Peter Pan Imagine - “How’d You Like Your First Taste Of Darkness?”
Peter Pan gets you to darken your heart against your will.
- Fandom: Once Upon A Time
- Warnings: violence, light cussing, intimacy
“Pan, don’t,” I pleaded, grabbing his arm as he attempted to walk away.
“(Y/n), don’t even try,” Pan snapped. “I hate all these dirty pirates coming to my island thinking they own the place. They need to be taught a lesson.” He freed his arm of my grasp. “And one day you’ll understand that.”
“No, I won’t,” I contradicted. “I will never understand your senseless violence. How you think fighting others is fun. How you kill for sport!”
Pan only shrugged. “Then you don’t have to participate. Stay here if you want. Be the girl that you are, afraid to get even a little bit of blood on your hands. But mark my words, (y/n). Living on Neverland, living with me, your heart won’t stay pure and red forever.”
“Can’t you at least give them a warning first?” I tried desperately.
“Where’s the fun in that? Besides, pirates don’t listen to warnings,” Pan scoffed. “You should know that by now.” He backed away, yanking his knife from its sheath. “Lost Boys! Let’s go have some fun!”
At that they all took off into the forest hooting and hollering, weapons raised, rushing past Pan, who stood there grinning like a proud father. “See?” he said. “Look how excited they are. Look how wild they are. Here on Neverland, it’s kill or be killed. The pirates will learn that soon enough.” He chuckled lightly, before his expression darkened. “And you will too. Sooner than later.” (gif)
“I will never—” I cut myself off as Pan suddenly disappeared into thin air. Gone, just like that. Stupid magic. I wanted to scream in frustration, but just loudly groaned instead. The sounds of my campmates cheering and whooping their excitement faded into the distance the farther they ran. I stood there, alone in Pan’s now empty camp, helpless to stop the many deaths that would happen today on the hands of the Lost Boys, justified by Pan’s way of thinking that shedding blood was fun.
A few days later, I was by a stream, getting a refreshing drink with cupped hands. I splashed some water on my arms and behind my neck to help cool off from the sticky humidity of the jungle we called home.
Suddenly, someone screaming “help!” erupted close by. I shot up, alarmed, and quickly pulled my dagger from its sheath. What in the world…?
“Help!” This time he sounded more panicked.
I rushed towards the sound without a second thought, knowing one of us Lost Boys was in trouble. I raced through the thick undergrowth, swerving trees and taking many thorns whipping across my legs. The commotion grew closer. The boy continued shouting for help as I burst into a small clearing and saw Devin struggling with a large, ragged, beefy man—a pirate! I could tell by the looks of him. Devin was holding up the pirate’s wrist above his head, in which a knife was gripped in the man’s hand. If Devin faltered, this pirate’s knife would sink into his head.
“(Y/n)!” Devin yelled desperately as he saw me. “(Y/n)!”
With no hesitation, I lunged forward and barreled into the pirate, thrusting him away from Devin. The pirate’s knife slashed me across the shoulder and I gasped at the pain, before stabbing my dagger into his side.
He let out a shriek and stumbled backwards with it still in his body. He twisted the handle then pulled it out—I grimaced at the pain I know it must’ve caused, before realization came over me. Shit! Now he had two weapons and I had none.
I took the few steps backwards that brought me to Devin’s side, relieved that he at least had a spear. The pirate rushed at us, bellowing, and Devin and I both ran opposite directions. The pirate went after me, either because I’m the one who stabbed him, or because I had nothing to defend myself with. I took off blindly into the trees, panic surging through me.
I ran as fast as my legs could carry me; adrenaline giving me extra speed. I made the split-second decision to head towards camp. There, the pirate would be way outnumbered and we could easily take him down.
I ran through the thick trees like an expert compared to the blundering man behind me, and the distance between us grew bigger with each step I took. I was used to the forest, he obviously wasn’t, and that gave me the advantage.
Very abruptly and very unexpectedly, my legs were whipped out from under me by literally nothing and I slammed into the ground. The surprise and impact of the fall knocked the wind out of my chest and left me dazed for a moment.
Just as I flipped myself onto my back, the pirate was on top of me. I screamed as the knife sliced down my collarbone and I writhed beneath him, vainly trying to free myself. Our struggle consisted of me trying my best to knee him and get up while also holding his arms away from me so I wasn’t cut with the knives. But this man was big and heavy and strong, he was on top of me, he had the weapons, and it was no doubt he now had the advantage.
I don’t know how but I managed to knock one of the knives out of his hands. Now all he had was my dagger, in which he raised high above his head to plunge into my neck. I ferociously grabbed his wrists just as he brought them down, straining to keep them up. The tip of the blade was just a millimeter above my throat.
The pirate bared all his weight forward to try and push the dagger into my neck. My arms trembled with the effort to hold the blade up, and I knew within moments my arms would collapse and I’d be a goner. I cried out for help, my heart pounding and my arms burning.
“This is for my crew!” he roared, spit flying from his mouth. “My crew! You slaughtered them all! And now it’s my turn to show no mercy!”
“That wasn’t me!” I gasped, almost on the verge of tears as I barely kept my own dagger from ending my life. “I had nothing to do with that!” My arms began to shake with the effort to hold his up; three more seconds and they’d give out.
Abruptly, the pirate was shoved off me, toppled over by another person, and they both crashed to the ground. Devin!
