Second star to the right - Larry

SIX

"Peter."

Everything I've stumbled upon has changed, but Peter certainly hasn't—he hasn't grown, he wears the same clothes that are made with leaves, not to mention his red hair is still messy and proper dirty. He somehow looks younger now that I'm older.

His grin turns into pure bewilderment.

He's always been good at pushing his emotions away whenever he doesn't want them anymore. He was momentarily thrilled to see me, then realised he has no idea who I am. I slipped his mind because he didn't want to remember me.

"Tell me who you are."

I had expected it, but it's still strange to hear him asking. I had hoped my presence would trigger his memory, but he looks at me as though I wasn't his something when I was thirteen. It bothers me to a certain extent that he can't remember me, but not as much as I had expected. He's still rather charming, but I don't see him the same way anymore. And maybe my hatred towards him is present because I've spent years thinking about someone who doesn't remember me anymore.

"Louis."

"You're a little too grown up, aren't you... Louis?"

"I suppose so."

"Then how are you here?"

My heart drops, not because I naively thought Peter sent the shadow, but because it was someone else, someone I haven't come across yet. Peter could easily be playing around with me and leading me on, but he seems genuinely puzzled.

"A shadow came to get me."

"A shadow?"

"That's what I just said."

He eyes me suspiciously, then takes a turn around me to size me up and place himself opposite me again. "You seem... recognisable."

Even though he looks younger despite being the same size he once was—around twelve or thirteen—he acts older and sounds older.

"I was here when I was younger."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah."

"When?"

I hesitate because Peter won't understand what the term years mean. "A long time ago."

"I saw you with my boys," he says, changing the subject as quickly as his emotions. "It's an interesting alliance."

"They're not your boys anymore."

"No, maybe not," he says. "But they're dangerous."

I had expected something along those lines. He might be clever, but in certain ways, he's also crazy predictable. And yet at the same time, there's something sincere about his words—thirteen-year-old Louis is dying to believe him.

"You're the one who wants them dead."

"Yes, obviously."

He doesn't try to explain his way out, but I reckon that's understandable. Killing them supposedly makes sense to him when he's seeing everything differently.

"Why would I believe anything you say?"

He shrugs. "Why would you believe anything they say?"

I open my mouth to say something, but nothing comes out. I've believed in the boys without thinking twice about it because they were never the villains in the past. It's not until now that I realise Peter wasn't either. Neverland is becoming a place where good and evil lose their meaning. Everything I've believed in slips away as though I have trouble holding onto everything the boys have told me. I'm stuck between believing in my childhood hero and the boys who promised to protect me. I'm caught up in both good and evil, but I can't tell which is which anymore.