Forever Cursed

by Sarah J. Pepper

“This doesn’t belong to you,” Chaz said, inspecting the knife.

  “The hell it doesn’t,” James jibed. “Dead men don’t need weapons.”

  “Dead?” Chaz responded like he hadn’t quite heard right. “Last time I saw Mario, he was alive and…well, not well-well, but alive.”

  “You should have ended his misery,” James said.

  “He seemed happy to play in the water with the fishes,” Chaz said and flipped the knife in the air, testing it.

  “Lie,” I snarled. “He practically begged for death.”

  “My dear, that is something we all wish from time to time, but then you show up and everything changes,” Chaz said. “You never did answer me. Did Pete meet up with you? He said he’d never stop looking for you.”

  “Peter is a Goddamn nutter who has fixated on an idea of what Miss Bell used to be rather than who she is,” James seethed.

  Chaz scrunched up his face and wiggled his finger at James. “You know what, you remind me of him.”

  James charged. I screamed for him to stop, but my cries went unanswered as Deval jumped down in front of me. Without warning, he swung his machete.

  I ducked, dipping under the water. He grabbed my hair and jerked me back up. As soon as I broke the surface, he shoved me against a boulder. Water poured down on top of me. I could hardly breathe. I grabbed at Deval’s arm, driving my nails into his skin. His grip slipped.

  I dove under the water to get away, but the first time I kicked, a stabbing pain shot up my leg and through my side. Deval grabbed me by the throat. He pulled me up out of the water, raising me up like a prize.

  “Looks like someone got to you first,” he laughed upon seeing my injuries. The sight of them seemed to motivate him to shake me harder.

  “Ken…sington will wa…nt me a…live,” I wheezed, gasping for air.

  “Let me worry about the monarch,” Deval sneered. “I’ve been waiting for your return to Neverland since you brought me here. I shall have my revenge.”

  “You sh…all ta…take his then,” I tried to laugh but I couldn’t. “He will be fu…furious.”

  “Je m’en fou,” Deval whispered, yet his rage carried through his soft tone. “You enraged too many people here, fairy. We can’t all kill you.”

  I opened my mouth to respond but couldn’t form a word when I saw James. Chaz had gotten into the water and was pummeling down on him. Somehow James had gotten the knife from Chaz, but the water was red around them. I couldn’t tell who was hurt. I couldn’t chance it. Chaz used his body like a battering ram and charged James, shoving him against the pool’s edge.

  I released my hold on Deval and grabbed a vine dangling near my head. As soon as I touched it, I whispered a spell. No air passed over my throat, but that didn’t keep the words from being released.

  The vines around Chaz moved closer to him. Soon they twisted around his neck, the glowing balls inside of the vine began to glow brighter. As I tightened my fist, the vine tightened around his neck. Chaz stumbled backward, grabbing at the vine. He snapped it off him, but others took its place.

  Deval followed my line of sight. “Merde! Stop what you are doing!”

  When I didn’t, he pressed down harder around my throat until I released my hand hold on the vine. Darkness quickly came, but it was too late. My spell had been released. The vines were mine, obeying my last command. Even if I died, they would fulfill my last request. I could tell my mind was slipping as Deval shook me. He’d make good on his threat to kill me. I struggled against him, clawing at him. I tried to kick him but my body was slow to obey.

  As increasingly more vines twisted around Chaz, James attacked, shoving the blade deep into Chaz’s chest. Each time Chaz tried to defend himself, the vines pulled Chaz higher into the air. Soon they pulled him up out of the water, curling him up into the trees.

  I had never seen it rain red until then.

  It dripped from the treetops. The splashes covered the beautiful white flowers along the edges, staining them crimson.

  It was almost beautiful. Almost.

  As the darkness shadowed my vision, I caught sight of James. Water dripped down his hair onto his face. He was screaming something, but I couldn’t hear. I was falling deaf to the world’s problems. Soon enough the world would have to deal with its own issues. As James raced to me, I fell. Deval released me, but the moment I could take a breath was the moment I pummeled below the water. As I fell, I saw one thing I couldn’t take my eyes off. James.

