Chapter 14: Beautifully Haunted
"Neverland?" Emma asked, still surprised by how pale Hook's face was.
Hook didn't answer. His eyes appeared glazed over and he looked to be lost a million miles away in his thoughts.
"I've never heard of such a place. A place that's run by children? How can a place like that even exist?" Emma asked thinking out loud.
"It exists," Hook said so softly that Emma almost didn't hear him.
"How do you know? You've really heard of such a place?" Emma asked completely forgetting for a moment how obnoxious and terrible he was.
He turned, still kneeling down next to her and locked eyes with her. His answer was simple, "I've been there."
It took Emma a moment to register his words because of the intense look he was giving her. She didn't see the cocky, inappropriate pirate in front of her. Instead she saw a man, a man who looked terrified. Emma never thought she'd see the day the fearsome Captain Hook would be terrified. That thought alone was enough to make her uncomfortable and worried.
"What the hell do you mean you've been there?" Emma asked breaking out of her own thoughts.
"I'm sorry do you not understand English? I said I've fucking been to that godforsaken place." Hook snapped at her while standing up. He immediately began pacing back and forth in front of her.
"Okay," Emma said slowly, forcing herself not to get riled up by his words. "You obviously don't like the place. However this is a good thing, we have a starting point, we know where to go."
"Not liking the place is a severe understatement." Hook replied as he continued to pace.
"I still think it's a good thing, we have a direction to go. All you have to do is take us there." Emma said.
"Take us there? It's not that easy. It's in a different realm. Plus in all the lands in the universe it's probably the place I'm the most unwelcomed, and that's saying something because I'm not welcomed in a lot of places." Hook replied sharply.
"Okay so you don't have a lot of friends there. Who cares? We will work around it. We need to go there to follow this lead." Emma replied trying to be the force of reason. Emma wondered what the hell happened in Neverland to cause Hook to behave this way.
"One can't work around these things in Neverland. The second I show up back there they will know." Hook replied his voice starting to raise slightly.
"Okay well we will figure it out. This is our only lead we must follow it." Emma stated again.
"I spent two hundred fucking years in that wretched place! Maybe I don't fucking want to go back there! Maybe my revenge isn't worth it!" Hook yelled finally stopping his pacing to look at Emma.
Emma's head was spinning due to all the revelations his few sentences had revealed.
"So the rumors are true? You really are hundreds of years old." Emma said shocked. She couldn't believe it. He didn't look a day over thirty years old and now he was saying he's a few hundred years old.
"I know my extremely handsome face says otherwise love, but yes I am. However, if you ever say I confirmed that rumor to anyone I will blatantly deny it." He answered back shooting her a nasty look.
His look didn't detour Emma though, his statements had her thoughts going a mile a minute.
"How the hell have you survived hundreds of years? And what do you mean by revenge? Revenge against who?" Emma asked.
"Well love, that's the end of tonight's question and answer session. In fact, it's now the end of this entire little study session in the library tonight. Now I must go think about what our next course of action is." Hook turned away from Emma and started walking towards the door.
"Seriously? You're just going to walk out? We finally have a lead and you are bailing? What happened to working together? This doesn't just effect you! I'm in this too!" Emma said outraged at the fact that he was going to abandon her after their big find.
"You may be in this princess, but you have no idea what you are up against." Hook said sending her one last serious look before walking out.
He had to escape that closed up library. He needed to get to the sea. The sea helped him think. 'Every sea except the sea in Neverland.' He thought bitterly to himself. He stormed out of the castle not caring who he bumped into or how he must appear to everyone he walked by.
He didn't slow down until he made it to the dock. He was on fire. He was furious. He couldn't even form a complete thought. Only jumbled thoughts and visions of that wretched land went through his mind. Without thinking he walked to the end of the dock and dived in the water.
The water was cool but refreshing to his skin that was warm from the heat of his power walking and the fury that was boiling through his veins. He broke the surface and took a deep breath. It was dark out and he gazed up and saw millions of stars above him.
