A/N: Well, it sure has been a while...

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:

At the Witch's House

"We're going to die, we're going to die, we're going to die..."

"Jaffray," Jerome sighed as he watched the petite girl pace anxiously back and forth in front of him, sort of limping because of the heavy chain tied to her ankle.

"We're going to die. We're going to die. We're going to die, I'm going to die, this isn't happening, if I just pinch myself then-"

"Mara!" Jerome cried. Mara looked down at him, startled. "You need to calm down."

"You expect me to calm down? Why aren't you freaking out?" Mara demanded, her voice shaking. "You're the one that dragged me into this!"

"Hmm, that's funny, I don't recall dragging you into this at all." Jerome replied snarkily, narrowing her eyes. "In fact, I remember telling you multiple times that you should leave. It's your fault you didn't listen to me."

Mara sat on the icy cold floor, shivering slightly. "I just wanted to know where you were going," she said. "And once I found out, I very well couldn't send you off on your own to die, could I?"

"Cut the act, Jaffray. Why would you even care if I die or not?"

"Because I'm a nice person," Mara said quietly.

Jerome scoffed. "Well, I hate to break it to you, Jaffray, but there aren't any truly nice people in the world. At the end of day, the only person that everyone really cares about is themselves."

"What happened?" Mara asked in a quiet voice.

"What are you talking about?"

Mara tucked a strand of her dark brown hair behind her ear, but didn't look away from him. "I'm just wondering what happened to make you so horrible and negative to everyone else."

For a second, Jerome was almost startled. Then he just shook his head, a cold smirk sliding into place. "Maybe I'm just naturally a horrible person." Jerome looked down at his plate, examining the roll of bread.

Mara just looked down, deciding out of all of the stupid decisions she'd ever made, following Jerome had to be the worst.
Jerome picked up the roll of bread on his plate, rolled it over in his hand, and hesitantly took a bite. It was rock solid and cold. "Ugh!" Jerome cried, recoiling his hand.

"Are you going to eat that?" Jerome flinched and Mara jumped nearly a mile in the air. The two of them turned to face the voice, which had come from the cell next to them. For some incredibly odd reason, Jerome was expecting Mick to be at the other side. Funny, Jerome thought to himself humorlessly. I almost hoped that he was.

Inside the cell was a feeble-looking man with his legs chained, just like Jerome and Mara's were. Except for his legs weren't human legs at all...they were goat legs.

Suddenly, Jerome began to feel very sick.

"Here," Jerome muttered weakly, moving forward to hand him the roll of bread. With great struggle, the faun dragged himself across his own cell, moving towards the gate that separated the two cells. After much groaning, the faun reached the gate. Jerome passed the roll of bread through a hole, and the faun gladly took it, nibbling quickly. "Mr...Tumnus?" Jerome asked slowly, hoping and praying that it wasn't him.

"What's left of him," he replied gruffly. Jerome's stomach began to churn, and suddenly he found that he couldn't look him in the face.

"Y-you're Nina's friend," said Mara.

Suddenly, Mr. Tumnus looked up. "Yes," he replied. "And I'm assuming you two are her friends as well?" Wordlessly, the two of them nodded. "Is Nina alright?" Jerome and Mara exchanged glances. "Is she safe?" Mr. Tumnus asked desperately.

Jerome cringed and Mara sniffled slightly. "I-I dunno," she whispered.

Suddenly, the doors to the jail room slammed open and the White Witch marched in. "My police tore that dam apart," she declared, narrowing her eyes at Jerome and Mara. "Your little friends were nowhere to be found."

Mara bit her lip to keep herself from letting out a sigh of relief.

The Witch looked between the two children. Her eyes focused on Mara, who was easily the weakest of the two. Without warning, she grabbed her by the collar and hoisted her in the air. Mara let out a scream.

Jerome's heart lurched. "Leave her alone!"

"Where did they go?" The Witch demanded to Mara, who was too scared to even cry.

"I don't know!" Mara stammered out, shaking.

The Witch threw her to the ground and raised her wand high above her head. "Then you two have no further use to me," she said coldly.

Mara clenched her eyes shut. This was it. This would be the very last moment of her life. She was just beginning to watch her life flash before her eyes when Jerome cried out, "Wait!"

