The Third Star

Chapter 11: Seraphina

Present Day

The moon was sitting dully in the sky, fat and comfortable in the solid hours of the night.  All of the boys had long since ceased their wild dance, dropped their spears, and collapsed into a heavy, dreamless sleep.  Thus was the life of a lost boy - play all day, pass out during the night, wake up and start the whole cycle over again.  Even Peter had felt the exhaustion pulling at his eyelids and retired to his bed.  Only Felix was awake now.

He had been waiting all night, lying still beside the dying fire, listening as the boys' breaths slowed to sleep all around him.  Now, he believed it to be safe enough to move.  This was his only shot.

Felix rolled soundlessly to his feet and cautiously straightened up.  His eyes, straining in the dark, carefully analyzed Peter's platform.  Peter was the only one who slept in his own small cabana, elevated eight or so feet above the ground.  It was even the small things like sleeping in the only bed that established Peter as the authority on the island.

He could just barely make out Peter's sleeping form.  He watched as Peter's shoulders rose and fell, slowly and evenly, in time with his heavy breathing.  Definitely asleep.

Good.  Because if Peter were to catch him, he'd be dead before the sun came up.

Felix slung his cloak over his shoulders and disappeared into the trees.  The head lost boy was an expert at being silent in the woods.  He ghosted along paths that could only be seen by a trained eye, and not a single twig dared to snap beneath his soundless feet.  Even the animals would still as he passed, and the wind would hush its eerie breath.  He had lived in Neverland for many years and was not a stranger to its darkness.

It wasn't long before Felix could see the moonlight reflecting off Mermaid Lagoon.  He came to a stop at the lagoon's edge, crouching down and staring out at the water.  Squinting in the dark, he let out a low whistle between his teeth.

A mermaid tail flashed above the water before disappearing beneath the surface again.

Felix grinned.

A beautiful, blonde head rose up from the water, blue eyes flashing.  She was a striking, ivory animal, water sliding easily off her crystalline skin.  Her physical attraction was inhuman - as was she.  She had the features of a woman, yet looked nothing like a woman at all.  Her face was too proportional, her skin too glassy.  The creature lacked all of the flaws that distinguish humans from gods.  The mermaids were, after all, divinities in their own fashion.

The mermaid swam up to the edge where Felix was crouched.  She gazed up at him under long, dark eyelashes.  "It's about time," she murmured, her words pouring from her lips like silk.

Felix narrowed his eyes.  "You're lucky I was able to get away. I wouldn't have made it if Pan hadn't worn himself to exhaustion earlier."

"Shh," the mermaid whispered, touching one of her long, glistening fingers to his scarred lips.  "Must we waste our time with our childish quarrelling? I know that's not why you came to see me."

"No," Felix agreed.  "It isn't."

Then he took her face in his hands and brought her lips to his.  Finally.

The mermaid pulled away breathlessly.  "It's a shame you can't come here more often," she sighed, brushing a kiss onto the corner of his mouth.

"One day, Seraphina, I will take you far, far away," Felix whispered.  "Away from Pan, and the boys, away from Neverland."

Seraphina frowned.  "Yes, where Pan cannot hold you so tightly in his selfish hands."

"Seraphina!" Felix said sharply.

"What? You know it's true," she said, her eyes widening innocently.

Felix smiled. "Perhaps, but now is not the time nor place to say such things."

Seraphina's eyes were distant.  "Not until we're free."

"And we will be," he said softly, touching her glassy cheek.

"Then let's leave. Now," she said suddenly.

"What?"

"You keep saying that we're going to get away from here, and we never do."

"It's not like I can just leave!"

"Well, why not?" Seraphina shook her head.  "Pan won't be happy whether we run today or in a hundred years! I say we go now!"

Felix looked down at her in alarm.  "Pan would come find us the instant he found out we left.  He knows when people leave the island, Seraphina.  He'd kill us both!"

"Not if we're fast enough," Seraphina argued.  "We can go to a realm without magic, one where he would be powerless!"

"The human realm?" Felix's eyes widened. "Are you mad?"

"It's the only way!" Seraphina pleaded. "There are so many places there that the humans don't even know exist! We could live there in secret, safe forever."

"Safe forever," Felix repeated slowly.

"Yes," Seraphina murmured, placing her silky hand on his grimy cheek.  "Just us."

Felix placed his hand over hers, his face unsure.  She was right.  Even if Pan found them, he was powerless without magic.  Just us. Just him and Seraphina, his beautiful Seraphina.

Isn't this what he always wanted?

"Alright," he sighed.  "We can leave in a few days, when the moon is full.  But you musn't tell anyone, do you understand?"

"Of course," Seraphina smiled, her eyes bright.  "I'll be waiting for you here."

Felix smiled back for a moment, then glanced nervously at the lightening sky.  "It's almost dawn.  I have to go back before they notice I'm gone.  Seraphina," he says, frowning worriedly at her.  "Just...be careful, please."

"Why wouldn't I be?" she whispered, planting a swift kiss on his hand and slipping back down into the water.  And then she was gone, just like that.  He strained to catch a final glimpse of her, but she had already disappeared into the depths of the lagoon.

He stood up, brushing off his knees.  Was he actually doing this?  How could he possibly leave Pan, after all that they had accomplished together?

No, not together.  Pan had called the shots, and Felix had done all the dirty work.  Never equals.

Felix realized that it wasn't loyalty pinning him to Neverland, it was fear.

He turned and began his trek back through the forest.  He was going to leave Neverland, and he was going to do it very soon, fear or no fear.  Because love is the warmest bravery that can touch a human heart, no matter what it causes you to leave behind.

And Felix was no coward.

Not anymore.