Human by Rag'n'Bone Man
I struggle against his tight grip as my feet are dragged across the cave floor. Their rubbles souls squeak as they try to find anything they can grip on to.
"Wait, let the bitch see this." Someone else calls out. The voice must be long to Gregory's other lackey. Spencer.
His figure darts out from under the shadows, moving closer to me. He pulls out a knife, but I don't scream. There's no point in screaming anyway. There's nothing I can do to stop this. He's not going to hurt me, not yet anyway. Besides, they'll have to answer to Pan-
Pan's out cold. He's been drugged, and I can't tell if he's breathing. I can't tell if he's alive.
Spencer sends a kick straight into Peter's side, and I lurch forward, trying to escape Gregory's hands. I try to cry out, to scream, but his hands only wrap tighter around my face. My voice is muffled, and I know it is futile but I can't help but hope to make a sound.
Don't hurt him. Don't hurt him. Don't hurt him.
"We aren't here for him." Gregory grunts. "It's the girl."
Spencer nods, but chooses to kick Pan in his stomach anyway. The force impacts him, and I can hear the crack of his bones. His head rolls over to face me. And his blank eyes continue to stare.
I bite down on Gregory's hand until the rusty taste of blood fills my mouth. Gregory lets go, but tries to wrestle me back. I run towards Pan, grabbing hold of his face with my hands.
Spencer's hands grab me around the waist, trying to pull me back. I straddle Pan, trying to hold on to his body with full force. My legs and arms curl around him, trying to hold on, until his torso is practically pressed into mine.
"No!" I shriek. "You can't make me let go. You can't do this."
"Shut the fuck up." Gregory spits.
Rough hands push down on my neck, nails dig into my skin. They burn, and pull me off of Peter in one easy swipe. His body slams against the floor, his head snapping back after his torso. Gregory's arms tighten as I move with them, threatening to choke me. Tears sting the corners of my eyes.
I can't leave Peter. Not here. He isn't breathing, he isn't alive. They killed him. Why would they do that?
"Peter," I croak out.
"You're pathetic." Spencer chuckles, punching me in the stomach.
I keel over around the hand, trying to hold myself up. My eyes don't leave Peter though. He's lying on the ground, with his hair sprawled out on the ground. His head is still tilted towards me. Green eyes darkening by the second, until they begin to look black.
"What did you do?" I sigh, still leaning towards him. I can't stop fighting, not when he is lying on the floor without air in his lungs.
He doesn't have a pulse. His heart isn't beating.
"Remember that little accusation," Gregory rips me backwards, towards the hole in the floor, "when you had both squid ink and berries in you?"
Of course he did that. I knew he did it, but it's nice to hear him admit he drugged me and hid my body deep in the woods. Where I wouldn't be found for a week, when Felix stumbled on my body that was basically a corpse.
What did they do to me in those woods?
Peter told me I was lucky to have survived. To be alive. Is he alive, or is this just like that? Please, he has to be alive.
"You fucking bitch." I muster, as I can only stare at Pan.
I have to get him to Jared. But Jared is already dealing with Blaize and Frank. Gregory stabbed Blaize; tried to kill her. Why didn't I take those threats seriously? This is what happens when you don't listen, Charlotte. People get hurt, and subsequently people die.
This is my fault.
Spencer swipes out my feet from beneath me, knocking me to the ground. Gregory is quick to pick me up by the collar, and drag me further away from Pan.
"You can't do this." I grunt, my feet barely touch the floor.
Gregory laughs. "I can, and I will."
With a quick shrug, I hear the latch in the floor open, and feel myself thrown down it.
I feel myself falling through the air, and my feet struggle to hit the ground. I land on the side of legs, slipping in the mud, hitting the ground on my side. The dirt sprawls on to the side of my face, where the scar from Samuel ought to be. I roll on to my back, letting the muck cake into my hair, ruining the green bow. My leg stings, and my head feels like all the organs inside it have smashed down on to the ground.
Gregory is climbing down the ladder, but is only on the first rung.
I've got time to run.
Soles scrambling up off the ground, it's difficult, but I'm up and I'm running quickly.
It's no time before my feet are slamming and I am bounding further into the woods. I don't know where I'm running. There is nowhere to run, except forward. This island is small, I can run but I can't hide. They will find me, and there is no one here who is going to stick their neck out enough to help me.
Except Peter. But he might be dead.
Tackled from the side, I slide into the dirt. Scraping off the muddy ground, my body stops when it hits a thick tree. I struggle with my fists, shaking them up in the air, only to have Spencer wrestle them to the ground. He holds them firmly with his hands, while pressing his knees into my thighs, so I can't move.
Using my core, I lift up only to have my head slammed back into the ground. On the way down, I bite my tongue, and suddenly all I can taste is blood.
