So, here is the next chapter for my story. I would once again, like to apologize for leaving this story for so long. I just completely lost interest. Anyways, on to the chapter!

Oh, and I made some changes to chapter 11, so I would suggest going and rereading that one first, or else you may be a little lost.

Disclaimer: I don't own Narnia. Plan and simple.

Careful What You Wish For

Chapter 12: Nightmares

"How could you let her escape?! Is it really that hard for you to catch a simple girl?!" a dark voice boomed out.

The cloaked female flinched at the voice. "We a-almost h-had h-her, M-Master, b-but the s-stupid t-trees interfered." As hard as she tried, she couldn't keep her voice steady.

"Excuses! All you give me is excuses!" The figure that the voice belonged too, moved out from the shadows. Watching the woman shrink away in fear filled the figure with sick satisfaction. A smile that was as cold as ice, spread across the figure's face. "It seems that you have outlived your usefulness."

Sheer terror filled the woman's face. "No! No! Please, Master! I can do better!"

Ignoring the woman's begging, the figure drew close to the female, and placed his right pointer finger right in the middle of her forehead. Not two second later, the woman fell completely unconscious.

"Someone remove this thing from my sight!" the figure yelled out. As two servants removed the body, the figure walked to a stone basin.

"W-what did you do to her?" questioned a hag, staring at the figure on the floor.

"I have given her a fate worse than death. She is now trapped in a place where her biggest, and darkest fears, come true." The figure cackled while walking over to a large stone basin.

"What is your plan now, Master? Shall we try to kidnap one of the others?"

"No, I have a better idea."

The hag regarded her master carefully. He was wearing a smirk that screamed run away as fast as possible. "What do you plan to do?"

The figure didn't answer. Instead, he said some words in a foreign language. The hag was curious as to what was about to happen, and didn't have to wait long. Black smoke started to drift out of the stone basin, and crawl all over the floor

"What…what is that going to do?" the hag asked, stepping back from the curling black smoke.

"It is going to bring darkness and despair, all over Narnia."

"Aren't you supposed to be getting ready for the ball?" Apollo asked, giving me a sidelong glance. "For that matter, aren't you supposed to have a guard too?"

"I just needed some peace and quiet. All those royals are starting to get on my nerves," I replied, plucking some grass out of the ground. "Besides, I don't think anyone will notice my absence for another hour or so."

The palace was so chaotic with final preparations for the ball, that no one was really paying any mind to what I had been up to, which just consisted of trying to stay out of the way. I had finally gotten so sick of all the hustle and bustle, that I saddled up Apollo, and went for a ride, completely disregarding the idea of bringing a guard. It has been three days, and there have been no other signs of the mysterious figures.

"If you say so, young one."

I looked at Apollo, before standing up to pat in neck. "If we get in trouble for this, I will take all the blame, considering this is all my idea anyways. Besides, you can't tell me that you aren't enjoying this."

"You're right, Christine. I am just a little nervous, that is all."

"How about we go back in fifteen minutes?"

"Deal."

A nice, quiet, relaxing fifteen minutes later, I stood and stretched. "So, we should probably get back, just in case someone did notice my absence. As it is, I think I may get a lecture anyways."

"Good idea," Apollo said, rising enough so that I could hop onto his back, before rising to his full height. "You are getting really good with a sword, but I don't think I want to find out just how good."

"Me neither, and I forgot to bring one. " I said, glancing around, feeling sheepish. I started to have a feeling in the pit of my stomach that something very bad was about to happen, though I had no idea what. I mentally kicked myself for not brining a guard along. "Apollo, can you hurry?"

"Do you have a bad feeling too?" Apollo asked, flicking his ear towards me.

"A little bit," I said, feeling more and more uneasy.

We were only walking for a matter of minutes, when Apollo stopped dead in his tracks.

"What is it, Apollo?" I asked, placing my hand on his neck.

"I smell something. It smells like smoke," Apollo said, taking a few deep breaths.

"Smoke? Who would be having a fire out here?" .

"I don't know. Do you want to go check it out?"

"Okay," I replied even though my gut was screaming to run as fast as possible in the other direction. "If it is a fire, we should make sure that it is being managed."

Nodding his head, Apollo started off in search of the smoke that he could smell. After a few minutes of walking, I could start to smell it too. We walked for five more minutes, and by this time, we couldn't just smell the smoke, we could see it too. Coughing, I jumped down from Apollo, not wanting to inhale so much smoke.

