Checkmate

46. Package

Act Three (Attempt number two)

Here we go!

Two months after the heroes and I found Thomas near the town line, I walked through the centre of town with a parcel in hand. Emma had insisted I take a walk and hand deliver the item one sunny Saturday afternoon. Sure she intended to lure me into a trap, I squinted at her as I left the station, my eyes remaining on her until the last possible second.

The address on the little piece of paper she handed me had me walking from one end of town where I reluctantly lived once again with Neal, to the other end I had never before been to. And as per Emma's instructions, I walked the long roads as morning turned to afternoon rather than magically teleporting.

Along the way I saw various friends and lost boys as they went about their weekend jobs, the lot of them happier than I to be in the glare of the warm sun. The lost boys had secured most of their jobs because of Felix, the boy stepping in to take over the role of leader in Pan's absence. I had stepped back partly due to focusing my attempts at reviving their king, the boy now cursed like the town's residents had once been.

Neal took "Thomas" in, despite my protests. I found myself unable to look at the boy for too long for fear of losing my nerve. Neal had also insisted I remain in the home to keep the three of us together and safe from Rumple, who had still not been discovered after his escape.

Despite the strange turn of events, the lost boys, Thomas, and Henry, all got along together at school while I stayed back. Even after weeks of living together, I could not face the boy that now sat on the other side of the room with the redhead he had been dating since before he could remember.

Doctor Whale checked Thomas over and brushed off his various blank memory spots as school stress with exams nearing. Archie took over after that, keeping an eye on Thomas under the guise of helping him access his missing memories.

I turned my attention from my daydreaming about the boy as I finally turned onto the street with the same name as the one on the paper. I looked from the sign with the street name just in time to avoid bumping into someone I hadn't seen since the night Pan took his magic back. Felix.

"Come to finish me off, sweetheart?" He asked, an amused smirk on his face.

I held up the item and gave a thin lined smile. "Package."

"Emma's got you being her delivery girl now?" I shrugged in response and gave the boy a second polite smile before I continued walking, fully aware of the boy following close behind. "I don't see you in this neighbourhood."

I kept my eyes straight ahead. "Never been here before."

"It's for me."

"What?" My brows pinched as I turned to face him. He pointed sheepishly at the hand wrapped package in my hand. I looked at the little brown parcel and then back at the boy. "For you?" He nodded. "She made me walk across town for you?"

He gave an apologetic smile, which quickly faded as I began to open the edges of the package to peek inside the wrapping. "It's rude to open other people's mai-"

"A book?!" I stared open-mouthed at the boy before me, holding the half opened package away from me. "I walked across town to give you a damn book?!" I thrust the offending parcel at his chest and turned on my heel, my ponytail swinging behind me.

"You don't know what book it is yet," he called after me. "Oh, come on Annie. You aren't the least bit curious about the history behind what happened to us?"