Peter Pan’s Shadow

[Capsule: Correspondence Freewriting]

Jessamine watched the shadows climb the walls, and she sighed to herself. “So overdramatic,” she said before she ran her fingertips against the shadow — and it shivered in response.

A soft mist erupted in the room before a boy came tumbling out of the dark. He looked up, sullen, before he cast his gaze away from her.

“What do you want?” he asked. “You’ve never called on me before. Go back to one of the other Lost Boys. I know you have your options aplenty.”

“Silly boy,” Jessamine said. “I want you.”

But still the shadow boy did not look up. “I don’t believe you,” he said. You’d give up your home, Jessa? Your job in London?”

Jessamine sighed against before she crouched down beside the boy who had once been Peter Pan’s shadow. “I know you wanted Wendy,” she said, her voice soft, “but do you think you could give me a chance?”

The shadow boy let out a snort. “All you care about is your own heart,” he said, “but what about mine? Do you even care if you break it?”

“I’m trying to understand you,” Jessamine said.

“Well, stop trying so hard,” he said — right before he grasped her fingers in the ice-cold vise of his hand. But she was not shocked. The…