by J. M. Page
But even taking all that into consideration, Wendy could tell that Peter had lost his confidence that things were okay.
"Peter," she said, reaching out for him, settling a hand on his arm. "We have to get them out of there. I don't know what's happening, but we can't just sit by, hoping they return when no one else ever has."
Peter looked back to the screen, his eyes far off and haunted. What was he thinking about? Why didn't he jump at the chance to help the boys if he cared about them as much as he said?
"We'll figure out a way to get them back," he said. "But we're not risking going in there."
Wendy's jaw fell slack and she pulled her hand back like she'd been burned. "What?" she breathed, barely able to believe the words she'd heard.
Peter winced, looking down at his feet, but then he took a deep breath and steeled his shoulders, looking back at her. "We'll find another way," he said. "Hook's already taken too many people, we can't risk it or there will be no one left to save them."
Wendy leaped to her feet, backing away from Peter like she'd just found out he had the plague. "How can you say that? Of course we're going to risk it. We have to!"
Peter licked his lips and shook his head, looking very calm given the circumstances. Wendy looked to Tink, and the other woman seemed just as surprised as she did. "You don't know what you're saying, Wendy. You're being rash. We need time to consider what's going on and make a plan. Not just barge in there to offer ourselves up to Hook on a platter."
"Time?" Wendy asked, her voice creeping higher into hysteria. "Time is the one thing we don't have, Peter. I thought I had time when my parents went missing. And you thought you had time when Slim and Monroe and Curly went missing, but we were both wrong. I'm not going to make the same mistake again, and I hope you won't either."
Then, after a pause, she added, "Please."
Chapter Twenty-Four
Peter
Please, her softly-spoken words reverberated in his head, but did nothing for the hollow feeling in his chest. Peter knew he couldn't go into the Jolly Roger. Not if his suspicions were right. Not if they were dusting people to keep them there. And he was sure that's what they were doing.
After seeing all the patrons in their dusted haze and putting that tidbit together with the performers that kept doing tricks for a show that wasn't their own... Peter just knew that Hook was using the dust to control people.
And there was no way he could risk going in there and being exposed to it. It wouldn't take much for him to fall back into his old ways, especially not if it was forced on him. He wanted to think his will was stronger, but it just wasn't. He'd never come out of it again. He'd never be able to be normal again. Or feel anything.
He looked at Wendy, her cheeks burning with fiery passion, her eyes glowing with anger at him. Even like this, with all her venom directed toward him, Peter thought she was the most beautiful creature he'd ever laid eyes on. And she'd reminded him what it felt like to feel. She helped him to feel such wonderful things. He couldn't just go back to a life of numbness and dust. He wouldn't.
She still stood there, waiting for his answer, but she wouldn't like it. Just her initial reaction to him saying no was enough to make Peter feel like he was being stabbed in the heart, but now, he was just going to encourage her to twist the knife in deeper.
His mind and his heart warred with each other. If he helped Wendy like she wanted, he might be able to get the twins out before he lost himself in the dust, but then what? Then he'd be useless to everyone. He'd lose himself, he'd lose her, he'd lose everything.
If he didn't agree to this crazy idea of hers, he could stay clean, come up with a plan, and get them out one way or another, but she'd have to give him a chance. And looking at the fire in her eyes, he didn't think she was going to do that.
"Can you trust me to figure this out? I'm not abandoning them, I just want a plan," he said, holding his palms out, open in a silent plea.
"Trust you?" Wendy shrieked, making his eardrums ring. "That's all you can ever say! I've been doing a lot of trusting, Peter. I trusted that my brothers wouldn't get hurt, and then Michael nearly incinerated himself. I trusted that you would have them ready to perform and then they were nearly ripped to shreds by an angry mob. And then..." Wendy shook her head, laughing, though Peter was certain none of them found any of this funny. "Then I trusted that you'd talk them out of this crazy scheme, but you didn't and now they're trapped in there and you want me to trust that you'll 'figure this out' when they could be fighting for their lives for all we know?"
Peter's throat tightened up making it difficult to draw a breath. Just tell her, a little voice inside him whispered. Tell her what you saw and why you can't go in there.
He took a deep breath, trying to prepare himself for another round of her being ashamed of him when she was reminded by his weakness. But she deserved to know.
"Wendy, I—"
"No." She held up a hand to stop him. "No. I'm sorry, but I can't do it. It was a mistake to trust you as much as I did, and unlike some people, I learn from my mistakes. If you won't help me save my brothers, I'll just have to do it myself."
Without giving him a chance to say another word, Wendy stomped out of the green room, taking all the air out with her.
Peter felt like a part of him had left the room with her, but he tried to talk himself down. She just needed to cool off. She'd come around. She'd see you couldn't just barge into the place without a plan at all. You had to think these things through.
He turned around to find Tink looking at him like he was the stupidest man alive, just shaking her head. "I thought you were better than this, Pan," she said, her voice harsh and sharp. Every word a tiny little dagger. "Those boys trusted you, too. Now you're just going to leave them to rot in Hook's show?"
