Peter

Chapter Seventeen - Everything he knows

My body freezes over. It all seemed so real, but how, how, if it even possible, because I think I may have been here before, maybe...

Don't be foolish!

"Peter." I choke, my voice hoarce from just waking up. "Peter!" Suddenly I'm on my feet, the book sprawled on the floor, my knees shaking. I raise my hands to my eyes and cry. I want to go home! I want to forget everything so it can all be fine and dandy again!

Do you really want that? Or do you want Peter instead?

"Home!" And I'm on the floor, my head between my knees, wailing at the top of my lungs because it is all too much and I can't bear it any longer!

A strong arm wraps it's way across my waist. "Wendy..." Peter whispers in my ear. "Calm down... You need to calm..."

"Wendy isn't my name!" I wail, my vision blurred by the tears. "I'm not called that! Stop calling me Wendy!" Because it isn't and I'm scared and I want to go home.

***

I wake in bed. What bed?! Why aren't I in the nursery? Why isn't there morning light coming through the window and Miss Dock busy downstairs.

Then reality hits me.

Peter stands in the middle of the room, his eyes welling with tears. "What is your name, then?" He asks, his voice quiet and sour.

"I beg your pardon?" I ask, pushing myself up on my elbows to see him better. He is standing tall, his hands by fists by his sides, tears spilling from his eyes but he ignores them.

"If you're not Wendy, who are you?!" He yells. I wince and for once I feel vunerable towards Peter. The Peter who I-

Who I loved.

"I-I can't do this..." He says, holding his head in his hands and kneeling on the floor. I scurry over to the end of the bed for him. I hold his shoulder but he cringes away.

"Peter..." I whisper. "Please..." I want him to be the same boy I once knew, not this derranged, twitchy boy.

Peter stands again and sits on the end of the bed, my hands in his. "I'm going to tell you somethings, Wendy, and I need you to trust me..." He strokes the top of my hand.

"Okay." I say. I don't want to state that my name isn't Wendy, but I don't know what my name is anymore, and I don't want to upset him further so I listen intently.

Peter takes a deep breath. "First, I'm sorry I didn't tell you this before. I'm sorry I left you in the forest, I was afraid."

"We're all afraid sometimes, people just react differently to it." I reassure him.

"Still, it wasn't right of me. What- I- Okay, just listen. I'm different. I'm not... normal. My blood is green, and don't think I haven't noticed it, trust me, I've seen enough blood spilt in my lifetime to know that green blood is not right. And then, every so often, a strange sensation comes over me and it feels like I'm trapped in my head and I can still see everything I'm doing, but I can't control it. It's like, I'm trapped in a room, and I'm screaming, don't do it, but I can't stop because... it's like I'm being possesed or something. My eyes go green. That's what was going on when I came to your room that night."

Anger flows through me and I don't understand why. I couldn't help it.

But if he'd tried to resist, I could be safe at home.

All I say is, "Carry on."

"It was horrible. I was going crazy, up here," He indicates to his head. "I was telling you not to trust me, and at one point I thought I'd broken through," I remember that tiny fraction of a second where his soft green eyes had changed to become hazel and full of anger. "I knew you had to disobey me, but you didn't, and now you're in danger because..."

".... because of Aiden?" I finish, but I don't believe my own words.

"Because you've been here before. You were eleven. You had two boys with you, Micheal and Johnathon."

Micheal.

The boy who died, trying to go home.

I stare at Peter in disbelief. This is barbaric. How can it be true?

Yet I believe him.

"And then you went home, but Micheal and Johnathon didn't want to, so you went home by yourself. I didn't want you to go! Most of the boys were willing to keep you prisoner because they didn't want their mother to go!" He hangs his head and his tears fall onto our linked hands. "I'm so sorry..."

I have no words.

So I let him continue.

"Then the worst came. My eyes turned green often and I went away to find you and to bring you back to your real home, here. I bought girl after girl back! I even did this before you came, I used to bring boys here. Most- most of the girls died. They were too young to cope by themselves."

"And then the boys went mad. Mad with the loss of their new mother, mad with not being able to remember their old ones. Because when you come to Neverland, you forget somethings, and when you go back home, you forget about Neverland completely, but I never did, because it was only my body going to your home, but my mind wasn't contious of what I was doing."

"Slightly saved me. He took me away. He didn't catch the madness like the others. It's like he's immune..."

I panic. "Peter... how does this madness spread?" My voice is shaky.

"It can spread in any form, through words, sight, drinking, blood, any way. All of the boys eyes are constantly green..."

I gasp. What have I done?! I took that sample of blood in Aiden's quarters and smashed it into the water! Anyone could have this, this madness by now...

I explain this to Peter.

He leaps to his feet. "We need to get you home." He says. "Now."

***

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Cheers me dears,

Freya :D x