Somewhere In Between // Niall Horan

Chapter 1: Straight On Till Morning

 

❝ She asked where he lived.

‘Second to the right,’ said Peter, ‘and then straight on till morning.’  ❞

~~~

    Whitney Davies was in an interesting situation.  One, she met new people everyday but often said goodbye for good to them soon afterwards.  Two, she hadn’t eaten, slept, or done her homework in a very long time.  Three, when others said she lived in her imagination and not in the real world, they weren’t wrong.

   Why?  She lived in Neverland, that’s why.  Simple as that.

   Actually, it wasn't that simple.  This wasn’t  the Neverland you’re thinking about.  You see, Whitney was here because in the real world, she was comatose – and has been for three years.  This place was the waiting room for all coma patients; while their bodies were sleeping, they were here.  Not once did Whitney see Peter Pan or Tinker Bell because, well,  they didn’t exist.  This particular Neverland was a strange place.  It didn’t look a lot like the Neverland you saw in the movie, either.  Similar, but not quite.  There were trees and flowers and clouds, but no mermaids or pirates or fairies.  It was an enormous island, like what Walt Disney imagined, but with less charm than the home of the boy who never grew up.  Whitney liked to think of it as a huge grassy meadow with a relaxing, yet strained, atmosphere.  There was a source of light that no one questioned; everyone just accepted its existence and that it was there in place of a sun or moon.  The place was bleak, but not entirely unattractive.  Frankly, words cannot describe this intriguing place and do it justice.

   Perhaps the most fascinating part about Neverland was the people. They all wore what they were wearing at the time of their...accident.  Curiously, if their clothing was bloody or ripped in the real world, it wasn’t visible in Neverland.  [Whitney, for example, was still wearing her oversized Harvard sweatshirt and black leggings.  Both were in pristine condition.]  Every single Neverlander’s body and mind was in a deep sleep that wouldn’t wake up until the right time.  You would find all ages and skin color in this place, because comas never discriminated.  They may have come from different backgrounds, but here they were the all the same.  Everyone randomly appeared out of nowhere, wandered about looking for answers, and vanished quicker than a blink.  There were always confused people seeking an explanation and bitter people waiting to leave.

   Whenever someone asked Whitney how she ended up in Neverland, she always gave the same response: “I was knocked into a coma when I was sixteen and found myself here.  I asked someone where I was and they said that this is where you wait until you wake up.  I’ve been stuck in this place for a really long time, okay?  Can’t you think of a different conversation opener?  Everyone here always asks the same question.  ‘Why are you here?’  I swear that’s the only reason why people talk to me.”

   Whitney wasn’t a mean person.  Far from it, actually.  But if you had to tell a story you’d rather forget over and over again, you’d be annoyed, too.  

   There were lots of reasons why Whitney hadn’t left Neverland yet.  Complicated reasons.  She hated explaining them to people because it only reminded her that she was still stuck somewhere in between sleep and awake.  She made many friends here who would leave to wake up before she did.  And then Whitney would be left behind to wait until she herself left this wretched place, which she couldn’t until...yeah.  Complicated reasons.