"You knew him well?" I ask Harry.

The sun is setting. After dinner, I had seen Harry leave Alex and walk deep into the forest. I followed him, until he stopped and just collapsed in the grass.

"No, I didn't." Harry replies. "I knew his name. I knew he took Lily's shift a few times a week. I knew he was the New. He was the same as me, way back when, only he ended up dying. All because of the stupid shadow."

"The shadow?" I ask.

"We don't normally set out and recruit at a bonfire," Harry explains. "Normally that shadow comes and picks you up and takes you here. It was kind of like a dream, when I got here. Until I had to start working."

"At least he got out of this place." I offer.

"I'd imagine that being dead is worse than being here." He answers. "Although I don't know all that much about being dead."

He gets up and walks back to the camp. I follow him in silence. We get to the clearing and Harry walks away. I stand sighing. Thomas walks up to me and grabs my arm. I smile at him, and the corner of his lips perk up slightly, but beneath it he looks scared. He gestures behind him with his head and continues to pull on my arm, almost panicking.

"What's up Thomas?" I ask.

He shakes his head quickly and keeps pulling on my arm. I stumble forward and he takes this opportunity to turn around and start running, me running along behind him. He brings me inside our tent, where Lyle hovers over a boy. I walk over to them, Thomas having finally let go. Max.

Max lies flat on his back, his fingers twitching slightly at his sides. His face is pale white, and his hair sticks to his forehead in a sweaty heap.

"What happened to him?" I ask, dropping beside Lyle, and placing my head on Max's forehead. It's hot.

"I don't know, he just got like that after dinner!" Lyle shouts, his voice filled with panic.

Max rolls on his side and begins vomiting, a caramel coloured bile spreading across the grass. He coughs and rolls onto his back, spit running down his face.

I grab him from his armpit and hoist him up. He hangs tilted to his right and almost falls until Lyle hoists him up next to me. Thomas just stands back, shaking slightly. He runs forward and opens the tent doors. I begin to walk, Lyle dragging behind me with the rest of Max, trying to keep him up as he vomits once again.

"Where are we going?" Lyle asks.

"We've got to find that guy, the medic." I answer. "I forget his name but he's the one who healed me when I stabbed myself last night."

"Who?" Lyle asks. "I don't remember ever meeting a medic. Seems like a practical thing to have here though. Do you remember his name?"

"No, I'm awful with names." I admit. I don't tell him the only reason I remember his is because he never stops talking.

The clearing is full of boys still. They don't take much notice to us; they're too busy talking, eating, and some even fighting each other. We head over to the benches to see if the medic is still there. A boy stands up and runs over. I met him earlier in the clothing tent. I don't remember his name though. Another boy runs over with him. The second boy I don't recognise.

"What's wrong with him?" The boy who I met earlier asks.

"We don't know. He just started vomiting after dinner." Lyle shouts, still panicking.

Max throws up again, the disgusting mixture splatting on the ground.

"This is not going well. Have you guys found Jared yet?" The other boy asks.

Jared, the medic. "No," I tell them. "That's why we're here."

"Bring him in to the medic tent," the boy instructs. "I'll go find Jared. Stay with them Robert."

"Will do." Robert adds. That's his name. Robert. "And hurry!"

"Since when haven't I been fast?" The boy yells as he darts back towards the tents.

Robert comes up to us and grabs hold of Max's legs. He quickly moves us all into the medic tent. We lie Max down on the table. Max immediately rolls on his side and begins throwing up again.

"I'm sorry, I forget what your name is." Robert looks up at me, while wiping the vomit off of Max's mouth with his sleeve.

"It's Charlie." I tell him.

"Can you go get me some water Charlie?" Robert asks, while trying to remove Max's shirt. "It might help."

I nod and quickly run out of the tent. I look around the clearing and realise I have no idea where the water is. I've drank it out of cups along the table before, and Jared had given me a canteen last night to drink from, but I've no clue where it comes from.

I dash over towards the long table but I find no water along it. I turn around to head towards the storage tents only to see someone standing directly behind me. I fall backwards, landing on the ground.

