Pan

A New Friend

"How did he even get captured anyway?" I asked as we continued walking through the jungle.
"They put a magic cuff on him, blocks out all magic." Felix replied.
"How'd he contact you?"
"Are you really that surprised? Pan is clever, he always finds a way out. He dropped a note before they took him and Henry away."
"Henry? What was he doing with Henry?"
"I'm not sure, something about sticking to a plan."
I couldn't believe it, Pan was going to kill Henry anyway. Well, he did promise he would find another way...maybe we wasn't going to...
We finally reached the edge of the island where a small row boat was waiting.
"Stay here, Guinea Pig and I will go. If I need backup I'll give the secret call." Felix said to the other lost boys.
"Wait! Let me go too.", Jacob said as he pushed his way to the front.
"Jacob...I think it would be best if you stayed back here. Maybe keep the lost boys in check while we're gone?"
"I..oh..okay...I guess."
"Thank you Jacob, we'll be right back."
Felix and I entered the small boat and started rowing. When we were about halfway there I said,
"You know...I think this whole tough guy thing you do is just an act."
"Oh? And what do you suppose I really am?"
"I think you're...scared."
He looked at me oddly and seemed a little offended. There was a brief silence before he said,
"You know, I was only twelve when Pan's shadow took me here. I used to have three older brothers and a younger sister. Our parents would always put us first and whenever my father wasn't working he would play pirate ship with us. Then mother would always call us in for dinner and he'd carry us inside. I was the most reluctant lost boy when I came here. I was so hopeful that I'd see my family again, you don't know how many times I've tried to get off this bloody island. Then one day something changed...my hope...disappeared and I stopped caring."
I didn't say anything at first, just stared at the waves we created as we paddled forward. Then I asked,
"So do you think Pan is really evil?"
"Well he's done some horrible things before that's for sure, but people never really see his reasons for doing them. He always has a reason for doing something and those are usually good-hearted. It's the darkness that gets to his head sometimes, but I think beneath that he's really just a lost boy like all of us, you know, just looking for someone to spend his life with."
"Is that who Wendy Darling was? Someone he wanted to spend his life with?"
"Wendy was different, she fascinated him. He tried so hard to convince her to stay and she did for a couple of years, but he noticed that she aged in Neverland. He sent her back to London and she begged him not too. She loved him and he broke her heart, along with his own. He loved her, of course he'd never say it, but you could tell by the way he looked at her."
"How did he look at her?"
"The way he looks at you."
"You think Pan loves me?"
"I think he adores you. He'd never forgive himself  if anything happened to you."
We reached the shore and a giant cave in the shape of a skull. Felix and I walked onto shore and into the torch-lit cave...