Pan's Redemption

Chapter 10 ~Mermaids*

"Killian, I thought we agreed not to take things that don't belong to them."

Pan's musical voice echoed through Hook's bedchambers. Wendy scrambled out of the bed. He had found her. Pan had found her. At first, she didn't move. This was supposed to be good, right? She was saved. She wasn't a prisoner anymore, or whatever Hook thought she was. She wouldn't have to be on this awful ship anymore. Her gut twisted. She recognized this feeling. It was what she felt when she was terrified. She had it in the alley when those boys tried to kill her. Wendy knew in her heart that she wasn't being rescued. She was simply property that Pan wanted back.

"Aye, we did. What can I do for you, Pan?"

Wendy's trance was broken at Hook's words. She had no idea if she could trust him. Sure, he had a reason to hate Pan. He warned her about him. Pan was the monster that killed his brother. Although Wendy had no actual proof that he did it, somehow she knew he did.

She still had no clue how he tricked her into thinking he was like the great Peter Pan in the stories. Well, actually she did. She refused to believe it was the special way he looked at only her. In that brief moment of meeting, he made her feel at home. How? How did he do that? How did he make her completely blind to every warning on that damned island? She refused to believe the voices of logic running haywire in her brain.

"Why, lets skip to the part where you tell me where my Lost Girl is."

Shit. Hook would rat her out. She was almost certain of it. Like he said, he hated him as much as she did, but fear is sometimes much stronger than hate. Wendy frantically looked for a place to escape. No windows. Doors only led up to where Pan and Hook were talking. If Wendy was to hide somewhere it had to be in the room.

Then she saw it. It was a dark green trunk sitting at the front of the bed. She carefully opened the latch and was pleased to see that there was only a few clothing items in there. They were girls dresses. Wendy did not have enough time to puzzle of them. She climbed in and shut the lid and was engulfed in blackness.

"I do admit the girl was here. As soon as I found out where she came from, I ordered her off my ship."

Wendy grinned to herself in the dark. He protected her, or was trying to. She silently promised to repay him later. There was silence above deck. Oh no, Wendy thought. Pan knew he was lying. He must have some magic lie detector built in his brain because Hook was very good. He almost had convinced Wendy that she was not on board.

"Wendy Bird, you cannot hide from me,"

His feet clanked down the creaky floor boards of the hallway outside the bedroom. Wendy silenced her panting with her hand. The door opened he was inside the room. He was going to find her. He was going to take her. She was going to never see anyone but him ever again.

And then out of nowhere trunk's ceiling began to cave in a little. It took Wendy only a second to realize he was sitting on her. Well not on her. On the trunk. It took all her will power not to scream.

"You said you let her go as soon as you knew she was mine, did you not?"

"As you might imagine, it took her awhile to trust me," There was silence. Wendy's heart was beating so loudly she was certain he could hear it.

"Where did you send her then, pirate?" His voice changed from playfully annoyed to threatening. She shivered.

"Come on, lad. Don't hurt the girl." Hook pleaded with him. She started to panic that he was about to give her up.

"I can do what I want with her. She is mine! Where is she?!" He yelled and a small part of Wendy died. The small single strand of hope that this was all a misunderstanding. That Peter Pan was good. Hook was evil. The Lost Boys were loyal and kind. When he said that she was his, it all disintegrated in front of her eyes. Pan was evil. Lost Boys were foot soldiers. And Hook was good, but unwilling to risk much on his side. She never wanted to see the clock tower in London so much in her life.