The boy from Neverland

Mirrors

Emily's POV

I could hear the calm breaths that escaped my parted lips, I could feel the eased rise and fall of my chest, but even with my eyes open, I was still stuck in sleep. It was so dark. All signs of light had vanished from existence leaving nothing more than an endless void – a trap filled with a starless night sky. I crossed every visible path but there was nothing to see. I wondered how long I had been here for. If there was nothing else here, why was I?

I brought myself slowly to my feet, my eyes heavy as I stared into the empty abyss. I began a few steps forward, my boots echoing with loud thuds against the darkness, though the soles were worn down they remained loud under my feet. No surface revealed itself as I continued. I felt trapped walking in an open room – a room that was never meant to be opened.

I wanted to run. The urge to move faster brought some hope, that if I tried, I would eventually get out of this place, but the muscles in my legs refused to acknowledge my efforts. My mind seemed just as stubborn as I tried to remember the last thing I could, anything that would explain how or why I ended up in such a strange place, but again, nothing. There was a severed bridge that was keeping something important out of my mind, something I needed to know. I wasn't sure what it was, but I could feel it waiting for me...a space that needed to be filled...answers.

"What is this place?" I spoke to the darkness, my words barely leaving my lips in a whisper.

Nothing answered my call. No light. No voice. Nothing.

I stared, my eyes flickering at my empty black surroundings.

"Where am I?" I demanded.

Suddenly, a gust of wind answered. Its force whipped through my clothes, a murmur of sounds travelling with it. I listened for them, walking eagerly towards the noise that filled my ears. I couldn't make sense of them until they gradually crept towards me...voices, moving just like the wind that carried them, drifting through my ears, circling around me in the dark. The cold brushed up against my skin as the wind grew stronger leading the voices louder, their echoes fading as they neared my path, cutting clean as they brushed past. I couldn't look back. There, in the distance, was a stretch of light opening up, a beam so bright I squinted letting it seep into my eyes.

The light brought warmth to my feet and with it my halted steps were free. I ran despite the protests of the wind and found the light opening up, the darkness drifting behind me. It brushed away until a solid path was set under my feet. Everything became clear at once. The buildings stood tall, filed in-line down the long main street, bodies of people moved in clusters before and after me, their faces turning away as if the darkness hadn't effected their movements at all. I found myself moving within the crowd and down the busy street unnoticed by those that passed.

The turned down heads of strangers were distracted staring across the road or down at the concrete path. It was only now that I found some turning to me as they passed. In the rush of moving past they stared back, their expressions blank but their eyes showed aggression that made my stomach turn. They seemed to recognise me...but how could they? They were strangers.

The further I moved the more eyes began to notice my presence stand out more than anything else. I didn't dare stop walking. I passed them quickly but the faster I moved, the more people snapped their attention to me, looking over their shoulders, glaring wildly until they were out of sight. Those voices I had ignored...they now surrounded me once again. They were no longer soft whispers but harsh mumbles. They belonged to them.

My lungs strained, my breaths escaping quickly as I rushed past those angered faces. I turned frantically, dodging those that stared back at me until I caught a glance at a side window. I caught my reflection in the glass, but that was all it took for me to understand the looks on their faces as I kept moving. My clothes...the cloak, the torn material, the dirt boots...it all sunk in. I didn't belong here. Where had I come from? Where was I last...