Chapter 9: The Promise I Made to You
Whelp, into the belly of the beast I go…
Mindy grimaced as a creak resounded from the door to the Captain's Quarters.
She waited until at least a minute had passed before she poked her head inside. As she expected, the room was pitch black and obnoxiously congested snores emanated somewhere from within. When her eyes adjusted, she gathered her nerve, and stepped in…only to trip over a jut sticking out from underneath the door frame. She was barely able to stop herself from falling flat on her face with a frightened yelp.
Mindy panted for a few agonizing seconds…
She swallowed before tiptoeing past Captain Hook and making her way towards the desk. She rummaged through the drawers but all they contained were loose pieces of parchment, bottles of ink, and a case of hooks. The final drawer she tried to open was locked…
Curious, she pressed her ear to the side and whispered, "Tink? Psst…Tinkerbell? You in there?"
A series of jingles from within answered her question.
"Listen, I promised I'd get you out of here, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do." Mindy darted her eyes back towards the sleeping pirate, and noticed that a tiny key was dangling from a hook on the far side of the bed…"At least, that's what I'm gonna try to do…just sit tight okay?"
The fairy dinged back something along the lines of: "As if I have a choice!"
Mindy padded to the foot of the bed, and climbed on top of it.
She held out her arms as she teetered on the springs for a moment. Mindy held her breath as she maneuvered around the captain's arms and legs all-the-while trying to make as little noise as humanly possible. Her heart just about leapt into her throat when he unexpectedly chose to roll over onto his side. Thinking quickly, she pressed her back against the wall and prayed to God that he wouldn't notice that she was there.
When he'd settled on a comfortable enough position, Mindy gulped before reaching her arm out, and removing the key from the wall. She then shuffled her feet towards the edge of the mattress, but just as she was about to step off, she tripped over Hook's leg concealed under the covers and plummeted to the floor with a thud!
She scurried under the bed right as the captain awoke with a groggy: "Who's there?"
Mindy didn't say a word.
Hook's shifty eyes thoroughly scanned the room for any sign of the intruder. She squeezed her eyes shut when his bare feet appeared directly in front of the crack underneath the mattress…
After what felt like a millennia of silence, the captain released a drawn-out yawn, and flopped back-first onto the bed. Even though she heard snores from above her, Mindy still waited an extra ten to fifteen minutes before even considering coming out of her hiding spot.
She was just starting to wiggle out when the door flew open. "Cap'n!"
Mindy didn't hesitate to scramble back underneath the bed, Abort mission!
"You'd better have a good reason for waking me Smee…"
"Sorry Cap'n! But it's about the two sea pups below deck!"
"What of them?"
"Well th-th-they-"
"-Spit it out Smee."
"They've escaped sir!"
"WHAT?!" Mindy flinched at the captain's booming voice, "YOU BLITHERING IDIOT! HOW IN BLAZES DID THEY MANAGE TO DO THAT?!"
"I don't know sir! B-b-but I counted all of the longboats and none are missing!"
"PIPE UP THE CREW! NO ONE IS TO REST UNTIL THEY ARE CAPTURED! WE WILL FLIP THIS ENTIRE SHIP UPSIDE DOWN IF WE HAVE TO! UNDERSTAND?!"
"Aye, aye sir!" A shrill whistle pierced through the air, "ALL HANDS ON DECK!"
Mindy remained underneath the bed until she heard both sets of footsteps exit the room. She waited a few more seconds before she slid out, crawled to the drawer, and fumbled to unlock it. She then withdrew the lantern with Tinkerbell in it, and held it so that they were eye-level.
"Okay, okay, okay! Don't panic! Are you panicking?! Cause I'm not panicking! If there's anything I'm doing it's NOT panicking! I-I'm completely fine! Just fine! Hahahahaha everything's fine!" She was able to maintain her tight façade of a smile for a fraction of a second before it inevitably dropped, "Who am I kidding?! Everything's NOT fine! Scratch that, everything is far from fine! I don't know who I was fooling! I'm not a hero, a princess, or even a fully functional human being! I'm just…a fraud masquerading as all of those things who actually has no idea what she's doing ninety-eight percent of the time!"
