The Pretenders (ON HOLD)

chapter 12

            Breathe, he thought.

Air gushed into Peter’s lungs.

Breathe…

He was sprinting-whizzing-past the trees. Literally, whizzing. It was another ability that had developed with his other so-called powers: super-speed.

Getting as far away from that hospital as possible; that was all he could think about. He needed to be alone. Heading for his favourite hideout, Neverland, one question kept worming its way into his thoughts. Who was that woman?

Breathe…

She seemed so familiar. But Peter had never seen her before in his life. Trying to remember her face, all that appeared in his mind was a blur of facial features. The more he tried to remember her, the more she faded away. But every time he closed his eyes, squinting and trying to remember what he’d seen, the pain returned. He would quickly open his eyes and shake the memories from his head. It was like a nightmare that he could access whenever he wanted. But this nightmare was terrifying.

Breathe…

His breaths were coming slow and steady now, despite how fast he was running. Of course, stamina was included in the super-speed. He couldn’t help but wonder…did that ‘doctor’ have something to do with his powers. Peter didn’t know where they came from. They just…came.

He had always assumed that they just developed. But Peter knew so little of his past that sometimes he thought that his powers had something to do with his childhood. His parents never discussed it. His early years, that is. They always went quiet and were very stingy with the detail they gave.

Peter would ask, “How was I, as a baby?”

“Well,” his mother would reply, “You were very…young.”

“And you didn’t talk much, either,” his father would add. But really, you could say those things about any baby. Peter had never pushed the topic before, though, because it never seemed important.

But that woman. From his vision. When she cried, Peter had heard two cries. One of a woman. And one…of a baby. But it didn’t make sense. He had parents. Real ones. Maybe he was just losing his mind.

He would ask his mother when she came back from New York. About his flashbacks, that is.

Finally, he reached Neverland. The wide, open paddock seemed to suck away his anxiety. Lying down on the grass and inhaling the fresh scent, Peter had a feeling that something was missing from his hideout. And that was, well, a hideout.

Trying to distract himself from what had happened back at the hospital, Peter began to design, what would be, the ultimate addition to Neverland.

* * * * *

            Simon lay, slightly shaking from the pain, in his hospital bed. Wendy had sunk down into a chair next to him. Turning to look at her caused a blast of pain to shoot through his body. The shaking returned stronger than before. Uncontrollable shaking. His face and body, shiny and red, he finally managed to turn his head to look at his silent sister. Her expression was ghostly. Pale, blank. That explained the silence.

“Wendy?” Simon called, in a pained voice.

Shaking her head as if to clear her mind of something, Wendy turned to her brother. It took a while before her eyes focused on his face. Even then, she still seemed…distracted.

“Are you OK?” he whispered to his slightly stunned sister.

“Yes.”

He doubted that. Simon glanced down at Wendy’s hands. They were balled up, knuckles white. She was most certainly not OK.