The Land Never Lost

Chapter 9

The orphanage was quiet and peaceful. Which would have been unusual, but no Peter normally meant calmness. When they reached the steps of the orphanage, Trinkett began to walk up them. Peter quickly grabbed for her leather jacket. He pulled her off the steps and around the side of the building.

"Oh sure! Just walk right into an orphanage looking like a lost twelve year old girl. You know what's scarier than any Gloom? Sister Angelina. We have to be careful otherwise I won't be going back to any fairy world with you. Follow the great captain Peter. You have much to learn, Tink." Peter snickered as he made his way along the side of the orphanage.

His bedroom window was shut. The sun beaming through made it unnecessary for a light to be on. It also made it hard to determine if someone was in his room during the day. Peter slowly started to climb the tree. Halfway up the tree, Peter heard the bedroom window opening. Trinkett hurried out of sight behind a tree. Peter stopped climbing. He was hugging the trunk, eyes closed. Hoping, if he couldn't see, he wouldn't be seen.

After a few seconds passed, he slowly opened his eyes. Peter looked up cautiously. James was sitting on the window sill eating an apple.

"Can you hurry up and get inside already? I have been using every excuse in the book to cover for you and it's only been one night." James finished his apple in three huge bites. He threw the core at Peter. When James left the window, Peter looked back at Trinkett. She was still hiding.

"I'm going to explain last night. Stay out here. If you wanna hide, transform back into your fairy form. If I need you, I'll come get you." Peter said.

Trinkett whispered back as to not be heard, "No! Peter, you can't tell your friend. We don't even know if this plan of ours can work. It will just raise too many questions."

Peter took a second before answering. He was thinking before he responded. That was weird.

"He's my best friend. I have to tell him as much as I can. I'm going to be running away basically, it's going to change his world. He needs to understand why I'm leaving." The boy hung off the tree, crestfallen. Peter did not want to leave James. But the boy did not believe in coincidence, he was sure he was destined for this amazing adventure.

Peter climbed up the tree and leapt through his bedroom window. His bed was left in the picturesque mess he remembered leaving it in. James was laid out on his own bed with his back up against the wall. James made no attempt to greet Peter. Peter walked to his bed and sat down.

Silence.

Tension.

"I saw one James. Those invisible monsters. They are called glooms. They come from us. Any loss of hope. All negative emotions and feelings that humans have created them. Glooms have one motivation, one goal. Eliminate all hope. Rid the world of any positivity." James sat up in bed. "I hit one tonight by accident. Now I can see them. And if I can hit them, I can get rid of them."

James replied, "Wait! Just hold on. Okay, so you got lucky and hit one of these 'Glooms'. And what about the green guy you believe you saw fighting the glooms? Any luck finding him."

"Kind of. It's complicated but that wasn't a guy. That was a..." Peter looked toward the window and back at his friend.

"What, Peter? You are already stretching the limits of my imagination. Might as well let me hear it all." James said.

"Okay, just give me a second." Peter walked to the window and stuck his head through. He whispered, "Tink. Tink please he needs to know I'm not going crazy." No response. Peter silently hoped Trinkett would trust him enough to reveal herself to one more human, his best friend. There was no sign of Trinkett around the tree. Just a scene of normalcy that would cause James to question the sanity of his friend. Peter started to close the window when a small green light flashed behind the tree. The tiny fairy slowly flew up to one of Peter's blue eyes. She squeaked, "I hope you know what you are doing." She settled onto his shoulder.