˚✶•━━━━━━•❈•━━━━━━•✶˚
𝑳𝑼𝑪𝒀'𝑺 𝑷𝑬𝑪𝑼𝑳𝑰𝑨𝑹 𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑹𝒀
•✶•━━━━━━━━━━━━•✶•

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 the Pevensies had arrived, rain streamed down out of the grey sky as if a waterfall had fallen over the countryside. The dark clouds swirled, tumbled and collided with each other while the wind howled over the landscape and caused the branches of the trees to dance so wildly that some even snapped under the pressure. Though the clock had only struck three o'clock in the afternoon, the sun could barely penetrate through the curtain of rain and it felt as if the twilight neared already.

Rosaleen had been avoiding her brother all day, as his harsh words still rang painfully loud between her ears, but a part of her knew they would have to talk soon. If he really wanted to leave, to fight in the War, she couldn't spend the remaining time being angry at him or it would be like she had already lost him.

She lingered in the door opening of the living room while taking a deep breath, and Susan's voice sounded through the area.

'Gastrovascular,' she said, and it was followed by a pair of groans from her siblings.

Rosaleen frowned before shrugging it off and walking inside the dimly lit room. The only light came from the lamp on the side table next to the couch and the light bulb flickered every few seconds.

Susan sat on the couch, a thick dictionary laying open in her lap while her right index finger pointed at ─ Rosaleen presumed ─ the word "gastrovascular". The other Pevensie sister sat in the window sill, staring with a bored expression at the rain that clattered against the glass. Peter rested in the arm chair not far away from his youngest sister, his posture a bit slouched but he perked up when he noticed Rosaleen walking towards them.

'Hi,' he said with a grin, and Rosaleen smiled as well. 'Care to join us in the exciting game, guess the meaning of the word?' he continued.

Rosaleen's eyes shot between him and Susan; the latter glaring murderously at Peter, but then Rosaleen glanced at her own brother who seemed more interested in what Edmund did lying under another armchair with a pocket knife in his hands than in Susan's thrilling game.

'As fun as that sounds,' Rosaleen started, 'I actually came to see my brother.'

Alexander looked up just as the youngest Pevensie brother managed to unscrew one of the metal pins under the chair's sitting. Rosaleen made a mental note to not sit in that chair anymore.

'Can we talk?' she asked Alexander, and he rose up from his seat.

'Sure.' He put his hands in the pockets of his trousers as he followed his sister out of the living room, and the siblings quickly left the others behind as Susan asked once more what "gastrovascular" meant.

When they reached a more secluded room, one that just consisted of two armchairs and a fire hearth, Rosaleen turned around to face Alexander. She folded her hands behind her back to stop them from fiddling with the fabric of her dark red skirt. Her eyes darted through all of the room as she mustered her courage, and then she met his gaze.

'I'm sorry I ran off yesterday. It was childish and selfish,' she apologized.

Alexander gave her faint smile while rubbing the back of his neck. 'It's alright. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that, I'm sorry as well. And I definitely didn't intend to drop the news on you like that.'

Rosaleen opened her mouth to say something more, but both of the siblings' attention was drawn to the door leading to the hallway when a pair of footsteps ran past, softly tapping like a bunny's paws and barely audible above the clattering of rain against the window.

Alexander, being the closest to the door, opened it on a creak, only to be met with Lucy's frantic whispering, 'Don't tell Peter you've seen me. We're playing hide and seek.'

Alexander chuckled. 'I won't, I promise,' he said while closing the door again, and the soft running continued immediately. He turned back to Rosaleen who had a smile playing around her lips as well, but as soon as she caught her brother's eyes, her smile faded somewhat away.

'I also wanted to say,' she began after taking another deep breath, 'that if you really want to enlist in the army, I will not try to stop you.'

He took a step closer towards her, but yesterday she had stopped him when he had tried the same, so this time, he halted at an appropriate distance. 'Thank you, Rose,' he said.

An anxious silence lingered between them for a moment.

'Then, are we alright again?' she asked with a small voice.

'Of course,' he answered, and in relief, she let out a suppressed noise that sounded like a sob and a chuckle at once.

He opened his arms in a warm gesture. 'Hug it out?' he asked. Their mother used to make them do that in the past whenever they had a fight and despite her passing it stuck with them as if they could still hear her gentle voice echoing between the walls.

Rosaleen took him up on that offer without hesitation, because even though they could bicker a lot as siblings, she hated it when a serious fight came between them.

They embraced each other tightly and as Rosaleen felt his protective arms around her, she dearly hoped the War would be over in a few weeks. It was a small chance, of course, but she wouldn't know what to do without her big brother.

