Potential for Darkness (Peter Pan)//(Robbie Kay)

21 ~ Private lessons

<<<Day 29>>>

It was way past midnight, yet Adelina sat awake in her bed, watching, as if transfixed, the moths fluttering around the oil lamp that hung just outside her window.

Could she really have killed Blake if Felix hadn't interrupted her murderous craze? She looked down to her hands, to the dagger she was playing with, spinning it between her fingers. Metentis, she mused. Her Latin was rusty, but she was quite sure that it meant harvester. Would she really be able to reap people's lives with this blade? The thought sickened her now, how close she'd been to ending someone's life. Distraught, she gazed out of her window.

It was one of the hottest nights she'd ever experienced, the air still and heavy, and sweat made her hair stick to the back of her neck as she tied it up in a bun in an attempt to feel less flushed. A low sound of murmurs coming from the main clearing caught her attention. She wasn't anywhere near sleep anyways, she sighed, and anything was better than doing nothing.

Curiously, she stood up and walked over to her window; nobody should be up and outside at that hour, Pan forbade it, much less allowed a group of people to meet up in the middle of the night. Yet there they stood, a small gathering of about ten people, standing next to the fire pit, the flames illuminating their half shadowed silhouettes and throwing into sharp contrast their features. Adelina scanned their faces yet didn't recognize any of them.  They all seemed to be about her age, but she couldn't recall having ever met them before. The atmosphere seemed tense, grave, for no one spoke or moved. The only sound was those low secretive murmurs and the crackling of the flames. Finally, her eyes landed on the two figures who seemed to be the  leaders of the group. Pan and Felix.

Well, that explained it.

As she watched on, the nervous, yet determined faces of the strangers, the way their eyes darted around, discovering their surroundings, Adelina realized that they were all newcomers. How Pan had managed to recruit nine teens in one night, she had no idea. He'd probably visited an orphanage, promising a better life, spinning lies about happiness and freedom.

She leaned her elbows onto her window ledge, pressing her forehead onto the warm glass. Her heart felt heavy. Those teens had no idea what they'd gotten themselves into. Pan had probably warned them, at least that was what he said he did, yet how could they have accepted to come if they really knew what was in store for them? Why would they want to fight a war that wasn't theirs?

She looked on at the small-scale assembly. Oh, how much she wanted to barge in running to tell them, warn them that Pan was not to be trusted.

Yet, she stayed planted inside, scared of something she couldn't identify, and she watched them all night as something seemingly important was being discussed, until finally, at dawn, the group dispersed as Felix led them somewhere where she couldn't see them anymore.

The compacted dirt ground rushed towards her. Or more like gravity made her rush towards it. An impact. Breathlessness. The noon sunshine blinded her. Soon, a figure leaned over her and blocked out the sun. Her eyes didn't need to adjust for her to know who had attacked her from behind while she'd been innocently crossing the training clearing.

"You really think you can become one of us?" Ryan growled, his perpetual snarl deforming his face. Gosh, again with that? Adelina didn't even know what had gotten him in that mood today. Perhaps he was simply  angry all the time. "Just because you got lucky a few times doesn't mean you have what it takes." He nudged her exposed ribs with the tip of his shoes, and she winced. In her position down in the dirt, she knew how defenseless she'd be if he decided to kick her. "Pan is blinded," he went on, his eyes narrowing in disgust, spitting out the words like poison. "He doesn't know what is right anymore, with all that's going on." He scoffed. "Training a girl."