“We’ve run our course, Peter. This is our end. It’s not enough. It’ll never be enough…”

“I’m not enough?”

The look in his eyes kills me as I turn and see two guards enter my room. Three more are hot on their heels. They kneel by Jake and then look up at us. They start to charge, and I immediately push Peter towards the open window.

“Please!”

“No!”

“Peter, you have to go.”

“I told you, I’m not leaving you. I love you, Wendy.”

“Oh, Peter,” I cry, swallowing down the tears and trying my best to sound convincing. “I could never love a boy that refuses to be a man.”

The guards reach our side and try to grab him, but he flies up in the air quickly. One pulls me back, another reaches for him a second time, but he floats just out of reach and out into the night.

“You lie,” he screams. “I know it! You can’t fool me, Wendy. I see it now. Not everything is make-believe. Even if you don’t believe me, I can tell what’s real!”

Quickly pulling his ring from my finger, I throw it with all my might and watch it fling out the window and fall to the ground in the night.

“Grow up, Peter,” I manage, my heart strangling me, tears flooding from my eyes, killing me slowly for having to do this to him. “It was all make-believe. This whole time. Nothing but an illusion. Deception. A sick spell.”

As hard as I try, I can’t stop my tears from falling. They rush out of my eyes angrily as I stare back at him. I fight to break free from the guards, but they hold me back harshly. They yell at him to come down or they’ll draw their weapons.

As much as it kills me to say what I’m saying and push Peter away, deceive him when I never thought I could, it would surely end me if he ever got hurt, if I ever had to live in a world where I knew he didn’t exist.

“Go back to Neverland, Peter. And take your magic with you.”

I can’t stand to see him fly away. Turning my back on him, I rush to Jake’s side, hopeful it delivers the final blow. On my knees, I fall apart, breaking for the boy behind me that I always feared one day I’d loose. I close my eyes and cry out, devastated that in the end, it was impossible to keep him with me.

I hear gunshots and start to shake. Crying harder, I hear as Peter yells for me. Begging me to turn. To listen to him. But I can’t.