"Now why are you running around like some mad man?" Pan Flute asks.

"I need water," I pant.

"Well we are on an island, water isn't that hard to come by." Pan Flute smirks.

"Max is sick. He needs water." I explain.

"He'll be fine. I won't let anyone die on my watch." Pan Flute says sternly.

"Like the boy yesterday?" I ask. "Or the three boys two days before? Or all the graves before that?"

"Those three boys are still alive," he raises his voice. "They are still on the island."

"Why aren't they here?" I ask. "And why won't you just give me some water?"

"Here," he hands me a bucket of water.

"Where did this come from?" I ask. "You weren't holding it a second ago."

"You really aren't a believer." He smirks, and walks off.

I rush back to the tent with the water and hand it off to Robert. He takes it from my hands and places it on the floor next to the table. Max lies on his back, his skin sweaty and pasty. He's stop coughing, stop shaking, and besides his near translucent skin he appears to be simply sleeping.

Pan Flute enters the room. I stern look on his face, as always. He nearly shoves me aside to get to Max. He sticks his arm straight out in front of him, and hovers his hand over Max's head to his feet. He then turns around and walks out.

Max's cheeks begin to flush as the colour returns to his face. He opens his eyes but does not move a muscle.

"Did he just use magic?" I ask.

"He hasn't on a person before," Robert answers, seemingly baffled.

Suddenly someone bursts in. "I just saw Pan walk out of here and near about cruped myself. Are you all alright?"

"James, where's Jared?" Robert asks.

"Out at the falls getting some more water." James, the boy from earlier, explains. "Why the bluck was Pan here?"

"Pan healed him," Robert says, gesturing to Max, "with magic."

"He did not." James gapes.

"He did." Robert replies.

"That's amazing!" James cheers. "And you lot saw it? You saw it with your own eyes?"

"Why are you so surprised?" I ask.

"Pan doesn't do much magic anymore, at least not when he doesn't have to." James explains, grinning. "And you saw it? What was it like?"

"Doesn't he use magic all the time?" I ask. "He teleported us here, didn't he?"

"Those were magic beans, not his own magic." James continues, putting his dirty hands on Max's cheeks. "Real magic, unbelievable."

"What about yesterday? When he took that kid with him? The one who died?" I ask.

"You mean Evan? Who let out Lily and who knows what else?" James snorts.

"It's not Lily's fault she's a stupid tiger," Robert interrupts. "Besides, Jared told me at dinner that after he was done helping out with you, he went to help. Evan refused. Kept claming he wasn't really a lost boy."

"Maybe it was for the best," I suggest. "I mean, maybe he really did just hate this hell-hole."

"He could hear the pipes," Robert shrugs.

"What does that have to do anything?" I ask.

"You can only hear the pipes if you're a lost boy." Robert explains.

"That sounds like bull," I laugh.

"That sounds like magic." James says.

"There's no point in getting hung up over the details of magic." Robert continues. "It's magic, we'll never understand it."

"How are you guys ok with that?" I ask. "Just blindly having faith?"

"It's not blind faith, so much as confidence in Pan's abilities." Robert shrugs.

"How can you trust Pan?" I ask. "He' gets you all killed."

Robert looks at me strangely. "Dozens is an exaggeration. Sure, Pan does competitions and it's dangerous here, but it's better than out in your world. Besides, all the boys who die, die because it's their fault. They go out and fight, try to impress him."

"Laying low plays it safe. You don't die in a hunt if you aren't in the hunt to begin with." Robert answers.

I shrug, but resolve not to press further. They've got Stockholm syndrome, probably. Them and everyone else here. I've only been here three days, and so far somebody is dead and three people have gone missing. At least I think three, I wasn't paying much attention after the hunt.

I feel someone tug on my arm from behind me. I turn around to see Thomas, gesturing behind him to Max. Lyle is holding on to Max, helping him sit up as he holds his head.

"Max," I say, taking a step closer to the bed.

"Are you alright?" Lyle asks.

"What happened?" Max groans.

