VICIOUS (II) : peter pan ouat

There was Two

"Did you really kill on those people, like she said?"

When she doesn't look at him in the seconds he hears those words, he feels as if this is the moment he is going to lose her. They'd been through a lot together; bad foster homes, angry parents, and late nights drinking on rooftops. No matter what he told her, and no matter what she heard she could always look at him.

Here though, it is different. Even though the problems they had shared were dramatic and grand, this is Neverland. Screwing up meets never turning back. Injury, death, or whatever else might come worse.

"I wanted to get back to you." He whispers. "I wanted you, and I wanted her to be safe. You don't know what it was like, watching the gradual change. At first I didn't notice it, until I saw it reflected in her."

"That doesn't excuse murder." She stands up. "You can't just kill people."

Funny, when he threatened to kill her foster parents, she hadn't batten an eye. Maybe that is because Neverland makes everything real.

He doesn't want to fight with her, and she doesn't want to fight with him, but it has been a long four months. She thought he had died, or ran away, or whatever. That's not what was important, the Johnny she fell in love with was stolen from her. Sucked away deep into the earth and buried deep in a place that she will always search for but never find. Digging up wrong holes, turning down paths she never wanted to step foot on, and discovering carcasses that were better left buried.

If it were up to her, she would never look him in his broken eyes again. They look like glass about to shatter, and she fears that if she stands to close it will rip her skin open.

He fears it too. It's not just a fear of breaking her, but a fear of breaking for her. It doesn't occurred to him that the cracks in his hands aren't from hard work, but from turmoil.

"You don't think I know." He doesn't want to hiss but he does. "I saw the bodies. I saw the illness, and I saw the flames. You don't think I would take every second of it back?"

She knows he would, but looks up to the stars in a hope that maybe she'll be distracted by their beauty. She is stuck in an ugly place, and he wants to get her out of it. He would die and die again to save his lovely Alison from even stepping foot on this island. This night has been too long for him to ever truly wake up from this hazy life, and if he can just save her, that would be enough.

"Even if it meant Charlie died?"

The question bites at his face, and she looks down to see it.

"No."

He doesn't realise it, but it is the bravest thing he has ever said. To do harm and kill innocents, and live with the guilt, just to protect one girl. She may feel like a sister but now she feels like a distant memory. The girl before him feels it to, although Charlie was more of a distant memory to her.

The thing about ideas, especially when they live in someone's head, is that they often don't integrate into the real world well. She discovered that when she looked at him for the first time.

In doesn't matter to her though, she will stick with him until the end.

~~~~~~

Well this is fun. Next part will be up tomorrow at some point I think. And then on to the last book!