"Apollo, you stay here. I will go check it out," I said, covering my nose and mouth with my hand.

Walking farther into the clearing, I could see that there was indeed a fire going; an unmanaged fire that was starting to spread throughout the forest. Alarmed, I quickly turned on my heel and ran back to where Apollo was, wanting to find a way to contain this blaze before it destroyed more of the wood. The smoke was so thick though, that I couldn't see where Apollo was. In fact, I couldn't see three feet in front of me.

"Apollo! Apollo!" I yelled, hoping that he would hear me. However, he never came nor answered.

Coughing, I stumbled to where I thought was the path. As my eyes watered from the smoke, I turned my head to assess the damage.

Very bad idea.

The fire had spread, and grown in height, to twice the size it had been only moments ago. Panic completely filling me, I tried to run, but something was holding me in place. All I could do was watch as the fire before me transformed into a beast that looked like the evil demon that comes out of the volcano in the Disney movie.

I looked at the creature. It looked at me, than gave me the biggest, evilest grin that I've ever seen. I gasped for breath, willing myself to stop shaking, but I was terrified. As I stood frozen in place, I watched as the beast reached for something that was concealed in the smoke.

"You did this, Christine. You brought this upon everyone," the beast said, giving me a toothy grin, before he threw Apollo's burned, dead body in my direction.

I screamed. I screamed out of lose; out of confusion; out of fear.

"NO! APOLLO! Why are you doing this?!" I yelled, tears of anger, confusion and fear running down my face.

"Me?" the beast questioned, looking confused, "I didn't do anything. This is your entire fault. You caused this destruction to happen."

"My fault? I would never allow something like this to happen!" I screamed, "I can't do anything like this!"

"Oh, but you can," the beast sneered, "You can and you did!"

However, before I could reply, I saw movement from the left side of the beast. Turing my head so that I could see better, I felt my heart swell with hope. Jenn, Cody, Edmund, Peter, Lucy, Susan and Caspian were here. They would help me.

"You guys! Help me! Kill this thing!" I yelled, feeling close to hysterical. However, none of them moved. The hope was slowly replaced by fear. Why weren't they doing anything? "You guys?"

"Why should we help you?" Lucy asked, wearing such a cold expression that I felt like she had just punched me in the gut.

"What?" I asked, trying to make sense of what was going on. I could feel the panic rise in me again. Tears started to burn my eyes, not from the smoke, but from the fact that Lucy would even ask me that. "Because I'm your friend!"

"A friend?" Cody scoffed. "A friend wouldn't do this to us!"

"Do what?!" I yelled.

"Cause all this pain and destruction!" Jenn yelled, "You're an evil bitch!"

"I didn't cause this!" I yelled as the tears started to stream down my face. My heart felt like it was having a knife driven into it, over and over. "How could I have caused this?!"

"Now you're going to pay for what you've done!" Peter yelled, ignoring my question.

Roots of dying trees shot up from the ground and snared my ankles and wrists, yanking me to the ground and pinning me there.

"No! Please!"

"They're all dead or dying because of you!" Edmund roared. The sound of dying Narnians filled my ears; their screams of pain.

"You betrayed Aslan!" Susan and Caspian yelled.

That final statement silenced me. My heart had just shattered into a million tiny pieces that were so small there was no way my heart was ever going to be whole again. I would never betray Aslan! As I watched my friends, tears streaming from my eyes, they all looked at me with such hate and disgust. I hadn't done anything to deserve this!

"Oh, dear one, why did you do this?"

"I didn't do anything! I swear!" I yelled/pleaded to the voice, which I knew to be Aslans. However, his voice never came again, and all my emotions hit me when I saw my friends turn and start to walk away from me.

"NO! DON'T LEAVE ME HERE! HELP!" I screamed as they disappeared into the burning bush.

"No one is going to help you now," the beast cackled, reaching for me. "Why would they help a traitor like you?"

As he hand closed around my waist, I opened my mouth, and screamed bloody murder.

"LET ME GO!" I screamed, flailing my arms in a desperate attempt to get away, but to no avail.

The beast's hands erupted into a blazing inferno, setting me on fire.

"CHRISTINE! WAKE UP!"

I'm feeling particularily evil today, which I really shouldn't because of how long I've been away. However, sometimes you need to keep the readers in suspense.

I would love to hear any comments that you may have about the chapter in a review. After all, I can't improve my writing skills if I don't get any helpful advice.

Thanks for reading!

Sweet Country Girl