Standing abruptly from my seat, I flash across the room and I’m at his side in an instant. He backs away in fear and I follow, forcing him into the darkness. Forcing him back into the shadows. Forcing him to understand. And forcing him to give me what I want and stop with the fucking trouble his disobedience is sure to cause.

“I gave Peter a whole new world, one he saw and believed in before anyone else did,” I seethe. “One filled with a boy’s wildest dreams. No girl was ever meant to follow. I gave him everything and he’d rather have her! What can she give him that I can’t?”

“She makes him feel alive,” he whispers, his stare imploring mine and my eyes widen as his words hit me harder than expected and I flinch back in shock. “She’s his reason for living, Tink. Can’t you see that. His reason for breathing.”

“And Neverland isn’t?”

“Some kinds of magic won’t captivate you with your eyes. The strongest kind of magic is one you feel. It’s the way he feels for Wendy that he doesn’t feel for you, doesn’t feel for Neverland, that will always win. Always take him away. Always call him home. No spell you cast will be strong enough to stop that.”

“Time has passed for spells, John. I think you finally realize that.”

Wendy’s brother looks at me defeated and lowers his head. He knows the promise he made. If he won’t keep up with his end of the bargain, there is only one thing left to do. And that is to collect what he owes me the only way I know how.

“Now, tell me what you know.”  He takes a deep breath, and I can feel the block that was there moments before finally start to lower. He complies, beautifully. But I’m too heated to not inflict pain. To not make him suffer for trying to stand in my way. My brain searches John’s quickly as he starts to crumble to the floor at my feet.

“She’s my sister,” he cries. “I can’t do what you’re asking.”

“You sacrificed your brother to us before.” I smile and he cries harder, clutching his head as I extract what I need.

His back arches and he screams out, fisting his hair in agony as he starts to writhe in misery at my feet. “Your shame made it impossible to stay home with him when he got hurt. Returning to Neverland, you knew what was required of you.”

“I honestly thought he’d forget about her,” he screams, visions of Wendy and Peter together flashing from his mind to mine, showing me their night together, their plans for escape.

But there will be no escape for any of them. John included.