Prologue II: Curiosity

The shadow had just gifted the Lost Boys with a new brother. He stood there whooping and hollering around the campfire with the other boys. He felt as if he belonged. As the decades passed,the boy realized just how twisted his home really was. The nightshade, the weeping children, and the dangerous games. He stayed alert against the dulling lull Pan's pipe would play, tempting him to just give up and fully concede. But he didn't. He stayed strong and fought the tricks of Neverland. But he wasn't rash about it. He acted the part set out for him to play as long as he needed. He feared Pan and Felix more than any other on the island, and was branded weak for that very reason. But he was alive and that was all he ever asked for.

One day, he wanted just a little more. He only wished to be alone for a moment, to have a chance to think without all the whooping and dancing. A moment of... peace. The Lost Boy traveled past the imaginary borders drawn by their king of imagination, and the Lost Boy traveled into a forbidden section of the jungle. He was never curious about the places that were off limits, he knew the saying, curiosity killed the cat, but now that he was in the forbidden section he wondered why it was so taboo. The size of restricted jungle was about a square half-mile, too tiny to hide any dangerous relics or untamed beasts. And yet the Lost Boys had been very adamantly told not to venture into the exact spot that the young boy was now approaching.

He reached a small clearing and drew in a sharp breath that created a low whistle, it was beautiful. The grass was a light green and all sorts of wild flowers grew up in patches, the rocks gleamed from an unknown lustrous metal. It was undeniably girly, but boy had long since forgotten the concept of femininity, and took in the sight with a sense awe he had also forgotten he was capable of. In the middle of the clearing stood a tree. The tree was larger than all the others in the jungle, tall and imposing but still managing to exude a comforting and serene aura. As he stared at the tree something happened to his heart. It was aching. He felt the tree longing for something, someone. The tree was incomplete. The boy gazed at the tree and it didn't seem right anymore, something was amiss. It should be bigger than that. Suddenly, the air around him shimmered and after he blinked, his eyes opened to find it was no longer midnight, but midday.

He watched as the sunlight streamed through the branches, catching the pollen in the air and making it glitter. The grass was not visible under the sea of wild flowers. A thousand different colors that might have clashed, had the flowers chosen to grow anywhere but the meadow. The entire space pulsed with a feeling of benevolent magic, and it was then that the child looked at the tree. It was so impossibly larger than what he had seen only seconds ago, that his heart jumped up into his throat and down into his stomach. It would have taken three Lost Boys wrapping their arms around the trunk to embrace the tree fully, and even then, the tips of their fingers would only just be touching. But it wasn't the sudden growth that stopped the boy in his tracks, no, it was the carvings. The tree had an archway at its base that led inside the mostly hollowed out interior. A hammock was strung up in the corner and clay dishes were strewn about a table carved out from the same tree. Picked wildflowers hung to dry sat at the archway, as well as along the hammock. On the outside of the tree, to the left of the doorway was an intricate carving that bit into the rough bark. To the boy it looked like a bunch of swirling lines and scores, until he saw a gorgeous flower emerge from the patterned cuts. The tree itself hummed with a life that the boy had never seen. A magic old and powerful. This was the tree's doing, its memory of a life that was too strong to be forgotten.

Just then Peter Pan walked past him and towards the tree house and the boy stood frozen, his greatest fear awaking, Pan had caught him breaking the rules. But there was a difference in Peter, and when the boy saw him flicker slightly, he willed himself to breathe again. He let out a nervous chuckle, Peter Pan was part of the magic, and the boy knew that he should flee and never look back. But he stayed rooted in place with an overwhelming desire to see why someone with a heart as black as Pan's was in such a peaceful meadow.

The child saw that although the teen shared the same face as Pan, the similarities ended there. This Peter had two flowers braided into his hair so they rested behind his right ear. The smile upon his face held no contempt, no evils lurked behind his eyes and he looked content. This sheep in wolf's skin moved at languid pace that showed an ease that the boy had never associated with his leader at all. When Peter had moved until he was about 10 paces away from the tree house, when suddenly, his ankle was jerked upwards, Peter's legs flailing around as he was yanked eight feet off the ground. As he dangled there rotating around and around in a lazy circle, he laughs. Again, the boy is surprised when Pan's laugh resonates around the meadow in a way completely different from what the boy is used to. There is no underlying threat in Peter's laugh, he was simply laughing. The poor boy sat through all the strangeness that presented itself in front of the him, but never ever in the eternity he was destined to spend on Neverland would the boy guess what happened next.

