Emma sat awake, as the bodies of the sleeping boys lay around her, sobbing noises coming from each of them. She wasn't going to sleep tonight. She would have considered running away, but she could see Pan sitting in the middle of the camp by the fire, staring at her. She knew that the moment she tried, he would stop her. She considered whether this was worse than before, but there wasn't an easy way to compare the two due to this situation being something that she never thought would be possible half a day ago.
While she thought about this, she realised that she had been awake for a long time. She knew that she would collapse of exhaustion soon, but she didn't want to. She wanted to watch this boy for as long as she could, ready to act if she needed to. Ready to run if she had the chance.
After a few more minutes, Pan stood up and walked over to her. He sat down and put his arm over her shoulder, "You're cold Emma." He commented. He held up his other hand and a blanket appeared in it. He put the blanket over Emma, who was starting to expect the unexpected when it came down to the boy, "Here. Now it's time to get some sleep. You have to be fresh for tomorrow. We'll teach you all sorts of things so you can survive here, so you can take down pirates and hunt down animals. It's going to be great Emma."
Emma tried to fade the voice of the boy out, tried to ignore him, but as she did all she could hear was the sobs of the children around her. Their cries that Emma knew to be the cries for the lives they left. The tears for the families that had abandoned them. The families that they abandoned…
"Of cause, this is your first time hearing it isn't it Emma?" Pan was smirking as he continued to hold her, "The cries of the lost. It shows that you are special, only those who have been lost can hear them. It means that you are one of us Emma."
Pan then leant over and put his hand near her head, it started to glow slightly as Emma started to feel faint, "It's time to rest now Emma. You have a busy day ahead of you." She fell asleep looking at that grin that swallowed her.
She slept soundly that night. It was actually the first time she had slept without dreams for a long time. There was just nothingness and space with no one, "This is what I wished for…right?" Some part of her thought as she slept. She didn't reply, but simply rested.
The next day Emma woke to find herself alone in the camp. The fire was still burning, and it was still dark, but there were small beams of light piercing through. Emma could tell that it was daytime. She made her way towards the fire and noticed a small piece of paper lying on the ground. She bent down, picked it up and started to read, "Come find us."
She looked around her. This was a part of that training that Pan was talking about. She couldn't see anyone. She was about to start running but then she felt something, like eyes in the back of her head. Of cause she wouldn't be able to escape. Pan was watching her, and from what she knew about him he would be able to find her and stop her as soon as she started.
Emma knew what she needed to do. She needed to play along for now, and earn Pan's trust. Once she has that then maybe he wouldn't be looking for her and she could escape. She knew that it wouldn't be easy, and that Pan would probably suspect that she was planning this; he seemed to understand a part of her, that if she got the opportunity to run then she would take it. She would survive.
So Emma started to look for the boys. She was lucky to have previously received some lessons from another child in care over the years. The child had been a boy scout or something like that and had learnt how to track people. He was pretty good at it, leading the two to play games of hide and seek using clues to track the other down. It had been quite exciting for Emma at the time, but like with most things it didn't end well. The boy had been beaten because of some reason, Emma couldn't keep track at the reasons that had been given over the year, and he became hospitalised. Soon after social services investigated and she was moved to another foster home and the two had been separated.
The lost boys had left her some clues to find them, Emma could tell that they purposely broke some branches and left footprints in the mud – but Emma could also tell that they didn't mean to leave some clues. There were a few things that were less noticeable unless you knew what you were looking for. Emma smiled upon noticing this. At least she would be able to use this to outsmart the average lost boy, to stay out of their way if she needed to.
Emma continued to track them down until she came to an opening in the trees where light shone down. There she looked for more clues but found that the trail had run cold. She looked around for any signs she might have missed but then heard a call like a whistle up in the trees.
She scanned the trees and eventually saw the reflection of…something. The boys were in the tree. She then saw something glow up above. It was Pan, who was smirking upon her noticing him. He then looked away and lifted his hand nonchalantly signalling to one boy who jumped down from the tree and stood infront of her. He was brandishing a quarterstaff. Emma slowly backed away from him, but then noticed something gleaming as it dropped through the air.