The fairy made a gesture indicating that she needed to take a deep breath, and to calm down.
Mindy did as she was told, "You're right…you're right, I need to focus on getting us out of here…now, I'll warn you this plan might sound a little crazy…in the sense that I have no plan, but-but…yeah, I have nothing more to add to that I really don't have a plan! So um, let's just wing it and see what happens…K?"
"WINGING IT WAS AN ASTRONOMICALLY BAD DECISION, AND I AM REGRETTING IT NOW!"
Despite the fact that Mindy's mouth was spread into what appeared to be an enthusiastic sunny grin, her current emotions were anything but. Intense anxiety mixed in with overwhelming exhaustion was a dangerous combination to have, especially when one was trying to evade the entire fleet of pirates chasing them.
"YOU MANGY DOGS! Captain Hook's entire face glowed crimson as he watched the chaos unfold from the upper deck, "HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO CAPTURE A SINGLE GIRL?!"
Mindy was running on nothing but zero sleep and adrenaline, but it was somehow one hundred percent more effective than what caffeine had to offer her. She wasn't that surprised though. If she was able to attend nine classes after getting six hours of sleep every week, than it only made logical sense for her to be able to do something as insane as this.
Seeing as she was trapped on both sides, Mindy saw no other alternatives other than sprinting towards the portside railing at top speed, and flinging herself over the side of it with a strangled: "WAHHHHHHHH!"
She landed back-first into a longboat, but made sure to hold the lantern above her chest to protect the fairy. Mindy moaned as her world spun in dizzy nauseating circles. When her vision went back to normal, she glanced up at the concerned countenance of none other than Dakota Davenport.
"How did you get in here without getting caught?!"
"Well, getting in wasn't the hard part." He laughed, "The hard part was when our little friend checked to see if any of the boats were missing, and I haphazardly ducked underneath one of the seats. I didn't expect that to work, but I'm not complaining."
"Neither am I!" She placed the lantern on the bottom of the dingy before yanking on the closest pulley cord to her. "Now help me lower this thing into the ocean so we can finally get the heck out of here!"
Dakota started to work on the second one, "What about the kids?"
"Dude, we're already screwing up the plotline enough as it is by taking Tinkerbell with us!" Mindy explained, "We can't afford to screw it up even more! The results could be catastrophic, so we need to be more careful about what we do from this point on! Don't worry, Peter will save them later I know it!"
"You might wanna step back a little."
Tinkerbell pressed her back to the opposite end of the lantern, and snapped her eyes shut.
Without hesitation, Mindy smashed the glass with a stone she'd found lying on the beach. Making sure to avoid the leftover shards, the fairy whizzed out of her former prison, and hovered in front of the two teenagers with an elated smile.
A trill of joyful bells erupted from her mouth as she did a twirl.
"Your welcome." Mindy nodded before her eyes shone with urgency, "Tink, I need you to listen to me. Don't ask me how I know this, but Hook gave Peter a package that's actually a bomb in disguise, and you need to get to Hangman's Tree as fast as you can to warn him before it goes off at six o'clock!"
Tinkerbell gave them a questioning glance.
"Don't worry about us." Dakota waved it off, "We'll just lay low until this whole mess is over, and we can go back home."
"Right." Mindy's face scrunched up when the fairy fluttered over, and started to tug at her hair, "Ow! Hey, hey, hey! What's gotten into you?!"
A chorus of frantic dings served as her only explanation.
"You want us to follow you? Follow you where?"
"How do you know that's what she wants?"
Dakota tilted his head, "Didn't you hear her talking?"
"No…" Mindy cocked a brow, "How is it that you can understand her and I can't?"
