The Dark One
Rumpelstiltskin.
Of all the magic-wielders on this blasted island, her mind complained, you had to run into Rumpelstiltskin!
Melanie's heart was still galloping in her chest, trying to recover from the shock of the last few seconds. Everything had happened too fast. Her brain hadn't yet processed everything. She wasn't sure whether to be relieved or wary. After all, she was in the presence of the Dark One, and he could never be trusted.
"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" the man asked. His lips were set in his usual smile, but his eyes held a deeper darkness, one he hardly ever let show. It was enough to send chills down Mel's spine.
You're not safe yet.
"Rumpel," she said, forcing a smile. He looked different from when she'd last seen him, on the boat. This man looked a bit… well, edgy. Neverland had seemed to add years onto his normally ageless face. Yet, somehow, he looked more determined also. Like he knew what he had to do, and no one would keep him from doing it.
"Why are you out here?" he inquired, pacing around her slowly.
"I was about to ask you that," she admitted. "What am I doing here?"
The Dark One frowned, stopping in his tracks. He turned to study her, as if looking for an answer to a very annoying problem.
She opened her mouth to respond and promptly closed it. What was going on? Why was she one minute in the camp and the next out in the middle of the forest? Accompanied by Rumpelstiltskin. It was all very strange. And stranger still that he seemed as confused, if not a little disappointed, himself. She'd thought he'd brought her here, purposefully, with magic.
How could she trust him at all? He had abandoned them to this death-trap of an island. He'd left to do his own hero thing. Except he wasn't a hero, he was a power-hungry villain. One with the tendency to make people regret their deals almost as soon as they'd made them. And it wasn't like Mel hadn't dealt with him before, she knew firsthand how unpleasant and dangerous he could be.
Melanie's eyes did a quick scan of her surroundings. Trees and more trees. All the landscapes here looked the same. She had no clue where she was, only that it was no longer Pan's compound. Even if she managed to run from Rumpel, which was unlikely in the best of circumstances, she'd be completely lost and alone. Even if she despised the Dark One, even if she didn't trust him one bit, she had no choice but to cooperate with him. Plus, maybe this was the one chance she'd been praying for all along. Maybe now she could send a message to Emma.
"I was in Pan's camp," she explained, pausing briefly when he raised an eyebrow. "He- I was… um- I was captured by the lost boys a little after arriving on land. He'd been keeping me prisoner for a while. One moment I was being walked by that guard," she said, pointing to the fallen figure, "and the next we wound up here. I believe that was your doing."
"Yes," he murmured, almost to himself. He shook his head suddenly, as if no longer able to hold in his anger. His eyes flashed a dangerous shade.
"I take it that wasn't your intention, then."
"Oh, I did intend to pull someone out of that camp, dearie," he smiled sourly, "it just wasn't you."
"Henry," she said. Not a question but a statement.
Melanie knotted her hands together behind her back, to still her nervous energy. Rumpel had been hoping to retrieve his grandson with the spell and instead he'd gotten her. She couldn't even imagine the amount of magic and concentration he had put into that spell. It didn't seem like the kind of stunt he could pull twice.
"Have you seen him?" The Dark One inquired.
Should I tell him? Can I trust him?
Well, it's not like you have another choice, her brain argued.
"I have," she started slowly. Rumpel's reaction was immediate, his eyes lit up with a hungry, determined fire. "I spoke to him this morning," she continued, "and he looks fine." At Rumpelstiltskin's skeptical look she added, "Undamaged, I mean. He's just waiting for his family to go get him."
"Interesting."
Ignoring the beads of sweat running down her spine, both from the heat and her nervousness, she took a tentative step toward the Dark One. "Look, you have to send Emma a message from me. I've been scouting the camp," she said, "and listening in on conversations to figure out a way to aid the escape. With your help, I could communicate with the team from inside the compound, and that way we could get Pan by surprise."
The hard smile and pitch-black twinkle in his eyes froze her heart. "Oh, dear! You think you're going back into the camp," he laughed humorlessly.
"Why wouldn't I be going?" she asked in a quiet voice, backing away from him. "That's where I'm more useful, it's where we can get information."
"There is no 'we' in this rescue, dearie." Rumpel said, dropping his false grin. "I'm going to get Henry out, because I'm the only one who can. And you're simply the means through which I'll do it."
"Okay," she gulped, breathing in shallow breaths. "Just send me back and I'll help." The closer he got, the less air seemed to enter her lungs. For a moment, she wished she was back in the camp, surrounded by the noise and the boys. Protected. Ironic, the one place that was her prison, her cage, was also her safe-guard.
"Pan won't take you back nicely, you know that."
