Izzy POV

The salty breeze off the Caribbean water intensifies as I approach my old bungalow, each step amplifying the memories of my past or memories of last night. The familiarity of the place doesn't soothe the growing tension within me. I climb the weathered steps, my heart pounding as I gently knock on the door. When nobody answered I gritted my teeth and I pounded on it as hard as I could. The shade behind the small window of the door was rolled up, revealing the face of my brother in law, whose eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head when he saw me.

"Lord have mercy Omario, she's back!" Hector exclaimed as he pulled the shade back down. Frustration builds as my patience wears thin, and I pound on the door harder, demanding entrance.

"Open the door-er please!" I let out.

"I oughta kick your arse from here to Talahasse little missy!" he growled. "After what you said to my wife last night you can go back to whatever bridge you live under, because if you think you can just trot back into my house in the middle of a goddamn Tuesday night, you better turn yourself around and head to the Psychiatrist!" I was quiet.

"You could've just said nobody's home." I mumbled.

"Go away!" Hector barked. Gee, who needed a guard dog when you had this guy? A few seconds later I saw a pair of tan fingers lift up the shade behind the door window and look at me with brown eyes that widened when he layed them on me.

"Holy smokes! Lock the door dad!" I recognized the voice to be that of Ria and Hector's oldest son as he rushed next to his father and they began fidgeting with the flimsy door handle to get it to lock.

"Hector!" I heard my father bark and the two younger men turned their heads. "Away from d'door!" he told them. "Let me 'andle dis!" I stood on the moonlit porch while listened to them argue from behind the door. I looked around at the nighttime Carib Island scenery, tapping my foot as I waited for the door to open. And about three minutes later the rickety door creaked open and there stood my short old father. "Ah…come in," he said, gesturing for me to step further into the cottage. I looked around and saw….well exactly what I saw last time: The interior was just like my last visit—peculiar weird looking furniture and seven children seated at a bench. Amid the sea of caramel skin and dark hair, Nikki stands out with his bright electric blue eyes, fixated on me with eager curiosity. And after getting lost in them for a few seconds I noticed the little boy was staring at me in eager excitement. I shook my head and realized that something was indeed different in this spooky ol' cottage. It was missing its witch.

"Where's Ria?" I asked.

"She left." the eldest son (Andre, I think his name was) who was at the door answered. And my father added:

"Ev'ry three monts o so she'll disappe' into da wildaness and com' backa week la'er." my father explained.

"Where does she go?" I asked.

"I stopped asking that question a while ago," Hector said, tampering with the door shade. "A few months after we got married she was just gone one night and didn't come back until three or four days later. I asked her where she went but she'd just say she needed some alone time. I still don't know where she rushed off to but I know that she'll always come back and I also know that all the men on this island are too ugly for her to be seeing behind my back."

"Oh….I see…." I replied, not knowing what else to say to that.

"Ah….thank yo Hector. Das enuff o dat," my father said before turning his gaze to me. "Now Isabella, I know I have much explainin' to do an—."

"Hold it right there old man," I interrupted him. "Did you send me a letter?" His old shaky brown eyes widened and a large smile crept its way onto his face.

"Aha! So yo did get it! I kne—."

"Wait just a second there," I stopped him again. "What's the big idea!? What are you trying to do!? Get me fired!? Do you know how much trouble you'll get me in if my captain finds out I went to the real world!?"

"Message? Captain? Real world?" Hector repeated. "Isabella, what are you talking about?"

"The captain of the pirate crew that I'm a part of back in Neverland of course!" My proclaimed brother in law slapped his forehead instead of all out laughing this time. Meanwhile his children all watched in confusion-Nikki in awe.

"Omario please tell me you don't believe this!" the strong young man asked his elderly in-law.

"Hmmm…..I don' know Hector," my father answered. "Dat would explain how she had stayed so young over the years and why she's dressed like dis and how she got dat magical sparkly stuff." he said, gesturing at my pixie dust.

