The Brightest Star

Chapter 23 - Until it's Safe to Stop

Edmund took a deep breath as Alaska walked out of view. Suddenly, it felt like every emotion was hitting him all at once. He felt tears threaten to fall. So he quickly made his way to his room, slamming the door behind him.

What just happened? He thought as he ran a hand through his hair. He spoke to Jadis' daughter! He wrote letters to her! He showed her his vulnerability! He looked into her eyes! For only a moment, he thought of her as a friend. The daughter of the White Witch, was almost his friend.

Tears began to fall as he realized this. He soon began pacing the room. It felt like 100 pounds were on his chest. He could not believe what just happened. How could he do this? How could he be so blind and naive?

Suddenly he heard a knock at the door as Peter walked in.

Edmund looked up at him with wide eyes, tears streamed down his face, which had a look of guilt written all over it.

"Edmund what's wrong?" Peter asked quickly, worry lacing his voice.

"I can't believe I did this Peter." Edmund said, still pacing. "I'm such a horrible person."

"Ed, what happened?"

"How could I do this?! I cannot believe I did this!"

"Edmund!"

"I'll never be forgiven for this! I'll be stripped of my title as king. A just king would never do this. I worked so hard to redeem myself, it was all for nothing."

"Edmund calm down!" Peter shouted, grabbing his brother by the shoulders and bringing him back to reality.

Edmund's head snapped up, and he stared at Peter with wide eyes.

"Okay Edmund." Peter said. "Take a deep breath, alright."

Edmund did as he was told, seeing as it helped, he then took two more. Eventually calming down.

"Okay." Peter said. "Now, we are going to sit on your bed, and you are going to calmly, tell me what happened."

Edmund slowly nodded, as he sat on the edge of his bed, Peter sitting next to him.

"What's going on, Ed?"

Edmund took a deep breath.

"Remember the girl who I've been writing letters to?"

"Alaska?"

"Yeah. Alaska." Edmund breathed.

"Well, what about her?"'

"Turns out, I was right. She is up to no good. But, it's worse than I thought."

"What do you mean?"

Edmund took a deep breath, staring into Peter's eyes. His own eyes filled with tears, a guilty look on his face.

"What's wrong Edmund?!" Peter asked, by now he was really beginning to worry."

"Alaska is, the daughter of the White Witch." Edmund choked, practically forcing the words past his lips.

Peter's eyes went wide. "What?!" He asked, sounding shocked.

Edmund exhaled. "I wrote her letters, I told her about myself and my life. At one point, I even considered her my friend. Then I got this horrible feeling. Plus it became obvious with the way she spoke and what she talked about. I just met her. I looked into her eyes. All I saw was, evil, cold, ice, and Jadis."