"Your guess is as good as mine." Dakota shrugged before tapping his chin, "Although, I think it has something to do with me owning every single straight to DVD Tinkerbell movie." When he noticed the flabbergasted expression on her face, he continued, "Remember? I used to have a Tinkerbell phase back in our younger years? I literally went to school on Halloween dressed up as Terrence, all of the kids made fun of me, and Scarlett threatened to spit into their sippy cups if they ever teased me about it again?"
Mindy thought for a moment…then shook her head, "Yeah it's not ringing any bells."
"I see what you did there, and it was a nifty little pun."
"Thank you, but we can't follow her." She insisted, "We wouldn't be able to keep up, and Peter needs to be separated from that bomb ASAP! That should be our top priority at the moment!"
Tinkerbell gave one final yank of Mindy's hair before gesturing towards the jungle. There was a beat of awkward silence as the two stared at each other with exasperation apparent on their features…then; Tinkerbell clasped her pint-sized hands together with an irresistible puppy-dog pout.
Mindy and Dakota exchanged glances before coming to a silent understanding.
"Alright…lead the way."
As to be expected, the pair struggled to keep up with Tinkerbell as they charged side-by-side through the undergrowth.
She had the advantage of flight, and while Mindy somehow possessed pixie dust of her own, she knew that they didn't have the time for an impromptu lesson on how to use it at the moment. All that mattered was getting to Hangman's Tree before it was blown into smithereens, and since Tinkerbell had been freed much sooner than anticipated, Mindy wasn't too worried. But just because they now had some time to spare, didn't mean that she was keen on using it.
Who knows? She mused, If we get there early enough, we could kill two birds with one stone by rescuing the hideout and Peter and would that really be such a detrimental change to the narrative?
Imagine their surprise when Tink led them to an ashen meadow.
"Wait why…why are we stopping?" Mindy heaved as she wiped the mist building up on her lenses with the end of her fringed skirt.
Tinkerbell said nothing, and instead beckoned them to where she was hovering with an encouraging smile.
Mindy was about to take a step when Dakota unexpectedly held her back, "Hold on." He eyed the fairy suspiciously, "You're not trying to get revenge on Mindy for upsetting Peter are you?"
She shook her head rapidly, and continued waving for them to step out into the open.
Some omnipotent being flipped a switch somewhere, and Dakota was back to his usual chipper self, "Oh, okay then!" He cleared his throat before gesturing for Mindy to go first, "After you."
She stepped out onto the grassy terrain with trepidation.
When she was younger, she had watched the Tinkerbell movies too.
Mindy just barely remembered Dakota introducing her to them, and she faintly recalled thinking that they were good. She admired Tinkerbell's loyalty to her friends, her perseverance whenever she was set on completing a difficult task, and her willingness to make Pixie Hollow a better place.
However, she wasn't sure if this Tinkerbell (the one who was currently leading them to an eerily desolate clearing) was the same Tinkerbell she'd seen in those movies. This Tinkerbell had tried to murder Wendy by using her for target practice as well as given away the location of Peter's hideout because she had been so blinded by her own jealousy.
Despite these imperfections, Mindy decided to blindly trust the corporate image and searched for whatever it was she wanted them to find. Dakota got down on all fours like a golden retriever as he scanned the ground for anything useful. His eyes lit up as he plucked a surviving daisy from the crispy remains. He then hopped over to Mindy, and gingerly placed it behind her ear with a brace-faced smile.
"I hope this token of my affection makes you think of me everydaisy."
"That was adorable." She admitted, "But we don't have time for your adorable puns! We need to get to Peter and get the bomb as far away from him as possible before he's quote-on-quote: "Blasted out of Neverland forever."!"
Tinkerbell zipped over to a burnt tree stump, and pointed down at it.
Raising a brow, Mindy padded over with Dakota following suit.