A soft trilling laughter joined Peter. Granted, it had started off as a strange spluttering laugh, but it soon turned to the delicate giggle that the boy heard mingling with Peter's laugh that finally made the boy fall to his knees in confusion. There was a girl, in Neverland. And she seemed to know the impostor Peter Pan.

Her silhouette stood up in the impossibly high branches of the magic tree. Appearing to be a shadow, her only distinguishable feature was hair cropped to her chin. "Oh dearest my Peter, it do seems you have fallen in the traps I left for those who visit my tree with a perverse intent." Her sarcasm was evident in her voice as the shadow girl swung around on a branch, so she was balancing upside down, hair whooshing and giving the boy a flash of gold before settling back into the shadows.

"Oh, I assure you that I am only here for the flowers. I was told that my hair looks ridiculous with flowers in one ear, so I have come to balance it out." Peter Pan's smile could be heard in his voice, affection completely unmasked and unabashed.

The shadow girl moved around in the trees, she hopped from one limb to the next while humming a nameless tune. "You are so very lucky that I am a forgiving soul Pan," Every other word seemed to come from a different branch while she spoke. "All you need to do to get down is to call my true name. In fact sing it! Ohhh, maybe you should dance while singing name. Or dance and sing and proclaim me to be the better climber in all of Never land! Or-"

"Please! Please I will ask you to let me down, just stop trying think of punishments." Peter Pan mocking the shadow girl snapped the boy out of his stupor. He really shouldn't be here. He felt the magic in the air and he knew he had intruded on an intimate moment.

"Yes I really am too nice to stoop to your level of cruelty," The boy trembled, the way the shadow girl spoke, she had absolutely no clue to how cruel Peter Pan can be."Maybe I'll keep talking instead? Did you hear about the one-"

Peter Pan's laugh echoed through the meadow, cutting the girl off from saying anything more. "You've already won. I call your name-"

The boy cried out in pain as the arrow embedded in his shoulder. The amount of Nightshade had been extremely larger than the normal dosage, and the Lost Boy could already feel the effects draining his life as he sprawled on the light green grass in the now dark meadow. The real Peter Pan stepped out from behind a tree and smiled down at the Lost Boy. The Lost Boy cowered in fear, after seeing Peter with such soft features, the harsh lines and hidden context of his smile were thrown into such a great contrast that the Lost Boy started to cry, the tears streaking down and mixing with the red and black of his wound.

"Now, now. You're not allowed in this part of the jungle. You're breaking the rules, aren't you?' Peter ended with question in order to force the Lost Boy to talk, to hurt him even more.

"I just…" The boy grit his teeth, feeling the strength slip through his fingers that were pressed against the wound. " I wanted to be alone. I didn't mean to see what I saw."

With his apology the boy was ready to die, but Peter Pan was not done with him yet. Pan walked over to the Lost Boy and stuck his bow into the boys wound and growled out "You saw something?"

The boys parlor had gone white and he nodded fervently while whimpering at the pain the bow was causing. "Meadow… Girl… You… flowers in hair." With such feeble last words, the boy slumped forward, dead by the poison he used against his own enemies.

Felix emerged from behind another tree and looked at Pan skeptically, "Flowers?"

Pan walked away from the fallen Lost Boy with a dark look on his face. "It's only the tree Felix. I think I would remember prancing about with fucking flowers in my hair." He looked over his shoulder to the tree and turned back to face Felix. "The tree lies Felix. It lies."

Okay, I know I only published this story today, but I felt the need to get both prologues out of the way now. I'm going to work out a schedule for updating, but for now, be ready for random updates…

I forgot to mention this part during Samantha's prologue. If you have any guess to who she is feel free to pm me or leave it in the comments. You guys have already started Following and Favoriting, Which makes me all warm and fuzzy :)

I'm writing this for you guys so please, enjoy!