Imaginary friends
Peter wanted to sit in the sun but he already spent enough time in the sun today his dad had said so now he was stuck playing his new game in the shade.
He kept glancing over at his dad who was trying to make the walkie talkie work. He knew his dad was good at building things and making things work but he also knew that those items were old and probably weren’t going to work anytime soon, or at all.
The waves were calming. He looked towards them but frowned. He wished Pepper was with them.
Peter placed his board game onto the sand and stood up, wiping the sand off his legs. He needed to go pee so he was about to go ask his dad to take him when he suddenly remembered that he could go wherever he wanted so he walked up to the closest tree, still in his dad’s sight and pulled his pants down to relieve himself.
Once he was done, Peter pulled his pants back up and went to go back to his game when he heard something moving in the jungle. Peter walked towards the sound.
He didn’t hear anything so he was about to turn around and go back to the beach but he heard someone giggling. Peter thought it must be the boys from the place him and his dad went last night so he ran towards the sound only to come across no one.
“Hello? Where’d you go? Did you wanna play with me?” Peter called out but he still didn’t get a response or any signs of anyone. He frowned and went to walk towards the beach again but he heard whispering coming from all around him.
He spun around, trying to find the sound. “Hello? Who’s there?”
“Hi.”
Peter flinched at the new voice and spun around, jumping in fear when he saw a woman standing in a long white dress. It looked like the dresses that Pepper wore at the beach. “Um, hi. Who’re you?”
The woman had a kind face and a gentle smile. She held her hand out towards Peter. “My name is Mary. You shouldn’t be here, Peter. Come with me.”
Peter took a step away from the woman. “H-how do you know my name? I didn’t tell you my name.”
The woman dropped her outstretched hand to the side. “Richard told me.”
Peter frowned. “Who’s Richard?”
“There’s no time to explain right now. You need to come with me, Peter. It’s not safe for you here.” The woman walked towards Peter but he turned and started running away. He didn’t want to go with her.
He ran until he bumped into his dad and fell on his butt.
“Peter. Oh god. You can’t run off like that. You know the island rules.” Tony helped Peter to his feet and checked him over, making sure he was okay.
Peter looked behind him. “I just needed to go pee then I heard someone in the jungle so I went inside and I saw someone!”
Tony stopped walking and turned to look down at Peter. “You saw someone?”
Peter nodded aggressively and pointed in the direction he came from. “She was that way.”
Tony snapped his head in that direction, trying to see if he could see anyone but he didn’t. “How many people? What were they doing?”
“It was a girl. She was wearing a white dress like Pepper does and-and she said her name was Mary. And that I have to go with her!” Peter explained to his dad, angry that the woman wanted him to go with her and leave his dad.
Tony looked at Peter. He tried to remember how much Peter drank today. Maybe he had heat stroke and was delirious. He gently pulled Peter in the direction of the beach. He didn’t see any girls in a white dress running through the jungle. He also knew Peter had an extremely active imagination. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s made up imaginary friends.
“Let’s go lie down for a bit. Are you tired?” Tony asked, grabbing a coconut from their pile that they picked this morning and began cracking it open once they got to the beach.
Peter whined. “Noo. I’m not taking a nap. I’m right and only babies take naps. I’m a big boy.”
“I know, ba-Petey. Tony didn’t think the baby nickname would be suitable in this conversation. He got the coconut open and handed it to Peter for him to drink.
Peter took the coconut anyways since he wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to drink the next thing closest to a cup of milk. He laid his head on his dad’s shoulder, enjoying the sweet taste of the coconut milk.
Tony rubbed a hand over his stomach when Peter moved onto his lap to try and have some quiet time, just the two of them, not like anyone else was getting in their way.
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Peter took a puff of his inhaler for the third time on their hike.
Tony pressed the inhaler to Peter’s lips, hoping this was the last time they had to use it on their hike. They were running out faster than Tony would have liked. They still had two other inhalers but that wasn’t nearly enough since he didn’t know when they were going to be rescued.
He put it back in his pocket and held onto Peter’s hand. They weren’t running or in any rush for that matter, it’s not like they had anywhere to be. Tony just wanted to walk across the island to get an idea of how big it was or if they could come across anything helpful.
Peter began slowing down so Tony sat down on a log, holding his arms out for Peter to sit next to him. “Are you thirsty?” Peter shook his head. “Want me to pick you a mango or something? Coconut? Banana?”
“I want a chocolate bar.” Peter smiled, leaning his head to rest on his dad’s side.
Tony chuckled. “Now that you mention it, I do too.”
Peter knew there weren't any chocolate bars on the island. He still dreamed about one though.
Tony rubbed at his back. “Are you having a hard time breathing?”
“No.” Peter took two big breaths to prove he could. “I’m just tired. That’s all.”
Peter needed at least ten hours of sleep every night and he was getting five to six hours of broken sleep. Tony understood why he was so tired. It was kinda hard to sleep on a makeshift bed with strange noises at night. Along with all the other factors.
He debated putting Peter down for nap times during the day, just so he could get more sleep. Also so Tony could relax a little bit and not have to worry about where Peter was every second.