  I never saw a red tear slip down anyone’s cheek until then. Like I said, it was almost beautiful.

  Chapter 8

  Miss Bell

  A shadow cast over me, blanketing my skin. But instead of an air-like sensation, it felt like tar, forcing me to the ground. I tried to raise my head but I couldn’t. Taking a breath was nearly impossible. It felt like something was squeezing my throat closed. Then I realized I was breathing in the shadow, and it was suffocating me. The shadow slipped over my eyes, making them heavy.

  I counted the seconds in my mind as time slipped away. I wished I could hear the tick of James’ pocket watch.

  Tick tock, I thought. Tick, tock.

  As I drifted deeper into the darkness of the shadow, I felt a softness on my lips. The heavy substance of the shadow lifted. It didn’t feel as stifling. Finally, my throat opened.

  “Breathe, Bell!”

  James? Where was he? Had the shadow covered him too?

  “Damn it, Bell. Breathe, my love. Breathe for me.”

  I swallowed a breath of air. My lungs burned as I forced the blackness from my mouth. It choked me. The darkness didn’t want to leave my body. It felt at home, at peace inside of me.

  “Come back to me, my love.”

  The shadow released its grasp around my neck the very moment I felt the softness return to my lips. James’ kiss. I knew the way his lips felt on mine. I’d long since memorized the way he caressed me. I loved breathing in his kiss. It was one of the most sensational feelings I’d ever experienced.

  Even though I knew James was waiting for me, my eyes did not want to open. The shadow had a hold on them, like sleep would for the exhausted. And I was so tired. I could sleep until the end of time.

  When I managed to open them the light blinded me. In that moment, the darkness was gone, but my shadow was not.

  Peter held me to the ground, staring down at me from above. This time he wasn’t an aged old man like he had been in our last encounter, but rather the blond-haired boy I carried to Neverland so many years ago. His manic stare went right through me. His chilling blue eyes showed no life, like looking at a ghost. Peter’s pupils dilated when I uttered his name in disgust.

  He beamed. “I wondered when you’d come see me again, darling.”

  Bile rose in my throat. I pushed him off me and scooted away from him. My body didn’t protest, even though my feet were shredded. My sides didn’t ache, even though the thick black and purple bruises covered my hips. My stomach didn’t hurt nor did my ribs. I reached for my head. There was still a gash where I’d been struck.

  Although the realization set in that I no longer felt bodily pain, I was still dressed only in my undergarments which clung to my body, sopping wet. But they were no longer see through. Crimson stained them.

  Peter crawled over to me, walking on his hands and knees. “I’ve missed you.”

  I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t trust my voice around him. I stopped him with my foot, placing it on his shoulder. I chewed on the inside of my mouth to keep from screaming at him when I noticed the ink from my wings peeking out from under his shirt.

  “Darling, it’s me. You kissed me just now. I know you remember what it was like to be with me,” Peter said and grinned. “It was wicked and naughty and everything you liked.”

  I touched my lips. I had felt James’ lips on mine, not his. He was baiting me. I didn’t know how Peter managed to catch me again, but I was beginning to understand that it was the space and time between reality and chi
mera. I’d felt James until the exact moment I was plucked from my…

  “I was dying,” I gasped.

  The shadow. The light. The inability to breathe or open my eyes—I’d been drowning. My gaze darted around as I tried to figure out what had happened. The longer I looked, the more my surroundings took shape. Painted before me like a water picture.

  As a body began to be painted beside me, Peter crawled in front, blocking my view. “You wouldn’t have to worry about minute details, like life and death, if you were truly with me.”

  I shoved Peter out of the way and raced over to James. James writhed on the ground. He screamed, but I couldn’t hear a word. He had his bloodied wrist tucked under his opposite arm. Fresh gash marks lined his arm, but that’s not what stole my ability to stand. I collapsed beside him. Dark crimson bled through his bandages—fast. He was losing blood. I reached for him, but my hands went right through his body like I was a ghost.

