Hi everyone! Another chapter up! Sorry about all the delays, but always know I'm thinking about this story all the time!
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Chapter sixteen- The Return Home.
Michael and John sighed as they hoped for Wendy to get better. They had no idea how it had happened, but somehow, a lady, their sister, had gotten hurt.
This, in John's honest opinion was the most despicable thing Peter could have done. To leave a lady alone, (especially his sister), to fight against men was not a polite nor gentlemanly thing to do. His sister had paid the price for it.
Now so would Peter.
John looked over at Michael and swore to himself that from that moment on, he would protect his siblings no matter the cost.
John took off his top hat and walked away from Wendy to rest against the bed frame, and closed his eyes. He had made up his mind that to protect his siblings, they would leave Neverland as soon as Wendy recovered.
Peter flew up in the air with surprise and immediately returned to Wendy's side as her eyes flickered open.
"Peter…?" She trailed.
"I'm here Wendy! You're okay!" Peter exclaimed as he let a rooster crow into the air.
Wendy smiled weakly as he did so. She noticed she was back in Hangman's tree, lying on her bed. "Peter, what happened?"
Peter did not have a chance to respond as John and Michael rushed forward from their positions of self-contemplations over to Wendy, as they were very curious to see what the commotion was about.
"Wendy!" Michael cried inches from Wendy's face, "You're safe!"
John smiled and asked what had happened as he pulled Michael back from the bed.
Wendy opened her eyes again and looked at all the faces surrounding her. Surprising even herself, she remarked; "I want to go back home."
Time seemed to have stopped within Hangman's tree.
Peter seemed frozen solid, his look of joy turning into a look of absolute disgust. John smiled approvingly. He was going to suggest the same option, but having Wendy suggest it was better. Michael didn't know how to feel.
The lost boys, stopped playing their games of knuckles and looked over at Wendy, a look of surprise over their faces.
The lost boys had decided the disagreement between Peter and Wendy was quite unsettling and had decided to practise their combat outside. John had insisted to stay with Wendy, but she had made it quite clear to keep an eye on the boys with Michael so another incident didn't occur.
Wendy however, was having moral incidents with herself.
"No Peter. I'm quite certain that I want to go home." Wendy insisted again for Peter's sake. "I will not change my mind." She ignored his rebuts and continued with her statement. "I almost died Peter! I told you I can't protect myself!"
Wendy was frantically packing the clothes she bought back into her suitcase whilst trying to justify her feelings to a boy stuck in denial. He was standing on the opposite side of the bed, watching her pack, with his arms crossed.
"But Wendy! That's why I had to protect you! I couldn't let Hook hurt you!"
"No Peter! His men almost killed me instead!"
"Wendy…" Peter trailed. He couldn't explain his feelings to her. He couldn't tell her how much he wanted her to stay, that he would teach her the ways of the lost boys properly. Then she would have a chance to fight properly. Watching her pack in a motion of quick movements, as she had done before, broke something inside him. He became resolved. If she wanted to leave, then she would leave. But she wouldn't come back. He couldn't bear to lose her again.
"Leave. Again. But this time make sure you don't come back. If you don't want to be a lost boy, you don't want to be here at all."
Wendy stopped packing and looked up at Peter. She moved away from the bed and timidly walked a few steps towards Peter and placed a hand on his shoulder. She had noticed his sudden change. She looked at him cautiously and chose her next words carefully.
She spoke to him gently; "Peter, I can't be a lost boy. I am just a girl, no, as you said- a mother for these boys. I don't think they need a mother any more. They need someone to protect them. To… to love them. I tried. I would like to say you try to, but you put everyone else's lives in danger to have your glory! I don't want to be here when there becomes a casualty. I don't want to be the girl who never grows up- permanently."
Peter brushed her off. "I save you! I save Tigerlily! I save everyone all the time! This is the adventure, the fun, the danger! But we always win in the end."
Wendy became frustrated; he was not seeing her point. "And where is Tigerlily now?!" She exclaimed. Her hands were on her hips with a stern expression on her face. Unbeknownst to Wendy, she was an exact replica of how Mrs Darling often looked at her children when they were in trouble.
Peter thought she couldn't look any prettier if she tried.
The Darling children were dressed in their best, but dragging their numerous belongings behind them. Wendy chose her mother's woolly navy blue coat she had borrowed to wear over the top of her burgundy dress and boots, while John wore his best suit and tie and Michael and his bear wore matching boots with his brown day clothes. They walked solemnly away from Hangman's Tree, away from the twisting passages under lakes, the lost boys and their many fights…
And Peter.
Wendy knew in her head this was the most logical and sensible thing to do. She had almost died. If she wasn't there for her brothers, how else would they remember their family they had come to neglect every so often?
Wendy decided as soon as she arrived home, she would bake a cake with her mother and finally tell her about her complicated feelings for a boy who would never grow up.
The Darling children emerged from under the tree and turned around to say their final goodbyes under the bright afternoon sky. As they stood across from the dismal display of the lost boys, they couldn't help but notice the irony of the beautiful sunny weather and how the field bloomed with flowers.
The Lost Boys stood in a line, wiping back their tears as it had always been insisted upon by Peter, (seconded by John), that brave men do not cry. Nibs was the first one to step forward, playing with his long rabbit ears sewn onto his hood. He wiped a tear away and hugged Wendy. He then stood in front of John and saluted him while John replied with a stiff nod of his head in acknowledgement.