"But Neverland is just an object of fiction! It's not real!" Hector argued.

"Hah! Tell that to Peter Pan!" I shot back, crossing my arms.

"Now you're just pulling my leg Isabella! First you say you've got pixie dust! Then you say you're from Neverland! And now you claim that you know the flying boy himself! Hah! You've been fooled! You haven't met him!" I think there was smoke coming out of my ears because I was about to blow my cork.

"I! Have! Too! He's the one who took me to Neverland when old pops here said he wanted to kill me!" I exclaimed, pointing a finger at my father, who then bowed his head in shame.

"Isabella der 'ain't one damn minute dat goes by where I didn't regret dat night," he said, his soft brown eyes looking like they were about to tear up. "When we cam' to yo room….empty n' abandoned…my whole world fell apart. Yo were irreplaceable."

"Obviously." I said, ironically pointing to the seven children that had spawned from my sister. "If I'm so irreplaceable, father, where did they come from? I doubt they just magically appeared!" Omario sighed, rubbed his forehead and then with his walking cane, tapped on a stool that was right next to the foot of the chair he was resting in.

"Sit," he said. "I have much explainin' to do," I did so reluctantly yet eager to know what had happened all the years I was gone. The beach house was silent. Hector leaned against the wall, his arms folded yet his attention focused on his father in law. The seven children all waited with their big brown eyes (well Nikki's blue eyes) wide and staring at my father. Omario took a deep breath and then began and while he spoke, I simply twirled my long wavy brown hair.

"Afta we foun' yo room empty Isabella, yo motha an I searched ev'ry inch of de island. We called da police, put up posters…..but nottin'. We thought we woul' never see yo again. But yo are 'ere now! Look atchu! Oh if only yo motha were 'ere with us! She'd be ovajoyed!" As he said that I couldn't help but think what a load of poppycock this all was. That witch never loved me. I was just her little toy doll that she could scream and yell at one moment and then coddle the next. She only loved me when she wanted to. Conditionally. And if this crazy fossil thought I was gonna forgive him or her, he had another thing coming.

"Where is she?" I asked. The minute I said that I felt the temperature in the room drop. My father continued.

"Well…five years afta yo left, a baby, a baby girl, washed up on da beach in a basket dat had been set afloat. Dat baby was yo li'le sister Maria-Ria fo short- who we took in an' raised as ow own. God 'ad given us a secon' chance to raise a daughta an' we took it. Dat baby girl got olda 'long with da rest of us and well….'ere we are now. There. Now ev'rytin' is explained." he concluded. I flinched and dropped my hands from my hair, letting them slap my legs.

"Nothing is explained, father. Where-is-your-wife!?" I demanded. I couldn't bear to call that woman my mother. A minute passed and he still didn't answer. He just stared into the blue in silence. I looked at my three nieces and four nephews who were also quiet as well.

"Hello!?" I hollered, irritated.

"She's dead you brat!" Hector spat, looking at me in disgust. "She took her own life a few years ago because she felt guilty! She thought it was her fault that you left! She thought you had been kidnapped or trafficked or murdered! She just couldn't live with it anymore! There! You know now! Are ya happy!?"

"Not really," I trembled, my hands covering my ears to try and block out those horrible words that had been said. "I'm…I'm sorry." I said, though I didn't really know if I meant it. Hector only scoffed and swatted the air in my direction as if I were a pest he was trying to get rid of. And in a way, I was.

"No you're not you little brat." he sneered. My attempts of trying to have empathy quickly faded.

"You can stop calling me that." I warned him.

"Why?" Alina, the eldest of the children, spoke up. "From what I hear, you were a real brat when you lived here."

"Then I will go!" I announced, stomping towards the door. "And this time I won't come back!"

"Why'd you even come in the first place?" Andre asked.

