Chapter 20
"Is there something you wanted?" I ask, leaning on the desk next to the cot.
The med tent seems barren, given there is a real war coming so very soon. All the supplies are tucked away neatly in drawers, and the bed made with clean sheets.
"You can't just kill people." Elizabeth chimes in, from where she sits on the bed.
I almost laugh. "Is that what you think?"
Jared looks from Elizabeth to me, running his hands through his ginger hair. He seems torn between taking Elizabeth's side or my side.
Elizabeth stands up, moving closer to me. She's taller than me, but not by enough to be intimidating. There's no height she could be to actually intimidate me. I just realised I'm shorter than both her and Blaize. Only Frank is smaller than I am.
"It's what I know." Elizabeth spits. "I was willing to let fighting Gregory drop, but this can't stand. You can't just murder boys-"
"Who attack us?" I question. "You'd rather I give him a pat on the back and a warning? You don't know what it's like here."
"And why is it like this huh?" She asks. "Why do you have to fight?"
She just doesn't understand. She doesn't know the things I've seen in the months I've been here. The murder, the blood, the horror. You have to adapt and move on, or you break and die. If I let those boys think I'm weak, I'll become a target. Like Lyle, like Thomas, like James, like Robert, like so many others. No one tells me what to do, lest I become like the lackeys of Dominique and Gregory. Lest I die.
"You haven't seen what I've seen." I snarl. "Let me guess, you're recently orphaned, never spent a day in the foster system, problem went to private school until Mommy and Daddy died tragically because of a drunk driver? Well guess what princess, that's not how the real world works."
"That's not what-"
"I've seen people die, burn to death, heads chopped off, stabbed to death, faces smashed in until their faces and skulls become a bloody stew spilt on the dirt. You want that to happen to you? That's what happens when you don't protect yourself." I argue, ignoring her.
She shakes her head, her ears turning pink as she backs away from me. "And why did that happen? There shouldn't be murder here, isn't it supposed to be some sort of ageless utopia? You've aged a decade in the months you've been here."
"I've become better." I argue.
"Have you?" I ask back. "Or have you just become vile?"
I haven't, and she's just being ridiculous now. Jared looks away, favouring to stare at the tent wall then to engage. That boy doesn't have a back bone in his body to stand up to anyone, me or her. I doubt he even has an opinion either way; he's been here too long to have Elizabeth's optimism.
"Why are you defending the terrible things that happen here?" She demands, not waiting for me to continue. "It's disgusting. Pan is awful to let all this occur."
"It's not his choice." I argue. "It's circumstance and-"
"He's supposed to be all powerful, he can stop it. You've let this island break you, and it's his fault."
That is also just a lie. This island has made me who I am today, for the better. It didn't break me, it shaped me into someone who is willing to survive. Elizabeth is weak, and so is Johnny, and so is everyone who thinks that for some reason I am somehow a bad person for doing what needs to be done.
"Listen, I'm done with this." I sigh. "Would you have rather me let that boy roam around our camp, knowing you could be next?"
"He knew the consequences for his actions." She continues bewildered.
I shake my head. "Did his friends? The ones who carved words into our skin?"
Jared's ears perk up, and he moves closer to us. "What does she mean?"
Elizabeth looks from me, to Jared than back to me. A mix of fury and anger flash in her eyes, as her head seems to nearly spin around on itself.
"Liz," Jared reaches towards her.
Instead she pulls away from him, facing me. "Look at what you've done."
She runs out quickly, and Jared looks at me, before looking back up. He tries to steady his breathing before he sits down, holding his head.
"Are you going to-" I begin.
"I hope not."
I don't know if he is talking about having a seizure or chasing after her, but I feel like it's the former. I don't really know how epilepsy works, especially not whatever archaic form of the disease he has, so I'm not going to push anything.
"What did they do to her?" Looking up at me with his bright eyes, he asks me for an answer.
"RUN." I answer. "She seemed upset by it, but didn't want to worry you."
He nods, moving himself up off the ground. "Thanks for telling me."
"It wasn't a secret worth keeping." I shrug.
He nods, moving closer to the tent's flaps. "I'm going to go find her."
He disappears quickly, leaving me alone in the Med Tent.
Sitting down on the cot, I look up at lines of the tent. It has been hastily sewn back together after I brought it down with the flick of a wrist. These people seem to only just be getting on my nerves.
"Jared." I hear Alison stumbling in. She catches a look at me, before backing up.
"He's gone." I tell her, blankly.
She bites her lip, looking around. She reaches into the drawers of the small table, ruffling around for something or other. Her hands eventually wrap around a root, which she drops on the table. She reaches down, grabbing a bowl and some sort of grinding tool. Placing the root in the bowl, she mashes it using the small tool, trying to make it turn into a powder.
"I didn't realise you were in the practise of stealing." I laugh.
She looks over at me, before quickly diverting her eyes. "I'm not. I've got permission to take it."
Why would she need this medication? Is it prenatal stuff? I don't think she'd need it at this stage of pregnancy, especially if that baby is never popping out of her.
"You know you're not giving birth, right?" I demand, chuckling.
She drops the tool, obviously having reduced the root to dust. "Yes."
Her voice isn't bitter, instead it's distracted. She runs out of the tent with the bowl, so I decide to follow her. I haven't got much better to do anyway.
She ducks into the forest, and after a few short strides, she drops the powder into a canteen, and hands it to Johnny, who sits on a log in front of us.
He shakes the canteen once, before downing the entire liquid. I can see the disgust in his eyes as he finishes it, chucking the canteen to the ground, and coughing.
"I see, Johnny is taking your prenatals?" It comes out as more of a question.
