Can You Swim Peter?
A/N: I wrote this some time ago. Never got around to editing it till now though, it made me too sad..
Disclaimer: Peter Pan isn't mine, and I suspect never will be.
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He approached the shore carelessly. He would not have dared get this close to the mermaids' waters before. He wouldn't have dared test the unpredictable creatures.But then she had come along, and ruined everything.
She had diverted his attention so that he had gone against all his good judgement. All with just the bat of an eyelash, a toss of her golden hair, or the tiniest glimmer of a smile.
Back when he saw her through the window of her nursery, he had never imagined this girl could take over everything he knew.
And yet she had.
Wendy had made him feel the things he had tried to avoid for so long. She had made him feel those hateful grown-up feelings.
She had even taken the Lost Boys from him. They were supposed to stay with him.
They were supposed to play together forever, laugh forever, live forever. And she was supposed to be their mother, his friend.
This was the way it was supposed to be.
Wendy was not supposed to leave, and she was not supposed to take the boys with her.
Peter stretched out a hand that he placed into the still water. Ripples instantly scattered across the dark water.
Almost automatically, an unearthly shriek was heard. The source of it was easily recognizable as one of theirs.
Peter didn't even flinch at the shrill sound, his serious thoughts keeping him from being aware. His only movement was to straighten up and pretend that he was brave. He then went back to standing still and to waiting for what would come.
He looked out onto the waters, but with dead eyes. They held no mischief, no twinkle. They no longer held any wonder of the danger that would always seek the king of Neverland.
His eyes had lost all their brightness the day she had gone.
A slippery gray hand gently glided out of the water to rest on his foot.
Peter made no move to remove the slimy thing, and instead closed his eyes. He let the mermaid's eerie song wash over him, and took a step forwards.
Another hand reached out of the watery depths, to touch his ankle. The voices of the water dwellers sang louder, urging him on.
Tears in his still closed eyes, Peter took another step.
And another, and another.
He waded deeper into the water, and went from being knee deep to almost waist deep.
All of a sudden, the song stopped.
And Peter couldn't feel the floating mermaids' bodies around him.
Peter opened his eyes, and the tears that had been kept tight at his eyelids spilled over. Even the deathly mermaids had forgotten him now.
Then with an unexpected howl, the mermaids broke out of the water, leaping over Peter's form. When they were submerged again, they glided around him, circling him; like the ghosts of the deep that they were.
They swam within a arm's length of him, then a hair's breadth.
Getting closer and closer..swimming quicker with each rotation.
Peter's tears were falling freely now, accompanied by the feeling of dread, sadness and...
Fear.
He took one more step and..
Without warning the mermaids plunged Peter underwater, leaving his tears to mingle with the saltiness of the sea.
Peter made no motion to stand, to fight. There was no ground under his feet. He saw the surface slipping away from him..he saw the water darken as he sank deeper and deeper. His lungs began to hurt, pleading for air, but he couldn't deliver it.
Moments later, he began to see stars, and they weren't the kind you see in the nighttime sky.
Worst of all, Peter felt like his heart was being wrenched from him. Because he couldn't stop seeing Wendy's face.
Peter clenched his eyes shut, then opened them back up to see a mysterious light..
It wasn't the one people see right before they die though. It was the one that was full of hope.
It was Tink, his one faithful friend. She was glowing, flitting back and forth across the surface of the water. Searching for him. But she was too late this time around.
Her lighted form was a comforting thing to look at, as darkness began to cloud the corners of his vision..
--
The mermaids that held Peter looked down at his form and released their hold on him.
Gently, his curls swept around his face as he sank down into the lagoon. The mermaids followed him, singing.
Maybe it was meant to be a sweet song, but to Tinkerbell who was still waiting, it was only bone-chilling.
In the strange voices the creatures possessed, they sang,
He had never learned to swim..Peter Pan Pan..the boy could fly but never swim, no never swim...
He would not, could not live forever no no..
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Epilogue:
And so with tears in her tiny pixie eyes, Tinkerbell went flying away to look for another boy that could replace Peter. No one could really, but perhaps
she could find a tiny infant that would be in need of a magical haven..
And he could be brought back and he could make his own attempt at carrying on what Peter had started..a world devoted to children that are lost..
It would be the right thing to do..but poor Peter had lost himself because of a girl..who's to say that it couldn't happen again...
Yes, it was because of Wendy that darling Peter would lie forever in the land of Neverland.
He wasn't meant to die. His destiny had always been to fly his heart out, not to sleep in unforgiving waters that had no place in a storybook.
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