I'd like to give a big thanks to Marlyn Manson for his awesome music and endless amounts of inspiration and I highly, HIGHLY recommend you listen to him while reading the beginning of this chapter. I'd LOVE to thank all of my faithful reviewers. Muchos gracias to sugerplumfairy, tigerlynn, DreamlessMermaid, AngelicPirate, Alamo Girl, The 5th Pen, Apple, and Pirate. You guys seriously rock, and I really enjoy reading your comments and reading your stories!
And With that…on to the story!
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Click…Click…Clickity-Click…Ka-CHING!
July 27, 1889
Dearest Jane,
You must think that I am a perfect bully for not writing you sooner! I know that you'll say I'm awfully old-fashioned for doing so but the phone seems dreadfully impersonal, although, I am very fond of this type-writing machine that I found in the discount boot down the street. It was quite a deal! Things here in London are going swimmingly. Your uncle Michael is doing just fine. His arthiritis seems to be getting better, but whether this be because of the drugs the hospital keeps him on or on his own volition, we might never know. The Great Ormond Street Hospital dedicated a new wing of the building in his honor! He gave a marvelous speech, well, it was marvelous until we all realized he had accidentally mixed his medicine with a sidecar! He keeled right over into the bread pudding! It was simply delightful!
And Jane, you need not send me that monthly check! How often must I tell you that I get along perfectly on my own! I'm an old girl and I don't have many things, or years for that matter, to do any spending on at all. I hope that your trip to New York last week went well. Say hello to your little darlings for me, though they're probably not so little anymore. Visit soon and write or call if you have the chance!
With Love,
Wendy Darling
At the sound of the last ka-ching! I gently took the paper from the machine and waved it in the air for a few seconds. Setting it down, I sighed and picked up my purse taking out my golden compact mirror. I checked my reflection. At 87 years, I had definitely become a certified Old Maid. I smiled at the thought of me, Wendy Darling, growing up into an old wrinkly woman! The absurdity! Yet it had truly happened. I put the mirror away yet the image of a wrinkly, gray-haired woman stayed with me. 'What Peter would think if he could see me now!' I thought, though Peter had not visited me for well over half a century. With a hint of remorse I made my way into my small kitchen. I had a very odd craving for some Ramen noodles and cursed lightly when I found that my vast supply had been depleted under my very nose.
Looking around for something other than freeze-dried noodles to eat, I found my cupboards bare! It must have been that nice Jack boy from the apartment next-door that had been helping me around the house with various odd-jobs. He had quite an appetite, that one. It was no use, I'd have to go to the store some time or other anyway, and it was a nice night. What could it hurt if I made the short trip down the street to the grocers? My mind made up I put on my coat, one can never be to sure with this English weather, and headed out.
It had been quite a while since I had been out alone at night. The shadows seemed longer than normal and I could hear every rustle of paper along the street. My neighborhood was a small one, but I still wasn't quite sure if it was normal for it to be so deserted, even a night. It was just so eerie. I was halfway to my destination when I heard it. A rustle of bushes immediately behind me. Whirling around as fast as an old lady dared, I faced…a normal shrub. Phew. 'In addition to growing older, I have grown quite paranoid,' I assured myself. Though I couldn't help that warning prickliness one usually feels when there is danger lurking about. I turned foreword and began to walk again.
Was it my imagination, or were the shadows growing? Every step I took was one more into darkness. Until I took that last step and the darkness encompassed everything. Whirling around, all I could see were the very faint outlines of shrubbery or the very tops of the houses. The very stars and moon seemed to have fled for the moment. Soon I became aware of the quiet clip-clop, clip-clops that were making their way in my direction. The clip-clop, clip-clops that turned the very blood in my veins to ice. I've heard those somewhere before…
Soon I spied the outline of what appeared to be a young man. I recognized the messy head of hair. For a moment I relaxed, "Oh Jack, it's just you!"
"Not quite…Wendy…" He hissed my name. Like a snake.
"Jack I'm not sure what you mean, but you'd best be getting home! You're mother would be quite worried about you by now!" He chuckled at my suggestion. Something about Jack's whole demeanor had changed. The nice little boy that fetched my groceries was replaced with a delinquent with an arrogant swagger in his step.
"It's been years Wendy. I was sure you'd remember. Luckily, well luckilyfor me, you didn't," he was barely a foot in front of me now. Suddenly, the full moon came out, as if a cloud had been swept away just for this purpose, and illuminated Jack's teenage face. His eyes were crimson. He smirked at me with a cold smile. "I guess it's true what they say about growing up. The memories just sort of slip away from you, don't they…I'm almost disappointed you don't remember a nightmare like me…"
With a great gasp it all came back. Everything. Those painful nights on the island when I thought I'd just contracted some sort of strange flu. I didn't know the sickness had attached itself to my very soul. "Jack…it can't be. You left! I was sure you left!" I cared not to disguise the panic in my voice. "How?"
He snickered again. "It never ceases to amaze me, Wendy. You're all caught up in the details. Why wonder how? When the important thing is why?" He stepped closer to me and was barely inches from my face. I shook and it was as if I'd been transported back to my stay in Neverland. I couldn't do anything. Jack wielded a horrible power. A power of control.