"Because when I got that stupid letter I thought maybe somebody here cared for me and wanted me back! But you have all proved to me that you don't!" I exclaimed, my temper as hot as the red on my boots. "I'm going back to Jake and Cubby and Skully! They are my family. My only family! Good-night!" I announced, getting a grip on the door knob and then opening it, revealing the clear moonlight canvas of the island, scattered with palm trees and rocks.

"Good!" Hector yelled. "Don't come back!" He was starting to remind me of my father when he was younger and I wanted to escape right now more than ever.

"I won't!" I shouted at him, before turning to my father, my eyes stinging with tears. "Don't ever send me another letter! I don't care how sorry you say you are because you don't mean it and you never will!" And with that, I pushed the door open, raced out to the porch, jumping over all three steps planting in the sand before running as fast as I could.

"Isabella, wait!" I heard the voice of a little boy call. I looked back with my teary eyes to see that it was my jet blue eyed nephew himself, chasing after me.

"Nikki get back here or I'll wring your scrawny neck!" his father threatened, despite not making an effort to catch the boy.

"Isabella please! WAIT!" Nikki called from behind me, still on my tail.

"Go away!" I cried in a shaky voice and then turned my head back around, getting ready to navigate through the palm tree forest up ahead.

"Izzy!" I suddenly stopped in my tracks when I heard him call me by my nickname that I only allowed my crew to call me by. I slowly turned around to face my young nephew, who had also come to a stop a few feet away from me. We just stood there, staring at each other in silence.

"How did you…how did you know my nickname?" I gently asked him. He licked his lips before answering.

"Well…in your old diary that I found…..you said—-."

"You read my old diary?" I interrupted him.

"I thought it was one of my sister's journals at first. And when I figured out it wasn't I thought it was just an old book made by some girl. But then you showed up and proved me wrong," He then bowed his head in embarrassment. "I-I-I'm sorry. I didn't know it was yours. I was just curious. I didn't mean any harm or anything." he apologized.

"No harm taken little fella," I said, quietly. "Now uh….just what did you read?"

"Well….in one entry… you said that you liked 'Izzy' because you thought 'Isabella' was too fancy." I rubbed my chin in deep thought, forgetting the whole emotional outburst I had just had.

"I don't remember writing that," I muttered. "But it does sound like me."

"I get it though. I like Nikki. Longer and fancier names just sound so….."

"Grown up." we both said at the same time, before looking at each other in disbelief. Another moment of silence and staring went by.

"What else did you read?" I asked him.

"Well….from the things you wrote-and from what I could make out of your messy seven year old writing-I could tell you were not spoiled. Or a brat. You were just lonely and whenever you expressed that loneliness your mom and dad only told you to pipe down. I know what that feels like. But I know I shouldn't. You were all alone when you lived here, it makes sense why you'd feel that way. But me, I've got six siblings and I still feel alone in the universe. And that's because none of them notice me. None of them listen to me! Not even the stupid five year old twins who believe anything they hear. The more I read the more I realize how….how…."

"What?"

"How alike we are. I haven't met anybody like that and I thought I never would. Which is why I'm begging you Isabella….please please stay!" he pleaded, his bright blue eyes starting to remind me of Cubby's- which reminded me of Neverland and Pirate Island. I wanted to go home and be with my mateys, but I wanted this innocent little soul to know that he wasn't alone. But I couldn't do both…..could I?

"I….im sorry Nikki," I apologized. "But…I can't stay," The boy hung his head, looking like he was about to cry. "But," He lifted his head, a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "I'll tell you one thing."

"What?"

"From now on…..you can call me Izzy."

To Be Continued...

Alright, for the sake of making things less confusing because I like to do that to readers, here you go.

Omario - Izzy's father

Maria/Ria - Izzy's adoptive sister

Hector - Rias husband & Izzys brother in law

Izzy's Nieces and Nephews oldest to youngest

Alina (G)

Nia (G)

Andre (B)

Nikki (B)

Kalahr (B)

Camilla (G)

Pedro (B)