Free Pan's Revenge by Anna Katmore

not made for young girls. I
lift my leg and set her free, then I accept Toby’s and Loney’s
hands to pull me up.
    They let me get to bed eventually. Exhausted
and fully dressed, I slump face-first into my pillow. Thank God,
sleep comes over me before I can start mulling over the doom Hook
pushed me into.
    *
    All is quiet
when I wake again. The Lost Boys must have gone out to either
play Catch the Indian or hunt dinner. My stomach rolls in protest at
the thought of missing another fabulous meal roasted over a
campfire. I haven’t eaten in…weeks! Raiding the pantry, where we
always keep fruits, nuts and sometimes even veggies, I grab a
handful of berries, a carrot, and two apples and plow through them
in record time.
    Next to the
kitchen sink, there is a catapult for garbage. I place the apple
core and banana peels into the leather strap and shoot them out
through the hatch into the jungle, one at a time. Usually, the boys
and I fight over who can operate this self-made little piece of
ingenuity. Today, however, it’s boring.
    When all the
garbage is discarded and I’m ready to leave, I slide a glance over
to Tami’s door. It’s closed. This normally means that the pixie is
in her room. I’m wondering why she hasn’t come out. She should have
heard me being up and about. Oh boy, she must be pretty
mad.
    I don’t like it when the pixie is in bad
mood, or any of the others for that matter. I grimace and sigh, but
finally I walk to the door and knock. “Tami? Can I come in?”
    There’s no answer. After another knock, my
hand drops to the brass doorknob. A slight twist, and the door
cracks open. Used to simply walking inside, I’m not prepared for
the consequences of my new height. A moan escapes me as my head
knocks hard against the roof of the doorway. Stars dot my vision.
Damn, is this the kind of trouble I have to deal with from now on?
Rubbing my aching forehead, I stoop to fit through the door.
    It takes a couple of seconds to recover and
for my eyes to focus again. Tami’s room is empty. Her bed, the
shape of a pink seashell, is neatly made. I turn and head out, but
then I stop and cast a glance over my shoulder. A music clock
stands on the chest of drawers that the Lost Boys and I carved for
the pixie ages ago. Even though I never told anybody, the tune was
always one of my favorite.
    Since there’s
no one else but me in here, I sneak over and spin the key. The
porcelain princess begins to twirl on the small round platform. A
smile tugs on my lips as the sweet song starts out. I hum along,
but my voice is deeper than usual and strangely raspy. My happiness
slips away.
    In front of
the chest, I sink to the floor, lean against the tower of drawers
and tilt my head back. How can everything change in the blink of an
eye? I don’t want to be old. I don’t want to look and sound like an
adult. My nails dig into my palms until I feel the warm drops of
blood in my fists. I hate that the Lost Boys have to lift their
chins now if they want to look into my face. I hate that tossing
garbage out of the tree with the catapult isn’t fun anymore. And I
hate Tami being angry at me. She never was before.
    Why, Hook, did you have to change my life
when all was perfect?
    Breathing deeply a few times through my nose,
I press my lips together and grind my molars. The pixie might be
happy there’s no reason for another battle with the pirates. But
for me, the real fight has just begun. I’m not done with Captain
James Hook yet. I swear I won’t rest until his dead body lies at my
feet.
    Pushing up from the floor, I rush back to the
main room and zoom out through the hole in the treetop. It’s time
to start phase one of my plan to destroy my father’s greatest
mistake.
    After last night, finding my way back to
London is easy enough. East and up, then straight on toward a set
of three stars in a triangle. Through a shower of falling stars, a
loop around the moon, and descending behind it. Finally, taking a
hard left curve