Escaping Neverland (2 page)

Covered in my own vomit, soaking wet, thirsty,
tired, and sore, I sat in a circle of staring children and hoped, with all my
might, that if I did have a special ability, it wouldn’t be flying. William
hadn’t gotten angry with me for throwing up on him, but he did seem a little
less cheerful when we landed in the middle of a jungle and he pointed me
towards a group of trees laced with platforms and small woven grass huts. A
stream circled around the clearing. Part of it looked like it’d been dug by
hand.

The clearing where I sat was filled with children.
One boy, who seemed to be having deep, soul-searching conversations with the
monkey that rode on his shoulder had offered me a piece of flatbread with
something green on it, and I had thrown up again at the sight of it. A girl who
looked a few years older made a face, and then offered me a wooden cup filled
with a bitter smelling liquid. She was dark-skinned with dreads and a petite
face. Her eyes were an icy pale blue, a startling contrast against the warmth
of her skin.

“It’s for the nausea,” she said. “I’m Jasmine.
Nice dress.”

“I’m Paige,” I said. I sipped the lukewarm liquid
and looked down at my prom dress. It was streaked with mud and vomit. The
bottom was torn and dragging. I wished I could take it off and burn it.

When another boy walked up with flames dancing in
his hair and on his fingertips, I set the cup down and buried my head in my
arms. The island was overwhelming. Everywhere I looked there was something
weird going on. I’d even spotted what I thought were fairies rustling through
the underbrush.

I wished Jake were here to see it. He was so
analytical and scientific I couldn’t even imagine his reaction to all this
magic. But I’d left Jake behind with the Captain, and now he was gone forever.
The thought hit me like a punch in the stomach, and I began to cry again.

The boy with fire in his hair sat down next to me
and patted me on the shoulder. He was whip thin, but strong looking, with pale
blonde hair and washed out brown eyes.

“I’m Pyro. So, you miss your family, huh?” he
asked.

I flinched away from his touch. He’d burned a hole
in my dress.

“No, I don’t miss my family, and my family
probably doesn’t miss me either,” I snapped. My dad never got up to see me
before I left for school, and he worked nights. He’d probably assume I was out
with Jake all weekend and not even notice until the middle of the week that he
hadn’t seen me in awhile.

The boy looked surprised and then frowned. “Why
you crying then?”

I stood and stomped a few feet away. “Because
William refused to even try to rescue my best friend. And now Jake’s a zombie
or something.”

Jasmine came and took the cup away from me. “The
Captain captured me and my brother right after William brought us here. William
rescued me, but the Captain had already used the voice on Sean. I haven’t seen
him since.”

The fire boy nodded. “Yeah, I had a friend here
that got caught by the Captain. Once the Captain uses his magic, you might as
well be dead. It’s not William’s fault.”

I shook my head. “I don’t care whose fault it is.
I’m going to rescue my friend.” I took a few steps into the jungle, turned
around, and then took a few more steps in the opposite direction. Finally, I
stopped, defeated, and slumped back to the ground.

“I should have just stayed in my room. Then I
wouldn’t know about Jake being kidnapped by crazy fictional characters and feel
bad or be covered in vomit.”

Pyro flicked his fingers out, playing with a
dancing flame the size of a golf ball. “There’s no use feeling sorry for
yourself,” he said.

I glared at him. “What would you know about it?
You’re like what, sixteen?” 

Pyro frowned and flicked the fire ball into a
tree. “I’m seventy-five years old. What I told you is the truth. You can’t save
your friend. If you try, you’ll be captured. The Captain will either kill you
on sight, or he’ll use the voice on you. Either way you’ll be dead.”

I stared at him. Seventy-five? I knew the thing
about never aging in Neverland, but this kid was old enough to be my
grandfather. I looked down at the ground, imagining myself stuck at seventeen
forever. It was a depressing thought.

“Cheer up,” Pyro said. “You can always ask William
to take you back to Earth once the gates are opened.”

I perked up at that and then wilted. I couldn’t
just leave Jake here on his own. Even if I couldn’t save him, no way was I
going to go back to McDonald’s, caffeine, and graphic novels without him.
Abandoning him to suffer would make me an even bigger loser than trying to
rescue him and failing had. He’d stuck with me through my parent’s divorce and
my craziness. I couldn’t just leave him.

