"And there is no need to forgive, again." "He would come up with mermaid scales still sticking to him, and yet not be able to say for certain what had been happening."
Prologue :
Wether he swam or sunk was no concern of theirs, all that they cared about, as children often do being selfish and egocentric, was themselves. Not strange, marvellous Peter.
So he sank into the water and was free. So he fell into the abyss and was unbound.
He found tranquility in such bizarre circumstances, when youth escaped from between his teeth, but it was so painfully brief.
Because as you might be aware even if I highly doubt it, all that kept Peter young was his determination and stubbornness. He bit youth between his teeth and held tight.
It was an exhausting process, this endless rebellion against father Time's natural route... So as he sank and the mermaid's song enveloped him and threatened to burst his fragile eardrums he almost let go of youth. It slipped from between his tender pearly fangs like silver fish between the fingers of naive children.
And as he descended he became someone else.
His skeleton grew longer, his hair faded ever so slightly, his eyes turned sadder and his body demanded things that had been suppressed during the endless battle to capture youth against her father's will. The gorgons always awaited patiently. Their soft arms embraced his naked chest sometimes like motherly protection and others like sinister imprisonment.
Father Time had asked for this. For all the years that Peter took advantage of and captured his daughter, youth, he should suffer brief moments of imprisonment and exploitation by all the willing magical creatures of his vivid imagination.
And what better creatures than the greedy, lurking mermaids to take advantage of such deal? They pulled him close and lulled him asleep and as he sighed from all the burden of suppressed time that had congested within him and on his bony shoulders they unlaced the leather strings that held his skeleton leaf outfit together.
And they played.
With his small, tired body. With his sad and weak mind and they laughed crystal clear echoing laughs. Some would truly love him afterwards for he was such a charming, ethereal boy still. Others would bruise him and use him and laugh at his frailness and reclusiveness and wandering mind.
After all of them were done and father Time was pleased with the torment this act had imposed on the boy-man, youth would be released again. And she would come to him. And he would drag his sore limbs and grab her as tight as he could and keep her close as he started his ascend towards the skies again, broken and filled with sudden fatigue.
And as he rose from the abyss all would be erased permanently till the next time.
He would greet the children happily with remaining scales on his body and when they asked how said scales had gotten there he would shrug and soar up higher.
It is such a pity that children are not usually observant... because, scales were not the only signature the gorgons left on Peter. Time after time, they broke a little piece of him to keep and call their own and in it's original place, a bruise would bloom to cover the emptiness.
Until one day the eternal child would become a field of purple blooms caused by his own mind upon his body during his search for eternal peace and innocence of mind.
And how peculiar it would seem... that even though it was innocence and calmness he was after, he had instead created traps and monsters beyond beliefs from living in the confines of childhood fears.
Authors Notes :
Inspired by Nick Cave's song 'We no who u r'. I highly recommend listening to it if you haven't done so already. This is a prologue of sorts. I am not sure I will upload the rest but just in case I will rate this M.
I hope you like it, rr please!
Peter Pan, Neverland and it's creatures belong to J. M. Barrie and folklore and I'm simply playing with them.
Story originally posted on my second account [Petering].