A Second Chance// Book two of Dancing With a Demon

Chap. 5

I stared at the person in front of me, not listening to a word they were saying. My mind was filled with too many thoughts to comprehend their words. How could I forgive him? How could Peter be so important to me for me to just toss all of the things he's done aside? I hoped there was a valid reason. There had to have been, right? Right?

I snapped out of my short trance when they put their hand on my hand. I blinked quickly and gave them a smile.

"Have you been listening to anything that was said?" Peter asked.

"I..." I trailed off, not knowing what else to say to him to justify why I wasn't listening.

"It's okay if you haven't," he said. "Just answer one question."

"Anything," I said.

He held up his left arm. There were no markings but I knew he had felt the pain. My heart dropped and I felt a lump in my throat. "What happened last night?"

I tugged at my sleeves in anxiousness. A war went on in my head, debating whether I should tell him or not. If I told him, was he going to be mad? Or was he going to be madder if I didn't?

"Y/n, please tell me," he said. "If you're hurting yourself-" he sounded worried more than mad.

"I'm not!" I exclaimed quickly. "It was an accident. I hardly knew what I was doing. I was- I was just angry, Peter. It won't happen again, I promise."

This time, he took both of my hands into his. "Why were you angry?" He asked softly.

"My dad told me what happened in Neverland. How you tried to kill Henry. How you kidnapped me," I said.

"So you... you what?" He asked. "Made sure I was punished for what I did?"

"What? Oh God no," I said. "As I said, I hardly knew what I was doing. I was in a haze and maybe yeah, a part of me wanted you to feel the pain I felt but I felt so guilty afterward. I'm so sorry."

"Sweetheart, don't apologize," he said. "I'll admit, I deserved it and if we're being honest, it didn't hurt that much." I gave a breathy laugh, glad he wasn't emotionally hurt all that much by my actions.

"It drew blood for me," I said. "You sure it didn't hurt a lot?"

"At the most, it felt like a bee sting. Stop worrying, darling. Just please don't ever hurt yourself again," he said.

"If I do end up hurting myself, it'll be on accident. I promise," I assured him.

"Good enough," he sighed. "But you better be sticking with that promise because I don't like false promises."

I looked at him smugly and took my hands out of his. When I thought about it, something about the false promises sounded familiar. He just rolled his eyes at me and leaned back. Since he was sitting on the edge of the bed, I watched as he began to fall off the bed, and panic kicked in. I reached out to grab him but it was too late.

He was on the floor in an instant. I began to laugh and ignored the pain on my back. He grumbled and got up. That just made me laugh even harder. My stomach was starting to hurt from laughing so much so I had to force myself to control my laughter to a minimum.

It felt like the world around me faded and an image of me doing the same- falling off the bed as Peter laughed at my dismay flashed through my head. Through my giggles, I said, "I guess the roles are reversed this time, huh?"

He looked at me and a bright smile appeared on his face. "You remembered!" He cried out.

"I..." then it hit me. "I remembered!"