TAKE ME OVER | HENRY MILLS [1]

XLVII. fingers crossed

Chapter status: Edited. 

Tahlia.

My eyes shoot open, immediately realising where I am. I sit up and see him, his face is only a few inches from mine, and I immediately scoot back in fear, only to hit the legs of someone else. I look up and see a boy, the head lost boy, Jamie, smirking down at me devilishly with amused brown eyes. I look back at Pan with a glare on my face.

"What do you want?" I growl.

"I want to show you something," he says seriously, not showing a single sign of anger.

"What is it?" I ask suspiciously.

"Nothing you need to be scared of," he says with a light-hearted chuckle.

I furrow my eyebrows at him, "what's up with you?" I ask.

"Nothing, it's just that- never mind, just follow me," he says with the slightest smile.

It is weird seeing him like this, it is nothing foreign, but weird, this is the old Pan. The Pan that cared about other people, maybe he's going to kill me now instead of waiting and he's just happy about it. Even with that thought in mind, I stand up and follow him, Jamie right at my heels. I know exactly the direction we are going; we are heading towards the echo caves.

"Why are we going this way?" I enquire.

I already feel tired despite the fact we have only been walking for a short amount of time.

"I have some motivation for you," he states simply as we grow nearer.

I can see the outline of the caves entrance. I didn't understand what he means by motivation, what could possibly motivate me to stay here? As we enter the cave, Pan waves his hand and the torches on the walls are instantly alight. He then claps and a rock path leaves the floor, creating a bridge across the large canyon of free space just in front of us.

"Follow me then," he instructs, looking over his shoulder at us before proceeding to cross the bridge.

I hesitate at first but then remember the big stick in Jamie's hand and I hurriedly follow Pan. Once we all make it safely over the gorge, the bridge disappears once again and we are left to look at a blank wall.

"This is it? You must be dreaming if you consider this motivation," I scoff at what seems like a pathetic attempt to make me stay.

I thought he is smarter than this.

"Not so fast, I taught you to not judge a book by its cover," he smirks.

I furrow my eyebrows once again, but then he clicks his fingers together and a low rumbling sound is heard. Suddenly, dust fills the air as the wall in front of us begins to slowly move to the left. I watch in disbelief as it pushes into the wall beside it before I finally look in front of me. It is then I realise Pan's plan is in fact brilliant and that he has already won.

Max sits in front of me, a weird field blocking him from me, elastic looking and clear. He hasn't aged, but I remember in the dream Pan said he was going to age. Before I can stop myself, I yell out his name and go to run towards him, but Pan grabs my shoulder and spins me around.

"He can't see us because we're in your dream, in real life we're not actually here. Besides you can't get him out of there unless you have a physical form," Pan says seriously.

"Let him out, please, just let him go," I begin to beg but he cuts me off before I can say anymore.

"I can't, only you can," he says.