Stone

[monkeysaru]

She turned his heart to stone.

With one look into her pale face, the touch of her careful hand on his shoulder, the taste of sweet sugar on his lips, his heart solidified into a gray, unfeeling mass.

Beating slow and erratic, it pumped black hatred through his veins at an alarming rate, turning his blood cold and sending shivers down his spine.

The world didn't hurt anymore.

For the first time in his life, Peter's words didn't sting, Susan's reproachful looks didn't repel him, Lucy's tears didn't drag him down.

He could do anything. Anything at all.

"They're at the little house in the dam, with the beavers…"

No consequence.

For mere seconds, he felt on top of the world. This is what joy felt like. This was true achievement.

She dragged him down.

Chained to ice in the bitter cold, he blinked. What had happened? Was it something he had said?

The shackles were heavy and bit into his pale skin, leaving red marks where they chafed. He sat in the cold and tried to make the best of it, but at the sound of tall footsteps, his sluggish heart of rock began to beat a little faster. The Faun in the other cell ducked away. He withered as her angry shadow appeared high above him, enveloping him in sudden darkness.

"Where did they go?"

"I…I don't know!"

She raised her wand high to strike him. His eyes widened, and he ducked.

"The beaver said something about Aslan!"

The words fell from his chattering teeth before he could stop them.

The very name caused the stone to shudder, his heart aching. But the feeling subsided as she looked at him with pure contempt, sparing him for the potential he still presented.

The Faun's look of disgust and betrayal as he was dragged from the prison caused his heart to shudder once again, splintering.

"Edmund misses his family."

Thinking of his siblings, the stone cracked, a small fracture down the side as he curled into himself, finding no warmth.

Sitting at her feet, snow hitting his face, he had never been so cold. His stone heart aching with heaviness, as it seemed the longer he was with her, the heavier it became. Daring to glance up at her, he was met with her haughty expression, her eyes boring into his soul and hardening his heart even further. He almost gasped aloud with the feeling. It suddenly hurt to have a heart so heavy.

She had promised him no pain. No worries.

He worried.

The snow soon began to melt. He was dragged along, occasionally slipping in the melting ice, thinking of his family. His heart began to sink further, his hopes dying even as the world around him emanated life.

Would he see them again?

Did he want to?

Stumbling into a sunny glade, he was forced to watch as a fox died even as he tried to save him.

A sharp slap to the face, everything going numb. Tears of shock leaked from the corners as he shut his emotions down, locking them far within his heart.

He couldn't risk getting attached to anything anymore. Apathy was best, now, even as he walked to his death.

His cold heart lent no emotional groan of sorrow, nor did it shake out of anger or pain as he walked ahead of the dwarf, behind the witch, suffering the sharp torment of a whip, causing him to fall to his knees in the mud and the rocks. His hands tied behind him, ropes chafing his wrists and making them bleed terribly. He wondered vaguely if it was black blood, the filth that had been churned through stone for so long.

Suddenly, he was tied to a tree, all hope gone and eyes dully looking on as the camp snuck about quietly beneath the darkness of the crooked winding trees, shrouding them all from the moon's view.

The sound of a knife being sharpened chilled his blood to his core, but he couldn't even shiver. He had no strength left in him.

He was doomed to die.

Even so, his stony heart beat fast as the knife came close, tempo matching the beating of the ground beneath him as his vision began to darken.

Sounds of screaming filled his ears before he could register the fact that he was not sitting against a gnarled tree anymore.

Eyes snapping open, everything was a haze, his heart beating quicker than it had ever beat before, what felt like hope seeping through his body as he was whisked away to somewhere better than this. He didn't care where.

Anywhere was better than this.

Light poured into his eyes as he sat up, pulse thumping wildly as he struggled to identify where he was, how he had gotten there. He was lying on soft, plush cushions and covered with the warmest quilts – he had been sleeping. How long it had been since he had slept! Pulse beginning to slow as he detected that he was in no immediate danger, he slid his cold, bare feet from his bedding onto the grass below, standing up slowly. He regretted that decision immediately as his legs screamed out and his vision began to blacken once more, knees buckling and giving out beneath him.

