?' Peter asked, trying to keep her still for the picture.
Susan? She was Lucy!
"Come on, now, Miss.' The camera man said as he went to polish his lens, 'Nice, big smile."
"Edmund,' She said, looking at him feeling slightly frightened, 'I'm not sure about all this. I think I want to go back."
"Go back where?" Edmund asked as he smiled for the camera.
"To Narnia." She said, Edmund looked at her with an amused smile.
"Where on earth is Narnia?" He asked.
It hit her then. She was Susan, 'Lucy' didn't exist! Her brothers didn't know about Narnia! This was all horribly wrong!
"What's going on?' She demanded, still trying to escape her brother's grasp. 'Stop this!" The camera flashed again and she covered up her face, wishing to go back to the ship. She suddenly heard the music stop and she slowly peeked out from her fingers, looking to see her own reflection in the mirror in her bedroom back on the Dawn Treader. She gasped when she saw the large lion she knew as Aslan appearing behind her in the mirror. Coming to stand beside her he spoke, his kind, gold eyes, held sadness and disappointment.
"Lucy."
"Aslan?" Lucy whimpered, she turned to see if he was really there, but he was not. He only appeared in the mirror.
"What have you done, child?" Aslan asked her.
"…I don't know.' Lucy murmured, her voice shaking, 'That was awful."
"But you chose it, Lucy." Aslan said.
"I didn't mean to choose all of that.' Lucy said, there was a lump in her throat as she spoke and tears formed in her eyes. 'I just wanted to be beautiful like Susan. That's all."
"You wished yourself away' Aslan said, 'and with it, much more. Your brothers and sister wouldn't know Narnia without you, Lucy. You discovered it first, remember?"
Lucy looked up into the lion's eyes, feeling her throat tighten even more in tears, "I'm so sorry." she once again placed her hands over her face trying to contain her sobs.
"You doubt your value.' Aslan said, 'Don't run from who you are."
He stepped aside, away from the mirror.
A shot of thunder lit up the room and Lucy shot up from sleep, calling Alan's name, still in her bed next to Gale, Anna on the floor nearby. The piece of paper with the spell lay still in her lap. She glared down at it with force before wrenching it up and scrunching it together in a tight ball, releasing her anger on it, ashamed of her feelings of doubt and jealousy, vowing to put them behind her. Throwing her covers off and getting off the bed, she approached the fire place set into the far wall and tossed the ball of paper into it. The light erupted with a roar as Aslan appeared and quickly faded.
Feeling a great weight off her shoulders, Lucy glanced at Gale then at Anna but was worried when she saw tears.
Anna knew where she was and knew this had to be a dream. She was in the wedding dress singing in the Final Lair scene from Phantom of the Opera, only Caspian was in Raoul's place with the rope on his neck and the Phantom was a man she had never seen before but felt she knew. He was tall, with blood red hair and black eyes. Muscular, yet not overly so. Instead of a deformed face he had a scar that ran from his right temple to the left side of his Adam's Apple. He wore a business suit with the left sleeve ripped off showing a tattooed arm of horrific designs.
"~Start a new Life with Me!
Buy his freedom with your Love!
Refuse me and you send your lover to his Death!
THIS IS THE CHOISE!
THIS IS THE POINT OF NO RETURN!~"
Before she could answer, Susan Pevensie suddenly appeared behind Caspian. She pulled the rope off his neck and started kissing him, turning it into a full blown make-out.
Anna tried to run to him but suddenly found a cage door in her way and no voice to speak with. She reached through the bars to try and reach Caspian, but the two seemed to be getting further and further away without even moving and she watched in horror and sorrow as they started undressing each other.
She turned around to see if she could escape this nightmare, but instead fell back from a slap to her face. Looking up, she scrambled backwards to the cage door, realizing suddenly the dress and the rest of her clothes had disappeared, seeing a woman who looked a lot like her mother but colder... Ice colder.
"Such a pathetic thing. So weak. So vulnerable. So...' the figure changed back into the red haired man only this time he was wearing nothing at all with a lustful smirk on his face. 'desirable."
▶He hovered over her and traced scars that she didn't remember receiving with the tips of his fingers.
Right as he was about to rape her,◀ a roar ripped through the air and the man was knocked away from her by a lion who now stood protectively over her bare form. She clung to his left foreleg and whimpered as he growled and roared again at the stranger. When she blinked away some tears, she found herself back in her clothes in her room on the Dawn Treader, Aslan lying next to her.
"Anna." He softly spoke.
Just hearing his voice made her burst into tears. She threw herself upon him and cried into his mane. After a while, she pulled back and was surprised when he licked her tears away. With her voice still trembling and her hands shaking, she asked in a small voice the only thing that came to mind, "Aslan, who was that woman who looked like my mom and that man, why am I so terrified of him when I don't know who he is?"
"That woman was Jadis.' He nodded when he heard her mutter 'the White Witch' before he continued, 'She was the most Evil thing your mind could compare your mother to in this world as up until months ago, you had never seen more terrible Evil from a Woman. The man, however, is from your missing memories and the reason why they were erased.' He looked her squarely in the eye. 'That Man is the one your mother sold you to when her grief over your father and brothers death finally cracked her mind." He stated gently.
She jerked away in shock, shaking her head in denial. "N-no. No, your wrong! That's not true! Mom would never..."
But looking into his eyes, she couldn't find any hint of that supposed lie. Deep down, she knew that, yes, her mother would. She wasn't deaf to the whispers she heard when her back was turned. Mad mutterings of how she would one day be rid of the thing that caused her husband and sons death. And she knew that thing was her.
