Far
Away And Gone
By
Adrian Henske
Peter had fought the darkness for
as long as he could, but it was destroying his world. Why was it here? Where
did it come from? Was it a result of all the children who stopped believing? Or
maybe this happened to all worlds. Peter didn’t know, but he had to escape. He would
have to leave behind everything he had ever known. No, not everything. There
was one person he could go to. He would find her; she would know what to do.
What Peter found on the other side was
not what he expected. The darkness had reached this world too. Everything he
saw lay in ruin. Peter recognized the darkness’ familiar effect: there was no
structural damage, everything was just... empty. No people scurrying about
below him, no traffic, no noise, just dead silence. This eerie silence was
almost deafening.
Peter noticed the sun low in the
sky, not moving, the tallest buildings casting long shadows over the remainder
of the city. The sky was dyed an unnatural deep crimson, blanketing everything
in an eerie red hue. It almost reminded Peter of his own sunsets, brilliant
colors dashed upon the waters from the sky’s reflection, yet this sun would
never set. It was locked in place, an eternal sunset.
Peter turned his attention back to
the sky for a moment, but his star was nowhere to be found. His world had
already disappeared.
Peter had to find her before it was
too late. The darkness was spreading fast, and he had to hurry. As he
traveled, scenes and images flew past him: a desolate playground, the empty
swings and merry-go-rounds lying motionless as if silently pleading for the
children to return; the old clock tower whose hands would never move again; and
rows and rows of houses of every shape and size. Peter held out hope that
perhaps the people were hiding in these houses, behind the walls where he could
not see and where the darkness would not reach them.
At long last he had reached the
familiar little house. Immediately, Peter recognized the upper window that he
had visited so many times, the window that would bring him to her. He peered
through the glass, but the beds and bedroom were completely empty. Peter
pressed open the seal from the bottom, as he had learned to do so long ago, and
slipped inside.
“Wendy!” came Peter’s voice,
echoing into the empty house. He waited a moment for a reply, but heard not
even the sound of the wind rustling the curtains.
She had to be here. She just had
to. Peter zoomed downstairs, calling her name. He opened every door, looked in
every cupboard, searched every possible space. No. This couldn’t be happening.
He wasn’t going to let the darkness take her like it had the rest of his
friends and loved ones. Not Wendy. Peter dashed back upstairs, thinking he had
not searched her room thoroughly. “Wendy!” he called one last time.
Out the window and up he went,
higher and higher until he had a sizable view of the surrounding area. Peter
reared back his head and bellowed out her name, his voice echoing across the
city with as much power as he would give his crow. Again and again, he called
her name, but even the city would not give him an answer.
She had to be somewhere. He didn’t
care if he had to search the world over, Peter would find her. He had nothing
left to go back to. She was the only thing that mattered to him now. And search
the world he did.
Peter searched through vast cities
lined with towering skyscrapers, spent days and nights sailing over endless
deserts, and traveled across frozen wastelands where the land was made of ice.
Yet everywhere he went there was no sign of Wendy. But it was his hope that
kept Peter going. The hope that Wendy was out there somewhere.
But Peter soon became distraught.
No matter where he went, no matter where he searched, he could not find Wendy.
Where did she go? Had the darkness really swallowed her, just as it had
swallowed everything else in this now forsaken world? His search became frantic
and more sporadic, spending less and less time in one spot. The longer he spent
trying to find her, he thought, the lesser the chance he would be able to find
her. Yet now he worried that he may miss her by not taking enough time in one
area.
It was a long and hard journey for
Peter, filled with hardship and disappointment. But he kept himself going by
believing that somewhere out there she was still alive. Somewhere out there she
had escaped the darkness, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
But as Peter’s voyage drug on, and he found himself revisiting the same spots
over again, he began to lose his hope. Peter was tired. Tired of looking. Tired
of the disappointment. And the loneliness, the complete and perfect loneliness
ate at his soul.
What would he do if he never saw
her again? Peter couldn’t handle that thought. He had nothing else to live for.
His home was gone, his friends, too, even this world was disappearing. If he
could just find Wendy, everything would be all right. This had become more than
just something he told himself. It had become mechanical, his one and only
desire fixed on finding her.
Eventually Peter found himself back
in London . It
seemed so long ago that he had left here in search of Wendy. Peter didn’t have
much strength left, and his willpower was leaving him. He felt it hard to hold
on to the thought of still finding Wendy. But he was so near Wendy’s house, and
something was telling him that’s where he needed to go.
The sun was almost gone. The
darkness would be complete soon. Soon it would have taken this entire world,
and Peter along with it. But not before he reached Wendy.
Peter reached the house once again.
He entered the open upstairs window, and slammed into the floor. Peter had lost
the ability to fly. There were no more happy thoughts. Wendy wasn’t here.
