Edited ✔️✔️
Chapter 1
Her backpack slammed against her back with each harsh movement and her legs were burning from how hard she was pumping them. Black converse slapped against the concrete as Mia raced down her street, her pants sounding extremely heavy in her ears. She could feel her feverish pulse drumming against her temples.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Although she had gotten ready in less than twenty minutes, chose to wear a beanie over her ponytail instead of brushing her hair, and she had practically scarfed down her mother's cold eggs, Mia was late to her bus stop. Very, very late.
Somehow when her digital alarm clock went off at its usual time of 6:00am, Mia, after drowsily turning it off, had fallen back to sleep only to be startled awake by her very angry mother thirty minutes later. It was the first time since kindergarten that had ever happened and Mia was terrified of what the repercussions would be if she didn't make it.
So it made sense when she almost cried with happiness as she turned the corner and saw the familiar, yellow vehicle in the not-to-far-distance, doors wide open. Knowing how cruel the bus driver could be, she only ran faster.
Cool relief instead of dread instantly flooded Mia's system for once in her life as the bus doors shut barely seconds after she'd gotten on. It, along with the nasty look from the driver, was proof of just how close she was to almost not making it.
The bus's smell of teenage body odor and sweat filled Mia's nostrils and she nearly gagged from the stench itself. She found a seat near the front and was quick to put her earbuds in, attempting to drown out the bus's antics and calm her breathing. In the next thirty minutes, Mia survived spit balls being shot at her, people screaming in her ears, and the horrible driving of the old and probably blind bus driver, Mrs. Morris.
The relief she felt getting off the bus was just as great as when she got on and she breathed in the fresh air of the outdoors greedily, grateful for its clean smell.
Her line of sight quickly shifted to her best friend, Anna, reading a book on one of the benches next to the doors of the school. Her long brown hair was pulled into a side braid and she wore a thick jacket that covered her shirt and blue jeans.
Mia walked over and sat next to her. A couple awkward beats passed and Mia cleared her throat, causing Anna to jump up in surprise and nearly drop her book onto the icy pavement.
"Hey, Mia," Anna said, startled. "How long have you been sitting there?"
"Long enough," Mia answered in a quiet voice, still embarrassingly a bit raspy from morning. She cleared her throat. "What book are you reading?"
Anna beamed and squealed. "My mom finally bought me Peter Pan In Scarlett!"
"You mean, as in the sequel to the book Peter Pan?" Mia asked slowly, trying to hide her look of distaste. She'd never been a fan.
Anna nodded. "It's so good and interesting... You can borrow it if you want." Her suggestion sounded hopeful.
"No. No thank you," Mia stated a bit more quickly than she'd intended to. "I haven't even read the first book and I don't think I'm going to anytime soon." She'd tried to read it. Once.
Anna shrugged dismissively. "Your loss." Anna closed her book and stuffed it inside her book bag. "So... are you excited for our sleepover tonight?"
"Of course I am," Mia said, raising both of her eyebrows. "I can't believe today is Friday already. Another week closer to graduating!" she said giddily, excited to leave her home. Don't get her wrong. Mia loved her mom. But ever since her father died when she was little, things had been—for a lack of better words—sad.
Anna scrunched up her nose and rolled her eyes, scoffing. "My parents keep pressuring me to pursue nursing and go to the same, big fancy university they went to." She threw up her hands mockingly. "I wish I could just travel the world and go on adventures like my great-great-grandmother did."
It was Mia's turn to roll her eyes and she shook her head, knowing exactly what—or rather, who—her best friend was referring to. "Peter Pan isn't real, Anna." The fact that they were sixteen made saying it sound even more ridiculous.
"But my last name is Darling," Anna argued. "Same as my great-great-grandmother whose last name was Darling."
And just like that they were back in the same, petty argument that they had been having since they met in middle school.
"So?" Mia said. "I'm sure there are other people on this earth who have the last name 'Darling' and sometime somewhere there was another person named Wendy Darling."
"Her full name was Wendy Moira Angela Darling," Anna told her in her as-a-matter-of-fact voice.
Mia hated that voice.
