Finding Peace

Chapter Eight

Throughout the rest of the night I fade in and out of consciousness. When I am awake, there's huge black spots in my vision and things in the distance seem to shine. It's a clear sign of dehydration. I try to sleep as much as possible, I know that time will go by faster that way.

Rays of sunlight shine down between the branches of the trees above me, light beaming down between the brown leaves. Wait, brown leaves? They were all green yesterday! Am I hallucinating or did all of the trees around me die overnight?

I sigh and close my eyes again, it's not like I can do anything about it and besides, I'm just so tired.

Peter's POV

I start the walk back to the cages to see the girl. Huh, I still don't even know her name. It's nice and sunny today, a perfect day to get some answers. But as I start getting closer, I notice that the plants are dying. The closer I get, the more are dead until I get to where her cage is and find that all the plants around her cage are dead.

Not just a few brown leaves like the first ones I saw, the trees are completely bare, all of the leaves line the forest floor. The more tropical trees are completely brown, borderline black. There's not a single trace of green anywhere.

"What the hell happened here? What did you do?" I shout moving closer to the girl. She only groans and turns over. She looks terrible. Her skin is pale and her cheeks are sunken in. I haven't really been able to get a close up look at her before, but now that she's not yelling at me or glaring, I can see just how tired she really is. There's dark circles under her eyes and her lips are so cracked that I can see a faint hint of blood.

"Wake up." I shake her arm, trying to get a response. It's not that I care about her or her well being, it's just that seeing her here, all weak and helpless, it doesn't sit right. I don't know why, but I can't let her die. She slowly opens her eyes and stares through me, it's like she can't even see me.

"James?" She asks softly, tears streaming down her frail face. "Is that you? I'm coming James, don't worry, I'm coming." She mumbles, trailing off near the end before her eyes close again and I can tell that she's going to die soon if I don't do something.

Groaning in aggravation, I lower the cage and gently pick her up bridal style. Bloody Hell, she barely weighs a thing. I teleport us back to camp and bring her inside my tent. Setting her down on my bed, I bring a cup of water to her lips, pouring it slowly into her mouth and massaging her throat so that she'll swallow it.

Once I'm sure that she's had enough water for now, I quietly walk out, not wanting to wake her. I make my way back to the cage to try and figure out what happened but as I'm walking through the dying trees they seem to gain their color back just a little and when I get to the cage a few of the trees are growing new leaves.

I immediately teleport to my thinking tree and call my shadow. He always knows what's happening and if he doesn't then I'll send him to figure it out. He flies up to the tree quickly, his dark form a stark contrast against the bright blue sky.

"What is happening in the forest? Those trees were dead or dying not twenty minutes ago. What happened?" I question.

"You don't already know?"

"Of course not! If I knew I wouldn't be asking you now would I?" I reply harshly.

"It is the girl. If she dies, the island dies." He says ominously before disappearing off into the woods.

Well, this could be interesting. A girl on Neverland. Okay, let's play.

Zillah's POV

I wake up with a pounding headache. I groan, rubbing my eyes as I sit up slowly. I'm not in the cage anymore. I don't know how or why though. The last thing I remember was seeing James in a bright white light. I'm pretty sure that I was dying and there's no way this is heaven cause I can hear those lost boys hooting and hollering right outside the tent I'm in.