Tales of the Golden Age ~ Narnia one shots

It wasn't real

December 8th | Prompt: Nightmare before Christmas 

Edmund slowly opened his eyes, not knowing where he was. He glanced around, then his eyes went wide when he saw that he was in one of the Witch's ice cells. 'What?' he thought. He looked around frantically, terrified. He wasn't dreaming, he was actually there, he could feel the freezing cold under his legs. How did this happen? The last thing that he could remember was being at Cair with his siblings. How did he get here?

Then all of a sudden, the iron doors flung open, and the Witch walked in with a whip. Swallowing hard, he scooted back until his back hit the wall. He glanced down at his feet to see that he was shackled. 'No.' he thought, terrified. How was he here like this again?

"How- what-?" he stuttered, causing the Witch to smirk. His heart began pounding, the fear inside worse than ever. He had been through this before. 

"I suppose you're wondering what you're doing here again." she chuckled. "Well, I'll tell you. My followers brought me back to life, a couple of weeks ago. And after gathering all of them who were left, and planning, we attacked Cair Paravel. We defeated all who were there."

Edmund gasped instantly thinking of his siblings, his heart pounding so hard he wondered if she could hear it.

"I captured your siblings and brought them back here. I had a little fun...before killing them." she said coldly, holding up her wand which was somehow repaired.

Edmund stopped breathing, heart shattering, as he processed everything he had just found out. "No." he breathed.

"The only reason you're here and not dead yet, is because I wanted to have a bit more fun with you. Then I'll kill you, because all traitors deserve to die."

Edmund didn't even care, all he could feel was the heartbreak at the news she had killed his family.

"Take off your shirt." she ordered.

Slowly, he pulled his arms out of the sleeves and pushed the shirt over his head, and turned around so that his back was facing her. He began silently sobbing as the Witch raised the whip high in the air...

Edmund's eyes snapped open and he sat up, feeling hands on his arms. He blinked and glanced around, seeing his older brother sitting in front of him. Taking deep breaths, he realized it was all a dream. Just a nightmare.

"It's okay, it wasn't real. None of that happened. It was just a dream." Peter told him, seeing the terrified look on Edmund's face.

Edmund sighed, running his hands through his hair, as he nodded in response to Peter. 

"Oh my... she–" he took another deep breath, shaking his head. "I can't believe I had a nightmare before Christmas. They could at least stop during the Christmas season." he mumbled grumpily.

Peter let out a breath. "You okay?" he asked.

Edmund nodded. "I'm okay."

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