Once a Queen

The Blitz, 1940

"Edmund! Get away from there!" Elise's mother cried.

The Germans couldn't have at least waited until the morning, Elise thought exhaustedly. She and the rest of the Pevensie family had been settling into bed when the first siren went off, alerting them of yet another attack. It seemed the Germans preferred to drop bombs on their homes in the cover of the night rather than in broad daylight. Now, everything was chaos as they all rushed around, grabbing a few essential things to take with them to their bomb shelter just outside.

"Peter! What do you think you're doing?! Peter, quickly, the shelter, now!"

Elise's mother's yells broke her out of her distracting thoughts, and she shook them off quickly, going instead to the room she shared with her younger sisters, Susan and Lucy.

She hurriedly grabbed a few things, and then turned to leave the room.

"Mummy!" she heard Lucy cry. Turning back around, Elise could now see that her youngest sister was cowering into the sheets on her bed.

"Lucy, come on!" she said, holding out her hand for the little girl to take. Once she had a hold of Lucy, Elise rushed out of the room and followed the rest of her family out the front door.

Lucy was screaming behind her, but Elise kept a tight grip on her, refusing to let her fall behind.

"Come on, quickly!" her mother yelled back at them.

"Run! Run!" her elder brother, Peter, yelled as well.

"Hurry!" Susan cried.

"Mum!" Lucy called again, obviously terribly frightened by everything.

Suddenly, Edmund stopped running. Elise was too terrified to stop as well, but she still looked over her shoulder to yell at him.

"Edmund! What do you think you're doing?!"

"Wait. Dad!" he yelled, turning around to run back to the house.

"Edmund, no!" Mrs. Pevensie yelled back at her youngest son.

Peter turned around as well, following Edmund back into the house. "I'll get him!" he said, motioning for the rest of them to continue running.

"Peter, come back!" Elise screamed at her older brother.

Lucy was leaning against her, her eyes wide and frightened.

"Lucy, we have to keep going, okay?!" Elise cried over the sound of sirens and bombs. Lucy nodded with tears in her eyes, and Elise bit back her own, continuing the struggling race towards the shelter.

Once inside, Lucy curled against Elise, tears streaming down her face and wetting her shoulder, though Elise didn't mind; she never did. Suddenly, the shelter door was flung open from the outside, and Peter shoved Edmund in before jumping in himself.

"Why can't you think of anyone but yourself? You're so selfish! You could have got us killed!" Peter yelled at Ed.

"Peter, please!" Elise cried, understanding his frustration but also scared for her youngest brother, who was now hugging their mother, silent tears running down his cheeks. He was holding the picture of their father in uniform close to him.

"Stop it!" their mother yelled. Then she turned to Edmund, rubbing his head. "It's ok. Shhh."

"Why can't you just do as you're told?" Peter said, quieter this time, voice breaking slightly. He was obviously extremely worried about Edmund, which is why he had followed him into the house. Peter just shook his head and turned back to the door, slamming it closed with a bang.