Neverland Rebel

Chapter Sixteen

It's dark outside in the kingdom. Night has fallen, and my parents are drinking bottle after bottle. I watch them get more and more drunk, and try to remain as invisible as possible, hoping to escape their wrath. It's always worse when they're drunk. When my parents are sober, they only yell at me, maybe hitting me once. When they drink, they exchange punches and kicks with drinks of alcohol. In their intoxicated haze, the best entertainment is beating their daughter. I try to quietly get upstairs to my bedroom, but my parents see me go and call me back. I walk to the slowly, dreading every second. I hear them cursing at me, insulting me, demeaning me. My mother throws an empty bottle at me, which starts the incident off. My father lunges at me, hitting every inch he can reach. I feel bruises blossoming over me, and know that I'll have even more cuts to cover in the morning. I feel everything at once, every hit and kick and insult thrown at me, like every night before today and every night after today as well. I feel myself falling to the ground as they hit me even harder, and I start shaking with the force of their blows.

I wake up suddenly, trying my best not to scream. There's a hand on my shoulder. I violently pull myself away from it, my mind still hazy with the memories of the nightmare. I breathe more evenly when I realize it's only Pan. He looks down at me, worry written in every line on his face. Distantly, I realize he's saying something. "-was that?" I'm still not quite awake, although I'm doing my best to distance myself from the nightmare, so I just shrug. He questions me again, "What was that? You were shaking." I was? I thought I could contain myself more than that. "It was nothing." He doesn't seem convinced, and motions for me to get up. I follow him into the forest.

Once we find ourselves hidden in the forest, he turns to me again. "Look, I know you're hiding something. This isn't the first time you've woken up like that, shaking, and terrified. I know something's wrong." I walk a few feet away. "It's nothing, honestly." He catches my arm, pulling up my sleeve just a few inches. I try to yank down the sleeve again, but it's too late. He can see the scars and bruises that cover my skin. "How did this happen?" I laugh bitterly. "Can't you see? There was a reason the shadow took me, to get me away. The only problem was, he came too late. I had to get out by myself." I watch as a wave of understanding washes over Pan's face. "It was your family." I nod silently. "It happened every night. There was nothing I could do except stand there." The understanding on Pan's face changes to rage, and he rakes a hand through his hair angrily. "I swear-I'm going to find them and-" I catch Pan's hand, gently pulling it away from his face, where it had formed a fist. "It's okay, honestly. I'm away from them, it's never going to happen again." I try to calm Pan down, but he just turns away. "It already happened. They deserve pain, for what they did." A jaded laugh bubbles out of me. "You know you can't do that. If you beat them up, you'll sink to their level. They can't do anything more, and we can move on." He nods slowly. "I know, but-" I cut him off. "It's okay, Pan. Honestly." I watch the rage slowly seep out of him. "Okay." I put my hand on his shoulder. "Let's get back to camp. We should get some more sleep."

***

It's around midday, and I'm walking around camp. I need to sharpen my dagger, and I'm just headed out to find a suitable rock when I see Felix and Pan talking to each other in hushed voices. Their backs are to me and they can't see me, and I'm just about to keep going when I hear Pan say my name. He's talking about what happened earlier, about my family. "You didn't see, Felix. There were scars covering her arms, and when she was asleep, she was tossing back and forth, and you could tell she was terrified. How old was she when it started?" Felix nods. "There's nothing you can do, Pan. She was right. You don't know who her family is." "They hurt her, Felix. I want to make them suffer." Pan mutters. "Look. Let's agree to this: we won't do anything to her family unless her family finds the island. If her family does anything to hurt her in the future, you can do whatever you want to make them pay, but for right now, you leave them be." Pan nods once, and sensing the conversation is over, I slip away into the forest. Pan was really that worried about me? I don't know why he's so hung up over this, but at least I know that I'll be safe if my family comes back.