The Curse - Once Upon a Time // Peter Pan (Robbie Kay) Fanfiction (REVAMPED)

Chapter 3: An Uninvited Guest

The rest of the night held worry, fear, anger, and restlessness. I had eaten away at the skin tissue in my mouth, one of my nasty habits.
My eyes are incredibly heavy when the boys started to move around more than usual, initiating they were awake but trying to fall back asleep.
When the sun rose half way between the sky and the ground, Slightly was the first to sit up from his bed and make his way toward me. He looked around, but didn't say anything, still the same concern look on his face.
"Wake up them," I say softly, loosening the grip on my sword for the first time in hours.
Slightly had done what I told him to, and woke up the rest of the boys. Some woke up easier than others.
"But it's so early!" moaned Tootles.
"Just...five more minu—" Cubby managed to say before drowsing off again, and Slightly had to roll him off of the ropes.
A couple minutes later, the boys were awake, waiting for an explanation as to why they were woken up so early or, rather, why they were woken up at all.
"Peter left a note on his tree," said Marmaduke.
"May I see it?" I ask with haste and uncertainty.
Marmaduke rips the note off the tree, and walks over to where I'm standing by the fire pit. I read the note first, and then read it out loud so the boys can hear too, a little relieved.

"Nibs and Tootles – I request you gather dinner. I will return tonight with news."
"Why do I have to get dinner?" says Nibs, looking over at Tootles frustrated.
"Why do you? Don't be so stuck up," says Tootles.
"News? Maybe he's bringing back something for us!" Marmaduke says hopefully. I let the silence consume before speaking, "I don't think that's the case."
The boys all look at me, questioning the comment... everyone except Slightly.
"I'm going to tell you all something, but you need to understand that this is between us and Pan must never know this," I look around, appreciating the nods from the boys, "Voices woke me up while the moon was still awake last night – it was Peter and someone else, a girl, I think."
"We have another girl in Neverland?!" asks Binky.
"No, we don't. That's why I followed them into the forest to hear what they were talking about, and they were talking about ripping a heart out, but for what reason, I don't know."
"You're the only girl here, Aria," says Cubby, worried.
I nod in fear, acknowledging the fact.
"Are you sure that it was Peter and not Cubby sleepwalking again?" asks Slightly.
I make direct eye contact with him, "I'm positive. The girl said that he has until the sun goes down twice before she and someone others come back. That's when she stopped talking, disappeared and Peter went walking back to the camp, so I started to run back and that's when I saw you, Slightly."
"What were you doing out of bed, Slightly?" asks Tootles.
"Well I woke up to your squeaky ropes," glaring at Tootles, and looking back at you, "and saw Aria was gone, I wanted to make sure everything was okay, and obviously it wasn't."
"What are we going to do?" Cubby asks, "We can't let him do that!"
"We won't," said Slightly, firmly.
"He said that he's going to use a distraction to get you all away from me, and when he takes out my heart it's going to happen quick."
"What's going to happen quick?" asks Binky.
"How is she going to know?" said Nibs, tilting his head in response to Binky.
"I've heard of this one thing... but I don't know if it's true or not, I mean I guess it could be true... but it's probably not, probably just another myth or tale or s—"
Cubby would have continued, but was cut short by Nibs.
"Spit it out, mate!"
Swallowing hard, Cubby's face started to enlighten when he starts to speak again, "Okay well have any of you heard of 'The Evil Queen'"?
"We don't have any other girls on Neverland to be a queen, we went over this Cu—" says Slightly.
"No, she doesn't live here... she lives somewhere called The Enchanted Forest."
"That sounds like a bunch of tree sap," says Marmaduke, rolling his eyes.
"Keep going," I insist.
"Well, there is this Evil Queen I've heard of. She lives in the darkness of The Enchanted Forest, and I think she lives in a castle... I'm not quite sure, but she's really evil – she rips out hearts and puts it in a room where she stores all the other hearts, and... recently – I think - she took the heart of the thing she loved the most," the boys paying wide attention to Cubby, "to make a spell that took over the forest, and people disappeared..."
"And where on Earth did you hear such a thing?" asks Binky, totally unconvinced.
"I..." Cubby pauses, trying to trace his memory of hearing the tale of the Evil Queen. Frowning, unable to find anything, "I don't know," he says surprisingly, confused as to where he heard the story himself.
"Bunch 'a tree sap I tell 'yeh. I say we kill Pan if it comes to it, I'm not about to let my only sister die!" cheered Nibs, who walked over to my bed, grabbed my sword and held it high in the air.
The Lost Boys all seem to agree with the idea, exchanging head nods and cheers, without even asking for my opinion. Nibs hopped on Marmaduke's back and acted as though he was a lion, riding into battle. With my sword held high in the air, grasped by Nibs, Marmaduke starts running around the camp. The other boys soon followed, with Binky riding Cubby, and Slightly riding Tootles – but I remained sitting on the dirt ground, thinking of how all of us would seize to kill Peter Pan, my ex-best friend, if 'it came to it'.
Suddenly, I catch sight of movement behind the large oak tree that leads up to Pan's bunk, which makes me jump to my feet. Slightly was hardly two feet away from me, so I take the sword without question out of his hands, (which lead to him asking, "What was that for?"), and make my way towards the tree, the forest ellipses into silence.
Slowly and cautiously, my heart starts beating faster. I feel as though my eyes have gotten bigger from determination, and my head is bowed down – if there was anyone behind this tree, I'll have the first swing at defense.
I breathe out heavily, "show yourself."
Nothing.
Becoming closer, I glance at the dirt that surrounded the tree up to the bark at eye-level. Five more steps and I'll turn behind the tree to see what caused the movement.
"I'm giving you one more chance..." This time, there was no silence, but a snap of a twig that came from behind the tree. I look behind me to see the expressions of the boys. Cubby looked like a deer that was caught in headlights and Slightly had gotten his sword, starting to slowly walk my way. The rest of the boys were close to each other, all holding the faces of curiosity and worry.
I walk as quietly as I can toward the tree – four more steps. Biting my lip hard, creating indentations – three more steps.
Gripping my sword as hard as I could, creating whiteness in my knuckles - Two.
One.