Chapter 70: Drunk

"Mom!?"

"Dad!?"

"Somebody!"

"Anybody!"

"Help!"

"Jim!" Wendy's heart exploded over and over as she ran through the Fantasian streets. Everywhere around her students were screaming, throwing open doors to empty houses and kidnapped families.

Panicking, she ran harder. "Jim! Jim I left Michael! I left Michael at home!"

"Which home?" Jim demanded. Picking up the pace, he grabbed Wendy's wrist. "Yours or mine?"

"With Sarah!" Wendy stammered, unable to stop the tears. "I left Michael with Sarah!"

Jim veered, cutting across a wrecked lawn. His chest was pounding. "Mom was at Doc's. This way!"

Jim tripped, falling with Wendy as she stumbled over her dress. Tears glistened over her cheeks as Jim helped her upright. "Wen, don't worry. Dr. Doppler's home is secure! Mom is fine! Mike is fine! Mom knows how to shoot a…a…oh my God."

Dr. Doppler's home was ravaged. Like every other home, it was turned over like a stone.

"No!" Jim raced into the house, Wendy on his heels. "Mom! Mom!" Together they searched and searched until there was nothing left.

"No!" Jim yelled again. Shouting he punched his fist into the wall. "No!"

Wendy seized his arm. Crying, she caught him as he crumbled. "Jim! It can't – it can't – maybe they ran! Maybe Michael went home! To my home!"

Hope blazed through Jim like a razor. "Or the Benbow! It's still burnt, but – "

Wendy turned. She ran out the door. "I'll go home! If I find them – "

"—I'll check the Benbow! And I'll tell you – "

"—Jim! Be careful!"

"If I don't see you tonight – "

"—then tomorrow in school?"

"Okay! Hurry! Be safe!"

"Please, you too!"

The exchange was lost to understanding as the best friends fled in opposite directions, powered by beating hearts.

Kicking off her heels, Wendy tore across Center-Point. The sector was hauntingly vacant but Wendy was too turmoiled to notice. She didn't even noticed the dim light glowing inside her house as she wrenched open the door.

"Michael?!" Wendy shouted, pushing through the kitchen door. Never had she prayed so hard in her life! Her heart propelled the screams through her chest and out of her mouth. "Michael! Michael! Michael!"

"Wendy."

Wendy stopped.

"Michael?" she breathed, although the man's voice had been deep. And familiar. Trying to recognized the voice, Wendy squinted into the dark. "Hello? Hello? Who are you?"

"Wendy." chuckled a slobbering laugh.

Gaily, the voice lifted a candle from the ground. The candle wobbled then dropped onto the table.

Wendy stared as the tiny flame glimmered across a dozen rum bottles and a very familiar face.

"Wendy…my dainty girly girl."

Wendy froze. "Father?"

George Darling laughed. The candle flickered. Hilariously, he rolled his head over a bottle of rum.

"Well…goodness grashious. If it isn't my dainty little girly girl. Wendy." Invitingly, Mr. Darling patted his knee. "Come over to your father, Wendy. Come here girly girl."

"Father…?" Cautiously, Wendy inched forward. Her lips wavered at the sight of the rum. She couldn't imagine how her father had escaped prison, but the details were incidental to the emergency at hand.

"Father. Father something dreadful has happened. Michael – "

"You look all gussy, girly girl." Mr. Darling burped. Rum dribbled down his chin. Again, he patted his knee. "Come here. Take a little set in that dress."

"Father…" Wendy begged, trying not to cry. "…Michael is gone! Please. All the families are gone! And Michael – "

" – I know! I know, Wendy girly girl!"

Wendy blinked. "You know? You know what?"

Mr. Darling belched. Proudly he thumped his chest with the amber bottle. "I know the families are gone! Soon to be dead!"

Wendy's stomach clenched. Feeling sick, she gripped the back of a chair. "Father, how do you know that?" she whispered.

