Chapter 1: Attached to the Past

The once happy family associated with Peter Pan has trouble coping with the real world.

A young lady sits quietly, watching the glorious London sun rising through her balcony window. As the morning sun shines brilliantly off the strands of her strawberry colored hair. She sits with her hands properly placed on her lap, repeating the same two words over and over, "You promised,” she says. “Ten springs have passed and still not a word, nor shadow, nor whisper in the night. Truly I say; to be forgotten is a fate worse than death.” she says. As one lonely tear slides down her rosy cheek, the young woman feels a gentle hand on her shoulder. She immediately wipes it off, turns around and puts one a deceiving smile to greet her mother, Mrs. Darling. Upon seeing the empathetic face of her mother, she is unable to contain her grief and seeks comfort with a hug from her mother.

“Mother, tell me it was all just a dream; a foolishness dream shaped by childish desires,” she says sobbing in her mother’s shoulder.

"Oh Wendy my child, every year in the beginning of spring, you sit here all night up until the morning waiting for magic and wonder to come back into your life,” says Mrs. Darling, holding Wendy lovingly in her arms. “When are you going to realize that it’s up to you to make your dreams come true; not some dirty boy in green tights,” she says jokingly as Wendy laughs a little, realizing the truth in her words. She walks to the balcony and opens the window, letting a gust of morning air inside. Wendy smiles shamefully, pulls back her hair and looks to the sky with a hint of nostalgia.

"You're absolutely right mother and I know that it isn’t proper for a young woman such as me to be into such childish nonsense but…”

“But he was your first love and your heart will not forget him,” Mrs. Darling interrupts, as Wendy quickly looks back with an embarrassed look on her face.

“That is what you wanted to say, right my child?” she asks, walking up to the dresser in between Michael and John’s old beds. She picks up a black and white picture of the late Mr. Darling and examines it with a soft smile. “I know it’s hard, but you must understand that you are a young woman now, with responsibilities. The time has come to put aside childish things and grow up.” say Mrs. Darling.

Wendy looks down with a sad acceptance. Looking at her back, Wendy can’t see the secret tears rolling down Mrs. Darlings cheeks. "Don’t spend your life next to a window waiting for a foolish boy like I did,” she says rubbing her fingers gently on the face of Mr. Darling, “You’ll end up wasting the little time you have with the people who you should be cherishing the most.

Wendy looks up with shock as she realizes something she never did before. "Mother… you?”

“You’ll be late for school if you don’t hurry,” says Mrs. Darling as she puts down the picture, straightens up, and begins walking out of the room. “You just became a teacher’s aid, so don’t start off giving a bad impression by being late.”

Wendy looks at the feminine gold bracelet-watch, realizing that she was right. She watches her mother walk out of the room without saying another word to her. She quickly gets up and starts preparing for school. Reaching under her bed, Wendy pulls out her book bag and sits on her bed, thinking of her mother’s words. She rifles through her things in silence with only the noise of the outside streets being heard. Standing up, she puts on her book bag and looks at the picture they took the day the returned with the Lost Boys. With both hands on the straps of her book bag, she heads for the door. She takes one last glance at the balcony window, “Today I shall put aside these childish thing and forget you as you have so clearly forgotten me.”

Wendy walks down the stairs leading to the foyer as she sees the St. Bernard puppy they received as a gift after Nana died, wagging its tail. She comes down and greets the puppy, picking it up and holding it in her arms. “Hello Maxi, how are you this morning?” she asks, flinching as the puppy licks her face. She readies to leave out the front door saying, “I’m leaving mother,” in a loud voice. Mrs. Darling rushes into the foyer to catch her before she leaves.

"If you see Michael, do please tell him to come by and visit” Mrs. Darling says with both her hands grasping one another. Wendy stops with one hand on the doorknob, staring into space. “Ever since you and he have gotten your own places, I rarely see him at all,” she utters in a lonely voice.

“I know mother but he’s just not the same boy anymore; at least … not after John’s death. Instead of dealing with his problems head on like a man, he hides his face in his little books. Sometimes he is just intolerable,” Wendy exclaims, her grip tightening on the doorknob.

“Don’t give up on him Wendy, he still your little brother and he just searching for a little light in the darkness.” Mrs. Darling pleads as Maxi looks at both of them quietly as if he can feel the tension in the room. “Honestly you both are more similar than you think,” she says as Wendy turns her head quickly, looking at her mother in disapproval. “Both are unable to let go of the past and unwilling to look toward the future.” Wendy opens the door saying, “Mother I’ll talk to him.” as she leaves the house.

