Peter Pan and the Lost Boys

The Lost Boys

I fear the Lost Boys shall follow me to my grave. Even in these last moments of life, the questioning eyes of gagged children still clutter my memory.

"Father why have you forsaken us,"

I envisioned them asking for I had offered myself as father, saviour... god. But there was no refuge in me; I had fed them alive to the Dragon and watched them disappear, bound and silenced, into the pit of its belly. Captain James Hook, more co-conspirator than enemy, brought many boys to the island as a transit point, and left them in my care. They were always the same, scared and longing for home. So, I had crafted the illusion of choice... they chose to stay here because here meant autonomy and a camaraderie among ourselves with which together, we would defeat the villainous ship men. And so came to be Neverland and I Peter, became their Judas.

Once a robust man with greying hair came to the island, this was around the time of the Darling children. I would not discover until later that he was indeed the Chief Constable, standing at the disreputable coastline of our secret World, in deep sedition with the Captain. The disappearance of the Darlings had created too much attention, afterall they were the children of the middle class and Captain Hook was ordered their immediate return. The others throughout the years would never be so lucky. Prices were attached to each and batch after batch of stolen boys marched down into the bowels of the Jolly Roger, off to their buyers.

Still in the end, I expected some sort of salvation at the expiration of those days because I had always been humane to the children. I knew they would never live long enough to grow up and how kind it was to teach them to prefer it that way.