Unhappily Never After (Neverland Archives II) (ON HOLD)

Chapter 16 | The City of Quiet

The mushrooms glow in the dark, soft multicolored light filtering through the absolute darkness of the night sky and the shadows of the Faerie Forest.

I've been sitting here for hours, huddled under the protective crown of a mushroom. Peter still hasn't come back.

I wonder if he's dead.

Stars, please don't let him be dead. I don't want him to be dead. Whether it's because I like him or because it would be my fault, I don't know. I can't think properly, can't really do anything but stare at the treeline and pray that Peter will come strolling out.

He doesn't.

"What are we looking at?"

I jump ten feet in the air when a voice comes from over my right shoulder. When I spin to look, there's nothing there.

A soft laugh--behind me. I spin again, and there's... something, standing there, between me and the trees.

It's a figure, shrouded in a dark cloak-like thing. The voice was female, but I can't see her beneath the fabric.

"Wha-- who--"

"Breathe, darling," she says, dryly. Her voice is like a chime, but... aged. Not an old woman voice, but not young. Kind of rough and smokey around the edges, like meringue.

"Who are you?" I demand, my voice much higher pitched than I'd like it to be. I try to take her advice, but all I can see in my head is Peter getting yanked into the forest--Peter, who swore to protect me. Peter, who isn't here.

Stars, I'm so selfish.

"A friend, don't worry. You're Gwendolyn, right?"

I blink. "How do you know my name?"

"Everyone knows your name," the woman says, as if it's obvious. "You're Peter's girl."

"I am not," I say, crossing my arms protectively. I'm not Peter's anything. Least of all his girl. The woman laughs.

"Didn't mean like that, child. Where's your head, then?"

Implying that I took her words wrong... because I like Peter? I scoff at her. "What do you want?"

"To help you. Of course, if you'd rather stay here and wait for the Nightmares to come back..."

That thing was a Nightmare? Like the creatures that took over Earth? Stars, what is this, some alien movie? Earth. As if we're not there anymore.

I suppose we aren't. I'm not, that is.

Breathing. Focus on breathing, Gwendolyn.

"Help... would be... appreciated," I say slowly. "But I'm waiting for Peter."

The woman snorts. "He'll be along. Not soon, probably. When he gets to killing them, he likes to take his time."

"Killing them?"

"The Nightmares. Well, the bad ones, anyway."

"There are Nightmares that aren't bad?" I don't even want to bother making sense of this conversation. And if Peter was so upset about the griffins, why does he like killing these things?

"Well... don't know if I'd say that. Some of them are useful, is all," she says, and it looks like she shrugs. "Are you coming, or not?"

She doesn't give me time to decide before she starts walking between the glowing mushroom stalks. Without much of a choice, I follow her, still hugging myself tightly.