Caged • Robbie Kay/Peter Pan •

Chapter One

"It's a girl."

A hushed whisper came from the mouth of the woods, my head turning briskly toward the unpretentious noise.

"Are you sure?" a different, much younger voice came from a different direction.

Through the vast murkiness of the forest, I could not see any movement other than the breeze delicately blowing through the dark green leaves.

"Well she's heard us now that she's awake. No use in hiding, boys." the first voice had said.

From the blackness, a hooded figures appeared before me. I arose quickly, backing away from whoever was hiding beneath the cloak, but knocking into another.

"Peter must have gotten the wrong one. She looks pretty scared to me." the voice spoke once more.

"Who are you? Where am I?" I asked, turning my head rapidly to each silhouette as they erected themselves in a circle surrounding me.

They all pulled their hoods off of their heads as their eyes continued to survey my every move.

"Do you remember anything? Your name? How you got here?" one boy, who's hair was blonde and curly and irises as black as the forest, questioned, stepping closer to me cautiously.

I tried to remember something, but I couldn't. My mind was perpetually empty, except for memory of the heartbeat and the feeling of of ones grasp and one other small detail.

"Meadow Anora Drew."

The corners of my chapped dry lips turned upward at the remembrance of my name. "My name is Meadow."

"I don't know how I got here." I thought. "I was carried here, I believe."

My racing heart declined and my eyes had adjusted to the darkness. I overlooked five other inquisitive faces; the curly haired blonde making six.

"She woke early. The spell was supposed to last longer." A red headed boy muttered.

"Spell? Am I dreaming?" I inquired. Just as I did so, a great noise transpired from the distance.

"Peter's horn. He knows that we're gone." Suddenly, all the boys scattered and hid amidst the overgrown brush, leaving me to face whatever approached the small bed of flowers that rested beneath my bare feet.

Without a sound, a silhouette approached me from the other side of the forest and when his face was unveiled by the light of the moon, it became familiar. I didn't know how or why. Perhaps I had seen him in a dream or a vision, but I was not mistaken. He was an arriving memory in the vacuity of my disoriented brain.

"Caspar." he said, breaking the silence and pulling me back into reality. He hardly glanced at me as his jaw tightened.

Shamefully, the blonde came from his hiding place, like a turtle from its shell.

"Chase."

"Owen."

He named them one by one as they briskly, but defeatedly approached us from the woods.

"Liam. Nolan. Roux." the three youngest came out at once. They all lined up and stood at attention like soldiers; their eyes intimidated and unworthy to look into the ominous green gaze of their intimidating leader.

"Why are you not asleep in your beds?" he paced in front of them with his arms clasped comfortably behind him. Only silence surrounded us.

"Caspar, you are the oldest. Tell me why you are here and not in the shelter in which I have graciously provided for you." his thick accent was apparent in his low, almost threatening voice.