Jackie didn't stay long. Four, five minutes tops, and she had to get a move on. There's only so much time you can take pretending you are having a personal emergency, and I had to head back to camp as well. Needless to say, I was less than calm when I returned, and unfortunately for me, I was a terrible actress. I flinched at even the brush of a hand against me, as if I were a landmine that wasn't keen on blowing up. Any questioning I received was reacted to as if I were being interrogated - frantically and with much stuttering. Even a deaf, blind, and dumb person could tell that something was wrong. I was near ready to start breathing into a paper bag.
She'd found Cole. She'd found my dear older brother. We were starting to get somewhere in this seemingly hopeless operation. And yet, I was terrified. I hadn't even planned this far. I was 90% sure that we'd be dead by now. Jackie and I didn't have a way off the island for ourselves, let alone a possible extra 4 boys. I was starting to forget what Steven's grandson looked like. How the hell am I supposed to recognize him, let alone Jackie's nephew.
Or worse, what if the rest of them are dead? What if we're years too late to save them.
I quickly shoved these inner qualms out of my mind, trying to concentrate on keeping my cool. I'd done pretty poorly in holding in together up to this point, I couldn't fall apart now that I was under just a bit more pressure than I was used to.
"You feelin' alright, ginger?" crooned Franky, whom had spared me his presence for a good long time until now. "We haven't chatted in a while. I don't suppose you want to go gathering again, eh?"
No, I didn't want to go gathering, and I figured refusal would be a normal 'Melinda' reaction. I didn't feel too much like Melinda today, though, and his offer caught me off guard, so I conceded, much to his surprise.
It was a pretty fruitful effort, if I do say so myself. Haha, get it. Fruitful. Haha, and we're gathering fruit! Ah, I'm going to hell.
Anyways, we'd trudged through the forest for a good long while now, plucking berries and foraging through trees. Hell, we'd had an unspoken contest in order to see who could collect the most coconuts. I'd say it was fun, but that would be sacrilegious and a huge flaw in my standards. As we rounded up our finds and headed home, I noticed something rather peculiar.
Franky turned to look at me as I peered curiously into the foliage, examining it as if it held the meaning of life. He circled behind me, trying to get a better angle on what I was looking at.
After a moment of searching with me, he caved. "Alright. What are we looking at?"
I just shook my head, gesturing widely in front of Franky and myself. "The plants. They're all dead." It was true, though hard to see at first, what with all the green that still seemed to be in them. My fellow fruit-gatherer didn't seem surprised at all by this. I suppose dead plants are just a normal occurrence, but I really doubted that plants died in perfect circles.
"Ah, that. We call 'em spots. Like - the ones you get on your face sometimes. They pop up when Pan gets pissed. If you see 'em, you better keep your head down…" He snorted at the apprehensive look in my eyes, patting me roughly on the shoulder and strutting back towards camp. "C'mon, ginger. We're wasting daylight here!"
I swallowed thickly, thoughts suddenly clouded by a certain fear that was creeping up on me. I'd been acting too strangely. What other person could Pan be ticked at other than me? Wordlessly praying for some great bolt of lightning to strike me down, I trailed slowly after Franky.
Upon returning to camp, I was greeted by a few things. #1: Absolute, stifling fucking silence. #2: A very cross-looking, supposedly teenaged boy. The rest of his crew looked like they were waiting for a bomb to go off, all pulling their hoods up to hide their faces and edging farther away from their fearless leader. Franky abandoned me as soon as he stepped into the clearing, taking my own gatherings from me in the process.
I stared evenly at Peter, trying not to let it be shown that I was going weak in the knees from fright. He scoffed at my probably-obvious cowardice, and motioned for me to follow him. I did, after nearly a full minute of hesitation and preparation. He was probably going to crucify me.
It also occurred to be that I hadn't the faintest idea as to what exactly I did wrong, aside from talking to Jackie. That sounded more like cause for a good slap on the wrist and a week's worth of grounding, at least on the 'Pan-scale-of-things-you-did-wrong.'
