Captain's Quarters (Sequel to The Piper Boy)

Chapter 14

Amily had heard tales of the Dark One. Legends that travelled around her village when the sun had gone down and frightened children into nightmares. So to find out that he was connected to Pan was no surprise. They both both equally talented when it came to magic. But what was surprising is that he was in fact, Pan's child.

"Let me get this straight, you have a son?" said Amily slowly.

"I had a son. I no longer care about him anymore" Pan spoke bluntly.

"But you're-?"

"A boy? Trust me, I'm older than I look." he finished.

Amily stared at her hands. She wasn't confused, just perplexed.

"So what, you were an adult?" she said quietly.

"Technically yes, but I think I was always a boy at heart" Pan's voice had changed now. He sounded nostalgic but still firm. Like the memories were coming clearly yet he was not happy to remember them.

"You had a child?" she repeated. It still hadn't sunk it, not yet.

"Really? After everything I've told you that's the one you're having trouble comprehending?" pan snapped.

Ignoring that, Amily continued trying to figure things out.

"So, you were an adult, you traded your son for immortality and... am I missing anything?"

"There is one thing" said Pan slowly.

Amily looked at him expectantly. Peter Pan took a deep breath and then spoke.

"I'm dying"

Well, she didn't expect that.

"What do you mean?" Amily whispered. She was in shock. Pan was dying? How could this be?

Pan reached into the inside of his loose dark green shirt and pulled out a scroll tied with twine. he held it in his hands before handing it to Amily, yet she let him explain before she unravelled it.

"I guess everyone's dying really. Everyone dies one day. But I've lived longer than most and it seems that one day my youth will vanish and my years will catch up with me" his voice was wooden.

"What does it have to do with this?" Amily held up the scroll.

"Hook stole it from a witch for me in exchange for a shell that washed up on Neverland. I was... desperate for the scroll so I convinced him that the shell had the power to bring back the dead. So I had my scroll and he took the shell and tried to bring his lover Milah, who happened to be the Dark One's love, back. It didn't work, of course, and that's why he stormed the camp"

"Why were you so desperate for it?" Amily looked at the scroll in her hands. Fights had broken out, blood had been spilled, truces broken all in the name of this tiny little scrap of paper.

"Inside that scroll, is the thing that can save me. Keep me young" Pan's voice was empty.

"Oh? And what is it? A spell?" Amily didn't know why shy was angered. Pan wasn't exactly being selfish but all that had happened to get this scroll wasn't exactly helping anyone else but himself.

"No, i-it's not what you think. Open it"

She did as he said and was surprised at what she saw. On the paper was a perfect sketch of a young boy with big eyes and a round face. He stared into the distance towards the left. His clothes were nothing she had ever seen. Everything about this boy was alien.

"This little boy is the key to my eternal youth. He has the one thing I need"

"And that is?" Amily tried to prevent her voice from wavering but it did anyway.