I'll Take You to Neverland

Chapter 8: Shadow's Land

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I wake up to find that I'm laying on twigs, dirt, and a few leaves. I reach my hand up to my throat, wincing slightly as I touch around the bruises that I know must be there.

Wincing isn't all that comes from my attempt at suicide however. I start coughing and not only does my neck feel like it's on fire, but when I cover my mouth with my hands I feel that they are wet. Pulling them back and getting a better look in the early morning light, I can see blood on them, along with the ground beneath them.

That leaves me to question where I am and how I got here.

The last thing I can remember before blacking out is being dragged along by something through the air. Screaming after being pulled out of my window and over the ocean.

I glance up, hoping to find that there are buildings nearby, but all I find are trees, and standing next to them, as I glance back a second time, I can see a shadow.

A memory flashes in my mind. This is the dark blur that took me here.

I don't know whether or not I should call it a shadow. It's a dark smudge that stays in the dark, the eyes missing and partially transparent. But there is nothing for the shadow to be cast off of. So it's more like smoke.

But the smoke has a mind of its own. I can tell by the way it stares at me while my head lays on the ground, eyes half-way open.

It floats towards me and I'm entranced by the way it moves, almost like liquid, or as if it could carry off into the sky at any given moment. That's when I realize that it's moving away.

As terrified and astounded as I may be by this... thing, I have no idea where I am so I need to follow him or else I will never get home.

I stand painstakingly slow, wincing again as my head rolls forward, a headache is obviously coming soon.

When I look up, the smoke isn't gone like I expected, but I see it waiting for me, it's "eyes" trained on me, watching my every move. It's almost as if it wants me to follow him and doesn't want to leave me behind.

So I do, slowly at first, and then picking up the pace as it moves through the forest. I take off my shoes and socks, holding them in my hands and feeling my feet squish down into the mud. Something you don't get to feel a lot when living in the city.

Maybe this is heaven.

To be honest, I never believed in that, but if it is real, then the christians were definitely wrong.

I take in my surroundings, the tall trees reaching their branches over my head, the squirrels skittering across the ground, the vines, sticks, rocks, leaves and mud all laying along the trail that has been made by what looks like years of travelers, every once and a while I have to push branches out of the way and push forward, making sure that I never fall too far behind the shadow. But when I do, it always stops or slows down making sure that I can catch up before going again. This continues for an hour or two, the monotonous streams and humming birds passing by, a rock here, a bush or shrub there. Until all of a sudden the floral scent is almost completely masked by smoke.

Not a heavy smoke, not the puff of it leading me through the forest, not city smoke, but I I know what anything smells like, I know that this is camp-fire smoke.

The smell is nice, I can't describe it any other ways than, well, smokey. It reminds me of winter, warming my hands after a snowball fight.

The smell doesn't fade though, as a matter of fact it gets stronger with each step. Within the next few minutes I can't smell the flowers at all, but instead, a new scent is added, and this one makes my stomach rumble. Food.

Some sort of meat is being roasted, and I know now that I'm nowhere near the city, not that I wasn't having my doubts long before. Although I ate more yesterday than I have in the past couple weeks, my stomach still wants more and all of a sudden the pain in my stomach is too much to handle.

I bend over a bush, spilling my guts and staring down at the ground, you can tell that something is wrong, that something is off. The red mixed in. I know that coughing up blood should be normal, as a matter of fact, I'm surprised that my neck didn't snap when I kicked that chair out. No, this is wrong. My throat burns and I try to scream, tears streaming down my face, but more vomit comes up along with more blood. My face is red hot as I wipe off my mouth with my arm, turning back to the shadow to see it hovering right above me staring in curiosity.

I try to stand, shuffling along on my feet now as I walk. The smell of food is too much, I'm hunched over holding my hands on my stomach, dropping both of my shoes but keeping my socks just in case.

I start to hear people talking, lots of people. Yelling and whooping, things clashing together, possibly even drums. And a flute.

The sound of the flute fills my ears, and it's all that I can concentrate on. I feel myself dozing off while I take another step forward. Too tired to take another step.

I move one last branch out of the way as the smoke shape flies away quickly. Boys are dancing everywhere, play fighting, playing the drums that I heard, talking and having a great time. But it all stops when all of their eyes land on me. The noise cuts off as I take in everything, swaying a bit.

That's when my eyes finally land on the flute player, his emerald eyes fixed on mine. I can't tell if it's a glare, or just confusion, but as soon as he takes a step towards me, the other boys in the group looking at him for his reaction, I fall.

And there I am, laying on the ground, unconscious once more.

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Picture: The Shadow leading Cameron through the island.