A blade struck the ground next to her, and then she heard steady clapping. It seemed to echo all around her, as all of the boys (apart from the one who was advancing on her) starting to repeat the noise. She grabbed the sword from the ground and there was a cheer from above. The cacophony was overwhelming, but Emma didn't have time to be overwhelmed. The boy infront of her lunged with the staff and Emma ducked and rolled across the ground, out of the way. She then leapt up and readied the blade. She then heard a tutting sound; somehow it was as clear as the clapping that continued.
She then looked and next to her was Pan. He grinned as he moved Emma's legs and changed the position that she was holding her sword in, "That's better. Now you look like a real opponent." Emma held the position while staring at the boy, who was edging towards her again. Pan put his head next to her ear and whispered into it, "Now, when he comes at you, swing the sword to deflect."
While Emma thought about the words the staff swung towards her and she quickly threw the blade infront of it and the two collided releasing a metallic clang. Pan nodded as Emma got back into position and the staff came again. This time she knew what she was doing. She threw the blade against the staff with more power causing the staff to deflect more powerfully, slamming it into the mud. She then saw that the boy was open as he struggled to get the staff out of the mud, and so slashed across with the sword towards him.
The boy dodged back, but as he did he pulled the staff up and whipped it against her side. She was flung to the floor and let out a grunt of pain. She took some deep breaths. The pain was unbelievable, causing her head to feel like it was spinning. However she was used to pain. She knew what to do, or at least, she knew what she had wanted to do so many times when she felt such pain.
She gripped the sword tightly and then sprung up into the air. She dived towards the boy, landing before his legs where she slashed across them. The boy was surprised and hadn't managed to evade the cut. He was trained well enough to not grasp at the cut, but his stance slipped slightly, giving Emma an opening. She darted up, moving faster then she knew she could and hit the boy around the head with the hilt of the blade. The boy was forced towards the ground and was then paralysed, as Emma held the blade towards his chest. There was a cheer from the boys in the tree, as Emma stood ready to take the boy's life if she needed to.
Pan smirked as he walked over to her, "Very good. You'll make a fine addition." Pan then started to walk away, but then stopped, "Oh, as for him, you decide what to do with him. It would be a shame to lose him. Well I say a shame. Actually I don't mind. But it does mean finding another boy to replace him, and that takes…effort. That's what it is! It's not a shame; it's just the effort to find a replacement that would be irritating! I love it when I find the right way to express myself."
The boy infront of Emma looked frightened. He was hardened, and had scars over him in various parts of his body, but he still looked scared of Emma at this moment. He was still a boy at the end.
Emma withdrew her blade and then dropped it on the ground. She started to walk away but the boy jumped up and ran towards her with the staff, he went to slam the staff down on her head when she noticed him. She threw herself through the air away from the swing, grabbed the blade off of the ground and then rammed it towards the boys back. The blade went in easily, easier then she thought it would.
She felt an explosion inside of her, as everything was silent.
She wasn't a killer was she?
She had thought about doing it before. She had been in enough trouble to consider killing people. But she never thought that she would do it. In her life, her normal life, the police would have caught her and no good would come from it. But it didn't look like there were police here. The whole situation didn't make sense, why was she doing this? Why was she playing a game with a real sword with consequences like death?
But then something rang inside of her, the reason why she pulled the blade out of the boy and then walked backwards as he fell to the ground, "Survival." A voice whispered inside of her. She needed to live, and this was the way she was going to do it.
She didn't smile as she saw the boy's lifeless body infront of her. She quickly walked away so she couldn't see his eyes with their frozen gaze. She instead looked at Pan's grin as it started to swallow her, "Well done Emma." Pan laughed, "I didn't know if you had it in you. But it seems you do, you are well and truly a lost girl."
There was a roar of shouts and applauds from the trees. Pan took her in for a side hug and she allowed it to happen. A part of her was in shock about what just happened, but it was being silenced by survival. She knew that this was what she needed to do, and she didn't feel sad about that. She couldn't run, so she had to fit in to survive.
And after all, she had dreamt about killing people in the past, maybe this was just who she was. Maybe this was where she belonged.
Meanwhile a teenager watched from a distance. He was somehow hidden from the other people on the island. He watched the girl, as she looked like everything good was being stripped from her. He continued to watch as she was taken back to the camp and was celebrated for the unpleasant deed she had just done, "I can't let this become her story." He thought. He knew he couldn't storm in and get her now, so instead he worked harder with the materials he was given to complete the jobs on the note in his hand. He needed to make sure everything was ready, that everything would make the story perfect.