Gregory peers down over Spencer's shoulder. I spit at him, the thick red liquid hitting his face. It's more blood than anything else, but he wipes it off all the same. Instead, it smears across his nose and eyes, almost like a mask.
He grabs my collar beneath Spencer, pulling me up before shoving me back down against the ground. My vision blurs, as if it wasn't hard enough to see Gregory and Spencer in the dark.
"Coward," I chuckle. "You know, all this could've been avoided if you'd actually manage to kill me the first time."
Spencer backs off of me, laughing. "You really think we tried to kill you? If we had wanted you dead then, you'd be dead."
"You drugged me, remember?" I shout, scramble out from beneath him. Back against a tree, I can't run.
Hands wrapped around my hair, a whine escapes my throat that I don't mean to release. Gregory pulls me up into the back of the tree. "You dumb bitch, how many times do I have to tell you we didn't drug you?"
That's bullshit. "You expect me to believe that? You've been sending my girls threats since day one. Who else carved that little note onto my back?"
By the hair, he throws me down into the dirt. With the second I have to spare, I rip the dagger out of my pocket, aiming it at the boy.
Gregory's defence is laughter. "My beef isn't with those girls. It's with you. Threats are a waste of my time."
With a quick kick to the wrist, he sends the dagger soaring out of my hand. It lands feet away, deep in the dirt. It burns my wrist as it snaps back, and I can only push on my elbow as I try to prop myself up, only to have a foot to the chest send me right back down. It knocks the wind out of me, but I can't manage to get up.
I want to ask what Gregory's plan is, or why all of this is happening, or anything, but I'm not in the moody for a monologue. Gregory isn't smart enough to give one anyway. I just need to get away from them and get back to Peter.
I need to use my magic. I can't do that though; I can't be sure I won't kill one of them with a snap of my fingers. I just need to incapacitate them long enough to get to Peter, and make sure he's alive. He has to be alive.
I don't care what Alison and Johnny have to say about him being the bringer of death or whatever it was. Killing is my specialty, so much so I don't know how to fight without doing it. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Gregory moves closer to me, leaning down over top of me. I move to get up and scrub away off the ground, but he grabs me by the foot, dragging me closer to him. Sticks in the mud rip the skin open on the palms of my hands, as I grab fistfuls of dirt to try to escape. I won't scream though, not even when he is upon me. Bending down, I can feel his lips tickle my cheek as I turn away.
"This is what you get for murder." He spits. "We were just going to kill you after the war, but you've gone too far this time Charlotte."
"Get off of me you sick bastard." Pushing at him with my hands, I attempt to move him off of me.
He shakes his head, taking my fingers in his. He pins them above my head, pressing his body closer down into me. "You're the serial killer."
My knuckles crack as I ball my fingers into fists. "You killed Lyle."
"My first," he admits, leaning backwards. "So far my last, but not for long."
Spencer stands a few feet away, his back to a tree. He seems to be checking under his nails, rather than actually contributing to the conversation. They must have some deal going, where Spencer keeps an eye out or something, and Gregory gets to win.
"I'd like to see you try." I chuckle.
I can feel his nose on my cheek. It's cold, colder than his hands. I dare to open my eyes, watching as snow begins to trail down on to the sky. It's so very cold.
Peter is dead.
I can feel my eyelashes clinging together as I blink. Tears already freezing.
He's dead, and this is what's happening.
The soil is firm on my back, and seems to crack as Gregory rolls off of me. I lean up, only to feel his boot collide with my ribcage. Groaning, I roll on to my side, only to feel it collide with me again. The air that's in my lungs goes out into the air, and I somehow see the colour. It's too foggy to make anything out.
This world is falling apart.
There's no point in getting up. Everything I've done to live has been for not. I've murdered, I've fought, and I've tried. For nothing. All those people dead, it aims to protect me. Samuel, Sam, Eric, Walela, and more. How many people have died for me to die after them?
I can't beat Gregory though. No matter what I do.
I turn my head, to see he has come back with a rock. It's thicker than my own skull, and wider too. He raises it above his head, and as he throws it, I roll to the side.
It thuds as it hits the ground. Where my head was seconds ago. If that had hit me, it wouldn't be just the simply white of snow that covered the ground, but the blood from inside my head.
It's difficult to tell, but there are dark cracks, like broken glass, shooting out from beneath the rock. From where the snow sunk into the cracks in the dirt from the boulder. This dirt is s frozen it is cracking away. Neverland is falling apart without Peter.
He's going to break the island, and everyone else is going to die.
"Gregory!" My voice is both a panic and a warning.
The snow dances off his eyelashes as he glares up at me. His cheeks are flushed red, but no longer just from the cold.
I can't die. Somehow, I need to warn the others. Peter is dead, and Neverland is falling apart.
"Gregory stop."
He whips the rock at me again, missing my shoulder by an inch. I roll away one more time, trying to escape him.
