As I came to, my headache was back full force and my ankle hurt so much I couldn't bear it. I slowly sat up and rubbed at my face and forehead, close to tears from the pain. Where am I? The room around me appeared like it was carved out of the ground with dirt floors and walls surrounding me. I was on a makeshift hammock made of vines and leaves and the whole room smelled of earth. I achingly pushed myself out of the hammock and limped around the room. There were tables and bookshelves made haphazardly, strewn around the room. Some handmade books rested along the shelves, covered in dirt. I spotted a door on the other side of the room. As I walked over, I could hear nothing on the other side, no one talking, no animals, no wind. I warily opened the door, peeking through the crack. I spotted a fire and saw no one in the clearing. I cleared the door and stepped into the clearing. A huge fire was burning in the middle of the clearing, a cast iron pot over the fire, its contents steaming.
"There's a bowl on the rock." The boy that chased me in the woods was leaning against a tree, a hood causing a shadow over his face.
"You were the asshole chasing me! What's your deal?" I took a step closer to where he was, my hands balled up by my sides.
He strolled over to the rock where there was a bowl was resting. He bent to pick it up, walking as he did so. As he stood back up, his hood fell exposing a mop of sandy blond hair. He filled the bowl at the fire and brought it over to me, he absolutely towered me. He was at least six foot tall, maybe an inch or two over. He had a long ragged scar on the left side of his face from his brow to almost his jaw line. He sneered and he strolled closer to me, bowl of stew in hand. I cautiously took the wooden bowl and sat on the log behind me. I was thankful for the heat radiating from the bowl and took a sip. "Earlier, when we were in the woods, you said we were in Neverland?" He only just nodded and took a seat by the fire, far enough from me but close enough to hear me. "That's impossible, Neverland is just a fairytale, and if this is Neverland… Please tell don't tell me. Are you Peter Pan? You must be on some serious trip right now, kid" He only scoffed. I took another sip of the stew, the heat quickly spreading through my mouth and body.
"I'm not Peter Pan, I'm only a Lost Boy that he saved."
"You really are crazy. There's no such thing as Neverland or Peter Pan. It's just a story told to children to help them sleep. It's all just a made up story."
"Do really not believe? Even when you were a child hearing that story. not even a little?"
"Of course I did. A place where you never grow old, away from parents and school, what kid wouldn't?"
"Then why can't you believe it now?" I just stared at him, there's no way he could be right, right? It's a fairytale, like bigfoot or mothman, next thing he'll tell me is that Snow White and the Evil Queen is real. By the look he was giving me, he completely believed what he was saying.