Johnny shakes his head. "Final dose of medication. It was supposed to help my head heal."
His slur is gone, and so is his stutter. I watch as his feet move, and he rises to his feet shakily.
"You know," he cracks his knuckles, "after you bashed my head in."
I shrug. "You say that like it's a bad thing."
Jared must have been giving him the root for a while now. I can't imagine what magical plant it comes from if it managed to fix his head after that catastrophe.
Why doesn't he just give him the water that Felix gave me? I wonder what was in that. I ought to ask Jared soon enough.
"Charlotte, you can't just-"
"What is it with everyone and telling me what I can and can't do?" I demand. "I can fight people if I need to; it's not that big of a deal. Besides, it's not like there are any real consequences. You're fine, Blaize is safe, so what does it matter?"
Johnny crosses his arms, looking from Alison to me. He runs his hand along his chin, before wiping his eyes. "Char, what did you do?"
He enunciates every syllable, and does take his eyes off of me. Neither does Alison, as she bites her lip.
"It's not a big deal." I sigh. "I just killed Oliver, but he's been threatening me and the other girls for a couple weeks now."
Johnny turns to Alison. "Has he been threatening you?"
She shakes her head. "But that's not the point, Johnny. Charlie, you murdered somebody?"
"Like I said, it's not a big deal." I sigh. "It's my sixth murder? My fifth? Johnny's killed more people."
Alison looks up at Johnny before shaking her head back and forth, she backs up into a tree, sitting down on the log. "It doesn't matter, we've still got time. We've got-"
"Time for what?"
She shakes her head, looking around. "I mean, it shouldn't be happening too soon right? We've got a year, right? At least a few months, before everything falls into place."
Johnny shakes his head, talking to Alison as if he's unaware I'm here. "It's supposed to start in a week, or something. Everyone's been getting ready for it."
"The war?" I ask. "It's coming tomorrow. By the way Ali, you have to cut all your hair off for that, and pretend to be a boy. Apparently."
Her face seems to go pale, and her feet fall behind her as she stumbles back into a tree. Alison's eyes find Johnny, and I watch as his hand moves over to lace his fingers in hers.
The forest is silent, but her breath seems to fill the air. It's suffocating.
"What's the deal?" I demand.
Alison gulps. "We're out of time."
She's talking to Johnny, not to me. Biting his lip, he looks once again from me to Alison, unsure of what to say.
"We've got to-"
"Charlie." A voice calls out from behind me.
I turn around to spot Peter, standing and waiting. I turn my head back to face Alison and Johnny. She comes up to me, pulling me in closely and whispering in my ear.
"Meet us here, tonight." She whispers. "Once everyone else is asleep."
I nod, before turning around to follow Peter.
He doesn't even dare make eye contact with me as we walk, and I follow slightly behind him. Something is up, and I can't help but think that maybe the war is starting soon. He seems to have left his normal, teasing demeanor back in his house.
Peter is generally all fun and games, he's only been mad a few times that I've seen him.
"Peter," I cross my arms, standing still in the forest.
He turns around to glare at me. "Come on Charlie."
Charlie? What's that supposed to mean?
I shake my head, leaning against a tree behind me. A strand of hair falls in my face, escaping out of the ponytail I have up. It hangs in my face, and I stare a Peter from behind it. He bites his lip, but I watch as he straightens up, shaking his head.
What's he chalking himself up to do?
"I'm not going back Peter," I breathe, lifting my hips up off the tree, and letting my shoulders fall until I'm standing up straight. My feet find their way across the ground, until I pull his hips against mine. "Not until you tell me what is going on."
He looks away from me. "Did you kill Oliver?"
What does that have to do with anything?
I chuckle. "Yeah, who else would it have been?"
Lips forming a curl, either of anger or disgust I can't tell. The pain of my back slamming against a tree erupts, and a grunt escapes my lips as the air is knocked from my lungs. A leaf falls, landing on Peter's shoulder, but it falls off with one shrug.
"You're killing people this close to a war?" He demands.
"He's a threat," I spit.
"He's a good fighter."
"Not enough to defeat me." I counter.
Peter pushes himself further against me, until in order to look at him my head is pushed back directly into the tree. I'm pinned, and can't move. His ears are tinged red, and his eyebrows creased together.
"Don't think you're in charge here." He spits, his eyes glaring me down. "I'm in charge, you're mine. You can't just go around stepping on my toes, because it'll be your bones that end up broken."
I've always described him as resembling the forest. From his clothes, to his smell, to his eyes. They are dark green, but I see this whole time they didn't capture the mystery and wonder of Neverland. They captured the darkness inside of him, the secrets and evil that rot beneath.
My eyes must resemble the same. They are green too, but a different kind of green. Almost a dark, and dirty green. Right now, I hope he can see the anger that burns in them.
"I never said I was in charge." I snarl. "That boy is one of the guys who carved the words into my back. I was sending a message."
"Consider it delivered. If anyone else dies before this war, you'll answer to me. And trust me darling, you don't want that." He warns.
His weight leaves my body, and he backs up slightly. I pull myself up. Slammed back, I feel my head hit the bark and for a split second my ears ring.
"Understand, Charlotte?" Peter demands.
I knock him off of me with my hands, sending my elbow into his shoulder. I watch him disappear, but feel my arm collide with his body. He reappears behind me, and I watch as his hand moves towards his shoulder.
He drops it before it can get there. He looks away, but turns back to glare at me.
With a sour expression, Peter disappears.
Good.
~~~~~~
Well, this just got serious. But, there is only one chapter before the finale, so this will be really exciting. What do you think is going to happen?
For now, prepare for war, and I will see you Wednesday.