If Peter Pan, the boy who vowed he would never grow old, and Alice Liddle, the girl who forgot how to be a child, ever were to meet would they see how perfect they could be together. Alice, ever wishing for a way to re-visit her forgotten childhood, and Peter, already always living his own.
It started one night, with Alice telling the young children at the Orphanage a story. A fantastic tale about pirates and kidnapped princesses. Alice was standing at the end of one of the iron worked foot boards holding up the broken axle of a red wagon, waving it as if it were a mighty sword.
"Back! Back you bilge rat!" She yelled at nothing that you or I could see, but to her part time charges she was yelling at the scariest of pirates, Captain Hook.
"Oh, children, do you see his patched eye? It might have been the fight with great sea monster up north, that caused!" she said to the children, making the scene that much more real for them.
"Look at his peg leg!" Shouted the oldest boy, Thomas, from his bed.
"Ah, yes, I see it now! What awful thing might have befallen Captain Hook for such a thing to happen?" Alice asked the children as she danced back and forth battling the Captain with her sword against his cutlas.
"His last crew was mutinous, Miss Alice. They tossed him overboard, but not before removing his left leg! Do you not remember?" Thomas asked looking slightly puzzled.
Alice smiled at him and said "Of course I remember! I told you lot that not 5 story nights ago. I was merely testing your knowledge."
Alice, of course, was not telling the truth. Her memory had always been a little on the bad side. She couldn't remember anything before she came to the Orphanage the summer of her 18th year, but she made up for the loss by telling herself, and everyone else, such amazing stories. Stories of singing flowers and talking caterpillars, Crazy tea parties, an evil Red Queen, and one Mad Hatter.
Now 5 years later, aged 22, Alice stayed on at the Orphanage as a keeper, or sitter, four nights a week. Story nights had long been held on Wednesday nights. Often still, she had trouble keeping track of the day of the week. Though the children never let her forget that this night, was story night.
"What happens now Miss Alice?" Mary asked. Mary was barely 4 years old, and was cute as a button. The only reason she hadn't been taken in by a family was that families only want to take home babies.
"Now, my Mary, the Captain lunges with his blade towards not I, but the princess!" Alice jumped forward, shielding the unseen royal behind her own body. "You will not harm this girl!" Alice shouted as she lunged forward at the open air.
Miss Alice tucked into a forward roll at the last second as all of the children gasped, think she would surely hit the floor face first. She sprung lightly to her feet and said "That's enough for tonight, Children. Perhaps we can finish at next Story Night. I am so looking forward to telling you the next story. It's about a rabbit, who believes he is going to be very late to a very, very important dinner.
As she turned to the corner furthest from the door she began turning off the lights in the room, she saw something flutter past the windows. Now, she couldn't be sure, as the curtains were half draw, but she was almost certain she saw something. I turn off the light and walked past the window toward the next one. She only saw her own reflection in the glass, and nothing beyond it. She decided to put off what ever she thought she saw. 'It must've only been a reflection.' she told herself time and time again. In those moments of thought, she was reached the fourth and final lamp in the room. She turned the key and whispered "Sleep well. I will see you the next night." as she always did, and closed the door behind her.
Still curious as to what she had seen in the window, Alice walked down the hallway and to the stairs. She descended slowly and carefully, so as not to make to much noise. She turned sharply left and walked to the back doors. It was always eerie walking up to the glass in the dark. It reflected back a dark version of yourself. It turned Alice's brown hair black, and her bright blue eyes sometimes shown red in the reflection. After the very first time she had seen the red eyes staring at her as she walked down the hall she looked only at the black and white checked floor.
Flipping the lock, and unhooking the chain, Alice stepped out into the night. Darkness wasn't something that she was afraid of. She could handle the dark just fine, it was what might be hiding behind the shadows that frightened Alice. Standing in the column of light cast from the open door she stared around into pitch blackness. One step forward and a quiet call asking if anyone was outside later Alice was flat out on her back with Dina the dog on top of her.
"Oh Dina! You gave me such a fright! I thought a child had come out into the night." She told the dog as she coached it off of her stomach. "Let's get you in out of the dark." she said heading for the safety of the Orphanage's kitchen door.
"What happens to the Princess?" She jumps as she hears the voice of a child come from the shadows outside.
"Who's out there?" She asks, not recognizing the voice as a child from the Orphanage.
"Does she get saved? Is she saved by the Brave Girl?" The same voice asks. This time Alice has enough sense to listen to a direction. It's coming from above. Have one of the children opened the window? No, no of course not, those windows don't even come open. They've been nailed shut since an incident that happened a few years ago.
"Who's out here?" She asks, stepping back outside. "Where are your parents? I bet they're worried about you."
