AN: hello lovers, KU is on fall break right now so I'm gonna spend it trying my hardest to update all of my fanfics! Starting with my favorite (this one, obviously). I asked you guys to guess what the twist in the last chapter could possibly be, and you guys are a lot smarter than I am as a reader, so kudos to you! I wont give it all away just yet, but all of you were right in some aspects!(: Enjoy!
I wake up, once again, on a bed made of leaves and netting. There are candles lit on the wooden table beside the bed I am on, giving some illumination to the otherwise dark room. I sit up slowly, remembering the last time I was in this very room, when the man working for Maxim held me at knife-point and suffocated me until I was unconscious. It was here that I woke up to see Cassius sitting in a chair, just before he walked out and sent Mary to come and take me back to the House safely.
Only, now that my eyes adjust to the dim room and I look at the figure once more sitting in the chair facing my bed, I realize that maybe the last time I was here, Cassius was not and someone else entirely was sitting in that chair. He just had Cassius' face.
When the figure in the chair doesn't move, I lean in closer to see that his eyes are closed, his cheek resting on the palm of his hand. His hair is longer and his skin is dirtier but he looks so much like Cassius that I get a shock sent through my system each time I study him. In this dimly lit room I can barely tell the difference between the two men.
"You're his twin," I say.
The boy gives a start and sits up to look at me. He presses his lips together and stretches his arms to wake himself up. "Good morning," he says, "I was worried the smoke killed you for a little while. You were out cold."
"You are," I say, ignoring his words, "aren't you?"
He is silent for a moment, studying me. Then, "It's a long story," he finally says.
"Cassius never told me he had a brother," I mused.
The boy snorted. "You'd be surprised of all of the secrets that House keeps. The Royals have enough skeletons to give future generations nightmares."
"I'm starting to get that," is all I say in return.
He smiles, the same smile Cassius has when he thinks I've said something funny but wont admit it.
"Thank you," I say after a beat of silence, "for saving me."
He leans forward, bracing his forearms on his knees and looks up at me through his lashes, his dark hair tumbling all around him. He looks so much like Cassius, I think sadly. He smiles and says, "You're very welcome. We Lost Boys have to stick together, you know. Someday I might be the damsel and you'll have to save me."
I smile at that. It fades quickly though. "You're a Lost Boy?" I ask. Why would the twin of a royal be cast out from the House to live with the rest of the outcasts?
"Ah, I know," he says, a funny smile on his face, "you're probably wondering what someone so devilishly handsome, smart, funny, brave-"
"Humble," I add in and he laughs out loud.
"-is doing in a place like this," he finishes.
"More or less," I reply.
"Like I said, long story."
"I've got all the time in the world."
"I guess that's true," he says with a startled laugh. He points to the wooden table next to me where a cup of water is sitting.
I pick the cup up and drink from it, thanking him internally for realizing how dehydrated I am.
"I should start with the beginning, I suppose," he says, staring down at his hands before returning his gaze to me. "Do you know the story of Neverland?"
I shrug, placing the now empty cup of water back on the table. "Peter and Wendy fell in love but couldn't bear any children, so Peter found out how to turn them mortal. They had children and one day the Peter on the throne grew tired of his wife and decided to make a game out of choosing his new bride. The end."
"You're missing quite a few key details. Yes, it's true, Peter fell deeply in love with Wendy, and it is true that they could not bear a child so long as they were both immortal. So Peter searched until he found his answer, who happened to live at the base of the volcanoes here in Neverland. A witch by the name of Helena. She brewed Peter a potion and told him that so long as the child was the product of true love, there would always be an heir to the throne of Neverland."
I furrow my brow as I watch him tell the story. Here with this complete stranger I can almost for a moment trick myself into thinking that I am sitting with Cassius. This stranger's voice is higher-pitched though, and his tone more jovial than Cassius'. I shake the thought of Cassius from my mind as the boy continues to talk.
"Of course, as you know, the potion worked and they bore a son. It was like this until the Peter you spoke of that grew tired of his wife and demanded a new one, one he could truly love. You see, the only reason he did this was because the witches word rang true. If the baby was not a product of true love, you would not get an heir to the throne- you would get two."
It all clicked into place as he continued to talk.
"The contests made for the brides are usually rigged. Your heart may say something much different than your brain, and the tests are designed with the idea that a good queen must be made, not a good wife. True love is not found through these tests."
"So then the babies conceived were not products of true love," I conclude.
"My father's father was a cruel man, though I barely remember him. He hated all twins in the land, hated the fact that they were a constant reminder to him of how he failed to find his true love. It drove him mad. When my father married my mother and she bore twin boys, he practically went insane. When we both reached the age of ten, he deemed Cassius more fit for the future throne than I and had me banished from the House with a reminder of what I could never become." He touches the scar on his cheek and lowers his eyes to the floor, suddenly very far away. "It was done with every set of twins in the House, if not in throughout the whole land, not just Cassius and I."
"So Alice and Mary as well?" I ask, leaning forward. "But that isn't fair. They were brought to Neverland by the first Peter, they were born twins in the regular world, not because of some spell cast!"
"Like I said, the spells results turned my grandfather mad. I'm not supposed to be a Lost Boy, so I still age. But I must sit here in this forest with all of the other outcasts while my brother sits in his House of riches and decides between four beautiful women whom he should marry."
"I'm sorry," I say. He looks up at me and smiles but I can see that there is a deep sadness in his eyes, one that I've seen in Cassius' eyes as well.
"No," he says, "you're Sophia. I do believe we've met before, briefly."
"Very briefly," I say.
He stands and smiles kindly, offering me a hand. I take it and he helps me off of the bed. "I'm Julius, by the way," he says. "But everyone here calls me Jules. Welcome to the Lost Boys, Sophia. I think you'll like it here. Let me show you around."
AN: well, there you guys go! Sorry this chapter is so short, but the next couple of chapters will be pretty action packed! Meet Julius, whom I love just as dearly as his brother Cassius! I hope you guys learn to love him as much as Cas! He's a little rough around the edges, you'll come to see, but his heart is in the right place, no matter how unethical he can seem. Till next time!