Tony stood up. “Piggyback ride?” He turned around, asking Peter who immediately jumped onto his back with a giggle.
Peter weighed practically nothing on Tony’s back but with him walking and doing all the work, Peter’s asthma was still acting up again so Tony put him down and ministrated two puffs, getting Peter’s breathing back under control.
“Did you sniff a flower or eat something weird? Why are you having such trouble breathing.” Tony knew Peter wouldn’t know if he didn’t himself. If they were back at home, Tony would be giving it another hour to see if it went away and then he would be taking him to the doctors. They didn’t have that option here.
Peter shook his head. “I didn’t eat or smell any flowers.”
Tony tried to think. It wasn’t a coughing fit that Peter would have, just wheezing that could easily turn into a really bad asthma attack that Tony was trying really hard to prevent.
“Let’s just walk slowly and tell me if your breathing starts to feel weird, okay?”
Peter nodded, grabbing onto his dad’s hand again.
They walked through the jungle some more, Peter jumping over logs while Tony tried to stop him but realized that he couldn’t stop Peter from being a kid. Peter was going to do what he wanted to do at the end of the day.
Tony stopped at a tree and pointed to a rock. “Sit here. I need to go pee quickly and I don’t want you leaving my sight.”
Peter took a seat on the rock, turning away from his dad while he walked off.
Every time Tony went pee, he always kept a conversation going with Peter so he knew he was still there and wasn’t going to wander off.
It worked every time. But this time.
Peter saw something white blowing in the wind behind a tree so he stood up and went to go see what it was. He felt his heart speed up when he saw the girl again. “Hey. Wait, where did you go last time? I wanted my dad to see you.”
The woman was looking in the distance with her back to him. Peter took a few steps closer to her. “Mary?”
“The Tesseract must not be found.” She said, barely loud enough for Peter to hear it.
Peter didn’t understand what that meant. He went to reach out to touch her but before he could, she turned around and Peter screamed.
Her eyes were missing and her mouth looked hollowed out, like her tongue and teeth had been ripped out. Peter screamed louder.
“You must leave and never come back.” She told him but Peter was screaming too loud to hear it.
“Peter?! Peter!”
Peter turned around and went to run to find his dad but he got to him first. “Daddy!”
“Peter. You can’t run away like that. I told you not to move.” Tony hugged Peter close, trying to calm his racing heart. One second Peter was sitting on the rock and the next second he was gone. Tony called for him, hearing nothing in response until he heard Peter screaming.
“I saw the girl again, dad. She-she had no eyes! They were gone and-and her mouth was empty!” Peter tried to calm down but it was hard after basically having his heart burst out of his chest from the fear.
Tony looked around for someone but again, no one was there. “There’s no one there, baby. I think we should go back now.”
Peter shook his head in denial. He knew what he saw. “But she was there! I know it.”
“I think your mind is playing tricks on you, Peter. Let’s go back to the beach and you can take a nap.” Tony didn’t know what this was, he was an engineer, not a doctor. If he had to guess, it would be too much stress and fear in Peter that he doesn’t know how to handle it so he’s either seeing things or making up imaginary people.
Peter shook his head. “No! You don’t believe me but I’m telling the truth! I am.”
“Okay. I know. Let’s go back now.” It was hard for Tony to do this. He loved Peter more than anything he loved in this world but sometimes Peter drove him crazy and he needed to get away from him for an hour or two to just have some time to himself.
He didn’t have that option here. It wasn’t like he could just tell Peter to stay put while he goes for a long walk on the beach. It didn’t work like that.
Tony was trying everything he could to stay sane but he also had an eight year old boy who couldn’t keep still.
Tony needed to get Peter and himself the hell off the island.
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.
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There were two inhalers left. Tony was holding them both in his hand, trying to decide how to make these last as long as possible.
Not seeing an end date to this was the most frustrating part since he couldn’t plan anything. He didn’t know whether or not to start panicking about the limited supply of inhalers or wait.
He looked over at Peter who was playing in the sand so Tony was going to give him twenty more minutes in the sun before telling Peter to sit in the shade for the rest of the day.
Peter looked over at his dad but he was too far away to tell if he was looking at him or not. He filled his makeshift bucket up with sand that was actually an empty coconut shell his dad made for him. It was his favourite and only toy on the island.
He wanted his dad to play with him but he was too busy doing something. Peter didn’t like that, his dad was the only person he could talk to on the island. He didn’t have anyone else.
Since his dad wasn’t watching him and looked like he was too busy to play with him, Peter grabbed his coconut and stood up, walking into the jungle.
Peter didn’t know what he was looking for but he wanted to go exploring. Just for a little bit.
He didn’t plan on going very far but everything looked so interesting to him so he wandered out further than he would have liked. There was a tree up ahead with roots sticking up so Peter ran towards it to check it out when he fell and tripped over the jungle ground.
“Oof!” Peter pushed himself off the ground but then the sky was going dark and it started pouring rain with no warning signs.