Her eyes flew open, and the Witch stopped. Jerome paused, glancing between Mara and the Witch. No, he wasn't going to die like this. He refused to. "The beavers said something about Aslan!" Jerome blurted out.

Suddenly, the Witch paled, lowering her wand. "Aslan?" She asked, sounding panicked. "Where?"

Mara bit her lip so hard it nearly bled, desperately trying not to say anything. Although, it seemed like Mr. Tumnus had it covered for her. "He's a stranger here, your Majesty, he can't be expected to know anything!" He shouted desperately. The White Witch's dwarf butted Mr. Tumnus in the head with the bottom of his axe and Mr. Tumnus let out a groan.

"I said," the Witch narrowed her eyes on Jerome. "Where. Is. Aslan?"

Jerome glanced at Mara, who was pleading him to shut up with her eyes. Finally, Jerome turned back to the witch. "I-I dunno," He stammered out. "We left before they said anything." The Witch sighed, rolling her eyes. "I wanted to see you!" Jerome cried.

The Witch stared at Jerome for a long time. "Guard!" She cried without breaking eye contact. A large, scary looking beast entered the room, carrying a large club. Mara cringed, waiting for the Witch to give the command to beat her and Jerome to a bloody pulp for telling lies. But it didn't come. "Release the Faun," the Witch said instead. Jerome's eyes widened and the Witch smirked. Using his club, the ugly creature beat harshly at Mr. Tumnus's shackles until they broke open, and he roughly dragged the poor faun over to the Witch, throwing him at her feet.

"Do you know why you're here, faun?" the Witch demanded over Mr. Tumnus's loud whimpering.

Slowly, Mr. Tumnus raised himself up to look the Witch in the eyes. "Because I believe in a free Narnia."

The witch's lips twitched. "No. You're here because he," she turned and pointed her wand at Jerome, who flinched. "Turned you in." Mr. Tumnus turned to face him, betrayal written all over his face. "For sweets," she added.

Mara stared between the two of them, completely at a loss for words. Finally, Jerome broke eye contact with the faun, staring down at his lap. "Take him upstairs," the Witch commanded harshly. "And ready my sleigh." Her eyes focused on Jerome and Mara. "I think someone misses their friends."

The beast harshly dragged Mr. Tumnus out of the jail room. The faun's groans and whimpers were heard for a long time, until finally, he was completely out of sight, leaving Jerome to crawl into a small, miserable little ball. He could practically feel Mara's eyes on the back of his head, judging him.

"What are they going to do to him?" Mara whispered finally.

"Mara, I don't-"

"Just tell me," she said softly.

Jerome sighed. "She's probably going to turn him to stone."

Mara swallowed hard. "Is that what she was going to do when she raised her wand at us?"

"Yeah."

Mara stood up again, slowly pacing back and forth, and Jerome groaned quietly. "Was that true? What she said?" She stopped, turning to look at him. "Did you really turn him in for candy?"

Jerome sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I didn't really - I mean, it was sort of an accident..." He looked up at Mara, who was glaring at him "Okay. Fine. I turned him in for bloody candy. Are you happy now?" He snapped.

Mara sniffled. "That's horrible, Jerome. So horrible," Mara whispered, her voice wobbly. "How could you do that? How could you just turn someone in that had helped one of our friends? He didn't even do anything wrong!" Mara's voice began to rise, and she sniffled again. "And now he's most likely-"

"Mara!" Jerome whirled around, glaring at her. "I don't want to hear it!"

"Well, I don't think that poor Mr. Tumnus wants to be turned into stone, either, but he doesn't have much of a choice, no thanks to you." Mara said angrily. "Not to mention you practically turned in our own friends as well, telling the Witch where they were! Do you really hate them that much? Fabian is your cousin! Do you really just want them to be killed? Would you get some kind of satisfaction from that?"

"God, do you ever shut up?" Jerome demanded.

Then Mara burst into tears.

It was only natural that she would cry, after all. She felt sad and alone and angry and scared all at the same time and of course, someone can't just keep all of those emotions bottled up at one time. They'd explode.

But it didn't make it any less embarrassing as she stood there, bawling her eyes out in front of Jerome. In fact, she was crying so hard that her vision was blurry and she could barely make out his face, but she knew that if she were able to, he would probably be laughing at her.