  “James!” I screamed his name over and over.

  He didn’t move like he’d heard me. His face began to pale. His lips were turning faintly blue. I could do nothing—nothing! His silent screams began to fade. His mouth was no longer strained as he cried out but rather turned to a helpless moan. He no longer clutched his arm and cried out in pain as he laid it by his side. The blood pooled around him. His body had broken out in a cold sweat—no that was water.

  “No, no, no!” Tears streamed down my face.

  Pieces of what must have happened played over in my mind. I remember Deval releasing me. I remember falling into the water. My captain must have gotten to me before I drowned.

  “It doesn’t look good for the captain,” Peter commented, sounding almost bored. “Pity. I wanted to be the one to kill him.”

  “Wake up,” I told myself. “Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.”

  “This isn’t a dream, darling.”

  “I know that!” I screamed at him.

  I twirled around, searching for some way to get to my beloved. I forced myself to focus. To save me, James must have fought Deval. I spun around, looking for his body in the spring by the boulders. I couldn’t find one. Deval had either fled or I couldn’t see what happened. Maybe he was not part of this nightmare.

  “It is quite revolting that you’d give yourself to this…thing. He isn’t even a whole man anymore,” Peter said in disgust.

  He crept closer to me, tilting his head to the side. “Though, I must say, Wendy was upset. I hope you don’t mind that while you were entertaining yourself with James, I found joy with Michael’s sister, darling.”

  “What are you doing to her?”

  “Nothing she can’t survive.” He laughed and turned back to James. He strummed his fingers over his chin like he was suddenly deep in thought.

  That’s when I saw a shadow creep over James’ body. Bile rose in my throat as it covered his legs and slowly crawled upward. It was Peter’s shadow. I didn’t believe he was dead, but the symbolism wasn’t lost on me.

  “At least we won’t have to worry about disposing of the captain when I return for you,” Peter said, kneeling beside him.

  I tackled Peter, scratching at his face. If I was forced to stand back and watch my captain die, I was not going to share that experience with my demented past.

  He threw me onto the ground. My nail beds were thick, but I saw no blood. Peter’s face was perfect like a doll’s. He touched his face and giggled when he realized I did not hurt him.

  “You will pay for attacking me, darling, even if your efforts were futile.” Peter clasped his hands behind his back. “You will learn obedience.”

  “It won’t take,” I said, then tried not to throw up at what I was about to say next. “Free me and perhaps I can save James so you may get your wish of killing him.”

  “I promised that deed to Michael,” Peter dismissed. “And I told you before, it is you bringing me here, darling. Not the other way around. If you want to be free, do it yourself.”

  “I promise you, if this was my doing, I wouldn’t be spending precious time with you but with the person I lov—”

  Peter raised his fisted hand in the air. I felt his fingers curl around my throat even though he stood several paces away. It was a trick I’d showed him long ago—a trick which normally needed something thick in the air to cut off the throat.

  As soon as I realized that, I noticed the dripping from above. Rain. But it didn’t feel quite right. It was thicker. I looked up and saw Chaz—Peter’s best friend—hanging from the trees.

  “You love me!” he fumed, squeezing his fist tight until I heard the snapping of my bones.

  As that sound echoed in my mind, I found myself once again fighting to open my eyes. The heaviness was there, just like before, but the adrenaline surging through me helped me open them sooner.

  Unlike before, my body protested when I moved, especially my leg. Electric shocks traveled up my leg and side. My feet burned when I tried to stand. So I crawled. I forced myself to breathe through the stabbing pain that shot through me when I pushed off the ground with my knees.

  Breathe. Just breathe.

  I didn’t try to fight back the tears as I clawed my way through the dirt to James. His chest barely rose. It hardly fell. He lay in a pool of his own blood, just like it had been painted for me. Except all around him were vines which had been cut. I cleared them off his body. The gel glowed on him and sent a tingling sensation through my body.

  I couldn’t hear myself scream at him to wake up, but my throat was raw. I would not watch him die on a bed of red stained flowers. I couldn’t bear to watch him die. Not again. I couldn’t have carried on without him. I would do everything in my power to keep him alive—that was a promise.

