Once Upon a Time: Ever After High (Book 10)

Ch.49 Mysterious warning

(Flashback) By the time it was dark, Marissa had fallen asleep against the tree as Chris stayed up to keep the fire running. Feeling that they were the only ones alive on the island now, he began to wonder what other living things are on the island, and if he should be afraid. All of a sudden he heard a twig snap as he turned around, he saw nothing, but fearing that something was going to pop out, he picked up the gun that was resting near him as he stood up and examined his surroundings.

But just when he thought it was gone, he suddenly felt a sharp object being pressed against his back as he froze, knowing that it was most likely a sword or a spear.

"Don't move" he heard a rusty voice order behind him "Drop your gun."

Still frozen in fear, Chris tried to think of an escape.

"Drop it!" the man ordered again as Chris slowly placed his gun on the ground as he put his hands up.

"You know-" Chris started to say "You shouldn't put your weapon directly against someone's back, or else this would happen."

And with that he quickly turned around while grabbing onto the spear and prying it out of the man's hand and aimed it at him. He saw that the man appeared to be a castaway with his dirty and torn up clothes, his full grown beard, and dirt all over his hands and arms.

"What do you want?" he demanded.

"I mean no harm" the man replied with his hands up.

"Considering that you put a spear against my back-" Chris put in with a frown "I would of thought you were a savage. Are you a savage?"

"I hope not. What about you?"

"I'm just an explorer."

"And her?" the man pointed to Marissa who was still asleep.

"She's my friend."

"She's a pirate" the man scowled.

"So, she's still my friend. Just what do you want, you trying to steal something from me?"

"You're here for the treasure aren't ye?" the man snarled.

"Mainly for the adventure, but you can say that."

"Well I recommend ye and yer friend leave this island at once."

"Why? Were you the one who the set the booby traps?"

"No, the ghost did."

At that point Chris felt his heart dropped, remembering the mysterious giggle and scream from earlier.

"What ghost?" he questioned concerned.

"Legend has it that a girl haunts this island, doing anything she can to prevent invaders from finding her treasure. So if I were ye, I'd leave before ye get yourself killed."

"Wait, what do you know about this ghost girl?"

"Not much, expect that she's very protective of her treasure."

"Well we don't want all of her treasure, we just need one thing and then we're off."

"Well good luck with that, but if ye die, don't say I didn't warn ye. And can I have me spear back?"

After Chris gave the man back his spear, he watched as the man took off. Now he was even more scared, if he and Marissa found the treasure, would the ghost girl kill them?

After Piper took off from the group, everyone gathered at the table and discussed what happened.

"Poor Piper" Lauren said sadly "I never realized how hard it is to not being able to grow up while your friends have to."

"I know how that felt" Peter sighed.

"Yeah but you and Wendy figured it out" Ilene put in "It's not the same for Piper. He has friends outside of Neverland, and that means we have to grow up."

"That's the curse of Neverland" Nibs stated with a sigh "On one hand you get to stay young forever, but on the other, those you care about who don't live in Neverland have to grow up."

"Piper's not the only one who feels that way" Wendy suddenly put in "I have family in England, and I know that they're going to grow up and die someday. I wished John and Micheal would of stayed in Neverland with me, but they're already married and they wanted to stay with their wives."

"And they're okay with that?" Amanda questioned.

"They are, and they're happy, and I'm happy for them. I mean of course we always visit each other, but they're not gonna stay young forever, and I understand that. So I get what Piper is feeling, he's just like how Peter and I used to be, afraid to grow up. But he needs to understand that if he's gonna be living in Neverland, then he should expect his outside friends to grow up. And if he changes his mind and decides to grow up, then we'll let him."

"Well you know that if he grows up and gets married and has a child-" Ilene put in "That means you two are gonna young grandparents."

"No" Peter chuckled "If Piper wants to grow up, then we grow up with him."

"Seriously?" Elena said surprised "You don't mind getting old?"

"Aren't I already old?" he smirked as everyone snickered "But the point is, it doesn't matter if I grow up and die old or whatever, there's always gonna be a Peter Pan, even if it's not me."

"And as for Piper-" Wendy added "We'll let him decide."

"And speaking of him-" Brenden put in "Should one of go look for him?"

"I don't think so, let him be alone until he calms down. And when he does we'll talk things out."

"You think he'll come back?" Olivia asked.

"If he doesn't, we'll look for him."

"Do you even know where he is?"

"He's my son, I know everything about him."

Meanwhile, in the Neverwoods, Piper laid down on his back of an empty area of the woods while looking up at the stars as the sound of crickets filled the background. Ever since he spilled his secret and took off, he still didn't feel better, all he could think about was how much it hurt him to let everyone know how he felt.

"So you finally told huh?" he suddenly heard Pan say who stood near and looked down at him.

"It hurts doesn't it?" Pan smirked.

Piper kept his mouth shut as he tried to ignore him.

"You're going to ignore me now huh?" Pan said "Well, now that everyone knows the truth, what are you gonna do about it?"

And with that he disappeared, leaving Piper wondering what he was going to do now.