'Fucking Neverland,' he thought. The land that he fought so hard to get to and then had to turn around and fight like hell to get out. It took him a hundred years to find a way out. A hundred years of searching, a hundred years of dead ends, a hundred years of frustrations, and a hundred years of the childish games of Peter Pan.
Peter Pan. He almost wished the child had tried to kill him. Instead the obnoxious boy kept Hook around as his toy. Someone to entertain him. Hook hated it, Hook was nobody's puppet or jester. However, in Neverland Peter called all the shots and found it completely entertaining to mess with Hook. To torture him and put him through hell only to allow him to survive for his next game. Hook knew Peter would be furious when he found out he had escaped. He was almost surprised the immature child didn't follow him to this realm and use his magic to force him back to Neverland. After all children really didn't like to lose their toys.
Yet somehow ironically everything had come full circle. Hook had been in Neverland two hundred years. The first hundred wasn't too terrible. Hook was so heartbroken he barely remembered the first few decades. Then once he came out of his rum coma every once in a while he thought of nothing but his revenge. After the first hundred years Hook realized he wasn't going to get his revenge by sitting on a ship in Neverland getting drunk and hooking up with mermaids. In fact him and Peter were almost friends the first hundred years, they kept mostly to themselves and didn't disturb each other but would occasionally have a decent conversation. It wasn't until Hook revealed the fact that he wanted out of Neverland that Peter turned into a psychopath.
However now it appeared after finally getting out of that miserable soul-sucking realm he had to march right back there…willingly.
'Was it worth it?' He asked himself as he floated on his back, not caring that his clothes were soaked. He had been on his path for revenge so long that he hadn't taken the time to think about the point of it lately.
Just then the images of Rumpelstiltskin crushing his poor Milah's heart in front of him flashed through his mind. The way he had to watch the life leave her eyes as he held her knowing there was nothing he could do. Could he really let that slimy son of a bitch get away with murdering his love? Could he really walk away and not make him pay? Upon asking himself those questions Hook immediately knew his answer.
Emma stood a few hundred feet from the water in the shadows. She had followed Hook down to the docks. She wanted to know where he was going. Was he going to leave? Was he going to start murdering the townsfolk in his rage? She didn't know what villains did when they were furious.
She forced herself to keep up with him and couldn't even hide her surprise when she saw him dive in the water fully clothed. She doubted he would have even noticed her if she walked right up to the edge of the dock since he appeared to be completely lost in his thoughts, however she didn't want to risk it.
She watched him swim around slowly and end up floating on his back for a while. After several minutes Hook swam towards the shore. As he was swimming closer to her Emma managed to see his face.
Haunted. Miserable. Beautiful. Were all words that immediately came to mind. 'Beautiful?' She thought, appalled at herself for even thinking it. However in the quiet corner of her brain part of her was able to admit that beautiful was a good description of his face. Emma hadn't ever studied his face before now because usually she was too busy being frustrated or angry at him. However even though he appeared to still be troubled Emma couldn't deny how attractive he was. His distinctive features were one of a kind. He was handsome without trying. He was the kind of man that every sappy love story described as the dashing hero main lead.
That thought immediately stopped Emma's line of thinking. Captain Hook was no hero. Captain Hook was a terrible man who had a reputation for doing terrible things. Plus he was clearly a troubled man, and he was obviously hiding many things. 'You're hiding things too,' the traitorous part of Emma's brain said. She pushed that thought quickly out of her mind as she watched Hook climb the ladder to his boat. If he had answers about how to get to Neverland maybe Emma needed to try a different tactic. Maybe she should try to be civil, try to work with him, convince him that going to Neverland was a good idea without losing her temper as always. She couldn't afford to let him walk away with the knowledge she desperately needed. She couldn't let him walk out of her life.
I know I know I know...it's been FOREVER. I finally got settled in my new house though and had some time to write. As I always say somehow someway this story will be finished no worries! As always let me know what you think :) You're reviews honestly do motivate me! Thanks for you patience and enjoy!