Stars and Shadows
By Shahrezad1
Summary: "With it came the certainty, the knowledge that this must be what death was like."
Disclaimer: This is just a little lark into the Peter Pan world. No copyright infringement is intended.
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"Again Mrs. Darling screamed, this time in distress for him, for she thought he was killed, and she ran down into the streets to look for his little body, but it was not there; and she looked up, and in the black night she could see nothing but what she thought was a shooting star."
-Peter Pan, by J. M. Barrie, Chapter 2: The Shadow
It was the smell that woke her first every morning. A rich flavor of rotting plants, bitter copper, and salty tears. As though the devil himself had fermented a bottle of sorrow, death, and despair out of the human souls that toiled and perished beneath.
It was this same smell that greeted her as she scrambled through the trenches, once-pristine uniform splattered with mud and blood and who knew what else. Soldiers groaned at her passing, some reaching out with shaking fingers and others neither seeing nor hearing her presence.
She stopped once, twice, and three times, passing dead men no older than her brothers, for the sake of the remaining living. Quite a few would do fine on their own, making their way to safety on shaking hands and knees. Others wouldn't be so lucky.
The young woman bowed her knees under her to one of the unlucky, propping his form up amid shrapnel and blood-lined ditches. He smiled at her presence, and with a start she realized that she recognized the soldier. He had been there when she had first enlisted as a volunteer to the cause, a callow youth blushing under his friends' ribbing. At the time she'd bestowed a sweet smile upon him, and nothing more. She was hard-pressed to place one on her lips just now, however.
"It's a pleasure being in your company again, Miss. Although I can't say that the setting's improved," eyes, green as leeks, shone merrily through a haze of pain and a cut running full along the side of his face. The boy was smiling, but she recognized it as the brave front it was, those same green eyes beginning to glaze. Only then did she finally find the strength to force a smile, but it was completely devoid of the false mirth he sported.
"On that, kind Sir, I must agree."
The young woman bent to apply pressure to the slice along his cheek, and in the process discovered the would running down his entire left side. Despair clutched her in an instant, but she didn't let it show.
"So, what's a fine young man like yourself doing in a cursed place like this, as the Americans like to say?"
He laughed, and as he did all that came up was blood, spattering his uniform with a flickering of red.
"For adventure. I signed up for adventure."
"Really," she responded. As that was all that would cross her lips. He saw her shock and translated it as something else, but what she couldn't tell, then continued as though he had never stopped.
"What's your name, Miss? If you pardon my asking."
"Wendy," was the quiet response, "Wendy Moira Angela Darling."
His oceanic eyes blinked at the length, but that didn't stop his persistent smile, "well, Miss Wendy, I'm called Peter. It's been a pleasure meeting you."
"Pe--!"
"It looks like I'm on to my next big adventure. Thank you for seeing me off."
His face falling slowly into the sleep of death, smile honest and sweet, was the last thing she saw before the distinct whistle of a bomb coming closer sounded in her ear. And then with a flash of light, and a sinking darkness, she knew no more.
When the girl woke again it was to sandy beaches and blue sky, the grit of muck and stench of death washed from her skin. And with it came the certainty, the knowledge that this must be what death was like.
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AN: A little morbid and depressing, I know. But I've been getting into several Peter Pan movies, and I've been starting on the book, so I'm on a tiny bit of a kick. -shrugs- Plus, I really love both WWI and WWII stories of trials and heroism.
Chose what you will regarding what happens next. I know what I'd like to occur, but I think I'll chose for this to remain a one-shot.
I like it better this way.
(And to my other fans, don't worry. Icarus Chapter 3 is done, and just needs to be edited by my beta. Masks has Chapter 4 mostly finished, I just need to go back and write the fight scene from Chapter 3. XD Sunny Side Up is being worked on, but is being stubborn. Argh.)