Will's POV
Emily's turned instantly to a look of fear after I called out Pan's name. She quickly stood from the ground, gripping her hands into tight fists while her eyes were shaken with anger and confusion. There was no time to explain. I needed her as far from here as possible but she only stood still. I knew Pan would appear before me any second now and I couldn't have him see Emily here with me.
"Run Emily!" I yelled desperately.
I didn't want to think of the things Pan may do if he caught us together, especially if he caught me turning back against our deal. As much as I hated it, the further she was from me, the safer she was and the less Pan would suspect anything. Emily seemed startled at my sudden outburst as she looked down to Ben who was still lying on the ground, his face twisted in pain.
"I'll take care of Ben, just go now!"
She shared another look of uncertainty with me then looked down at Ben before turning around and running off. I sighed in relief but still felt a pool of guilt building up inside me as I watched her soon disappear into the jungle. The loud groan of pain caught my attention and I quickly walked over to Ben who had sweat falling from his forehead, his body tense as he tried to fight against the toxins of the poison arrow. I squatted by his side watching his eyes widen as he looked down at his leg before shooting his head straight up to me with a shocked expression.
"I'VE JUST BEEN SHOT!" Ben yelled dramatically as if that moment had just happened.
I take it the toxins were already kicking in.
Ben suddenly held a grip on my arm pulling me towards him as his eyes looked at me suspiciously.
"It was you, wasn't it." Ben declared making me roll my eyes as I removed his tight grip from my arm.
"Yes Ben, you've just been shot." I stated bluntly, leaving out the part of me doing the shooting on purpose so he wouldn't make more noise than he already was, "Now I need you to grow a pair and shut up before Pan comes and kills us both." I yelled in a whisper.
To my surprise there was no cocky remark or argument, instead Ben just laid still blinking up at me a couple of times.
"You're mean." Ben eventually said, his lips forming into a small pout.
I roll my eyes and stood up from the ground.
"I'm not mean; I'm saving your ass." I argued while crossing my arms over my chest.
"Same thing." Ben mumbled.
"Five down already?"
I unlocked my arms and quickly turned to face Pan who held his crossbow at his side. He walked towards me before looking down at Ben, his face holding no expression while Ben was only felt to fall quite under Pan's gaze. A watched as a smirk soon appeared on Pan's face as he clicked his fingers causing Ben to disappear back to the training area in the blink of an eye
"It's almost sundown, and by the looks of it..." Pan paused; turning to the sun behind him that was peering through the treetops. "Times almost up."
He loaded another arrow onto his crossbow, my eyes only staring at the black paste that covered the arrowhead.
"I hope you don't mind me shooting Emily, she did cause me some trouble when she stole that crystal from my hut." Pan said in a calm tone as he finished loading the crossbow before looking up at me.
I had to force myself not to react to Pan's comment. All I wanted to do was argue back, dig my nails into my skin and curl my fists; but any kind of movement could ruin the deal and set Pan off. I knew the price I would have to pay if I lost this deal, and I wasn't going to let that happen. I tried to relax as I grabbed my crossbow off the ground and faced Pan with a grin.
"Be my guest."
Pan seemed pleased with my reaction as a smirk returned to his face. He turned to start walking away but stopped mid-step facing back to me. "Looks like his other friend has just been shot too." Pan said before using his magic to disappear out of thin air.
Ethan…
He was out too.
There's probably only three boys left in the game along with Emily. I knew that once Pan has used his magic to take Ethan back to the training area, he would go after Emily. I wanted to help her so bad...but I can't. I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration before setting off for the training area. I had to at least help Ben and Ethan.
Emily's POV
I couldn't stop thinking about Will and Ben. If they were okay. If Pan had done anything to them.
The sun continued to fall lower through the trees and I knew this game had to be over soon. I slowly started to cut back from running to walking, giving my burning lungs a rest. When I finally caught my breath I looked around at my surroundings noticing the extremely tall trees that stood around me, their treetops couldn't be seen from the heights they reached. I realised the trouble I was in now that I span around finding no place to hide. There was nothing on the ground except for the small vegetation that grew between the plants and ferns around them. I stopped walking; soon beginning to panic as I scanned anywhere that wasn't out of the open, anywhere that-
I looked up at the towering trees, my stomach instantly falling as I swallowed the lump in my throat.
It looks like I have no choice…
I picked a tree with the lowest branch possible before taking off running towards the trunk of the tree and the branch. I jumped up and managed to grab hold of the branch letting my body swing to gain momentum before pulling myself up, kicking against the truck of the tree for support until I was sitting on top of the branch. I took a breath in before looking up at the next branch above my head, repeating the same motion as before, to pull myself up higher in the tree. I had to stop at certain point because my fear of heights had taken toll once I made the stupidest mistake to look down at the ground.