I gasped for breath, laying there in shock and exhaustion for only a second, but I didn’t give myself time to regain my strength. I scrambled to my feet to see the pirate and Devin wrestling for dominance, crushing foliage in their wake. I spotted my dagger lying in the grass—the pirate must’ve accidentally let it go when Devin smashed into him, just my luck.
I rushed for the dagger but tripped back onto the ground in my haste and exhaustion. Scrabbling onto my feet again, I grabbed my dagger and whipped around. To my horror, the pirate was now on top of Devin, choking the life out of him. Devin uselessly clawed at the man’s hands, making terrible choking noises while his face turned blue with suffocation.
“No!” Screaming a battle cry, I brought my dagger down into the pirate’s back, right into his heart. He immediately released his hold on Devin, who loudly sucked in air. The pirate’s eyes widened in shock, his face contorting in agony. I twisted the blade, then wrenched it free. His mouth gaped and he fell onto his side with a thump. His body stilled, never to move again.
Devin pulled himself away from the now dead man, heaving and coughing for breath. I flopped onto the ground, stunned, my vision blurring for a second. I really just killed someone. I just killed a person!
“Thank you,” Devin spluttered, rubbing his neck.
I shook my head, unable to process what just happened. I became aware of my wounds; a cut on my shoulder and a cut on my collarbone, both trickling blood that stained my shirt red and stung like fire.
“He just came out of no where and attacked me,” Devin continued.
“I can’t believe I did that.” I finally said. “I-I killed him.”
“He would’ve killed us if he had the chance,” Devin pointed out hoarsely.
“I just murdered someone,” I breathed, as if I hadn’t just heard Devin’s good reasoning.
Devin and I both jumped at the new voice; I turned my head to see Pan standing there, casually leaned against a tree with his arms crossed. A smirked dangled on his lips, his godly eyebrows arched with relish. “How’d you like your first taste of darkness?”
“What?” I wheezed, rising to my feet. “How long have you been there?”
“I saw it all.” Pan grinned. (gif) “You fought well, (y/n). I knew you would.”
Anger boiled in my chest. “Why didn’t you help?” I demanded. “He almost killed me! The dagger almost plunged into my throat!”
“But it didn’t,” Pan said.
“And what do you mean ‘I knew you would?’“ I spat, my mind reeling as the unbelievable dawned on me. “Did you…did you set this up?”
“So what if I did?” he walked forward. “Anyways, I asked you a question,” he went on. “How did you like your first taste of darkness, (y/n)?”
“You set this up,” I snarled. Emotions coursed through me: hurt, betrayal, rage. “When I fell…that was you, wasn’t it? You made me fall with your damned magic so he could catch up to me, didn’t you?”
Pan’s reply was a smug grin, which in other words, meant ‘damn right’. That was enough to make anger take over my actions. I shoved him against a tree with my dagger to his throat. “How could you?”
He only smiled and laughed. “There it is! Your fire. I like your fire.” (gif)
“(Y/n), back off him,” Devin warned.
“No, no, it’s fine,” Pan still smiled widely. “I like where this is going.”
“How can you defend him?” I looked at Devin like he had two heads. “You could’ve been killed too!”
“But I wasn’t,” Devin reminded me.
“How are you not even the slightest bit angry?” I asked, bewildered. I took my gaze off him and returned it to Pan, who was watching me like a hawk would watch a mouse.
“I’m alive, aren’t I?” Devin said. “If Pan set this up, who am I to judge? What’s done is done.”
There was no point in trying to argue some sense into Devin. He and the other Lost Boys basically worshiped the ground Pan walked on. So it was no wonder Devin isn’t upset about this like I am. I held Pan’s stare a moment longer—my expression was fiery, hurt, his was amused. He was enjoying every second of this, even with my dagger at his throat. Disgusted, I yanked it away from his neck and backed off him.
“Do you realize what you’ve done?” I seethed, unable to bring myself to look at the dead pirate lying just a few feet from us. This would haunt me forever.
“I know exactly what I’ve done,” Pan assured. “And it turned out exactly the way I wanted it to, too.”
“You’re a monster.” My hand trembled as I slipped my dagger back into its sheath. “You made me end someone’s life. That’s not okay! This isn’t just some game, Peter!” I only called him Peter when I was really angry, and he knew it.
“You’re not getting it, are you?” he growled. (gif)
“What is there to get?” I glared at him furiously. “You’re a fucking asshole. This..this is like the biggest sin of all sins…this is murder. Oh god, I-I’m a murderer now…”
Pan looked at Devin, waving his hand in dismissal. As Devin left, Pan grabbed my arm and before I could pull myself away we were engulfed by thick green smoke. When it cleared, we were in a completely different part of the jungle, across the island from where we were standing just moments ago.
“What the hell, Peter?” I took a step away from him, looking around in dismay.
“You want to bring up sins?” he said. “Here on Neverland, the rules are different. Murdering isn’t considered a sin. It’s considered fun.” He lowered his chin, arching an eyebrow and smirking. “But sinning can be fun too.”
Pan suddenly disappeared and reappeared right behind me, his body so close to mine I could feel his body heat. My heart started to beat faster as I tried not to show how intimidated I was by how close we were. His breath was warm on my ear as he leaned forward and said quietly, “I can show you what fun really is, (y/n). I’ll show you sinning.”
He brushed a strand of my hair behind my ear then began kissing my neck.
