CHAPTER SIX
One minute, Sidney had been standing in the middle of a library that would have made M.C. Esher dizzy. Then, without warning, it had all simply faded away, and she was standing in the secret hideaway of Peter Pan. It was built into an enormous hollow tree that was somehow alive and seemingly thriving.
It was some two hundred feet tall, the branches stretching out over the rest of the canopy. There were caves down below that the Lost Boys used to pop in and out of other parts of Neverland without having to travel through the jungle. Stairs and rickety rope and wood gangways had been built criss-crossing through the interior structure of the tree, with little hovels for each of the Lost Boys built for them to sleep.
The first thing that she thought of was a Keebler Elf tree from hell. It made her laugh. And also made her suddenly want cookies.
She had appeared standing near the top on a ramshackle balcony, looking out over the island of Neverland. It was a gorgeous tropical paradise. Somewhere out there were mermaids. And a tribe ofextremelyracially insensitively written native people. And magic. And fairies.
But also pirates.
And death.
And evil.
She remembered the book. She knew what was going to happen next. She’d seen the dead bodies in the sand when she’d chased after Peter only an hour earlier. She’d seen the headless corpse of a Lost Boy.
They aren’t real. They’re just…it’s like a video game, right? They’re just NPCs you’re killing. Nobody cares about killing NPCs.But where was the line? Was their suffering real?
Washers?
Tropical fucking island with goddamn mermaids and she was standing there having an internal debate about the nature of the self. She wanted an alcoholic beverage in a coconut with a little paper parasol in it while she got a tan on the beach. Not this.
She stared blankly off into the distance of Neverland. She couldn’t believe it. Really just couldn’t believeanyof it. It felt like an impossible dream, still. The insanity of it all.
But what choice did she have? She had to play along. Thatthingthat her sister was trapped with was going to try to kill her! If she didn’t play along, one or both of them would wind upactuallydead. She didn’t have the luxury of putting her fingers in her ears and going “la la la.” She had to dance the dance.
She shuddered at the memory of Vile. The strange inky darkness with toomany glowing purple eyes.The thing was right out of one of Sasha’s fucked-up comic books or animated shows. It waswrong.And it was going to try to kill her. For real.
“Wendy? Are you all right?”
And now she had to deal with this shit. She turned to see Peter-fucking-Pan watching her, concern in his big brown eyes. His Lost Boys were behind him, dressed in their rags and leaves and whatever flotsam or bits of civilization washed up that they could fashion into clothes.
She knew that it was actually Virtue in there, playing a role,standing on stage, expecting her to do the same. But she didn’t know her goddamn lines. She smiled, nervously. “Yeah. I’m all right. Just—worried.”
“The pirates won’t find us in here.” His smile was beaming with pride. “This is mysecrethideout and they’llneverfind it.”
She really didn’t have the heart to tell him.
Besides, how did that work? Could she spoil the ending? Was she allowed to change the ending? Wasn’t that the point of what she and Sasha were supposed to do?
Would it even work if they tried?
“It’s a wonderful hideout.” Sidney felt like the worst actress in the world. And she probably was. “I don’t—geh!”She yelped and swiped at a giant insect that whipped up to her face.
Only the insect was glowing.
“Sweet Jesus mother of fucking Christ on a shitting pogo stick—” Ducking, she took another swipe at the thing as it angrily buzzed at her again. “What kind of fucked up super-insects do they have on this —”
Peter was laughing. Hard. But it wasn’t the laugh of Peter Pan, it was the laugh of Virtue. “I don’t think Wendy would swear like that.”
“Wendy’s not the one getting buzzed by a fuckin’ angry F-14!” Sidney managed to smack the insect, sending it flying into a tree. She straightened back up, glaring at the glowing insect now that she’d managed to get some distance from it.
There, clinging to the tree, holding her little head and rubbing her temple, was a very angry andverynaked glowing pixie.
The pixie glared at her. Then flipped her off.
Huh. That part wasn’t in the book.