Meanwhile, in a dark and quiet corner of a college library, Michael Darling is deeply entranced in his latest fantasy story. The terribly short, yellow, number two pencil scribbles away on one of the many sheets of paper spread out in a disorganized manor all over the table. He rubs his head, smiling as he struggles to put all his new ideas down on paper before they are lost. A Young lady in a pink dress and a ponytail walks up to him, tapping him on the shoulder. Michael, being consumed in his writing, barely even notices.

“Um…excuse me.” the lady says politely as Michael continues writing away without making any acknowledgement to her. “I was looking for a certain book and was wondering if you maybe could help me find it.” She tries to look around him to see what he’s doing then glances back at a table with three of her friends watching her with grins on their faces. “Your names Michael, right? I’m Sarah, I sit beside you in biology class,” she says hoping to get something out of him.

“I lost it!” he shouts, frightening the girl behind him as well as the rest of the people in the library. “It was right there on the tip of my tongue,” he says, standing up with both hands firmly on the desk.

The girl looks around her oblivious to what he is talking about. “Um…what did you lose?” she asks innocently.

“My ending, the way I was going to end him,” he says in an angry yet depressed tone.

Just then, the librarian comes around the corner in haste. She gives a stern look to the girl who then shies away to her friend’s table as she then turns her attention to Michael, still standing up trying to regain his lost thought. “Michael what is the meaning of this!” she says in an angry whisper. “Have you lost your mind? This is a library and as its keeper I will not allow such thing to go on here,” she says as he stands like a statue. “Are you listening to me?”

Michael snatches his papers together quickly, startling the librarian. Picking up his things, he walks by her with a frown on his face. “How can I ever finish this with all these aggravating people nagging me every bloody second?” he asks, rushing past the librarian who has a horribly insulted look on her face.

“Well I never!” she says as he walks by with sheets paper falling out his binder as he goes.

Leaving the library in a hurry, Sarah runs up behind him calling out his name. Michael turns around, confused as to who would be calling his name in school since he rarely speaks to anyone. She rushes up to him, trying to catch her breath as he looks around, thinking someone I playing a trick on him.

“You’re in my biology class, right?” he asks.

The girl smiles and blushes while nodding her head.

“I’m kind of in a hurry,” he says.

“Oh I’m sorry,” she replies

“Can you walk and talk at the same time?”

Sarah giggles, nodding her head again as they begin walking.

“So I just wanted to apologize for getting you in trouble back there,” she says trying to make eye contact with Michael as he seems to have tunnel vision.

“Don’t worry about it, that lady is always in a bad mood and annoying as hell,” he replies as she smiles.

The two continue walking as the reach the entrance of the school. They walk down the stairs in front of the school leading to the courtyard.

“So I was wondering if maybe one of these days we could maybe study together,” she says, vulnerably.

Michael turns around confused. “You need help with something? You make better grades than me.”

“Well no not exactly,” she says, looking down as Michael finally catches on and begins to blush himself.

“I guess we…”

“Michael!” an interrupting voice shouts.

As he turns around he sees Wendy in the distance, mingling with a group of friends under a huge oak tree.

“Isn’t that your sister,” Sarah asks. “She’s so popular; people say she might already be engaged because she’s so pretty and yet, refuses to take a boyfriend. Oh and I heard she just became a teachers aid. Is that true?”

She smiles, waving at him but he ignores her. “I have to go, I’ll see you around,” he says, walking away too fast for Sarah to reply. As he walks away, her friends who were secretly following them swarm her, asking questions.

Michael walks out into the streets and hails a cab. He hops in the black cab, smelling of cabbage and cigarettes, and gives the driver an address. As the cab pulls away, Michael can see Wendy on the other side of the streets, looking hurt that he didn’t want to speak to her. One of her friend approaches her and she quickly tries to mask her feelings as she watches him drive away. The driver looks back in the rearview mirror at Michael’s sad face.

“Had a bit of a barney with the lady?” he asks.

“Something like that,” Michael replies, not caring to explain their relation.

“No worries, I’m sure time will smooth out the rough spots, eh.”

He nods his head and sits in silence for the rest of the trip.

