PAN'S POV
"Emma," she whispered, smiling up at me. The word she spoke did not make sense to me, but she had pure joy on her face as the word left her mouth. I looked at the hope in her eyes, the way she smiled at me. She was bursting with contentment. I placed a gentle kiss on her lips.
My hands moved from her cheeks to her neck.
She realized half a second after my hands rested on her neck what was happening.
I pressed my thumbs in, squeezing. Both hands were pressing on her, digging into her neck hard. She was more trouble than she was worth the damned girl, pulling the love card, pulling the FAMILY card. The hope that had welled up in her eyes spilled out in hot tears that splashed against my firm hands. She was gasping for air, hands trying to pry mine from her neck. Her lips moved, silently pleading, mouthing words that could not be formed with sound. She struggled against my hands, her head shaking and frightened. I closed my eyes and let the rage take over as her breath, her life left her body. A moment later and the girl was dead.
It had taken all of two minutes for me to kill her.
I let her body fall to the forest floor, her black hair streaming behind her, her eyes staring blankly into space. Her neck was bruised from the strength I had applied to it. She posed awkwardly, like a broken doll. One hand rested against her stomach, the other twisted sickeningly. Her face was covered in tears, the blotchy red was fading to porcelain, sickeningly empty and blank.
"Oh dear."
"Shut up, Shadow."
"She's very dead. You were quite thorough."
"I told you to shut up."
"You could have done it much quicker with a knife."
"Quick wasn't enough for me."
"She was with child."
That stopped me. I froze, comprehending the stupid thing's words. I turned angrily to face the shadow.
"What?"
"She had your child, your seed, growing in her belly. I told you that she didn't belong here. You wouldn't listen when I told you not to take her. It would have been the Truest Believer. You've killed two souls today."
"Fuck!"
I threw my knife at the shadow, it went through him and hit the tree behind him. The shadow chuckled.
"It's going to be a long time before you find another way."
I picked up the dead girl, the dead girl and the dead child within her. Her hand fell from her stomach as I pulled her up. She had nothing to protect anymore. I closed her eyes and carried her. Deep into the forest, I found the clearing where she had arrived.
"Sorry, Priya. I am not meant to love."
I recalled her last words.
"And Emma. I am not meant to be a father."
I piled up brush and wood, and placed the corpse atop it. Her hands were posed over her stomach, where the second life had been taken. The girl burned, the girl and her baby burned. The flames licked the long hair and the dress, consuming everything. I half expected her to scream in agony, to hear the wailing of her and her burning infant, but her lifeless mouth was void of sound, and the child had no voice. The fire ate away at them, but they died at my hands. I had made a grave mistake. Was it a trick of the eye, or were there two figures in the smoke, mother and daughter frozen forever in death? No, it was just the smoke, Neverland playing tricks on me. I stared into the flames once more.
"Shadow."
"Yes, Pan?"
"I lost the chance at immortality didn't I?"
"That child is not the only Believer who will live. There will be another."
"Yes...the seer prophesized it. Perhaps I should visit her again."
"That is your decision."
I cursed again, staring at the failure in the flames. My failure. I would not make that mistake again. Next time, nothing would keep me from the Believer. That I would be certain of. As the dead girl before me burned, I made decisions.
Never would there be another lost girl in Neverland.
Never would I let the Believer slip through my fingers again.
Never would the girl named Priya be mentioned ever again.
Neverland was not a place for regrets and pain. The boys need not deal with that.
She would be forgotten by each of the boys, I would be sure of that. She would be forgotten by the island. Not one of us would speak or think of her again. She would be a distant whisper. That I would ensure.
I walked back to the camp, determination in my step.
"Where's the girl, Pan?" Felix asked as I arrived. He was smug, he had suspicions. Those would be wiped away.
"What girl?" I asked, staring at him hard. He understood immediately, and he walked away from me. I brought my pipes forth and sat before the great fire. The spot where the girl used to sit would be mine now. There was no reason to hold it in memory of her. No one would remember her anyway. My lips touched the instrument, and I began to play.
The boys began to dance as the music played, and each one forgot about the dead girl in the flames far behind me. They had no reason to remember her, none had been marked by her but Felix, and Felix would remember how he got that scar very differently. I watched them as I played, the boys who were carefree and knew no better. Every one of the boys had forgotten her before they could think of her. They would not even be ghosts in their minds. She did not exist any longer. They all forgot, so easily.
I could not forget. I would not try to remember, though.
I laughed to myself, bitter, angry. The words left my lips as a cruel joke to myself.
"Remember who?"
My gods everyone I am so sorry. I have planned her death since the very beginning, but I promise, their story is far from over. I just got an idea that will give me quite a few chapters more in this story. There's so much more to come. And as hard as it is to believe, there WILL be more smut. This story is not over- but it has changed. Thank you all for supporting me, it means the world, and I promise, there will be more to come very very soon! Don't give up on the story because she is dead, because there is so much more coming.
Honestly I have been so terrified to write and post this chapter because I am waiting for all of you readers to show up at my askbox on tumblr with pitchforks and fire and I am waiting for you all to kill me.