Pan's Tiger

Chapter 35: Henry

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Thanks for reading. I'm so excited that I have over 3k reads and 250 votes! This is so encouraging and really motivates me to write more- thank you.
This chapter was really hard to write, I felt evil and malicious with every sentence, thinking about Henry's situation.
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Annabelle_the_reader
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'The Lost Boys are coming, we need to hurry!' I said urgently, jumping onto the path in front of Peter and Henry. At first, Henry studied me closely, but the his eyes lit up in shock as if he had suddenly realised who I was, making me a little uncomfortable. Perhaps Peter was right, it was a good idea to make myself into the character the story books wanted me to be.

'Who are you?' Henry asked, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion. Henry was so innocent and naive, I felt awful for tricking him, but at the same time I needed him to give his heart to Peter in order to save his life and then he could leave the island or whatever.

My eyes quickly met Peter's, before I continued, 'I'm Tiger Lily.'

'You're Tiger Lily?' He gasped, but looked very excited as well. I nodded once, pretending to look a little taken aback that he knew me. 'I read about you in a book. I read about the tribes and the natives and how you're a princess there, is that true?'

I smiled sweetly at him, sympathetic towards his cause for coming here. 'Most of it, yes.' I agreed and he looked delighted. 'But not anymore, the natives were killed by Peter Pan except for me. I only just escaped, I'm surprised Pan hasn't found me. If he wants you, he will get you.'

My eyes met Pan's and I scowled, but he just dismissed me easily, slipping back into his character immediately. Henry dragged me from this thought by inferring, 'So you're not a Lost Girl, you don't work for Pan? You're not helping him?'

'After he killed my family? I don't think so.' I mused, my eyes flickering to meet Pan's for a brief second, long enough for Pan to see but not long enough for Henry to notice. Henry looked relieved and then turned behind his back to the direction of the voices of the Lost Boys coming our way.

'They're coming, we best hurry before Pan finds us!' I urged and we continued to run through the paths of Neverland, Pan leading the way and me bringing up the rear. Henry wasn't as fast as Pan and was much more terrified than him, but he managed to keep up most of the time.

'I think we lost them.' Pan looked behind him, taking this opportunity to relax slightly. I put my hands on my knees, stretching out my muscles, pretending to be more exhausted and panicking than I was in reality, as well as trying to recover and prepare myself for more lying. I wasn't as skilled at lying as Pan was.

'Ok, can we rest for a minute?' Henry asked and Pan nodded. I observed him closely taking a seat, but Henry also studied me. He acknowledged my jet black hair, my icy green eyes, my lightly tanned skin, my animal skin dress and the red lines painted onto my cheek bones.

'You're new.' Pan observed, trying to pick up the conversation and learn more about this boy, while still pretending to be clueless about his purpose in Neverland. 'Did the Shadow take you too?'

'No, I was kidnapped by some people who work for Pan.' Henry replied, almost angrily. He had lost everything: his family, his friends and even his home for the sake of what seemed to be very little. My eyes narrowed, puzzling it all out.

Whenever somebody was separated from the things they loved, I always remembered how I felt and empathised with them, but Pan promised me that he would give Henry the option to give him his heart, or to return home in a few days.

Pan nodded. 'I'm sorry, but if Pan sent for you, he wants you. And if he wants you, he will get you.' Pan continued sympathetically.

'Why does Pan want you?' Henry asked and my gaze fluttered back to Pan, who stood unfazed by the question that required a lie, so I assumed he planned this.