Intro
Chapter 1
I can no longer truly remember how long ago it all started. I remember that once I lived someplace else, somewhere beyond the place I call home. I barely remember my parents, though I know I had them. I do remember our dog. Surprisingly, I remember how she looked, even how she smelled when she would come and help put my brothers and I to bed. But I cannot remember my parents.
I do remember, however, what happened beyond the world fell into darkness. I don’t remember when he disappeared, only that one day Peter never came home. I remember it starting to get colder and not thinking much about it. The Winter King would come out often when Peter went out on his hunts for new Lost Boys. That was just the way things were. I would stay home with the Boys, use that time to get the mending done and cleaning done. But, this time, Peter never came back.
Then the creatures started to hunt the woods in the night. We could hear them from within our home, stalking around the tree, looking for ways to get inside. We built coverings for the windows to close at night after the first time we heard the screams of whatever the creatures were hunted was killed. It was chilling. Death was not something common around this place.
At the time, I refused to believe what I was seeing.
This place, this land, was a land of wonder and belief. It was made of magic and enchantments. I remember that before we came here, my mother would talk about this place, this island in her stories at bedtime. Stories I took over as I got older. It was a place of adventure and youth, of innocence and all things lost and unwanted. Second star to the right and straight on til morning, Mother would say.
How much time has passed since the night of the first scream that grew until it was every night? How long ago did we abandoned the Tree and fled when our windows no longer were strong enough to protect us from the Nightmares that clawed at the door and dug into the ground to get to us? When was it exactly I struck the deal with the good Captain in return for protection and we rescued the pirates from their own nightmare? When we lost Chief Great Big Little Panther? How long have we lived in Haven?
I can’t remember anymore. Even now, my memories of the way the island was before the Nightmares took over are fading. My Neverland. My home.
My name is Wendy Darling.
