A/N: A special thanks to BlameItOnSpring for inspiring me to write this chapter. She's been really supportive ❤ xx
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"She loved mysteries so much that she became one."
~ John Green (Paper Towns)
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Lewis's P.O.V
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"Okay," Will says, clapping his hands together. "Where do you wanna start first?"
"The last place she visited," I say. "The library upstairs."
"Alright. Let's go," he says, making his way up the winding staircase.
"Where's the FBI? Shouldn't they be swarming around the crime scene?" I ask, ducking under the yellow-stripped tape, running after him.
"Have you forgotten? My stepmother gave us a few hours to scout the scene for clues," Will says over his shoulder.
Oh, that's right, Will's stepmother is a FBI agent. Will's the only one of us who has a let's just say decent relationship with his parents— Well, stepmother to be exact. She spoils him to get on his father's good side.
"How long do we have?" I ask, catching up with him.
"We have twenty-four hours," he replies, stopping in front of the two French doors.
"Well then," I say, placing my hand on the two knobs. "Let's get started, shall we?"
And doors swing open.
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Ray's P.O.V (back in Neverland)
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"Come on, runt, fight back!" Hunter shouts, punching me in the face, causing me to fall to the ground.
I wince as he kicks me in the stomach.
"Kick him harder," Jerome shouts, cheering his brother on.
And he does. And again, and again, and again. He pulls his leg back, and I brace myself for the painful impact, but it never comes.
I look up, expecting to see Alice, but it's not her. It's Pan.
"That's enough, boys," he says, walking up to us. "I'll handle it from here."
"Yes, Pan," Andrew says obediently, leaving the fighting grounds with the two brothers.
Pan waits until he's sure that they're gone, then he approaches me.
"You look like shit."
A humorless laugh comes out of my throat.
"Yeah, well, that's your fault," I say, surprising myself at my sudden burst of confidence.
He glares at me.
"What are you gonna do? Kill me?" I croak.
"No," he says. "If I wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead."
"True," I say as I struggle to get to my feet.
"This is just a reminder of what I told you yesterday," Pan says, stopping a few meters away from me.
I spit on the ground. "Why are you doing this? What did I ever do to you?"
"You talked to Alice."
"So?" I ask.
"So, you're lucky that Alice is so hopelessly oblivious to other people's feelings," Pan says, emphasizing on the word "so".
I cock my head to the side, confused.
"You're in love with Alice," he states. "You, fancy her."
I open my mouth to object but he interrupts me.
"Don't deny it, you know it's true, you just don't want to admit it," he says.
That's not true, I want to say. But I hold my tongue. Pan's right. He's always right.
Instead I shake my head, feigning that I don't understand him.
He takes a few steps towards me. "Don't bother lying, I can read you like an open book."
He shakes his head and laughs. "I can't believe you even thought that she would return those feelings to you."
He's right. Alice would never love a guy like me.
"You know she's met your brother," he says.
My heart stops. "He's alive?"
"For now," he says.
"Don't you dare hurt him!" I shout, running towards him, but he uses his magic to stop me.
"Little Christian. How old is he now? Fifteen? Sixteen?" he taunts.
"Shut up!" I shout, memories of my brother flash in my mind. Tears threaten to fall.
But he doesn't stop. "He spent all his life thinking that you left him. That you abandoned him when he needed you the most."
"You stay away from him!" I shout, my voice breaking.
"It seems like you value your brother's life more than your own. So let's make a deal," he says, circling me. "You stay away from Alice and I'll stay away from your brother."
"But if I even see you with Alice," he says, sticking his heart inside my chest and taking my heart out. "I might just pay little Christian a visit."
"And I'm make you squeeze his heart," he says, squeezing my heart.
I feel an agonizing pain in my chest. Like a dozen knives, stabbing me over and over again.
After awhile, he stops squeezing my heart and puts it back in my chest. "Take this as a warning."
He then walks away, removing the spell as he leaves.
I fall to the ground, panting. All this happend because I bumped into Alice earlier this morning. This can't happen again, or he'll go after my baby brother...
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Will's P.O.V (back in England)
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Ring. Ring. Ring.
