The Story continues!! This chapter will contain yet another sad plot twist!

-A Winters Chill.

Susan sat at her desk in the office feeling very weary. Her mind had not let her sleep that night instead it was filled with strange images of a beautiful yet unreal land. Nothing made sense anymore and she wondered if she was beginning to loose her mind. Taking a deep breath she began to write an article about Peters book for the news paper that was due to grace the paper when book 2 was published. It had been a couple of weeks since she had met with Peter's professor and those weeks had been terribly taxing. Alex had gone back to the countryside on business and Susan had been dealing with press work the whole time. She longed for a break from the stress but nothing had come up.

"Miss Pevensie!" she looked up to see the new intern, Beth, rushing into her office.

"What," Susan said a little rudely. She knew it wasn't fair to vent on the intern but her mind was once again racing and she didn't like to be interrupted while writing.

"I'm sorry," Beth said looking a little hurt, "it's just that this rushed telegram came for you a moment ago." Susan stood up and took it from Beth, it was from Alex. She walked to the window and opened it.

Susan

Please come to the country

Mrs. MaCready is gravely ill

She asked for you

Come

-Alex

Susan looked in disbelief at what she was holding, she knew MaCready was old but she had seemed to be in good health with she was there. Susan quickly rushed to her desk to gather her things, MaCready was the last person linked to the past that Susan had. She couldn't loose her!

"What's happened?" Beth asked looking concerned.

"The housekeeper of my estate is ill," Susan said knowing that she probably looked terribly shocked, "I have no time to loose, I must be on the next train to the country!" Susan picked up her article and handed it to Beth, "Please see that this gets to Mr. Clawson by the end of today." With that Susan grabbed her bag and ran out of the office in a rush. Alex had said that Mrs. MaCready had asked for her; why would she do that?

It only took her an hour to get to her apartment, gather her things and get on the next train to the country. She sat in her seat unsure of what this journey would hold for her, but she knew it must be important. Peter had mentioned at one of the few family gatherings that Mrs. MaCready had become one of his good friends. Lucy and Edmund had gone to visit her before, if anyone remembered them it would be her.

Susan slowed her mind down for a second as memories of her first visit to the house flooded her mind. MaCready had been the mean old woman who never smiled back then. The house had been uninviting and scary for the children. They felt alone until Lucy had led them into a wardrobe! Susan's eyes fluttered as her mind shook from the impact of fantastical images which could be dreams or memories. Peter drew a sword and held it toward a treacherous wolf. Edmund looked shocked as the four kids saw a beautiful yet terrible woman enter a camp of animals and strange creatures. Susan remembered Lucy crying over the body of a lion. Susan grabbed her head and gasped. She as instantly glad that she had purchased a ticket for a private car.

The memories soon stopped flooding her mind as she cut them off calling them out as dreams and fantasies. Would she ever stop with this insanity?

Susan got off the train at the stop she knew as her own. As she walked out onto the platform for the third time in her life she felt a sense of nostalgia; once again she was returning to the place where everything had began. The memories of the journey were more overwhelming than they had been last time she made the trip; it was as if the walls she had built up against it all had begun to weaken. She looked around and saw Alex a short distance away. She ran to his welcome arms. He held her close as he knew she still needed comfort from the past which threatened to spill upon her like an avalanche.

If anyone had been on the small platform they would have seen a small glimpse of magical spark between the two as they held onto each other, allowing the past to go away for just a moment; allowing it all to surround them without ever touching them. At that moment a cool breath of Narnian wind blew through the rift of time into the English countryside for someone would soon make their way home to Narnia.

The doctor said Mrs. MaCready did not have long to live. She was very glad to see Susan but in the first four hours of being there MaCready had to rest. Susan paced back and fourth in the room constantly checking the old woman's temperature and making sure that there would been food and water for her when she woke up. Alex stayed with Susan as she tended to the old woman but he had fallen asleep on the recliner by the time Mrs. MaCready had finally woken up.