We walked fairly deep into the forest, the nighttime sky putting me further on edge. I supposed we were deep enough for nobody to hear me scream, if it came to that. He faced away from me, looking tense and aggravated even from behind.
"You're pretty ungrateful, Miss," Peter began, still not bothering to look my way, "I think we've been pretty hospitable to you, here. Even though you trespassed into our home, we welcomed you pretty fairly."
I opened my mouth and closed it multiple times, deciding he probably didn't want me to speak as of yet.
"How do you repay us, then? You sneak around, plotting against us. You use our hospitality just to achieve your own goals, and then you treat us like dirt." He sounded thoroughly offended. I could almost hear the subtext beneath his words. 'You sneak around, plotting against me. You use my hospitality just to to achieve your own goals, and then you treat me like dirt.'
Was he trying to guilt-trip me? I haven't the faintest idea, really. I don't even know what's going on anymore. I expected violence, not some trivial bullshit.
Pan rounded on me, quick as a whip, suddenly way too close for comfort. I backed up just as quick, careful to avoid getting trapped against a tree. "I was trying to ignore your flagrant disrespect, Melinda, but you're starting to test my patience." He grabbed me by the collar, dragging me forcefully toward him. I nearly squealed at him, struggling backwards in an attempt to break his hold on my clothing. He stopped my efforts, shoving me against a nearby boulder, taking the typical 'back-you-into-a-tree' bit out of the equation.
My head smacked into the stone, the pain reverberating back through my skull over and over again. I tried to form the words I needed to say, but I was too tongue-tied. He wasn't done talking, though, so it didn't even matter.
"Jacqueline and you had a nice little chat a few days ago, didn't you? Both of you breaking rules, then?" He tsked, spitting viciously in my face. "I don't suppose you're thinking about breaking some of my boys free, are you? I thought I was doing a good job in stomping that out of you." He shook me roughly with his last few words, further rattling my head.
"Did you ever stop to think that maybe they like it here? That you'd be doing them a disservice by dragging them away from Neverland?" He dropped me suddenly, and my knees finally gave in. I collapsed to the ground, cradling my head in my hands pathetically.
I couldn't think straight. What the fuck had ticked him off so bad?
"Go fuck yourself, asshole," I croaked, leaning backwards against the stone he'd shoved me into.
Pan bristled at my words, as if not expecting me to speak at all. He cast me a venomous look, turning back away from me, crossing his arms. "I'll tell you what. Next time I feel we need to have another little chat, I'll just take it out on poor, weak little Jackie."
My thoughts still swimming, I laughed mirthlessly, "Jackie is ten times tougher than I'll ever be. You'd be better off just knocking some more sense into me."
He tutted at my words, rolling his shoulders like he was stretching after some strenuous labor. "That's where you're wrong, love. You've always been stronger than Jacqueline. She's only strong because of you." Peter began stalking away from me slowly, calmly. "You might want to hurry along. Things can get a bit dicey at night."
"Somebody has to keep justice intact. Somebody has to get stabbed in the back. It's for a good cause, now do what they ask." - Cursive (Adapt)
AN: What an arrogant little fuck, amirite? Yeah. Just felt like giving you a little something to cover up the last chapter. I wasn't too happy with it, but I hope it's okay for you guys. I just needed to get it out of the way. I'm thinking of going back and editing some things in the story. Nothing plot-changing. Just making things a little more readable. Thoughts? Also, just to let you know, I will probably ignore the 'father of Rumpelstiltskin' shebang. I did not like the way that turned out. Thanks to 'Guest' for reviewing. Glad you liked the chapter. And yeah, season 3 ended terribly. Please leave a review. They are the only things keeping up my morale when I hit writer's block. Peace out, nerds. Also, this is the longest chapter to date. Congrats to me, yay.