~The Girl Who Wasn't Real~

Felix watched in stone cold silence as the fire burned and cracked, sending sparks flying. His mind filled with horror as her body burned before his eyes. He forced himself to turn away. But the smell of her burning flesh almost made him hurl.

He looked at the rest of the clearing, and saw Hook and Pan. He saw the puddle of blood between them. His eyes tracked the bloody foot prints of the girl on her way into the flames. He walked slowly towards the scene. As he got closer he saw details that unfolded the story after he checked their pulses to make sure they were both alive. They were.

Their lips were both blood red. No. They had blood on them. Had she been coughing up blood? He looked at the two unconscious men sprawled below him. Hook was surprisingly shirtless and his torso, arms, and legs were covered in blood. Felix observed Pan's body and much of them were the same. Same bloody lips, torso, and arms. His legs weren't as bloody as Hook's, surprisingly.

With his skills at hunting and observing that he had learned over the years he saw what happened. Zemira was dying. Hook was at the scene first and he held her. Then she kissed him and some how he passed out. Then Pan came along and the same happened to him. But why did she burn herself? He wondered. How did they both go unconscious?

Felix needed something to do, so he traveled back to the camp that was near by and grabbed a bucket of water, a rag, and a shovel. It was easy to do because it was so early in the morning. He came back to the site soon and set to work.

Grabbing the rag and bucket he scrubbed at Hook's skin, trying to get the blood off. He had a hunch at why she did what she had done, and he was sure that she would want him to help her finish the plan. The bucket was soon tinted red and he went back to get clean water.

After he had scrubbed as much blood as he could from Hook, he set about to get rid of the foot prints of blood. He took his shovel and shoved it into the ground. He picked up the dirt and carried it away into a thicket of bushes. He did that with each foot print. In the middle of his work a huge crack came from the fire. He looked over at it startled and saw that in the hour or two of intense flame that had undoubtedly been charmed by magic causing it's extreme heat, there was nothing left of her body but whitened bones. One of them had cracked, causing the sound.

Tears came to his eyes as he thought of the beautiful girl that was now bones in a roaring fire. She had such a long life to live. But she was dead.

He turned around and finished his work. After he had finished, he dug a hole at the edge of the clearing. It was hard, sad work. When he was done he spilled the bucket on the fire and let the bones cool. His eyes were plastered to the dead white skull. He had a hard time believing that that was once apart of a human girl. It was sad.

It also showed how fragile a life was. People could so easily die. He had an uncanny desire to have known her, or at least to have something to hold on to that would remind him of her. He settled on the only time he saw her. She had come out of Pan's room smiling and confident. Her blue eyes shining. She was like a light. And now the world was darker without her, even as the sky was got brighter with morning light.

Time passed and he finally buried her remains. He flinched each time he came in contact with the white frame that once was apart of her body. Over come with sadness, he covered the hole in dirt, erasing her from the physical world.

~~~~~

Hook was the first to awaken. He had the worst dream. He had dreamt that this beautiful girl had stayed with him and he fell in love with her. Then he dreamt that Rumplestiltskin had killed her and some how she had sent him off the island, but not before she died after kissing him. It made him ache all over with sadness for this imaginary girl. He could still see her blue eyes, he could still feel her soft lips against his. He could smell her sent of wild berries. Tears seeped out from underneath his closed eyes yearning for this person he knew was never real. But she felt so real! His brain screamed.

He opened his eyes to a gray-blue morning sky. His eyes were blurry from the tears and he was aware of the scent of smoke and the smell of Burnt flesh. His eyes burned from crying. He sat up slowly, realizing that he was shirtless. He wondered why that was. Then he surveyed the area. One pit of burning coals, one lost boy staring gloomily into the fire, one pool of blood at his feet, and one Peter Pan lying bloody opposite him in the pool of blood.

Wait what?!

His mind did a double take. A pool of blood?!? He quickly scrambled to his feet. This made Felix see him and he stood up to come over to Hook who was freaking out.

"What happened?!" Hook yelled at him. A wave of relief filled the boy's face as if he understood exactly what had happened.

"You stabbed him," he said in a strangely monotone voice. Horror and fear filled Hook's face.

"Is he dead?"

"No but you injured him badly enough that it will take him a while to heal and he won't remember what happened. I won't tell him, just stay away from him? Just go." He said and then brought over a clean bucket of water and a rag and began to scrub at the blood the covered Pan. Hook was so startled he followed the directions without delay and walked quickly towards the shore.

His thoughts the rest of the day contained in sorrow for the girl who wasn't real. He could even imagine running his hands through her brown hair, and gazing into her light electric blue eyes. He felt so detached from the world. He felt like he had lost something huge, but she was just a dream. Right? She wasn't real.

His heart screamed in pain, threatening to jump from his chest and race back to the clearing. But he told himself that she wasn't real.

His eyes were not dry for many weeks later.

Because of Zemira, the girl who never was.

