Wonder [R.K.]

Chapter 36

Thump, Thump, Thump.

Our feet crash against the ground as we dodge the variety of trees in our race back to camp. Our breathing is heavy, but all we can focus on is our destination.

Pan and I fly into the clearing breathlessly. We look around to find Alex sitting there, nervous as ever. The boys look confused and upset. I look to my side and find Pan deflating.

And I, well I don't know what to feel.

"What does it mean?" I ask Pan unknowingly.

"I wish I had the answer." He says. The beauty that was so recently laced in his voice, has now vanished. It seems that old feelings have been brought back and his heart has been hit once again.

And to think, things were getting better.

I can hear his heart breaking. I can see the pain upon his features. The warmth that radiates off his unexplainable body, is now cold. He screams depressed, without saying a word.

"There has to be something to explain this, there has to." Pan just a stands there, not looking at me as I babble on. "I need to research, there must be something that can tell us the ways of this damned island!" I curse into the wind. Pan suddenly moves his head towards me. His expression reads that he thought of something.

He gestures Alex over and we follow Pan into his hut. I glance back and forth between Pan and where we're walking. I believe Pan is going insane.

We reach a small book shelf and I furrow my brows.

"You think there's something here to tell us what's going on?" I question oddly.

"No," Pan says quietly, "But there's something in here." He pulls a book from the shelf and all of a sudden, the bookshelf slides over, revealing an entire new room.

It's a library.

Books are stacked neatly upon shelves in every inch of the room. One table sits off to the side with a few chairs.

"All these books reveal the secrets of Neverland." Pan states breathlessly. I'm in shock just looking around this magnificent room. I smile in the almost never ending collection of books.

"I missed this place." Alex says, happily.

"So where do we start?" I ask.

"Anywhere." And that's our cue to dig in. We pull books from their spots on the shelves where they are organized. Pan, Alex, and I fly to work, looking at every book we can read at a time.

And it takes us days before we get anywhere.

After 4 days (or so I think), I finally stumble on a rather large and heavy book with a black leather exterior. The title reads, 'Time in Neverland'. I pull it out to be hit with a storm of dust and I cough a bit.

I bring it to the table, slapping it down and opening it up.

I read through the large pages where it mainly talks about how there's no time on Neverland and what that means.

And then I reach a paged titled, 'Clocks in Neverland'. My heart beats a little faster. Is this it?

I read through the long and wordy page until I reach a part I understand.

'The clock will tick eight times before you will be forced off Neverland." I know a majority of what comes next, so I skim through until I find something interesting.

'The person who's time is up, will experience these things; pain coming to those whom they love, death around them, and absence in their life. Once they remove themselves or the person they love from the island, peace with be restored. Note: Nothing will directly occur to the person who's time is up. Only those around them."

My mind reels at what this could mean, but it makes no sense!

"Alex." I call him over to show him what I found. I point to the passage I just read, and he concentrates on it before a scared expression waves over his face.

"If I this means what I think it means." Alex starts but I stop him.

"Then we're in trouble." We look to each other with eyes wide. This is not right.

"We have to tell him." He says a bit upset. I chew on my lip before nodding and heading outside.

Pan sits in the fire circle, head in his hands. He hasn't slept a wink since we heard that tick. His eyes, that brought me so much happiness and pleasure, are now dull, and make me hurt inside.

We both slowly walk up to him as I take a deep breath. This is going to be so hard.

"Pan we found something." I say like I've lost the ability to talk. He nods slowly, one eyebrow raised.

"We found a passage that, um," Alex starts, but loses his words. "Well it said that the last two times the clocks went off, they weren't our clocks."

"They were your clock."