"Coincidence," Mia said, finally taking out her earbuds to stuff them in her jeans even though she had unplugged them a while ago from her phone.
"Peter Pan is real," Anna said just as the first bell rang. "End of discussion." End of discussion, indeed.
Mia rolled her eyes, knowing that there was no point in trying to knock sense into Anna.
"How do you know for sure that he is real?" Mia questioned following her friend into the building along with the rest of their peers.
"Because I've seen him."
⋆✶
They called him fun, loving, sweet, and adventurous. The boy who only wanted to play forever and never grow up. The boy who didn't have a care in the world. The boy who wore all green and wore tights.
Sure he used to be like that. A long long time ago. (Minus the tights. It was a dare.)
But now there was no more Peter. Just Pan. Peter Pan, the ruthless monster that took control as the ruler of the island, covering it with complete darkness that had only over taken him once before.
He growled as he watched one of his lost boys cry over a 'small' cut right above his left cheek bone, barely missing his eye which had gone red and glassy with tears.
"Again!" Pan barked at the boys in the man-made arena which was currently being surrounded by the rest of the Lost Boys who shouted encouragements at them to fight harder.
"But Pan..." the other boy, the one who had beaten the other easily, cried.
"We haven't slept or eaten for days. Can we have a break?" the other boys chimed in. Their voices were weak with desperation and scratchy with thirst, displaying the truth of how close to the brim they really were.
"A break?" Pan repeated. "You. Want. A. Break?" He took two menacing steps towards the arena, making them cower back from his dark magic that radiated their way. "Is that what you want?"
Some boys nodded, some muttering, "Yes, Pan" while the rest were too scared of what their leader would do if they responded at all.
"Just for that, you all have to go without food even longer than I intended for. You can have your so called break. But that doesn't mean it will be a good one," Pan spat before leaving in a huff, leaving the lost boys to do what they wanted, and entered his tent still scowling.
He laid on his bed back first and closed his eyes, playing with a small object in between his deft fingers and watched observantly through squinted eyes as it glimmered because of the faint light showing through his tent.
It looked just as it did when she first gave it to him. It was so small and delicate that sometimes Pan feared that his fingers would dent the small silver object which was known on earth as a 'thimble' but meant something much, much more to him.
It was his only remembrance of her, his Little Bird, and the days when he was at his highest peak of being good. The days when he had a heart of gold, and laughed and played. When he would smile over the smallest, childish, and silliest of things. But then the worst thing happened.
Wendy abandoned him like everyone else, became a woman, got married, had two kids, a grandson, and then... died.
Pan gulped as tears threatened to spill. He couldn't cry. He just couldn't. Crying is a sign of weakness and Pan wasn't weak.
But Pan so desperately needed another person who could get him on the right path again just like Wendy had done when he was starting to turn violent the first time. She made him a better person. He knew in his heart there had to be another girl like that out there. Not quiet like Wendy, but strong, honest, and good.
Neverland depended on him and he knew Neverland could not be ruled by darkness. The laws of the island's magic would not let him and everyday Pan could feel his power on the island weaken. Soon, he knew, he wouldn't even be able to fly since happiness was the only thing that could fuel that type of magic.
He delicately placed his lips on Wendy's Kiss, vowing to do what she would have wanted him to do.
And he wouldn't let anything get in the way of his plan.
Correction: He couldn't, or else all of Neverland, which had been built by the purest magic and supposed to be run by such, could be doomed to rot for eternity.
⋆✶
Anna jumped up and down on her bed, making Mia do the same while she was in a crisscrossed sitting position.
"Anna...please...stop," Mia pleaded in between bounces and held her hands out, trying to stop her body from the wrath of Anna's obnoxious movements.
At that, Anna finally ceased her bouncing and looked at Mia with wide eyes full of wonder and childish glee. "He's coming tonight."
"Who? The boogie man?" Mia teased, fully aware of who she was talking about but was too scared to say or argue for the second time that day.
"No, silly," Anna said, with hands on her hips, and sat down next to her. "Peter is."
"Sure," Mia replied sarcastically. "And tonight a leprechaun riding a unicorn will fly through the window along side tight boy, granting all my life's wishes."