“I’ll stay,” I said. My voice was so quiet I
barely heard it, but William plopped down in front of me and smiled.

“Glad to hear it, because I wouldn’t take you back
anyway.”

I forgot for a moment that I didn’t want to go
back. “Why not?”

William shrugged and flung a handful of rotting
leaves at me. “Because silly, I need help fighting the Captain. You might have
an ability we can use.”

I brushed the leaves off my lap and stood, shaking
my head. “No. I won’t fight for you. That’s ridiculous. I’m not some comic book
heroine with super powers. I think the Captain already tested me anyway.”

William’s face fell a little, but it came back
again just as bright after a few seconds. “Maybe he’s wrong. Sometimes it takes
awhile. In the meantime, you can help dig a new privy. The old one’s full.”

Groans broke out across the clearing, and when I
found my hands full of a crude shovel, a pair of leather pants, an old
threadbare shirt, and a vest, I nearly chucked them into William’s face. When
he just stood there and stared at me, I stomped off into the trees and changed.
I took down the rest of my hair, knowing it was tangled and sticking up in
weird places from the hairspray. I let the little rhinestone pins fall to the
ground. They sparkled against the rotten leaves on the jungle floor. I carried
the dress back out with me, ready to pitch it into the fire pit, but Jasmine
came and took it away from me, her fingers stroking a clean spot of silk.

“I’ll keep it for you,” she said. “You might want
it again.”

I shook my head. “No. You can have it.” I gave her
the shoes too. They were so covered in mud you couldn’t even see the
rhinestones anymore.

She smiled a little and walked away before coming
back without the dress and climbing into the hole with her shovel. I followed
her, wincing as the leather of the pants pinched my leg as I walked. I was
barefoot, but after looking around at the other kids, no one else was wearing
shoes, so I didn’t bother to ask.

The mosquitoes were worse near the stream, and I
spent more time slapping at them than digging. Jasmine dug next to me, her
movements quick and sure. She looked like she’d dug a lot of holes in her life.

“So, uh. . .what did William mean when he said he
might need my help to fight the Captain?” I asked.

She stopped for a moment, leaning on her shovel.
“He needs soldiers. We’re at war.”

I felt my mouth fall open.
War? Great. It
figures
. “Why?”

Jasmine stopped again. If she was irritated by my
questions, she did a good job of hiding it. “The Captain kidnaps kids from
Earth. He makes them do terrible things. William rescues them sometimes and we
all try to stop the Captain. For good.”

“What kind of terrible things does he do?” I
asked.

“He kills the fae and fairies and animals here on
the island,” Jasmine said.

“Why?” I asked. I felt like a broken record, but I
just didn’t get it.

Jasmine sighed. “Because the Captain hates the
fae. None of us really know why. William has always fought the Captain, and the
Captain has always fought William. The Captain kills the fae and the fairies,
and William rescues them and the kids that the Captain kidnaps. That’s how it
works.”

It sounded endless to me, one of those catch-22
situations that could never be resolved. I looked around at the kids digging in
the hole with us. They ranged in age from four or five to fifteen. All of them
were dirt-stained and missing teeth. A few of them were so skinny I could see
the bones of their ribs even through the tattered clothes they wore. I turned
back to Jasmine and pointed at one of the little kids. He looked about four.

“How old is he?” I asked.

Jasmine turned to look and shrugged. “Older than I
am. He was here when I got here.”

I looked at the boy again, watching him struggle
with the shovel. “Why don’t your bodies age?” I asked.

Jasmine didn’t answer at first. She’d gone back to
her shovel, moving in steady, precise movements. I waited for her to answer,
knowing she’d heard my question. Finally, I went back to shoveling too.

Jasmine eventually stopped. “The same fairy dust
that gives us our abilities keeps us from aging.”

I frowned. “Then how is the Captain so old? Isn’t
he from here?”

Jasmine shook her head. “None of us are from here.
Only the fae and fairies. Everyone else is from Earth. That’s how it works.”

“What are the fae and fairies? Are they
different?” I asked. I’d seen some little winged people looking creatures
darting through the bushes around the clearing, but they hadn’t held still long
enough for me to get a good look at them.

