𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐫 𝐛𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐝.
in a post war-torn, dystopian neverland, the choices of one young boy will change the course of the magical realms forever - all the while a desperate young woman and her family search for her son,
a warrior in exile trie...
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THIS IS WHAT FACING Death must feel like he thought.
A new sensation had taken over his body—something foreign to his knowledge, something that hadn't been there before. He had always been aware of himself as a person—his emotions and how he felt them, when he felt them, was something he had always been in control of. He had been more mature than his peers, never letting his anger blind his rationale or his heart take over the matters that were solely reserved for the judgment of the mind. And yet, something felt off inside him now. It was almost as if a delicate scale in the back of his mind had been tipped to one side far too much, skewing the fine balance that had been there before. The chains attaching the pans to the beam were snaked around his neck, dragging on his feet.
Something sharp and nauseating kept twisting and turning inside his stomach like a coiling snake. It was a feral animal, trying to claw its way out of his body, leaving a deep, gaping, blood-weeping behind holes behind. He could feel the pulse of his veins stretch against the thin, fragile layer of skin beneath his ear just above the juncture of his neck and jaw. It was pressing against his flesh almost painfully, as if it wanted to be set free of the confinements of his body.
Henry was daunted; stricken with fear, hopelessly flailing as the masking effect of the pure, raw shot of adrenaline slowly faded out of his blood and the gut-wrenching panic came rushing down upon him like a tidal wave. A part of his being that he hadn't been aware of it existing had been triggered and taken control over both his body and his mind. It was a survival instinct, he realized that much. He hadn't needed it before because there hadn't been any other time in his life where his own life depended on how well he could adapt and outrun the elements of his environment. He felt a part of him, still hidden from him, lying beneath the muscles of his arms and legs, packed with power, waiting silently, patiently, to be unleashed.
Henry felt like he was standing at the edge of a cliff overlooking a dark oblivion. It was terrifying to wonder what would happen to him if he decided to jump into an uncertain fate. And yet it was beckoning enough to make him curious as to what was lying beneath it. Was there light beneath the cloak of darkness shrouding the depths of the cliff? Was there a secret paradise that he couldn't even imagine in his dreams? Did it have all the secrets of the universe and the answers to all of those secrets?
He was teetering on the thin line between falling and standing, unable to decide what to do. Henry had never been able to close his eyes easily. The darkness bothered him and he felt as though he were deprived of his senses, the things that kept him grounded. And yet this time he was asked to close his eyes and trust the darkness. Would he fall? Would he choose to make the jump? Would he not fall at all? Or would he be pushed down without deciding whether or not he wanted to make the jump himself?
