The Third Star

Chapter 5: Second Star to the Right

Wendy couldn't bring herself to leave the window.  She stared out into London's brilliant night sky, long after the Shadow had disappeared with Baelfire in tow.

He couldn't be gone.  He just couldn't.

"Wendy?" Michael asked nervously, tugging on her nightgown.  "Please get away from there, you're scaring me."

Wendy turned around and sank down onto the window seat, defeated and hopeless.

"Oh, Bae," she whispered.

John pulled himself up onto the window seat and climbed onto Wendy's lap.  Her arms automatically opened for him, pulling him close.

"Wendy?" he asked.  "Will we ever see him again?"

"I don't know," she sighed sadly, twisting around to gaze out at the sky again.  Her eyes found the second star on the right.  "I just don't know."

"Will he have a new family there?" Michael questioned, joining them at the window.

Wendy's eyes filled with tears.

"I hope so," she smiled at her brother.

But Wendy knew what truly awaited Bae in Neverland; a great deal of pain and danger, all under the monarchicial rule of Peter Pan.  She shuddered, remembering the glassy eyes of Pan's hypnotized lost boys, and the sound of their lonely cries once night fell.  She remembered them hopelessly calling out into the dark, the names of mothers and sisters and brothers ringing through the dense forest that was their eternal prison.

It was too much to bear to imagine Baelfire calling out for her and her brothers.  Wendy stood up fiercely.

"I have to go after him," she said firmly.

"We're going to Neverland?" John's eyes widened.

Wendy looked softly at her brothers and knelt in front of them, holding them at eye-level.  "We aren't, but I am," she explained, brushing a stray lock of hair out of John's eyes.

"You're...leaving?" Michael said, his brow furrowing.

Wendy nodded sadly and put a hand on each of her brother's faces.  "I'm so sorry to leave you, because I love you both so very much," she said.  "But Bae can't be without a family.  Not after what he did for ours."

Michael and John simultaneously threw their arms around their sister.  Wendy fought back a sob as she held her brothers close to her.

"I'll see you boys soon, ok?" she said, not knowing if she'd actually ever see them again.

"Come home soon," John said fiercely, burying his face in her thick, wavy hair.

Wendy kissed both of her brothers' foreheads and stood up.  "Michael, I'm going to need you to call to the shadow.  Maybe he'll come back tonight."

Michael wiped his eyes and nodded.  He leaned out the window, unsure of what exactly to do.

"Shadow?" he called out hesitantly.  "Um, come back, please.  Take me to Neverland."

Nothing happened.

Michael looked helplessly back at his sister.  He was about to try again when a strong cold blast of wind gusted through the Darlings' bedroom.  Wendy grabbed Michael's hand and pulled him away from the window, running forward to take his place.

The Shadow glided into the room and reached for Michael, his yellow eyes glinting.  Wendy grabbed the Shadow's hand instead, and he lifted her up off the floor.  Then, he soared through the window and out into the crisp London air, with Wendy clinging to his arm.

Wendy focused her eyes on the star she knew would take her to Baelfire, her tears freezing on her cheeks.  She looked one last time out over her city, trying desperately to ignore the sound of John's wails from the window.  Off she soared towards a future she had fought so hard to avoid, and she feared she would never see home again.