Neverland

Chapter Twenty

I see flashes of empty spaces, dreams, and memories. My body feels like it is being ripped apart, my molecules spreading. I can sense that Wendy is beside me, somehow, in some form. I close my eyes again as a bright light enters my vision.

  

* * *

All at once, I can hear the sounds of peasants' chatter, everyone bustling about. My eyes still closed, I take a deep breath, smelling the scents from two hundred years before. It worked. I'm here.

When I open my eyes, I see the world I grew up in. From here I can see the water canals rippling alongside. Unlike the London in Wendy's time, there is no enormous clock tower.

I finally notice that Wendy and I are lying on the cobblestone streets, passerbyers stopping and giving us strange looks. I jostle Wendy.

"Wendy, wake up."

She opens her eyes in an instant, sitting up. Wendy clutches her head and falls back down. Now I stand up, bending over her.

"Wendy? Are you okay?" I ask.

"Just... just wait a little," she answers. I figured something like this might happen. This isn't her time.After a minute or two, I offer a hand to her again. She takes it, and I pull her up.

"Well, then," Wendy says. "Where are we off to, Peter?" I give her a sad smile.

"Follow me."

* * *

For a while we weave in and out of the crowds, ducking into alleys to avoid the guards and peacekeepers. Wendy and I definitely look more out of place than most of the others do. I am still dressed in my usual attire, and Wendy in her ripped dress. Just as the sun begins to set we reach our destination.

"Peter," Wendy says, panting. She sits. "Where are we going?" I sit beside her on the bend of the street.

"Wendy," I say. "No matter what you see, I want you to know I'm not the same boy I was two hundred years ago." I chuckle. Those words should never come out of someone's mouth.

"Peter, I know, I-"

"No, I need you to listen," I insist. I continue. "Wendy, the situation my brother and I were in was a lot different than how you grew up in the nineteenth century. Our parents died in a fire. My brother was fifteen, and I was thirteen. He took care of me for a time, but him and I were very different. I am different than I was then. Remember how I am now."

Wendy is silent. I motion for her to follow me.

Rain begins to drizzle from the sky above. A gloomy setting for a gloomy day. On the street, there is a small opening, almost impossible to see for it is covered with an illusion. I can make out the line that shows the opening, and crawl through.

There is a hole underground that was concealed by the covering. Rain slightly drips through, occasionally hitting us. I bring a finger to my lips, indicating Wendy to be silent.

In the dim lighting, we see two boys crouched against the wall, shivering in the cold. Next to me, Wendy mouths, Is that-? I nod.

Suddenly, one of the boys, Jack, springs up. He kicks me, well, young Peter, awake. Young me cries out.

"Don't try anything while I'm gone," Jack hisses. "I'll be back in the morning."

"And if the rats come?" young Peter asks.

"Don't let them eat your face," Jack answers harshly. Wendy and I press ourselves against the wall while Jack stomps out. As soon as Jack leaves, young Peter stands, clutching his side. He winces in the dimness, and proceeds to crawl out of the shelter. We follow.

In the distance we heard crazed laughter coming from a group across from us. Young Peter quickly ducks into the shadows as footsteps rush out to the party.

"Do you think they can see us?" Wendy asks.

"I am almost positively sure they cannot," I say. This is, after all, only a memory.

"Seize them!" a deep voice orders. The group is surrounded. The deep voice continues, "We hereby arrest you on behalf of King Charles I, violating the laws of suspected treason, plotting..." I notice that young Peter has vanished. Wendy and I don't stick around to listen. Quickly, we catch up with my younger self.

"What would happen if you, er, young Peter, if he was caught by the guards?" Wendy asks quietly.

"I would've been sent to be a slave, probably," I say. "With no family to defend me, there would be no where else for me to go." Wendy nods solemnly.

We follow myself into an alley that seems darker than the rest. I know what's to come to pass, but it needs to be shown. I need the answer to defeating Jack, even if it means I have to kill my only brother.