Mr. Darling rapped a happily little tune on the bottle. "So said that horned lady. And the pirate. And I helped him! I helped him in! Grand pirate! Grand pirate…ah…"

Mr. Darling toasted. "….the pirate my friend! Brings me rum!"

Wendy shook her head. Unbelievingly she watched her father drain the bottle. "Pirate? What pirate? Horned lady…the horned lady? From the ball? Maleficent?"

Wendy rushed to her father. Urgently, she tugged his sleeve. "Father! Father please! If you know Maleficent…where is Michael? Did she take Michael? Do you know where he is? Father? Father?"

Mr. Darling re-emerged. Lowering the bottle he smacked his lips at Wendy. "You look pretty girly girl."

"Father!" Wendy pleaded as Mr. Darling fingered her blue skirt. "Father! Please! Michael! Where is Michael?"

"Where is Michael? Where is Michael?" Mr. Darling sang, twisting Wendy's dress and unplugging another bottle of rum. "Dorme vou! Dorme vou!"

"Father! Stop!" Frustrated, Wendy pulled the bottle from her father's hand. "If you know where Michael is, tell me! Please!"

Mr. Darling did stop. Slowly, he lifted mad, bloodshot eyes to the bottle in his daughter's hands. Then, he stood.

"Give me my drink…girly girl."

Wendy held her breath. She watched her father stand. Crooked with drunkenness though he was, he was formidably tall.

Forgetting the shadow in her purse, Wendy moved backwards.

"Father…Father listen…"

"You say that like Mary…You sound like Mary…" Mr. Darling's fingers curled around the neck of a bottle. Advancing, he held it like a club. "…she's dead. Dead you know….girly girl."

"Father…" Wendy whimpered, backing against the wall. "…Father don't talk that way. Mother – "

"DO YOU WANT TO JOIN HER?"

Wendy screamed. Unthinking she ducked, dropping to the floor as the bottle smashed. Glass splintered into her hair. Eyes closed from the glass, Wendy crouched away.

Suddenly, her father jumped.

"Dainty little girly!" Mr. Darling slammed Wendy into the wall. Tottering and unbalanced, he fell, holding Wendy by the throat. They landed hard. Wendy felt like the heel of his hand had crushed her windpipe.

"Fath – " she gasped, trying to lift his knees from her chest. "—Father! Sto – "

"Take my drink, do you? Leave your father to rot in jail?"

"Stop– " Wendy scampered upright. Mr. Darling lunged, seizing her waist.

"Well listen to your papa!" Mr. Darling growled, wrestling Wendy back. Twisting her hair in his hands, Mr. Darling lifted Wendy to his face. "Wendy. My little darling Wendy! You're going to make sure I get more and more to drink. Aren't you? AREN'T YOU?"

Wendy shook her head, sobbing. Mr. Darling raised his fist.

"You're going to tell that pirate what he wants to know! At midnight! He comes! You're going to tell him who is the Chosen One! Your little student maties! Then you're going to bring my grand pirate to school! And I'll get my drink! AREN'T YOU? My little girl? AREN'T YOU, Wendy?"

Wendy's sobs broke through the sound of crazy, diseased hands beating her face.

"Midnight the pirate comes!" Mr. Darling shouted, shaking Wendy as the clock struck twelve.

The enchanted purse fell from her hands. Spell breaking with the midnight toll, it started changing back into the sewing basket.

Unnoticed, Mr. Darling threw Wendy. She fell, cracking her cheekbone as the door knob turned.

Seething and unsteady, Mr. Darling gawked hungrily at the door. "Ah…lovely pirate." Teeth bared, he reached for the bow in Wendy's hair. "Now you can tell him who's the Chosen One…little Wendy."

Suddenly the sewing box moved. Propelled by Peter's shadow, it rolled and bounced into Mr. Darling's knees. Lost of equilibrium, Mr. Darling teetered and fell. He slammed into the shrouded pirate as he entered the door.

And Wendy ran. Dress disintegrating into her blue hoodie and jeans, she tore through the door leaving her sewing basket behind.

The last thing she saw, before hiding in the night, was the pirate's long, smiling hook.