It was impossible to completely alleviate the frantic swirling of her mind, but she had to admit that, with the water cradling her and muffling the ambient noise of the outdoors, she could dwell on it all a bit less; there was a sense of comfort in the weightlessness. Her first instinct was to feel guilty about attempting to relax like this, as if, even though she’d been asked to sit out of the rest of this wish, she should still be consumed by it. Should still be as much a victim to her duty as the rest of the team. And maybe, in a way, she was. Having to sit on the sidelines, her only version of help being to literally donothing. . . In many ways that felt much, much worse.
The small fraction of comfort Jo had found in her idle float vanished at once beneath her torturous thoughts. So, with a sigh as exhausted as it was frustrated, Jo opened her eyes back to the night sky.
Except, in that exact moment, something seemed to move in her periphery.
With a start, Jo wrenched herself upright, blinking water from her eyes as she scanned the pool deck and treaded water, inching herself back towards the shallows. There was nothing out of the ordinary, no one coming to check on her, no one coming to use the pool. She was just as alone as she’d been before.
Though it did little to ease the sudden spike in her heart rate, Jo chalked it up to her tense and frazzled mental state, a figment of her imagination manifested to give her something more tangible to stress-out over. Which wasn’t exactly ideal, but it eased Jo’s pulse a bit and allowed her the chance to catch her breath.
Once she’d given the pool deck one more quick scan, she dipped back beneath the water, dunking her head under completely. She basked momentarily in the complete silence and weightlessness, in the way that, when she opened her eyes, she could see the blurred image of the pool light and nothing more. She wondered briefly if, considering their normal functions as humans were optional now, she might be able to convince her lungs they didn’t need air to breathe. Maybe she could trick her immortal body into allowing her to breathe underwater, stay here in the cool dark stasis until the wish was over. But she didn’t have the courage to try, choosing instead to slick her hair back away from her face and break the surface with a deep inhale.
One that quickly devolved into a sputtering gasp at the unexpected presence of a violet-haired woman-child.
“Indulging in a late-night swim, I see.” Pan stood at the edge of the pool, looking down at Jo with a dangerous glint in her cat-like eyes and a grin upon pink-painted lips. Instinctively, and before she could stop herself, Jo waded a couple of steps back and away, flinching when Pan smirked. It wasn’t unlike that morning months ago, Jo realized. She had known about Fuji before it happened—“Something’s coming,” Pan had said in almost the very same spot. Jo had already believed Snow when he said that Pan chose the wishes, but now it seemed all the more obvious. “Aw, don’t be like that. Is that any way to treat someone who came out here to keep you company?”
Jo wanted to say something to the effect of, “I’d take anyone’s company over yours,” or, “I was much happier alone, thanks,” but her tongue felt heavy in her mouth, preventing her from responding at all. Something about being in Pan’s presence without warning twisted the calming atmosphere of the pool deck. The lights seemed to flicker, their glow deepening in hue and becoming almost too bright. Everything was hyper-vivid, as if under a magnifying glass. Jo saw every frayed end of Pan’s hair, every ripple of the water running over her face in lit bands.
“Mind if I join you?” Pan tilted her head innocently, not even waiting for a reply before pulling haphazardly at the fabric of her bright blue, ruffled dress until it gave way without a single tear to an equally bright blue and ruffled swimsuit underneath. Though Jo hadn’t taken her eyes off the girl, in a blink, she noticed Pan’s hair had gone from loose, violet tendrils to a tight bun, tucked back beneath a matching headband.
Jo followed Pan’s motions as she strolled along the edge of the pool, priding herself on not startling when Pan began to descend the set of stairs at the far end.
“Mm,” Pan hummed, running her fingers along the surface, barely a ripple spreading beneath her sparkly painted fingertips. “Lovely, isn’t it?” She inched forward towards Jo until the water was at her shoulders; Jo wasn’t sure when she’d backed up to the side, but she was now effectively cornered.
When Pan was within reaching distance, she stopped, simply standing a foot in front of Jo and swirling her hand through the water. For a long moment, she didn’t speak, and in response, Jo didn’t breathe.
