The ship was quiet on deck. Peter knew well that just below it was less than calm, but at least up top he had a chance. He skidded up the stairs, forcing himself to put pressure on his bloody, fractured leg so he could run; adrenalin pushed the pain to the back of his mind. Immediately upon reaching the surface, he saw 3 pirates that were against the back most railing, gathering up bits of rope that lay in a pile next to them. Thankfully, they didn't seem to notice Peter; their attention on untangling the ropes.
Hesitating, he waited and stared a moment, before slowly and quietly moving to the east most area. The back end of the ship would have been most ideal; the only windows there were to Hook's study and bedroom, and Peter knew the damned pirate wasn't in his quarters at the moment. Looks like he would have to take his chances with the western side. Hopefully no pirates would see him below deck out the windows.
He made it far, inching his way silently across the open deck, doing his best not to leave a bloody trail behind him. But unfortunately he didn't make it quite far enough. Turning around at just the wrong moment, one of the pirates saw the ragged bleeding boy making his way to the eastern side. It took a second for the pirate to register exactly what he was seeing, but once he did, he raised his sword with a loud holler and ran after him; the 2 others following. "Pan! Stop there!" They screamed.
Peter took little notice, instead pushing himself up into a run again. Getting through the main deck, he hurried down the lower decks. The ship was so big! Much bigger than Peter ever realized when flying about it. He had only ever really seen the main deck, but there were many other parts of this ship he hadn't even known was there. Over the past 3 months he had been aboard, the ship only seemed to get bigger and bigger.
Turning a corner, peter found the ledge he was looking for. The western ledge was a part of the ship that had few windows on the lower side; it was primarily used to reeling in old fishing nets and used for storage of excess barrels. It was usually abandoned, and it would be the perfect place for Peter to jump ship.
But of course, this just happened to be one of those times that it wasn't abandoned.
There at the railing stood a pirate, casually whittling away at a piece of wood before turning and seeing the boy stagger in sight. There Peter halted, his heart dropping. In the moment he stopped and stumbled; the pain and fatigue that the adrenalin had been keeping at bay all hit him at once. Not only that, but his desperation increased 10 fold, and that was the only thing that kept him from collapsing.
It was just one pirate… Peter could get past him. All he needed was to get over that railing. If he ran fast enough, the pirate wouldn't be able to stop him. So he lunged forward, aiming for just past the staring pirate. Peter could make it! He had to!
Unfortunately Peter forgot to take into account his mangled leg, his extreme fatigue and dehydration, and just how much bigger the other pirate was from him. As he dashed forward, he managed to reach the railing, but before he could even attempt to climb over, an arm wrapped itself against Peter's waist.
"What the bloody hell you doing runt?" The pirate screamed as he clung to the small boy who was trying to claw himself away from him. Peter clung to the railing the best he could with his tiny arms, but the pirate was too much bigger; yanking him away and tossing him to the floor.
"You gone mad, trying to toss yourself over to Davey Jones?" The pirate was in shock. "Trying ta killing yourself wont escape the fate Hook's planned for ya!"
Peter, crumpled on the floor a few feet away, forced himself back onto his feet, though it took a few tries. He looked desperately towards the pirate, before turning back toward the direction that footsteps could be heard growing louder and louder.
Spastically, he lunged forward again trying to reach the railing, but the pirate stopped him again, this time hitting him hard across the face before grabbing tight hold on the boy's flailing arms.
Peter didn't even acknowledge the strike that left yet another mark on his young face. "Let go of me you bastard!" He spat at the pirate, venom matching his fear. The boy thrashed and kicked the best he could, before making the mistake of kicking with his broken foot. With a pained scream he seemed to lose his strength, almost collapsing on the pirate holding him down. The pain was simply too much for him to continue fighting back.
"Yer not offing yourself on this ship, understand that mate?" The brunette pirate seemed more exasperated than angry. Peter deflated under his grasp, his face turning from anxious anger to a pained expression.
"I wasn't… I wasn't killing myself" He slurred, tears filling in his dark circles under his eyes and mixing with the blood on his cheeks.
"Oh ye weren't were ya? So you just thought ya'd swim your way back to Neverland with a broken leg? Not only would the stifling pain of saltwater on a wound stop you in your tracks, but you would die of exhaustion, dehydration, and probably getting eaten by a shark before you even made it half a the way back!" The tall pirate held onto him tightly, despite how the boy stopped fighting. Peter was only a bit taller than the pirate's waist, and the he had to hunch to get a view on the boy's face.
