Chapter 6: Unmasked

"Ha! And you said that you weren't a dancer."

"I didn't say that I wasn't a dancer. Stop putting words in my mouth." Mindy gave him a joking side-eye from her position on the lush grass, "I specifically said that I wasn't much of a dancer.…be honest, on a scale of 1-10, how ridiculous was I acting?"

"What?" Peter propped himself up on his elbow as he turned to look at her, "You weren't acting ridiculous. You were having a good time, and got a little carried away is all. It's nothing to be ashamed about. You were almost as awesome as I was out there."

"Clearly, modesty is one of your many strong suits."

"You'd better believe it!" He put his arms under his head as he reclined back onto the ground, "That's why everybody thinks I'm soooooo wonderful."

Mindy rolled her eyes in amusement before shifting her gaze back to the glittering stars above them. She buzzed excitedly when she spotted a comet streaking through the midnight sky.

She pointed to it with a shrill: "Lucky streak I've got you beat!"

"Aw, no fair!"

"Be quiet! You're beating me by like five points!"

"Well it still stings my pride!"

"You're Peter Pan! Since when has anything ever stung your pride?"

He turned to her with an over-dramatic puppy dog pout, "Appawently now?"

Mindy couldn't help it as a giggle escaped her lips.

Almost as soon as she laughed, the pendant around her neck started glowing again. She released a frightened squeak when she noticed, which caused the light to be doused immediately afterward. She sat up and panted as she fruitlessly tried to regain her bearings. Once she had somewhat caught her breath, she withdrew the necklace from her dress with a shaking hand, and dangled it before her eyes.

She turned to look at Peter and was beyond stupefied when she caught the flicker of familiarity in his honey-colored eyes. "Mindy?"

Her brow furrowed in confusion, "How do you know my name?"

Peter didn't seem to have heard her as he shook his head in disbelief, "No...no, no! You're not her! You…you can't be her! There's no way that you could be her, i-it's not…"

His sentence broke off when he unexpectedly cupped her cheeks to get a closer look at her face. Mindy bit her lip in discomfort, but she didn't recoil away. Somehow, she remained glued to her spot, and didn't dare say a word in fear of making the situation even more awkward than it already was.

Mindy didn't even stop him when he removed her glasses to gaze into her calculative grey eyes.

"...possible." Peter croaked as he unintentionally dropped her lenses and started his downward spiral, "But you promised that you would never grow up! You promised that you would NEVER forget me!"

"Peter-" Her heart throbbed when he rapidly backed away from her outstretched hand.

It was then that she noticed that he appeared to be shaking in…fear? She snatched her glasses from the ground and slipped them on to see if her eyes were playing tricks on her.

To her disappointment, they weren't.

Legitimate terror was written all over his ghostly pale face.

It was as if she had transformed into a hideous beast right before his eyes, and it absolutely devastated her to think that she had been responsible for making him look at her like that.

"Peter please-"

"-Get away from me."

Mindy's mouth dropped open in shock, "W-what?"

"I said get away from me!" His voice cracked as he shouted, "You aren't her!"

She didn't say anything for a while, and then her face twisted into an exasperated scowl, "You think I don't know that?!" her eyes immediately filled with guilt, and she slapped her hands over her mouth, "I'm sorry I…I have no idea where that came from." She then tucked a loose strand of her hair over her ear with a downcast expression, "Look, I'm sorry if you've somehow gotten me confused with a different Mindy who comes up with one-liners on the spot, pulls pranks, and is a princess of a Dreamo-or whatever…but I am freaking out here man, and I really need to-hey!"

Peter sprang to his feet, and stormed off before she could even finish her thought.

Desperate in her search for answers, Mindy followed him as he brushed past the dancing Natives. She apologized profusely as she bumped into a few of them; struggling to keep her eye on Peter's feathered headdress as he made his way to the outskirts of the camp, and disappeared down the barren dirt path that led into the jungle.

Mindy sprinted right past Tiger Lily and hollered over her shoulder: "ThanksforthepartybutI'vegottogonowbye!"

She eventually caught up to Peter, and resumed her rant as she briskly trailed behind him, "Could you PLEASE hear me out for one second?! Now, I don't know how I got here, why everybody knows who I am, or what the heck is up with this necklace! And to top it all off, I JUST realized that I accidently left my favorite sweater and boots back at the camp, but I can't go back to get them because I'm too busy trying to figure out what the curse word is going on!"

When he refused to acknowledge her, Mindy took that as a sign to continue… "Okay, you don't have to give me an explanation if you don't want to…but could you at least help me find a way to get back home? It's not that I don't enjoy being on Neverland or anything, but I really need to get back to Mulberry County…you ever been to Florida? I feel like you'd enjoy it. It has palm trees, sandy beaches, and frustratingly unpredictable weather patterns. Anyhow, I need to get back so I can work on this important paper for my creative writing class, turn it in, get the A- I deserve (because there's always room for improvement), and move on with my safe and albeit mundane life in a vast colorless existence."

She froze in her tracks and shook her head…where had that come from?

Mindy chose not to dwell on that question, and quickened her pace, "Are you even listening to a word thatI'm saying? Peter, I want to go home! I want to go home more than anything else in the world!"

Wait…that's not right.

"I miss my school, my friends, and (oddly enough) even my teachers."

What are you saying Mindy?

"You know, I have an actual life to get back to."

Other than your friends, what is there to return to?

"So, this has all been quite fun, but I bet I'll have even more fun studying for that calculus final I totally forgot about up till this convenient moment."

