A/N: Ah, here's the second chapter. Thank you to all my readers and reviewers for being so patient. I'm glad to hear some of you really like it..
"Uhh…" The eldest Darling child murmured in her sleep. The covers had fallen from her mattress, and she shifted and stirred uncomfortably. She was having a nightmare.
Wendy Darling awoke and found herself in a darkened nursery. A cold wind blew through the room, making the treetops sway ever so slightly. And there—at the window—was an opaque figure, gazing intently at her.
She could not see its face, but the she imagined its silhouette was rather familiar. The figure rested its head on a fist, waiting patiently…for what? It seemed to beckon Come to the Window and See…
And then she felt a surge of excitement bubble up in her stomach. She felt like running towards the silhouette and flinging her arms around it, whoever it was. She knew it, she felt…
"Peter Pan!" she cried in utter happiness. It was he, returned at last!
Then she swore he smiled at her…and, then flew away. The gasp found its way up Wendy's throat, but stopped halfway, sputtering to a choke. She rushed to the window, willing to fling herself out of it and into the air—into Peter who was surely waiting for her…
"Peter!"
And with that utterance, she dove out the window, waiting—waiting for Peter to catch her, the body that would surely stop her fall. But her descent did not end abruptly as she had hoped.
The world outside the window was a dark place. And there was no Peter. It seemed that Wendy continued to fall for eternity, as if there was no ground. There was nothing to hold onto, nothing to cling to, nothing to save her. The only light in this world was a faint glow from the nursery window. The light of the candle seemed to be dying, but Wendy reached towards it, as if it were the only hope for her…
A dark figure approached the light, and as Wendy saw, it was the same that she had thought she saw fly away…it wasn't Peter Pan, now that she saw him in the faint light…it was a Shadow. He bent towards the candle, and Wendy screeched, "No!"
And the light was extinguished. Wendy felt her every fiber go stiff with cold…
"PETER!" she screamed as she woke from the terrible dream. She clutched at her chest, and felt her whole body was drenched in a cold sweat. Her heart beat with a loud Thud.
Wendy looked to the window. It had blown open. Moving closer to it, she dared to peer outside, holding her breath. She relaxed as she saw the bright moon hanging high in the heavens as it cast a comforting, soft glow over the city. She felt the need to laugh at herself, to shrug off her paranoia and smile for being so silly. But she couldn't find the strength to lift even a corner of her frowning mouth.
As morning crept over the world, Wendy was still asleep, leaning against the windowsill. Unfiltered sunlight streamed across her still-childlike face, drying the tears she had shed unknowingly. In her hand, she clutched the acorn that had saved her so long ago…and her heart beat steadily under the thin fabric of her nightgown, the soothing rhythmic sound that had lulled her until she slept.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
"That's right," she had told herself the night before. "My heart's still beating, I can feel it under my skin. Even without Peter Pan…it's still beating."
A/N: Peter will surely be in the next chapter...tell me what you think. :)