She knelt down and inspected it thoroughly…her eyes narrowed when she noticed that the deadened grass surrounding it had slight divots, as if it were a patch that someone had hastily sewn into the ground. Curious, Mindy stepped back to where she was on the outskirts of the border. Catching onto what she was doing, Dakota did the same. The two nodded before crouching down, digging their fingers underneath the crack, and lifting the hatch to reveal a ladder descending into an inky-black chasm.
Dakota tugged on his piano suspenders as he rocked back-and-forth on his heels, "Are we really going down there?"
Mindy shrugged with a half-smile, "Why not?"
"Because it looks incredibly sketchy and we probably shouldn't?"
"Where's your sense of adventure?"
"But what about Peter?"
"Tink?" The fairy flew to her side with an inquiring look on her face, "Listen I don't know how this is possible, but something about this place feels familiar to me…and because of that, I'm just gonna assume that you know who I am too. So, we'll indulge you, and go into this creepy secret underground tunnel on one condition. You need to head straight to Hangman's Tree and see to it that Peter is separated from that package by any means necessary…will you do that?"
Tinkerbell gave a tiny salute before taking off into the trees.
"So, you really think that you've been here before huh?" Dakota questioned.
Mindy nodded, "It would explain how everyone knows who I am, and why I keep getting a weird sense of Déjà vu every time I visit a place or situation that's seemingly insignificant."
"Well, if you think that going down there is our best chance at finally solving this conundrum, then I'm all for it." His mouth formed into a reluctant smile as he rubbed the back of his neck, "Let's just…do this relatively quickly, okay?"
"Okay."
She then took in a shaky breath, and descended into the inky blackness. Dakota twiddled his fingers for a bit, but quickly came to his senses and followed her down. They were silent for the majority of the climb. She caught the undeniable scents of dirt, mold, and a hint of what smelled like cigarette smoke. However, compared to the lift stations that appeared to be around every corner in Mulberry County, this was considered to be tame for her already traumatized nose. Mindy focused less on her claustrophobic setting and instead on every microscopic step her feet took. One wrong slip could send either of them tumbling into the abyss; never to see the light of day again.
"Whoever built this really didn't think this through." Dakota attempted to ease the tension, "How are we supposed to see where we're going if there's no freaking light?"
"I don't see how anyone would be able to install an electric system down here." Mindy replied, "It's not like there're any outlets on this island."
"But what about lanterns? Fireflies? Glowing luminescent crystals like in Undertale?"
If Mindy weren't climbing down a rickety ladder, she would have been counting on her fingers, "Fire hazard, unsustainable, and unrealistic."
"Well it's a magical island so you don't know."
"Well it's a magical island so you don't know."
"What was that?"
"Dunno, there must be an echo in here or something."
When she reached the bottom, Mindy let out a relieved: "Hmmmggghghhh oh my God!", and bent over with her hands on her knees. "I hated every second of that!"
"You can say that again." Dakota's sudden voice caused her to leap three feet in the air. "So…now what?"
"I have no idea." She admitted as she instinctively started to feel around the walls of the pitch black room, "I can't see a damn thing in here." When she realized what she was doing, Mindy let out a wheeze. "Dakota,"
"What?"
"I actually started looking for a light switch."
He laughed in response, "And you're the one who always calls me Davendork."
"I'll have you know that I haven't called you that once since we arrived!" Mindy burst out in mock-indignation, "Also, Scarlett came up with that nickname, not me."
"But you encouraged it!"
Before she could retort with something along the lines of: "You didn't seem to care up till this point, and if that's how you really feel I'll stop calling you that from now on", her fingers brushed up against what felt like a button…or maybe a-
"-There's no freaking way…"
Mindy flipped the supposed light switch and the room was bathed in a washed-out pinkish purplish glow. The source came in the form of a plastic unicorn lantern dangling from a rope in the dead center of the room. No matter how hard she squinted, she couldn't tell what exactly was providing the light.
Lightbulbs?
It was the only plausible thing she could think of.
To put it simply, the place looked as though a homeless person had lived down there for years, gotten caught, and skedaddled before the cops could show up.
