The Gardens | Peter Pan

Chapter 1 | A Dance Under the Moonlight

Some years prior...

The smell of smoke was thick in the air.

It billowed from the raging bonfire and floated through the air. It filled her lungs, the ashy taste nearly as intoxicating as the sound of the flute echoing in her ears. She had summer in her hair and winter in her eyes.

Dancing with the crowd, illuminated by the warm glow of the bonfire, she was the vision of a goddess. The summer blue nightdress she wore flowed like water around her, swaying and moving with the wind. Moonlight cast a halo on her wheat blonde hair, long and loose as it cascaded down her back. A musical laugh filled the air, easily confused with another tune from another piper that might've been hidden in the trees. It wasn't, the source of the sound was her as she wildly danced around the fire. She seamlessly moved through the crowd of boys, her movements loose and seemingly unpracticed yet perfect all the same, eyes shut and lost in her own world.

From his position across the fire, Peter Pan watched her, half mindedly playing his enchanted flute. An enigma, his pan flute was only supposed to attract boys who felt lost, yet there she was, dancing around the clearing as if she was always supposed to be there. He couldn't help but watch her, green eyes peering at her from under his heavy cloak. It was as if she was weaving a spell of sort, casting it upon all who gazed upon her; enrapturing them by her dance and then leaving them paralyzed with her laugh.

He was half convinced she was some sort of sorceress, intentions as unclear as the clouds in the sky. If he'd truly been as old as he presented, Peter might fall into the enchantment she was subconsciously weaving. But he was wiser than he looked, able to keep his head clear even as a part of it pleaded to be muddled. Still, her charm managed to whittle its way into his head.

Pan had come to the town for friends to take back to Neverland, but he might break his own rules and bring back a girl.

He threw back the hood of his cloak, exposing his blonde hair that curled towards the ends, his face innocent and angelic. Each footstep sure and confident, the dancing boys parted from him like the Red Sea, yet Evelyn remained blissfully unaware of his coming presence. So lost in the trance the magic put her in, she didn't stop until he stood before her. Even as she stopped dancing, there was a slight sway to her body, like a breeze overtaking a clearing. Half awake, Evelyn looked up at Pan through her lashes. He looked so young and harmless, she couldn't find it in herself to be scared, even if the sly smirk on his lips sent shivers down her spine. Naïve and still a silly teenage girl whose head was level with the stars.

She was nearly the same height as Peter, yet his presence seemed so much larger than her, the shadow he cast overtaking her figure.

The smirk that pulled on the corners of his lips broadened; and in the dim light, he seemed ethereal. Evelyn simply stared at him, silent as she waited for him to speak. Normally on the brash and mouthy side, Evelyn found herself rendered completely mute. Despite no longer playing his flute, the boys still danced around the clearing, as wild as they ever were. But Evelyn could feel the haze brought on by the flute die out. With sudden clarity coloring her vision, Evelyn stood as still as a statue.

But the spell Peter Pan seemed to weave with his boyish charm only dug its claws deeper within her skin.

"You can hear the flute." It wasn't a question, more of a statement, yet Evelyn nodded her head nonetheless.

"Should I not be able to?" She finally spoke, her voice nearly overshadowed by the whooping boys. But Pan heard it, his senses acutely aware of the girl standing before him.

"Not quite, it's enchanted you see. It's only supposed to be heard by boys that feel lost and unloved, yet you don't seem to be a boy." He raised his eyebrows at her. "Perhaps just unloved." Pan continued, not pausing to allow for Evelyn to respond.