Chapter 9

There is a throbbing that sounds like drums playing gently in my head. It's repetitive. Within the darkness that surrounds me, I feel suffocated and alone. Before me appears a boy with messy dirty blonde hair and green eyes. He's wearing leaves and vines as clothing. He smiles, bowing with one hand across his belly and the other behind his back. Don't I know him? He looks so familiar. He stands straight and reaches his right hand out to me.

"Come with me." He whispers.

"But I don't know you." I reply.

His face scrunches together and he frowns deeply. "Lahona."

The smooth, youthful sound of his voice is refreshing somehow. It's inviting. It can manipulate. I reach back, but the harder I reach the further I become. He looks broken, like I have said something to devastate him. And then his round eyes sadden, his lips part and pout.

My heart aches and the throbbing continues. Shaking my head, flashes of I and the boy dancing close together in a decrypted castle plays in my mind. And then it switches, to us in the water, my arms locked around his neck and our chests together. The image changes. He and I are in a bed of leaves and moss, our foreheads almost touching as we lay comfortably next to each other. My eyes close, but his fingers linger along my face, stopping at my lips and he watches me.

"Stay with me." He whispers.

It all comes rushing back so fast my brain whips back and forth.

"Peter!" I scream, thrusting up from the cold, wet brick floor. My heart races in my chest and my eyes search frantically for Peter but all I find is a dark, cold and damp room. It's square with a window high above me. The moonlight beams through the little rectangular cut out. Ahead of me are bars, and a door.

I try to remember what happened last but it's all blurry.

A clanking echoes throughout the cell and a light faintly glows from the right, cascading the hall in front of the cell to show two shadows coming towards me. Coming out from the hallway and in front of the cell is a tall man finely dressed. He's wearing a large red velvet coat with gold embellishing's, black pants and a giant red velvet hat with feather plumes of red and black hanging from the back. He has dark brown curly hair, a nicely trimmed mustache and a thin beard. His right hand is a hook and a gold pummel sword dangles from his waist. I can't tell the color of his eyes in the darkness but they glare down at me.

"It is her." He says with a deep voice.

"The girl Pan has been with?" Asks an older voice. Another man approaches the finely clad man. He's wearing a reddish orange cap, glasses, a gray striped shirt, baggy black pants and a faded green jacket. He's older than the man next to him.

"Yes." He smiles evilly. "What is your name girl?"

"What is it to you, human?" I hiss.

"She's got a temper. My name is Captain James Hook." The man with the evil grin says.

"And I am Mr. Smee." The older man chimes.

"I don't care." I mutter.

"You should, because, you see here, Captain Hook is buying you." Mr. Smee wags his finger.

"Buying me? Where the hell am I?"

"Tsk, tsk. She doesn't know, Smee."

"No she doesn't sir."

"You've been captured by humans." Captain Hook states.

No! This can't be. The last thing I remember- there is a blurry image of a boy standing ahead of me near the beach. He's familiar. Tall with dirty blonde hair and dull brown eyes. Nick. He must have given me up to the humans.

"She's realizing what happened." Captain Hook's evil smile turns small. "Get her Smee, it's time we take her back to the Jolly Roger."

Mr. Smee pulls out a key from his back pocket and struggles to place it in the hole to open the door. Captain Hook looks like he's getting impatient, he's gritting his teeth together and crossing his arms.

"Oh hurry up!" Captain Hook pushes.

"Yes, sir, yes, sir." Mr. Smee finally gets the key in the hole and turns it with a loud clang. He opens the door with a squeal, and walks in.

I back up against the stone wall that for some reason is wet. He, then, rushes at me like a snake and grabs me by my wrists. He somehow manages to get rope from around his waist and ties up my wrists faster than I can process.

"We're all good, Captain!" Mr. Smee stands up straight and walks towards the only exit, the rope following after him as he tugs me up from the ground and pulls me along.

The Jolly Roger sits out in the bay, far away from the docks. We took a rowboat all the way to the ship under the guise of night. My eyes scan all my environments, from the dungeon to the human city, all the way out to the ship. Humans of all sizes hissed and spat at me as I struggled to get loose of my bindings. The more I fought the more my wrists redden from the rope cutting into my skin.

We board the ship with Captain Hook in front of me and Mr. Smee pushing me along the ladder to the deck.

"Boys' we got ourselves an elf."

The men on the ship are disgusting looking. Some had warts all over their faces, others were so dirty I could hardly read their facial expressions. They were downright filthy and vile.

"Tie her to the mass." Captain Hook waves his hooked hand at me.

Mr. Smee is eager to please. He tugs me along the ship to the large mass near the center and ties another rope around me and the mass. It's not very tight, not like the rope around my wrists but tight enough to keep me in place.

"Now we wait for Pan!" Captain Hook shouts.

"Leave him out of this!" I bark, kicking at the ground and struggling in the ropes.

"Oh my darling, no." He turns to me with a gleam of red in his eyes. "You see, it's because of Pan that you're here."

My heart skips a beat and I stop struggling for a moment. "What do you mean?"

