Peter Pan: The Land Beyond

Chapter 8

"Freedom." The word slips out.

"I can give you that," Peter smirks. "Just stay with me. You'll be free to do anything you want."

I chuckle, "I don't know if that's true."

Peter leaps up to his feet, his hands on hips and his head held high. "Of course, it's true."

"Oh, come down." I lean up and grab his wrist tugging him back down. He follows and lays back down with a smile returning to his lips.

"You don't have to worry about adult things ever again," Peter says.

I frown. "But I will grow up."

Peter's smile wavers. "Maybe if we go to Neverland, you'll stop aging."

My arm gives in and I fall flat on my side on the bed. I sigh. "Peter," I mumble.

Peter mimics how I lay but he scoots closer to me. Our foreheads are almost touching. I can feel his hot breath skim across my cheeks. He doesn't have a scent that I can pinpoint but it's not bad.

"Yes, Lahona?" He asks. His face relaxes and his eyes watch mine attentively.

"Will you still like me when I am no longer young and beautiful?"

"You'll always be young and beautiful," Peter assures.

Peter is not wrong. I will live frozen at a certain age for a very long time. It could take hundreds of years before I start aging again and that's if I don't get killed beforehand.

I rest my eyes, taking in deep breaths as exhaustion starts taking over my body. The sound of Peter's pattering heart fills my ears with how close I am to him. My sensitive hearing does me great justice on this matter. Images to faint to register play through my mind.

Something touches my cheek, it's soft and doesn't alert me. It moves along my jaw and up to my lips where it freezes for a second.

The images start to become uniform and I know I am falling asleep. I can no longer feel the touch anymore, and I wonder. Is Peter falling asleep too?

---

There is a cold breeze that sinks into my skin, awakening me from my slumber. My eyes gradually start to take on shapes and when they do, I see Peter sleeping in front of me. His right hand stretched out close to my face. He looks so peaceful in his sleep. I don't want to move, afraid of disturbing the image that I am seeing but my stomach growls.

As slowly as I can, I roll over and off the bed. A cold chill sweeps into the room from the window. I take the lone blanket from the bed and drape it on top of Peter so the breeze doesn't wake him. My arms wrap around my chest and I walk to the window. There are gray clouds on the horizon, causing massive waves on the ocean's surface. It's going to rain.

My ears flicker when the sound of shuffling can be heard from down below. I glance over my shoulder to the ladder. The boys must be up. Making my way to the ladder, I take one last glimpse at Peter and then step down into the common room. Turning around I spot all three boys sitting around the rectangular table, they are pretending to eat food from empty wooden bowls and plates that scatter the table.

"Why don't you eat real food?" I ask, approaching them.

"We don't have any food." Pint frowns.

The table doesn't have a piece of food or drink on it. How have they been surviving this long without food?

"Let's go find some," I suggest.

Without them agreeing or not, I head for the main door that leads into a hall that exits the tree. I hear their feet patting on the ground behind me.

"Okay. I know there isn't food nearby so we'll need to spread out. Don't go eating anything until you bring them back to me to be examined-there are poisoned berries out there." I order, turning towards them and wagging a finger in the air. "Be careful and don't be gone for long."

"Yes, my Queen!" They say in unison and then burst off in random directions.

As they disappear into the bushes and ferns, I head for the beach. My fingers glide over the leaves of low-baring branches. The birds sing and insects chirp, the wind whistles through the tree canopies and I can already hear the waves crashing onto the beach from the distance I am at. My feet are too light to hear as I carefully walk along to my destination. Occasionally, my hair or dress gets snagged on a touchy branch but I easily pull away and continue.

There is thunder off in the distance, sending chills through my body as I watch the clouds roll in. The faintest sound of thumping rings in my ears. I look around and I see something walk out from the bushes up ahead. It's a tall figure. I squint my eyes to get a better view of who it is. The mop of dirty blonde hair at first makes me think it's Peter and I start to smile.

But then I glance down at his dull brown eyes, and I frown. I stop in my tracks and cross my arms.

"Nick." I almost hiss.

"Lahona." He replies but a grin grows on his face. My brows furrow in confusion. A crack erupts in my ears, and pain swells at the back of my head. I lift my hand to feel the back of my head while slowly turning in the direction opposite of me.

Standing there is a small group of human men and one is close enough to grab me. His right hand is raised with a cutlass in his hand, a grimy smile on his face. He starts to blur and I shake my head to ward off the disruption of my vision. My head starts to hurt in the front and I fall backward. Before I land I start to see darkness at the corners of my vision.

"Peter...." I whisper and then nothing.