I flinch. Peter’s eyes search mine frantically. There is a darkness in them that I’ve never truly recognized before. Only seen in his shadows. Now, it’s all consuming, but I hold onto the little piece of light I can see in the back of his soul, to find courage I didn’t know I had, in order to do what I have to. In order to break his heart.

Because, right now, it looks like the only way.

“I can’t leave with you Peter,” I suddenly blurt out before I can stop myself. He studies me, hurt, confusion, darkness creeping closer.

“Why?”

It’s such an innocent question with a gut-wrenching answer. One I’m not sure I can ever give him, because I know it will ruin him. Destroy us. I glance to my side and see triumph in Jake’s eyes and my back instantly stiffens. A hardness grows in my heart as I reluctantly look back Peter’s way and tell him the only thing I can manage to say. The harshest truth I’ve ever had to swallow, the one I know will force him back to Neverland.

“I lied to you,” his brow furrows as the darkness comes closer. “I don’t believe in happy thoughts anymore, Peter. I don’t believe in magic.”

How could I when everything we had changed in an instant? When I came home to a nightmare that won’t let me wake up? When the magic, the world that I always dreamed about, ended up stealing from me any chance I’d ever have of believing again, the outcome made it impossible to stay with him.

“That’s a lie,” Peter demands, and my hands begin to shake. “I don’t believe you, Wendy. I know you’re lying.”

“Believe what you want,” Jake insists, and both Peter and I instantly glance his way as he starts, once again to come closer. “But Wendy is staying here, with me, for reasons you can’t understand. Reasons, a boy, will never understand.”

Peter pulls me behind him and squares off against Jake. “You’ll never touch her. I won’t let you.”

“We played that game once before,” Jake laughs. “Didn’t work out for you then. I can guarantee it’ll be the same this time.”

“You touch her, and I won’t hesitate to kill you. I’ve killed for a lot less.”

“You’d have to be a man to kill, Peter,” Jake hisses. “It goes against all of your principals.”

Jake begins to circle us like we’re his prey. All the while, Peter keeps me shielded, turning us to keep me away from the man that’s threatened me since the first day we met.