As I reached a quite big tree, I held onto it, almost collapsing to the ground. I felt exhausted. More than that. My lungs burned from all the heavy breaths I took and my legs felt shaky, not even mentioning the pain everywhere. There was nothing on my body that didn't scream for a break.
I let myself slide down the tree and stopped when my but reached the ground. I closed my eyes, planning on resting for only about five minutes and leaned my head against the tree trunk.
Suddenly a new, different wave of pain overcame me. Describing it as pain would've probably even been a lie. Not pain, numbness. Sudden numbness of my whole body. I knew what it was, or better, who it was. Pan who just found out I escaped. That bloody demon could obviously control me from who knows where.
"Oh fuck it!" I cried and hit my head against the trunk in madness. All I could do was sit here. Moving was hard enough before he figured it out. Now it was somewhat impossible to most body parts.
Knowing that, I closed my eyes and tried to ignore those odd feelings. Maybe, for some reason, the numbness would stop sooner later and if it did, I would continue my journey. But for now I knew I needed a moment of rest.
The planned five minutes didn't work. Somewhere deep in my mind I knew it. I knew I had to get up but I just couldn't get myself to wake up.
Suddenly, somewhere in the distance, I heard a loud scream. It woke up my mind and I opened my eyes in shock.
The first thing I noticed was my no longer numb body. Obviously it did fade away sooner or later. But just then I realized something. This was not the place I fell asleep. It looked different.
I grabbed against my neck as I felt the scratching feeling of something against it. Fear hit me as I realized what it was.
"Fuck!" I yelled, immediately looking around me. The place looked different from before. I mean, everything looked somewhat the same in this place but still. There was some sort of tiny camp that I definitely didn't see when I fell asleep. And the ground. It was different.
But the most convenient thing out of all leaned against a tree near me with it's eyes closed. Pan.
My heart almost stopped as I saw him standing there. He didn't even look a bit uncomfortable. This couldn't be part of his plan, right? But seeing him standing there, completely calm and with a nasty smirk on his face even with his eyes closed, changed everything. And explained a lot.
It explained everything. The sudden disappearing of my numbness. The scream of, as I realized, a young boy who seemed to have a fight with an older one. Not hard to guess who or what they were. Lost boys.
"Hello, love. Glad to see you remember me." I heard someone near me saying. As I turned to look at the person, my gaze was caught by his, staring right back into my eyes. Chills ran through my body, making me shiver. His gaze was uncomfortably extrem, intimidating.
"Get that thing of my neck, Pan!" I growled, making him chuckle slightly. He pushed himself of the tree and made his way to me.
"You think you're allowed to make any orders? After what you've done." He asked, making me face the ground in embarassment. I couldn't even tell why. Why would I be embarrassed for trying to safe myself?
"I'm...sorry..." I mumbled, pulling my knees up and wrapping my arms around them. In the corner of my eyes I could see him crouching down to me.
He placed his hands on my knees and started drawing circles on them with his thumbs. I immediately felt my cheeks flushing pink at his soft touch. It was so different from his strict, demanding voice. I yawned, getting strangely tired for a moment.
"You're sorry, huh?" I nodded quickly and saw a smile growing on his face.
"I wish I could believe you...but for now you'll stay with it." He answered, pushing himself of the ground and turned to leave.
For a moment I felt completely dumbfounded. He was manipulating me. All he did was messing with my emotions and when I started to get comfortable around him again, he turned back to the cold-hearted demon. This way my mind had absolutely no moment to rest.
"But- But--" I finally stuttered, getting up aswell.
"You can't leave this thing on me. I don't want this!" I yelled and followed him to the other boys who seemed unsurprisingly interested in our conversation.
Suddenly, without any warning, Pan stopped and turned to me again. I almost bumped into him in shock. As I saw the anger flickering in his eyes, I immediately shrieked away a bit.
"I can, love. You should see it as a good thing. It makes sure nobody can harm you and you'll get to see your brother if you do as I say." Pan's voice remained calm but I could hear a clearly annoyed undertone.
"How is a dumb collar saving me from any harm?" I wondered, more or less to myself than to any specific person.
"No lost boy will dare to harm you with the dumb collar on. Not as long as your under my protection." Pan explained and I thought about his words. It felt strange imagining him as my protector. After all he was the one who also brought me into a situation where I would have to be protected from the lost boys.
"Whatever..." I replied, walking up to the only other person I knew. He was also the only one that was obviously didn't ears dropping on our conversation.
"Felix!" I called, forcing an unrealistic laugh, "My best buddy! How are you?" He raised his head, glaring at me. In his eyes layed an unhealthy murderous spark.
"I see-- not so well." I stated, glancing around me in case I migh would find a way to get myself six feet under.
"Imagine yourself as the one telling Pan that his girl ran away. You think you'd be good?" He answered, obviously in a rather bad mood. Thinking of it, I could definitely understand his mood there. I don't think I would've been alive if I would be the one telling him that.
"Yeah-- I'm sorry about that. It's just, quite unpleasant being held hostage and not able to see your family. Kind of makes me wanna run away to be honest." I explained, feeling like this was the most obvious thing to explain.
"Oh don't worry! You're going to see your family really soon." Felix answered and smiled, making me cringe on the inside. The way he was suddenly smiling so awaiting felt like he knew things I did not know.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, mustering Felix in confusion.
"Just wait until Pan explains it to you. You'll be amazed." The way he said his words and petted my head afterwards almost freaked me out. What was this about? What was going to happen?
"You're just making some silly jokes, aren't you?" I questioned.
"Believe that if you want. Truth is that I'm already looking forward to see your dumbfounded face when you hear what's going to happen."
"Your-- your rude!" I mumbled. His smirk grew wider as he carefully stepped closer.
"Boo!"
I stumbled backwards, until I saw the distance between Felix and me big enough to turn around and run straight to Pan who was in a talk with another boy.
As I reached Pan, I grabbed his arm, not intending to let go of it. He glanced at me in surprise before his gaze turned into confusion.
"What is it?"
"Felix creeps me out." I responded and leaned my head against his shoulder as I started to feel awfully dizzy. I felt terribly tired after being over my first shock. It was not really surprising, remembering that it was still in the middle of the night. That truly made me wonder how all of them could be that night active.
"What has he done?" Pan asked, giving the other boy a sign to leave us alone. He then turned towards me completely, pulling me against his chest. My brain stopped working. This shouldn't happen. I wanted to press myself out of his grip and punch him. But instead I leaned my head against his chest and breathed in his scent. My eyes felt heavy. My brain tired. My body craved for some rest
"He-", I yawned, "said something about my family and that he is looking forward to see my dumbfounded face." I whispered.
"Oh did he say that? Just don't listen to him. You're tired, take a rest." Pan ordered with a lowered voice and sat down on the ground, making me sitting down aswell. I glanced at him in confusion until he opened his arms, gesturing me to snuggle up to him. I hesitated. It would be silly to do that. Absolutely dumb. He was the enemy. The bad one. The actual fucking demon.
I crawled up to him and let myself fall into his arms. He wrapped them around me, stroking my hair with one of them. My eyes grew heavier with every second and I felt myself drifting of to sleep. Somehow my whole body was weirdly craving for this kind of attention. Was it because of the lack of attention I got before? It could't be. I was no person to have any reactions to my past life. It was simply not the best but I got along with it. No pathetic consequences. There had to be another reason why I couldn't make myself leave his hug.
I did this all for Henry.