The Lost Realm (Once Upon a Time/Peter Pan)

Chapter 34

Peter grabs my arm and guides me back inside the castle. Once inside he opens an old wooden door, revealing a spiral staircase. We climb up it until we reach another wooden door. He opens it and a gust of air hits me.

We walk out and I look up to see stars filling the sky, still sparkling above the enormous moon's beams.

The area in front of us is dark, but I assume we are on the roof of the castle.

Peter snaps his fingers and torches illuminate what I confirm to be the castle roof, at least a section of it.

Near us is a large, soft blanket, laid out across the hard floor.

"No way, this place is beautiful," I say glancing around me in awe.

"It's not our cave, but it'll do," Peter responds smiling at me. I continue to follow him and we lay on the blanket, gazing up at the stars.

A few seconds pass before he takes in a sharp breath and begins to speak.

"So about my past," He begins, "like I said it isn't a very happy story. I was born to a poor but powerful sorcerer and a beautiful, kind house wife. We lived in the Magic forest, a long long time ago, in a village known as Kielo. It was beautiful, rolling hills of green, and flowers of every kind during the summer. We lived in a comfy sized house inside of town. During the day my father would go to the highest hill to work in his workshop, and I'd go to school for a little while. Once school ended I would help my mother around the house. This was my favorite time of day. My mother was the sweetest woman I've ever had in my life. She'd tell me stories when I was little, and she'd bake pastries of all kinds. I still remember these little vanilla cookies with raspberry filling that she'd make."

I watch his face, there's so much joy in his eyes. The kind of joy that isn't brought or pulled from the outside, but the kind that's lit from the inside, from the embers of memory.

"Anyway, my mother and I would have supper every night together, as my father came home very late every night. Then after dinner my father would come home. My father and I were never very close. He always expected me to be just like him, powerful and magical. Up until I was about 14 my powers didn't appear, my father began to think I was ordinary. So naturally he'd yell at me, tell me I was worthless, the typical stuff cruel men yell. My mother would try to stop him, but he never listened. Hell he didn't even love her, I heard rumors of him messing around with some fairy, but I was too naive to ever believe it."

His eyes that had once held so much happiness were now dark, full of hatred and past fury.

"My powers appeared when I was around fourteen, I was buying some fruit in the town center when I accidentally caused a basket to turn into a cat. I thought it was the greatest thing ever, that my father would finally love me, that everything would finally be okay. But when I told my mother all she said was, "That's great Peter." Of course my father was beyond ecstatic. Ha! All of a sudden he "loved" me. We began magic lessons after my regular school, which meant I'd miss most of the afternoon with my mom, but we still ate dinner together. My father taught me in the woods, I was never to enter his workshop, no one was. Over the years I watched my mother become more and depressed. There wasn't an instant change in her mood, at first it was only the little things. Not smiling as bright when I came home, not responding the same when I told her good news, not making the cookies as sweet. I didn't notice for four and a half years, almost five damn years and nothing went through my mind. All I cared about were the lessons my father taught, all I cared about was pleasing him. I finally noticed when I came home one day after lessons and found my mother in tears. I'd begged her to tell me what was wrong, but she didn't. I should've known though, I should've known."

His eyes grow a deeper shade of green than I'd ever seen, and they glisten with building tears.

"The next day I decided to skip lessons, so I could talk to my mother. When I walked through the door her eyes lit up, almost as bright as they had once been. We walked into the town laughing, like old times. "Why were you crying?" I asked her. "I can't tell you," She responded. So I begged her and she finally told me. "When you're father and I first met and married we were in love. You're father claimed I was his Silverstone. You see all sorcerers need one person, one thing to focus their emotions on in order for their magic to hold it's power. When a sorcerer derives his from love or happiness his magic is good, but when he derives from greed or selfishness his magic turns dark. That's what happened to your father. Up in his workshop he works on a portal, a portal to his own safe haven, another realm. He began it just after you were born. It became, and still is, his Silverstone. That's why he is evil, that's why darkness consumes him. When you're powers didn't show up I was happy, I thought maybe you wouldn't have to deal with it, but you do. That's why I have been sad, I've been terrified you will end up like him. So my son please, promise me you will keep yourself good . Please." I promised her, but when we turned my father was behind us. He'd heard the whole thing.
"What lies are you telling him woman!" He screamed at my mother, then be charged her. I tried to stop him but his magic was stronger than mine. I watched him, watched as he pulled my mothers heart out and crush it. All I could do was scream and watch my Silverstone turn to rubble."

Tears stream down his face and his body shakes with anger. I pull him closer and he continues.

"We had been in a clearing, so no one saw him. He told everyone she died of some disease. Everyone believed him, only because they feared him. But I got my revenge, oh I got my revenge. That night I climbed the hill to his workshop. I found the books, all of his work on the portal. He had created a land full of magic and beauty. A land of eternal youth. Once be entered te portal he would become the grand ruler, the holder of its power, as it was given to whoever landed there first. Then I found it, the portal, in the basement. The bloody devil was planning to leave the next day. It'd all been a plan. So, I went through it. And landed on what I named Neverland, because he would never hurt me again. He would never be more powerful than me. The realm was mine, and he could never get it back."

"I'm so sorry," I say. I'd always been horrible at comforting people. It's just so hard to match the level of comfort with the level of pain the person is feeling.

"It wasn't long until I got bored on the island, so I rescued boys. Boys who were living the life my father had intended me to live. A life alone, without a family. So I rescued them, I even brought sad children to the island to make them happy. But somewhere along the way I lost sight of that. I began working with the queen, I became evil. I became him. Then-then you came. I felt something I hadn't felt in who knows how long. Something shifted in my life, something felt different. You're my Silverstone Arabella, and my magic is back to its light. You've rescued me from being him."

Tears brimmed my eyes as I pulled him into a kiss. This. This is what love is.