Sorry this is so short, everyone, but I just HAD to give you something. I got my laptop back!! Woohoo! This is cause for Major celebration in all four hemispheres. It was gone for such a long, looooong time, I missed it so! But it's back ,and fixed, and better than ever! I'll write more later, guys, promise! This is sort of a teaser, I guess, to let you all know I am still very much alive. ^_^ The next, full sized chapter will be out soon. Thanks so much for your patience and your feedback! All the reviews are wonderful and very appreciated! ^_~

Mary shrieked.

The boy I knew as "Trace" winced and looked down at me in frustration.

"What is wrong with you?" he asked incredulously.

"W-What's wrong with me?!" I screeched back, making Trace wince again. "What is wrong with ME?!? YOU'RE the one who seems to have a problem with gravity!"

The boy looked down, then sighed and rolled his eyes. "I forget you

people spook easily." He placed his feet back on the ground. "Happy?"

I narrowed my eyes. " 'You people'?" I looked closer at him, peering into his face so closely, he leaned back. "Are you an alien?" I asked quietly.

His raised an eyebrow at me.

"You ARE, aren't you?" I said excitedly. "Do you come in peace, I mean, what do you want with us? With me?" I suddenly remembered what had happened at the dance club and slapped a hand over my mouth. "What was it that you gave me? Was it position? No, a tracking substance, so that you can always know where I am? No, no, wait…" The boy's face contorted with confusion as I went on with my tirade. "Or maybe….maybe it was an alien child," I gasped and grabbed my stomach. "A slimy, gooey offspring that's going to rip violently out of my stomach at any moment--"

My speech was cut off as hi slapped his hand over my mouth. He looked straight into my eyes. "Mary, shut…UP. Alright? Shut up! Gods! You are infuriating, you know that?"

I scowled and ripped his hand away from my mouth. "Well you're certainly not giving me any story to explain this…this…craziness, are you? So I have to make up my own explanations!"

The boy sighed and ran a hand down his own face in irritation. "You want a story? Fine. You'll have it. But not here."

"Yes here." I hissed, crossing my arms.

"Fine. You know what? Fine. Ok, listen up, here's a run through of what's going on. I'm not an alien, I'm a lost boy from a star known as Neverland. I've come to collect you because you are a descendant of a great friend of our leader, and are the closest age range to one who can still believe, but isn't too young to understand our complex situation." The boy took a deep breath, and plowed on as I silently gaped. "Neverland is an island. As such, we are isolated from…well, from everything. We need certain supplies to live: food, fresh water, and so on. Faeries on Neverland are in charge of pollinating, keeping, and growing the fruit and food on the island, and it is their magic and care that keeps the streams and ponds in Neverland clear and safe for drinking. However, in your world of bloody technology and no nonsense attitudes, more and more people refuse to believe in faeries, and even more voice that non-belief. Now as you know, every time someone says outright that they do not believe in faeries--"

"A faerie dies," I whispered, remembering my grandmother's stories.

The boy nodded. "They're dying out, Mary. Soon, there won't be any left, and the magic will fade from Neverland. Magic is how we live, we can't survive without it."

I slowly digested that information, and cracked a small smile as I looked up at him. "So what can I do about that?"

The boy looked surprised, apparently under the impression that there was not way I'd ever believe that story the first time, and without sufficient proof. "Well," he started, caught a bit off guard. "Do you know how faeries were created?"

I nodded, remembering another of Granny Wendy's stories. " 'When the first baby laughed, for the first time, its laugh split into a thousand pieces, and that was the beginning of faeries'."

The boy looked impressed. "Exactly right. No wonder Peter sent for you."

"Peter?" I asked.

"Pan. Leader of the Lost Boys." He took in my vacant look and scoffed. "Oh come off it, you can't know all that about faeries and not know about Peter Pan."

"Oh I've heard of him."

"Then what's the problem?"

"The problem is that he doesn't EXIST!" I yelled. "It's a children's book! A lovely little story to tell your children when you want them to go to sleep! The problem is is that you are off your rocker!"

The boy shook his head and sighed. "I told you that you wouldn't believe me. But my orders are to bring you along whether you do or not. So let's go."

I just stared at him.

He stared back, the pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger before sighing, rather irritated by now. He seemed to come to a conclusion, sighed again, and walked towards me.

"Maybe you should talk to someone," I suggested, as he walked calmly towards me. "I know a lady, my brother and I went to her when our mother died…she's very nice…helped lots…" I began to get apprehensive when he continued to walk towards me purposefully, and stopped directly in front of me.

My mouth snapped shut when he slid both arms beneath mine and held me around the waist. "I'm not crazy," he smirked, and before I had a chance to tell him that I believed quite the opposite, he tensed his legs and shot into the air, taking me with him.

The air was sucked from my lungs as we rocketed straight up and landed on top of the nearest thirty story building before I had reacted enough to grab onto the boy. I had a good hold on him by the time my feet touched the roof top though, my knuckles white as I held his shirt in a death grip. I could hear him chuckling at me as he tried to pry my hands from his shirt to turn me around.

"C'mon, Mary. You're fine. Let go." He continued to laugh at me, and this incensed my pride a bit.

Ok, a lot.

SMACK

He looked as if I'd killed his puppy.

In the mood I was in, I may have done so had he carried a puppy with him.

He held a hand up to his cheek, amazed at the velocity with which my palm had met his face.

"You ASSHOLE! What the FUCK did you think you were doing? Jesus! Who the hell--what the hell are you?!" I cried as my heart pounded and my blood roared around my ears.

He dropped his hand and stared at me seriously. I swallowed nervously as his gaze bore into me, as if assessing if I were really ready for all that I had asked for.

"My name is Teaken. I part of a dwelling known as the Lost Boys who live on that star," he pointed at the sky without taking his fierce eyes from mine. "Known as Neverland. Neverland is in trouble, and for some crazy ass fucked up reason, my leader has decided that you, Mary Lynn Darling Bennington, are the one who can save our island."

"Oh, how nice for…you…" I swayed on my feet, and felt Teaken, as I now knew him, step forward and catch me against him.

He snorted as he tried to hold me upright with one arm, while smacking my cheeks lightly with his other in order to try and bring me around. "And if he's right, Gods help us."

Hearing the comment as I slowly drifted back to reality, weak with confusion, I couldn't help but agree with him.

*