It took her a long time to realize why, the suffocation so subtle it felt more like anxiety than magic, but once she made the connection, it was impossible to unsee. Pan’s magic swirled about her in much the same way that her hands shifted in mini waves beneath the pool’s surface. It didn’t buzz and spark like Jo’s did; it shone like lightning caught on a high-speed camera and played back in slow motion, volatile and deadly, but oddly beautiful. Despite herself, Jo felt drawn to it with a sick sort of awe.
“You feel it too, don’t you?” Pan was saying. It took Jo far, far too long to realize she’d taken another step forward, closing the distance between them. Jo’s eyes flicked from Pan’s now-motionless hands to her face, a rush of adrenaline filling her chest at the predatory gaze now pointed in her direction. “I know you and Snow had a little bit of a talk. What did he tell you,hm?Care to share?”
And image of Snow flashed across her mind, the two of them embracing, the two of them in bed, the look of fond adoration in his eyes. The sight kept Jo silent and still, a determined frown pulling at her lips even as the adrenaline from before made her feel the need to bolt.
Pan didn’t seem deterred by her silence, merely grinning wider, as if she could read Jo’s thoughts.Maybe she could—they had once been one being, after all.Another spike of terror wracked Jo’s spine, left her breathless with dueling urges of fight or flight she hadn’t felt since the Ranger compound. A fight or flight that only grew as Pan leaned in, raising a hand to gently cup Jo’s face.
Jo’s breath left her in an exhale so deep it felt as if she’d only just emerged from the bottom of the pool. Without meaning to, Jo leaned into that touch. Something in the back of Jo’s mind was struggling, desperate, frantic even, but Jo, terrifyingly, didn’t care. She just wanted to keep chasing whatever this feeling on the very edge of her consciousness was, just for a second.
Pan said something that might have been, “There you are, my darling,” but Jo couldn’t really hear it beneath the pleasant buzzing in her ears. But she could feel, almost to the point of hypersensitivity, the way Pan ran a finger down the curve of her cheek, her jaw. Jo shivered, unsure if the sensation was uncomfortable, unpleasant, or some ungodly mix of the two.
Jo wasn’t sure if Pan had been talking to her the whole time, but when she finally managed to listen, to take in the words, they sank deep into her gut, a seed taking root that would unravel her if it bloomed.
“He thinks you’re his. . . but we all know you’re mine.” Her eyes glowed brighter than the pool lights, flashing red. “And you always will be. Won’t you?”
Jo couldn’t have said what snapped her out of the trance, but all at once, she found herself jerking away from Pan’s touch, heart pounding and fear gripping her chest once more. She tried to breathe, tried to understand what that was, what the hell had justhappened.But she came up blank. It was like Pan had been beneath her very skin, flowing like blood in her veins, and Jo hadliked it.
When she glanced back to where Pan had just been, she was gone. With a new flash of panic, Jo frantically searched the pool, though her tormentor was already ascending the stairs to the patio, too far away too impossibly quickly. Still a bit paralyzed, mind reeling, Jo found herself hesitating.
It felt like a trap, or at the very least a very bad idea. But sometimes, you had to walk the razor’s edge to get to where you wanted to go—and Jo wanted out. She wanted out of the Society, to see it crumble and free all those in it.
Pan was the only one who would tell her how to do it. Snow wouldn’t; he’d deemed trying to destroy the Society too dangerous, for now. But who knew when, or if, he’d ever think it was safe?
Pan, however. . . she was the one who had built it. She was the one who had trapped Snow. And she was the one who stood to benefit the most by seeing them all—Jo especially—set free.
Before she could back down, Jo hurried out of the pool and ran to catch up, Pan already beyond the deck and heading back inside the mansion. She knew she was trailing a mess of puddles in her wake, knew she was still in nothing but a wet tank and underwear, but she also knew, inexplicably but without a doubt, that if she let Pan vanish this time, there would never be another chance.
So she sprinted, hair clinging in wet tendrils to her forehead and shoulders, bare feet slapping loudly against the mansion floors, all the way through the Four-Way and into the hall leading toward the recreation rooms.
A breath of relief escaped Jo when she saw Pan only just inching past the black door of her room. If it closed. . . If she didn’t make it in time—
She hadn’t realized how desperate she was, for more answers or even justunderstanding, until she was slapping a hand against the black of wood of Pan’s door before it could shut.