Later on Michael arrives at his mother house. Michael pays the driver and makes his way up the small stairs to the door. He looks at the door bell and lifts his finger but has a hard time pressing the button. It has been nearly a year since he had last been home. Unsure of how his mother would react or what he would say, he decides to use an old copy of the key to enter the house. He gently places the key into the keyhole while slowly twisting the handle, opening the door. With the door slightly ajar, he peeks in and immediately spots a St. Bernard puppy happily wagging its tail, expecting Mrs. Darling or Wendy.
With half of his body in the house, Michael looks confused at the puppy, which in turn shifts its head, looking confused at him.

“Who are you?” he whispers as he slowly shuts the door. He picks up the puppy and looks at the small heart-shaped tag hanging of his collar. “So your names Maxi; I guess you are the new Nana of the house.” He says placing it back on the floor. Michael listens around in the stillness of the house. “I guess mother has stepped out,” he says walking up the stairs as Maxi struggles to climb each step, following him.

As he enters his old room the first thing that catches his eye is the teddy bear he used to love. It lies on his old bed, pressed against the middle pillow, and sitting up looking as if it was waiting for him. He walks to the bed, picks up the bear and fells a comforting smile come over his face. “Hello old friend how have you been? I see mom fixed your eye, huh?” he asks as Maxi runs into the room, watching him. He places the teddy bear down on the bed and walks over to Wendy’s dresser. As he approaches it, he sees a picture of John in his army uniform as well as the picture they took the day they returned from Neverland.

He picks them both up, looking at each with a longing for things past. “I wish you were still here brother; you were always so strong and confident. Maybe we should have never left that place,” He says, as he goes and sits, leaning on the wall opposite the balcony window. He continues looking at the picture with all of the former Lost Boys and the rest of the family with sad smile on his face. “The real world has taken my joy from me,” He says, as Maxi comes and jumps on his lap. He laughs and pets the puppy until they both eventually fall asleep.

While asleep on the floor, time passes, and night came to London. As he lies on the floor next to the sleeping puppy, the window begins to rattle and wakes Maxi. A sudden silence comes as Maxi looks anxiously around the room. Just then the windows shake even more violently that Maxi runs under the bed and Michael wakes up startled. The wind forces the window wide open as Michael tries to block it with his arms.

He scrambles to pick up the pictures and immediately notices a change in the picture taken with the lost boys. Their positions have changed into a battle stance, wielding their weapons as their eyes glow red like little monsters. Frightened, he drops the picture and jumps to his feet. As Michael rises, an old, familiar chill run down his spine. He turns his head and sees a golden dagger stuck to the wall. Before Michael can even let out a yelp, a strong flash of lightning strikes and illuminates the room as he was held against the wall by a menacing looking pirate, covering his mouth.

Michael’s heart begins to race as he is aware of what is to come next. The shadow of a pirate ship slowly creeps into the room through the window and sails against the walls as if it had a mind of its own. Then, through the window, comes an old, ancient, foe. More demon than man the pirate looks as he glides in with a patch over his left eye, and the right burning red. His outfit is a black hue with red trim around the edge of his coat. As the moonlight gleams on his back, he seems to give off a dark aura like smoke radiating from his tainted soul. “A little birdie tells me you've been having naughty thoughts Michael,” he says in an evil voice.

Michael struggles and removes the pirates hand from his mouth. “Hook?” he asks in a hateful tone.

“Well it’s not Santa Clause,” Says the menacing looking pirate as Hook laughs along with him.

“Ha-ha, good form my boy,” says Hook as Michael stares into his infinitely deep, wicked eyes.

End of Chapter 1

Author's Note

Any repectful feedback helps.

Reviews

[Tanece Brooks]

This is awesome. I really loved how you created your characters. I also must commend you on your dialogue. It wasn't stiff, and it sounded very natural. In fact as I began to read it, when your characters spoke it kind of reminded me of Shakespeare's plays. Sorry, I've been reading Romeo and Juliet for the last two weeks.

Anyway, nice job and I can't wait to read more. Keep up the good work.

[The Fatal Lover]

Wow. I quite like this. It would be awesome if they made this into a movie or even a real published book. I would buy it and get all my friends to buy it too. Amazing job. Keep up the good work. =)

[James Watts]

This is not a bad read. Just remember to watch those -ly adverbs, especially in dialogue attribution. Example: Bill said mockingly. These weaken prose and a lot of editors see it as laziness, especially if there are an abundance of -lys in the body of the prose. some cannot be avoided, but some can by rewording a sentence or just removing the -ly word. I like to do an -ly edit every few chapters or so. I will be doing on for the Crimson Knights once I hit like chapter 10 or so and another at the end of the book.
Other than that, very nice write.

[Dutch Jr.]

This is a great write. Can't wait to read more.