6 Peter Pan and Wendy

Sally sat there silently holding her breath. Sounds of machinery echoed outside her hiding spot, deafening her to all sounds outside of just a few feet of radius around her. The shadow from a slow-moving fan rhythmically through the cracks of her door, blinding her from seeing anyone from sneaking up from her. Sally was isolated from everything around her. The only comfort she had was knowing that the beating of her heart in her chest meant she was alive. She was all alone.

I wasn't even supposed to be here, the little girl screamed in her mind. It was true. A small group of her fellow schoolmates heard of the town's urban legend and wanted to check it out as something that the "big kids did." And, despite nearly breaking into tears, was pushed by her so-called friends.

The urban legend itself talked about an old and abandon Warehouse that was used for productions of mannequins. The stories varied from person to person but the overall take away was that anyone that went into warehouse would never be found again. That their bodies were persevered and put inside of the bodies of the mannequins.

There was a scream. It was faint and far off, but no doubt Sally heard it. The worst was that she recognized the voice as it belonged to one of her friends. Sally balled herself up, trying to seal her eyes as airtight as she could, she tried her damnedest to not scream and give away her position.

The trip into the warehouse was supposed to be simple. The group of small children were supposed to go into the old building and explore for about a couple of hours and go home. But now it's been about seven hours in Sally's present time. When the time came about that they were to leave the old abandoned building they found their exits were shut and locked, sealing their escape. They weren't alone.

Within the first thirty minutes of being locked in the building, the first of Sally's classmates, a young girl named Ashton, disappeared. Ashton was the girl that sat next to Sally in Mr. Arnold's class, she was the kindest girl and the prettiest girl that she had ever known-

Sally looked down at her hands, smeared in blood.

-about two hours ago, Sally and another of her friend found Ashton's body. Her body was suspended in the air with the chains that wrapped around her neck. Her belly was split upon with her organs spilling out, her blood falling onto the unsuspected classmate.

Sally buried her face into her hands, trying stifle the scream that tried to escape from her lips. WHY? She screamed in her mind. Why am here?! She cried out. Sally didn't want to be here in the first place, but she was pushed into it. Had she not been brought then she wouldn't be on death's door. These were her thoughts.

"Tabby…" an inaudible whimper escaped the little girl's lips. Tabby, short for Tabitha, was Sally's next-door neighbor and best friend. They had done everything together, and that even included coming into this terrifying hellhole. Sally tried to remember all the good that the two of them had done, to remember happier times, but all she saw in her mind was a horrified expression that bled into her mind.

The memory played like a loop. Sally couldn't do anything as she froze watching as her best friend was dragged off into the darkness. No matter how many times Tabitha had screamed at their predator, and screamed for help, Sally was simply paralyzed in fear. She was helpless as she was forced to watch as her friend was taken by the large hands-

"Hello there, little one."

-Just like the large hands that reached for Sally now.

Sally's eyes went wide with fear. She was already blind to her surroundings, but all her thoughts had distracted to even the door that had kept her hidden was opened. Out of pure muscle reaction, Sally tried to keep her body away from the large hands, but the small cramped space did not give her the room to get out of the man's reach.

"What are you doing in there?"

Sally's heart was beating miles a minute. She tried to put as much distance between the two of them as she could, but she was only putting herself tighter and tighter into the corner. Her body quaked under the pressure as she stared at the man that simply smiled at her.

The man that was kneeling just outside of door of Sally's hiding spot seemed to be no older than Sally's brother who was a college student of an average build. His messy hair was dry and dirty, along with his grimy skin it seemed that he had been living in this warehouse for a long while. His eyes were both cold and hollow behind his seemingly upkept tone.

Sally's body flinched. She waited for the large hands to wrap around her neck. The memory of Ashton's body flashed in her mind; she prayed, hoping that her death would come quick and painless. She waited for the end to come at her.

One moment came. And then another. And then a third. But her death never did.

Sally opened one eye slowly as if she were waking from a nightmare. She had hoped that she was just losing her mind and that she was all alone.

But the reality was there in front of her staring at her. The older boy was just standing there in the same position. Sally was confused and strangely even more frightened than she was before.

"Are you okay?" He spoke once more, and the little girl's heart skipped a beat. "Why don't you come out of there." He reached a little further into the small box.

Sally looked at the hand that reached out towards. And it was the first time she noticed it that the man wasn't reaching out to her as if to do harm, but instead the palm of his hands was facing upwards towards as if he were giving her his hand. Sally's heart throbbed in the back of her throat, her mind racing faster and faster.