  The mermaid tears!

  I looked around, frantic to find my clothes when I remembered my vest had fallen to the bottom of the pool when James removed it.

  Gritting my teeth, I crawled to the edge and dove in. I gathered a breath and kicked. Each time, I thought I was going to become paralyzed with the way it shocked my body. My head pounded. My ears rang. My eyes burned, but I finally spotted my vest. I tore the seashell canister from inside the pocket and swam to the surface.

  I barely paused to take a breath before swimming to the edge. My body begged me to slow down but I didn’t dare. Each second mattered. My arms were shaking by the time I reached it. I held onto the seashell canister with my teeth so I could free my hands. I pulled myself up, but my grip slipped. I tried again, but it was futile. Each time I tried to crawl out, the edge broke. I panicked, searching for a means to get out when I saw a vine hanging a few feet away. It was one of the only ones left in the clearing.

  I pushed over to it. As soon as I touched it, it coiled around my arm and tightened around me. I pulled up. Once I had lifted myself out of the water, I leaned over and released my grip, spilling onto the ground. I tried to stand but stumbled. My body screamed out for me to stop, but I didn’t care to listen. I didn’t have the luxury. I kept pushing forward until I stumbled beside him.

  My heart raced, pounding as I searched for the seashell canister. My hands shook so fiercely I couldn’t get the cap off. Using my teeth, I pulled it off.

  A tear slipped from my eye, staining my cheek and slipping off my chin. No time in the sky was worth losing James. Ever.

  “Mermaids are a necessary evil,” I whispered as I tapped one tear into his wound.

  The angry red skin turned soft pink and then white. As the magic coated his wound, the remains of his wrist stitched itself together. The gashes along his arms pulled tight, leaving the faintest white lines.

  His face was still ghostly white. He’d lost much blood. But he was alive. I lost it. Tears poured from my eyes as I whispered his name over and over.

  I held my breath waiting for his chest to rise and fall. I hoped I wasn’t too late. Oh heaven, I was. He’d lost too much blood. My legs were covered. My hands were stained. Bile rose in my throat as I screamed for him to breathe.

  H
e took a breath. Never had I cried so hard in my life. I collapsed on his chest and memorized the sound of his heartbeat.

  “I didn’t think it was possible, a fairy crying,” Deval said, coming up behind me and kneeling. His hot breath hit the back of my neck. “Merde, I didn’t think it possible for you to truly love but you do, don’t you? You care for the capitaine.”

  Hadn’t James succeeded in killing him? There would be only one reason why James would let him live, and that was to save me. He must have taken off, which meant he must have been injured enough to not want to stick around.

  “You ran off like a coward, didn’t you?” My voice was hoarse and burned when I spoke.

  “I did what was necessary to live another day,” he sneered. “Your capitaine is an idiot for not doing the same. Death will collect him soon enough.”

  Deval’s fingers curled around my neck. The noise he made in pleasure made my skin crawl. I tried not to let him notice, but the goosebumps shooting down my spine were a dead giveaway.

  “But I wasn’t going to let you out of my sight,” Deval whispered in my ear like it was a sweet nothing rather than a threat. “I thought I watched you die, but this fils de pute managed to get you breathing again. A futile gesture, I assure you. Just like it was pointless to waste a tear on the capitaine.”

  I swallowed a lump in my throat. Deval had been watching me this whole time. I curled my hands around the seashell canister, but he tore it away from me. I clawed at him to get it back, but he tucked it in his coat pocket. His nose was bruised like it had been recently broken. There was a large gash in his shoulder and a matching one on his leg. I went for the leg, shoving my finger into the wound.

  He slammed his foot into my stomach. “I will enjoy watching you die—for good this time.”

  “The monarch wants her alive, Deval,” another native warned, coming close enough I could see the mud on his worn boots. His crooked smile framed his yellowed teeth. His sandy blond hair fell over his eyes. He wore a business suit from earlier in the century. As far as native sentences went, he hadn’t been here very long.