There was a lantern similar to the former off to the side, only it was planted in a pile of leaves, branches, twigs, and ashes. Speaking of which, the entire burrow was covered with a thick blanket of all of those things. A barely visible wooden trunk was lying on its side. It'd been burnt to a crisp along with various documents, folders, old toys, books, and candy wrappers scattered around it. There was a writing desk in the corner with dried paint stains, scorch marks and scratches tainting its surface. The battered-up chair that accompanied it had lost two of its legs so it leaned awkwardly on its side. Mindy took note of the seared stuffed animals in a lopsided net overlooking a mostly intact canopy bed made out of leaves. Their faces were melted beyond repair, to the point where she couldn't decipher what they were supposed to be. As she stepped further into the room, she saw that sketches of various Disney characters covered every inch of the charred, earthy walls. A chill started to sweep over her the longer her eyes lingered on the illustrations.
They looked old, abandoned, and sad…they seemed to judge her every move.
Mindy ran her hand over the faded pieces of parchment, as she passed Aurora, Sebastian, Jiminy Cricket, Mickey Mouse, Maleficent, and bizarrely enough Captain Hook of all people. She froze in her tracks once she reached Peter Pan. The sight of it alone caused her eyes water spontaneously.
Why do I feel so…guilty all of a sudden?
When Dakota came into her peripheral vision, she was quick to wipe her tears on her sleeve. "Looks like whoever lived here left in a hurry… gosh, I wonder what happened."
You know exactly what happened here…You need to stop lying to yourself. Stop lying to everyone about who you are Mindy. You must allow yourself to remember… remember what?
"Hey…" A hand rested on her shoulder, "Are you okay?"
Mindy didn't respond.
She couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from the drawing…
It depicted Peter sitting on the bent trunk of a palm tree overlooking the ocean with one leg dangling off the edge, and his elbow resting on his propped up knee. He was in the middle of laughing, and his fiery-red hair was being swept back by a summer breeze. A sunset right out of a storybook was nestled on the horizon line, and the warm glow contrasted well with his dark silhouette. He looked so happy…what had she done to have him react so negatively at the sight of her?
"But you promised that you would never grow up! You promised that you would NEVER forget me!"
In that instant, the pieces of a once shattered memory started to formulate in her mind.
"I remember this place." Mindy whispered in disbelief, "I lived here..."
Dakota tilted his head, "How do you know?"
"I can't explain it…please don't ask me to explain it so-so many things are going on in my head right now I can't…" She snapped her eyes shut and forced herself to suck in a breath, "It was a bunker, my bunker…I was hiding from somebody."
"Who?"
A sliver of a face appeared in the void of her closed lids, but the image was difficult to make out. The only features that stuck with her were two piercing crimson eyes glaring at her from the infinite darkness.
"I…I don't know." Mindy shuddered, "All I know is that they were bad…really bad."
"What else do you see?"
"I think…I think they're trying to smoke me out." She said after a moment. "I've been hiding in the bunker. I've hidden here for weeks… possibly months, or even a year. But now they've found me."
"The bad people?"
"Yes." Her brows knitted together in concentration, "I-I'm packing as quickly as I can; trying to get out before the flames reach me…I'm too late. Fire! Smoke is filling my lungs, I'm coughing there's-there's flames in my room destroying everything in its path…God, they're not natural…they're purple…why are they so purple?! They're getting bigger… Someone's grabbing me and dragging me out of the hole. We're running now…we're-"
"-This way Mindy hurry!"
Her eyes burst open.
She'd been transported back to the burning forest from her dream, only this time it was in vivid detail. Mindy put the back of her arm over her mouth as she coughed. She watched helplessly as the purple flames disintegrated anything and everything unfortunate enough to be in its path. Warped distorted voices and blood-curdling screams of children echoed throughout the undergrowth; bringing the island to its knees from its sheer intensity.
It was a sound that could only be described as unfiltered suffering.
