A Dream Within a Dream

Chapter 1 - Poof

One minute, Rose was walking down the street, overly eager to go back home after a tough day at school, and the other, she was standing in the middle of a jungle.

The girl blinked a few times, her heart skipping several beats at the sight of the trees. Her eyes widened when she realized she wasn't dreaming. She took a step forward, unconsciously biting her lower lip in confusion and nearly jumped out of her skin when her backpack hit the ground. She had not realized it had been slipping from her shoulder. She glared at the item, her head resting on her chest - where her heart was. She immediately started counting, taking deep breaths to steady the pace. Thankfully, Rose's heart beat slowed quickly, without any unwanted complications.

"What the bloody hell?" She thought, passing a hand through her hair nervously.

She took another careful step forward, not entirely sure what to do or where to go. She made a swift 360, checking for any other life sign than trees but frankly, there was nothing else to be seen in the perimeter.

Rose started considering her options, walking in a bright circle to think better. It did not really help her think at all, but she did it anyway.

The first option was to pick up her bag, take out her phone out of the front pocket and call for help. Probably the best option, in her opinion. Without going any further in her alternatives, she bowed down to get the green bag. She could not help but notice that it blended pretty well with the environment. She grabbed her phone and frowned as its light suddenly died. She tapped a few times on it, gently at first, but quickly grew annoyed with it.

Rose didn't know which one would break first. The screen or her finger.

After a few more tries, she abandoned and turned the gadget over in her slim hands, opening the back of it. Her frown deepened when she noticed that her phone's battery had been replaced with white sand. "What the fuck?" She spit out angrily, throwing it on her bag.

She would have thrown it on the ground, but that thing cost too much to break it that way - so she aimed for the bag.

Her eyes settled on it, her brain processing the piece of information. Well, if she could call it that. She kind of smiled when a silly thought struck her. The fact that her phone died like that reminded her a lot of one of her favourite television shows, 'Once Upon a Time'. She even knew the episode and its name. Rose's mother had insisted that her daughter watched too much TV, but the seventeen-year old girl begged to differ.

One did not simply watch too much 'Once Upon a Time'.

Anyway, the first option being a pure failure, Rose moved onto the next one. That one included exploration and probably - most certainly - danger. Rose did not like danger. It was... dangerous.

Who was she kidding? Rose Hallowell was way too fond of danger for her own good.

Without further more hesitation, the brunette headed to the left side of where she had inexplicably appeared. Why left? She had no idea, it had just felt like the right thing to do. So with both her arms extended in front of her to protect her face from the sharp branches, to the left side she went.

She walked, and walked and walked some more for about half an hour. Well, in fact, she didn't know how long she walked, but it couldn't have been for more than half an hour. So, after those long thirty minutes hiking through the jungle - again, she wasn't even sure it was a jungle - she eventually arrived to a certain point were sand and water replaced trees and bugs.

She nearly giggled when she felt a pleasant breeze caress her skin. It felt really good to breathe in fresh air, especially for her and her health problems. They weren't mortal or anything, but they were one royal pain in the ass for her.

She looked at the sea water and suddenly, a wave of stupidity washed over her. She kicked off her shoes - and her jeans jacket -, thanked her mother for making her wear a dress and ran into the water.

Bad move. Really bad move.

For two reasons.

First, the ice was bloody freaking cold.

Second, if she would've been standing on the beach when she saw it, perhaps she would have seen the gigantic wave before actually feeling it.

"Bloody hell." Rose exclaimed, not exactly sure which thing she was saying it for.

For the fact that she was drenched from head to toe, or the fact that there was a huge rock shaped as a skull. As a bloody skull. Just like in -

"No." She stated, bewildered.

Rose fought the urge she felt to smile, but gave in pretty quickly. There was no point in denying it. She found the whole situation quite funny. No, scratch that, she found it awesome. Crazy, but plain awesome. She took a step towards it, as if to make sure it wasn't a hallucination of some sort.

Thankfully, it wasn't. It was real. Well, it seemed pretty real to her.

Rose bit her lower lip in excitement, her thoughts all converging to the very same thing. To the one TV show she loved. To the one thing that wasn't possible.

'Once Upon a Time'.

"Oh. My. God." She said, taking deep breaths in between each word.

The teenager nearly threw herself at her shoes, adrenaline pumping through her veins and put them on quickly. She didn't even wipe off all the sand on her bare feet. She just had to see - to know - if everything was real.

Rose didn't even make it to her jeans jacket. An arrow came flying through the air, missed her by an inch and lodged itself in the sand. Her heart started racing as she tried to protect herself by covering her face with her hands. She rolled her eyes at her own silliness underneath her fingers and snapped her head up to the place where the arrow came from.

Her deep sea green eyes met cold grey ones. She gasped when she recognised the person attacking her. Well, 'recognizing' was a big word for the situation since she had never actually seen the guy. On screen, she had seen him many times, but never in reality. And frankly, it would have been better that way.

Because of what she had seen on the show, Devin did not seem like the nicest guy on the planet. Naturally, she would have thought about the fact that she was probably going crazy and that it was impossible, but the sight of the dude preparing another attack made the girl panic. All she could think about was something that sounded like: "I am so bloody fucked."

Thankfully, Rose managed to use her brain to try and get out of the bad situation. She threw her hands in the air in a 'peace' gesture, hoping the boy was getting the sign. Apparently, he did, since the boy lowered the weapon. The girl smiled, happy her sucky plan was working. She opened her mouth the shout something - Devin was a little too far for her to speak normally - but he turned around and disappeared into the jungle.

"Why -" The girl wondered out loud, letting her arms fall limp next to her waist, partly in exasperation and partly because they were hurting.

"Why, hello." She heard a low voice speak behind her.

Her heart skipped about one million beats - give or take a few beats -, and her eyes widened. She knew the voice. She really did. She had already heard it somewhere. More precisely in a loved television show.

Rose turned around slowly, gulping nervously while doing so. When her eyes met his, she let out a breath she hadn't known she had been holding. Before the boy could speak, Rose cut him.

"Peter Pan." She stated, not believing her eyes.

The guy's eyebrows shot up, and she bit the inside of her cheek to stop from laughing. She had read a lot of things about that character. More stories than she could count. Stories about a good Peter Pan. Then young ginger one with pointy ears and the green thighs. But also stories about a very darker version of Peter Pan, like the one standing right in front of her.

Rose Hallowell preferred the evil one. More dangerous, more unpredictable.

More fun.

She knew all too well that she should have gone running. That she should have tried to find a way out of the whole mess, but there was one thing clouding her mind.

"Bloody hell, his eyebrows."

Author's note:

Hello, dear readers!

Here is my brand new Pan fiction, right out of my imagination.

For the people who don't know me, it's nice to meet you (Well, kind of...) and I thank you for clicking on my story. 'Cause that means that you chose to read it, which makes me happy, you know? (Or you could be totally forced by some very evil person to read it and you might be in mortal danger at the moment, but hey, how would I know?)

For the people who do know me, I KNOW, I KNOW! Both my stories are waiting, but this freaking idea has been clouding my mind all week, so I wasn't able to come up with a nice chapter for 'Never Believe', and since I'm concentrating on that story, 'Bad Blood' will have to wait until 'NV' is finished (Which normally shouldn't take long)

Anyway, know that really appreciate reviews and encouragement (I mean, please, who doesn't, really?)

Have an awesome day - or night - dear reader!