Magic ➙ Ethan Dolan

chapter seventeen

Two days had gone by since Grayson had suffered the injury from the dreamshade—coated arrow, and he was still suffering. A white bandage was wrapped around the wound, concealing it from prying eyes of the world.

The sight of it from last night replayed in Annie's mind like a broken record player, but she had no idea what it might look like today. It could be better or worse, and the thought of it being worse made her skin crawl with anxiety.

Peter wanted to take his Lost boys' minds off of everything that's happened recently, which meant he had something special planned. That something was a hike around Neverland, so everyone could see the wonders of the island.

Annie wasn't interested in a tour, since she already knew most of Neverland. There were parts of the island she hadn't dared to explore, and she doubted Peter would show them on a casual nature walk through the jungle with the rest of the boys. All the teenager wanted was answers, but she knew those wouldn't be coming anytime either.

A permanent state of annoyance had embedded itself inside Annie, because she knew she was getting left out of the loop of most things actually happening on Neverland, and Annie was concerned that some of those things involved her.

A slight breeze played with the girl's chocolate brown hair as she sat on one of the logs by the fire, orange sparks crackling peacefully in front of her as she pulled the hood of her hoodie closer to her ears. Today was one of the days that Neverland wasn't it's usual warm temperature, but Annie wasn't sure which emotion of Pan's brought cold weather. Whatever that emotion was, if he kept up with it, there'd be snow soon on the island.

"Are you coming, Annie?" Nathan asked as he poked the girl's shoulder, snapping her out of her thoughts. Annie had been so zoned out that she didn't notice all the other Lost children were getting ready to start their trek into the jungle, Peter and Grayson at the front of the pack with matching expressions on their faces; exhaustion with hints of anxiety. Annie had never seen the twin brothers look so...depressed. Grayson was normally the life of Neverland's party, with Peter constantly holding a pleased smirk across his lips.

     "Yeah, I'm coming." Annie replied, getting up from the log. "Go on without me, I'll catch up." The girl told Peter, who nodded in response and started leading the boys into the jungle.

     Annie had no intent of joining the boys on their adventure, and waited for every last one of them to shrink furthur from view as they headed deeper into the dense trees. Once Annie knew she was all alone, she headed into Peter's tent. Annie had only been in here once or twice, not including last night, and wasn't familiar with everything the room had to offer.

     Annie walked around the room, careful not to touch anything. If anything was out if place, Pan was sure to notice. However, Annie wanted answers, and she knew she'd have to find them herself.

     A dresser was a common place to keep things someone wanted to hide, so Annie started with the dark oak six drawer dresser against one wall.

     Pan's tent was set up in a way that Annie was slightly jealous of. His bed was pushed up against one wall, with a night stand beside it, then the dresser. A matching oak chest sat at the foot of the bed, with a shelf on the wall opposite the bed. Covering a part of the floor was a circular shaped woven rug of various shades of green. Annie made a mental note to rearrange her tent when she had the chance.

     Back to her mission—Annie pulled open one drawer of the dresser at a time, carefully rifling through Pan's belongings. He had a lot of green clothing, that's for sure. The dresscode on Neverland consisted of green, black, and brown.