Why Don't I Kill Pan?
(If anybody has a better title suggestion, I'd love to hear it, this one stinks)
I could kill him. I could kill him so easily. He's right here and I've got a shipload of men around me, all of them armed, he thought.
Captain James Hook stood over Peter Pan with a boot firmly on his chest, a sword in one hand and his hook on his stump of a wrist.
Peter just lay there, looking cheeky and fearless as always. The boy didn't have a care in the world. He was Peter Pan; the boy who thought he was invincible. The boy who thought he could always bounce back from anything. Even now his fingers tried to creep toward where his dagger had fallen, but it was just out of reach.
"You've come to meet your death, Pan. You're just a silly, little boy."
"And you are a grumpy, old, codfish!" he declared, crowing loudly.
James Hook wondered silently why they traded insults. Why he didn't just finish the boy off now. "You are a whiny, arrogant brat." He contemplated his life, his past. Why had he come to Neverland? Why had he run away? Because he had grown up, and he was sick of it. Sick of the grown up world and all it's responsibilities. He wanted to be free. Free and in charge. He was a clerk. He did the same boring job everyday and worked for the same drab boring people. He wanted adventure. He wanted to live life. He hadn't found the answers at the bottom of a mug of beer as he had hoped, and tried. He hadn't found the answer in lively partying. He found the answer in the park. Kensington Park. He wandered there, thinking about how meaningless it all was anyway. How he longed for something more. At the time, he thought he must have been hallucinating. Half a dozen little bright lights hovered around him. He wasn't all too clear on what had gone on after that. He just remembered getting set up on the Jolly Roger. Crewmembers started to appear gradually, most from his world. They'd left for various reasons that he didn't care to hear and they didn't care to give. Life was smooth sailing and they lived it rich for more than half a dozen years. Then Pan came into the picture. Almost as though the fairies had decided to throw this man and boy together in an eternal struggle. Now here they were, struggling again and he still didn't kill him. Why?
"Tick tock, tick tock, here comes the giant croc. He's gonna come back for you, you know," Peter said.
At that moment, Hook lifted his boot ever so slightly to lessen the pressure on the boy's chest as he leaned down.
It was just enough and Peter wormed his way free and shot into the air, grabbing Hook's feathered hat as he went up.
"Come back and face me like a man, boy!"
"Not on your life, Hook! I'm no man! But," he added teasingly, "I'll trade your stupid hat back for my knife."
"You want it? Catch it!" Hook dropped his sword and hurled Peter's knife at him.
Peter caught it and through the hat down.
As the hat wafted down on the sea breeze, Hook shouted, "The cannons, you fools! Shoot! Shoot while he's still in range!" He knew it was useless. The boy was already floating out of range and the pirates had never learned to aim properly anyway. After his crew missed and Peter was out of sight, Hook shouted at them and ridiculed them, and told them how awful they were. He said they were the scum of the earth and worthless if they couldn't kill one little boy. He exclaimed loudly about wondering why he even kept them around. Then he retired to his cabin.
He looked at the shore, where he knew Pan would be rejoicing with his little friends. Pan lived to be chased another day, and Hook…Hook lived to chase him.
He knew why he never killed Peter. He knew why he lifted his boot to let Pan escape. Neverland needed a hero as much as it needed its villain. Life would become dull if was left to roam the seas unchallenged once more. If life was going to be dull, he might as well be back home working at the bank or in an office somewhere. No, that life would not be for him. Not for me, he thought.
So both Hook and Pan lived, to fight another day.
---FINIS---
I think I'm going to go back and do a more in depth story about how James Hook came to Neverland. What do you think? Anybody interested in reading it?