As she trampled through the vegetation, Mindy looked up to see that the hand she was squeezing the daylights out of belonged to none other than Peter Pan.
Her lips parted in a silent scream as disfigured, clay-like hands clawed at her from the bushes, trees, and even the fuzzy black-and-white sky. Upon first glance, there appeared to be a normal thunderstorm overhead. Only, the lightning was the same color as the fire sweeping around them.
Mindy squeezed her eyes shut as one of the bolts made a beeline towards her.
With a bright flash, she was teleported to another memory.
This time, she was in some sort of ancient library.
The smell of old books, shelves made of pine, and bubbling concoctions reminded her of the warm embrace of a friend that she hadn't seen in ages, but she couldn't quite explain why. She was facing a ruby-red door with the initials O.W. engraved into it. Before she had the chance to ponder what they could stand for, the sound of someone sobbing caused her to flinch in alarm. She whirled around to face Peter Pan who was desperately trying to keep himself together as he balled his fists at his sides.
"The moment you step through that door, you'll lose everything. You'll lose me." He blubbered out, "You'll lose this place, your friends, your family, and you'll most likely never come back. I already know how this is going to end…You're gonna leave me… You're gonna leave me, and you're gonna forget all about the time we spent together just like the rest of them aren't you?"
"What makes you think a silly thing like that?" The words tumbled out of her as if she were quoting lines from a Disney movie, "If growing up means forgetting you, then I'm never gonna do it. Besides, how could I forget someone as… animated as you?"
Despite his tears, a chuckle resonated from the back of his throat, "You promise?"
Mindy's mouth formed into a smile of reassurance, "I promise."
In the blink of an eye, she was warped back to the present.
Her once radiant smile faltered a bit before settling into a frown. "I broke my promise to him."
"To Peter?" Only then did she notice the sympathetic glint in Dakota's eyes.
Mindy nodded as she struggled to maintain her composure, "No wonder he was so mad at me…how-how could I have done this to him?"
"It wasn't your fault."
"Yes it was." Her voice was starting to break, "He has every right to be angry…I'm a terrible friend."
"No you're not." Dakota insisted as he spun her around to face him, "Everybody makes mistakes from time-to-time…I'm sure if you talked to him about this recent development, he would gladly give you some closure as for how you got here in the first place."
"He doesn't want to talk to me."
Mindy looked away and her eyes gravitated towards what looked like a leather scabbard propped up beside the bed. She removed herself from Dakota's hold, and approached it in a dreamlike state. She barely registered that she'd crouched down, and picked it up. It was heavier than she'd imagined, and she had to use both hands just to hold it. With some difficulty, Mindy managed to unsheathe the sword inside, and turned it horizontally as she thoroughly inspected it. It had grown a bit rusted with age, and a few scorch marks were visible around the handle, but it was still in somewhat good condition. Etched into the blade were the words: Growing Up is Optional.
An outlandish idea popped into her mind, "But I know somebody who does."
In a second, Dakota put two and two together. "No."
"But-"
"-But nothing!" He snapped as he shook his head, "Mindy we barely managed to escape that place, and now you're saying that you wanna go back?!"
"If Hook was telling the truth, then he can tell me the full story of my past."
"But what if he doesn't want to tell you the full truth?!" Dakota burst, "Or worse, what if he lies about everything? What if he manipulates you like he did in the brig? We can't take that risk! He's a Disney villain, and he can't be trusted under any circumstances!"
"Please Dakota." Mindy begged, "I used to be so sure of who I am, but ever since I've arrived…it's like I'm a complete stranger. This place has changed me in more ways than I expected, and I need to know what happened to lead me to become this mess that I am today."
Dakota held her stare for a few tense moments before giving in with an over-exaggerated sigh, "I hope you know what you're doing."
She bit her lip in response, "I don't…but then again, what else do you expect from me?"
"Nothing." He said with a lopsided grin, "Absolutely nothing."