Peter glances up my way, his jaw clenched tight. His eyes hooded, dark, vicious, as he grabs Jake’s other wrist and pulls it up above his head. Without hesitation, he pulls a knife from his ankle and stabs it through his other palm just as I hear boots coming up the stairwell.

“No one touches what’s mine and lives,” Peter hisses, leaning in towards Jake and making Jake look him in the eye. He twists the blade in his palm and Jake screams out in agony.

The sounds of the guards coming grow louder. I look over my shoulder and hear the nurse talking frantically, telling them what she saw. I instantly find my feet and rush to Peter’s side, pulling him from Jake’s body as he writhes in pain on the floor. His side wound is losing blood quickly. His hands are pinned in crucifixion for his sins. With trembling hands of my own, I pull Peter to the window and open it quickly.

“You have to go,” I insist, and he stiffens. I look at him with pleading eyes, but he doesn’t back down. “Now, Peter. Before they catch you”

“Wendy, you’ve seen what I’m capable of. Believe me, I can take them. Besides, I’m not leaving you. Ever. You can’t make me. I won’t leave you.”

I knew as much. I prepared for as much. But that doesn’t make this any easier.

“Playtime is over,” I hiss out angrily as the sounds from outside the room continue to come closer. I look towards the door. My anxiety growing with each second that passes. “I’m never going back to Neverland. I am needed here. They need you…”

“I need you.”

My heart stops beating. Hanging my head and turning back his way, I force the tears back as I glance up in his eyes.

“I don’t need you, Peter. Not anymore.”

He takes a step back as if my words cut him.

“I need to grow up,” I whisper.

His brow furrows.

“I want to grow up. I don’t want to live in a world of make-believe anymore. Of magic.”

His face hardens and instinctively I reach out to him. My soul is hurting for hurting him and wishing I could take back everything I’m saying. But it’s the only way to get him to leave. To save him. Because I would never be able to go on living if anything happened to him. If I knew he was no longer breathing in my life. He was right. Everything begins and ends with us. I can’t let this be our end. Not yet. As much as I am not ready to say goodbye, I’ll never be ready to watch him die. He flinches away and it only causes me more pain.

“But, what about the beginning and the end, Wendy…”