Chapter 6
Maggie
“There must be something you’d want for it.”
Hook laughed without an ounce of humor. He might’ve smiled, might’ve even let a few wrinkles appear along the corner of his eyes, but that was all it was.
There was an emptiness behind it, a crudeness that sought no happiness in a laugh.
He laughed to mock, to tease, to make fun of, to bother.
There weren't any niceties behind it, no matter how many times Maggie tried helplessly to convince herself of otherwise.
“Some things aren’t that simple, my lady,” Hook said. He kept a close hand over the hilt of his sword, his gaze flickering out over Maggie’s head every few seconds. “Now if I were you, I’d leave before I can no longer keep my crew back from attacking.”
Hollers rippled through Hook’s crew as Twitch strutted forward.
“Let ‘em try, Hook,” Twitch snapped, his voice so sharp that it almost punctured the wooden ship deck. “I’d like to see ‘em try to –”
Peter clapped a hand over Twitch’s shoulder, and quickly pulled his loyal follower back into formation.
Laughter continued to mock them from the opposite side of the deck, but Maggie was becoming so used to it that it wasn’t hard at all to ignore them.
It didn’t look like the pirates carried too many thoughts themselves, anyways.
Whatever they heard around them was what they followed – and that was good enough for Maggie to use to her advantage.
Maggie strode up to Hook as he walked toward the mermaid statue, his steps long and lazy. When he turned around, he almost flinched back, his eyes narrowing as he realized that Maggie was lurking behind him.
“You must have more people to bother, my lady,” he muttered.
Maggie nodded her chin to the shelf. “Looks to me like something else once sat on that shelf.”
His eyes snapped to her. “H-How could you possibly know that?”
Her eyes widened, mouth opening as she realized her bluff had actually managed to work for the first time in her long, long life. She tilted her head, trying to hold back her smirk but hardly able to. “In all honesty,” she murmured, “I didn’t. You just told me, though.”
“You –” Hook pointed at her, eyes wide.
Peter’s presence made her smile as he drifted closer. “Man, Hook,” he said with a low whistle, “you’re losing your touch, aren’t you?”
The pirate’s attention jerked to the King of Neverland, his cheeks actually beginning to burn a deep scarlet. “I’m not!” He smacked his forehead, the sound echoing through the deck as the pirates whispered under their breath to each other.
“So the mermaid statue replaces something,” Maggie said.
Hook rolled his eyes. “Yes, my lady. How smart of you.”
“The sarcasm is hardly necessary when I’ve already figured it out.”
“Leash your woman, won’t you!” Hook waved a hand in front of her dismissively.
Peter held his arms up. “I wouldn’t dare.”
Maggie hardly recognized herself these days.
It wasn’t at all a bad thing, but more like something that she struggled to still get used to.
The girl who had survived off scraps and small moments of good luck in the human lands wouldn’t at all believe that Maggie in Neverland was the very same person.
Maggie could barely recognize herself when she looked in the mirror.
She dressed in clothes she never would’ve thought would look good on her, but now wore anything she wished to.
She faced off against pirate captains who called her ‘my lady.’
Pride beamed across her face, pride that she had never known before.
Real pride.
Maggie crossed her arms firmly. “What would you want for the statue, Hook?”
The captain pinched the bridge of his nose until he was forced to squeeze his eyes shut.
“Look,” he forced out between clenched teeth, “everyone knew that the statue had magical properties if it was capable of keeping the Everything Plants alive. Even if it didn’t have magical properties, some would say it was lucky. ”
Maggie shrugged. “I-I don’t get it.”
“What originally sat there, my lady, was our good luck charm,” Hook explained. “We lost it rather foolishly in a storm we were caught in. When we managed to get out of it, we realized that our statue was lost to us. It fell off the ship and sank to the bottom of the sea.”
Maggie’s mouth opened and closed a few times. “You’re serious? You had a good luck charm?”
“We’ve had terrible luck since we lost it!” Hook snapped, earning a collective nod from his surrounding crew of pirates. “Why do you think you burnt my cabin down? Or that the King of Nothing and his league of Nobodies beat us?”
Maggie looked over her shoulder at her company.
Peter and the Lost Boys were struggling to hold their laughter in.
Dash’s face was burning an unbelievable shade of red as he held his breath, one hand gripped tightly across his lips.
As she turned back to Hook and his pirates, they looked far more than annoyed with them.
“I don’t think everything has to do with your missing good luck charm,” Maggie murmured.
Hook waved his hands dismissively. “Did I ask whether or not you believed in it, my lady? My crew and I were in need of a new good luck charm. We snatched up the next best thing.” A devilish smirk crawled across his face as he twirled the long hair growing at the bottom of his pointed chin.
“And you know what? There’s hardly a thing as valuable as our good luck charm that would be convincing enough for us to part with it. ”
Maggie frowned. That couldn’t have been it.
Coming back after nightfall to steal the thing was always an option, but it was the worst one in Maggie’s opinion.
What good would it do, if not feed into the cycle of treachery and thievery?
The pirates only had the statue because they felt the need to steal it in the first place.
How did stealing it again right any wrongs?
Something told Maggie that even if they did get the statue back in such a way, it wouldn’t help the plant to begin producing berries once more.
They needed to do it the right way, whatever that even meant.
“There is one thing you’d want more, isn’t there?” Maggie asked.
Hook rolled his eyes. “Don’t you ever catch a hint, my lady?” He shook his head and turned his attention to Peter. “King of Nothing, get your pet out of here before I set my crew loose on her!”