I saw his hand come to my face and felt his cold skin stroking my cheek. "Why, Jack?" I managed to whimper. The next moment happened all to fast. His arm jutted toward my stomach and suddenly a cold feeling of steel separated my abdomen.
"Revenge," he hissed. His body dematerialized right in front of me. Instead of the body of a teenage boy, there stood in its place a shadow that no light would dare penetrate. I watched it for the moment it hovered in front of me. Life was draining quickly out of my body, but I knew I couldn't let him escape. I flung my arms around the shadow, falling on top of it onto the hard cobblestone sidewalk. The darkness seared my flesh and I heard the shadow screaming.
Or maybe that was me.
I had him trapped. He wasn't getting away this time. Not in this life. Not in the next.
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SPLASH!
I was shocked awake by the sheer coldness of the water. "HOLY CRAP!" I jumped to my feet. Residual fear had stayed with me from my trip back from dream world. I quickly grabbed whoever it was that was standing directly in front of me and buried my soaking face into the front of their shirt. To my distinct shame, I began to sob.
"Oh my God. Bea. I'm really sorry! I didn't know you would get so upset. It's just that you were sleeping like a dead animal and I tried waking you up and…"
I recognized Riley's Australian babble and regretfully detached myself from his chest. I wiped my eyes off, although the fact of Riley the Gorgeous seeing me splotchy eyed made me want to cry all over again. "I didn't mean to scare you or anything. Brekkie's on the table and I didn't think you've been eating well this past week so I thought that…"
"Riley, it's ok. I just had this really horrible nightmare. I'm really sorry if I assaulted you or whatever." It was really quite touching how worried about me he was, though. After that we just sort of stared at each other for a moment; one of those weird awkward silence things.
"So….," we both said at the same time. Reddening I pushed past him.
"Smells good. See you later Riley." 'Hopefully,' I thought. I walked through the beaded doorway of the adobe hut into the clearing, using my nose to guide me, as I did every morning, to my breakfast table. And I say my breakfast table because that is seriously what it was. As far as I could tell, this city had a social structure, and just like in school, this was demonstrated by where people sat at lunch. There were tons of lunch tables, as there was an abundance of kids everywhere. The littler kids sat on the left side of the dining area and the older ones sat on the right. My table was sort of in the middle.
I grabbed a pear from the buffet and pushed past all of the prying eyes that had greeted me every morning for the past week. Today, however, I was not alone. I plopped down onto the rough bench and sat just across from a very shaggy little boy with gigantic green eyes. Those green eyes were currently boring into, who else but, me. "Um…hi," I said cautiously. He just stared. "I'm Bea." Stare. "Or not…" Right when I was getting adjusted some little kid has to be creepy andthrow me off!
I'd been there for nearly a week, and I'd pretty much grown accustomed to the gist of the ciudad. Here's how an average day for me went so far: wake up, drag myself to the breakfast table and eat fast, avoid people, walk around for a while, wolf down lunch, see how far I could wander into the jungle before someone noticed me and brought me back, walk around some more, scarf down dinner and make it a point to avoid the nightly ciudad party, then sleep again. So, I was adjusted but the ciudad had definitely not adjusted to me. I wasn't exactly welcomed with opened arms, but no one had yet bothered to go out of there way to talk to me, well, except Riley. But he doesn't count. He's weird. But so incredibly cute. Maybe I was partially to blame for this. I didn't exactly exude friendliness and I sure as hell didn't go out of my way to talk to anyone.
So that morning at breakfast that boy was particularly unnerving. I tried to bite into my pear, but have you ever tried to eat while someone was staring at you. It's creepy. "Look, are you just going to keep staring at me like this or…," then I figured, why be nice? "Take a picture, kid, it lasts longer." The boy laughed and finally his gaze shifted to his breakfast and he began to eat. I laughed a little myself, which felt incredibly good.
"I'm Ryan," he said, but because he was chewing his food he said it like W-yan. It was adorable.
"I'm Bea," and with that we both began devouring our fruit. He was eating something that looked like a watermelon, but I couldn't be sure. The fruit here was really weird. The only fruit I found to be remotely normal was the pears, at least I thought they were pears. Only these pears were way better than even those really juicy gift pears that you get at Christmas.
I had just finished wiping the pear juice from the first bite off of my face when I heard it. A bloodcurdling shriek interrupted everyone's breakfast that morning. I dropped my pear and everyone around me literally jumped out of their chairs, a few knocking their benches over. Dead silence for a moment, I could even hear Deryk unsheathing his dagger a few tables away…There it was again, thatawful wail. I flinched and stood up slowly. It was coming from the direction of where the houses were. We all stood tense for a moment then we saw the girl running in our direction. It was one of the more popular girls, not from the ciudad royalty table (Deryk, Riley, Tora the dreadlocked Asian, etc…), but she was well known enough that I recognized her. Or at least she looked familiar somehow…
She stumbled and tripped into the dirt. Right on cue the Royalties jumped through the crowded dining area and quickly to the girl's side. I could hear her sobbing, but I couldn't understand a word she was saying. I looked behind me and saw that the whole dining area had climbed onto their tables to get a good look. It seems as I had a front row seat to the action. The girl continued sobbing and the group looked worried. Very worried. I made eye contact with Riley and he motioned for me come over.
