Chapter 12 #3
“Corey!” I blink several times, as if I can somehow clear whatever weird vision I’m having at the moment.
Corey Glavin lived next door to me in my dorm.
He was always hanging around but never talked much.
I didn’t even know what he was majoring in besides smoking weed and eating Doritos. “It’s you.”
“It’s me.” He’s holding a plate of food, the steam curling up in front of his face in little tendrils.
“How?” I’m utterly stunned. Can’t move stunned. Brain fried stunned. He even speaks with a British accent now, not that I ever actually spoke to him much at college.
He gestures to a small table. “Come on. Let’s talk.” He sits down and slides his plate in front of him.
I sit across from him and glance at Widow skulking past the window. “What the hell? How did you get here? Did Peter bring you?”
“No,” he says quickly. He fiddles with his fork then drops it onto the table. “I came through the triangle.”
“Huh?”
“The Bermuda Triangle. It’s how I got to the mainland in the first place.” He gives me a sheepish look, his dark hair falling into his eyes before he swipes it away. “Captain told me where to find you and what to do to stay close.”
“Hook … Hook sent you?” I lean back, my chair creaking as I push it away from the table.
“Yeah. He told me to watch you, so I did.”
Ice water trickles along my spine, chilling me to my marrow.
“How? I mean, how did you get into the school? No.” I press my palms to my cheeks.
“This is wrong. You’re lying. This is just another delusion.
It’s like The Wizard of Oz where I take all the people in my real life and stick them into the fantasy.
‘And you were there, and you were there’.
Like, you’re a farm hand, but you’re also the tin man.
My brain is totally fucked, but at least it’s a little bit brilliant.
” My heart is racing, my mind spiraling. What’s real? What is fucking real?
He takes a nervous bite of what looks like rice.
“I, um, don’t know what you’re talking about.
But yeah, I was sent to watch you. The night you disappeared, I knew what must’ve happened, so I came straight back here to tell the captain.
” He takes another bite. “Glad to be back, actually. I missed the sea. Hated everything about school.”
“How did you even get accepted? What did you put on your application? That you’re a grade-A pirate? Top marks in thievery and pillaging?” I laugh, the sound high and admittedly hysterical.
“Oh, no.” He shakes his head, the hair falling into his eyes again. “I didn’t do any of that. I just found the student who was living next door to you and—”
“You killed the real Corey Glavin?” I back up even farther, the chair scraping across the floor.
“No! I wouldn’t do that. Hook told me to send him to work on Anne’s ship as a swab for a while. When I came back, Hook sent word for him to return to the mainland. He’s already back at that dorm room by now. No harm done.” He gives me a nod. “Don’t worry.”
“No harm done?” I stand and gawk at him. I heard the way Anne spoke at the pirate gathering at Blackbeard’s house. Hook sent an unsuspecting college student to work for her? Holy shit.
“It was nothing personal.” He even has the nerve to sound apologetic.
“I’ve been ducking you since I got back.
I didn’t want you to—” He gestures at me.
“To freak out like this.” He clears his throat and stands, holding out his hand to me.
“My real name is Alf Mason. I’m from Liverpool though I don’t quite remember when.
Been in Neverland waters too long, I suppose.
” He gives me another sheepish smile, as if he didn’t just admit to stalking me at the behest of his pirate captain.
I stare at his hand like it’s a snake with venom dripping from its fangs. Hook sent him to spy on me, maybe worse. Everywhere I look, I’m in danger.
He takes the hint and lowers his hand. “It wasn’t like it sounds, all right? I just kept an eye out for you and …”
The rest of it fades away as I hurry from the cottage, beeline past the barbecue and head straight up to my room. Several pairs of eyes follow my progress, but I couldn’t care less. They can stare all they want.
I run up the stairs far faster than anyone ever should, close my door and lock it, then sit on my bed.
Hook lied to me. No, he didn’t. He told me exactly who he is, and yet here I am almost letting him fingerbang me against a wall.
I cover my face with my hands. What is wrong with me?
Am I really this na?ve? I must be. Here I was thinking I was well educated and making my way in the world, when the truth is I know absolutely nothing.
Too trusting, too foolish, too afraid. When I told Hook I wasn’t brave, that was the truth.
I’m not. I’m not cut out for this. I’m a book nerd, a dumb one, apparently.
This has officially turned into a pity party. I sigh and realize how tired I am. Maybe if I can rest, I’ll be able to see a way out of this.
“There’s no way I’m this dumb, right?”
A flash of light scares the crap out of me, and then Tinker Bell is standing in front of me, glaring. “You are absolutely this dumb,” she hisses.