"Come on out." He said once more in a tone that was meant to calm a scared pet, but his hollow eyes seemed to retroactively betray his voice. He stood there in the door, waiting for the young girl to make the choice. "Take my hand."

Sally's thoughts and heart were racing. Her mind twisted up in all the possibilities. Her fight or flight instinct felt as if they were trying to break the young girl.

Fight? She was just a small child, there was no way that she would have been able to over-power the older boy. The bodies and death of her friends were proof of this fact.

Flight? There was nowhere for her to go. She had trapped herself in a trap in her own making. If he wanted to the man could have taken her life at any moment. It would have only taken a single flick of his wrist to snap her neck.

Panic and fear bubbled up in Sally's mind. There was no way out for her. There was no possibility for her to live. The shadow of death felt inevitable at that moment. Finally, as if her body found no other way out, Sally took the only option she had left.

She took the man's hand.

The older man smiled, "That's a good girl," the shadow in the man's eyes seemed to sparkle. He helped the young girl out of her hiding spot. Standing up she looked at the man in question. He was looking at her with a smile that sparkled, but the eyes behind it was still just as hollow. Sally shook to her core as she tried to pull her hand away from the man's.

But her fingers were not listening to her mind, and instead just gripped tighter to his. Her body reacted to her fear as if it were gripping and open wire that filled her with electricity causing to her hands to grip the current tighter – Fear in this case was the electrical current that was feeding into her nervous system to lock up. Sally's eyes gaped in fear as realization dawn on her – the fear causing her hand to tighten even more. She was paralyzed simply by being under his gaze.

The man holding onto hand said nothing but his shadow that leaned over her kept her frozen in place. His sunken eyes gave away no intention as Sally was unsure what was going through him and what was about to happen hard. She swallowed the lump in her throat hard but, like her heart, it bounced back into her throat.

"See," the man finally broke the soft silence, "that wasn't so hard, was it?" His kind tone was the sound of hypocrisy to Sally's ears, it left a shiver run down her spine.

Sally didn't respond. Her eyes were glued to the man, darting back and forth, waiting for him to strangle the life out of her. The anxiety started to build up inside her tiny frame with nowhere to go, it felt like she was going to burst. All she could do was wait with bated breath.

But it never came. He never made such made such moves for her life. He just stood there just looking at her, as if looking over her – studying her.

His gaze just left the little girl in her hand feel colder, much much colder.

Then he suddenly moved. "My, aren't you a cute little one." He knelt so that he was eye level with the child, smiling brightly as if he was trying to calm his nerves. "Different from the others." The smile that was supposed to radiate a warm glow only left a bitter chill.

Sally bit her tongue, afraid of what would happen had she said the wrong thing.

"What's wrong?" The man titled his head, "Is something wrong?"

The young girl was taken back as a voice nearly escaped her lips. The expression the older man looked at her with seemed to be one of obviousness to the situation, as a such as he wasn't aware of what he had done to her fellow classmates.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" the man raised an eyebrow.

Sally's mind started to overload. A piece of her wanted to scream. The other wanted to run away. But the anxiety kept her in her place. Say something. Do something. Anything. Please. Her brain screamed at her with all its essence.

"…" the man's eyebrows twisted up; it was easy to tell that he was getting annoyed.

"…" Sally tried to speak, but nothing was coming out. Her mind was on the edge, she couldn't keep it up anymore. It had seemed like there was no way out. So, her body did the only thing a child her age could do.

She fell to her knees and cried, her body letting out all the tension and anxiety built up over the last few hours.

The man was taken back by the little girl screaming her lungs out, barely able to get her breath in and out between each sob. The man quickly reacted. "What's wrong?" he said kneeling and placing a hand on her back, trying his best to ease the child – his eyes hollow, but with compassion.

"I hate it here." Finally, a full sentence came from the little girl's lips. "I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it." She cried between every breath she took. It seemed that finally the little girl had been broken mentally.

"Shhh. Shhhh." The man started to rub the little girl's back to sooth her. "It's okay. It's okay. Tell me what happened." he said as if he was not the reason.

"It's his fault! It's all his fault!" She continued to sob in the man's hands. "It's all Sammy's fault!" Sally screamed. In a way it was true, from some perspective that is. Sammy, or Samuel, was a bright-eyed, cheery, dirty blonde boy from her class. In fact, he was the reason they were there in the first place. Sammy had heard about the urban legend from his older brother, and he wanted to see the warehouse and prove that he was grown-up, but more importantly he wanted to have fun with his friends.