She'd tried. She'd really and truly tried not to cry in front of him so he wouldn't humiliate her...she'd promised herself she'd save her tears for when she was alone, whenever that time was. But there she was, sobbing, and she just couldn't stop.

Still crying, she turned her back to him and sat on the cold ground, maybe thinking that if she wasn't looking at him then it would be like she wasn't even there. Jerome, on the other hand, watched her, a weird expression on his face - but he wasn't making fun of her. In fact, he felt rather guilty. After all, he hadn't meant to make her cry, and after the whole incident with Mr. Tumnus, he felt like guilt after guilt was piling up inside of him and that he might burst.

"Mara-" Jerome began.

"Stop it," Mara choked out between tears. "Don't even try to make fun of me for being a big baby and crying, I don't need it right now."

To be honest, the thought hadn't even crossed Jerome's mind. Mara was still sitting there, curled into a miserable little ball, sobbing her heart out and Jerome felt as though he should do something. But he was scared that if did try to speak to her, the two words sitting at the very tip of his tongue ("I'm sorry") would roll out, and based off of the incredible amount of guilt he was feeling, he was terrified that once he'd started, he wouldn't be able to stop ("I'm sorry for making you cry, I'm sorry I got you into this, I'm sorry I told the witch where the dam was, I'm sorry I mentioned Aslan, I'm sorry I turned in Nina's friend for Turkish Delight.")

And he was Jerome Clarke. He didn't apologize under any circumstances - even if it did have to do with girls crying.

After a few minutes, Mara's sobs recessed to cries, then short gasps, then sniffles, and then nothing but the occasional shudder. Jerome figured that this was probably a good sign. Slowly, Mara turned around to face Jerome, her eyes rimmed red. "We could die here."

Jerome just stared back at her, unblinking.

"What do you think would happen if we died here?" Jerome didn't answer her. "I don't suppose our bodies would magically be transported back to the professor's house. Or maybe they would, and Trudy would just randomly walk in the wardrobe room and find all of us, a pile on the floor."

"Mara, stop it." Jerome winced slightly.

Mara looked at him in fake innocence. "What, did I strike a chord, after all? What a surprise. After that facade you hide behind, no one would ever think to guess that you had feelings, after all." She paused, looking at Jerome with scrutiny. He just looked back at her. "Then again, suppose our bodies don't get transported back to Earth. No one would know what happened to us - no one would ever find out. Maybe they'd hang up missing signs or get the police involved and maybe they'd have a memorial but they'd never be able to find us and our families would never know what happened to us."

"Mara-"

"It's your fault." She said, cutting him off, her eyes stinging with tears. "It's all your fault. I could have had a future - all of us could have had futures. What if, the next time you decide to blurt out some information, the others aren't quite so lucky? What if, next time, the wolves kill all of our friends?"

"Jaffray, I-"

"I hate you." Somewhere deep inside, Mara felt a sharp twang. She'd never told someone that she'd hated them before and she'd always felt strongly against it, and the flicker of hurt that flashed in Jerome's eyes was almost enough to make her stop being so cruel - but not enough. She was so angry, she was literally seeing red. "You're despicable, do you know that? How dare you drag my friends and me into this! They're probably on a search party to find us, instead of going home, which is what we would've done, had you not decided to be a selfish prick. What if the others get themselves killed trying to save us? Do you ever think about how your actions might affect others, Jerome?" Jerome didn't answer her. "No, of course you don't. You don't care about anyone but yourself and I hate you, I hate you so much."

A long silence stretched in between the two of them, and Mara panted, feeling as though a gigantic weight had been lifted off her shoulders, but at the same time, feeling a churning feeling in her stomach that she always felt when she knew she'd done something that was wrong and out of line.

It seemed like ages before Jerome spoke. "You're right."

Mara's eyebrows raised in surprise. "What?"

"Can't you hear, Mara?" Jerome snarled mockingly. "I said you're right. It's all my fault that both of us are here and it's all my fault that the others are in danger and...what else did you say? Oh right, that I'm a selfish prick. Yep, I'd have to agree with that one, as well." Mara just looked at him. "Well, there you go. I just reaffirmed everything you just said. That is what you wanted. What, did you think that it would somehow make everything okay? Or did you just want to be a pathetic little know-it-all one last time before our immediate death, as you like to put it?"