Nibs then turned to face Michael and started to cry. The lost boys broke their final formation and ran to the children, hugging them.
"There, there." Wendy tried to comfort them, to which they all responded in louder sobs.
"We will be back!" Michael sniffed.
"No we-" John began before Wendy nudged him. "Quite right." He concluded.
"We are going to miss you!" Curly choked out.
"It won't be for forever boys." Wendy assured as she picked tootles up. "Remember to go to bed early and always eat your breakfast."
After saying goodbye multiple times, the lost boys finally broke off when Peter decided to arrive. They wiped their cheeks hastily and stood aside for Peter to address the children.
"It appears you won't be coming back to Neverland." Peter stated with his hands on his hips. "I wish you well on your journey. Tinkerbell has given me enough pixie dust to spread over you." He walked forward and sprinkled the gathered dust in his hat over the children. "Goodbye." And with that, he turned and walked away. He motioned a quick signal to the lost boys, and with one last sorrowful glance, followed Peter back into the hideaway.
The three Darling children were finally alone.
"Never coming back to Neverland?" Michael asked.
"No Michael. It looks like Peter has thrown us out." John simply replied.
"No John, that is not true. I decided I wanted to leave." Wendy corrected as she knelt down to Michaels level. "I'm sorry Michael, but I don't want to stay any longer. I don't want to lose you or John. We are a family and I also think it's time we should return to ours."
Michael started crying "But I don't want to go! I like it here!"
John had had enough. He was almost out of this place and away from Peter. They boy who had captured his sisters heart and would destroy it, all for the sake of adventure. "Michael, sometimes we have to do things we don't like. But we do it. We take on the responsibilities of a man and we look after our siblings. Let us be off." With a curt nod and securing his top hat, John rose up into the air.
Michael looked up at Wendy with a look of pure distraught. She looked at him for a few moments before hugging him tightly. "I'm sorry Michael. But I want to see your next birthday."
Michael nodded and clutching his teddy in one hand, and Wendy's hand in the other, they rose up slowly to join John in the sunny sky.
Peter watched Wendy and Michael hug before slowly floating up to meet John when he turned around to walk back to his throne. The lost boys were mulling around, not entirely sure what had just happened. Their mother had vanished, along with their leader and fellow recruit and now there was no order in their life. It was back to how it was with Peter.
"What did John mean when he said they weren't coming back?" Slightly asked from sitting down in the middle of the floor.
"He didn't say that! He said they'd be back!" Curly defended, sitting on his bed.
"We miss Wendy." The twins stated.
The lost boys had fully lived up to their name as they had never felt so incomplete with the loss of the darling children from their lives. They had left before, but they had returned and somehow, this time felt different. It felt like they would not come back.
The Lost Boys were truly lost.
Peter looked at his men and wondered how they could like a girl who was stern and indecisive and her brothers; where one threatened to take his place and the other was too small to be able to do anything useful. He did enjoy their company, but this time Wendy had crossed the line.
He was enraged at the thought that she thought she could leave just because she was in a tiny bit of danger. He was in danger every minute of every day. If the pirates weren't after him, he was fighting away the wild animals, or trying to hide form the Indians.
He took on the assumption that because Wendy was a girl, she would not be worthy of a place among his men, as she could not run away as soon as she was in danger.
She was not prepared to make a sacrifice for him, which in his opinion, was a terrible treachery.
His other reason he was angry at Wendy, was the fact she had made him felt funny. He was feeling something he never knew before and thought it was because he ate too many berries. But once he stopped eating them, and the feeling remained, he knew it was because of Wendy.
Now he had another feeling- Loneliness.
This was not something he was used to. He had control of his men and the entirety of Neverland in his control, but he was not in control of his feelings.
Wendy would pay the price of never returning because of this. He didn't know why he felt miserable, but he knew it was her fault. But now that he would never see her again, as he had made it so, he felt a strange sensation.
Peter did not know that he was suffering from a broken heart.
The Darling children flew high over the tops of London buildings, having made excellent progress on their journey back. They came across familiar sights of roof-tops and heard the ominous chiming of Big Ben. As they started to float down closer to the buildings, they noticed something wasn't quite the same as what it used to be. Instead of buildings, there were charred remains on the ground.
St Pauls Cathedral had been burnt down. Their main pivotal church had been destroyed.
Wendy gasped. "Something has set fire to London John!"
Michael started to cry. "Did the fire come near our home?"
"No Michael." Wendy soothed. "No fires can get to us."
John looked around disapprovingly. The sky had a light hue of grey, flecked with ash. He stopped flying and looked over in the direction of their house. Wendy and Michael flew beside him and surveyed the scene. It was looking grim.
"Let's fly home and see what we can do. We are only guessing right now." Wendy gently asked John. He nodded.
The three children floating in their best but feeling anything but, flew slowly in search of their house. They skimmed over streets of pure ash and decaying houses to finally locate a street next to theirs. They flew down the rest of the way to walk.
Holding hands, the darling children rounded a street corner to home, witnessing a street of black.
Black soot, houses and ash. Nothing was left standing.
As if to rub salt in their wounds, as they looked to the end of the street, they were in time to see their very own house crumble down to nothing, having been completely burnt from the inside out.
The children held each other as they fell down and cried.
Bit of a dismal ending, but they had to find out sooner or later! As always, please read and review, I love knowing what you think!
Until next time my darlings! :)