"Susan," she said causing Susan to turn her attention from the view outside the window to the tired old woman. Mrs. MaCready held out a hand to her.

"Yes Mrs. MaCready," she said walking to her and taking her hand. The old woman smiled and began to speak.

"I always knew you would grow up to be a beautiful young lady," said with a chuckle causing Susan to smile, "you may find my sudden fondness of you a little strange but the truth is you remind me of myself in the past." Susan knew that Mrs. MaCready just wanted her to listen now and knelt beside the bed.

"When your brother, dear Peter came back to this house to study with the Professor he didn't treat me like a servant," she said, "he treated me with the reverence that a child would show to their grandmother. He cared about my well being and often helped me and the other staff with the chores around the house. Even though I was a bitter old thing he taught me to be kind and others and then he taught me something else even more important." Susan listened as the old woman's voice suddenly began to sound very wise.

"Over the past few years Peter has spent much of his time writing his stories, as you know. What you don't know is how he would write them. Oftentimes he would sit in the wardrobe with it wide open and just write and other times he would sit outside the wardrobe staring at the pictures and carvings in its wood. I would bring him his food in that dusty old room and he would share parts of his stories with me." Tears then began to form in Mrs. MaCready's eyes, "He told me of Narnia and it reminded me of a place I went as a little girl with my brother; a land lost to my memory until those moments. I could see glimpses of beauty but I could never grasp the whole of what I was struggling with. At one moment my memories were real and at the next moment they were cold fantasies taunting me and what I could have had."

"What are you saying," Susan said as tears filled her own eyes. She was not the only one who felt that way.

"Narnia is real!" Mrs. MaCready said opening her eyes wide.

"But it is a fantasy," Susan said looking down, "I used to pretend with my siblings and we made up stories and creatures. It's not real, it's just a dream."

"It is real," the old woman replied in a wiser tone, "and as a child me and my brother went there just as you and your siblings did. I have been a servant in this house since I was ten years old and I remember the wardrobe. The memory was lost to me as I went into the world before returning here. I became bitter as I denied what I knew to be true because I felt that if I could never go back then I would rather forget about it just as you have. My brother died at a young age just as yours and I know that he is in Narnia now for he never stopped trying to make me believe!"

"But Narnia..." Susan stuttered letting her tears flow freely.

"Lucy, Edmund and Peter are all there waiting for you and I," Mrs. MaCready said, "for the great lion has said that we must live our lives in our own world but he has also made it clear that once our lives our over we have a home with him if we believe!"

"I can't," Susan let go of the old woman's hand to wipe the tears from her eyes.

"You can," she said, "Peter told me you wouldn't listen! He used to cry for you and I told him that there was still a way to your heart and I have seen it as you have traveled back and forth to publish his books. I know you know it, Narnia is calling for you to remember!"

"Why?," Susan questioned.

"Because Aslan still believes you can be saved," the words hung in the air as finally his name was spoken to her. Aslan! The name that had been bared from her sight for so long. An image of a great lion sounded through her mind as she tried so hard to fight it, she couldn't. In this moment her heart began to win over her head, her tears were overflowing and her walls were beginning to fall. She grasped her head letting out a cry of pain as everything attacked her. Her mind became a battlefield and she wanted it all to stop.

"I feel him calling me now," Mrs. MaCready said, "I"m leaving. I'll see you when your journey is over." Mrs. MaCready put a hand on Susan's head before the life went out of her being.

"No," Susan said suddenly as more tears spilled from her eyes. She needed to know more! Suddenly Alex awoke from his sleep and saw what had happened. Mrs. MaCready had gone home, and the clouds in Susan's mind had not been cleared, he knew that a storm was coming and it would end one way or the other. Susan would either deny Narnia or once again return home.

Authors Note:

When writing the story I had the thought that Susan could become bitter by her denial and that reminded me of Mrs. MaCready so I decided that what happened to Susan had happened to the old housekeeper. I hope you like the plot twist! There is more ahead but I am beginning to see the end! Please review, there is a button below this and must press it!