'Seeing is believing' was the mindset that had befallen my generation. Anything that wasn't tangible was a lie – nonexistent and malicious. As much as people tried to keep faith in themselves as well as others, nobody could manage. The age of doubt spread to children of younger and younger ages, including myself. Few kids my age actually had the imagination to believe in anything – save maybe a few trusted people. There were some, though, that managed to keep their chins up. They were seen as fools – stupid babies distracted by crazy ideas.

I suppose I had some imagination, and as much as I liked to believe in fairy tales and science fiction, I didn't have the guts to voice it. It festered on the inside and eventually died there. Once upon a time, though, I knew a boy who believed in them whole-heartedly. His name was Georgie, and he was not a whole lot younger than I was – maybe by a year or so. He lived in a small house down the street from my dad's apartment. We went to the same school, but we never talked there.

Our meeting was brief, strange, and left a sickly feeling in the pit of my stomach. I knew he was something special at that point. "Melinda Morano? MM? Nice initials. I hate alliteration, you know," He'd scoffed at me, clutching a battered old notebook underneath his scrawny arms.

"Georgie Alexander? Two first names and they're both stupid," I'd spat back at him, digging my hands deep into my jacket pockets, trying my best not to shiver in the autumn air.

Despite our initial dislike for each other, we formed some awkward kinship for a good year and a half. We'd meet in the park across the street from his house and he'd tell me these fanciful stories while I listened quietly, repeating things he said for clarification. I couldn't tell why he'd grown so attached to me. He talked as if he'd never get to talk again in his life, almost like he was running out of time. Everything he said was so bizarre, as well. Georgie had the wildest imagination I'd ever come across. Honestly, I was jealous of him.

A few weeks into spring – two years after our first meeting – my older brother, Cole, went missing. I was 12 at the time, and him, 14. He'd come into my room late at night, shaking in his slippers and chattering about a shadow he'd seen at his window. I didn't believe him, nor did I care. As far as me and my tired eyes were concerned, he was pulling my leg – trying to freak me out. Turns out though, he was right, and I didn't even give him the time of day.

For nearly a month, I stopped visiting Georgie, and chose to put up missing posters around the neighborhood with my step-mother. Too soon did we give up hope in ever finding my poor sibling. I came to meet Georgie that summer, bringing an apology card and some cheap chocolate to his front door. He opened slowly and warily, looking like he'd been crying for days. That made two of us. Georgie didn't touch on why he was crying, but asked frantically about my problems. Over tea and cookies, I cried to him about Cole's disappearance.

He was awkward in consoling me, instead asking the strangest of questions. "Did you see him the night before he went missing?" In retrospect, it wasn't strange at all, but at the time, my train of thought was beyond all control.

Nodding sullenly, I sniffled in response, "Yeah, just for a couple minutes. He was scared, though. Cole kept saying there was a shadow at his window." A brief look of recognition seemed to pass through Georgie's eyes, but I ignored it entirely, too wrapped up in myself, "I didn't believe him. This might be my entire fault!" I sobbed harder than ever before at that point, leaving my sleeves and my friend's tablecloth sopping wet.

"Hey, hey. It's gonna be alright. We'll find him," He tried to console me, getting not even the teeniest bit of improvement from me, "I think I might know what happened to him, actually."

I scoffed through my tears, an ugly cough exerting itself from the deepest parts of my throat, "Yeah right, like you'd be able to find him. Not even Sherlock Holmes could find him at this point…"

Georgie looked absolutely frantic, maybe even a little excited, "No, really! I know where he is! He's in Neverland – Peter Pan must have taken him!" Now, I'd like to say that I handled that outburst really well, but I didn't. In fact, I gave the poor boy a bloody nose and vowed never to see him again.

I didn't see him again, actually, though I did see his mother. She came to my house not three weeks later looking absolutely hysterical. My heart caught in my throat – somehow I'd already guessed what had happened to him. "Have you seen my son? Have you seen little Georgie?" All I could manage to do was shake my head before she talked briefly with my parents and left the house. At this point, I was beyond desolation – beyond hopelessness.

I was pissed.

Something out there was taking my goddamn friends and family from me, and they weren't even slightly sorry as far as I could tell. Georgie had left me a little note, though, corked into an old cola bottle with a few trinkets inside. His old notebook had been shoved into my school locker to top it all off. I tried my best not to even look at these things – they'd probably just make cry again. Another month passed before I succumbed to the temptation and uncorked the bottle.

He'd let me know exactly what he was doing. Georgie was headed to Neverland – he wanted to bring Cole back. Of course, I didn't want to believe it. I couldn't believe in a childish thing like that – it just wasn't logical. Know how I said that seeing was believing? I was just about to get that precious 'tangible evidence' thrown straight into my face.

Three months later, a dark shadow flew its way past my window and into the large house across the street. And ya' know what? I never did see my neighbor around after that night.

"Do you miss the blend of colors she left in your black and white field? Do you feel condemned just being there?" – Brand New: Sowing Season (Yeah)

AN: Hope you enjoyed this little section of the story. This is something I'm writing for my own enjoyment really, but if you like it, then it doubles the fun! Leave a review if you like.