“Quick!” said O’Malley. “Help me block the door!”
James and O’Malley quickly pulled the large bookshelf from the rear of the room over the opening. They heard a flurry of footsteps on the stairs below.
“Oh, James!” cried Wendy. “We are trapped!”
James tried to think clearly. The entrance was blocked. There had to be another way out. He began to walk towards the window when he was met with a sight that made his blood run cold. Just outside the window, a figure hovered motionless in the air. Shimmering and sparkling, the way James himself had on the night Peter took Wendy from him. And now here he was: Peter Pan.
He glided into the room and even in the darkness James could see his disgusting little smirk. He stood steadfast as Peter landed silently in front of him.
“Well, well, well,” said Peter. “Isn’t this a happy reunion?” His voice was colored with a seething hatred that was absolutely palpable. James watched as Peter studied him.
Peter clapped his hands several times, and the room lit up. Fairies, trapped in their glass prisons, were strung about the room and crowded on the shelves. As Peter clapped, they lit up like stars in the night sky. Peter gave a little bow.
“Welcome, James!” he said. He walked slowly around James. “I see you’ve changed quite a bit, my old friend.”
“We are not friends,” spat James. His heart slammed against the inside of his chest, and he struggled to hear Peter’s words over the thunderous rush in his ears. He positioned himself between Wendy and Peter. O’Malley stood close to the door, sword at the ready.
“That makes me terribly sad, James.” Peter almost sounded like he meant it. “How long has it been? Weeks? Years? You know, time is so different here.”
“Ten years,” James said bluntly. He heard Wendy’s sharp intake of breath behind him. He didn’t dare look back at her. He twisted his arm and brought his hooked right wrist up towards his waist.
“Oh my,” said Peter quietly. “Things have changed quite a bit, brother.” Peter took a step back and leaned to his side so that he could see Wendy.
“Mother Wendy, you allowed these men into my home? How very disappointing.”
“You will not speak to her!” shouted James. He could barely contain himself.
Peter’s expression changed only slightly.
“You’re so angry. Why is that?” James could not fathom that Peter didn’t understand why he was so angry, and so he chose not to play along.
The shouting and noise from below had subsided, but hushed voices and chattering could still be heard.
“We are going to leave, and you are going to leave us alone. Forever,” said James through clenched teeth.
Peter began to laugh. Softly at first and then so loudly, James wondered if he had gone completely out of his mind. Peter caught his breath and composed himself.
“Oh, James! You haven’t changed a bit! Still pretending to be in charge. Oh James, don’t you realize you’ve never been in charge of anything in your pathetic life? You’re here because I allowed you to be, and you can leave when I say you can leave.”
James bristled as the hair stood up on the back of his neck. All of the weeks and months they’d spent together, laughing and reading Peter’s mother’s diary, Peter trying relentlessly to convince James that Neverland was a real place, and now fate had put them together once more. James studied Peter’s face. That mask of a face that always bore a maniacal smile was just as he remembered, speckled with freckles and tanned by countless hours in the sun, his bright blue eyes as clear as the midday sky. The boy that James had pitied, had comforted, had loved now stood before him, transformed. Not by any means in a way that the eyes could behold, but inside. His spirit, his essence was changed. An air of darkness surrounded him, and every word he spoke sounded like a lie. James stepped towards Peter.
“James, please,” pleaded Wendy from over his shoulder.
“Yes, James. Please!” Peter said, mocking Wendy’s tone. He held up his hands in mock protest. “Please don’t!” Peter laughed loudly. “Don’t you know who I am? Don’t you know what I will do to you? To her?” He pointed at Wendy.
James lunged at Peter and caught him by the strap of his quiver, slamming his feet down on the ground. Peter’s expression didn’t change. A smile plastered across his sunburned lips.
“I should kill you right now!” hissed James.
“Then do it, you pathetic coward,” spat Peter.
“James…” Wendy’s voice was at his back. “Please, he’s not worth it.”
“Shut up!” snapped Peter.
