The lost girl

Chapter 10

"You understand that's totally unacceptable Davey. We do NOT treat people like that" I woke up the the faint voice of Peter shouting. Damn he was scary, scarier than I already thought. I curled up tighter into my bed sheets, I don't even remember getting to my bed. My mouth felt dry, my stomach hurt, but in a queasy, uneasy way and my head felt heavy.

I grabbed the pillow, I wasn't using, from next to my head and hugged it tight.
"Are you okay?" A voice behind me made me jump out of my skin. I jolted upwards, feeling my heart rate increase, my breaths shortened.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to frighten you! I thought you knew I was there I'm so sorry" Georgie sat on the edge of the bed placing a hand, slowly and gently, on my knee. My breathing still laboured he pulled me in for a hug, I tried to back away but he kept a tight grip.

"Shhh listen to my heartbeat" he said in a very hushed whisper. My head pressed against the crook of his neck I shut my eyes and listened to his heartbeat. It was slow and steady compared to mine. The steady beat was comforting and I tried to block everything else out.

Taking a deep breath, the black turns into images. It was my dad with a manic smile 'then I'm gonna pulverise you' he says. He lunges towards me, wrestling for control he grabs my hair and slams it against the wooden side of the bed.
I tried to run away but he grabbed me by my necklace and yanked me backwards breaking the metal chain. I remember I shouted at him to stop, I remember just shouting 'dad' 'dad' 'stop please'.
'Don't call me dad. You don't deserve to call me that'

My eyes shoot open, moving away from Georgie's chest I gasped, his arms around me creating a human seatbelt to stop me catapulting myself off his lap. Trying to calm my racing heart I took deep breaths. Georgie continuing hushing me and rocking.

"It has to get worse before it gets better you know. You're letting down a lot of your barriers, which is good but the consequence is this big open, unhealed wound. But letting those barriers down leaves room to heal. I promise it's really shitty right now but it will be okay with time" he says to me. Tired I lean on him listen to his words of wisdoms. "You said a bad word" I say giving a exhausted chuckle.
"Shh just don't tell Peter" he says smiling at me.
"I'm thirsty" I say.
"Well let's go get you a drink then" Georgie says helping me off his lap.

Grabbing his hand we walked out of his hut. I saw Davey giving me the side eye as we walked. I shied away from his glare and focused on my feet hitting the leafy ground as I walked to get water.

The cool liquid runs down my throat and I feel it go down to my stomach. Trying to ignore my thoughts by focusing on the water I'm drinking, all of a sudden too much water goes into my mouth. It goes down the wrong way and I start coughing like a madman, spluttering the boys look up as I start to feel myself go red.
"Whoa!" Georgie clumsily put his glass down, running to my aid. Hitting me on the back it goes from gentle to a harsh whack.

Panting, with my hands on my knees, I try regaining my breath. I burst out laughing, looking up I start to stand up right. The boys are looking at me as if I'm crazy. "Di- Did you just see that" I wheezed.
"Umm yeah you almost died!" Oscar shouted.
"Can I even die here?" I ask genuinely curious.
"I mean we can get sick? Honestly I've never even thought of that" Seb answered. I hummed in response still catching my breath.

Sitting in the warm breeze of the evening was nice. The sky was a dark and dusty orange. It was peaceful, my mind wasn't as peaceful, but it was better.
"I like your face dots" I looked up to Seb who was sat next to me. "Thanks, they were part of my tribes markings. Every Nordic tribe had specific ones for their own group" he tells me smiling at the thought.
"Whoa. Thats so cool. But how old does that make you?!" I sit up at the engaging conversation.
"I lost track after a couple hundred years" whoa.
"How do you not get bored?!" "Because, little girl, when you're here, yesterday feels like last week and last month feels like yesterday" Seb says in some wise guy voice.
"Umm that doesn't make sense" I retort.
"Oh sweetheart, neverland makes it make sense. You'll understand in time" I lean on his shoulder thinking about what he said.
"So did you like your tribe?" I ask. I notice people's heads snap up as I ask the question. Seb sighed.
"Oh wait. Sorry don't answer if you don't want I forgot about the No asking rule. I'm sorry" I say looking up at him hoping he wasn't too upset.
"No no. You're okay little one, it's about time I talk about the good" he says looking at his twiddling fingers.
"My tribe was amazing, we did everything together, we were all family, blood or not, we hunted together, cooked together, raised our young ones together. It was amazing" he smiles at the memories, I smiled hearing his happy memories. "My father was the tribe leader and my mother was his right hand woman, they did everything together. Me and my older sister were close, there was only a year between us" His face fell as he opened his mouth to say his next sentence, "Well one day we were just getting the tribe prepared for our group dinner when we were attacked, I got captured and taken to our enemy's base, the beat me and tortured me for days and days. I thought I was going to die, then they'd send a healer to come help me recover, then get me well enough to do it all again. This lasted months. I knew my family was looking for me, always. But they moved me from place to place in order to run my family on a wild goose chase. After 6 months Peter found me. I was 16 at the time, I came here and learnt to live with it and heal" I could see the tears brimming in his eyes as he was talking about his family, but they never fell.

He was twiddling his fingers, I shuffled on my knees so I was in-front of him. He looked at me confused and that's when I lunged at him wrapping my arms around him. At first he was shocked, but then he relaxed and embraced me in the hug. "Thank you" he whispered.

We stayed like that for a couple minutes and then separated. I turned around and sat in the space in between his legs as they were crossed. He let me and I leaned back running my fingers along his leg as if my fingers were little legs walking.

I could feel my bond with others these boys growing moment by moment and I like it. This brotherly feel was a positive one that I can get used to.