Haven't seen a fiction about Felix's past yet, so I thought I would try one out.
Declaimer: I own nothing.
Felix Bates was a simple boy. He had the ordinary family, on the outside. A caring and devoted mother and a hard working father who provided for his family. Three older brothers to joke with and hang around, but that was the surface family. The one everyone else saw. Felix saw the inside, the parts few had the privilege to see.
A house torn by weakness and deception. A mother who found a new man and a father who found joy in the pain of his boys. Felix hated home. The only pleasure he got from the small England village was the bakers daughter. Every chance he got, he snuck out to the small bakery to see the brown haired girl with the pink dress. He would never say much, but she talked enough for the both of them.
They were six when they first met. His eldest brother John, took him along to the market to get some meats. None of the boys were old enough to hunt, so the family made do. Felix saw the pink dress through the window, then her brown hair. She was beautiful. It took him two years before he actually said anything to her.
Over time, the two became friends. Her name was Natalie. She shared everything, and often times too much, with Felix. Opening him to the better part of her life and the horrors of her own. When her mother died, he comforted her. It was that year they found the tree that would soon be theirs. It was a small birch tree at the time, they were both nine.
Natalie cried a lot that summer month. The air was hot and dry and Felix was sweating through his cotton shirt but Natalie didn't seem to mind as she cried into his shoulder. Felix was always there to comfort her. It was in that time that Felix finally opened up to Natalie. She sat quietly, which must have been a struggle for her, as he told her of his home life.
"My mother is never around. She never says where she goes either. And my da', he drinks. I don' like it when he drinks. He gets angry."
"Does he beat you?" she asked.
Felix nodded. He never felt the need to lie to Natalie, about anything.
"I'm sorry, Felix," she whispered. "What about your brothers?"
"John talks of goin' away. So does Nat and Richard. They never ask me to come with them."
"I would," she said wrapping an arm around him. That was all that was said. That was all that needed to be said. The pair knew, and in that they grew close.
Over the course of the next year, Felix and Natalie saw each other every day. Under the birch tree, they met. The tree grew to be large enough for them to hang on and sit in the lower branches, spending their days together.
On the first day of autumn on Felix's eleventh year, John and Nat left. That morning they were gone. John had been sixteen and Nat fourteen. They didn't return for dinner that night, neither did his mother. Felix's father got drunker than ever, wrath seething in him. Felix fled when he took after Richard that night, sleeping in the birch tree. In the darkness of the night, Felix thought of Natalie, and with his finger nail etched his and her names into the bark of the birch.
Not too long after John and Nat, Richard too went away. His mother died mysteriously one winter night. The gossip said it was an accident with the family horse but Felix knew better.
"He just looked at her. Sitting on top of that horse, watching her return from her outing." Natalie wiped a tear from Felix's cheek. "And then he spurred it. She was gone."
Felix was twelve that year.
Things quieted down. Felix's father didn't drink as much, now that his disappointments were dead. Felix tended to the home while his father worked, and eventually the two built a relationship. Not much of one, but Felix could now look at his father and have other emotions than just hatred towards him.
Natalie and Felix still met under their birch tree every day. By now the tree was large and strong, able to hold the pair even on the highest branches. Natalie was a friend to Felix. A true friend that did not leave him, or beat him. She accepted the tormented little boy she knew for four years and still believed in the good in him.
As time passed the pair became inseparable. Many of the village folk would pass their tree, readily knowing the children high in its branches and call good mornings or days to them. Sometimes they replied, others they stayed hidden, hoping not to be seen.
Felix and Natalie grew to the age of fourteen. The pair still continued their traditions, even with Natalie working at the bakery and Felix in the fields. Every day, just before the sun set, the pair would meet at the birch tree and talk, or sometimes just sit in the silence of each other's company.
On the last day of summer, Felix finished his work for the day, the sun just about to set. He padded up to the birch tree and sat on its lowest branch, looking toward the village, waiting for the familiar sight. The pink dress never showed. It grew dark and Felix still waited. Natalie never came. Unsettled, Felix went home and did not sleep. The autumn harvest began the next day and when the sun set, no pink dress. Two more days passed and still no Natalie.
On the fifth day, Felix heaved himself into their birch tree. On the lowest branch he sat, eyes locked on the road. Surely she would show. Felix waited, the sun almost gone. Suddenly Felix was falling. A straight drop, seven feet below. The branch endured most of the pain, but shattered as it hit the hard ground. Felix hit with a thud. Staring up, he saw the pointed remains of where the branch had once before stood. The branch had broken.
On the sixth day, Felix passed the birch tree and continued straight on the road toward the bakery. He knocked on the back door. The burly baker opened the door, staring down on the little blonde haired boy. "Is Natalie home?" he asked.
The baker looked stunned at first. He told him to wait at the door. A few minutes later, he returned and invited Felix inside. Taking him up to the second floor the baker opened a door to Natalie's room. Lying in bed was the brown haired girl. She sat up when Felix entered.
"Don't be long, boy," the baker grunted.
Natalie smiled dimly at Felix.
"Where have you been?" Felix asked, ready to burst with questions.
"Felix," Natalie began. Something was off, Felix noted. She looked paler, sick almost.
"What's wrong?"
"I have something to tell you," she whispered. Felix sat at the end of her bed. "I'm bleeding now Felix."
"Are you hurt?" Felix rushed in a sudden panic.
"No, no, it's nothing like that, it's just," Natalie struggled for words. "I'm a woman now Felix."
"What? You can't be a woman, you're just a girl," Felix stated plainly. What was she talking about, she was no older than he and he wasn't a man yet so she couldn't be a woman.
"Felix, that's what the bleeding means. It hurts in my stomach and my daddy said I have to stay in bed until it stops." Felix glared at Natalie.
"You grew up? Without me?" Felix backed away from his friend.
"I didn't want to! Felix please, we can still be friends."
"No! I don't want to be your friend! You left me! Just like John, and Nat, and Richard and Mother! You said you wouldn't leave me but you lied!" Felix was crying now.
"Felix, I-" Natalie's words got caught in her throat.
Felix fled. He ran to his house. On his way, he passed their birch tree. It once stood tall, and proud, now it had branches on the ground, scattered below. Its bark began to peel and the trunk sagged to one side. It was dying.
That night, Felix wished to go away, he believed in a better life out there. Everyone he knew had left for a better life, so why couldn't he. Staring up at the stars, he thought about this new place. No one would ever leave, he thought. No one will ever grow old. No one will die. "I believe," he whispered, almost to himself.
His father was passed out from a hard day's work. No villagers passed by the small house that night. No one was there to see the small, blonde haired boy be towed away by the beckoning shadow, flying over the dying tree.
oOo
Felix was dropped into an ocean. The salt water tasted bitter on his lips. He was not far from the shore, in fact he could stand and the water only reach his chest. On the shore, a brown haired boy with big eyes was there to meet him.
"I'm Peter," he said, taking Felix by the hand, helping him out of the surf.
"Felix. Where am I?"
"A better place," Peter said turning to view the thick undergrowth that met the beach. "Welcome to Neverland, Felix."
Neverland. Felix liked the sound of it. Never leave, never grow old, never die. Neverland. Felix smiled at his new home.
Hope you enjoyed, please review!