“Back to Reality”
It was time to leave Neverland.
Laddie carefully set his teddy bear upon his pillow before he climbed down off his bed. His eyes scanned the cave, the former hotel hobby, that had been “redecorated” by the Lost Boys once they took it over. He had some fun times here and also some scary ones. He could still hear the laughter of his older brothers and the sound of the rock box being blasted with music.
There was a time he couldn’t remember his family unless he went to sleep, where he would sometimes dream about them. For a while, he thought David and Star and the others would be his permanent family and that they would all be together forever.
But nothing lasted forever.
A half vampire child would eventually grow up, whether he liked it or not.
And Laddie did just that.
He climbed up the stairs, his foot steps echoing behind him, until he spotted sunlight coming from the mouth of the cave. Without hesitating and without looking back, Laddie stepped out into the morning light and was greeted with the view of the ocean.
“Honey? Everything all right?”
Turning to the stairs leading up to the top of the cliff, a beautiful thirty-something year old woman was standing just a few feet away. Three children - a preteen girl, and two twin boys under the age of ten - were with their mother, waiting for their father.
“Can we go now?” the girl asked with mild annoyance. “I’m hungry.”
The twins simultaneously shouted in excitement, “The boardwalk!”
Looking over his shoulder, a grown up Laddie saw the mouth of the cave was covered with rocks and fallen debris, due the infamous 1989 earthquake which struck the area. The Lost Boys cave was just one of the many casualties of the disaster, Laddie learned later on, when he returned to Santa Carla years later as an adult.
Turning to his family, Laddie smiled at them and said, “Let’s go to the boardwalk.”
Back to the 21st century for this former half vampire, whose memories of what happened to him as as child would never fade away. Those who knew of him and his undead family would always cherish those times and keep those images of those wild boys forever in their hearts.
He may have grown up and created his own family, but Laddie would always be a Lost Boy.