The man stopped rubbing the girl's shoulder and looked at her curiously. "So, this 'Sammy,' is he a bad boy?" the tone in the way the teen spoke of the boy was as if he wasn't speaking of a human but talking about another one of the mannequins that were thrown about the warehouse.

Sally stopped crying. She looked at the man, he eyes red, swollen, and puffy. She didn't really blame her classmate, not really. He was just a child that wanted to play with his friends, it wasn't he knew any of this was going to happen. No, she wanted to tell the man. But she found herself nodding to the young man in confirmation. She didn't know why she did it, perhaps she had just given up.

The man, while still having her hand in his, looked lost in his thoughts. Sally finally took notice of his posture. He had squatted down in front of her and was now at eye level with her. For whatever reason he had, he was in a position that was no longer looking down at her, and instead seemed to show her how they were on equal footing. "Well…" this time it was the older boy's turn to be lost for words.

And in return, Sally was the one confused. Through her red eyes she cocked an eyebrow questioningly as if to look at the man clearer. While keeping his grip on hers still tight, it had seemed that he had completely lost the moment of the now.

Tabitha's expression popped in the young girl's mind, the fear her friend experienced bleeding into both her mind and her heart. But that demon in the shadow didn't match this man before the young girl. What is this person? Her mind asked.

After a moment, the man tilted his head to gaze at the young girl. "What is your name?" he asked softly.

The young girl was taken back. This was the first time that the man spoke to her with a tone that was warm and wasn't forced. She finally let her voice speak, "S-sally. Sally is my name."

"Sally, huh?" the man brought a finger to his chin as if to ponder it. "It's a pretty name." he smiled with a nod. "You're a good girl, aren't you, Sally?"

Sally didn't know how to answer, her mind froze. All she did was reactively nod. "W-what's your name?" she asked.

The teenager nearly seemed happy that the young girl asked that question. "I believe my parents had named me 'William,'" He answered, "But my friends-" he paused, as if to question if that was the best term, "THEY used to call me…Billy…I think? It's been a long, long time since someone called me something. W-would you want to call me Billy?"

Sally's lips sealed themselves up. In that instant of exposition, this person "William" had entirely changed the tone of their conversion with just a single request. Her mind starting to scream once more, Run, run, run. But her legs were paralyzed.

Unable to do anything else, the young girl just nodded to reply. With a large smile, William clasped the little hands of the young girl in both of his. "That's good, I'm glad to hear that Sally." He said as he lifted their hands to his lips and left a little kiss on the child's knuckle. "I'm glad to see that you are such a good girl."

Reactively, the little girl glanced down at the spot where the man just contacted his lips. In the back of her mind there were thoughts of feeling gross and dirtied. But she tried her best to put on an appreciative smile and look at the older boy in the eye. "Thank you…Billy." She said feeling sick to her stomach.

There was a pause as the two of them stared at one another. "Hey," William broke the silence, "Come with me, Sally." He said standing up. "I want to show you something."

He made her a request, but he wasn't waiting for a reply. The next thing Sally knew she was being dragged across the warehouse grounds. She couldn't fight against his strength and if she tried to pull back, she felt like her arm would have been pulled out of her socket. All the little girl could do was try to keep pace.

"Where…are we…Going????" Sally asked, nearly tripping on every syllable. "Billy?" but William wouldn't reply. All she saw was a large smile plastered on his face as he was seemingly pulling her through the entire building.

Trying to keep pace, Sally watched as her surroundings passed by her. She watched as the halls passed by her. She watched as large crates passed by her. She watched as the shadows passed by her. She watched as the machinery passed by her. She watched as the dried spots of blood passed by her. She shut her eyes tightly as she watched a body passed by her.

Despite his companion's discomfort, William continued forward through the building. It was clear for the way he moved he knew entire layout by heart. The fear was beginning to fill up the young's heart with every bated breath.

Then, after what seemed hours of anticipation, the two finally reached another open area. "We're here."

Where was here, Sally asked herslef as she looked about the room. From a first glance it seemed like any other room in the warehouse. The only difference was that there was a line of mannequins facing towards the entrance that they had come from.

"Sally," Finally letting go of the small child's hand he spun around to face her, "I'm going to ask once again. You are a good girl, right?" the expression in his eyes, as he looked on the little girl, was hollow and dead.

