Tales of a Neverland Lost Girl

Lost Girl

My eyes fly open as I force my self up on to my elbows. Sweat is dripping from my forehead and my back is wet from the salty water. I'm shaking. I can see my reflection in the mirror of my dresser; I'm white as a ghost.

Another nightmare.

They are coming more and more frequently. I'm trying to catch my breath but I can't seem to keep my heart at a steady pace. I start gagging on the air and my throat is being squeezed tightly, making my head feel light. I scratch at the back of my neck to undo the chain rapped around me. My damn necklace is suffocating me again. I pull at the gold and try to unknot the locket but the more I struggle the more it gets tangled.

I push my covers off my wet body and run to my dresser. They only light illuminating the room was the lamp resting on my side table. The dim light was enough the guide my eyes to my left drawer and grab my scissors.

I pull out the little blades and start to cut rapidly at my neck. I glanced at the mirror and my face was purple. How was I still standing?

Finally I break the gold chain around my neck and collapse onto the rugged floor. My breathing starts to slow and I can finally catch my long awaited breath.

I look at the locket I have removed and start to tear up. Not because the piece of jewelry nearly strangled me, but because I had broken the chain of my mother's locket.

I sat up on my knees and examined the damage. My eyes were beginning to adjust to the low light and I could make out the gold more clearly now. It was broken. It was easily fixed if I took it to the jeweler but I couldn't leave. If I left then he would get me and the moon wouldn't be pleased.

I opened the gold circle. inside was the most beautiful picture of my mother. She was a wonderful woman. Her long brunet hair flowed over her shoulders and her emerald eyes shinnied through the photograph. Her smooth, silk skin was radiant. The picture did her justice but I still craved her actual presence and beauty. She's been gone for so long. Nona says she will come back one day. She says I'll be able to hold her and talk to her again. She says that she's away on a long vacation and that I should be patient in her return. My mother is an angel. She deserves to have a holiday; even if it lasts for eight years.

Nona was a jolly woman. Her laugh tickled the ears of everyone in the world. She was thick and easy to hug. She knew how to make delicious meals where the spices and seasonings dance on your tongue and make your mouth water. She walked with both her chins in the air and she smiled bigger then her waistline. Her chocolate eyes glimmered in the light and her cheeks were always flushed with red. Her sausage fingers would point at you furiously if you were in trouble. She would stomp her foot and wait for you to make your way over to her. She would stare at you, her eyes piercing through her bifocals. She would look at the cookie that you stole from the cookie jar and sneak it into your pocket.

"Make sure your mother doesn't see."

She would send me off, with a kiss and my stolen cookie.

Nona used to tell me about how my mother grew up and how she'd always wanted a little girl like me. It's been years since I've seen her. Nona had fallen into a deep sleep before mother's homecoming. Men came and took her away. They said that she was going to sleep forever. That confused me because I couldn't imagine her not eating for more then a few hours. How could she stop forever?

I had lived a little over seven years when mother took off. She said that she was going to a place where fairies flew in the trees, mermaids swam in the lagoon, lost boys ran in the fields, pirates ruled the sea and no one ever grew up. I asked her if I could one day go to this place. She said if I willed it so, then it would happen.