Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Sasha staggered backward as Peter Pan landed in front of her on the thin stretch of beach that surrounded the circular cove, rapier drawn and ready.
Yeah, she was not going to get into a sword fight with him. She had a sword, not like she had any idea how to use it. And if she came pre-loaded with any sort of fictional abilities like that, trying it out in battle was not the time she wanted to find out.
Hook seemed keen on taking the challenge, anyway. His sword was already in his hand, and the two were squaring off for a fight. “Shall we keep it between us? A fair fight?”
Peter glowered at him. “My friend is sick. I need to get her to a doctor.”
“Looks like your friend decided to take a swim with some mermaids. She’s not terribly bright, is she?” Hook laughed. “Perhaps I needn’t worry about killing her. It seems she’ll do the job on her own soon enough.”
“Sidney!” Sasha called to her sister. She was some thirty feet away and the water between them was dark. There was no telling what was in there—mermaids or…worse.
She knew what lived in the waters of Neverland.
And while she didn’t hear any ticking, she knew the crocodile was going to show up sooner rather than later.
And that’s the last way she wanted to go.
She wanted to swim out there to help her sister, but also, death by crocodile or very murder-happy mermaids.
Sidney was on her side, still coughing up water. But she was breathing, which was a good sign. She groaned, barely audible from the distance between them.
The clang of steel on steel forced Sasha to focus her attention back to what was going on between Hook and Peter. Hook was clearly the better swordsman—years of experience and skill coupled with strength and better leverage.
However, Peter could fly. And despite Hook’s continued snarls of “Bad form!” every time Peter would dance away from a slash of Hook’s sword or namesake weapon in a way that would have been otherwise impossible for a normal person, it didn’t stop Peter from doing it.
Peter was older than the other Lost Boys in this iteration of the story, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t still far younger than Hook in comparison. And children didn’t care about cheating if it meant that they won in the end.
Sasha watched on, confused as to who she was supposed to be rooting for.
On one hand, she was meant to be on Hook’s side.
On the other hand, she was really not on his side and had no reason to be.
The only reason she had to side with Hook was that she wasn’t really sure if Virtue would keep his promise to her and not kill “Mr. Smee” while he was in character.
And she didn’t really want to find out the hard way.
But it seemed this time she wasn’t going to have to. Hook knocked the blade from Peter’s hand with his own and took the opportunity to slash his jagged metal hook down over Peter’s chest.
Peter howled in pain, falling back against the sand. His hand fell into a half inch of water.
The tide was coming in.
Uh oh.
That wasn’t good.
Peter pressed a hand to his chest. The hook had gone through the shirt and flesh without any care, digging deep through his skin. He was bleeding, and badly. Sasha wasn’t a doctor, but it looked serious.
Captain Hook laughed, taking a step forward, lifting his sword to drive it through the heart of his foe.
“I’m unarmed!” Peter lifted his hands in surrender. “Bad form! Striking down an unarmed foe!”
Hook hesitated. With a deep, frustrated growl, he took a step back and lowered his blade. “Give him your sword,” he barked at one of the other pirates. “Now!”
The pirate drew his sword and tossed it to Peter. It landed in the sand by the boy.
Peter climbed to his feet, wincing in pain, holding his chest. Blood was seeping through his fingers, dripping into the sand and the water that was quickly rising to overtake what little beach they had to stand on.
Sasha moved to stand on a higher rock. “Captain, the water’s coming in fast.”
“We’ll be done here soon enough.” Captain Hook lifted his sword. “Pick up the sword. Face your death like a man.”
“See? That’s the mistake you keep making.” Peter Pan laughed. “I’m not a man.”
Hook jumped for him, but it was too late. He’d fallen for the obvious trick. Peter flew away, but he couldn’t make it far. He nearly fell from the sky and could only make it to the rock where Sidney was still slowly regaining consciousness.
Peter collapsed next to “Wendy.”
Hook snarled in hatred and rage.
Without warning, he whirled on one of his pirates, and stabbed the man through the midsection with his sword. The man’s eyes went wide in pain and shock, staring first at the face of his captain, and then down at the blade that protruded from his stomach, in disbelief.
Hook yanked his sword from the man, who toppled to the sand in a heap.
“You!” Hook pointed at the surviving pirate. “Swim out there and kill him!”
