The old house was eerily quiet. It felt foreign now, so distant from the life they had built in Narnia. The air smelled of musty wood and age, a far cry from the fresh scents of the forest and sea breeze of Cair Paravel. The echoes of the world they had left behind still clung to their hearts, but with each passing second, that world felt further away, like a dream slipping through their fingers.
Aria sat by the large window in the Professor's sitting room, staring out into the grey skies of England. The ache in her chest was unbearable. The child she had carried-their child-was gone, and with it, the future she had dreamed of. Her hands rested on her flat stomach, as if trying to remember what had been there only hours ago.
"It was never real," she whispered, her voice thick with emotion, though no one was there to hear her. "None of it..."
Footsteps approached from the hallway, soft and hesitant. Edmund stepped into the room, his eyes finding her instantly. He had hardly left her side since they had returned, his own heart heavy with the same grief that weighed on her.
"Aria..." His voice was soft, almost pleading. He moved toward her, but she didn't turn to face him. "We'll find a way back. We can't just let it end like this."
Her eyes stayed fixed on the grey horizon, her hands trembling slightly in her lap. "It was never real, Edmund," she said, her voice hollow. "Everything we had in Narnia... it's gone. It's like it never existed."
"That's not true," Edmund argued gently, kneeling in front of her, his hands reaching for hers. "We were there. It was real. Everything we did, everything we were-it mattered."
She pulled her hands away, shaking her head. "How can you say that? The child-our child-it's gone, Edmund. I was pregnant, and now I'm not. It's as if the past months were just a dream." Her voice broke, and finally, she turned to look at him, her eyes filled with unshed tears. "And here, we're not even together."
The words struck him hard, and for a moment, he couldn't speak. The truth of their situation hung between them like a heavy, invisible weight. In this world, they were no longer king and queen. They were no longer bound by the love they had nurtured in Narnia. Here, they were just... Edmund and Aria. Two people who had stumbled into something more, only to have it ripped away.
"We don't have to let it be like that," Edmund said, though his voice was filled with uncertainty. "We don't have to go back to pretending like none of it happened. I love you, Aria. That's real, no matter where we are."
Aria closed her eyes, a tear slipping down her cheek. "It's not the same. Everything that tied us together was in Narnia. And now that we're back... we've returned to who we were before."
"No," Edmund said firmly, taking her hands in his again, though she didn't resist this time. "I refuse to believe that. Narnia didn't make me love you. I fell in love with you-just you, Aria. And I know you feel the same, whether we're in Narnia or not."
She shook her head, pulling her hands from his once more. "We built our lives around that world, Edmund. We became different people there-better people. But here, we're just... lost. This world wasn't meant for us." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Maybe we were never meant to be."
His heart clenched at her words, the pain of losing her cutting deeper than any battle wound he'd ever endured. "Don't say that. Please, don't say that."
But Aria stood from her chair, moving to the window once again, staring out at the dreary, rain-soaked world. "I can't do this," she said quietly. "I can't pretend that everything will be okay just because we want it to be. It's gone, Edmund. Everything is gone."
Her words hung in the air, suffocating the space between them. Edmund stood, wanting so desperately to reach for her, to pull her back into his arms and make her believe that they could still have a life together. But something in her was breaking, and he didn't know how to stop it.
"Aria..." His voice was barely a whisper now, filled with the sorrow he had tried so hard to keep at bay. "We can still make this work. We can try, at least. Don't let go of us."
But she couldn't look at him. The tears came freely now, and though she wanted to turn to him, to let him comfort her, the pain was too great. "It was beautiful, wasn't it?" she whispered, her voice trembling. "What we had in Narnia... it was everything I ever wanted."
He moved closer to her, his hand reaching for hers once more. "It still can be," he said softly.
She shook her head, biting her lip as she struggled to keep her voice steady. "No. Not here. Not like this."
Edmund felt the ground beneath him give way to a pit of despair. He had never imagined that the love they had found could be so fragile, so easily lost in the wake of returning to their world. But now, as she stood before him, slipping further away, he realized that Narnia had been more than just a place-it had been the foundation of their love. And without it, they were falling apart.
"I can't do this anymore," Aria whispered, the finality in her words piercing through him like a dagger. "We can't keep holding on to something that doesn't exist here. We need to let go."
Edmund swallowed hard, his throat tight as he tried to find the words that would make her stay, make her believe that they could still be together. But nothing came. He had lost her, just as they had lost Narnia.
The silence between them was deafening, and with a heavy heart, Edmund turned and left the room, leaving Aria standing alone by the window, the rain outside mirroring the storm that raged inside her.
As the door closed behind him, Aria let out a shaky breath, her body trembling with the weight of everything they had lost. She pressed a hand to her stomach once more, trying to remember the life that had been growing inside her, the future that had felt so real only days ago.
But it was gone now, all of it. And no matter how much she wished otherwise, Narnia-and the life they had built there-was nothing more than a fading dream.
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