Don't look down, idiot. I mentally told myself as I forced myself to continue climbing higher up the tree. Soon enough I looked up to see how much further I had to climb only for my eyes to widen as I could see the tops of the tree. Without realising how high I intended on climbing my stomach once again fell to my feet as I quickly grabbed hold of the tree branches for dear life.
I closed my eyes but that only made it worse. I kept my throat closing up as opened my eyes, trying to distract myself by looking out at the view. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me at first but now that I looked closer, I could just see Campus along with another opening of the jungle that followed soon after in the distance that was the training area. Turned to my other side, I suddenly felt myself being able to breath normally again as I looked out to see the sun soundly setting over Neverland. The mixes of yellow and orange tinted the sky before burning together where the last remaining part of the sun hit bellow the trees. The colours lit up the sky while the sun started to slowly melt down. It was somewhat peaceful, being this high up. I could of sworn my fear of heights was slowly fading away as I stared in awe at the view.
"Sorry to interrupt, but what are you doing up here?"
I jolted before yelling out as I almost slipped from the branch I was sitting on. My calmed breaths had now returned back to exhausted pants as I scrambled to grab a tighter hold of the branches I was already holding onto. I glared up at Pan who was standing a couple of branches above me, causally leaning against the trunk of the tree with his hand crossed over his chest, fear being completely oblivious to him as he looked down at me with amusement in his green eyes.
"I quit this stupid game." I groaned as my body trembled from shock.
It was enough coming up at this height, but coming up at this height and being scared for fun; now that's crossing the line. I heard an annoying chuckle from above me.
"Love, I'm afraid you're not in control of the game. I am." Pan grinned as he looked down at me.
"Well guess what love." I continued, mimicking Pan. "I said that I quit." I said sternly.
Pan scoffed and appeared on the branch in front of me once again making me jump at his sudden appearance. His eyes shined brightly in the sun as the colours of the sunset reflected against his green pair. It was almost entrancing as he leaned in closer to me. I was stiff to the bone to even more a muscle because I was sure that one sudden unplanned movement could leave me falling to my death.
"You're breaking the rules." Pan said as he cocked an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I kind of dropped the rules from the start when I found out that poisonous arrows would be involved in a game of hide and seek." I said in an irritated tone as I glared at him.
His lips only curled into a smirk as his face turned to one of mischief. Before I could question him, in one swift motion Pan had grabbed a hold of my arms that were holding tightly onto the branch, then without a second thought he pushed me from the branch causing my stomach to drop.
I gasped feeling the air get knocked out of my lungs as I fell back from the branch only for Pan to quickly grab a firm hold of my hand, his grip being the only thing from letting me fall. He let out a loud chuckle as he stood from the branch looking down at me with a grin on his face as he let me dandle from his grip in the air.
"Pan! This isn't funny!" I yelled at him, holding my hands tightly around his hand with no intention of letting go.
"Please, I'm scared of heights!" I yell in distress, which only made Pan laugh once again at my comment.
"You think this is high?"
My body stiffened as Pan pulled me up quickly to the branch he was standing on. I was just about to grab onto the branches around me but Pan held his tight grip now capturing both of my hands to stop me from moving. I faced Pan only to see his eyes sparkling as a he grinned. Letting go of one hand I watched as Pan clicked his fingers. To my horror I was now high in the air above the trees. I couldn't let myself breathe as gravity kicked in straight away following with the drip of my stomach as I began to fall.
"Pan!" I screamed at the top of my voice, my arms flaying as the wind rushed past me.
Before I could hit the treetops I felt a sudden dip as a pair of arms grabbed hold of me. I came face to face with a pair of gleaming green eyes and a smirk. I tried to ignore the fact that Pan was holding me in the air and not falling. Instead I felt a mixture of fear but mostly rage as I turned to the owner of that amused smirk.
"Put me down right now!" I yelled.
Pan grinned and my eyes widened after realising what I had just said and who I had just said it to.
"Okay." Pan said, as he dropped his arms from around me letting me fall once again.
This time I managed to let out a feared scream as I shut my eyes and braced myself to hit the trees, but nothing happened. The rushing of wind had stopped completely leaving the sounds of crashing waves to fill my ears. I slowly opened my eyes looking down so see I was sitting on the soft sand of the beach. My ragged breaths had slowed down as I felt the grains of sand falling between my fingers. I never thought I would be happier to feel solid ground.
That happiness soon filled with rage as I heard laugher erupt from behind me. I gritted my teeth and grabbed a fistful of sand, turning around and throwing it at Pan. He dodged it by taking a single step to the side making me groan in frustration.
"You know I am just about sick and tired of your life threatening games!" I yelled at Pan who just stood amused in front of me watching as I kicked around sand while continuing to yell at him.
