Why did she leave? Every day he asked himself the same question. The mere thought of her sparked anger in his chest. Eventually the anger turned into something else. Sorrow. That was much worse.
He went over to his desk, picked up the piece of paper she had left and began reading it.
“Dearest Nick,” it began, “I can’t do this anymore. I almost died last night and I knew that if I stayed you would never see be again. I hope you understand. I still love you. Mary.”
The only piece of printed evidence that the love of his life ever existed. He’d kept it even after the first few months of grieving. Weeks passed, then months, then years. It was a personal milestone, marking the date of her departure.
It had been two years and six days since she left. Why didn’t I do something? He thought to himself. He pulled out his journal to help calm him down. He wrote in it daily. All thoughts, all emotions. It was like a personal diary, a reminder of who he was, what he was doing and why he was doing it. Most people didn’t bother using a journal. To be honest, he hadn’t kept one in years. This time he was persistent.
“Okay,” he thought to himself. “Why did she go? Why didn’t I find out how to stop her? I have to figure out the answer.”
No, he thought. I have to do something. I can’t just let her walk out on me.
You see, he hadn’t fallen in love. She’d been the first girl to catch his attention. She seemed kind of… strange. The fact that she had no social skills earned her immediate attention. She had a lumpy face, her hair was unkempt and she was a few steps behind him when it came to reading and writing. He never made fun of her though, he always defended her when people talked bad about her. He was always the first to talk to her or go up and start a conversation. They became inseparable.
The two of them were together every waking hour and quite a few asleep. As time went on, he would drop his guard. He would open up to her about life, about how unfair the world was. She was a very good listener. He learned more about her, her family and her life.
She explained to him that her parents always yelled at her and never seemed to care about her. They never seemed to like her and nobody found her attractive.
She was tormented by the idea over other people’s approval. She worshipped the ground he walked on. He was the only person in her life that ever made her feel loved.
It was a few weeks after their first year anniversary that she asked him to come with her to Neverland to the best time of her life. He was excited for her, he was counting down the days until their vacation. It was going to be the best time he’d ever had.
They arrived at Neverland and she immediately started crying. He thought she was sad about something, maybe she was hungry, maybe she felt like they were poor.
But she wasn’t sad about that. She then explained that she wasn’t allowed to eat, sleep or socialize in Neverland. She explained this was why most of the guests had never found her attractive.
She said there were these horrible people that had stolen her heart, her time and attention. It seemed that she was a child, a prisoner of love.
He had never seen her vulnerable before. She cried, saying she was worried about staying in Neverland. She had a feeling she was going to be found out and she was scared of what would happen. He reassured her that everything would be alright. That she would be rewarded for what she had done, that she would be rewarded dearly.
