Neverland

twenty one

I read an article once about a mother fighting off a large polar bear to protect her son.  She was able to hold her ground long enough to survive and ultimately win the fight once a neighbor fired his rifle at the animal.  That is the type of strength you can have in times of emergency and dire circumstance.  They call it “hysterical strength,” but I think they should call it “hysterical courage.”

My muscles reacted in the opposite way they were supposed to.  Instead of surging with superhuman strength, they contracted and they tensed and I became an immobile heavy rock with seeing eyes and a racing heart.  Maybe my sub-conscious thought if I sat still enough, the growling jungle cat sauntering towards me would think I was an actual rock.

I saw everything unfold in a time lapse and heard Ashton yelling from beside me as if my ears were clogged with water.  I watched the black cat leap towards me, but I was being pulled once again.  My skin drug across the wet dirt and I felt a dull stinging pain strike across my shoulder as I collided into the hard chest of someone. The sense of feeling something so intense flicked a switch and suddenly my mind caught up reality. 

I sat in the arms of Ashton who was desperately trying to pull me off the ground and force me to stand on my own two feet. 

“Come on Waverly!” He yelled repeatedly over the noise of the cat’s loud growling and screeching.

I pulled myself from the ground and spun towards the noise, gaping at the sight of Leo and Niall both standing right behind me, their swords drawn in front of them.  The cat advanced toward where the four of us stood, all bunched together by the trunk of a wide tree.  My veins grew in my arms, threatening to burst through the skin and my eyes opened so wide it hurt.

“It wants to eat you Waverly.  It doesn’t sense us as prey,” Niall whispered over his shoulder.  The fact that he and Leo stood in front of me with swords did little to eliminate the fear and angst building inside me upon hearing those words.  I tightened the grip around my sword and swallowed a lump in my throat instead of responding.

“I say we wait for it to pounce, then kill it when it does,” Leo suggested in a tone relatively calm for the situation.

“No. Charge the thing and it will scare off,” Ashton said, pushing his way in front of everyone.

“Whatever you do, do it fast.  Its growls could call attention to other predators,” Niall said hurriedly. 

“Fuck.  Okay,” Leo said and shook out his arms.

Watching him forced my eyes to travel to my own arm which had been growing with an increasingly stinging pain.  I gasped.  Deep cuts scratched into my skin, resembling that of claw marks.  My stomach lurched in my gut as I witnessed the blood pouring from the incisions like an unstoppable flood.  The blood looked burgundy in the darkness, a deep baleful red.  My fingers found their way to the open wound, retracting the moment they made contact with the raw flesh.  I winced in pain brought my eyes back up to the scene before me, finding the worried eyes of Leo soaking up every ounce of blood leaking from my arm.

“Shit!” He yelled, “Ashton just fucking kill that thing right now.  Waverly is hurt!”

“She—she what? When? How?” Ashton stuttered, “I thought I pulled her away in time.

“Ash, kill the stupid fuck! Now!

“Oh my God.  Okay.”

I heard the sound of shuffling, but saw nothing but blackness.  My eyes unwillingly rolled back along with my head which felt heavy on my neck.  Hushed voices mumbled and hands wrapped around me to keep me steady as a building pressure coiled around the cut on my arm.