Slightly trails off and I bite the inside of my lip, trying to make the anxiety I feel in my gut go away. It’s been two weeks since the incident at Skull Rock. Peter hasn’t touched me and barely looked at me since. He’s left me alone every chance he gets. Always seeming like he is on the run. We’ve barely been in the same room together, let alone spoken more than a few words to each other since.

“Whatever it was, it made me want it, too.” Slightly finally continues.

“Maybe we should see for ourselves,” Cubby questions and my heart races with fear.

“Yeah,” Slightly agrees. “Maybe we should.”

I hear a chair scrape across the floor, followed by four more. My hands shake as I clutch my blanket tighter around me, as if it’d be any protection against them all.

“I don’t know.”

“Yeah, I don’t know,” one twin echoes after the other. “What if Peter finds out and gets mad at us?”

I hear their footsteps inch closer and my breathing stops.

“He’s never not shared with us before,” Slightly encourages the group.

“Yeah, but didn’t you say this was different?” Tootles butts in. “We don’t know what he was doing, so how are we supposed to know how to make him share?”

Tootles. I haven’t heard his voice until now, and I hang on to it for dear life. He’s suddenly the voice of reason when he’s normally anything but. I hope the others listen to him, but as I hear them come closer my heart speeds up because I know they never do.

“There is only one way to find out…” Cubby rasps out. His voice is so close it sends chills down my spine.

“Should we try it? Take her when she’s sleeping? Maybe she won’t wake up.”

As if doused by cold water, I’m suddenly more than awake and turn over, opening my eyes quickly. All five lost boys stand at the edge of my bed peering down at me eagerly. It’s almost as if they believe I will manifest into something for them all to divide amongst themselves. When that doesn’t happen, their eager faces turn to frowns.

“What is it?” I ask, trying to sound startled but my voice comes out shaky and filled with fear. “Do you need something? Where is Peter?”

“Out,” Slightly grins.

“Yeah, out,” the twins agree.

My eyes dart between Slightly and the other two boys at his right, before my hands instinctively grab the blanket at my waist and pull it up higher as a shield.

“We should go look for him,” I blurt out, attempting to rise from my bed but I stop when Nibs takes a step forward and pushes me back against it.

“What do you want?” I bite back.