"I don't care!" he yelled desperately "Please! I cant go back in there.." the brunette pirate assumed he meant back in the brig, being that was where Peter was stashed the majority of the time. Instead of hollering back at the boy and telling him just how stupid he is, he only looked down at him, brows furrowed. The once-so-wonderful boy had become… this. Back in Neverland when Peter would harass the pirates and always leave victoriously, it didn't seem possible for his glowing spirit to break. He realized that he was in fact looking at that broken spirit now.
So broken that suicide seemed the only option for him.
"Just let me go!" The blond didn't even face the other by this point; his head was lowered out of exhaustion, eyes down on the floor. From that angle, the bloody scabs caked into Peter's hair were easy to see; the pirate was surprised at just how many there were.
"There's the brat!" A gruff voice hollered from a few feet away. The other pirates had caught up. "Good Virgil, you caught him!" said another with a relieved inflection.
Peter didn't react to the voices. His head remained down, unmoving. The pirate that held him hesitated.
"We saw the kid tryin ta run fer it on deck." The pirate sneered at the words. "take it Hook wont be too happy to see him." Another next to him cracked his knuckles. "dunno where the little runt thought he'd achieve by runnin' off like that. Aint nothing but sea for days."
"Bah. you scallywags just get back to your ropes. I'll take the kid ta the capn.'" Said the brunette pirate, Virgil, that was holding Peter. The others just grunted irritatedly, swearing under their breath about how much trouble keeping that kid aboard was, as they left.
Peter stood motionless, his mind blank. He didn't even want to think about what his punishment would be. He didn't want to think about anything. All he wanted was to just jump off that rail next to him. To get away from these pirates; whether it meant burning salt water, drowning, or sharks. Anything was better than facing Hook again. But the hands grabbing his wrists were holding too tightly to break free of.
Virgil tossed the slightly limp Peter on the ground while sighing. "Do you have any idea how much trouble we would get into if you jumped?" This was almost said as a mumble. Peter was surprised at the fall; having expected to be immediately dragged to the captain. The blonde was far from relieved, however, expecting the pirate to take this opportunity to take his frustration out on the boy, as many other pirates had in the past. He didn't look up at the adult, he simply cringed, squeezing his eyes shut, and prepared himself for the blows to come.
"For fucks sake, I can't afford to beat you in your shape, twad. Your half dead as it were." Kneeling down, he hovered over Peter's mangled leg and examined it. "How the bloody hell did you manage this anyway? I know the captain hits hard, but you look like you got it caught in a crab trap and got dragged 3 leagues!" As he said this, Peter felt a poke on his crippled leg, and dared to open his eyes.
"God your thick. I swear if you try and kill yourself again I'll do worse than this to your face." The brunette then, none too gently started wrapping the leg with one of his scarf's off his belt.
"Ow!" Peter cringed, wiping his face of the blood and sweat. "Stupid… I said I wasn't tryin to kill- OW!" He smacked at the pirate, but his arms felt incredibly heavy, and he barely managed to make contact. The pirate smacked back, hitting him much harder.
"Quit it, brat! Can't take you back in the shape you're in. I'll get in trouble if ya bleed to death" the pirate scoffed. "Honestly it's fucking mental. Captain beats you to a bloody pulp, then threatens us, the crew, if you die. Like it's our fault!"
"Ow…" Peter tried to hush himself, but the pain of his leg was intensified by Virgil's wrapping of it. He had to try as hard as he could to keep the pained cries down, and the tears from leaving his eyes.
"I mean we don't really even beat you anymore! Only sometimes… right now would be a perfect occasion if you weren't already half dead. It's all the Captain's doin lately." He said this as though Peter should thank him.
After he finished wrapping the leg, Virgil hoisted the boy up onto his feet and glared down at him. "Alright look you, if you don't want to get the shit beat out of ya like this all the time, I suggest you stifle that rebellion in you." The pirate gestured to his face where Peter hit him. "If you just keep your mouth shut and do what he says, you'd save yourself a lot of pain."
Peter didn't look at him. His expression was pained from trying to adjust to the new sensation of having his broken leg wrapped. But his eyes; those wide, bloodshot, crystal blue eyes of his were different… they trailed over the ocean waves lapping against the ship's side. The glitter and boy-ish youth and joy that once flowed out of those eyes was all but gone; all that remained was an empty glair watching the waves.