His magic pulsed like a living heart in the air around her, pumping fear into her veins. She was afraid that if she breathed in too deeply she'd suck the darkness into herself.
"He knows, by now, that you've been outside. That you've talked to someone, spilled his secrets. He wouldn't take the chance of accepting you back, just like that."
"You don't know that," she argued, desperate. She already felt lightheaded from the lack of oxygen.
"I do, you do, and so does he."
"So what help can I be to you?"
"You'll see," he chuckled darkly.
All light blinked out of existence.
Melanie struggled against the ropes binding her hands and feet together, to no avail. The raucous wind howled, pushing her hair back from her face and freezing her body as she stood precariously on the edge of a cliff. Beneath her, the churning waters of Neverland clashed on the spiky rocks of the beach.
"You remember my instructions, right dearie?" Rumpel whispered from behind her. She could smell the stench of dark magic on him, it was nearly making her gag.
"This is madness," she gritted through clenched teeth. "Let me go and we can work something out."
"Let me think," Rumpel said, rubbing his chin in mock consideration. "No."
"He won't come," Mel said, for the millionth time since she'd woken up. "I'm not that important to his plan." Trembling from head to toe, only partially because of the cold, she continued, "All you'll accomplish is killing me."
"You'll find you're mistaken." Rumpel assured her, she felt him securing her bindings. "And if not, well… so sorry dearie." He laughed his trademark laugh, and pushed her off the edge.
The fall lasted forever and no time at all. She felt weightless, tumbling down to the sea. In a way, the adrenaline burning in her veins and the wind in her hair, she felt like she was flying. And then the water smacked her body with enough force to rattle her bones. It was icy cold and enveloped her in a matter of seconds. The salty taste of it invaded her mouth as she sank helplessly under.
I can't believe I came all this way just to drown, she cried in her mind. I can't believe after everything, everything I did to save my brother, I won't even get to see him one last time. My Benny.
Stupid Rumpelstiltskin, she cursed, and his stupid plans. Pan isn't coming to save me; he doesn't care enough about my magic. I'm not important to his plan. Rumpel probably did the kid a favor by getting rid of me.
The girl could feel her skin turning to ice, feel her heartbeat slowing. Already the air in her lungs escaped through bubbles rushing to the surface. Soon she would give in and suck the sea water into her body. She would die and her corpse would be food for the mermaids. What a terrible waste.
With each passing second her surroundings grew darker, and the pain in her chest grew unbearable. She managed to discern a shape, a shadow, moving toward her.
Oh, great! I get to spend my last moments as fish-food.
She shut her eyes tight, not wanting to face death just yet. Then she felt arms snaking around her waist, and tugging her upward. Melanie kept her eyes shut, sure that she was delirious, that this was her brain's last hallucination, an attempt to protect her from the truth of the horrible demise that awaited her. The 'arms' around her weren't human, they weren't warm and they didn't feel real. However, the feeling of shooting up was very real. Incredibly real.
Unable to bear the suspense any longer, Melanie opened her eyes to the weirdest sight. The shadow, the same one who had kidnapped Benny and countless others, stared back at her with its creepy glowing 'eyes'. It was enough of a shock to scare her into opening her mouth in a bubbling scream. But before she could use any last strength to push away they broke the surface and clean air forced itself into her lungs. It was a painful pleasure.
The shadow shot up into the sky, flying with keen purpose, and Melanie prayed it wouldn't let go. Its body was ethereal, almost see-through. She had no idea how it had grabbed her. Seconds later, they crested the cliff she'd been rudely pushed off, and landed somewhat bumpily a safe distance from it. The shadow released her like a sack of potatoes in front of a pair of worn-green leather boots.
Before her, standing with all the grace of a prince, was Peter Pan. Melanie wasn't sure whether her relief at his presence was a good thing or not. Her feelings were in a jumble, and all she could think at that moment was how glad she was to rid her lungs of sea-water.
"Went out for a swim, did you lass?" he purred, crouching in front of her. His green eyes latched onto hers in that unshakable way.
"No," she coughed, shaking the wet curls plastered to her face, "bungee-jumping. Without the rope."
He laughed at that, pushing a strand from her eyes. "The rope's there," he said, pointing to her binds, "you just seem to have misused it."
"Silly me," she replied in a monotone. With a swish of his fingers the ties vanished and she inspected her sore wrists gingerly.
"Melanie," he said softly. Just the sound of her name on his lips sent a shock of something through her shivering body. She couldn't quite place it, and wasn't sure she wanted to.
It's okay, she told herself, you're just in shock. You nearly died and he pulled you out of the water. You're confused. That sort of thing messes with your head.
