Innocence One-Shots!

2nd Place: 'Imagination by Shawn Mendes' by libraaf (_xcrrots)

The second place winner of the one-shot contest was libraaf's one shot, based on the song Imagine by Shawn Mendes (i love Stitches!)

This was PM'd to me, so I don't have a link to it, but it belongs completely to libraaf. My first reaction to this was anger. I was half-yelling at my computer "WTF how dare you!!" and then I remembered my own philosophy: if your audience is emotional, if they're yelling at you, you are doing it right. The ending had me begging for more! But it also was a really cool insight to parts of the story that I did in only one viewpoint, so it was super cool to see another and it added another layer to, like, half of my own story!

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Love is a mysterious, dangerous thing. It's a long, winding road that doesn't always take us in the right direction, it averts us from our original path, it confuses us with all the twists and unexpected turns. Love is painful. It hurts as it consumes you, sucking you under into a whirlpool of misery and confusion. Love is like a drug; it intoxicates you, changing your senses and altering your perception. It shuts you down and makes you not fully aware of your surroundings. Love is lethal. Love is deadly.

Peter understood this more than anyone.

After Elle – his Elle – left him, he was a mess. Days passed, and all he did was sit at his Thinking Tree, staring into oblivion, wishing for her to come back. Not a moment ran away where he wasn't fantasizing about her whiter than snow hair; or her gleaming smile; or her glowing eyes; or her bubbling personality. Not a second went away without her image plastered into his brain.

The Lost Boys saw this, they noticed their leader's condition slowly deteriorating, bit by loving bit. He was no longer happy, he no longer spent much time at the camp, he no longer played as many games, he was just at his Thinking Tree. Always at his Thinking Tree.

They realized that something had to be done, Pan couldn't stay this way forever, surely? He needed something to knock him out of his shell, he needed a new Elle.

And a new Elle he got.

Consulting the Shadow (or even being in his presence) was mortifying: just like Peter, he could kill you within an instant. Only it took less to aggravate the Shadow than it did Pan.

Plucking up all of their courage, the Lost Boys silently tip-toed around the island, carefully pinpointing it. They spoke to him and revealed their plan, wishing for a new Lost Girl to come to Neverland, to get Peter back to how he was before. The Shadow agreed, however – though the Boy's did not know it at the time – he had a second purpose for the new girl. He was going to bring Peter down; take his weakness and use it against him.

Therefore, on the twenty-third night without Elle, a girl with hair like gold and eyes the color of scorched maple leaves arrived at the Island, washed up on the shore and coughing up the salt water that had flooded her lungs. With burning eyes and stumbling steps, she managed to find herself at a tall tree, with a boy in a green shirt and brown boots holding his head in his hands behind it. She was terrified at who he was and where she was, so in a panicked state, clumsily stepped backwards.

As cliché as it may be, her foot managed to land on a dry twig, snapping it in half.

Her breath got caught in her throat as the mysterious boy's head jolted up, his eyes that were brimming with mischief and disobedience darting around the area. Her bright mass of blonde hair gave her away, the golden curls sticking out like a sore thumb in the dusty greens and browns of the foliage.

"Who are you and what are you doing on my island?" within a split second, the boy's arm was against her neck as he held her pinned her down tightly to the trunk of a tree. At first glance, he seemed to be weak, in no way capable of harming a girl, however, the death grip that he had her in now implied otherwise. His eyes now blazed with anger as he looked her up and down, surveying her every movement, every breath.