James slammed Peter’s back into the wall. The clamor below intensified. His chest heaved as he gripped Peter by the neck.
“Did you come all this way to rough me up, old man?” asked Peter, still smiling. “Is that why you are here? To teach me a lesson?”
“I came for Wendy.” James tightened his grip on Peter with his left hand, bringing up his hook and resting it menacingly against Peter’s bare chest.
“Really? Is that all?” asked Peter.
“Yes!”
“No!” Peter shouted back. “You can’t make me believe that you’d come all this way for some silly girl. You want what I have. You want to be like me. Forever young, forever just as I am now. You want it so badly you can taste it, isn’t that right, brother?”
“No. I could never be like you.” James slammed Peter against the wall again. “You’re a liar, a fraud, and I pity you.” He let go of Peter and stepped back. He took Wendy by the hand and walked towards the door.
“Are you not the biggest liar of us all James?” Peter shouted after him. “You said we would find this place together! You said that! Don’t you remember?”
James turned slightly and lowered his head. “You were my brother once, Peter, but not anymore. Stay here in this wretched camp with your Lost Boys. You are truly lost.”
“You would choose her? You would choose her over all that I can offer you?” Peter’s gaze darted back and forth between James and Wendy. His anger bubbled over, and he lunged violently at Wendy with a small dagger he had pulled from his waistband.
James spun around and caught the tip of the dagger with his hook, wrenching it from Peter’s hand. He shoved Peter, and he fell over backwards. The clamor from below soared, and the entire room seemed to vibrate.
Just then, James saw that someone was pulling themselves up and through the window, followed by several more people. Tigerlilly. She joined James and Wendy, sword drawn. Quip and the others who had entered the room quickly busied themselves at the window, securing a rope to the pane.
Peter scrambled to his feet. Tigerlilly put her blade to his neck, and he froze. James saw a look of absolute panic wash over him.
“If you move, I will cut you,” she said flatly. “Do you hear me, Peter Pan?”
“This way. Quickly,” said Quip.
James and Wendy hurried to the window and saw that a long line of rope was slung all the way to another tree on a downward slope. A series of fires had broken out below and were keeping the Lost Boys from accessing the tree the rope was attached to. Quip pulled two lengths of cloth from his satchel and wrapped Wendy’s hands.
“This will keep the rope from burning you when you slide down,” he said.
“We’re sliding down?” asked Wendy. She seemed afraid but was trying very hard to hide it.
Michael stepped up and, having already bound his hands, grabbed ahold of the rope. “Come on, Wendy. We have to go now!”
He swung himself out the window, and James watched as he slid the length of the rope and disappeared into the trees beyond the smoke billowing up from the fires set by Quip and Katnai’s group.
Tigerlilly still had Pan under her blade and motioned for O’Malley to exit next.
“Not a chance,” said O’Malley. “Not without you.”
James helped Wendy onto the window sill and kissed her quickly before stepping back and watching her slide down and disappear into the
haze. A few of the others followed her, and within a short time only James, Tigerlilly, O’Malley, and Peter remained.
“How far do you think you’ll get?” snapped Peter. Tigerlilly pushed her blade into Peter’s neck. James stood next to her and rested his hand on her arm.
“Go. Get Wendy out of here,” he said. Tigerlilly looked up at him. “Please. Go now.”
She lowered her sword, and Peter gasped as if he had been holding his breath. O’Malley and Tigerlilly vanished out of the window, leaving James and Peter alone.
James looked at Peter, trying to find something human, some emotion that made him worth forgiving. He could find nothing.
“I will leave you in peace if you swear you’ll never come looking for us,” he said.
Peter stood, bare-chested and shaking with a rage so profound that James thought he would shatter into a million pieces. “As soon as I get out of this room, I am going to hunt you down and kill Wendy right in front of you, you stupid old man.” James felt as if he were seeing Peter’s true self for the very first time. The mask Peter wore so convincingly seemed to melt away to reveal a stranger, a creature born of hate and malice who seemed completely devoid of soul, empathy, or reason. Peter’s face twisted into a horrid caricature of itself, and James knew that he had no options left.