Sally instinctively took a step back. Like a small rabbit corned by a wolf her instincts ran for her to move, but the fear in her throat kept her paralyzed. Hidden to the man she was shaking to her very core.

All the little girl could do was nod slowly, in which the older boy smiled. "Good," He finally smiled, a legitimate happy bright smile, "Then I need your help with something."

Sally watched as the man turned away from her and moved to one of the machines and started messing with the controls. With a press of a button and flip of a switch, the entire place started to come to life once again. Sally's body started to reverberate; the sound of the old gears was like the screams of the damned to her ears.

William continued to mess with the machinery. "You see, Sally," there was a noise coming from above, "I love children. I love the little good boys and girls." the noise above shifted from left to right as it coordinated with the controls as it moved to the center of the room. "But children…they can be easily influenced. I want to be there for them. I want to be there like a father. I want to make sure they do not become terrible adults." He pressed a button once more.

Sally watched as something come down from the ceiling. It was hard to make out from where they were standing but it was some metal pallet with chains wrapped around it. It was hard to tell what the chains were keeping together, but she could tell that it was small and human shape.

"But I realized that I couldn't do it all by myself." William said as he grabbed the little girl by the wrist, "And that's where I want you to come in. I want you to help me help these children." As he pulled the child across the floor, he had a gleeful look. "I want you to become their mother."

Sally wanted to vomit. As she was dragged across the large warehouse, she felt her skin start to feel clammy as the goosebumps appeared in numbers. Finally, her body reacted, but it was too late. She tried to break free of the man's control, but his grip held her in place.

"LET ME GO! LET ME GO!" she screamed at the top her lungs, slamming her free first into the man's hand. "Please, Billy. Please let me go." But the little girl's screams fell on deaf ears.

"You're perfect, Sally." William turned to look at the little. "You are such a good little girl. You will make a good mother." Despite her fighting, he continued to drag her across the floor.

Pushing through the mannequins, the pair finally found their way to the middle of the room. Without even any hesitation, Sally found herself being tossed into the center. Looking around herself to find a place to run to all she saw around her was a small table, a large assortment of mannequins – a white palette stained with dark red coloring - and the large metal pallet that had descended from the ceiling. And attached to that pallet was-

"…" instinctively Sally covered her lips, as if to stifle a scream, as the color drained from her face. Held in place of the large metal pallet by the rusty chains was a familiar dirty blonde child her age. His body was bruised and beaten as the chain seemed to cut deep into his limps, keeping him firmly in his place. From where the child was standing it was hard to see if he was still living, but she indeed recognized his face. "Sammy…" tears started to run down her face. "Sammy…"

"So, I was right, he is Sammy." William noted as he moved over to the small table. "I thought I heard the little dark-haired girl call him that, but I wasn't sure if he was the same." He stared to rummage through the drawers.

"Sammy…Sammy…" Sally's mind went blank. One of the kindest children that she had ever met was hover a couple of feet off the ground like a pinata. A mental image flashed into her mind as she saw all the other children that had came with them, all of them torn up with their entrails out for the world to see. At the end of the line of children she saw herself, her own body torn and flayed.

"…A…Eeee…" Sally's mind came back to reality, "…S-sa….eee…" the boy in front of her.

Sally ran over to her friend, "Sammy, SAMMY!" she called out as she grabbed his form. "Sammy, can you hear me?"

"…Saa…EEE…SSS….haaa…uuuu…." It didn't take long to notice that blood was pooling from the child's lips, and the tears that streamed down his face was red as well. Sally's heart leapt into her throat.

"'Sammy' here is such a vile boy." William called over from his table. "You should have seen him. He threw one of his friends at me as he tried to run away. Tell me, who would do such a thing? Who would throw one of their friends?" The punishment didn't fit the crime, but the face of the man didn't seem to care. The pleasure he took in this proved that his words were lies.

"Sammy…" tears started to stream down Sally's face, "Sammy, I'm so, so Sorry." She cried out for the dying boy. She didn't blame her classmate for any of this. He didn't deserve this, none of them deserved any of this. She cried out. She just wanted all of this to end.

Sally's body was pulled from the boy and forced to face the man that was kneeling to her level. Her tear-stained face showed a child that was nearly on the brink. William smiled to the little girl, "Now, it's your turn." He took the little girl's hand and placed something in it. She looked down.

In Sally's hand was a pair of rustic silver sheers. You couldn't tell how old the pair of scissors were, but you could tell by the blood painted teeth, it was well used. Sally looked up back at the man, her eyes telling him she knew what he wanted her to do.

