Her evil mysterious glare deepens before she takes flight and leaves nothing but a scattering of gold glitter in her wake. It starts to evaporate just as the two men take off after her leaving Pan and I alone in the cave once again.

“She won’t make you,” I hear him finally speak up. “Not as long as I have anything to say about it.”

Turning, my body stiffens with anger. “And why should I care?”

His eyes hold a tenderness that I wasn’t expecting. Stepping out of the shadows, he holds my stare gently. “I brought you back to…”

“Help you find something,” I roll my eyes. “Something you lost. I know.”

“Wrong!” he snaps. “Something we both lost.”

I try to examine his eyes in the darkness. Try to get a good read on him. The way he’s feeling. What he’s really telling me. But it's impossible.

“Now,” he surprises me by whispering. “I think there’s another reason. Another possibility as to why you’re here.”

“You kidnapped me,” I blurt out. “In the middle of the night. For the second time in my life. Forced me to do things…,” he takes a step forward in warning and so I change course, “...and you have the nerve to stand there and act like it was all a predetermined destiny?”

“Wasn’t it?”

“Fate wouldn’t be so sick.”

“Fate has no control,” he counters back quickly. “However jaded, or displeased you are with the outcome, Darling.”

I glare at him in the shadows, tired of the back and forth. The game.

“Big words, for such a young boy.”

I drop his hook at his feet and start to walk past him, but he grabs my arm and swings me around to meet his stare.

“The past seventeen years has taught me a lot of things,” he seethes, and I flinch as the grip on my arm tightens. “For one, I’m not against learning,” his eyes glance down and slowly trail over my body before rising again. “You remember that much, don’t you, Wendy?”

“The boy I remember thought he already knew it all.”

“The boy you knew no longer exists.”

“Prove it.”

His jaw ticks as he studies me. I hold my breath, a small part of me hoping he actually does prove me wrong. After too much time has passed, my heart sinks. I’m foolish to ever believe in him again. To ever trust him. Time has shown me a lot too. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is to not be so naive. To stand up for myself. To believe in myself when everything about my past, about my first time here in Neverland, tore me down and made me feel broken. I try to shrug out of his embrace, but he takes a step towards me, tightening his grip, and I still.

“Tonight,” he insists. “You’ll have dinner with me. At Hangman’s Tree.”