The Lost Boy (Sequel to The Lost Realm)

Chapter Twenty

It all happens in slow motion.

I race forward, through a short hallway, desperately trying to narrow down where his voice is coming from. Within seconds I find what I believe to be the room and gently (in fear of pitfalls and sabotage) open the door.

What's inside brings me to tears. The same boy I'd fallen for in the land of imagination was slouched on the ground, his hair a tousled mess, his clothes dirty and loose, his feet bare and broken, his body skinny and malnourished, and his skin pale and bruised. He looks up at me, his eyes are the same piercing green I remember and hold a spark of life sharply contrasting to the body surrounding them.

"Arabella," He says in the voice that's echoed through my mind for the past three years.

"Peter," I answer weakly, too consumed by emotion to muster strength.

I dart toward him, gliding to the floor and into his outstretched arms, giving him a long kiss before settling.

We sit on the floor for what feels like eternity, he holding me with what little strength he possessed, and I resting happily in his embrace. It is said that time isolates you from a person, that it allows you to grow stronger without them, and to move forward into a new horizon. I suppose that notion is true, but in our case it isn't. My life without him was hell, and I'm finally back in paradise.

"He has my sisters," I say into his chest.

"We'll get them back," He says.

"How? We have no way of reaching them, and you are in no state of health to go look." I remark, looking up into his broken face.

"Help me up," he says, gently pulling his arms away from me. I stand and grab his hand, easily pulling his now minimal weight up.

He stabilizes himself using my shoulder and heads to the door, teetering with each step. I follow closely behind, ready to catch him if necessary.

He pushes out of the dark, toxic room and into the hallway. Then, what looks like pixie dust begins to spiral around him, consuming his figure. He is completely covered in about five seconds, then the dust fades away and I see the Peter from the island those few years ago. His hair is trimmed, his figure back to normal, and his clothes back to his signature look.

I stare at him. We'd given him a tombstone. We'd given him a funeral. We'd all said goodbye, but here he was, standing in front of me.

"I assume that room removed your magic?" I say.

He smiles, "Sure did. Feels good to be back, and to have you back."

"I thought you were dead," I reply, sadness dripping through my tone.

"I thought you'd moved on," he answers, the glimmer in his eyes faltering.

"Why would I do that?" I give a slight laugh.

He looks at me like I'm crazy, "I was thought dead for three years."

"So, my mother is Snow White and my uncles are the seven dwarves, I think it's safe to say the notion of you being alive wasn't crazy to me."

"You should've moved on. If you hadn't of come looking for me, you wouldn't have run into him and he wouldn't have your sisters-" He looks off down the hallway.

"Why did he take you? And what happened after the portal closed?" I ask, disregarding his ridiculous choice to blame anything on himself.

He grabs my hand, "Let's sit down and I'll tell you everything."

He guides me down the hallway and into the living room where we rest on the white plush couch.

"When the portal closed, a new one opened. It was darker than the midnight sky, and had an evil about it that was undeniable. Regina pushed us both through it and when I landed I found myself in a heavily wooded area, with dark, somber trees surrounding me, and cloudy skies above that gave the world a pale tint. Regina soon appeared behind me, a victorious glance upon her face. 'Ready to go see your father?' She said with a smirk. I thought she'd been messing with me, but sadly it was not the case, and soon she was tugging me along through a path in the brush. 'Where are we?' I asked, she scoffed as if it were a ridiculous question. 'Your father's realm. He finally harnessed the ability to create it, something you took from him all those years ago.' The trees finally thinned out, and in the distance, looming ominously over the rest of the realm was a large, black castle. It was like every castle in the magic forest, but there was something about it that was more powerful. 'This is taking too long,' Regina whined and within seconds we had transported into a large, grand foyer. The ambiance matched that of the exterior, with the walls covered in dark paint, and the floors a dark marble. A voice appeared from the shadows, 'Hello son'. I couldn't believe it was him, I'd thought I'd done it all those years ago, I thought I'd escaped him for good,  but he was there, right in front of me, with the same evil grin that I saw everyday of my childhood. 'Welcome home, been a long time.' His voice sent chills up my spine. 'What do you want,' I spat at him. His evil grin only grew larger, 'You'll see,' he said."

He paused for a moment, making sure I was still listening, a side affect of him convincing himself I'd moved on.

"At first he ordered me to a cell, one very similar to that of Regina's castle. I stayed there for about three days, no food, no water, nothing. I couldn't save myself, my magic had been long since shut down. Then, on the fourth day some of his henchman came for me, and drug me into the tallest tower of the castle-his workplace. They strapped me to a table while my father messed with some potions. 'What are you going to do,' I asked him. He explained everything: There was one lesson, when he was my teacher, in which he taught me where magic comes from. Naturally, magic can be inherited from parents or gifted from fairies, but true magic comes from the realm itself or true love. When he originally got his power, he gained a piece of the magic from the Magic Forest, then I inherited it. Yet, he craved more. So he created his own realm so that he may receive all the power, truly making him the most powerful wizard in all the realms. Then, I got into his plans. After such, he started over and finished yet another realm for himself. However, over time this realm had begun to weaken, and it was on the brink of destruction. He told me that's the reason I was there. By sacrificing my heart, since I have power from the realm, I'd be able to bring his power back. He took out my heart, and placed it into a small wooden cupboard. The whole tower shook, an intense pain shot through me, like nothing I've ever felt before. I knew I was going to die, I braced for it. Then, everything stopped. The cupboard reopened and my father cursed at the top of his lungs. My heart didn't work, but it didn't take him long to come up with another plan. 'Your girlfriend and her sisters, they have powers don't they?' His eyes held the brightest glow of treachery I'd ever seen. He continued on,  'Of course. And I'll bet they're more powerful too, after all they are the products of true love are they not? And their magic is held in that pity realm they call home. How else would they've been able to use their powers in a magic less realm?' I couldn't speak, I couldn't move, I knew there was no way I could change his mind, and so his plan went into action. He transported us to this place, and left me in that miserable prison. I never knew exactly what his plan was, but I know it took him awhile because of the magic barrier set up for Floristian."

"So he that's why he took them," my mind falls to a state of disbelief. I knew my sisters weren't safe with Rumpelstiltskin, but this was worse than anything I could have predicted.

"My guess is that Regina realized she was going to fail at killing you and your family, so she called in her old teacher. When I was working with her I never told her he was my father, but the truth comes out eventually. I'll bet that only sweetened the deal for her."

"How do we get to them," I say.

He shakes his head, "Magic can only open a portal to its origin, in the case that portal creation is an ability of an individual."

"Are there fairies here? Or maybe something in Neverland that could-" my eyes focus on something by the front door. I rise from the couch and walk over to it.

"What are you doing?" Peter asks.

I stare at the tiny item below me, and bend down to pick it up. Hope floods back into me, "Looks like my sisters left the second magic bean for us."

He mirrors my positivity, "Let's go get your sisters back."