Not Just Stories

Chapter 14: True Tomorrow

I eventually reached a village. It was busy. People were trying to sell to make a profit, women were washing clothes, men were working, and children were watching a puppet show.

This seemed like a stable village. Would I fit in?

"Hello! Why are you hiding?" A little girl asked behind me. I jumped at the sudden noise.

"Shhhh go back to your parents," I whispered. "Go on! Sho sho!"

"I'm playing hide and seek. Wanna play?" She offers innocently.

"Go on! Leave me alone!"

"Okay then..." she skips off in a different direction.

Wearily, I enter the village. A baker called out for his goods to be sold. He didn't seem to be having much luck. I walked up to him.

"Well hello, young lady. Would you like to buy anything? We have-"

"I'll take two of the best thing you've got." I interrupt him. "I'm also new here. Do you know of a place I could stay?"

"New? What village are you from?"

"I'm not from a village. I just need a place to stay, to live." I avoid the question due to the last people trying to take advantage of me.

He showed me a place that I could stay in. I paid for my food, paid for the house, and hid from everyone.

I laid down on my bed with my money bag. It was almost empty. Is this what I've been searching for? Is this the better tomorrow that I have been wanting.

Of course, it is. Why would I question it? This is freedom. It has to be.

I used my magic to bring clothes to my dresser and everything else I need to live here. I settle in, making my self-comfortable with my surroundings.

Slowly I start to close my eyes and think about what has happened. I think about Peter.

"I don't miss him." I laugh. How could I? He's a monster. This is where I belong. This is home.

•Peter•
I missed her terribly. Neverland's not whole without her. I'm not whole without her. I wanted her back but I know that she doesn't love me.

I still had to protect her, I had to kill that man or else he was going to kill her. She doesn't know it was me and it's best that way.

The lost boys miss her too. Alex needs her and misses her almost as much as I do. We all got over Wendy but I don't see it ever happening with Ryan.

Days turn into weeks which turned into months without her. I still love her. I had noticeably gotten more aggressive since she left.

She would calm the part of me that was a monster, a demon. But that's exactly why she left.

Soon I will die and it will be all my fault for being this way.

I stay up late at night wishing that maybe one day I will wake up with her by my side. That she would come back because she loves me. I wish, I hope, but I don't believe.

•Ryan•

It's been 3 months living here. Everyone here knows me, although none of them happen to know the real me. The real me that was somewhat revealed in the tavern.

I'm living an okay life but something is missing, something that I have been searching for ever since I came here.

I've never really been able to clear my mind of Peter. It seemed almost every night I would dream of him, having fun back in Neverland. I wake up the next morning and know that it was too good to be true.