"That's right," William smiled warmly. "I need you to save 'Sammy.'" He said wrapping his hand around the child's, forcing her to grip the knife tightly. Sally's tiny body started to shake.

"Sssss…aaaaaeeeeeee…..pppeeeaasse…"

"No. NO. PLEASE, NO." Sally finally hacked out between her tears. "I-I DON'T WANNA. No. Please, NO." She didn't want to take her friend's life.

William shook his head with a slight chuckle. "No, Sally." He said grasping the child's hand tighter. "Good girls and good boys do what they are told. You are still a good girl, right?" he asked her once more.

"No. No. Please, I'm a good girl." Sally screamed out through the teary-eyed snot bubbles. "I-I can't do it. Please, don't make me do it." She continued to cry as she tried to pry her hand free from his. "Please, Billy." She tried to play up to his humanity, if he ever had any. "Please, Billy. Please don't make me do it."

William paused. Then he took a deep breath. Exhaled. "It's okay, Sally." He said with a sympathetic smile. "I understand." He stood up, his larger hand still gripping the smaller one. "It was also hard for me when mother taught me." Despite her complaints, he turned her body around. "I'll show you how to do it as well." Sally cried out, but it fell on deaf ears.

William turned the child's form around and face the dying boy that was crying out without a tongue. From behind he grabbed Sally by the wrists with boy of his hand. "Let me lead you into this." He whispered.

"NO, PLEASE NO." Sally cried and screamed and tried to fight back, but it was all for naught. In the man's arm he was a puppet master. When he lifted his right arm, her right hand lifted; when he lifted his left hand, her left arm shifted. At this moment, Sally was the man's shadow.

Sammy broken form cried out for help. Sally screamed again, begging for the man to stop. "Shh," William whispered into the girl's ear. "It'll be okay" as he said that, with his arms, he forced the child to grip the pair sheers with both hands. Like a sword, he had the tip aimed at the little boy that made a single mistake.

"God, please, no." Sally begged again, she could feel her mind slipping and her voice fading.

William smiled, like a father to a child, "It's okay." He said as he made both plunge forward into the boy's chest.

The mannequin was filled with screams of a dying child, the white dolls were the only witnesses around. Sally listened as her friend's cries were bubbling. She could feel her body and mind becoming light.

"See, was that so hard?" William asked the little girl.

"…" Sally just stood there, staring as the blood from the boy dripped from his body and down the rustic blade in her hand.

"Waaa…waa…tttaa…teee…" the whimpering voice of a child calling for its parents was barely above that of an audible whisper. His heart was clamoring for hope as his body started to become colder and colder.

"Sally?" William asked the child in front of him, "do you want to do it on your own?" his grip loosened on the child's wrists.

"…" Sally wasn't there. She had fallen deep into her mind. She stood there silently.

William smiled, "Okay, we'll do it once more." He took the girl's hands once more and gripped the rustic blood-stained blade in her hands. He took it to the side of the boy's neck. He jabbed it into the weak child's body with little to no resistance. The boy gasped as what little bit of life escaped through his lips. "Okay, this might be a little rough." He smiled.

And with all the man's strength, from right to left, he pulled the blade from one side of the child's throat to the other. Almost like an eruption of blood that had built up, it started to spurt out of the new opening.

"So…" finally, after all this, William let go of the little girl's hands. "So…What do you think?" There was pleasure in the man's voice, but he quickly tried to calm himself down.

"…" Sally was still. Frozen like a statue she was still in position as she held the bloodied scissors in place. Her arms, chest, and face were now coated in her friend's own blood.

"Sally?" William tilted his head.

"…he…" the little girl's form started to twitch. "…he…" strength seemingly returning she started to pull her sheers back to her body. "…he…he…" she brought the sheers over her red-painted face. "…hehe…hehe…" She plunged it into the boy's body with all her strength. "HEHEHEHEHEHE" Sally pulled the blade out of what was once human and proceeded to stab it again. Again, and again she would do this. "HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEheeheheheheHE." Her mind and soul shattered she started plunged again and again into her old classmate's body. She was lost in her own little world, laughing and crying all the way.

William watched from behind as the child laughed and cried. Placing his hand to his chin he couldn't help but feel nostalgic. He remembered his first time when his mother brought him into this world of hers. And now here he was bringing another child to continue the legacy. He smiled watching as the kid played.

"I think you will make a wonderful mother, Sally."