He presses a knee down against my chest, forcing the oxygen out of my lungs. I struggle against his leg, but he only pushes down tighter. My fists bounce off his knee. I can't even warn him of what's going to happen. It's getting harder to see, and my knuckles are beginning to turn white. I can't tell what is from the cold and what is from the lack of oxygen.
He raises the boulder above his head once more, waiting to send it falling on me. I'm going to look like Lyle. This is it. I'm going to die.
Gregory's muscles shake, as he begins to throw it.
It's shameful, but in my last moments I don't think about the things you're supposed to. I've been told when your life flashes before your eyes, you see exactly that. When I was expecting to see my mother, my sister, Max, Alison, and more, I saw nothing.
All I can see is the green of Pan's eyes. I smell the forest, and I can feel his soft hair wrapped between my fingers.
The boulder comes down, and I can only flinch.
My foot is pulled out, and I scream as I'm dragged across the dirt. There's a loud thump, and I can feel my hair pulling.
I don't open my eyes, I don't dare. Death isn't something I want to see with my own eyes.
"Back away."
Felix?
My eyes crack open, and as I look up, I see the blonde boy tugging at Gregory's head, pulling it down closer to him.
"Let. Go." Felix warns.
He has my dagger up against Gregory's neck. The boy raises his hands, placing them behind his head before getting down on his knees. His scowl seems to contort across his whole face, and he kneels down on to the ground. Glaring me down, as if this is somehow my fault and not his. As if he didn't do this to himself.
With one quick swipe, the hilt of dagger hits his head, and he falls over.
I stand up abruptly, noticing the small amount of blood on the hilt of the blade. Felix frowns at it, before handing it back to me.
"They're fine." He tells me. "Just unconscious."
He knocked out Spencer too, I get see his body on the floor.
I nod, slowly, biting down harder on my lips. If only they were dead. It doesn't matter, I could've killed them. It doesn't matter that the war is coming so soon. It will never come. Peter is dead.
My shoulders begin to shake, and my hands quiver. Fingers fumble around the dagger, until I grab the blade, accidentally slicing them open. My knees sink to the ground, and as the hit the dirt, the dirt shatters beneath it.
"He's dead." I manage to get the words out of my mouth.
Felix kneels down next to me. "What?"
I let a hand go to my mouth, as I try to keep myself from choking. They killed him. His cold body is lying on the floor, and mine is only getting colder as snow collects on my lap. It's white and fluffy, and I wish it wasn't here.
"They killed Peter." I tell them. "Berries and squid ink."
Felix grabs my cloak, pulling me up. "Peter's not dead, just passed out. Why else would it be dark and snowing?"
"Because he's dead!" I screech.
Felix doesn't seem taking aback by my words, only mildly annoyed. He drags me through the dirt, not bothering to listen to me, it seems.
"Those idiots couldn't get their hands on squid ink if they wanted to." He sighs. "It's probably just the damn berries."
I shrug out of his grip. Could Peter be alive?
Run.
I sprint towards his house. If he's alive, then, then he's alive. I can't believe the last thing I did with him was fought. I need to apologize. I need to be with him. Blaize and Frank need his help, but I need him.
My fingers wrap around the ladder rung just above my head, and as I lift my feet up to hit a step, I realise how slippery the ladder is. In one swift motion, my hands slide down on to the rung below them. Feet on the ground, I sturdy myself.
Taking my cloak in my hands, I quickly pull myself up the ladder, swinging myself up and into the open room.
Scraping along the floor, my dirty hands find Peter. His eyes are still open, blankly staring at me, I put my hand to his wrist, searching for a pulse.
"His heart's not beating." I cry, my head spinning around.
I push down harder, trying to find the vein. Maybe I haven't hit it, yet. Maybe they did find squid ink, and he's paralysed from the inside out. Maybe this is just some doppelganger, and not Peter.
Moving to his shoulders, I dig my hands in. He's not breathing anymore, why isn't he breathing? What did this do to him?
"Relax," I feel Felix's hand on my shoulder, pulling me back slightly. "God, I knew you had a thing for him-"
"Fuck off." I shout.
Felix raises his hands defensively, moving to the other side of Peter. Roughly taking my fingers, he moves them to his neck. Digging them in further, I feel it.
Faint and quiet, but a pulse.
"Listen," he instructs.
I do listen. There is no sound, only that of the wind blowing against this house. Shoes scuffing the rock floor beneath us.
And a shallow whistle, coming from Peter.
"He's alive!" I shout.
~~~~
Human is a pretty song, being about blame, and being human, and I also think it really embodies Charlie. Her entirely battle thus far has been a series of mistakes, and while they are awful, she is only human. Maybe from this she will find the light.
What do you think? This chapter was also fun to write, and I hope it was fun to read. I'm excited for the next one, it only gets much, much more interesting.
For now, don't burn, and I will see you tomorrow.