Peter sat there on the familiar floor, the
light draining from the lonely bedroom. In the last moments, the little time he
knew he had left before the darkness would swallow up the rest of this world,
Peter thought back to his first time he was in this room. He remembered how he
gave Wendy quite the start. He reminisced on her expert sewing skills. As if to
make sure her handiwork had stood the test of time, Peter turned his attention
behind him but realized that his shadow could no longer be seen in the
encroaching darkness.
Oh, what he wouldn’t give to be
able to see her one last time. Anything?
A raspy, slithering voice echoed in Peter’s mind. Without hesitation and in
complete obedience, he replied, “Anything.”
Peter felt the darkness open up
around him, but not like the absolute power that had destroyed both worlds.
This made him feel like he was part of the darkness. A strange tingling
sensation came over him, and then an overwhelming feeling of emptiness. Peter
wondered at what terrible cost this newfound power had come, but it was put
from his mind as he suddenly realized he could see in this darkness.
Peter couldn’t put words to
describe it. It wasn’t as if there was any illumination. It was like his vision
had somehow become darker than the darkness already around him, as impossible
as that seemed. When Peter looked around, he saw that he was suspended in air and
surrounded by all the people and things the darkness had swallowed up, spreading
out expansively in every direction. Was this where they went to? Were these
people actually even here?
The people remained absolutely
motionless, and Peter could not tell if they were dead or alive. But this did
not concern him. Wendy was here somewhere, of that he was sure. This newfound
confidence was not like the blind hope he held for finding Wendy outside the
darkness. This was a sense he felt came with whatever power he was granted upon
entering the darkness.
Despite his ability to see, Peter
could not pick through the innumerable mass of people that surrounded him. How
was he ever going to find her? Peter glanced hopelessly in several directions,
feeling a sense of despair despite how far he had come. Without a thought
entering his head, Peter breathed the word “Wendy.” As if on command, a tiny
light shone bright above him. But this wasn’t of his own doing. It was as if
the light was calling out to him.
With incredible speed, Peter flew
towards the light, realizing that as he did, he passed right through the people
and objects around him. He understood now: only he had the power to give them
life, but they were just shadows to him. His only concern was on the light
ahead of him that was growing steadily brighter.
And there she was. Wendy looked to
Peter more beautiful than he had remembered, floating lifelessly amidst the
darkness. He slowly approached her, but, to his surprise, found he had to shield
his eyes from the light she emitted. He reached to take her hand, growing
accustomed to the light now.
He found he was able to touch her,
and as he did, she roused.
“Wendy...” he gasped, “I’ve finally
found you.”
“P-Peter? Is that you?”, she asked, her voice carrying
an alarmingly hollow sound.
“Yes, Wendy. I’m here. Your light
led me to you.”
“But Peter, I can’t see you.”
It was true. Wendy couldn’t see
Peter. Not because of the surrounding darkness. It was because Peter had become
the darkness itself.
“I’m right here, Wendy.
Everything’s going to be all right.” Peter tried to draw near to her, but she
pulled back.
“Peter, you... you’re different,”
she said, her head nodding almost as if fighting off the urge to fall asleep.
Peter didn’t realize it until now,
but the light that Wendy had been emanating had been growing slowly dimmer.
“Don’t be silly, Wendy. It’s me, Peter.”
“No,” she shook her head “you’re
different. Oh Peter, what... what did you do?” Peter noticed that her breaths
were becoming shorter, as if the darkness were suffocating her.
“I did this for you, Wendy. I had
to. I wanted to see you one last time.”
“No...” she shook her head, hear
eyes wide in fear, “you’re...” Peter realized right away that he was already
too late. He may have been given the chance to find her, but here in this world
of nothing, the darkness had slowly destroyed her soul.
“Wendy! Wendy don’t leave me!”
Wendy didn’t hear those words. She had died.
No. No! He had come too far! He had
given up everything! And now he lost
everything! How could this have happened? Did he ever have the power to save
her in the first place? He had been tricked! It wasn’t going to end like this.
Peter would certainly see to that. Peter gathered up every ounce of his
strength for one final act. “Goodbye, Wendy,” were his last words, before
everything disappeared.
* * *
“Oh mother, do tell it one more
time!” pleaded Wendy.
“Tomorrow night.” replied Mrs.
Darling. “Now close your eyes and go on to sleep,” she told her daughter,
latching the window but leaving the small, still-lit lantern at her bedside.
Although she found it peculiar, especially for a girl of Wendy’s age, Mrs.
Darling found she had to leave the lantern behind for her daughter – a remedy
for her newfound and terrible fear of the dark, a fear that seemed to have come
out of nowhere.
But Wendy couldn’t sleep. Her
thoughts were filled with stories of pirates and fairies and Indian princesses.
And a boy who could fly. Wendy sat up straight in bed and stared out her
window. And for a moment she imagined she saw a twinkle in the sky just east of
the North Star, but then it was gone.
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