James raised his hook and brought it down over Peter’s shoulder. Before the hook could make contact, the little blonde fairy zipped out and stopped James’s weapon from hitting Peter directly. The hook slid down his bare right shoulder instead, opening up a long gash. Peter spun and dove for his sword, snapping it up and wielding it menacingly.
James lurched forward, brandishing his gleaming hook as he and Peter engaged in a sort of dance, circling each other in a clockwise direction.
“So it has come to this,” said Peter.
“You’ve left me no choice!” shouted James.
“You had a choice! It—it didn’t have to be this way.” Peter shouted back.
“You tried to kill me, Peter!”
“You deserved it! You should have died!” Peter shot forward and stuck his sword directly into James’s thigh. James screamed out in pain.
Peter reared back and thrust his sword forward again. This time, James deflected the blade with his hook. He stumbled to his left, and Peter lunged again, making a noise like a crazed animal. Peter’s blade nicked James’s right arm, and he stumbled backwards. Peter advanced on him, stalking him like a predator. James scampered backwards.
“You’re a coward!” screamed James. “You hide in your tree top. You could never face me! Spying on me, mocking my pain!”
James jumped up and met Peter’s sword with his hook. The clash sent sparks flying, briefly lighting up the room.
Peter pushed off and stepped back before rushing forward again, swiping at James. Their steel weapons locked together again. James looked into Peter’s eyes and saw only fury.
“Still think you’re in charge, old man?” At that moment, a ball of light, white and fiery, flew into Peter’s face. He stopped his assault, temporarily blinded. The light landed on James’s shoulder, and he saw that it was the red-headed fairy.
He scrambled to the window and out onto the rope, threading it through his hook.
“Thank you,” he said to the fairy.
As he pushed off, he saw Pan at the window. James feared he would take to the skies and catch up to him before he got his feet on the ground, but he saw, to his horror, that Pan had something else in mind. As James sailed backward, he watched Pan furiously saw at the rope. He was cutting it. James looked down to see the fires roaring and crackling beneath him. He quickly reached up and grabbed the rope with his left hand.
Snap!
The rope went slack, and James felt himself falling. He swooped down through the smoke and careened into the base of a large tree. He fell into a heap on the cool forest floor then lay there for a moment, taking stock of himself. He was alive, but there was something seriously wrong with the angle of his left wrist. Blood trickled from above his left eye, flowing into the silvery imprint of the scar that marred his cheek. He scrambled to his feet, looking around to see if he had cleared the fires separating the Lost Boys from the tree where the rope ended. To his relief, it appeared he was safe for the moment. He was astonished to see that he had also cleared the fence on the opposite side of the camp.
The resourcefulness of Tigerlilly’s companions was not lost on him. He looked to see if there was any sign of where they had gone. The forest was thick and darkness hummed as the dead of night fell on him like a blanket.
He stumbled forward, trying to work out his position so that he could make his way to the escape route. He tripped and was immediately reminded that his leg was injured quite badly. The pain in his upper thigh was nauseating. Peter had plunged his sword in almost to the hilt. James was in agony.
Just ahead, there was a break in the gloom, and James emerged into a small clearing. He let his broken wrist fall limply at his side as he tried desperately to stem the pain in his leg by hobbling unsteadily on the opposite one. As he floundered around in the open space, he realized that what he thought was a clearing was actually just a thinning of the trees before the land fell away, leaving him perilously close to the edge of a steep cliff. A salty breeze gusted up the cliff’s face and engulfed James in a cold, misty embrace. He looked around frantically. Tigerlilly and the others were nowhere to be seen.
He heard a loud swooshing sound behind him and whipped his head around to see Peter standing just a few feet in front of him. Peter’s arm was dotted with blood, but he was smiling from ear to ear. Other boys began to emerge from the trees, and they stood flanking Peter, each of them armed.
