Neverland's Shadow

First Chapter

Shadow

Peter Pan, do you dream?

It's funny. That's your whole thing. Dreams. You don't sleep though. I've been watching you and not once have you closed your eyes, laid down, and slept. Do you need sleep, perhaps that's the reason? I don't think so. You see, you look exhausted, Peter Pan. I know you can feel me, can feel my eyes watching you from a distance. It unsettles you. You cannot sleep being watched, being vulnerable, so you refuse to. You are oh so curious about me. Even Tink can't seem to find me, no matter how many times you send her out. You're growing weary. I can see it. I see everything. Soon you will fall and I will be there.

–

Peter Pan:

I can feel it. It's like this gnawing feeling in the back of my head. The familiar feeling of dread and fear wrapped up my throat, threatening to choke me. I was being watched.

It started a week ago when I took Wendy Darling back home to her wondrous, ever-changing, land. When I returned to my island, there was something new there. A presence I did not recognize before, something lurking just out of range from me. I sent Tinkerbell on countless runs around the island, I employed the Lost Boys to search the grounds and even asked the sirens of the Lagoon to listen to any whispers in the area. Every single one of them came up empty. Now it is like a ghost is haunting me, driving me mad, keeping me from sleep for fear of my life. The others no longer believe me, they don't believe that something is on the island that shouldn't be. I know I don't have much longer until my body will finally succumb to the need for sleep. Each day my magic wanes and the island screams at me to sleep, but they don't know that the moment I shut my eyes, I will wind up dead.

--

My steps take me through the familiar route I've been walking since the beginning when the piercing gaze started. I can walk the length in my sleep if I truly wish. During this trail, I discovered what feels like a blind spot. I've been too nervous to linger in the spot for very long for fear the presence will notice. However today I feel as if I have reached my breaking point. The blind spot has not gone away or moved in the days that I have been walking it to make sure it was still there. Today I will finally sleep.

I could feel the weight lift off my shoulders almost immediately as I walked into the blind spot. It seemed to be a kind of large fairy circle of some kind. Usually, fairy circles are inhabited or show some sign of supernatural use. This one is dead. Abandoned. However, it pointed signs of the stalker being something of opposite energy to a fairy if this spot is considered a blind spot to it. This knowledge sent a shudder up my spine and did nothing to make me feel better. The only thing it meant was that the entity was dark. Evil. Not something that I wanted to be involved with.

The fairy circles varied, depending on the fairies that created and inhabited the area. This one was clearly of Earth fairies with the way the circle was surrounded by stones, mushrooms, and various little flowers. It was a rather large area, which meant the fairies that had inhabited it were a large group; larger than a normal batch of fairies would be.

I stopped once I reached the middle of the circle and stared up at the large willow tree in front of me. It was such an old tree that it made me wonder how long those fairies had last been here. The tree was strong though, and looked as if it would stand for many years to come. I started climbing up the tree quickly, anxious to rest on one of the branches hidden in the wisps of the willow leaves. Once I found a wide and sturdy enough branch to support my weight, I sat up against the trunk with my legs laid over the length of the branch. I took one last glance around and closed my eyes, quickly falling into a fitful sleep.

--

Shadow:

He fell asleep. Peter Pan slept. Since I first encountered him, I never thought he would. The sight of him in the tree, completely still and unaware of me, it made me feel something I had no idea I could feel. Excitement. He didn't look like he was enjoying his rest, most likely due to me and his paranoia about me. He believed he had found a haven from me, but he was incorrect. He found the opposite. He had found me a haven, somewhere I felt so powerful and aware of the island.

I sat on the branch above him, careful not to be close enough to touch him but enough to watch and memorize his features from a closer distance. He had a head of straight blonde hair, so silky and shiny looking. He was lean in muscle and looked so much like a young man. He had an angled jawline and high cheekbones that were reddened in the sun. His skin when I first saw him was light tan, beautifully colored under the sun. His skin now held a pale yellowish tint, most likely the color deformed from the lack of sleep. From here, I could even catch a faint hint of his smell. He smelled of the sun and flowers, with a hint of cinnamon. The cinnamon was a common smell of the fairies. His strongest scent was...magic. The energy around him was even humming with the air of magic. It made him smell so much sweeter. I wanted to reach out and touch him, touch the magic that ran through his blood, and connect to him. I knew that once I touched him though, he would awaken and fear me.

--

Peter Pan:

I woke up startled, something had brushed against me. It felt cold and sharp against my hand. It almost felt familiar. I was too anxious to think too much about it. Someone was here, and real, and I didn't notice them. I looked around, my blue eyes scanned for anything different in the willow tree around me. I lashed out my magic to the entirety of the fairy circle but felt nothing unusual. The watchful gaze still wasn't on me but my nerves were too wired to be able to rest anymore.

I climbed down slowly from the willow tree, keeping an eye on the surroundings as I descended. There was not a single change in the environment since I first fell asleep. No new footprints in the grass or sticks broken from the weight of someone, but the undeniable feeling of someone having been here was so strong that I knew it must be true. A shiver racked my spine from the eerie feeling of knowing but having no evidence to grasp onto. The only thing I could do was return home and wait.

As I stepped out of the fairy circle, the feeling of being watched returned but it felt slightly different. Before, it felt haunting, as if it was waiting for me to slip up so it could attack. Now it felt almost curious, like it wanted me to find it so it could be closer. The feeling should've eased m nerves but the drastic change while in the fairy circle meant that the thing that touched me before was the same thing that watched me. It was supposed to be safe, but it got close enough to touch me and I didn't notice it at all. I could feel my movements stiffen and a nauseous feeling rolled over me as I took off back to the safety of my home.