Mara's eyes began to water again. "I-"

"You hate me. Yeah, I know. Look, Jaffray, it feels strange for me to say this, but you might not want to be such a downer all the time. Did you ever stop to think that perhaps we won't die after all and that maybe I'll come up with an ingenious way to save our lives?"

"You're impossible." Mara said, narrowing her eyes.

Jerome just arrogantly smirked at her and Mara huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. A small silence lapsed between them.

"Do you really hate me?"

Mara's head snapped up as she gazed at Jerome from across the cell. His head was bent and he was staring intently at his lap, scared that if he looked up at her, she would be able to tell by the expression on her face that he actually cared about her answer. Mara looked at him, surprised - his arrogant tone from before had evaporated and been replaced with a voice that sounded almost...well, vulnerable.

Mara let out a long sigh. "I suppose not." Jerome didn't answer, and Mara sighed again. "I'm...I'm just angry and upset and scared, and I wasn't thinking when I said all of those things. They were mean and hurtful and although it felt good at the moment to say them, I shouldn't have. Just because I was angry with you - and I am still angry with you, by the way - doesn't give me an excuse to be mean and tell you I hate you, because I don't. So, I'm sorry."

He didn't answer her for a while, but when he did, it was on a completely unrelated topic. "The others are still out there, you know." Jerome said, still looking down and playing with a loose string on his trousers. "They're bound to come rescue us or something. We'll get out of here."

"And what if they don't rescue us?" Mara countered.

Jerome sighed, running his hand through his hair. "I don't know, Mara..." he said almost exasperatedly, finally looking up at her. "Just...trust me."

Mara looked at him for a long time. Trusting Jerome? That was like trusting a rattle-snake. He was a big, complicated mystery - sometimes he was an arrogant jerk who loved nothing more than bringing others down to his level, and sometimes he was funny and witty and actually sort of fun to be around. But still, at that moment, Jerome Clarke was the only person she had. Jerome Clarke was, at that moment, the only person she could trust. And despite how scary of a thought that was, he was looking at her with such sincerity.

"I trust you," Mara finally replied.

They were three simple words, really, but for some reason they made Jerome's palms start to sweat and his face feel warm (despite the below zero degrees weather). And somewhere in the back of his mind it occurred to him that he couldn't remember another girl ever telling him they'd trusted him before. As a matter of fact, Jerome couldn't remember anyone ever telling him that they trusted him before. And without completely realizing it, Jerome softly smiled at her.

And it wasn't one of his annoying trademark smirks. It was an actual, real smile, something Mara had never seen Jerome make, especially not to her. And, despite his sometimes (well, more like usually) annoying personality, he had a really nice smile. A smile that might have just made her heart skip a beat and a small blush to spread across her tan cheeks. (Which Jerome, of course, noticed, and only made his smile grow wider.)

And despite the fact that her life was in danger, and that she was still angry with him, she smiled back.

JOY

"It's time to get up, dear."

"Hang on, Trudy," I muttered, turning over.

"Come on, dearie. We've got to get a move on."

I opened my eyes. At first, I was scared. I couldn't remember why I was lying on the ground covered with snow, instead of at home, safe in my own bed, much less why a beaver was shaking me and telling me to wake up. Then, all the events from yesterday came rushing back. The wardrobe, Mr. Tumnus, the beavers. Mara and Jerome. I felt tears sting in my eyes, but then I quickly pushed them back. Crying would be useless.

I just really hoped that Mara was safe.

Slowly, I sat up, yawning. Mrs. Beaver had moved on to wake up Amber. Good luck with that one, I thought to myself. "If you could help get everyone else up, Joy, dear, that would be lovely," said Mrs. Beaver.

I sighed, and slowly stood up, brushing the snow off of myself. I scanned the area for Patricia, and when I finally found her, I laughed. She was curled up into Eddie's lap, fast asleep. Eddie's hand was gently tangled in her hair, like he'd been playing with it before he'd fallen asleep, and he was hunched over, sleeping while sitting straight up.

I should probably wake them up, I mused. But they looked so cute, that I didn't want to.

I turned to find Fabian, who was lying in the snow not too far away from Patricia. He was still fast asleep and his dark hair was tousled and he looked adorable. But then again, he always looked adorable. I moved towards him to wake him up, and then stopped.