Naturally I looked behind my shoulder to make sure he was talking to me, and walked over. "What is it?" His big brown eyes looked concerned and if Riley was worried, I was definitely worried.
"It's Ricky. He's dead."
I gasped, "Oh my God! Riley! How?!" He grasped my shoulder and quieted me with a "Shhh...," and he leaned toward me and whispered into my ear, "Cumpleaños de Muerte…" It was at that moment that I had never felt more helpless in my entire life.
When I came to the ciudad, I was given a hut just like everyone else had. It was empty when I received it. I didn't ask why. I didn't really want to know why. I lived on the bottom floor and there were two rooms above mine. The first room was occupied by Riley and his roommate Ricky. Riley was the more sociable of the two, but Ricky seemed like a nice guy. In the first few days I was here Riley explained everything to me about the city: the mealtimes, a lecture on how Deryk was the king and he should be obeyed (blah, blah blah), and especially Cumpleaños de Muerte. Literally translated from Spanish it means birthday of death. And that's just what it was. Something, I wasn't quite sure what then, but something prevented people from aging past eighteen. A fact that highly disturbed me.
That day was my first real brush with death. And it was all too much to handle.
I stepped back and Riley's hand fell from my shoulder. His eyes were very red."I gotta go, Riley. I just…"
He took a step toward me, "Bea…" And while everyone's attention was focused on the sobbing girl, I ran.
I ran towards the end of the encampment and crashed through the edge of the woods. There weren't any paths, but I didn't care. I didn't even pay attention to where I was running and I probably would have seen it if I was aware…
Crash…I bowled right over two little forms crouching low in the underbrush. I landed on my side and groaned for a moment, feeling all of the tiny twigs poking into my ribs and something had cut into my leg. Not a moment later I was overshadowed by two highly annoying shadows. I recognized the grass-green hair and pointy ears.
"Now really, madam was that really necessary?As of todaywe have been visually, verbally, AND physically attacked by you! Well done, not-pixie!" I threw out a punch at Khelo's insufferable face, but he quickly dodged it. "I beg your pardon, ma'am!"
I slowly stood up and did my best to ignore them, brushing off my very dirty shorts. I was definitely not in the mood for this…"Why the long face Bea-girl? We've brought you a message," Snatch squeaked cheerfully.
"That's right. You're little Undine friend says hello and he asked us to bring this," at this Khelo looked at Snatch, who just stared at him. "Well…Snatch…let's have it!"
"I thought I gave it to you…"
Khelo groaned. "No you blockhead. You didn't."
"Oh….right!"
As Snatch rummaged through his outfit, which apparently had more storage than it appeared to contain, I asked Khelo, "I'm not sure I heard you right…um…Undine?"
Khelo gave me a very impatient and belittling glance, "And Undine is a water sprite…" I still must have had a clueless look on my face. "You know…a water spirit. They take care of the fish and merry-make with the humans…" And at my "Oh..," of understanding he added, "Yes and our friend Micah is a particularly rare one. They're usually very attractive females. It really is a shame that Micah isn't an attractive female-" He paused abruptly and went rigid. The elf looked around as if he had heard something andwith a glanceat Snatch who was still rummaging in his trousers, he shrugged and dismissed whatever it was he thought he heard.
"At any rate, here we are…," and at that Snatch finally produced whatever it was Micah wanted to give me. I reached for it and gave it a once over. It appeared to be a large green acorn attached to a long gold chain. "He told us that you were searching for it."
It took me a moment, but I remembered the lie I told Micah on my first minute on the island. Going along with it I said, "Oh yes. Tell him I say thanks."
"Sure we will Bea-girl the not-pixie. It really is very lucky that you came running out here like this. Snatch and I were not looking to sneak into the ciudad. Whoo-ey not after the last time…,"
But I didn't get to hear about the last time. In a flash of motion I was tackled, rolled and shoved onto my back, a dagger poised inches from my face.
"We've better be leaving now Bea-girl. Bye and GOOD LUCK!" I heard Khelo and Snatch take off into the jungle.
Glancing past the pointy steel barely inches from my forehead, I instantly recognized my captor. Ohhh boy did I recognized him. Bandaged shoulder and all. It was the boy I had called Peter.
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A/N: Phew! That was quite a trip wasn't it?! I'm sorry if I killed you with the length of that one. I just couldn't stop. I hope I've gotten it to move along fast enough for you…or kind of. I know it's mean to add a cliffhanger but I just couldn't help it. It keeps you all hungry for more! And I do have a question for those who do read the story and comment ahem. I was wondering if I should change the title because maybe it isn't attention-grabbing enough. If you could give me your input on that I'd be eternally grateful. Anyway, Merry Christmas to all of you! Or Merry insert holiday here! Now see that adorable little Go button down there?! Press it for gosh sakes!!
With Love,
Jennibelle