The Legacy of Peter Pan

Chapter 11: The Problem With Mermaids

Peter was at the clearing standing next to the pond. When had he come here? He wanted to call out for TinkerBell, but grasped at his throat when no sound came as it should. Only a raspy wheeze. He didn't have a voice. The boy fell to his knees and sunk his hands into the mud. It was then that he saw the sickening reflection in the pond. It was himself, he knew. But his face was marred with a layer of leathery wrinkles and a long winding white beard growing from his pointed chin.

NO!

He tried to take his hands from the mud, get far away from this awful place. Back to Wendy, back to the boys. He couldn't move. He was stuck. And when a claw-fingered shadowy hand squeezed his shoulder, he couldn't let anything out except a terrified moan. His lips were sealed.

"You can't escape your fate, Peter." The voice came from the shadow, but was his own. Hollower and colder. "Look in the pond and see what you will become! Old and weak. The Lost Boys won't want you anymore. You'll be sent away, just as you were before..."

Before?! Before what?! Before when?!

     Peter woke with a jolt, panting ridiculously hard. He ran his fingers through his hair, trying to slow his shuddering breaths and relishing in the fact that it was only a nightmare. He frantically groped at his chin. No beard. Phewph. The boy blinked away the bleariness in his eyes, trying to figure out exactly where he was. The room he was in didn't have the familiarity of his own bedroom. So, then where-

He flinched when he noticed Wendy beside him, wrapped in a cocoon of fur covers. Her chest rose and dropped steadily. Her chestnut curls fell around her face. Above him, the stars were shining in the inky night sky. The roof of the treehouse was still open. Peter placed his head in his hands, racking his brain as to how he could've ended up falling asleep in this spot. Ah yes, now he remembered...

Peter yawned as he pressed his palm to the entrance of the hideout and pushed the wooden slab inwards and proceeded to crawl in. The top half of his body was already disappeared inside when he heard Wendy call for him.

"Peter, is that you?"

Almost too eagerly, Peter turned, which caused him to hit his head on the top of the entrance frame. He fell out onto the ground, cupping his forehead. He grunted.

"Oh! I didn't mean to startle you. I can't sleep. I wanted to know if you wouldn't mind coming up here with me."

"I'll be there. Give me a minute." He answered, still dazed from his injury. Peter massaged his temple.

Wendy retreated back into the treehouse, away from the doorway. It wasn't long after that that Peter was clambering up the rickety ladder, for he was much too exhausted to fly at the moment. But all weariness was wiped away as soon as he laid eyes on Wendy. He still wasn't able to shoo the flittering fairy wings in his stomach since that particular moment earlier this evening, and now they were becoming much more apparent.

Wendy sat on the end of her bed, brushing her hair in the white moonlight. She was wearing a nightgown, shorter than the ones Peter had seen her in before (only two, but still a considerable amount for not being someone who lived with Wendy), and as pink as the roses they picked for their flower crowns in the clearing. The color of the sky during a setting sun. There was also the way the nightgown hugged her body...and the lace embroidered collar that plunged significantly low. A warmth bloomed throughout Peter, tingling everywhere from the tips of his fingers to his toes. He clenched his jaw, hoisting himself up into the treehouse.

He wished the warmth would fade away. Really, first at the picnic and now this? Once more, he asked himself, why was he acting like this all of a sudden? Wendy'd been here before and he was perfectly fine. That was right. Girls didn't affect Peter Pan. This was probably all having to do with his little "growing spell", and if that was the case, Peter was going to work even harder to push these feelings down. Nothing, not even these silly thoughts about Wendy, was going to make him grow ever again.