His fingers tilted her chin up, surprisingly gentle and warm, and she met his gaze. It was almost too overwhelming.
"What happened?" he asked. His voice was calm and his face composed, yet there was an underlying intrigue to his tone.
"He won't come."
"You'll find you're mistaken."
He had come, just as Rumpel had suspected. Even though he had nothing to lose in letting her die. Or maybe he thought he did. Maybe she had underestimated how much he was betting on her magic, how curious he was about it. That was nearly enough to make her laugh. Peter Pan had bought her bluff blindly. She had managed to get the best of him. Despite all odds.
Now she had to follow through with Rumpel's plan and get in Peter Pan's good graces. No matter how much she hated it, and hated working with Rumpel. For the time being, this was the only strategy she had, and he the only ally she could contact.
"I received your summons," she said, forcing herself to pull away from his touch. "I was being taken to see you when, somehow, the Dark One pulled me out of the camp." She studied his features as he took in her story, trying to discern how he was taking it. "He was hoping to get Henry. I don't know why he got me instead." Starting with the truth was a good way to earn his trust, and make her acting more believable.
"And why did you end up soaking wet?" Pan pressed, an unreadable glint in his eyes.
"You can imagine how disappointed he was to see me." She ran a hand through her hair, shaking the dampness from it. "Apparently, his parents failed to teach him anger management." The mention of parents was rewarded with a look of suspicion and maybe a hint of… fear.
What's that all about?
"He wasn't all that invested in keeping our partnership after that."
"So he pushed you off a cliff?" Pan asked, a tad unconvinced.
"What? You think him incapable of harming the unsuspecting and innocent?" Mel laughed mirthlessly. At least this part she didn't have to act out. Her disgust at Rumpel was pure and true.
"No, I don't." He stood, setting his gaze on the horizon. "Why did you let him push you, though? Why were you letting yourself drown?"
"I had everything under control," she answered lamely. His only reply was a curt nod. She knew he wasn't convinced, and rightly so.
She pushed off the ground, making to stand. But after being deprived of oxygen for a while her balance wasn't all that great, and as she swayed the boy grabbed her shoulders. She knew she was supposed to be repulsed by him, and she was, but the warmth of his hands was a welcome respite from the chills that haunted her body, so she didn't pull away this time.
"I am tired of making deals with heroes. They never seem to pull through with their end of the bargain." She lied shamelessly.
"The Dark One doesn't exactly qualify as hero material, lass"
"No, I guess he doesn't," she conceded, worried that she might have overdone it with the emphasis. But judging by the look in his green eyes, Pan was buying it.
Melanie knew to be cautious, though. She knew that his actions, like hers, might be staged. He could be playing her as she was trying to play him, she had to stay alert.
She felt devastatingly tired. Having to keep up with the game, keep up with Pan, was all-consuming. Sometimes it felt like drowning. It felt like plunging into the icy, deep ocean water, hands-tied. But in those moments when she was winning, when the power was in her hands, playing felt like… flying. Soaring through the heavens, heart filled with constellations.
Melanie was afraid of how much she enjoyed feeling powerful.
"You're cold," he realized, snapping her from her reverie.
"Well, I did just take a dip in the ocean," she scoffed, teeth chattering. "Fully-dressed."
"Why won't you spell it away?" he mused. She panicked, searching for a plausible answer, but then realized he wasn't really asking her, he was asking himself.
Pan cocked his head to the side, and looked at her as if he believed the answer was hidden on her face. He shook his head and turned on his heel, walking towards the forest. "Come on, lass. The boys miss you already."
Melanie started to follow when a weight suddenly settled on her shoulders, evoking a startled shriek, and nearly scaring her to death.
What the hell?
It was a blanket. A warm fur blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She stared at Pan's retreating back. He gave no indication that he noticed her unflattering cry, although it was obvious that he had heard it and that the blanket could only be his doing.
Her head was pounding, like the ocean waves against the spiky rocks at bottom of the cliff. She didn't know what to make of anything. She didn't want to think too much. She'd had enough for one day without having to over-analyze Pan's mind tricks.
Hugging the fur for warmth, Melanie followed him into the forest.
A.N: So, there it is. I know I took almost a year to update, which is simply ridiculous, and I know it, so… sorry? To tell you guys the truth I had almost abandoned this fic, real-life was getting kind of scary and overwhelming, and I was so busy. But somehow I found myself thinking about this story, and everything I still wanted to do with it. And it was so comforting coming back and working on it. I think I will take it to the end. I am so sorry for leaving you guys hanging, though. I hope you can still embark on this journey with me, and enjoy it as I will. See you next chapter!