Alexander squeezed her tight one last time before taking a step back and breaking their embrace. 'Come,' he said. 'Let's see how the Pevensies' game is going.'

Rosaleen nodded and they walked out of the scarcely decorated room, leaving it and their fight behind them.

Side by side, the siblings walked back through the mansion, and at the head of the grand staircase, Rosaleen halted in front of the arched window to look at the great oak tree outside. The vibrant colours of the leaves were barely noticeable through the grey haze of rain, but the foliage glistened like a starry night as the struggling daylight fell upon the dripping droplets. Rosaleen could stare at the scenery without growing bored anytime soon, but she snapped out of her mesmerization when Peter's voice sounded not far behind her. She hadn't even noticed him walking up the stairs.

'Have you seen my brother or sisters? We're playing hide and seek,' he asked, and she turned around while Alexander next to her pretended to think really hard.

'No, sorry,' he answered with a grin, and Rosaleen gasped dramatically for air.

'You would cheat to win from your siblings, Peter?'

'Well, it is a big mansion,' he answered, barely containing the smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

'Not to mention with lots of hiding spaces,' she added.

'So, have you seen them?' Peter tried again after a short silence, but Rosaleen shook her head with an innocent smile.

'No, sorry.'

He stared at her in an intensive manner and although she tried to fight it, she still felt the familiar warm feeling spreading towards her cheeks, yet, despite her flustered state, she refused to avert her gaze.

'Liar,' Peter said eventually in all seriousness. 'I see how it is. Very well, I'll find them on my own.'

'I─, eh,' she stammered, not sure if he really was offended, but then he laughed and walked past them, into the dark hallway. He moved forth as silently as he could, occasionally checking behind some scarlet red velvet curtains or a particular dark shadow next to the protruding stone walls.

Alexander gave his sister a curious look, and his eyes shot between her and Peter's back she seemed so focussed on until a realization dawned over him.

'She never said she wouldn't help you find them,' Alexander said before Peter stepped out of hearing range. 'She can tell if you're getting warmer or colder to even the playing field.'

This time it was Rosaleen's turn to give him a curious look. 'I can?' she asked since they had only seen Lucy.

'Just pretend.'

In the distance, barely noticeable due to the shadows of the mansion embracing him like a second skin, Peter turned back to the Summers siblings. He put a finger on his lips but beckoned with his other hand for Rosaleen to come closer.

'What about you?' Rosaleen whispered to her brother but he pushed her gently in the direction of the oldest Pevensie.

'I promised Mrs Macready I would help with the tea,' he quickly made up, and though she raised her eyebrows in disbelief, he nudged her again and descended the stairs.

Rosaleen rolled her eyes at him before walking over towards Peter. She followed in his footsteps as he searched for his hidden siblings, but just as they rounded the corner towards the next hallway, Lucy's voice echoed through the air.

'It's alright, I'm back. I'm alright.' Her voice sounded from a small staircase of just a few steps at their left, and they quickly ascended the stairs.

'Shut up,' Edmund's voice sounded. 'He's coming.'

'Well, that was easier than I thought,' Rosaleen said and Peter smiled at her over his shoulder shortly before letting out a chuckle when he saw Edmund and Lucy. Edmund had his head stuck out from between a curtain while Lucy stood in the middle of the hallway. Her cheeks were flushed and her auburn hair peaked in several directions as if the wind had just blown through it.

'You know,' Peter started, 'I'm not sure if you two have quite gotten the idea of this game.'

Lucy stared perplexed at him. 'But weren't you wondering where I was?'

Edmund groaned, stepping completely out of his hiding space from behind the curtain. 'That's the point,' he snarled at Lucy. 'That's why he was seeking you.'

Rosaleen startled when all of the sudden, Susan came up from behind them.

'Does this mean I win?' she asked while Rosaleen turned halfway around to give her a questioning look.

'Depends,' she started, 'did you touch the home base?'

Susan chuckled. 'The what?'

Rosaleen's cheeks flushed a deep red when she saw all the Pevensies ─ except for Lucy who still seemed to be lost in thought ─ giving her a funny look. 'Alex and I used to have this rule that you win from the one seeking you if you touch the home base,' she stammered as an explanation. She always thought everyone would have the same rules while playing hide and seek, but apparently not.

Edmund laughed harshly. 'That's ridiculous. Who taught you that?'

Rosaleen's blush made way for a pale colour, sensing all too well his hostility towards her.

