Peter Pan Imagines (Once Upon a Time)

Illusions and Abductions

You are barely two miles out of Storybrooke, and already something feels wrong. It's more than the usual hurt of leaving home, of leaving your family, but something more. This is not grief but fear, raw-edged paranoia, and it eats at you like a hound.

Your footsteps cease in an instant, the crunch of leaves you'd been trying so hard to hide finally falling silent. You turn around slowly, casting your gaze about you, but see nothing other than growing darkness. The shadows at the bases of the neighboring trees seem to grow, stretching out as if they had fingers to touch you. If you didn't know better, you'd say that the one closest to you almost seems human.

You know better, though. The danger lurks in the town behind you, not in these forests. Your parents sent you away from Storybrooke to protect you from Rumplestiltskin, and there's no way he'd find you out here. You're not even sure if you know where you are, so some creepy guy with a bad name couldn't possibly figure it out.

A wind blows through the trees, shaking a few leaves to the ground. You shiver and turn back around. Worrying isn't going to help you at this point. Your parents tried to save you by sending you out, you have to make their efforts worth it.

Despite your best attempts, the feeling doesn't go away. In fact, it gets even worse, as if there's something right behind you, breathing down your neck. You keep an eye out, but there's nothing there. You swear you can hear something out in the forest somewhere nearby, but can see no sign of it. It gives you the uncomfortable feeling of being the prey to a rather twisted hunter.

At last, you can take it no more, and call out to the surrounding wilderness. "Whoever's out there, I know you're there. Either show yourself or go away."

Leaves crackle in a dim echo, and then a voice answers you. "Well, if you insist."

It comes from the space somewhere to your left, and you whirl around to see a boy emerging from the trees. He wears roughspun green clothes, and you can see a long knife strapped to a belt around his hips. Even without his dress, though, you'd be able to tell that something about this boy isn't right.

The secret lies in his eyes. They're a bright, fierce green, and they watch you with an uncanny knowledge. Although you've never met him before, somehow you know with certainty that he knows everything about you- your parents, your reason for leaving, every secret you have ever tried to hide.

He grins slightly, as if he can tell exactly what you're thinking. "I'll admit, this isn't the most formal setting for us to meet, but it gets the job done. I'm going to need you to come with me."

You take a step backwards. "Not a chance." All you know about this boy is that he's been following you, maybe even since the moment you left town. The idea of going anywhere alone with him doesn't strike you as smart.

The boy just shakes his head. "I think we've both had some sort of misunderstanding. You never had a choice."

Eyes wide, you turn to run, but he's suddenly standing before you, having moved across the small clearing in an instant. You make to dodge around him but he extends an arm, catching you by the wrist.

A faint smirk on his lips is the only sign that his demeanor is anything more than solid stone. "Don't feel too badly about it. Few people can get in between me and what I want." With that, he snaps his fingers, and the world disappears in a rush of black.

You awake in darkness, fighting a swirl of vertigo currently clouding your vision. At first, you can't figure out where you are, and then the memories of what just happened come pricking back in at the corners of your head. After everything your parents had done to save you, you'd gone and gotten kidnapped anyway.