Chapter 15
The longer I am here, the easier it has become to be numb to the surroundings. The rest of them were all too wrapped up in their own personal affairs to even realise I followed them back. Pan was right, this could very easily tear them all apart.
I can't help but worry I'm too caught up in this all this drama. These peoples lives have melted into mine.
"You came back?" The Captain notices me first, and the rest stand up to stare at me.
I can't bring myself to nod. There is nothing left in me. I am a shell.
"She's working for Pan, isn't she?" Neal asks, moving forward. "Since when does he have Lost Girls?"
"Since she has magic." Emma nods towards me. "Are you like him?"
I shake my head. "I don't want to be."
"You don't just fall in love with an animal like him." The Captain steps forward, before his hook wraps around my shirt.
I nod. "I never said I was innocent."
"Get out." The Captain spits.
"Where would she go?" Mary Margaret asks. "Send her back to those boys to do who knows what with them? She got us Neal, she helped us get Tinkerbell. If she has been spying on us, then it's already too late."
"We've still got plans up our sleeves." He corrects.
"She's already betrayed Pan." David says. "You remember what she said about the civil war. The traitors were killed."
"She's been spying." Emma answers. "Haven't you?"
I don't answer, instead choosing to stare down the Captain. "You'd kick out your own family?"
The air tenses, and he lets go of me, backing up.
"What is she talking about Hook?" David asks.
"You aren't my family." He spits.
"You know he is my father." I spit. "Liam. Why else would I have his pocket watch?"
I pull it out, and he knocks it out of my hand with his hook, cracking the glass. It hits the ground with a thud, and my hand stings. I doubt it was intentional, but he slashed my hand open. Warm blood trickles down my wrist, I can feel it.
"This is Pan playing tricks on you." The Captain begins.
"My mother gave me this." I tell him. "And she hated Pan."
"Of course she did, he killed Liam." The Captain shouts, pushing forward into me. "Because of your little boyfriend my brother is dead."
"He is my father too." I shout.
"How is that possible?" Emma asks. "Hook was here for hundreds of years. Where is any of this coming from"
"Time travel is hard but possible." Mary Margaret adds.
There is both too much and not enough going on around here. If Pan is listening to this, he will kill me. I am not exaggerating. This is betrayal at its finest. Why did he have to send me here? Why did he have to bring me to this island?
Pan brought me here and broke me. I can't go back home, and though my life was boring I would give up all this in a heartbeat for none of this to have happened. I may have saved lives, but I killed too many to make up for it, and I feel dirty everywhere.
Is this how Alex feels? Is this how Keaton felt?
"Charlotte, go back to that camp."
"He will kill me." I beg. I know the Captain has no sympathy for anyone, and he did kill Rufio after all, but there is nothing I have left to do.
"Wendy." Neal blurts out. "Remember her?"
"She doesn't matter." The Captain answers.
"Maybe not," Neal answers. "But she is the last of Liam."
"What about Wendy?"
He'll be picking the meat off your bones like that little Wendy girl.
I remember Alex's words, as if he is still saying them. As if I am nothing except a meal. Pan is guilty of many things, hurting me is not any of them. There is nothing left for me to do though. I can't do anything myself anymore.
"She doesn't matter." The Captain shrugs. "Get out."
No one else protests, and I knew no one else would, and I can't fight any of these people anymore. There is nothing left in me to throw fists, or to scream or yell. I would if I could, but really I can't.
There is no right or wrong with these people. They are just trying to save their son after all.
"I know what is going to happen to Henry." I spit.
Emma's ears fly towards me. She moves quickly, before David can grab hold of her and keep from grabbing me.
"What do you know?"
"I will tell you if you let me stay."
"We decide after." The Captain backs away. "Depending on how valuable your information is."
It takes a second for Emma to relax, and they back up to face me. This is it. The actual moment where I lay down the truth for what it is. There is nothing left for me to hide behind anymore.
All eyes are on me.
"Peter brought me here months ago." I begin. "I had to pretend I was a boy, worried he was going to kill me. He had made this challenge, to get the fittest boys. We called it the Hunt. A couple died, I forget how many, but I remember killing one of them. I was the first of five girls he brought here. He didn't bring girls before me, I only managed to come because I had magic, and so he let me stay."
"Why?" Emma demands.
