Darkness Dies with the Sunrise

Chapter 10

- Pan -

He noticed the way the boys were looking at him in astonishment before he actually felt the drops of rain. He hadn't meant for this to happen. He hadn't meant to let his feelings show. He hadn't meant to have these feelings at all. But there she was with weeks' worth of cuts and bruises. And now she evidently had a head injury. But even then, as the sparse raindrops cut through the grime on her face, she was stunning.

No, not stunning. She wasn't stunning and he didn't have any feelings.

Pan made a beeline for Felix, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him to a secluded corner of Camp. Felix wore a facade of confusion at Pan's anger. "What's wrong, Pan?"

"I think you know." Pan snapped.

"So she's not improving in training as much as one would hope, but I don't see how that's my fault..." Felix placated.

"She picked the equivalent of a pocket knife as her only weapon, and you didn't think to suggest something else?" Pan seethed, his tone raised. Though out of their eyesight, he was aware of the Lost Boys' proximity. But he took a breath and spoke more quietly, "Don't even get me started on her injuries...I mean, she has a bruised rib and a concussion."

Felix scoffed. "I told you I could make no promises about her condition. She has to learn—" A second roll of thunder cut Felix off. His eyebrows raised in surprise at the sound before settling into a furrowed position of confusion and annoyance. He matched Pan's indignant, whispering tone. "Look around you. It's not just overcast. Raindrops are actually falling. I warned you about losing control of yourself about her—" He was cut off again as Pan grabbed him by the collar and his back slammed against the nearest tree trunk. He couldn't help himself. She'd been hurt. He hadn't stopped it.

"I think there are worse feelings I could lose control over, don't you?" Pan's eyes were like green flames. Felix put his hands up in surrender and Pan's grip on his shirt loosened. "You're done training her." He fully let go of the fabric and stormed back to his tent, the gears in his head turning. He'd seen such sadness in her eyes. He had to put an end to that. He couldn't bear it.

- Marigold -

She, like the Boys, had watched as Pan practically dragged Felix off for an apparently heated discussion before stalking back into his tent. The rain had decidedly stopped by the time he ripped the tent opening closed. Felix sulked back to the group. Like the Boys, Marigold wasn't sure what the conversation was about, however, she had an inkling it was about her performance. So she left the fire-lit boundaries of Camp, taking the marigold path back to the treehouse. Sparse but heavy tears trailed down her cheeks, just as the raindrops had earlier. She reached the clearing where the treehouse stood. The window was dark. She could just make out the house's shape in the pale light of the moon. The pearls hung heavily from her neck like they weren't supposed to be there. She climbed up into the house. The lantern sat on the table unlit, cold. The little clay vase beside it sat flowerless, empty.

•••

She didn't remember falling asleep. But the bleary sunrise woke her accompanied by a morning chill that swept over her without the bedcovers to protect her. Her head throbbed as stared up at the ceiling. She wasn't sure how long she laid there, but the continued ascent of the sun prodded her to get up. She couldn't lay there forever, no matter how much she wished she could or how much she wanted to avoid the confrontations of the day. She slowly sat up on her bed, her head throbbing more in protest. She gave a sigh as she stretched her aching limbs. She knew that if she didn't hurry, she might miss breakfast. She wasn't hungry, though she was filthy. The dirt from yesterday's defeats lingered on her skin.

That decided it. She grabbed her old stained dress and climbed down the tree trunk. She walked the path to the Crystal Lagoon, trying to chase away the memories of the first time she'd gone there. When Pan had taken her there. She'd bathed there plenty of times since that first time, she knew her way there and back well. But each time she went, she would remember his smirks, his shining eyes, his soft chuckling. As she reached the stone wall of the lagoon she remembered her hand in his as he helped her climb up, she remembered his hand on her waist as he helped her climb down. Her mind kept flying back to that moment. He'd been so gentle. She's been so hopeful. As she picked up her soaps she felt bitter toward the memory of herself. She should have known it wouldn't last. She should have known then that she wouldn't measure up. She had seen how wild it was on the island. She should have seen how weak she was.

First, she washed her body. As she focused on scrubbing the dirt off, the memories seemed to float away in the clear lagoon water. After she washed her hair, she twirled individual strands around her fingers as she had been the past few weeks, an attempt to define her curls and avoid an all-out frizz fest. Luckily, it usually worked. She hadn't given it much thought but assumed it must have been some magic of Neverland, like the abundant supply of food and medicinal herbs, beyond what seemed to naturally occur on the island.

Feeling a little better now that she was clean, Marigold put on the dress she'd arrived in, no longer white, but stained with the adventures of her first days there. Then she began to wash the clothes she'd picked out of the chest. She dowsed her corset, socks, and shorts in soap and rinsed them in the lagoon. She set them out to dry on the sparkling sand before going to work on her skirt, rubbing at the mud stains around the hem until her hands were sore. Once satisfied, she laid it beside her other garments and climbed back over the stone wall.

The sun was nearly centered in the sky by the time she got to Camp. It was uncharacteristically empty. Marigold walked the whole perimeter. She really was alone. As she walked toward the center of Camp, she noticed a plate was placed on the stone she normally sat on during meals. As she approached it, she found it was piled with fruit and biscuits. She also found a piece of paper marked Mary, folded underneath it. She sat on the stone with her plate of brunch and unfolded the paper. She took a bite of a biscuit and read.

Mary,

———————Hope you're —— getting the rest you need to heal. We're all out scouting. Be back soon. Hope to —— you————.

Pan

Some of the note had clearly been crossed out, but she easily read what hadn't been scribbled over. They were all out scouting. Kane had said she need to rest. Clearly, Pan agreed. That must have been why no one so no one had to come to get her. She'd never gone with any of the scouting groups before anyway, so it wasn't like she was missing out or not contributing as she normally would. She did find it odd that they were all out scouting. Normally, it was just a couple of groups of about a dozen boys total.

When she was done eating, Marigold went back to Crystal Lagoon to change into her newly-washed clothes. She then returned to Camp to spend the next hour washing dishes and tidying up some of the equipment around Camp. Everything had just been left out in disarray. She figured they must have left in a hurry. When she really thought about it, she began to worry. The whole group had evidently left Camp in a rush and had been gone since breakfast. That had been hours ago.

Just as her anxiety was reaching a peak, she heard whoops and laughter coming from the western edge of camp. Her heart leaped. They were back and in good spirits. So everything was okay. Nothing bad had happened. She watched as Pan led the whole group of them through the western Camp entrance, a huge grin on his face. Her heart dropped to her stomach. They were all stained red from head to toe.

"Is that...blood?"

———

a/n: guess who's back, back again...

i hope you enjoy chapter 10! i will continue to write this story as i have time, and i'm still super excited about writing it, it's just a matter of finding the time! i've got some new ideas to include between my pre-planned plot points, so i especially look forward to writing those. even if i'm not the most consistent uploader, i hope someone out there is still excited about reading it when i do! :)

see you in the next chapter...

- em