Peter sighed and sank into his chair, jamming his fingers through his hair, wrestling with the urge to rip it all out in frustration. "We both know he's not going to hurt them. He's keeping all those performers for his own use. We can come up with some kind of plan to get them out without going in."
Tink scoffed, sucking her teeth. "You know, you're a lot of things, Peter, but I never pegged you to be a coward." And in a matter of only a few minutes, the second most important woman in Peter's life stormed out on him, leaving him utterly alone.
Peter stayed in the green room by himself, staring at the static on the screen for a long time. He could still see the glazed expressions on all those people. And he couldn't help but remember how blissful it felt to slip into feeling absolutely nothing. Nothing in his mind, nothing bothering him or making him excited or angry or worried or anything. Just nothing.
The idea was still too tempting, and that's how Peter knew he couldn't handle it. If he went in that casino, he would not come out the same person.
He gave the girls enough time to cool down before he set off in search of them, expecting to find them waiting for his plan — a plan he still didn't have — but he couldn't find Wendy anywhere.
He found Tink in the auditorium, in one of the back rows, filing her fingernails.
"Where's Wendy?" he asked, squinting in the shadows under the balcony.
Tink shrugged, not looking up from her nails. "You heard her, she's going to get her brothers without you."
His heart turned to a block of ice in an instant, heavy and painful in his chest. He swallowed and flexed his hands before wiping them down his pants legs. "I didn't think that was a serious threat. Do you think she really tried to break into Hook's place on her own?"
Tink shrugged again, not willing to give him an inch. If she knew something, she wasn't spilling it. Since when did she care so much about others? And when did her loyalty to him shift?
"I think she cares an awful lot about those brothers of hers," Tink drawled.
Peter cursed under his breath. Was Wendy really crazy enough to think she could march right into the Jolly Roger and make it back out in one piece? She wouldn't stand a chance in there without him. And then she'
d be gone too. Where would that leave Peter? Back to just him and Tink and their empty theater they were going to lose any day now.
Only this time, the idea of it just being him and Tink and their empty theater seemed so much worse than it had before. Because now he knew how good life with Wendy could be. He knew that he was a better man just for having her in his life, and leaving her there, trying to forget her through whatever means possible... it was never going to work.
"I'm going after her," Peter said, shrugging into a coat he'd left in the theater the night before.
Tink rolled her eyes. "You'll never make it through the front door. Don't you think all of Hook's security will recognize you straight away?"
Peter threw up his hands and groaned. "I don't know, okay? Probably... But I can't just leave her in there to turn into a... a..." He tried searching for the right word and remembered what the boys had said the first time he told them about the dust. "A zombie. I won't do it."
Tink arched a brow, finally looking up from her nails. "What are you talking about?"
"You didn't see it when the boys walked in?"
"I saw that Hook still hasn't got an ounce of design sense," she said, looking unsure.
"He's got the whole place dusted. That's why people aren't coming out. That's why people keep disappearing."
She sat forward now, her eyes going wide. "Peter, you can't go in there if that's true. You know what will happen to you."
Peter swallowed, thrust his hands in his pockets and nodded, his face set into a grim line. "I do. But I also know what will happen to them if I don't. It's time I stop letting all the people I care about down."
Tink tried to protest, but Peter brushed her off, wasting no time heading toward Hook's casino. He had to try to catch Wendy before it was too late. To pull her out of there before they got her too.
And he could do this, right? He could go into that horrible place with the tempting dust and fetch his woman without succumbing, couldn't he? Of course he could.
But as he neared the gleaming tower of the casino, his doubts came to life in full-force. Was this all some colossal mistake? He'd told Wendy not to do the very thing he was preparing to. But if it was for her and the boys, how could it be wrong?
He'd barely made it through the doors when three burly security guards surrounded him, arms folded, eyes hidden behind reflective lenses. "Sir, we're going to have to ask you to leave."
Peter had to crane his neck up to look at the guy with the shiny bald head and he swallowed, harnessing his inner performance power and putting on a big grin. "What seems to be the problem? I just wanted to enjoy myself in the famed Jolly Roger," he said, trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.
"Uh huh," another guard said, his head just as shiny as the first.
"You're not fooling anyone Pan. The boss doesn't want you in his house," said the third guard.
He hadn't even made it past the first bank of slot machines and already they were trying to get rid of him. He had to get to Wendy! Had to find the boys and get them out of this terrible place.
"My friends came here and they never came home," he said, feigning innocence. "Could you page them for me?"
The guards all chuckled, two of them hauling him up by his armpits, the tips of his toes barely brushing the garish carpet below as he struggled against them.
It was no use, though. They were twice his size and outnumbered him. Overkill, really. They dragged him to a side door and tossed him onto the street where he bounced into the alley.
"Next time we won't be so gentle," one of them said, and they all disappeared back through the door laughing their heads off.
"No!" Peter screamed, hurling himself at the door. "You have to let me in!" He banged against the hard metal barrier. He flung all his weight against it until he felt the bruises starting to form. "I have to save her," he said, driving his fist feebly into the door again. "I can't be too late." The last came out a hardly more than a sob and Peter slumped against the door, his forehead pressed against the cold unyielding metal.
