The Dark Days

Three.

The air smells like petrichor and wet bark. My favorite part about the woods. I take another deep breath and sigh. This is extremely peaceful.

I hear a branch snap and immediately turn towards the sound. I reach for my sword and then remember I don't have one. "Crap," I mutter. "If he let me leave couldn't he have left me something to defend myself with?" Another branch snaps, this one much closer. I control my breathing and wait for the source of the noise to come out. A low growl sounds and a huge female wolf comes out from behind a tree. I freeze; My breathing stops. What the....

I stay frozen as the wolf walks past me. Then, suddenly, it stops, and I swear up and down that it looks right into my eyes.

We both stay like that for about sixty-seven seconds. Then it snorts and walks away.

When it disappears, I fall to my knees. Then I raise my arm, sniffing my pit. My lips screw up in disgust. "So that's what she sensed. Me. I smell horrible." I stand back up on shaky knees and fight for balance. "Well, if I could stand up stra-aight -" I grunt as I fall back on my butt. "Well, great," I mutter, and finally stand straight. "Maybe if I could find Peter...." I look around.

I sigh and run a hand through my tangled hair. "I'm so screwed," I mutter as I try to backtrack through the woods. Luckily for me, nothing looks familiar and I quickly realize that I am lost. I grip my necklace in fear. I walk around for hours, trying to find a way out or some form of civilization, but I don't find anything. Soon it's nearly dark and I have to sit. I haven't sat down all day and my feet are very cramped up. "Peter," I whisper. "Peter, please. Help me. I'm an idiot for thinking I should walk through the woods on my own. Just - Don't make fun of me, please."

"Don't worry," says a voice directly behind me. I shriek and fly up, tripping over a branch and falling onto my side. Pan's second-in-command, Felix, is leaning on a tree behind me, laughing. He tries to say something, but he's laughing too hard.

"Oh, ha-ha, very funny," I say as I stand back up and cross my arms over my chest. "What do you want?"

Felix finally finds his breath and wipes his eyes. "Sorry. Just - You jumped about ten feet high." He shakes his head and chuckles again. I raise an eyebrow and wait for him to get serious again. It takes him a moment, but eventually, he does. He crosses over to me and places his hand on my shoulder. "Pan sent me to come and get you," he tells me, and begins to walk away. About ten feet away, he stops, and turns around to face me. "Are you coming or what?"

"Oh!" I jog over to him. "Where are we going?" I ask as we begin to walk away.

"I can't tell you," he replies.

"Why?"

"Because."

And then it's silent. After about five minutes I can see the cemetery. I jog ahead of Felix and emerge from the tree line, sighing at how relieving the fading sunlight is. "Thank you, Felix," I say as I turn back around to face him. "I probably would've accidentally walked off a cliff if you hadn't rescued me."

He nods. "Yeah. Probably."

I can't help smiling as my face flushes and I look down. He smirks and shrugs it off, walking past me and towards the road. "Where're you going?" I ask, jogging to catch up with him. His strides are two times as long as my own.

"You wanted to see the town, yes?" he replies, looking down at me. "Pan wants me to take care of you. And that means I have to go where you go."

I roll my eyes. "Another babysitter?" I mutter. "Great. Just great. Well, at least when I purposefully tick this one off, he won't put the moves on me."

I don't know Felix can hear me until he chuckles. "No, I won't," he says. "I would never. As much as I like you, I just wouldn't."

I can't help smiling again. I put on a fake offended face. "And why not?" I ask. "I think I look pretty great if I do say so myself," I say as I flip my hair over my shoulder and put my hands on my hips.

Felix laughs but shakes his head. "No, that's not what I meant. You're Pan's girl. He loves you. If I tried to flirt with you, he'd kill me. Literally. I don't like this town, but I'm not going to commit suicide. I like my life, thank you very much."

My teeth are showing now, and I blush and force myself to look down. But then the smile disappears and I stop walking. Felix notices and stops as well.

It's quiet for a moment. "Jeez, Felix," I say finally. "Why'd you have to go and say that?" I cross my feet and sit down. "Now I feel like a pile of dirt."

He crouches down next to me. "Why? Are you secretly helping the other side?"

"What?! No!" I shake my head. "I would never go against Peter!"

"Then why?"

I sigh deeply and look up at the clouds. I study them for a second before sighing once again and looking back down at the earth I sit on. "I'm supposed to be stopping him," I say quietly. "I'm supposed to make him give up what he's doing here, but I don't know how." I close my eyes. "I want Neverland back, but at the same time, I could never force myself to go back. I want to see Neverland, the real Neverland, but I know I never can. Not in this life, anyways." I growl in frustration. "Ugh! I just wish Peter would wake up and see that this is stupid and pointless and will have a bad outcome and I want - I need - him to stop." I groan and put my head in my hands. "What am I supposed to do, Felix?" I ask him, looking up at him. "I know I have to stop him, but I don't want to!" For some reason I am about to cry. I keep my tears in and shake my head. I force myself to calm down and try again. "What do I do, Felix?" My voice sounds bitter and pained. "What would you do?"

Felix looks at me with mixed emotions. He stares at me for a second before speaking. "Why would you want to stop him?"

My mouth opens to reply, but I can't say anything, so I close it. My voice finally surfaces, but I stutter. "I-I have to."

"No you don't," he insists. "Let Pan do this. It's selfish to try and stop him."

"No," I say firmly, standing up. "It's selfish to take someone else's home."

"That's what they did to us," he says, shrugging.

"Yes, it is. But that doesn't give you any right to do this. You'll be just like them." And with that, I turn on my heel and continue to town, not caring if Felix is following me or not.