Shadow

The Pond

The pond once again began to glow. That always happens when someone's shadow is either found or lost. When someone's shadow is found, the pond glows pink, which glows up to the sky like a projector so the boy know, it means someone is found. Tonight, it shines purple. Someone is lost.

When Peter approaches the pond, the rim around it still glows purple but the pond itself shows what is happening. Peter sees a boy, about a year older than him so just making the age limit, is seen alone in his room, has the rest of his family is eating dinner together.

The boy walks out, and asks what they're eating.

"Fish and chips, my favorite," said the girl, not seeming to be happy at all.

"I hate fish and chips," the boy says. The girl looks down, almost as if she's ashamed.

"Well, tonight we are celebrating her, not you," said the overweight man with short black hair sitting next to her.

"Celebrating what?" Asked the boy disgusted.

"Well, your sister here made the scholars list today, so we're celebrating that."

"But today is my birthday!" The boy exclaimed.

"Being born isn't an accomplishment John," the man said, not even looking at him, just eating his food.

"Where's my mom?" The John asked.

"Out with her friends, I told her to go and that we would celebrate here without her, I just didn't clarify what we were celebrating."

The boy marched back into his room and slammed the door. His room is small, a twin bed in the middle and a desk near the door, but that's about it. The window was open, but John didn't seem to notice, or he just didn't care. His face was buried in his pillow, and Peter watched as John's shadow left him. Then, Peter's shadow came in and he knew it was time to go.

Peter stayed next to the window, waiting for John to leave his room so Peter could enter. It's not a rule that Peter has to
wait for them to be gone, he just likes being dramatic like that.

Peter heard footsteps and a door open and close, so he decided to go in. No one is in the room, so Peter sits at the end of
the bed. He's learned over the years that if he acts bright and cheery and like nothing is out of the ordinary when he enters, they won't run away.

It's not like Peter is scary, it's just most people don't expect to find a stranger in their room. Most of the time with these boys though, they're life is bad enough that they can't imagine it could get any worse, so curiosity takes over and they listen to him, and in most cases, believe him, because everyone needs something to believe in.

Peter heard footsteps approaching the door, and they sounded the same as the ones that left. John opened the door and was looking down, so he didn't notice Peter at first. After he shut the door, he looked up and jumped backwards.
"Hello, my name is Peter, Peter Pan," he said while standing up, bright smile on his face.

John just stared at him and asked, "How did you get into my house?"

"I flew in the window," Peter said casually.

"Flew?" John asked questioningly.

"Yes, I can fly."

"Okay do I need to call the cops or something, are you high?" John asked slowly backing up towards the door.
Peter then began to fly around Johns room while grinning because of the shocked look on John's face.

"You're being bloody serious?" John asked astonished.

"I'm not from here," Peter said.

"Yeah no shit," John said.