“Have I ever needed a reason before to do as I please?” I hiss out angrily. I shoulder past him and start to make my way down to Pegleg Point.

“Ok,” he stammers as he scurries to keep up with me. I look over my shoulder and give him a disapproving look, but don’t stop him. “Logically speaking,” he continues, “you don’t think it was foolish to kill off one of the last lost boys on the island?”

“I don’t need more lost boys, I need…,” my voice trails off and I instinctively stop walking.

My nightmares resurface and I slowly close my eyes. They’re the ones that call to me every time I close my eyes. The visions of Wendy and I at the end. Our end. They keep me awake, tossing and turning, every night since I’ve been back.

“Never mind,” I manage to say as I reopen my eyes and pick up the pace to the lookout point.

“Besides,” I call over my shoulder, as we push a few large palms out of our way, coming to the point overlooking the ocean at Cannibal Cove. “You’ll be my first mate, John. I won’t need anyone else.”

“First mate?”

“For my ship.”

I look out over the ocean and realize, if I stand a chance of surviving now that Wendy is gone, I can’t stay at Hangman’s Tree. I have to have a new place, somewhere everything won’t remind me of her. I told her once, I planned on building a pirate ship out in the cove. Now seems like the perfect time to get started.

“You can’t run from your past, Peter,” I cringe as he says my name. All I can think about is the way it used to fall from her lips. As if always spoken on a beautiful dream. One that has now become my worst nightmare.

“Watch me,” I mumble as I walk off, starting to scale down the point to the beach below.

“It’ll only bring you darkness,” John yells above the sound of the crashing waves against the rocks. “Peter, did you hear what I said?”

I look up in his eyes and know he’s right. But running from my past is all I’ve ever been good at. I know that now, because since Wendy’s been gone, I’ve been having a new kind of dream than I’ve never had before. One that I know is real. One that I suppressed a long time ago and one that threatens to swallow me whole if I’m not careful.

“Peter, I…”

“Hook!” I yell up at John and watch him look down at me puzzled. “James Hook, Smee. If I ever hear you say that other name again, I’ll gut you just like I did your friend.”