“The fae are the royalty here on the island.
They’re normal sized and don’t have wings. The fairies are the little winged
ones you’ve seen around the clearing. They’re the ones with the dust. The fae
and the fairies are like distant relations from the same species.” She looked
down at my pathetic little scratch in the ground. “Less talking, more digging,”
she said.

I sighed. When it started raining again, filling
the pit with mud, I promised myself that I’d do whatever I had to to get home
and go to college so I wouldn’t ever have to do such hard, manual labor again.

A few hours later, with blistered hands and an
empty stomach, I flopped down against a log and snatched the food Jasmine
handed me. It wasn’t a cheeseburger, but it smelled like rice and beans and
that was fine with me. I finished the food in three bites and slid down until
my head was pillowed on the log. For now, Jake was out of reach and I felt like
I’d just run a marathon . . . without any shoes on. I fell asleep to the sound
of the snapping fire.

I woke up later when Pyro kicked my leg. “Hey.
Wake up. You’ve got centipedes in your hair.”

I sat up, trying to fight past the fuzzies in my
brain. I was so tired I could barely think straight. I yawned.

“I’ve got what in my hair?” I asked. I raised a
hand to it, meaning to pluck the leaf or dirt out, and my fingers felt a
segmented, oily body. I screamed, fingers flailing around my head. I couldn’t
see what was in my hair and was too afraid to just reach up and grab it.
Whatever it was, it felt big. I danced around the fire, feeling more and more
panicked. I felt the first sting of tears in my eyes as no one stepped forward
to help. When I felt the tickle of a hundred little legs brush my ear, I
thought I was going to faint.

I sat down hard, my breath whistling in and out of
my throat. When I felt something bigger rustle through my hair, I squeezed my
eyes shut and began to hyperventilate.

“They’re gone.”

William’s voice in my ear calmed my breathing. I
opened my eyes, and he pointed over at two six inch long centipedes burrowing
under the leaves. I shuddered and felt my stomach turn over.

“So gross,” I said.

He smiled. “Yeah. It’s a jungle. Come on. We need
to talk. I’ll carry you.”

I looked around the clearing, wondering why we
didn’t just go off into the trees away from the group, but then realized that I
didn’t really want to go wandering into the jungle in the dark anyway.

“Can’t it wait until morning?” I asked. “It’s
raining.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Most people love flying,”
he said.

I shrugged. “I like flying too. In airplanes,
where I sit in a chair and the stewardess brings me peanuts.”

“Well there aren’t any airplanes, whatever those
are, here. You’ll have to make do with me.”

I couldn’t help but smile at the flirting edge to
his voice. In the dark, his eyes were softer. His voice had lost the harsh edge
I’d heard all day as he ordered us around the clearing. I sighed and stepped
closer to him, wondering if I smelled as bad as I looked. He grabbed me and
launched us both into the air.

I clamped down on my stomach as it heaved, trying
not to look down. Flying in the dark was even worse than flying during the day.
I could feel the wetness of the rain on my face and smell the lush jungle below
us, but I couldn’t see the horizon. I couldn’t see anything but the stars.

“So, uh. . . what did you want to talk about?” I
asked.

William shook his head. “Wait,” he said.

I sighed. Talking helped distract me from my
stomach. I tried closing my eyes, but when my stomach rolled and my head spun,
I slammed them open again, taking shallow breaths to keep from throwing up. I’d
never had motion sickness before in my life. Not on airplanes, boats, or roller
coasters. But flying like this with just my body hurtling through the air
sucked.

When William set us down on top of a large, wet
rock, I sighed and sat down. My legs were still trembling. After a few minutes,
my stomach stopped rolling, and I looked around.

We were at the top of a waterfall. In front of us,
the water roared past, filling the air with mist. I looked over the edge,
trying to judge how high we were, but it was too dark to see the bottom. I
scooted farther from the edge and turned to William.

“So?” I asked.

He wasn’t looking at me. He was staring off into
the dark over the top of the trees. I looked in that direction and gave a
little gasp of surprise. We could see the ocean from here, and there near the
shore was the Captain’s ship. It was lit up like a Christmas tree, lights
shining all down its length. Through the haze of the waterfall and the rain,
the lights looked fuzzy and soft.