Within seconds, Peter was soaked and now covered in mud. He stood up and brushed his wet curls out of his eyes.
Chills ran through his body because everything looked the same and now with the rain, everything was dark and scary so he couldn’t even tell which way he came from so he could go back.
“Daddy! Daddy!” Peter screamed, barely able to hear his own voice over the loud rain so he didn’t know how his dad would be able to hear it.
He began running but stopped when he heard something in the trees. Peter cried out, “Daddy?! Where are you?!”
There was whispering coming from around him. Peter turned towards the sound but he ended up spinning in a circle since the voices were coming from all around him.
“DADDY!” Peter screamed as loud as he could, terrified of the strange whispering in the trees. He could hear people but he couldn’t see anyone.
“Whatever it takes.”
Peter snapped his head in the direction of the noise, not seeing anyone. He sank to the ground and wrapped his arms around his legs, desperately wanting his dad to come find him.
“Whatever it takes.”
Peter cried harder, shoving his face between his knees. He heard a stick snap so he snapped his head up. “Daddy?”
It wasn’t his dad. It was the same woman from before. Peter quickly stood up, slipping on the mud as he tried to hide behind a tree. “Go away! Stay away from me!”
The woman slowly walked closer to him. Peter realized that she wasn’t even wet from the rain. Not even her hair was wet while he was drenched from head to toe. “Who are you? Who are you?” He cried out.
She looked concerned. “You have to leave. Leave here and never come back. There’s a boat on the other side of the island, just off some rocks. You have to get off this island and never return. Whatever it takes.”
Peter cried harder. He didn’t understand. “Wh-what about my daddy? I’m not leaving him!”
“The island will decide the fate of your father. Now go. Tell him, Peter.”
Peter choked on a sob. He didn’t know where she came from or disappeared off to. He chased after her when she began walking away. “Wait! Wait! Please!”
When he ran around the tree that she walked behind, she was gone. As if on cue, the rain stopped and the sun was back out. Peter fell onto the ground and cried.
He didn’t know what was going on.
There was a loud snap behind him so he quickly turned his head and saw his dad. “Daddy! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I-I should-shouldn’t have r-run off!”
Tony picked Peter up, wrapping his arms around his boy tightly. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Peter shook his head. Tony pulled away from him to hold Peter firmly in front of him. “You do not leave my sight. Ever! Do you understand me, Peter Stark?”
Peter cried harder and nodded. Tony grabbed tightly onto his hand and began pulling him along, back to the beach. “Ow! You’re going too fast. Daddy!”
Tony slowed down, forgetting about Peter’s short, tiny legs.
Peter continued to tug on his hand. “Let go! Daddy, stop it-”
“No! You stop it!” Tony stopped walking and kneeled down so he was at Peter’s height level. “You need to stop running off! No more! If you do that again…” Tony paused. He didn’t know how to punish Peter here. “If you run away again, I will put you to bed early. No swimming in the ocean anymore! Do you understand what I am saying to you, Peter Stark?”
Tony had to make this stick. This wasn’t Peter spotting a cool toy in the toy store and running off, this was an island. The difference between life and death could literally be the wrong step here.
“Yes!” Peter screamed, hating when his dad used his full name. He yanked his arm out of his dad’s grasp. “The girl was here. She was talking to me and-and I heard whispering.”
Tony sighed, standing up straight and rubbing at his eyes. “Peter. There’s no one else on the island. We’re alone. That’s why no one is coming to rescue us.”
Peter gasped. “What? No ones coming? Why? Why’s no one coming, daddy?”
Tony didn’t know why. He didn’t know a lot of things at the moment. “I don’t know, kid. It’s almost been a week and no one's come.”
“Oh.” Peter looked down at his muddy shoes. Has it really been a week already? It felt like an hour but at the same time it felt like eight years. “When will rescue come?”
Tony looked around. The island was huge. He didn’t know where they were or why no one had come yet. “I don’t know, baby. I wish I did.”
Peter frowned. “Well… I know where there’s a boat.”
Tony chuckled. Peter and his active imagination. “Oh yeah? Where?”
“Um…” Peter tried to remember where he was told the boat was. “On the other side of the island. By the rocks near the water.”
Tony eyed Peter. That was very specific. “Why are you saying that?”
“Mary told me.” Peter’s eyes were wild as he looked up at Tony. “I’m not lying, daddy. She was here… after the whispers. She-she said I have to get off the island… and we have to take the boat. Please believe me.”
Tony kneeled down again, holding onto Peter’s hands. “Peter, you’re tired. You’re not sleeping very well and you’re not eating or drinking enough. Let’s go back to the beach and rest.”
“No!” Peter pulled away from him, stumbling back. “Why won’t you believe me?”
“Peter, baby. Please. You’re overtired and you’re stressed out but you don’t know it.” He doesn’t know it because he’s only eight and isn’t supposed to be stressed, Tony thought.
He walked towards Peter and lifted him up, sitting him on his hip and pressing a kiss to his forehead. “Baby, just breathe. We’re gonna go back now.”
Peter whimpered. “Why won’t you believe me?”