Lying right next to him was Nina, their hands intertwined.

I sucked in a deep breath and closed my eyes momentarily, trying not to let my anger get too strong a hold on me, and bent down next to Fabian, tousling his hair more. "Oh, Fabes," I singsonged.

"Five more minutes, Mum," he mumbled.

I stifled a laugh. "Fabian, it's Joy. Get up, we've got to get a move on."

Fabian jumped up suddenly, causing his arm to tear away from Nina's. I smiled smugly to myself. Perfect. "Joy? Wait, where am-" Suddenly realisation dawned on him. "Oh. Right."

"Yeah. Happened to me this morning, too." I paused. "I almost wish I hadn't remembered the whole thing at all."

Fabian grimaced, and I knew he was probably thinking of Jerome. I bit my lip, feeling bad for him. Although Jerome wasn't my favorite person in the world, I hoped that he was safe, too. He wasn't all bad, I supposed, and besides, he was Fabian's cousin. "Yeah," Fabian agreed quietly. "Me too."

I offered him a small smile, taking his hand comfortingly. "Everything will be alright in the end."

Fabian gave me a weak smile. "Yeah. I hope so."

At that moment, Nina yawned loudly, blinking sleepily and slowly sitting up. I knew it was wrong, but I didn't let go of Fabian's hand. I wanted her to see us. I wanted her to know how I felt when I saw the two of them together. If anything, I held onto Fabian's hand tighter. And the best part was, Fabian didn't object.

Nina blinked again, and looked at me, then Fabian, then our hands. Quickly, her eyes snapped back up to the both of us again. "Oh, Nina. I was just about to wake you," I chirped, smirking.

"Oh, were you?" Nina deadpanned, looking back down at our hands again. "That's very kind of you."

"Oh, good, all three of you are up!" chirped Mrs. Beaver, causing all three of us to turn to us. At that moment, Fabian let go of my hand, and I sighed, disappointed. "Go and help wake up everyone else, would you? We really really must be going."

Suddenly, Amber let out a loud scream, and all of us turned to her, frantically. My first thought was that the wolves had found us again, but I didn't see any wolves anywhere. "Amber, what's wrong?" Alfie cried, panicked. I wondered briefly when he'd woken up.

"Look!" Amber cried, pointing at Eddie and Patricia, who were still in the same position, but they were just starting to stir. I let out a sigh of relief as all of us came to circle around the sleeping couple, glad that there was no real danger. Other than the fact that Patricia would kill Eddie when she woke up. Unless she decided to sleep like that willingly...

"Awwww, how cute!" Amber squealed, clapping her hands together. The rest of us burst into laughter, which promptly woke both Patricia and Eddie up. At first, they seemed confused, but after they realized what position they were in, they quickly leapt away from each other as if the other person had a disease, both of them blushing fire-engine red. Which, of course, caused our laughter to increase.

"Ya call that keepin' watch?" Mr. Beaver asked, smirking and peering at Eddie.

"Oh, whatever," Eddie mumbled, blushing even more.

"Just for the record, I think you two would make a fantastic couple," Amber declared, grinning.

"Amber!" Patricia and Eddie groaned in unison, blushing.

Amber just gave them a sweet smile.

A/N:

Wow, it feels kinda weird writing this with with all of the season 1 and season 2 characters in it, since I've been on a season three mindset recently. Hope you still liked the chapter, though :) And I'm so so so so SO sorry it's taken so long to update!

QUESTION FOR THE CHAPTER: What are your thoughts on season 3 so far? I actually like it a lot more than I thought I would. The mystery is really great and although I miss Nina and Mick and AMBER (omg I'm sobbing for the rest of my life I will never get over it), I love the new characters. I actually like KT a lot more than Willow, which is odd because I thought I would hate KT and be obsessed with Willow. I do like Willow, but she's not one of my faves (I'd probably like her more if she wasn't causing a problem with Jara...is that bad for me to think? Oops oh well). Also I hate that ALL of my favorite couples broke up - although Jara did get back together last episode and if you don't think Peddie is going to get back together by the end of the season then you have brain issues. But my poor Fabina and Amfie babies omg :( (Although Amfie didn't really break up...)

But anyways, TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! :D