'Regardless,' Peter said, drawing the attention away from Rosaleen, 'I don't think Lucy wants to play it in either way.'

Hearing her name made the youngest Pevensie snap out of her swirling thoughts. 'But I've been gone for hours,' she said in such conviction that even Edmund stared at her with curiosity.

'What are you talking about?' Susan asked her, but Lucy didn't need any encouragement as she already made wild gestures towards the hallway laying behind her.

'I was hiding inside the wardrobe farther up ahead, but it isn't an ordinary wardrobe! A beautiful forest lay at the other side of it, and it was snowing. I even met a faun, Mr Tumnus, and he said I was in Narnia.'

Peter and Susan shared a look while Edmund snickered, but Rosaleen's heart skipped a beat.

'Narnia?' she repeated, and Lucy nodded excitedly. She grabbed the older girl's wrist and dragged her with her.

'I'll show you,' she said while skipping in the opposite direction Rosaleen and Peter had come from. Lucy's auburn hair bounced around her head with every step and though she had short legs, her siblings had to hurry to keep up with her and the blonde ─ as Rosaleen too sped through the hallway; driven by the wonder and possibility of seeing the magical land her grandfather had written about.

They entered a large room, all empty apart from the wardrobe at the far end of it and a white blanket that lay in a messy heap on the floor.

Lucy still pulled Rosaleen with her but when they reached the wardrobe, she let go of her hand to open the wardrobe. Both girls' eyes sparkled in excitement, but when Lucy pushed the coats aside ─ already preparing to step inside─, they were met with the wooden back of the wardrobe.

'What? No,' Lucy exclaimed whereas Rosaleen's eyes lost their sparkle, embarrassment washing over her. She really had hoped there was a magical land beyond the wardrobe, one that could momentarily take her away from this reality. Such things, though, only happened in books, she tried telling herself.

'Where's your snowy forest now?' Edmund asked sarcastically when Lucy rapped against the wood with her knuckles.

'But it really was there!'

'One game at a time, Lu. We don't all have your imagination,' Peter said with a sigh, but when he, Susan and Edmund prepared to leave the room again, Lucy bristled with fury as her emotions got the better of her.

'But I wasn't imagining! I wouldn't lie about this!'

'I believe you,' Edmund spoke up to everyone's surprise.

Lucy frowned at him. 'You do?'

'Yes, happens all the time. I found a cricket pitch in the bathroom cupboard only this morning.'

Peter rolled his eyes at his younger brother. 'You always have to make things worse, don't you? When will you grow up?'

Rosaleen awkwardly shifted her weight from one leg to another as the argument unfolded itself in front of her. She peeked one last time beyond the coats in a poor attempt to give the quarreling siblings some sort of privacy (and partly to make sure the wardrobe was still just that: a wardrobe).

Edmund, though, shouted at Peter that he wasn't his dad before storming out of the room, and a heavy silence lingered in the room.

'Well, that was nicely handled,' Susan said to Peter, and with the rustling fabric of her skirt flowing behind her, she walked away as well, her nose held high in the air.

Lucy gave Peter a pleading look. 'It really was there.'

However, her brother shook his head slightly. 'That's quite enough, Lucy.'

He left the room as well, and with tear-filled eyes Lucy glanced up at Rosaleen.

'Do you believe me?'

Rosaleen's eyes flickered between the shimmering dark wood of the wardrobe and Lucy's sad expression. The blonde found it curious that the young girl had called the magical land Narnia when the only time she herself had heard it was in the professor's notebook. Rosaleen, however, reasoned Lucy might have read it somewhere in the mansion as well, yet, the youngest Pevensie didn't strike her as a liar.

Lucy interpreted Rosaleen's silence and hesitation as a negative answer and it sent her over the last edge, causing her to let the tears finally flow over her heated cheeks. She wiped them away with trembling fingers as she turned around on her heels and she fled out of the chamber before Rosaleen could call her back.

Rosaleen sighed. 'Certainly nicely handled,' she muttered, repeating Susan's words. She closed the door of the wardrobe and reached down to grab the blanket. For a few moments, she struggled to throw the blanket back over the wardrobe but she gave up when for the fourth time, she did not cover the wardrobe but herself. Shaking the blanket off her, she folded it neatly and stored it away in one of the secret compartments under the window sill.

She paused in the door opening, glancing one last time at the wardrobe over her shoulder, but then she closed the door behind her as she set off to find her brother. She wondered what he would think about Lucy's claim to have discovered Narnia, and perhaps he could convince her this was just some strange coincidence.

•✶•━━━━━━━━━━━━•✶•