A/N ~ Hey, I'm back with my third fanfiction. I'll try to post regularly on this one. All things Peter Pan belong to Disney and such. I own nothing (sadly). Anyway, here's Chapter 1 of The Dark Heart.

Chapter 1

It started off as a quiet, normal evening in the Darling household. The boys, Michael and John, both 9 and 13 now respectively, were getting ready for bed and waiting for Wendy to come in and tell them a bedtime story.

"Good night Mother. Good night Father." Said Wendy, poking her head into her parent's room.

"Yes, good night Wendy." Her father replied.

"Off to tell the boys another adventure about Peter Pan?" Her mother asked gently.

"Yes, Mother." Wendy said enthusiastically, nodding her head.

"Alright. Happy dreams darling!" Mary Darling said, coming and hugging her daughter good night.

So Wendy shut the door to her parent's room and continued down to hall to the boy's bedroom.

"John! Michael! Are you ready for bed?" Wendy asked as she came into the room.

"Of course we are Wendy." John said as he polished his glasses and set them on his bedside table.

"We're ready for a story!" Michael cried, jumping on his bed and clapping his hands.

"Oh Michael, of course you are." Wendy giggled, grabbing the tray with the bottle of tonic. "But first, you must stop your jumping and come and take your tonic."

"Aw Wendy, do I have to?" Michael whined as he ceased jumping.

"Yes Michael, and you too John." Wendy scolded playfully. John sighed and trudged across the room. "Remember, no tonic equals no story."

Because ever since their faithful nursemaid dog, Nanna, passed away last summer, Wendy had taken over caring for the boys. So after both of the boys had taken their spoonfuls of tonic, they settled into their beds and got ready to listen to the story.

"All right! Which story would you like to hear?" Wendy asked, sitting down in the rocking chair next to the boys' beds.

"I would like to hear about when we went to Neverland." John said.

"Yeah, me too!" Michael agreed.

"But you were there. Why would you want to hear about your own adventure?" Wendy questioned.

"True, but we've never heard about it from your perspective before." John reasoned.

"And we never heard about when Captain Hook had kidnapped Princess Tiger Lily." Michael added.

"Oh, well I suppose when you say it that way, it makes sense." Wendy said, nodding. So she proceeded to recall the tale of their adventure in Neverland. Michael and John were the perfect audience, gasping in the perfect places and cringing when she told of the two times she almost fell to her death.

After the story, Michael had already fallen asleep and John was resting his head on his pillow, his eyes heavy with sleep. Wendy got up and kissed Michael on the forehead and tucked him in. Then she went over to John and hugged him, kissed his forehead, and tucked him in as well. She dimmed the lamp as she left the room, saying 'pleasant dreams' to John as she left.

"G'night Wendy." John mumbled lazily, before turning over and letting sleep capture him.

Making sure to leave the door open a crack, Wendy went next door to her own room. She had moved into her new room just after she had turned 14. She had to admit though, that she admired having the extra space and privacy of her own room.

Before she closed her curtains, however, she could have sworn she saw a dark silhouette pass by her window and fly off into the night sky.

"Good night Peter." She said softly, touching her fingertips to the window pane. She opened her window and suddenly had an urge to go flying after him, just like old times. Sighing, she closed her window, latched it, and drew the curtains.

It was a good thing Peter had decided to leave when did because if he had stayed a while longer, he would have had to hear Wendy's terrified scream.

A/N ~ I know, I know cliffies suck. Anyway I'll post Chapter 2 very soon.