Neverland

chapter 1 continued

 "Hey I think she’s coming around,” whispered a voice. My eyes fluttered open. A red-headed boy was leaning over me. “Pan, she’s awake,” he shouted over his shoulder. I sat up groggily, “Where… where am I?” I stammered, confused. “Well,” said the boy, “you’re in Neverland.”

Everything came rushing back to me.

The dream,

the Shadow,

the boy.

I saw him sitting across from me, looking at me with incomprehension and something that hinted at fear. “Leave us,” he said to the other boys. They nodded and obeyed. The boy hopped to his feet and circled me, “Well… this is… odd.” He said simply, facing me again. Ok, I thought, British accent. Don’t panic, he may be totally sexy, but for all you know he could be a total douchebag. But if he were a douchebag, how could I explain the dream. It was him. I’d never forget those eyes. “I’m Peter, Peter Pan,” he said. “Well, I’m Kate, Kate Holden.” “Alright, Kate, why are you here?” he asked sharply, squatting down in front of me, so he looked me in the eye. “I don’t know. Ask your stupid Shadow. He’s the one that brought me here.” “Oh, please, the Shadow didn’t bring you here.” He demanded. “Oh yeah?” I asked, “tell that to my bruised ankle, where he tried to rip it out of its socket!” I thrust forward my bare ankle to reveal the greenish-purple ring that was already beginning to form. “That’s impossible.” “Why?” I asked standing up, “I dreamed about Neverland. That’s when it always came when I was younger, but it never got in, then.” “Wait, what?” he asked suddenly, his head snapped up. “I said I dreamed about Neverland.” I didn’t add that he’d been in my dream. “No, after that, about the Shadow getting in,” he came back to me and looked me in the eye.

“Oh, I just said that it never got in when I was younger.”

“You mean you never let it in.”

It wasn’t a question. It was a correction.

“Please, you think I’d actually get up and open the window for that… that thing?”

“You’d have to.”

“I didn’t”

“That’s how the Shadow works. It can only come in if you invite it in by opening the window.”

“How do you know so much about it?” I asked. “BECAUSE IT’S MINE!” he shouted, frustrated. He sighed, “It’s my Shadow. It does what I will it to, and it brings children who dream of Neverland here. It couldn’t get in without permission unless maybe I thought I would die if it didn’t, but I don’t even know you.”

It wasn’t until he reached the end of his sentence that I caught it. He was lying, and he was a good liar, but I was better. Growing up, I’d made it a goal of mine to become my own personal lie detector, and I must admit I’d done a pretty good job. His eye flickered, just slightly, but it flickered right when he said he didn’t know me, and in that moment, I had a pretty good idea of where he knew me from. “You had the dream too.” I said. He looked at me quizzically, “What dream?” Oh he was good. “Don’t even try, Pan. You can’t lie to me. No one can.” “I really don’t have a clue what you’re talking about,” he said with a slight and confused smile, but I was on to him now. He knew how the Shadow got in my room, and he knew about the dream. And now, I knew something about Peter.  He was a liar.