“Y—yes sir!” Any hesitation that pirate might have had about getting in the water with killer mermaids was gone.
That was, until he was about to put a foot in the water.
And everyone froze as they heard a very strange noise.
It was a low, vibrating sound. A deep and resonant vhmmmmmmmm noise that set her teeth on edge.
The surface of the water in the cove began to dance with it, beads of water dancing up where the oscillation became too much.
SNAP!
A sudden crack stopped the vibration. A flash of light came from deep below the surface of the now-still water. The pirate jumped back from the water, his eyes wide with a new kind of fear. Hook’s expression had turned from hatred to one of pure terror.
A fish floated to the surface of the water. Belly-up. Dead. Blood was leaking from its gills. Then a second. Then a third.
Vhmmmmmmmmm—
The water started dancing again with the strange noise.
SNAP!
Another flash of light in the water. It had moved, whatever it was.
This time, the thing that floated to the surface was larger…and humanoid.
A mermaid.
Her eyes were glassy as she stared at the sky, unseeing. Dead. Silence stretched on as nobody spoke, staring in horror at the scene before them. The sound began again. That horrible buzzing, vibrating sound. The surface began to dance and shake.
Vhmmmmmm—SNAP!
This time, she noticed that everything on the surface jolted when the snap sound hit. As if it were being…
“Electrocuted,” she said out loud in an exhale. “Oh god. They’re being electrocuted.” Taking a quick step back away from the water, she climbed to a higher rock.
Peter was badly injured and Sidney was near-drowned. What were they going to do? How were they going to escape? Hook certainly wasn’t going to help them.
Vhmmmmmm—
An enormous shape beneath the water came close to the surface. She couldn’t see much of it, save for the size, some fourteen feet long. Flickers of electricity sparked like it was shorting out between sections of ribcage that resembled an old generator.
Its huge head broke the surface. Part bone. Mostly flesh. Electricity arced between its vicious, jagged teeth and the water’s surface.
SNAP!
That time, it was so close to the surface that the sound was deafening. Sasha ducked her head, covering her ears, as the smell of ozone filled the air. The sound was its generator shorting out in the water.
The corpses on the water jolted in unison. The creature thrashed in its own pain. Blood oozed from sores and wounds on its gums and flesh—clearly not immune to its own power.
It opened its maw and grabbed the dead mermaid, who was now bleeding from the corner of her eye and the edge of her mouth.
The sound of snapping bone and crunching tendons was only softened slightly by the knowledge that the woman was already dead by the time the crocodile clamped down through her midsection, turning the surface of the water a dark crimson with blood.
The crocodile disappeared into the darkness. But its presence was still obvious.
Vhmmmmm—SNAP!
The water had risen considerably in the time she had been standing there, staring at the monster, aghast. Now, there was a stretch of ocean between her and where Hook and the surviving pirate were standing.
“Shit!” It would be a hell of a jump.
Hook took one look at her—
And ran.
“Wait! Come back!” She screamed. “Hook! Don’t leave me here!”
Silence. “Please! Come back, Hook!”
But he was gone. Him and the other pirate had abandoned her. Left her to die. To get electrocuted and then eaten by that—that thing in the water.
“Fuck you!” Putting her head in her hands, she let out a ragged wail.
Vhmmmmmmm-SNAP!
The crocodile was done with its mermaid snack and was now back for more.
It was circling the rocky outcropping where Peter and Sidney were slowly trying to piece themselves back together.
Sidney was sitting up now, looking worse for wear but at least conscious, and was pulling on the blue nightgown she’d been written into having.
“Sidney!” Sasha shouted. “Are you all right?”
Her sister only shook her head no. She could tell her twin’s hands were shaking. Peter was using Wendy’s stockings and what was left of his shirt to do his best to bandage the massive cut on his chest, but he didn’t look great either.
There was nothing she could do to help them.
She had nothing at her disposal except a piddly sword.
In her hands, it was next to useless. Versus a monster like the thing that was circling in the water, she was worse than useless.
She was probably going to wind up causing more harm than good. Somehow. Magically.
“I—I’m sorry.” She didn’t even know how she was going to save herself. The jump to safety was a long one. And if she missed it, the crocodile would get her. And even if it didn’t, and she timed it wrong?
“Go,” Sidney coughed.
Vhmmmmmmm-SNAP!