"Nah, I don't have any parents." Alice decided that it was definitely a boys voice coming from the shadows, but not an older boy, one who was no more than 13.
"No parents? Do you live here at the Orphanage?" Alice stepped further away from the door, trying to figure out where the boy was.
"No, I don't live far though." The boy said. Alice had her eyes set on a branch straight outside the window to the room with the children. She smiled at the boy.
"Why don't you climb down and I'll walk you home then." She said to the boy.
"You'll go home with me?!" The boy exclaimed throwing himself off his precarious perch. Alice jumped forward and extended her arms to catch the child as he would surely crash into the hard earth below her feet, but the impact didn't come. She opened her eyes, expecting to see a broken child crying on the ground in front of her. To her dismay the boy stood a foot away with not a scratch or speck of dirt on him.
"I will walk you home and ensure your return to your bed." She clarified. "That was a right dangerous thing to do. You can't just go jumping out of trees," She paused. "What is your name?"
"My name is Peter," He replied "and I didn't jump. I flew."
"Sure. Just don't... fly, in front of me, alright? I don't want to see you get hurt." She told him. "Let's get you home and back to bed."
"Can you tell me more of the story along the way?" Peter asked looking up at Alice with a face so young but so wise all at once. "Please, Miss Alice?"
"Alright." she said taking his hand. "Which way, then?"
Peter pulled her to the side and began a slow steady pace towards home. Alice fell into step easily and began telling Peter about The Good Captains' Adventures. She told him how the Brave Girl saved the Princess by trading the locket that she wore. Alice told peter how it was the only thing she had left of her past and how she was willing to give it away to save someone she didn't even know. Peter learned that the Brave Girl traveled with the Princess all the way back to her kingdom, and of how the Princess bestowed a great honor to the her.
"But, why would the Brave Girl give up the last thing that she had?" Peter asked.
"She knew that someday, as she grew old, she would have something that meant more to her than any old locket ever could." Alice answered.
"What if someone could get the locket back for her? Another traveler, maybe? Would she like that?" Peter continued.
Alice had begun to get suspicious as to weather or not Peter was leading her to his house, when he stopped and turned to face her. "She would be grateful to the other Traveler, but she knows that it will probably never happen. Peter, where do you live?"
"I live here, Miss Alice." He answered. He dropped her hand and headed for the door of the house they'd stopped in front of. She watched his open the front door and close it behind him. She hesitated for a moment, wonder if she should go to the house and speak with his caregivers, but she only turned around and began to walk back to the Orphanage.
Alice hadn't realized how far the two of them had walked. She herself was caught up in the story. She began to worry that she would be lost until morning when someone came by whom she could ask directions, but she ran into a street she knew very well. It was the road the Orphanage was on. It would seem that young Peter had lead her around several turns, going up and down streets that were out of the way to prolong the story. Alice smiled to herself as she took only the second left and walked toward the Orphanage by the light of dawning Morning.
She reached the doors as the sun peeked past the hills behind her. The children were all still tucked tightly into bed, and the cooks were starting to bustle in the kitchen. Alice closed the front door and turned the lock behind her. She walked through the kitchen, nodding at the cooks, Melanie and Dorrin, as she went to her bedroom. Her room used to be one of the many offices in the house, but it was converted when she came to stay here.
Often she couldn't sleep at night, and would keep the other children awake, either by accident or with her stories. A room was fashioned for her so that the other children could sleep through the night. It worked for Alice. She only needed to sleep for a few hours and could run around and keep up with even the most rambunctious boys staying here. It was dreams that kept Alice from sleeping. She would have the most strange dreams. It's often what she based her stories on. Sometimes though, she would have terrible nightmares where she would thrash about and scream. The Nursemaids had their hands full helping Alice wake up from those dreams, it only made it worse when she shared a room because the other children would scream or cry with fright, feeding into Alice's nightmare.
Alice turned on the lamp sitting on her bedside table and laid her head down on her pillow. She didn't realize how tired she had gotten on her walk. She closed her eyes and drifted slowly to sleep. As she slept Alice looked as peaceful as any child, until the moment she begins to dream. Once she had told the story of chess pieces having a royal battle upon the checked floor of the drawing room downstairs, and she had gone into such detail that the children were frightened to go to sleep, fearing the murderous pieces finding their way up the steps and down the hall.
The moment came when Alice's dream went from beautiful and full of color to shrouded in shades of red and gray. Alice turned in her sleep, trying to get away from the darkness and back to the colorful places, but simply rolling over wasn't enough. Slowly though, the darkness faded back into light and Alice slept on.
When she did finally wake, it was nearly mid-day. She stared around the room and nothing appeared out of place, but something felt it; everything felt different somehow.