Foreverland

Chapter 12

•Peter•

My vision swam, and not just because it was raining. Ara wasn't waisting her element of surprise. Before I could process the dagger in my back another was being plunged into my gut.

My hand flew to her neck and I wrapped my fingers around her throat. She gasped slightly but it didn't do much. I was already weak and shaking, my wounds from her last attack still hadn't healed.

"You won't stop me this time." Ara twisted the blade in my stomach while pulling out the one in my back.

"You- will- die." I released her neck and reached for the second dagger strapped to my thigh. However Ara beat me to it. She left the other blade in my side and with her free hand snatched my last flicker of hope.

I'd never felt so powerless.

The edges of my vision darkened and there was a metal tang in my mouth. My muscles felt like  stones and my knees buckled beneath their weight. Ara kneeled down before me and dragged her blade in a crescent shape from my chin to my temple.

I was so tired. So done. I was sick of fighting, I'd been fighting as long as I could remember. I wasn't even sure why I was fighting in the first place. Wasn't this what I wanted? I'd thrown myself off cliffs, held myself beneath the waves, even drove a blade through my chest. It had never worked until now. So why was I fighting it?

Maybe now I'd see Rose again.

"I'm going to tell you what's going to happen, Peter Pan. I am going to kill you." She drew a line down my neck to my chest with the dagger, "in the odd chance the girl in the woods was right and you really can't die. You better not come back or else you're going to wish you could die."

"What?" I coughed and blood splattered across Ara's face, "What girl in the woods?"

"It doesn't matter, she told me your secret. How you kill your precious little boys when they get too old and that's how you live forever."

"What?" I wasn't sure if it was the lack of blood flow to my head that was making Ara hard to understand or if she just didn't know what she was talking about.

"You don't realize do you?" Ara laughed, pushing me back so my head slammed into the muddy ground. "You aren't immortal anymore because you haven't killed in so long. I've read the notebook, I know more than even you Peter Pan. How does that feel?"

Everything clicked together at once, even with my spinning head. Every time I killed a boy I was steeling his life. After five years that power was starting to fade.

"You know what else?" Ara leaned above me so that our noses were just inches apart, "now that I know your secret, I know how to be immortal too."

"No..." I croaked as she slowly slid a blade into my chest.

"That's right. Your life isn't the first I plan to take." She leaned forward, placing a harsh kiss on my cheek, "sleep well." She twisted the blade before getting off of me. I didn't even try to move as she sauntered away. I knew when I was defeated, even though it didn't happen often.

The rain water mixed with the blood surrounding my body. I didn't feel much like dancing anymore. I was just cold and... so, so tired.

One thought remained with me as I drifted off.

I'd see Rose soon.

And then the rest of my boys would join us.

And I could finally rest in peace.

↢ ↢ ↢

I woke to the sun warming my chilled skin. Slowly the warmth turned into stinging, burning. I felt... alive. I wasn't sure weather or not I was happy with that realization.