"I've been chased, caged, trapped, tricked, threatened several times, lied to, stabbed, possessed and now dropped from the sky!" I yelled getting louder by each word.
Once I had gotten my breath back, I sighed in annoyance before sitting down on the sand, facing my back to Pan, holding my chin in my hands. I closed my eyes letting the warmth of the sunset hit my skin which was somewhat soothing compared to the anger I felt towards Pan.
I felt a presence of a body sit beside me and I opened my eyes shocked to see Pan sitting beside me. He looked out at the sunset. His expression was blank and always hard to read but there was one thing I did notice; there no smirk on his face. I shut my eyes closed being my stubborn self as I tried to ignore his odd behaviour.
"Open your eyes. You're missing a beautiful sunset." I heard Pan say from beside me.
I ignored him still and shook my head.
"You really are stubborn, aren't you." Pan scoffed.
I opened my eyes and glared at him.
"At least I'm not some psychotic killer who likes to try and murder other children for fun." I shot back.
Pan smirked at my remark before getting up from the sand.
"You won Walker; you won the game." Pan said.
I opened my eyes and turned around to Pan but he was gone.
I looked down to find a map that was now placed in front of me on the sand; a map leading me back to Campus. I sighed and relaxed a little as I watched the sun slowly go down taking the beautiful bright colours along with it. After a couple of minutes I got up and looked down at the map while there was still some light. I left the beach and wondered back into the jungle as I slowly found my way back to Campus.
Will's POV
I finished patching up Ethan's arm where he had been shot by one of the arrows.
"Did he get drugged or something?" Ethan whispered to me.
We both looked worriedly at Ben who was laughing hysterically at a rock he was holding in his hand.
"That may be partly my fault."
I turned to Emily who laughed as she saw Ben. I was relieved that she was safe.
"I may have chucked a rock at his head but in my defence, I thought he was a wild animal." She shrugged.
"Well Ben does go a little wild every time we have to play a game like this. I had to ditch him first two minutes in." Ethan said.
We all heard a thump and turned are attention to Ben who was now lying flat on the ground, arms and legs spread apart in a star.
"How hard did you knock him out?" I asked, watching as Ben placed the rock he was holding on his chest before letting his arm fall to the ground.
"It was a rock." Emily said while giving me a blank look.
Ethan and I both grabbed his arms and lifted Ben up from the ground. I helped Ethan swing Ben's arm over his shoulder.
"Straight to sleep, you go." Ethan said to Ben as he helped him over to the gravel trail that led back to campus.
I turned to Emily, my face falling knowing what I had put her through.
"About today, I'm sorry for scaring you-"
"Will, it's okay. I trust you." She smiled warmly to which I returned.
She trusts me…
"I'm going to go to sleep, I'll see you in the morning." Emily said.
I waved her goodnight and watched her walking over to the path that leads back to Campus. I was about to follow her when I saw Pan leaning on the giant oak tree in the centre of the training area, his eyes peeled as he motioned me to walk over to him.
I sighed before making my way towards Pan.
Emily's POV
I brushed my fingers through the tangles in my hair, wincing as I pulled through the knots. I gave up half way through knowing that I would eventually need to cut my hair shorter. Just the thought exhausted me knowing how long it took to cut Will and Ben's hair with a dagger. I walked over to my bed falling face down onto the soft surface letting out a deep breath. I rolled onto my side and lazily kicked my legs under the sheet. But before I could close my eyes I looked at the blue stone necklace that Pan given to me, which was lying on my small bedside table.
I sat up and grabbed it. I held the stone necklace in my hand for a second before pulling it over my head. I lay back down on my bed and closed my eyes. There was something different about Pan today. I let it drift out of my mind as my heavy eyes fell allowing myself to soon drift into a peaceful sleep.
"Emily!" Some spoke loudly and started to violently shake me awake.
Seriously all I'm asking is for one good sleep!
I rolled over to see Will whose face was beaming.
"Quickly get dressed; you'll want to see this." Will said before running to the door.
"And why is that?" I asked while lifting an eyebrow, not wanting to leave my bed.
"Because, there's a new lost boy on the island!" Will said, "Meet at the drop off zone." He called before running down the steps of my hut before making a turn out of sight.
Now I want to get up.
I quickly threw on a white blouse followed by shorts as I quickly ran out of my hut and along the gravel path that leads to the drop off zone. I ran along the last line of huts until I reached the familiar path in the jungle that soon ended up at the beach. All the boys were crowded in a circle making my eyes widen in curiosity as I quickly ran along the sand until I reached the circle, pushing past the line of boys until I came face to face with the last person I thought I would ever have to see again. My eyes instantly narrowed and my body stiffened.
"Connor." I growled.