the same as it was before, and the Pevensies had transformed out of their silk dresses and golden robes into the itchy fabric of school shirts and hard shoes that turned their feet raw.

The train rolled past with a flash, just as it had before, and the people that were on it continued with whatever they were doing in the last five seconds, just as they had before.

The only thing that had changed was The Pevensies.

If you looked a little closer, their eyes were a little more glassy and a little more dull, their silence weighing as a reminder of the things they had lost, who they had lost, on their previous journey. Their hair was slightly fuller and their skin browner from the sun that had somehow escaped from the underground walls, and their faces told stories of men with swords and girls with healing cordials that could arise the bravest soldiers from heavy slumbers and escape them from the grips of death themselves.

'Are you coming, Phyllis?'

Phyllis.

Susan smiled politely and the siblings turned to retrieve their bags, heavier than the bags they carried in Narnia, and filled with much more things that they felt were useless and boring. They gathered onto the train, huddled together as more students filed forwards, pushing them against the wall and into each other. They didn't mind.

Edmund felt something cold in his palm and looked down, opening it to find Catherine's necklace, glimmering and shining as if it was winking at him. He could feel Narnia's magic radiating from it before dimming down, not wanting to cause suspicion, and he immediately grinned. He reaches down to open his satchel, not wanting to lose it in the train, and finds his smile fading as he searches through his bag.

'Do you think there's any way we could go back?'

Susan looked up at him, confused as to why he would ask such a question he knew the answer to. Peter pursed his lips, passing his brother a sympathetic smile.

Edmund forced himself to smile, a chuckle breaking out from behind his teeth. 'I've left my new torch in Narnia.'

As his siblings began to laugh, he found himself swallowing down something heavy that had lodged itself in his throat. He had left quite a few things back in Narnia.

Every sound, every sentence, every beat in his heart seemed to scream out; her.

If he tries hard enough, he could hear her angelic voice, whispering against his ear or teasing him with her melodic laughter. He can see her running through the forest, her hair flying as she moves behind her. And then he can't see anything at all. Thinking and reminiscing, he couldn't deny the small spark of warmth that hit him in the chest, but it couldn't match the flurry of heat he felt around her.

But she had let him go.

His memories had come to an end, concluding into a painstakingly long four minutes he hadn't seen her. He doesn't begin to feel a little better.

He knew she would move on. He hoped that he would, too. But while he was certain on how he felt, he had never known her feelings. He had been too foolish to ask. Edmund quickly shook off the disappointment, feeling it trickle down his skin like water. He should have seen this outcome from the beginning, his mind reeled and his desperation for silence slowly overcame him.

With a flicker of brown hair, his eyes widened and he resisted the urge to climb off the train and run towards her.

She had come back for him. She was waiting for him.

But Catherine was not waiting for him at the train station, but instead where she belonged, where she told him she would be. Narnia.

Narnia.

He would get back as soon as he could. He promised himself he would. He had to. There was no other explanation. He hadn't told her how he thought she was.

He didn't see a lot of things these days.