Helpless

18-I'm Here to Help

  "I can't stay in here all day. How the hell do I find out what he's doing?" I mumble to myself. I pace back and forth next to the window.
  Only twenty minutes have passed since Peter left and I hear a knock at the door. Oh shit! What if someone Peter was worried about found me?
  I swiftly grab my knife and stand behind the door with my back to it. There's a long period of silence before there's another knock.
  "Audrey? It's me, Felix! It's okay, you can open the door!" The voice whispers from the other side of the door. Do I open it? After everything that's happened...
  "Really, it's okay! I'm here to help!" He whispers again when I don't open the door. Something's telling me I can trust him...
  I swing the door open but hold my knife out in front of me, pressed against his neck. I pull him inside and kick the door closed.
  "What do you want?" I demand. He swallows hard.
  "I want to help you. I know what's going on. I can- I can give you answers," He explains, stretching his neck to relieve pressure. I linger for a second before lowering the knife, keeping it in my hand in case of emergency.
  "Talk."
  "I know where Pan is. I don't know why he's doing all this, but he sent us all on a search for... something," Felix trails off as his statement comes to a close. There's dead air between us.
  "Well? What is it! What are you looking for?" I exclaim.
  "Come with me," He goes to reach for my wrist and I hold my knife up. "Audrey, I'm not going to hurt you. I want to help. Trust me. Would you rather be stuck up here alone all day?"
  Damn, he has a point.
  "Fine. I'll go with you. But if you touch me even once I will kill you. Watch yourself," I warn, pointing my knife at him before strapping it back to my leg. "Now come on, let's get going."
  "First, I need to give you something," The boy pulls a folded square of grey, silver, and purple fabric out of his cloak and holds it out to me.
  "What the hell is that?" I ask, taking it suspiciously.
  "Pan can sense where the people emotionally closest to him are. This cloak will mask your presence," He explains. I unfold it and tie it around my shoulders.
  "So, does it make me invisible to him or something?" I ask, tying the ribbon into a neat bow.
  "No, if you're around him he'll still be able to see you. The cloak just masks his sense of your presence. So he won't be able to feel that you left the treehouse, but if we draw attention to ourselves, he'll be able to see us."
  "I guess we better make sure that we stay undercover then," I smirk.
  "Yeah, but you're the only one who dresses like that here. We have to get you a disguise," Felix points out and snaps his fingers. "That's better."
  I look down. I'm adorned in a beautiful lilac peasant dress with a violet overbust. The silver cape is still draped over my shoulders, and I notice it has tiny black flowers embroidered on it.
  "Felix, it's beautiful!" I raise my hands up to my hair and feel a braid, so I turn to grab a mirror from my backpack. Unfortunately, I didn't see what was on my feet.
  I stumble to the side as my heel bent the wrong way. I pull my dress up to see that brown boots with huge heels are clad to them.
  "I don't think so," I say and snap my fingers. The boots disappear and my regular black sneakers appear back on my feet. Felix raises his eyebrows at me. "Oh calm down, the dress covers my feet anyway." I continue running over to get my mirror. When I flick it open, I see that my hair has been braided on the top into a crown, with little flowers stuck into it. My eyes have dramatic winged eyeliner, and my eyelids are covered in different shades of purple. I smile and swing the mirror shut on its hinge.
  "I look incredible. Are you sure this won't gain attention?" I ask skeptically. He thinks it over.
  "It is a bit showy. Hang on," He's about to snap his fingers when I stop him. "What?"
  "Could you just, maybe, leave the hair?" I smile. He lets out a small laugh and snaps his fingers. I look down to see myself in a much duller outfit. It's still pretty, and looks good on me, but it's nothing like that purple updo.
  I'm wearing a white underdress with a brown and gold underbust corset that ties in the front. The cape morphed from silver to black, and my makeup changed from purple to brown.
  "Much more likely to camouflage. Thank you," I tell Felix. He nods.
  "Now let's get going."