"Tight boy?" Anna said in a questioning tone. "Peter does not wear tights."
"How do you know?" Mia asked, rolling her eyes.
"I've told you already. I've seen him," Anna answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Why don't you ever believe me?"
"Sorry, there's not enough time in the world to answer that question."
They both giggled, Anna a little less.
Mia and Anna continued the night talking about personal girly things like all girls do until Anna suddenly said, "Let's pull an all nighter so that we can both see Peter."
"Um..." Mia was about to decline and then bit her tongue when she saw Anna's hope filled face. She sighed, realizing she had nothing to lose whether a boy flew through her friend's window or not. "Ok. Fine. Let's do it."
Anna squealed. "Stay here while I make some popcorn. We're gonna watch a movie."
"What movie?"
"Peter Pan. Duh," Anna said quickly as she ran out of the room.
Mia rolled her eyes with a smile. Anna would never change. They were juniors in high school and Anna still acted like she was in preschool from how excited she got from all things magic related. Especially if it involved a certain flying, pixie talking boy.
Acting like a toddler on Christmas morning, Anna rushed back in, entrusting the bowl of popcorn to Mia, and quickly put 1953's Peter Pan inside the DVD player. She and Mia both quietly settled themselves down in front of the television, lying on their pillows and swaddled in their thick blankets.
Mid-way through the movie and an entire bowl of popcorn later, Anna fell asleep just as Peter Pan was saving Princess Tiger Lilly.
Mia, shaking her head at her friend, got up from the floor and sat on the window seat while looking up at the stars. It was about one o'clock in the morning and Mia was starting to get tired herself, not having any motivation to stay up.
Right as she was about to close her eyes with her head leaning against the cool window glass, something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye.
Mia picked up a folded piece of paper next to the small pillow by her feet and read the unfamiliar, scribbled writing on it quietly to herself.
I will come for you late tonight. Make sure you're awake when I do. ~P. Pan
Mia's eyes widened as she dropped the parchment out of shock. Then she rolled her eyes at her own childish behavior.
There's no such thing, she chanted to herself over and over again before slipping into a blissful sleep.
⋆✶
Pan left when the stars were high in the sky and all his lost boys were asleep and snoring so loudly that all of Neverland, even the mermaids, could hear them.
He sprinkled pixie dust on himself and smiled as he lifted into the air, feeling the wind on his face and flow through his sandy auburn hair as he flew towards the second star on the left, being engulfed by its light until it spat him out to its assigned realm.
The city of London was definitely different from when he brought Wendy to Neverland. People looked different... And they were all riding in weird looking metal machines on wheels, and the buildings were a lot taller.
How peculiar, he thought as he grew nearer to the house that used to belong to Wendy.
He flew through the window and landed gracefully in the middle of the well remembered room where so many memories had been made, some good and others not. It wasn't at all what it looked like the last time he'd seen it. There was one bed instead of three and the walls were painted purple with pictures of multiple groups of boys with bleached hair taped to the walls. A vanity took up the space where Michael used to sleep and a large dresser took John's wall.
No. Pan shook his head. I can't think of the past. There are more important things to be focused on right now, he told himself, trying to get rid of the pit full of longing in his stomach.
Pan looked around for the girl and finally spotted her peacefully sleeping at the window, her breaths shallow. She looked content and innocent as she slept. She was sleeping so still that it was no wonder how he had flown right over her and almost missed her entirely.
Perfect.
Her raven hair was pulled up into a messy ponytail that stuck up everywhere and she was wearing a green shirt that was too big for her with loose fitting shorts. She had a small button nose and freckles scattered across all her face. From what he could tell, she was small in size, but he could care less, knowing it would make the trip back easier since it seemed she hadn't listened to his command.
Pan casually walked over, picked her up bridal style while being careful not to wake her, and sore off into the London sky and towards his home.
He was completely unaware of the sleeping girl covered by her sheets lying on the floor.
~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~
So... What do you think? I know it's not my best and kind of slow but I promise it'll get better. Just give it a chance. :)
Vote
Comment
Share
Follow