What no one ever told you about Peter Pan is that he is real. He is very much so alive and real, and yes, he takes kids to this wonderful place called Neverland where the days are comfortably warm, and the nights are never chillingly cold. Another thing no one ever told you was how evil, and maniacal Peter Pan actually is.

My name is Sam Diggleby, but you’d know me as Slightly. I got my nickname because I was particularly good with stealing. Being sleight of hand equalled to me being nicknamed Slightly.

At first, my time on Neverland was ordinary. Peter Pan was his regular self; the one you hear about in the stories. But therein lies the problem, and the problem was Wendy. Wendy Moira Angela Darling. She was as beautiful as a dove and as gentle as a mother and Pan fell head over heels for her. Of course, Peter being only a boy meant he had the mind of one, and he didn’t quite understand the concept of love at the time.

When she left to go back home along with us Lost Boys, Pan was broken. I only know this, because the next time we were taken away to Neverland, we knew things had changed drastically. Hook was terrified of Pan, and the Indians were gone; their home had been burned to the ground and their heads were hanging from Hangman’s Tree.

You may be thinking now about how Hook was still alive considering the stories say he was eaten by a crocodile, and I will tell you that he had carved his way out of that crocs belly and swam back to the Jolly Roger and stayed as far away from the island as possible. I only know that because Hook told me so himself.

He’s long since dead now. Pan killed him. At least, that’s what Pan told us. I never really believed him when he came to us and said that Hook was dead, but I could never know for sure.

Pan’s still out there though; waiting on his Island for more boys to turn up. He’d never hurt one of his boys, and girls are now completely forbidden on the island. The last time a girl entered the island after Wendy left and us boys were taken back, she was…how do I put this lightly…hm…

She was hung. From where I don’t know, but she’s there to serve as a reminder and as a warning.

Then again, now that I think more on this, I distinctly remember being tortured for wanting to come back to London; for wanting to grow up. He had this mad look in his eyes that would haunt my nightmares for the rest of eternity as he chokes me and says, ‘I will never allow you to go back!’.

I always thought that maybe he just became lonely without Wendy around, but there was something really sinister and terrifying behind the loneliness. It was almost like without Wendy there, he could do as he pleased, and he could be what he truly wanted to be. 

I was always terrified of telling this story, but I’m telling it now in the hopes that no one will run away from home like I did, and in the hopes that no one will go out late at night, and that no one will happen across a shadow like I did. 

Neverland isn’t like the stories say. It may have been once, but it no longer is. There’s a lot of hatred on that Island; hatred, and pain above all else. Even the fairies turned dark when Pan did. When he changed, the Island changed. The plants grew thorns that drip poison, and the fruit that was once edible is now inedible. The poison will practically burn you from the inside out, and it’s one of Pan’s favourite kinds of torture to inflict on those who disobey him. 

To anyone reading this, please,please, please heed this warning. I would much rather that no one else go through what me and the Lost Boys went through. And remember; Peter Pan is a demon that will never grow up…

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