༄ ⍴һ᥆ᥱᥒі᥊ ᥕᥲrrі᥆r sһ᥆r𝗍 s𝗍᥆rіᥱs ༄

In a Time of Darkness

Okay... So this one was kind of unplanned and I wrote it in about an hour. I was trying to sleep one night and I kept having a line repeating in my head. It kept me awake and I started to write a story out of it. It's kind of dark, but I hope you enjoy it!

᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽

Summary: The light is more powerful than the dark. But even heroes can fall to darkness.

TW: depression, mentions of suicidal thoughts, references to being suicidal, mentions of torture

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"How dark is the darkness?" He asked and she remained silent, tears streaming down her face. "Don't you think it's time to come into the light?"

The Telmarines tossed Ana into the cell and she fell hard, arms too weak to catch herself. One roughly grabbed her to attach her chains to the bolt on the floor. She cried out at the mistreatment. He laughed and kicked her side for good measure as he walked passed. She whimpered and curled in on herself, trying to ignore the agony such a motion caused. The cell door slammed shut behind her, but Ana didn't turn towards it. She focused on the dirty wall before her. She had nothing left to focus on.

It had been about two weeks since the Telmarines had arrested her. But she had spent a week in torture and torment. A week of hearing their jeers and seeing their lusty glances. Every time one of them reached to touch her, she shivered. Not in fear of what they might do to her, but in disgust as she knew what they wanted to do to her. Ana was only glad that they hadn't been able to act on them. Not yet at least.

Her back was so bloody and torn it hurt to move. Several of her ribs were cracked, if not broken, so breathing hurt. She had burns all over her arms and legs, but she knew those would heal better than the others. Phoenix would take care of those. The others... without proper treatment would eventually kill her. And even if they were treated, they would leave scars.

Today's session ended with them dislocating her shoulder and then tossing her to the ground, mere feet from the roaring fire. She could feel the heat from it and wouldn't have been surprised to find her face was also burnt. There was hardly a place left untouched on her body. Her clothes were mere rags at this point and she thanked Aslan they hadn't stripped her for the whipping. But that was all she could thank him for.

"Why are you doing this to me?!" she cried into the darkness. "What am I being punished for?" As like every other night, she received no reply. "What have I done to deserve this? I've done my best to serve you and I saved as many lives as I could. Is this punishment for the death of the others? Answer me!" she screamed.

Ana cried herself to sleep, just as she had done the past few nights. Her questions remained unanswered. She grew angrier and more bitter the longer He stayed silent.

After two more weeks of torment, Ana realized they had stopped asking questions. They no longer cared about where they could find the Narnians or anything the King had wanted to know regarding them. Now, they were torturing her for the fun of it. Then, when they returned her to her cell, pointlessly securing her—she didn't have the strength to walk. It was just for added humiliation, for having magic—something happened that no one could have predicted. That night, as she cried herself to sleep listening for answers that never came, Ana begged Him to take her life. Begged Him to put a stop to this pain.

When she awoke the next morning and found herself being dragged from the cell for another session, Ana screamed in anger. She was angry at the Telmarines, at herself, at the Pevensies for leaving, but most importantly at Aslan for leaving her in this torment. He never answered and her fight finally left her. Something in her died right then.