"I've been watch you two frolicking so happily. He's done this before, you know. Ask him – ask him who Wendy is."

"Wendy?"

"He never told you? Wendy Darling, a cute storyteller that Pan brought back to Neverland. He's doing exactly what he's done with her to you. You're nothing but a copy."

Something catches in my throat, and it becomes hard to breathe and swallow. He's done…. No…. My heart falls to my stomach and I feel sick. It was all just pretend, all pretend. Like he said it would be. I am truly nothing but a copy.

Captain Hook slams his hook into the mass next to my head. My eyes widen and I straighten up. "And don't think you've won over his heart. He doesn't have enough room in his heart for two ladies."

Peter never had feelings for me. It was all fake. The dancing, the swimming, the lying in bed together, nothing but a game to him. But a part of me doesn't want to believe that. Peter is different. He's not like any other human.

"No! Peter's not like that!" I yell.

Captain Hook laughs loudly, throwing his head back as he bellows. "And what makes you think differently? I do suppose you're used to other human men and children, but you're right, Peter is different. That's why it couldn't be any truer."

Captain's Hooks smile twists my insides. He's speaking honestly, I can tell, just by the way he holds himself and that's the sickest thing. Peter doesn't have room in his heart for two ladies.

A rowdy laugh echoes around the ship, circling us in speeds that I can't keep up with. A green flash here, and there, shoots about the ship. Captain Hook freezes, turning his evil eyes up to the sky.

"He's here…." Captain Hook mutters, "It's time we get our revenge, men!" Captain Hook turns to the crowd of filthy men, his arms up in the air as he speaks. "Ready your guns but leave the last shot to me!"

Captain Hook turns back to me, an evil grin etching his olden face. "He comes for you, just as he has for Wendy so many times."

My heart continues to drop until it can no longer go any further in the pits of my belly.

The dirty men all pull out their pistols and aim for the sky, moving back and forth in search of the flying boy but never quite finding him. The laughter continues, the sound coming from everywhere and never really being pinpointed.

"Watch out!" Yells one of the men. We all look up in time for a sail to float down on top of the group of men, leaving only Captain Hook and I from being trapped underneath.

Captain Hook scowls. He twists to me, thrusts his hook high in the air and slashes it down to cut off the rope that binds me to the mass. I am not free. There is still rope tied around my wrists and he takes advantage of this by snagging me by my hair and pulling me against his side. His hook sits at my neck but doesn't quite dig in.

"Come down, Peter, or I will end her!" Captain Hook demands.

The laughter comes to a stop, and Peter slowly hovers down from the sky, his feet landing so quietly on the deck that I couldn't hear him if I tried. Peter's sword is already in his hand, the blade pointed at Hook's chest and his other hand up high as if ready to charge. The normally smiling boy, isn't smiling but instead has serious and stern expression on his innocent face.

"Unhand her," Peter orders. His voice sounds older than usual.

"I don't think so," Captain Hook hisses. "I had to go through quite a bit to get here. Do you know how hard it is to cut open a crocodile from the inside out, only to find my ship gone!"

"I brought it back," Peter grins.

"On the other side of the damn island! I would have-….Never mind!" Captain Hook grumbles. He digs his hook into my flesh, the harsh sting of a cut beginning to form takes effect on my neck. A warm liquid drips down from where he cuts.

Peter's eyes widen and then narrow ferociously.

"Why, don't you look at that!" Captain Hook remarks. "Maybe there is some hope for you yet." He whispers into my ear as I wince from the continuous pain of his slicing.

"Your fight is with me, Hook." Peter says through gritted teeth.

"So be it!" Captain Hook pulls his hook from my neck and throws me away from him. I land painfully on my side on the wooden desk.

The sound of metal on metal clanging together fills my ears as I slowly get on my hands and knees. My right hand lifts up to touch my bleeding neck and it stings where the cut rests. Standing up, I turn towards the fighting. Peter and Captain Hook go at it, both with precise hits but the other is just as good as to block. Both of them appear to be experts in swordsmanship, moving their feet like dance while their hands perform moves that I hadn't seen before. I am so used to archery that I haven't been able to see a real sword fight.

The men under the sail struggle to get out, finding the thick cloth heavy to move beneath.

"Get out of here!" Peter orders.

I nod and run to the side of the boat and see the island a few yards away. We're in deep enough water that the ship can be anchored, making the water dark. I still don't know how to swim. Peter didn't teach me, I just clung to him in the lagoon, never really learning.

Maybe the row boat we used is still down? I scramble to the other side of the ship to find the rowboat tied to the ship but still in the water. I glancing behind me I look for Peter one last time and see he's midair, flying at Captain Hook, slashing and flying away and repeating. Untying the boat, I make my way down the ladder and slip half way, falling back first into the rowboat. An ache erupts all along my back but I ignore it to sit up and grab the wooden paddles. I row out and away from the ship and head for land.

My only problem is, the land directly ahead of the ship is the human town. If I don't get away in time they might notice me and catch me again. So, I turn the boat towards the deep forest and row left of the town.