The Shadow's Pet
“Mikey saw a shadow last night,” John blurted during breakfast, his mouth full of crackers.
“I told you not to tell her,” Mikey said with a sigh, “I only believe I saw one. I highly doubt it was real,” he lied.
“You never know,” John stated drily, picking up the crumbs he dropped and putting them in his mouth.
“It could’ve just been Hook.’’
“Hook doesn’t even check on us, Mike,” Wendy pointed out, giving John a disgusted look.
Michael clicked his tongue, lost in thought, “why don’t I stay up and see if it comes back?’’
Wendy looked at him with worry, “All right, Mike. But don’t stress over it, okay?”
That night he stayed up, watching the dark window silently. The only sounds were his siblings’ soft breathing and small droplets of rain hitting the metal roof. He knew it was sketchy, showing up at an orphanage window. But the teen, whom he found out was called Peter, had intrigued him. Last night he’d told him that he came from a place others call “HomeLand” but the weird part was that the people there didn’t age. Peter said it was because they were happy and that he saves the unhappy people and takes them to HomeLand. Michael thought it strange that people could be happy in this world. Adults were known and treated like gods, so he’d never imagined a world of unaging children. He called it NeverLand because it’d never happen.
He was thinking about last night’s conversation when a sharp knock broke him from his thoughts. Peter’s dark form stood in the window frame, this time accompanied by a slightly shorter shadow.
