She Dreamed of Paradise ❈ Suspian

The Lion's Roar

"And I'm a goddamn coward, but then again so are you
And the lion's roar, the lion's roar
Has me seeking out and searching for you
And I never really knew what to do."

- The Lion's Roar by First Aid Kit.

Susan was sat on the floor, leaning against the end of her bed while she glared at the screen before her. She'd been doing this for hours, just waiting for Aslan to make an appearance but he never came. She'd tried everything; leaving her book behind the screen, calling his name, even throwing small marbles towards the screen and asking questions to try to get a response but nothing seemed to work.

Taking a deep breath; she finally got up off the floor to sit on her bed, pulling out of all her elaborate hair pieces and jewellery and throwing them onto the stone floor, almost certain that all of them had been broken but she didn't care. Her mind was too busy trying to get Aslan to appear and help her, but he still never showed up.

She picked up her book that had been left on her dressing table, opening it a random page somewhere in the middle but found the page she had turned to blank. What on earth? It was the middle of the book and there was nothing on it, it was almost like it hadn't even happened yet.

Quickly, she turned back to the contents page. It only went up to chapter three – the rest of the page was blank, like all of the remaining chapters hadn't even existed. Chapter one; the wish, chapter two; realization and chapter three hadn't even had a title yet, it was just a blank space where the title name should be.

Turning to chapter three; starting to read it from the beginning, soon realising that everything in the chapter had just happened not twenty-four hours ago. Turning a few pages; she saw the words being written as she was reading them, something that would in reality be impossible.

A tear slowly made its way down her cheek, dropping the book on the floor as she heard a music box slowly start playing Swan Lake from behind her. Not turning around, she took a deep breath to try to hold back any further tears. "This isn't what I wanted; I want to go home, Aslan." She announced, trying to hide the fact that she had been crying while her voice shook with the fear that was burning within her heart.

"You were the one who wished upon a star, young one. You must now live with the consequences of your actions." Aslan's voice was deeper than she remembered; it reminded her of her father's. The way each word left his lips sounded exactly like he did, and that made Susan miss him even more. She would give anything to just be in his arms once more and have his shoulder to cry on, but like Aslan said, she asked for this to happen and now she has to live with it.

"But he hates me, Aslan. He really does. How am I supposed to wait until a shooting star to go home?" Her voice was shaking now. There was no denying or hiding the fact that she was and had been crying. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop. The tears refused to stop streaming down her cheeks and roll off her chin and onto the floor.

Susan's head jerked up as soon as she heard a scream coming from the hallway. She knew the scream all too well; it was Lucy's. Everything was on high alert, her sister was in trouble and it was up to her to help. She turned around to face Aslan but he wasn't there; in fact her whole room seemed to disappear around her and turn into a dense forest with thick, centuries old trees all around her – just like it had been there for centuries, and her room had never existed. A thick fog surrounded the forest; she could barely see three feet ahead of her or behind her. Anyone or anything could be behind her and she would have no idea they would be there.

She heard Lucy's scream once more, causing Susan to run in the direction of the sound. "Lucy! I'm coming!" she called out into the forest, pushing past branches and jumping over fallen trunks of trees. She had to find Lucy but every time she screamed; she seemed to be further away than last time, despite Susan's running.

Susan stopped running to catch her breath for a moment, but that's when the whispers started. It wasn't a quiet sound, it was like hundreds of voices were whispering around her all at once but there was nobody in sight. She was completely alone.

She couldn't understand what they were saying; they were all speaking too fast for anyone to understand anything. Everything inside of her was telling her to run for her life, but her feet refused to move. The voices seemed to be getting louder and more repetitive; Susan slowly started to understand what they were saying. Some were telling her to run, while others were telling her to wake up.

Wake up? What on earth?

Closing her eyes for a moment, she tried to force herself to wake up but nothing happened. She tried pinching herself but that didn't work either, everything she tried didn't work so she was stuck in a dreamlike state.

"Susan, wake up." One of the voices sounded like they were right in front of her, but when she opened her eyes there was nobody there and it was starting to scare her. But what scared her most was that the voice sounded exactly like her older brother Peter; despite the fact that she was alone and the only thing that was there was a tree.

"Susan," another voice whispered into her ear, this one sounded more like Edmund. But she knew there was nothing beside her. "The fog is coming, Susan. You have three days before everyone in the castle is dead."

That took her back; she had three days to save an entire castle from whatever force that was driving something bad without sounding like she's crazy. Frowning to herself, she turned around and her heart almost dropped out of her stomach when she heard a lion's growl. It was circling her, looking for her weakness before jumping out of the darkness of the shadows to land right in front of her.

She let out a loud scream just as the lion roared and pounced at her. Then everything went black. No voices, no lions, no nothing. Just darkness and silence surrounded her.

Susan woke up on the cold floor and completely drenched in sweat, the words from her dream still fresh inside her mind as she rushes out of her room and down the halls, she had to tell someone – anyone about the danger they were all in.