Keeping Fantasia: The Third Book of the Fantasia Series

Chapter 53: Neverland Misadventures - Killing Time

Chapter 53: Neverland Misadventures – Killing Time

(When: Somewhere in Time)

Jim tried to explain everything at once. He desperately wanted Mary to understand, but it was the urgency in his voice that she heard, not the explanation.

She heard the fear. She heard the desperation.

Gently she stopped him.

"James." Mary touched his arm. Closing her eyes to the pounding door, she corrected herself with astounding composure. "Jim...you are talking too much."

Jim was surprised by her interruption. Nevertheless, he started to speak again, determined to relay the explanation screaming in his chest. 

But Mary wanted none of it. Looking directly at Jim, she asked him the only question that mattered.

"What must I do to save my daughter?"

Jim stared. Time seemed to stop. Everything seemed to stop: Captain Hook at the door, Peter and Wendy upstairs, George Darling, the Christmas party, everything blurred into the background. 

Jim stood with Mary Darling at a crossroad of time. He was standing in the future trying to change the past, and she was slowly drifting away from him, succumbing to her fate.

Fate.

Fate is a mystery that mankind will never solve. Fate is tricky. Some people change their fate, blowing by all boundaries and expectations – even their own. But some people, the unlucky ones, meet their fate on the road they take to avoid it.

But Mary was different. She saw her fate and she accepted it willingly, if it meant saving her daughter.

All she needed was Jim's reassurance.

Jim shook his head. He shook it again angrily, trying to tell Mary how much he wanted to save her and how desperately he wanted to give Wendy the only thing she had ever wanted. 

But...desires aside, Jim was slowly understanding the irony of fate: Mary Darling's death was the worst moment in Wendy's life. But it was also the moment that defined her entire future.

Jim met Mary's gaze.

Mary smiled. She smiled like sunshine through a storm.

"What must I do to save my daughter?"

Jim lowered his head.

"I think..." he whispered, "That you...open the door."

Mary was silent. Jim shifted away, grieved as an executioner holding a noose.

But Mary pulled him near. Bringing the scent of violets and sweet pea, she gently kissed his cheek.

"Thank you Jim Hawkins." she squeezed his hand. "Bless you."

Jim pressed tears into his eyes as Mary disappeared. He wept as she walked to her death, a martyr for her daughter.

Captain Hook and Maleficent killed Mary Darling that night, just as they had once before. But as Mary's soul lifted to heaven, Peter, Jim, and Wendy escaped to the Second Star, where Ariel and Silver were waiting to fly them home.

But...not before little Wendy saw her mother murdered by Captain Hook...and not before Captain Hook heard her screams.

"Follow them," he said, twisting his hook from Mary's chest. He gazed after the flying children, an odd expression on his face. "Wendy Darling...Peter Pan...Hawkins...Hmm...Me thinks my memory is stirring...it seems...past has been present again."