“How fortuitous!” laughed Peter. He took a few steps forward. James took a few steps back. “I really must say that this worked out beautifully. For me, at least.”
“Peter…,” started James.
“Yes, brother?” asked Peter.
James felt his wrist dangling useless by his side. Blood streamed down his leg.
“Peter, I can’t forgive you…,” James uttered.
“Forgive me?” asked Peter. “You are the one who should be seeking forgiveness, James. You are the one who has ruined my plans. You are the one everyone hates.”
“What you’ve done cannot be undone! You are a fraud! And they should all know it!” James glared at the Lost Boys. “I’ve known him in another life! He is a selfish child! A liar! You follow him blindly, and all it will lead to is ruin!” He could no longer speak. He wobbled unsteadily on his feet, wincing each time his injured leg bore even a small part of his weight.
Peter closed in on James slowly, methodically. “So, we are destined to be enemies, James? Is that the way of it?”
James felt the world tip up, and he lost his balance. He stumbled back, feeling the ground crumble under his feet. Peter rushed forward and caught him by the elbow. James was leaning back over the cliff’s edge with only Peter’s grasp to keep him from falling.
“I loved you, Peter. You were my brother, my family,” James whispered as the strength to speak aloud began to leave him.
Peter pulled James to his chest and put his mouth next to James’s ear. “Family you say? Oh James, how pathetic you seem to me now. Tell me, now that you know what I really am, could you love me? Could you crawl inside and find that deepest, darkest, most ruined part of me? Could you love me there?”
A ringing in James’s ears began to muffle the sounds all around him. He pulled back, looking Peter in the eyes. “I could, I did, but no more.”
“I could let go! I could do it, James!” shouted Peter.
“Then do it, you coward,” James whispered. “We are not brothers. You are alone.” Tears streamed down James’s face. The moonlight seemed blindingly bright.
For the first time in a very long time, Peter did exactly what James told him to do. He let go.
James felt himself falling. The wind whipped his face. The biting sting of th
e air gave way to cold, watery blackness, and he couldn’t tell if his eyes were open or closed. The frigid water filled his nose and mouth. A briny taste sat on his tongue, and he felt himself falling again, this time into the depths of the murky cove.
CHAPTER 20
NEW BEGINNINGS
In those murky depths, James waited for death. He welcomed it, as the pain in his lungs was too much to bear. He thought death was upon him when he saw flashes of red, yellow, and green in the waters below him.
Wendy, I love you, he thought.
He barely noticed that he was being pulled upwards, and it wasn’t until he broke the water’s surface that he saw that someone else was with him in the water. A young boy. James thought he should strike him dead but didn’t have the strength to lift his hook. He coughed and sputtered, expelling the foul fluid from his burning lungs.
He rolled over and found himself face up in the belly of a small skiff. The young man peered down at him. James placed his hooked wrist on his chest, and the boy stepped back as far as the parameters of the vessel would allow. James saw that there were three others on the little boat.
“You’ve nothing to fear from us,” said one young man. He turned and tended to some rigging that was dangling from a small mast. “Bind his wounds,” he ordered without turning around.
James drifted in and out of a dream world. He saw Wendy’s face. The smell of her skin and the softness of her hair were seared into his memory. He didn’t care if it was a memory come to haunt him in his dying moments. Her face was lovelier than any painting he’d ever seen, more exquisite than any vision he could conjure, and that image of his raven-haired love was all he wanted in the darkness of that abyss that seemed so unfathomable.
***
He woke to find himself in familiar surroundings. The warm glow of a small fire in the center of the tent and the hole in the roof were welcome sights. Somehow, he was back in his tent in Tigerlilly’s camp. He sat up and looked around. Wendy was curled into a ball at the foot of his bed, her hand resting on his shin. Her breathing was rhythmic and soothing. A flood of emotion washed over him and he couldn’t help but reach down and wake her gently, if only to convince himself that he hadn’t slipped beyond the veil of reality.
Six Points of Light:Hook's Origin Page 20
