In which a young girl who doesn't believe in magic ends up on the most magical place in the world; an island called Neverland. After spending a few months on the island, she wants to go home. However, two years later, Annie Wood makes her return to...
Indigo reached a hand out to lead Annie furthur into the water. Trusting the mermaid, she took her hand.
"Annie!" Victor yelled from the beach, noticing something his sister didn't. Indigo's eyes had narrowed into thin slits, the colour darkening to almost black. Spiky fins erupted out of her shoulders and back while her cheeks hollowed and her skin paled into a deathly grey. The morphed mermaid let out a loud hiss just before grabbing Annie by her burned arm and spinning her around, a knobby hand with long talon-like nails across her throat.
The only thing Annie felt was fear, exploding inside of her like fireworks or dynamite. She couldn't even feel the pain on her arm as Indigo's grip tightened around it. Trembles raked through the girl as her eyes glanced from Lost boy to Lost boy as they all ran towards the water, but not daring to step foot in the crystal clear liquid.
"Get back! No one touch the water!" Annie heard the deep voice of Peter Pan bellow from inside the jungle. He walked onto the sandy beach, pushing his way through the crowd of boys with a casual walk and an unimpressed expression on his face. Annie felt better now that Peter was here, but didn't dare to fight against the mermaid. She stood as still as she could, showing defiance to the waves and her rogue nerves.
"Just who I wanted to see." Indigo hissed out, her voice now higher and cold. Annie felt a nail hit the vein on the side of her neck, and knew without a doubt that Indigo could feel how fast her pulse was. "You know, Annie, you should never trust a mermaid." A chill ran down the girl's spine as Indigo's lips brushed the top of her ear.
"Let her go." Peter spoke, walking close enough so that the toe of his boots touched the tide everytime it came up.
Indigo smiled, showing off her teeth that had now turned pointy and off-white. "Why should I? I kill her, and you die too." She said, her grip on Annie's throat tightening.
Annie's mind was about as numb as her body, but the words of the mermaid lingered in her ears. If she died, Peter died too.
"What did you do to us?" The girl managed to say, her heart hammering in her ears so loudly that she couldn't even hear herself talk.
"That day he saved you from the water, I knew he'd do anything to protect you. You see, Annie, Pan doesn't enter our territory. He knows we'll kill him as soon as he does. But he risked his life to save yours and I came up with a better idea to kill him then just wasting my days, waiting for him to come in the water. You're not the only one with magic, and I used mine to connect the two of you. If one of you gets hurt, so does the other in the same way. If one of you dies, well, you know. So will the other one. It was so easy to gain your trust, and now look where you are. About to be reunited with Grayson again, I suppose." Indigo explained, answering so many questions that had been running around in Annie's head. All but one.
"So that...the tingling. What's that?" Annie asked, the familiar feeling returning once more in her fingertips. She flexed her hand out, wanting it to go away.
"Whenever Pan's in danger, you get a warning. You got it on the beach that day because I was debating just killing him then and there, but he was on his territory. Again in the jungle, because the idiot almost burned himself alive. Think of your burns as sympathy pains. Notice the skin on his leg? He's already healed himself." Indigo used a forefinger to point at Peter's leg, where there was fresh skin in the same spot as Annie's burn.
Annie looked up at Peter's face, to see he was fuming mad. She was surprised smoke wasn't coming out of his ears. His eyes were a dark green and his skin flushed red. All he wanted was Annie back on the sand, where she was safe.
"You should've kept her safe, Pan. You knew you'd meet your match eventually." Indigo now spoke directly to Neverland's leader, smirking at how fired up he was. "Even in your last moments you're pissed. Lighten up a bit, Pan."
Annie felt a nail pierce her flesh, but just a moment after that she heard a loud gasp in her ear. All force was released from her before there was a loud splash behind her. The girl spun around, her hand quickly coming up to touch her neck at she went. She felt a small amount of warm blood on her finger but that was nothing compared to the pool of red that surrounded her. Indigo was underwater with her arms outstretched, and a dagger stuck in her heart. Annie watched her eyes flutter shut, just as she was grabbed around the middle by a strong arm that belonged to Peter.
"Who threw that?" The leader yelled, as he went back to shore, dragging Annie's fragile body with him. He was strong enough to carry her, and she couldn't even bring her legs to move to help him.
All the boys were silent, looking at each other to figure out who had thrown the dagger.
"It was me. I'm sorry, I wasn't going to let either one of you die." Victor spoke up, his hand slightly raised. "It was her or you two."
Peter was still holding Annie around her waist as he walked over. Victor prepared himself to get scolded, and was surprised when Peter clapped him on the shoulder.
"Thank you." He spoke, getting a small smile in return from Victor. Annie went to hug her brother as a way to thank him, but it was more so just her using him to hold herself up. Victor chuckled at the awkward hug, feeling relieved that his sister was alive and safe.
However, the moment was quickly over as Annie let out a soft groan and leaned over. She still had a hand on her neck that Peter seemed to have forgotten about, but was quick to go to her aid.
Peter gently moved Annie's hand, replacing hers with his own. Annie shut her eyes as she felt magic heal the wound in her neck, as well as the burns on her arm and leg.
"Sorry about the burns. A tree almost fell on me." Peter mumbled, pulling his hand away.
"Why were you burning the jungle down?" Annie asked as she opened her eyes. All of her pain was gone, now she was just extremely fatigued.
"Don't worry about that right now. Let's just get you back to camp." Peter replied. He looked at all the Lost boys before putting a hand on Annie's lower back and leading her off the second beach that now held haunting memories for all those on Neverland.
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Crazy stuff. I've been planning to write this chapter for a while and I hope you all liked it! I'm actually thinking of wrapping this book up soon because everything will be answered in the next few chapters, which means I have nothing else planned. It's pretty obvious now that Grayson is alive, and he will be coming back soon! I also have one more thing planned, but other than that this book is almost over!
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