The Way To Neverland

Disclosure

A million thoughts shoot through Peter's head as he runs back to The Hole. He just keeps seeing The Old Man with a knife in his hand. He storms through the door and desperately sighs when he notices nobody is home. He'd hoped that one of the boys was there to distract him, but unfortunately it's completely silent. He angerly stumps to the kitchen, but suddenly stops when he notices Wendy.

'What are you doing here?' he asks, still heavily breathing from the run he took back from The Old Man.

'Eh, Peter? Are you okay?'

He doesn't answer, but Wendy starts to notice a few differences, his foot tapping quickly on the ground, the fiddling with his fingers, in one word: his restlessness. Something is wrong.

'Peter what is wrong?' she repeats importunate.

Before he can answer a loud thud interrupts their conversation. Wendy runs to the window to see what happened, and sighs relieved when she realizes it was just a bird. Peter however... A look of complete panic appears on his face as he sees the bird laying on the ground. He runs through the door without saying a word and Wendy follows right behind him.

'raven!' he yells while running into the woods.

Why was he screaming about ravens? Was it a code? Did something happen? Runs through Wendy's head. He keeps on screaming the same word over and over again as he runs deeper into the woods.

'Peter!?' she huffs desperately. 'Please wait!'

Peter stops but doesn't look at her, he's turning and looking at the tops of the trees. His chest moving up and down intensely. Wendy puts her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath and at the same time trying to understand what's going on.

'Peter what's wrong?' she asks.

He doesn't answer.

'No, no, no. O God, please no...' he mumbles to himself while he falls to his knees.

'Peter?' she says, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible.

Wendy slowly walks up to the crouched boy. Peter had now put his hands over his head as if he's trying to cancel out a sound. She slowly squats next to him and puts her hands on his hands.

'Peter?' she asks again while slowly pulling his hands away.

He doesn't answer, but when she sees his face she quickly puts her arms around him. They sit like that for a few minutes before Peter leans back and Wendy lets him go. Peter starts to turn red when he looks down to the ground, but Wendy quickly turns his face back.

'What's wrong?' she whispers while looking him straight in the eyes.

'It...It's I don't know if she's okay...' he mumbles while looking at his hands.

'That who's okay?' Wendy asks patiently.

'My sister...' he says, and as he looks up he looks almost guilty.

'Your síster?' she asks incredulously. 'How is that possible?'

'He changed her, he can do what he wants with her...' he mumbles. 'The Old Man has no conscience...'

Wendy doesn't understand half of what he's saying, but she guesses this isn't the right moment to ask questions.

'Peter, can you tell me what happened?' she dares to ask after a few seconds of silence.

'We...Our house was horrible, my dad was always away and my mother has been dead since I was seven, so my sister and I were always home alone. I remember she was afraid of the dark, so I used to tell her stories. Stories about pirates and mermaids, but then one-day hé came. It was at the climax of the story, the brave hero was about to slay the evil pirate and at that moment he appeared. No flashing lights or thunder or something. He was just...there...'

Peter pauses for a second, his look is distant, as if he's there again.

'He told us about Neverland "Let's go to Neverland and never leave until forever ends", that's what he said. So we left our horrible house to go to this beautiful place and at first, it was ideal but after a while...The Old Man changed my sister to a raven, like her name. She had to pick unhappy children to take and I was doomed to lure children to Neverland, knowing that they would regret coming later...'

Peter tightly crosses his arms to comfort himself as a feeling of guilt overflows him. He thinks of all the children he had basically abducted and he looks at Wendy, who he had grown to care about, but even her life was wrecked by him. Wendy can only imagine how hard this must have been for him, and when she looks at him she only feels reverence.

'Peter, I'm so sorry,' she says with a frown. 'that must have been horrible...'

'It was...' he mumbles.

He takes a deep breath and shakes his head to clear his mind. His face turns straight again and Wendy recognizes the mask he puts on all the time. She takes a last glance at this vulnerable version of Peter and then a frown appears on his face and he's the Peter she knows again, but she can still see how he feels like he has a crack in his mask.

'Peter?' she asks softly.

He looks up, his eyes reflecting a vortex of emotions and as she sees how broken he is she realizes she cán trust him.

'I want to tell you something...'

He tries to keep his face straight but she can see his curiosity.

'About what?' he asks.

'About the dream I had...'

Peter immediately sits straighter and his face lights up.

'It was about Micheal, he was sick, and...and' Wendy feels the tears well up in her eyes as she thinks of her little brother and she starts to talk faster. 'I was a bird and flew into this...void and he appeared, but...he...'

Tears are now streaming down her cheeks and she starts to sob. A look of compassion appears on Peters' face and he lightly puts his hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

'...He was dead Peter, déád' she whispers with a broken voice. 'You're in constant fear for your sister...'

She pauses for a second to look at him.

'you must understand, I háve to get out of here and I need your help...'

Wendy's cheeks are almost dry when she looks at him again, her heart beats fast as she tries to predict what his reaction is going to be.