Page 59 of Lost in the Never Woods

Peter put himself between her and the woods, pushing rogue branches out of the way as they walked. His presence made her feel … better. Less scared, like she had someone who finally knew what she was going through. Someone to go through it with. But then there was also this undeniable warmth that she could feel radiating through her body when she was close to him.

She took a quick couple of steps to catch up to Peter and fall into stride next to him, far away enough to not be touching him, but close enough that she could reach out and brush her knuckles against his if she wanted to.

Wendy glanced over and took in his profile: his nose that turned up just a little at the tip, the hard line of his jaw, the small points to his ears. He wore the jeans Wendy had patched and a dusty rose T-shirt that was sun bleached but made his eyes all the more disarming.

Wendy wondered if the heat she felt was part of Peter’s magic. Or was it just … him?

It was comforting, but she could still feel the woods pressing against her mind. They buzzed like the pressure in her ears when she dove into the deep end of the pool at swim practice. She still felt like she was being watched, just as she had last night in her driveway. The memory came flooding back to her.

“There’s something I forgot to tell you about last night, before you found me in the woods,” Wendy said slowly.

Peter turned to look at her. “What happened?” he asked, face scrunched up like he was bracing himself to get hit.

“I went to get my swim bag out of my truck last night,” she began. “It was dark out and while I was digging around for it, I could—” Wendy paused, trying to put the experience into words. “Feel something behind me. I turned around and out of nowhere there was this guy. He started talking to me.” Wendy watched him for his reaction, absently rubbing her arm as she remembered how her skin had crawled.

“Didn’t you just get done telling Cassidy not to talk to strangers?” Peter asked, cocking an eyebrow at her.

Wendy felt a flare of annoyance. This wasn’t a time for jokes.

“He knew who I was, Peter,” she snapped. “He knew my name, he said he had seen me at the hospital before, he actually asked me if I wanted to go for a walk with him in the woods.” Wendy shuddered.

Now Peter looked concerned.

“And he said something about how I had to be careful because I didn’t want to ‘go missing’ again,” she said, doing her best to remember exactly what happened.

Deep frown lines creased Peter’s forehead. “Maybe he just recognized you from the news?” he offered. “It’s a small town, maybe he just remembered you going missing…” It was like he was trying to convince himself.

Wendy shook her head. “No, like you said, it’s a small town, and I had never seen him before,” she explained. “Not only that, but there was something really weird about him. He was creepy. He felt…” She paused, trying to think of a way to describe him. “Dangerous. I couldn’t see what he looked like, either,” Wendy continued. “It was dark, sure, but it was more than that. He was standing right in front of me, but I couldn’t make out his face. It was like I couldn’t focus on a feature because they kept … moving around, like I was looking at him through water, you know? But dark.”

He shook his head, not understanding her train of thought.

Wendy swallowed. Her mouth felt dry. “It was like he was made of shadows.”

Peter stopped walking. “Shadows?” he repeated, suddenly very alert. Wendy nodded and Peter stared off into the woods, deep in thought.

“Yeah.” Wendy shifted her weight between her feet. She didn’t like that look on his face. She wanted to keep walking. She was scared to hear the answer to the question she needed to ask. “Peter, your shadow can’t…” How could she put it into words? “It can’t … take a human form, can it?”

Peter shook his head. He looked dazed. “That’s never happened before,” he said. “It’s never even become a solid being before.”

Wendy felt hopeless. “Why is this happening, Peter?”

He looked like he was holding himself back from saying something as he sucked on his bottom lip. But then he just sighed and shrugged. “I have no idea.” That was not what she wanted to hear.

“Well, when I heard Alex’s voice, he—it—disappeared, or maybe he was still there? I don’t remember. I just took off running into the woods,” Wendy continued. “Then another thing happened after you left and I went to bed…”

Peter groaned. “Another thing?” he asked dejectedly.

“I … think it was in my dream last night,” she began, glancing up at him apprehensively. Peter looked at her intently, waiting for her to go on, so she did. “When I fell asleep, I dreamed that I was in the woods,” Wendy told him. “There was snow, so it must have been winter, and it was starting to get dark. I was standing in front of this huge tree—”

“A tree?” Peter asked abruptly. His shoulders went rigid, his blue eyes intense.

She nodded. For some reason, his reaction unsettled her. “Yeah, it didn’t look like any of the other trees in the woods,” she explained. She could almost smell the dead leaves from her dream. “It was huge and its branches bent at weird angles. They were completely bare and it almost looked like it was dead. It had a huge tangle of roots.”

Peter was standing so still, Wendy wondered if he was even breathing.

“And I could hear something coming from the tree. Like the voices in the woods last night, did you hear them?” Wendy asked.

Peter only responded with a short nod.