“So if we retrieved your good luck charm,” Maggie quickly blurted, seconds before Peter had the chance to grab her elbow, “you wouldn’t be interested in a trade?”
The pirates spoke in rapid succession, often over one another.
“Is she serious, Captain?”
“Can she get it back, Captain?”
“We don’t have to have bad luck anymore!”
“They can get our statue back so we don’t have to !”
“Captain, we should –”
Hook slammed his foot against the Jolly Roger’s deck with the same flair as a child younger than five years old.
The sound ripped through the rising conversation, forcing the slew of pirates to take one collective step away from their fuming captain.
Hook did not bother to turn and face them, he didn’t need to, even if he was going to scold them.
“Shut up, you fools!” Hook barked.
Peter’s hand snuck around Maggie’s elbow in the same breath.
There was no doubt that Captain Hook was a dark and dangerous man.
Pirate or not, crew or not, he was simply angry and that never had a chance of boding well.
Maggie felt the fear snake up her chest and wrap its sharp tendrils around her hammering heart.
Hook breathed in the same way Maggie imagined a dragon to: heavy inhales with loud and obnoxious exhales, as if smoke was curling out of his nostrils.
The captain paced in front of the mermaid statue before he spoke again.
The edge in his voice was nowhere near gone, and his hand didn’t leave the hilt of his long and twisted blade.
He turned, stopping in his path directly in front of Maggie.
He loomed over her like a cold chill, his long shadow cascading across her frame like a blanket.
“So brave, my lady,” he murmured.
She held her head up.
“Fine,” he bellowed, catching everyone’s attention. “You and the King of Nothing may have your statue back if you return my good luck charm. If and only then.”
Maggie hesitated when he extended his hand out. “How will I know you’ll keep your end of the deal?”
The pirate’s handsome face turned mischievous, hidden truths dancing behind his wild eyes. “A pirate’s word is unbreakable, my lady.” He pushed his hand out further.
With the eyes of her company and Hook’s all holding onto her expectantly, Maggie quickly took his hand, and felt as though she was signing her life away as they shook hands.
Hook retracted almost as quickly as it began. “How splendid,” he muttered. “Peter Pan running an errand for Captain Hook.” He flashed a brilliant grin. “As it always should be.”
“You wish,” Peter muttered.
The tension grew only heavier the longer they remained there, with or without a deal. Maggie knew that they wouldn’t last in a still peace for much longer.
“Hook,” she said, “could you tell us more about your charm?”
The captain sighed loudly, his arms stretched out lazily behind his head. “Oh, it’s a rather extraordinary thing, my lady. While the statue itself might look to be heavy, the thing itself is lighter than a single feather.”
Maggie bit back an unexpected laugh. “How convenient.”
“I’m sure the statue will stick out like a sore thumb,” he continued, effortlessly ignoring her quiet comment. “It is an exact replica of my father, Captain Hook Senior.”
This time, Maggie couldn’t stop herself from chortling like a squealing pig.
Hook scowled at her. “What’s so funny, pet?”
“Oh, n-nothing,” she mumbled. This time, it was Peter pinching at her arm rather than the other way around. “Y-You were saying?”
With an unmovable glower, Hook crossed his arms and continued to describe the statue. “The statue might look a bit like myself,” he grumbled. “But with a black eyepatch over the left eye, and a brilliantly red parrot upon his right shoulder. Like I said, it's not hard to spot.”
“Would you happen to know where you might’ve lost it? I know you mentioned the storm.”
Hook frowned. “Do you really need that information, my lady?”
She rolled her eyes. How easily he switches nicknames once he realizes there’s something he doesn’t want to say. Maggie put her hands on her hips. “Would I have asked if I didn’t need it, pet?”
Hook couldn’t stop himself from smirking.
“Point taken,” he replied. As he turned his attention to Peter, he lowered his voice to a begrudging whisper, not at all pleased that he had to even fraternize with his life long rival.
“I wonder. Does the King of Nothing know where to find the mermaid city?”
Peter’s brow shot up. “Of course I do.”
“Well we were lingering in some… unsavory waters that didn’t quite… want us around when we succumbed to the storm’s efforts,” Hook whispered. “If you catch my meaning.”
“Oh,” Peter snarled, the anger rising as fast as the color that swarmed to his cheeks. “I’m sure I understand, Hook.”
Maggie felt confused. “C-Can someone elaborate?”
From behind her, Twitch stepped forward, looking just as annoyed as his King. “He means to say that Hook and his crew were attacking mermaids in their city when the storm hit.”
Scamp leaned forward next. “So their good luck charm is most likely with –”
“The mermaids,” Dusty finished.
“Thank you, peanut gallery,” Peter snapped over his shoulder. When he looked back to Hook, there was nothing but disdain there. In just another moment, Maggie was sure that an unavoidable brawl was about to break out between them.
But, much to her surprise, Peter stepped backwards. “Let’s get out of here,” he glumly commanded. “We’ve got something to find, it seems.”
With Hook’s crawling, snakey smirk still lingering on his face, Maggie followed her company off of the Jolly Roger’s wooden deck and back into the bright blue sky above.
When Crocodile Waters was only a distant memory, Peter came to a stop, his face as clouded as the distant storm that lingered on the horizon.
Maggie beamed at him. “Why so down, Peter? We’ve got the deal we needed!”
“Unfortunately for us, Magpie, this might be a lot harder than we originally thought.”
Though she wanted to hear more about why it needed to be hard at all, Maggie only needed to look over all of their faces to know everything she ever needed. And there was a single word on her mind as the silence settled into a sense of shadowy foreboding.
Shoot.