"He only needs boys." Neal looks down, as if he is remembering something.
"Pan is dying." I tell them. "He has been for a while. Slowly losing his power, and soon it'll be gone. He is taking your boy's heart for himself, apparently it is the heart of the truest believer."
"That'll kill Henry." Mary Margaret inhales.
I nod. "I know."
"Where is this going to happen? When?" Emma moves closer to me.
I shake my head. "I don't know the details, but it's happening soon, and I don't know what to do about it."
"He's going to kill you for betraying us." The Captain notices.
I nod. I know he will, there is no beating around the bush to that effect, but I don't know what to do. He's always been like this, but it has to stop.
"You can't go to war with him though." I tell them. "There are good Lost Boys, broken but alive."
"How many are there?" Emma asks.
I shrug, as I count them off of my fingers. "Felix, his right hand who will do anything. Gregory, just another lackey of Pan's, who had his own group of lackeys but only one of them is alive now. There's a boy whose name I don't know, and there is Devin who you met. Alex and Harry, and Jared our medic. Johnny and Alison, who are having a child. Blaize, the arsonist, Frank, the pickpocket, Elizabeth our assistant medic. And there is me. So there are 14 total."
"Only 14?" Emma asks.
I nod. "And most of them wouldn't fight you if I told them not to. Almost all of them would side with me over Pan."
"You replaced Felix as second in command then?" The Captain asks through gritted teeth.
"Not intentionally." I admit. "The girls would all side with me, and so would Johnny. Harry and Alex would I imagine as well, Jared would too. And if they all sided with me, so would Devin eventually. No one is loyal to Pan anymore except for Felix. We are loyal to each other, and loyal to ourselves."
"So with your help we wouldn't even need to sneak in?" Emma asks.
I shake my head. "No, you still would. Though no one would have to die. Only a few of us have homes to go back to. For the most part we are orphans, and some of us have been here for decades. We don't want to stay here, but we can't leave."
"Storybrooke could be your home."
I shake my head back and forth. "No, it couldn't. I've only been here for months, and I'll never be the same. But it could be a home for the other boys."
"This is all a trick." The Captain says. "Pan wants us to keep you."
"She's not lying." Emma jumps in.
"She doesn't need to." The Captain interrupts. "She has magic, she has been tricking us this whole time."
"I've got the power to deceive." I tell them. "I can't control it really. I only know combat, can sometimes pull things out of thin air, and I know how to lie. He's right. I've been tricking you this whole time."
"We don't need her help." The Captain counters
"I'm not willing to risk Henry just by sending her back. Then she will definitely tell everyone what is going to happen." Emma argues.
I'm not willing to risk my family for this. These people, I've tried to help them, and they won't accept it. Not that it matters all that much. The only reason I came here was to help Pan, and if I go back to the camp and Henry sees me, this will all be for nothing.
Still, I don't want to see a war. Pan will die without the boy's heart, but I can't care anymore.
I reach into my chest, and pull out my heart. My shoulders heave as I offer it forward to Emma, but at the sight of the mixture of red and black, she recoils.
"Take it, I mean no harm."
"Put it back Charlotte." Mary Margaret steps closer to me, with David on her arm.
"Take it." I tell them.
"This isn't how trust is built." David says.
I shake my head. "I don't have time for trust. You are taking it, or you are leaving it."
She stares at the heart for a second, and I watch as her hand grips tightly. Unsure if she should take it. I wouldn't trust me either, so I'm not mad that she is struggling. Although, I am literally holding my life in front of her face, offering it to her.
"If you want to help us, go back to your camp." She instructs. "Keep us safe from that side."
I lower my hand, looking across their faces. Mary Margaret and David looked restrained but say nothing all the same. Unlike them, the Captain and Emma seem very mad.
My eyes meet Neal, and I see the pity in his face. He was a Lost Boy. He knows what goes on behind those walls. There is no way he doesn't know I am laying myself up for the slaughter. I just hope Pan isn't listening.
"Sending her back there is killing her." It's him who speaks and no one answers his silence.
He is right, and we all know it. There's nothing I have left, and I've had a good run during all of this.
I shrug. "It's alright. I'll go."
~~~~
I'm constantly publishing early. Hope nobody minds.
I'm excited for Charlie to go back to the camp. Everything is culminating now.
Until Monday, stay safe.