The funeral was a quick one due to the lack of funds. There was a priest there to say some empty words of no meaning to Amily. Some of the villagers turned up, family friends and neighbours. Amily's father was buried at the village cemetery but there was no tombstone. They just simply couldn't afford it.
Once the funeral was over everybody had left to get out of the cold. Outside it was snowing lightly but hard enough to keep the markets closed and everyone inside. Everyone except Amily. For how long she knelt by her father's grave, she didn't know. But when the tears started to leave frozen tracks on her face she finally had to tear herself away. With one last goodbye she made her way back home.
Her house was a quiet chaos. Timothy refused to leave the room he shared with Marcus despite his brother's constant pleading and her mother sat at the chipped, wooden dining table with a mug of something hot and sickly-sweet smelling in her hands. She was no longer crying. Her face was expressionless.
Amily just went straight to her room and cried into her pillow. She wondered why she was this upset. Her father had been on his death bed for so long now, it was only a matter of time. But even while sick he tried his best to still be part of the family. But his attempts just made Amily see the broken man that he had become all the more clearly.
She didn't know how long she had cried for but when Amily finally looked up from her soaked pillow it was dark outside and she could tell by the lack of crying and soft snores from the next room that her family had gone to bed.
Amily laid back on her pillows and stared up at the ceiling. It seemed like shopping for strawberries had happened a million years ago and yet it was only yesterday. So much had happened that she just felt drained. And Amily knew it wasn't just her father's death that had made her so weak, it was her life. Her whole life of knowing exactly what was going to happen and having everything laid out before her like a meal to devour was killing her slowly. She, like her father, might as well have already been on her death bed.
"Please, someone somewhere, save me. Take me away from all this. Please" she whispered, praying to a god she didn't believe in for just a bit of luck.
Amily didn't recall how or when she went to sleep, she only knew that a breeze billowing in from the window across the room was what awakened her. Instantly she knew something was wrong. She was sure the window was closed when she came in...
Grabbing a vase off her dressing table as a makeshift weapon she leapt off the bed and prepared to pounce. The window was at least 6 feet from the ground and it was winter so whatever had opened the window couldn't still be there, unless they wanted to freeze.
Suddenly, as if imagined out of fear and doubt, Amily saw something just barely flick past the window-sill. A moth? Snow? But there was only one thing it could really be. A shadow.
For some unknown reason, Amily set the vase back down on the table. She felt instantly drawn to the window desperate to know what was lurking in the dark. Time slowed as she took steady, hesitant steps towards the window and peered out. Alas, nothing but snow and the cool eeriness of night. Amily didn't know what she felt. Disappointment?
"Hello?" she called out curiously.
In reply the shadow flicked across Amily's gaze, leaving her stunned. Something whooshed past her. She froze. Whatever it was, it was in the room with her now.
Turning slowly around to meet the intruder Amily was more than surprised to find no one there but a dark shadow looming in front of her. Two bright, white eyes gazed down at her from the head of the shadow. A scream got caught in Amily's throat and all she could do was gasp. Sheer terror enveloped her as she stared at the shadow.
When words started to come back she was able to speak, her voice sounding choked by fear.
"What do you want?" she asked hoping the anxiety didn't show. She wasn't even sure if she was in fact awake. Shadows didn't travel by themselves, they were always attached to something. It was then -with a voice as silky as satin yet dark as night- that the shadow spoke back to her.
"The question is, what do you want?" it said, unmoving.
It was meant to be a cryptic question, Amily could tell. First she was confused and then it dawned on her. She searched deep into her self to find what she truly wanted and there it was. It had been there all along.
"To be free" said Amily simply. She forced her shoulders back and looked the shadow square in the face. She was no longer afraid. Maybe this shadow was a sign.
Without another word the shadow flew gracefully past Amily and out the window, leaving as abruptly as it came in.
The next day passed without any more unnatural occurences and Amily was beginning to wonder whether or not the shadow had been a dream or some grief-driven thought. All the nonsense she had thought about a 'sign' and shadows being able to move on their own seemed ridiculous.
Yet she couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching her as she moved about the village. The snow had settled so Amily thought that the best way to clear her head of death and shadows was to go for a walk. Yet her thoughts just seemed to follow.
When evening came and Amily arrived at home she went straight to her bedroom and threw the door shut behind her. She ran straight to the window and looked out hoping for some sign that the strange shadow would return. This was as close as she had come to something different happening in her life and if the shadow was her only way from this village Amily would... well... she wasn't sure what she would do. That part was undecided yet.
The cold breeze from the window was gentle and when the first stars began to make themselves seen to the world Amily knelt down and set her head down on the sill. To anyone else it would almost look like she was praying. She stared up at the sky with hopeless longing. Every night in her dreams Amily would see this place. Such a wonderful place it was yet it was unreachable. She was always on the outside of it, barred from ever entering. And every morning she woke with a desire to see that place again.
Her eyelids grew heavy and once again she was in that dream that she had begun to know so well. This time in the dream she was flying above the magical place. It looked like an island, with crystal blue waters and snowy white sands. It was paradise. Try and try as she might Amily just couldn't reach the island. She could only stare at it and it's beauty. Suddenly the dream changed. She knew she was stll dreaming even though the scene turned into her own bedroom because daylight shone through the window. But sunlight wasn't the only thing that filled the window.
A boy. He looked about 16 years of age, not too much older than she was. His head was cocked to the side curiously and his mouth held an attractive smirk as if he'd been waiting for this situation. Even in the dream Amily felt drawn yet repulsed. He had a dangerous aura about him.
He wore a loose shirt of a dark green material with brown trousers held up with a simple brown belt and on his feet were brown hiking boots. Around his neck was a necklace of braided twigs and around his wrists wore leather cuffs. Everything about him screamed wild and dangerous yet dream-Amily was not afraid. She was tranfixed, frozen in her place staring in awe. He laughed as if noticing her astonishment.
"You wish for a place to go? To escape?" he said in a voice that was as charming as it was dangerous. It oozed the power of persuasion and he wore it easily. Amily was surprised as she took in what he had said. The only person, if she could even call it that, that she had told was the shadow.
"Y-yes" she stuttered.
He tilted his head up and was looking down at her smugly as if he was in on a secret and she wasn't.
"Would you leave all this behind to get there?" said the boy.
Without even thinking about it because she didn't need to, she nodded.
"Is there such a place? Could I really be free?" she asked not being able to control her dream-self's earnestness.
He smiled and walked towards her. Just a few steps across the room and he was right there in front of Amily. He was at least a foot taller than she was and had to bend down to look her directly in the eyes.
"There is. It's a marvelous place. It's what dreams are made of!" he said suddenly excited.
His now loud jubilent voice would have brought her mother in from the next room. But this was dream and nothing happened. Amily stared into his earthy green eyes and even while asleep she could feel a dizzy weightlessness as if freedom was coming early.
"What's this place called?" asked Amily curious. The boy grinned mischievously.
"Neverland"
The name rang through her head and filled her with a giddy joy. Even the name sounded magical. She smiled.
"How do I get there?" she asked, persistently.
"Trust the shadow and whatever you do, don't fight it" was all he said.
That familiar whooshing sound filled her ears and forced her awake. In front of her, outside the window, floated the shadow from the other evening. If shadows could stare this one's was full of dull expectancy as if it were waiting for something. It held out a dark hand, motioning for Amily to take it.
"Whatever you do, don't fight it" the voice of the strange boy from her dream echoed in her mind and the feeling of freedom returned as if already in her grasp.
Without hesitation, Amily slid her hand into the shadow's leaving her past life behind.