"We've got no clue. After dinner, you got dizzy right? Kept saying your stomach was hurting. Thought it was just because you were out in the sun all day, because you're white, and pale at that . Of course Tommy and I wouldn't know much about that, so we just took you to the tent. In hindsight, the clearing is mostly in the shade so you probably wouldn't get sunstroke. I mean I don't know how hot it is where you are from, but it's nowhere near this hot in England, so maybe heatstroke makes more sense than sunstroke. Besides, you were all sweaty, clammy and light-headed. When you started vomiting and your eyes got all glossy Charlie showed up and we took you to the medic tent. Unfortunately, Jared, who's the medic by the way, wasn't here. He's out getting supplies at some stream that can apparently heal any injury, so his assistant helped." Lyle rants.

"It wasn't so much me as it was Pan," Robert shrugs. I didn't know he was a medic.

"Yeah, Pan came in and he healed you, with magic!" Lyle shouts.

"It wasn't that amazing." I shrug.

"Yeah sure." James adds sarcastically.

"Where's Johnny?" Max speaks up suddenly.

Suddenly it crosses my mind that I haven't seen Johnny since the funeral. To be fair, that was only this morning, but it seems odd that on a small campground with less than forty people I can't manage to keep track of him.

"I don't know, why?" I ask.

"He sat with us at dinner, I thought maybe I had gotten food-poisoning or he'd seen something happen." Max explains. "Maybe he saw me get stung by a bee; I'm really allergic to them."

"Same," Lyle smiles. "Well, I'm not really allergic to bees. I'm actually allergic to- well not really allergic actually- I'm lactose intolerant. I have been since I was a baby. Dad says it's all Mum's fault because she'd always..."

"Lyle maybe we should give Max some quiet." I say. "If he did have heatstroke, he's probably really tired."

"You're right. Tommy and I can go fetch some water. Mind you, we aren't hiking all the way up to wherever the medic guy got his water. He's probably been gone for over an hour. Which is a ridiculous amount of time to walk somewhere just to get water; you'd get so thirsty you'd drink all the water you collected on the way back." Lyle shrugs and nearly drags Thomas out of the tent with him.

"I'll go look for Johnny," I offer, exiting the tent.

I enter the clearing and look around. It's dark out, but the place seems to be busier than ever. Work is finally done for the day, whatever work actually needs to be done is beyond my expertise. I turn to head towards my tent, when I feel someone grab me from behind. They place a hand over my waist and another over my mouth and drag me into the forest.

Normally, I would start kicking and screaming, but given that this has already happened a few times over, and that I'm completely exhausted, I decide to simply wait and see who it is.

The person lets me go when we are a few dozen feet into the forest. I turn around and it's Johnny, which quite honestly doesn't surprise me that much.

"You know there is a thing called just asking someone to talk to them," I sigh, too tired to yell. "Not every single time someone tries to speak to me do they need to grab me from behind and drag me somewhere."

"When have you ever listened to me?" Johnny asks. "I figured you were busy, so it'd be easier to take you here."

"I was busy looking for you," I shove him lightly. "Max has been vomiting for the past hour. He said you ate dinner with him and might have seen what made him sick. Something about a bee?"

"I didn't see a bee," Johnny shrugs. "And I only ate with him for like the last five minutes I ate. Which is why I wanted to talk to you."

"What does that have to do with anything?" I ask.

He sighs. "Don't be such a plunter. I was with a bunch of boys who also don't particularly like Pan, and they want us to join them."

"Join them with what?" I ask. "What are you going on about? And don't use the word plunter, or any of their slang, it's weird."

"We're going to be here for a while, so we might as well get used to it." Johnny shakes his head. "Not the point, the point is they want to get out of here. They want us to join them."

"Join them?" I ask.

Johnny smiles at me. "It's a conspiracy. We're going to escape Neverland."

~~~~~~

Alright, so I got called into work so I couldn't post last night, but I'm posting today. So, I've decided on a schedule, because I just can't manage everyday. It's a lot of typing, takes up at least two hours of my day. So, I'll be posting every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I always appreciate your feedback and thoughts, so leave a comment if you'd like.

As always, stay spectacular, and I will see you Monday.