"Aslan... How did I end up here?"
He looked to his left and reached out with a paw and placed it on something next to her. Looking down at it, she recognized her book. Reaching to place her hand on his paw where it rested on the book she heard him speak. "This book and the clothes you arrived in were the only things he allowed you to keep when he came for you at your Grandmother's house. You were kept in a cage most of the time, and beaten nearly every day in his house on top of a seaside cliff.' She looked up at him as he turned back to her. 'On the day he decided to finally have his way with you, the police appeared. He dragged you out a back door and to the cliffs edge where he threatened to throw you off if they didn't leave."
Tears were running down her face even more then before. "You held onto your book the whole time and hit him in the back of the head with it. He released you and the police shot him. He fell back into the sea but grabbed your vest at the last second to take you with him. You believed in The Deep Magic so much, that it heard your wish not to die and wiped the memories from your mind and healed your scars so that you may have a new life here in Narnia."
She looked down at her lap and clenched the fabric of her nightgown. "My-my Daddy and Brother are in your country, right? Why didn't I join them?"
"Because, Dear One, your life has only just begun."
Anna gasped, "Aslan?!" She darted her head around the room until they landed on a wide awake Lucy. Wrapping her arms around herself, she looked at Lucy and said, "Can we go find the boys?"
Further below deck, Caspian also had a dream but it was more of a nightmare. He was standing inside a shack which had large cage bars as a wall. On the other side of the bars was a red haired, black-eyed man with a scar cross his face, dressed in clothes he thought were familiar but not. A sadistic grin stretched across his face as he held Anna by the throat. "Sir, what an Unparalleled delight! I'd hopped you'd show up and here you are!"
"Let Anna go!" he growled out, gripping the bars.
The man turned to Anna with a sneer. "Who would have thought your King knew how to beg?"
"Caspian, just go! I'll be fine." She said sadly.
Caspian shook his head and reached through the bars. "I love her!' he knew he meant it. 'Let me see her!"
"Be my Guest... Sir..." The Man threw Anna against the cage bars and flipped a switch that opened the door for Caspian to enter. He immediately went to Anna and held her in his arms. It was then he noticed that she was wearing the very wedding dress he had seen on her in his dreams about their wedding.
"King Caspian the Tenth. I humbly bid you welcome!' The Man's voice was everywhere and nowhere. The whole world round them became dark. He held her close as she cried holding on to him. 'Why should I do anything to her when YOU are the one the Mist is after?"
Suddenly, a red noose wrapped around his neck and pulled him backwards to a tree near a large cliff overlooking the Sea, only steps away from the shack. Anna was being pushed back by the Man as she tried to get near him to save him. He struggled to get it off of him but it only tightened.
"Keep your hand to the level of your eyes!' the Man mocked. 'Nothing will save you now! Except..." He turned to Anna. The young woman was starring in horror between him and this nightmare of a Man. He sneered at her before growling out,
"~Start a new Life with Me!
Buy his freedom with your Love!
Refuse me and you send your lover to his Death!
THIS IS THE CHOISE!
THIS IS THE POINT OF NO RETURN!~"
She looked at the Man with tears running down her face.
"~The tears I might have shed for your Dark Fate...
Grow cold and turn to tears of Hate!~"
The Man growled. ▶He grabbed her again by the throat, ripped off the wedding dress she was wearing, threw her to the ground at Caspian's feet and raped her before his eyes. He struggled to loosen the knot but the noose just seemed to get tighter and tighter around his neck. Once the Man was finished, he watched in horror as the Man smirked up at him while carving what seemed to be his name into her skin with a dull, rusted knife before stabbing her in the heart.◀
"NO!" Caspian screamed as he saw a lone bloody tear run down from the corner of her eye to her chin, the light now gone from her eyes. But then that dream vanished.
He fell to his knees in the darkness, gulping in as much air as he could until he could breath again. Standing strait, he was about to go about waking himself up when he noticed his father starring at him in disappointment. Caspian felt so confused. Why was his father so disappointed in him? What had he done wrong? He always tried to do what was best for his people.
Edmund was probably the only one not having a fitfully sleep. He lay awake as the green mist traveled through the room and to Edmund's shock began to call to him as it took the form of his nightmare: the White Witch.
"Edmund. Edmund. Come with me.' called the Mist. 'Join me!"
He shot up, unsheathing his sword in the blink of an eye aiming it above Caspian's hammock where the Witch stood.
"Edmund."
"Lucy, Anna." sighed Ed. He turned back to where he saw the Witch but saw nothing. He turned to smile at Anna before turning to Lucy.
Caspian chose that moment to also awaken from his nightmare.
Anna slowly approached him and gave a small squeak when he pulled her up in his arms on the hammock. He looked her over for any signs of the blood he saw in his dream and sighed in relief when he found no such thing. As he held her, she shivered in his arms. Caspian kissed her head, "I love you Anna. Your safe. He won't touch you again."
She stiffened and wondered what he meant by that last line but curled up close to him as she muttered her love back, making him hold her all the tighter.
"We can't sleep." explained Lucy as she looked worriedly over at Anna who hadn't stopped crying.
"Let me guess. Bad dreams."
"More like nightmares." Anna muttered as she felt the King ran his hand through her hair as they softly rocked in the hammock.
"So either we're all going mad...' Edmund began. '...or something's playing with our minds."
With a sigh, he fell back on his hammock, with Lucy slipping in beside him while Caspian and Anna made themselves comfortable.
After a while, Anna whispered to Caspian. "I know how I came to be here. I was betrayed and sold by my own mother."