Whoever gets excited about doing schoolwork is someone who should be feared, stop telling him all of these filthy lies!

"Also, my dad must be worried sick about me."

You know for a fact that isn't true!

"He's most likely wondering where I am."

Snap out of it Mindy! Stop talking before you say something stupid!

"I miss him so much."

"STOP IT!" Peter unexpectedly halted in his tracks and threw his tremoring hands over his ears. "STOP TALKING ABOUT YOUR AMAZING PERFECT LITTLE LIFE!"

Mindy stood motionless.

She wanted to blurt out that she hadn't meant a word of it, but it was as though her voice had gotten caught in her throat. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water, but no matter how hard she tried, no sound came out.

Neither party said a word...

"Look at me, Peter." Mindy begged, "I'm scared…I-I have no idea what's happening to me, and I just want to go home, please...you need to help me."

Peter turned around…

Mindy couldn't help but stare at the tears sliding down his cheeks, but she couldn't bring herself to point them out in order to spare his pride. When he noticed her looking at him with pity, he wiped his eyes on his sleeve with a sniffle before glaring daggers at her.

"I don't need to help you." Peter's voice was low and devoid of any emotion. "You're a grown up… and if you're a grown up, that makes you my enemy."

Without another word, he bolted through the trees at supersonic speed.

Mindy immediately gave chase as he tore through the thick vegetation. She was taken aback when Peter leapt off of a high plateau overlooking the sea, and soared into the clouds where he knew that she would be unable to follow.

She was barely able to stop herself from toppling over the edge of the cliff as she skidded to a halt. She glanced downwards at the pebbles falling into the murky water before looking up at the silhouette retreating in the distance.

Tears of hurt pricked her eyes as she watched Peter grow further and further from her line of sight, but she forced herself to look away as a cool breeze combed through her hair. Mindy stood there for a moment before she sat cross-legged on the edge of the cliff.

She cradled her head in her hands as she struggled to keep her thoughts intact.

This was all a lucid dream, it had to be.

There was no other explanation as for how she had arrived in this place. The reason why all of these iconic characters insisted that they knew her was because this was a fabrication she herself had created in order to rediscover her forgotten childhood memories. In the beginning, Mindy figured that if she simply rolled with the madness, then she'd eventually wake up from this surreal fantasy and be back inside of her room attempting to type away at her computer…now, she didn't know what to believe anymore.

Maybe I really am going crazy. She thought as she once again held the necklace up to her eyes.

"You know, if this is the start of my descent into insanity, do you think you can do me a solid and tell me why this is happening to me? Or if there's even a point to any of this at all?" Mindy questioned out of the blue, "Or better yet, who am I? I used to be so sure of who I was as a person, but since I've arrived I'm starting to have my doubts…so please. What in my past caused me to become the person I am today? Why can't I remember anything about my childhood other than the insignificant things? Why did my brain send me here?"

She wasn't surprised in the slightest when all the pendant did was glint in the moonlight, and illuminated the mind-boggling riddle engraved on the back: I can be cracked, I can be made. I can be told, I can be played. What am I?

Mindy re-clasped the thing around her neck with a dejected sigh…then, her ears caught the sound of a familiar voice sputtering: "Come now, please stop squirming! I wouldn't want to accidently drop you!"

Puzzled, she lifted her head up to look out at the rippling waves of the Never Sea and her eyes narrowed upon seeing Mister Smee row a dingy towards The Jolly Rodger (which she just realized was a few ways off from where she was sitting). What baffled her the most however, was that he wasn't wearing his cute little cap that everyone associated him with.

Then, it hit her. This is the part of the movie when Tinkerbell gets fairy-napped.

And then an absurd idea started to bubble inside of her mind.

If she could free Tink before she gave away the location of Hangman's Tree, Hook would never capture the kids or set the bomb inside of the hideout. And maybe-JUST maybe! She could get back on Peter's good side and convince him to help her find a way to get back home.

With her mind made up, Mindy got to her feet and darted her eyes around in an effort to find the quickest route to the beach. She then realized that even if she made it to the shore, it would be too late as Smee would have already reached the ship by the time she got there.

It seemed as though the only way was down…

She gulped as she surveyed the distance between the plateau and the briny ocean beneath her.

Part of her wanted to forget about the plot to save the pixie. Meddling with the storyline of her favorite Disney movie seemed…wrong in that she didn't know what repercussions would follow whatever actions she took. Maybe she would unintentionally change the outcome of the original film, and the ending would never be the same when she got home. Or even worse, maybe she would accidently make a cameo in the movie, and the government would hunt her down to experiment on her for science.

Despite these fears, Mindy knew that she needed to do whatever it took to get back home.

Even if her father could care less about her existence, she still had Scarlett and Dakota to return to, and she wouldn't trade their friendship and emotional support for anything. They were the closest thing to family that she had, and she knew for a fact that they were just as frightened as she was about this whole ordeal.

She needed to get back not only for herself, but for the two of them as well.

"I cannot believe that I am doing this." Mindy muttered as she backed away a couple of paces. "Three, two…two-and-a-half…two-and-a-quarter…come on! Stop being such a stupid little chicken shit and just do it already!"

She then sucked in a breath, covered her eyes with her hands, and took a running leap off of the cliff all-the-while screeching at the top of her lungs. She flopped ungracefully into the pitch-black waves, and immediately swam to the surface to gasp for air.

Once she had gotten over the initial shock, Mindy started to wade towards the dingy. God, I hope I don't regret this.