"I can't be."
But he was. As usual, Peter had waited too long to act. He'd thought he had a handle on everything. Thought he knew how things were going to progress. And he was wrong.
He waited too long to save the show. Too long to save the crew. And now... He slammed his fist against the door again, ignoring the electric jolt of pain that shot up his arm from the impact. Now he'd lost Wendy.
The guards recognized him — he'd never be able to get in and save them. It was hopeless.
There was nothing left to do but go back to the theater and break the news to Tink.
He trudged along through the streets, his head hung low, his feet shuffling to keep himself from bouncing all over. How could he have been so short-sighted? So wrapped up in himself? He thought for sure this time that he'd be able to manage it all. Be everything to everyone. But instead, he failed and let everyone down. Again.
And now he was all alone. Tink didn't even want to talk to him. She was disgusted with him. He was disgusted with himself. He should've just told Wendy the moment he saw what was going on. He should have just risked it for her. And now he'd never have the chance.
Back at the theater, he wandered around like a ghost, nothing able to distract him from the deep gnawing ache in his chest. The pain was unbearable, so much that it felt like he was suffocating, a hundred tons of bricks pressing down on his sternum.
But there was one thing that could help. He'd fought so hard to stay away from it, but what good had it done him, really? It ended up costing him Wendy anyway.
He found Tink in the green room, in front of a monitor he was pretty sure still displayed static, but she flipped it off the moment he walked in. Normally, he'd be curious about it, but he couldn't muster up the energy to care at the moment.
"I tried to go to Hook's," he said, his eyes glued to the floor, his shoulders slumped.
Tink rolled her eyes, clearly still annoyed with him. "How that go?"
"About like you'd expect," he said, his voice catching in his throat and breaking. "I lost her, Tink. I lost them all."
Tink pursed her lips, folding her arms and arching a brow. "You did this to yourself."
"I know that, okay?" he cried, the guilt too heavy to withstand. "You don't have to rub it in. I know I screwed everything up like I always do. I just... I need something from you."
Tink's head tilted to the side, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. "What?"
Peter couldn't look at her. Hot shame welled in his chest and he looked back at the floor, scuffing his toes against the wooden planks. "You know what. I can't live with this guilt. Knowing I did this to them... I need to forget it."
Tink shot out of her seat like a rocket and stomped over to him, each footstep echoing through the floor. "Are you crazy? I'm not going to let you throw everything away again. Absolutely not."
A mirthless laugh came out of Peter's mouth like a bark and he gestured to the empty green room. "Look around you, Tink. There's nothing left to throw away. I've already lost everything. Everything worth living for."
He knew he should feel bad about saying that to Tink when she was the only one left at his side. She could've gone a long time ago, but she didn't. She stayed and she stood by him and—
White hot pain spread across his face as her open palm collided with his cheek, a resounding smack lingering in the air. Peter flexed his jaw, his hand flying up to clutch his stinging face, his mouth just hanging open in surprise.
She'd actually hit him!
"What was that for?" he shouted, outraged.
Tink's hands went to her hips and she ground her foot into the floor. "You need to wake up, stop feeling sorry for yourself, and help that girl get her brothers back."
He just stared at her dumbfounded, at a loss for words.
"You know, I thought I might be happy having you all to myself again, but not like this. You're pathetic."
Peter's brow furrowed and he snarle
d. "How am I supposed to do that when Hook's got them all and I can't get in there?"
"Ugh," Tink groaned, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes. "Wendy's not at Hook's casino, you dolt. She's trying to get help from the mermaids."
Chapter Twenty-Five
Wendy
"No, I don't think that would work," Alina said, shooting down Wendy's latest proposal for breaking into Hook's casino and extracting her brothers and the others.
Despite how they'd treated her before, it hadn't been terribly hard to convince the mermaids to help her. She didn't really know where to go after she left the theater in a huff, but her feet brought her back to the wonderful sand castle that they'd visited with the boys and Wendy decided to take a shot.
The mermaids had been dismissive at first, but once Wendy pointed out that they were missing people too, they became slightly more receptive. It wasn't until she leveraged her relationship with Peter, that they were really on board.
She neglected to mention that she was never going to talk to Peter ever again. Not after the way he dismissed her concerns about her brothers. Not after how he misled her about his intentions. It was too much betrayal to take.
Still, Wendy couldn't deny that there was a gaping emptiness inside of her when she thought about never seeing or talking to him again. Never being in his arms again... Or feeling his lips brushing against hers.
She shook her head, trying to rid herself of those thoughts. She couldn't think about that if she wanted to get her brothers out of Hook's casino alive.
"Well, what do you suggest?"
Alina pressed her lips together, her tail swishing as she thought about it. "I don't think you can do it alone. No matter how careful and thoughtful you are. You need help."
Wendy sighed and slumped against the tank, her back to the water. "I don't suppose you want to join me?"
Alina shook her head, amusement sparkling in her eyes. "I have to be here for my girls."
But that didn't help Wendy at all. She needed to get her brothers out, but the problem was, no one knew how they were being kept against their will. Hook could be doing any number of terrible things to them and she wouldn't know it.