~~~~~

"What do you mean?" Pan asked in a slurred voice, as if drunk, "I hurt myself and passed out?"

"Yes, that was what happened," Felix said cleaning the rest of the blood off his shirt.

"But-" Pan said trying to grasp at the feeling he had, "I feel so sad," he said. Pan had this incessant feeling of loss. His dream of the girl still fresh in his mind. The memories of her lips and her eyes, and then her death shattered his heart. He couldn't quite except that it was a dream. "I had a dream, and there was this girl, who had beautiful blue eyes."

"Yes," Felix said hurriedly, "you have been having dreams about her lately."

"Have I?" He said curiously, but then his tone dropped, "She died, in my arms." Felix stopped and looked into Pan's eyes and said to him.

"She was just a dream, don't take it to seriously," he said. But something was off. Pan's head began to clear.

"Your lying," he said, "I feel no physical pain, I didn't hurt myself-" he stood abruptly and looked around the clearing, he saw the fire pit and he saw the newly churned earth and he almost stumbled back. He began picking apart his memory. what has really happened? The further he went the less blurry it all seemed. After a few more pained moments of searching the veil fell away. Pan remembered.

Tears sprung to his eyes. "No," he whispered, "No," the tears rushed down his face. He ran to the place where the dirt had been removed recently and dug through it desperately. Tears blurred his vision so badly he could hardly see. Felix helplessly watched as the spell that Zemira had put on him broke away.

"NO!" He screamed, "No! No! No!" Pan screamed holding white, ashy bones. He cried into the early morning. He felt like his very soul was being ripped apart. She was dead. He starred down into the black dirt and the cluster of bones in the hole he had dug with his bare hands. He was reduced to sobbing. His whole body shook in dispare. He was so close and yet he didn't save her, he let her die.

As the sky got brighter Pan got darker, his very soul was being changed. He took his guilt and forced it on his very character. He would never love again, he would only be capable of anger and revenge.

~~~~~

Felix left the clearing soon after Pan had found her remains. Pan had curled in the hole with her bones and sobbed for the next few days. Even after that he hardly spoke or moved. Felix had to come check on him and make sure that he was still alive from time to time.

Felix finally had the truth of what happened. Zemira tried to give them the gift of a dream, a dream where it wasn't real. They would still remember her but maybe they would love again. She tried to burn herself so that they wouldn't know that she had been real. But what she hadn't thought of was how powerful Pan was. Her spell didn't work and he found out the truth.

Peter Pan was never the same again.

~~~~~

Many years later a young Englander named Wendy Darling found her way to NeverLand. She was lovely and full of spirit. She was fifteen years old and in full bloom. But this hardly mattered to Pan. He all but threw her back to London, because she reminded him of what he had failed to do. She was a constant reminder of his lost Zemira.

Peter Pan was always destined to fall in love once on the island.

Many stories will tell you the girl he fell for was Wendy.

But as you have read this,

You now know:

Her name wasn't Wendy.

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