"Hello?" I answer, yawning.
"Hello, Will, I'm sorry but you only have a few more hours at your friend's house," my stepmother informs me.
"Alright, Liz. Thanks again for letting us come here," I say.
"No problem, just don't do this every time," she says.
I laugh. "I'll try not to."
"I'm guessin' that you're probably busy now, so I'll leave you," she says.
"Bye, Liz."
"Goodbye, love," she says, then hangs up.
"Who was that?" Lewis asks.
"My mum, she said that we have a couple more hours here," I inform him.
He groans and punches the wall. "It's been twelve hours, Will. Twelve! And we still haven't found anything yet!"
I grab him by his shoulders. "Lewis. Lewis, listen to me. You need to calm down."
"Take a deep breath," I say.
And he does.
"Now breath out."
He does that, too.
"Feel better?" I ask, letting go of him.
"Y-Yeah," he says. "Thanks, Will. I needed that."
I nod. "Good. Come on, let's get you some coffee, you look exhausted."
****
I pace around the library, a cup of coffee in my left hand. "What are we missing?"
"I don't know. We've searched every inch of this place," he says, shaking his head.
"Wait— remember how Alice always talked about secret rooms?" I say, turning to face him.
"Yeah?"
"I think she said something about there being one in the library," I say, setting my cup down, on the table.
I make my way to the nearest shelf and remove a handful of books.
"What are you doing?" Lewis asks, standing up from the loveseat.
"I'm looking for a secret room," I say matter-of-factly, knocking on the back of the wooden bookcase as I do so.
"Good idea," Lewis says, stopping next to me. He removes some books from the bookcase next to me and knocks on the wood.
"Two down," I say, turning to face him. "And only a couple hundred more to go."
"Well then, we'd better get started," Lewis says, proceeding to check the next bookcase.
****
"Will!" Lewis exclaims. "Will, I found it!"
"Where?! Where are you?" I ask, looking around.
"Down here!" he shouts, his voice bounces off the walls.
I run down the stairs, following the sound of his voice.
"Show me," I say, stopping next to him.
He knocks on the door.
Tap. Tap. Tap. It's hollow.
I feel the area under the shelf. "Where is it?"
"Where's what?" he asks.
"The secret button, there's always a secret button," I say, shifting my hand ever-so-slightly to the left.
I brush my hand over a small, circle-shaped object sticking out from the wood. Bingo.
I press the button, and stand back. "Found it."
The bookcase swings open without a sound. I notice that there's a thin layer of dust.
I share my observation with Lewis as we step through the wooden doorway. "That means she must've been here quite recently."
"How recent is recent?" he asks.
"Two weeks at most," I say.
The room is quite small, it's just big enough for three people. It's cozy, just the way Alice likes it. There's a mattress with white sheets in the corner of the room. A thick, leather bound book rests on top of the mattress.
"Alice must've spent a lot of time here," says Lewis as though he read my thoughts. Lewis walks over to the bed and picks the book up with both hands.
"The Child Thief," Lewis reads the title outloud.
"Also known as 'Peter Pan'," I say.
Lewis laughs. "I'm not surprised that Alice was reading a children's book, her mother used to read her these type of fairytales."
"You ought to be surprised, Lewis," I say, shaking my head.
He looks at me, confusion written all over his face.
"This is no fairytale book, it's not the classic Peter Pan story," I say.
"Then what is it?" he asks, handing the book over to me.
"It's a much darker version of Peter Pan," I say, taking the book from him.
"How is it different from the classic fairytale?"
"The Child Thief is about a demonic teenage boy who uses his shadow to kidnap children who he thinks feels unloved or 'lost'," I explain, using air-quotations for the word "lost".
"That's a brief summary of it. I don't know the entire story," I admit.
"Do you think this book might have any connection to Alice's disappearance?" Lewis asks.
"There's only one way to find out," I say, opening the book. "We'll have to read it."
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A/N: I do not own "The Child Thief" and/or "Peter Pan" I just used the titles for this chapter and made a story up for the plot.
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What do you guys think of Lewis and Will?
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Vote, comment, rate, do whatever you want <3 xx
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Edited: 23.11.2017