As he fell, he shut his eyes and braced for the impact, knowing it was inevitable.

He never hit the ground.

Opening his eyes, he blinked, wondering at the sea of gold before him, capturing his gaze for several seconds in his confusion. He looked up.

He was caught in the paws of a very, very large Lion.

He wasn't entirely sure what he should do in such a situation. He settled for just staring wide-eyed, mouth slightly agape into the warm, golden eyes that were much larger than his own. There was no sound for several moments, only the sound of Edmund's own pulse beating harshly in his ears. He began to slowly back away, his breathing shallow, completely entranced but terrified beyond anything he had ever known.

The Lion jumped.

In a flash of gold, the Lion was on top of him, paws on his chest, staring deeply into his eyes. Edmund's face was suddenly full of very large, growling teeth, hot breath blowing harshly through his tangled hair.

He could feel the paws itching to release its fatal claws and sink into his flesh, ending him swiftly.

He didn't dare move. He didn't dare make a single sound.

He was going to die.

Edmund could hardly breathe with the weight on his chest, his eyes wide and full of terror, and all he could think about was his siblings, and were they safe, and how he would never see them again, and how sorry, how truly heart-wrenchingly sorry he was. Lucy, with her silly brown hair and her big blue eyes that he had caused to cry so many times in her young life; Susan, her mothering behavior causing him to turn away from her, to call her bossy and loudmouth and a variety of other nasty names; Peter, the one he had hated the most, the one he had fought with and screamed at and beaten and run from and almost killed – these were the things that plagued his heart of stone, the crack that kept breaking and forming new fractures.

The Lion gave a low, merciless growl, and Edmund knew it was over for him. He would die, and his siblings would never know that he loved them, that he truly did love them with all of his gray, broken heart of stone, and that he was so sorry for everything he had ever done. The Lion shifted, and he took as deep of a breath as he could, eyes going impossibly wider still as he gripped the grass beneath his thin fingers, a tear leaking out from the corner of his eye.

The Lion ducked His head and exhaled a blast of warm air over Edmund's chest.

The boy gasped, his heart beating so fast, the stone being ripped away as the Lion breathed upon him. His vision began to spin fast – he closed his eyes, pulling at the grass beneath his fingers. Everything suddenly hurt.

Oh, God, it hurt.

He began to truly feel for the first time in years, the stone torn away, his emotions unleashed in waves. Again, the Lion breathed upon him, and Edmund made the smallest of sounds as the ice around his heart began to melt, the ice beneath the stone. It leaked from his eyes in a rush, bitter tears of sorrow and self-contempt pouring out as he felt completely and utterly broken, lying in the grass, sobbing beneath the feet of the Lion. He blinked away his tears to look up at Him, the One who had saved him from his own heart.

He saw love in His face.

Edmund began to sob once more.

--

The continued story-in-progress can be found here. http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8225644/1/Stone

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

I remember reading this on FanFiction! Man, it's been a while since I did....
Lovely, just like last time I read it.

[jesusgirl4ever]

Ooh, good story! I read this part, then I went to FanFiction to read the rest.

[narniagirl11]

Wow.
I have never, ever cried while reading a fanfic but I did while I read this one. It was really powerful to me because my little brother is so much like Edmund and I often feel like I am such a Peter. I've tried to change, to be gentler and more sensitive around him, but it's so hard. He gets on my nerves all the time, making it very difficult to be patient with him. And I really don't want him to turn to evil like Edmund did, so I'm really trying to overcome my tendencies to get angry with him.
This was a very powerful story and I will definitely check out the rest on fanfiction.

[monkeysaru]

Thank you all for your kind words. (: as I said, this is a story in progress, and I hope to get a new chapter out very soon. I'll be posting here again when I do!

[monkeysaru]

I've just posted my fifth chapter, "Strength", for anyone who would care to read.
Let me know what you think!

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8225644/5/Stone

[Eriathwen]

You brought tears to my eyes, may I call you Saru? It was beautiful and heart wrenching. I especially loved the part when his heart is melting which could be seen by his tears, just perfect ^.^

[Lil]

You know that I love this story, Monkey. Well Done! Well Done!