“What?” Sasha blinked as if snapping out of a thought. Then grimaced. “Ew, no.”
“Good. Just checking.”
Hook cut back into their conversation. “Let’s do this, then. A bitof an amendment to my game, since I make the rules. Whichever side wins this story picks the next one. Then, we’ll alternate.”
“Well, seeing as Peter Pan always wins, I better start thinking,” Sidney gloated. “He’ll be along any second now to rescue us all and feed you to that horrible crocodile.”
Hook spun to face them, smiling in a way that promised only mayhem. “We shall see.”
Sasha couldn’t shakethe feeling that something was wrong.
Very, very wrong. Hook—Vile—was scheming. She wracked her brain for everything she remembered about the ending to the original book. Wendy and the Lost Boys were all abducted and brought on board—check. That was where they were now.
Hook would then try to convince the Lost Boys into joining the pirates—or at least some of them—or threaten them with walking the plank. It was then, when it seemed all hope was lost, that Peter would sneak aboard with what was the clock from the crocodile, terrifying Captain Hook and scattering the pirates.
In the confusion, Peter would pick off the pirates until Hook would send the Lost Boys down to confront what he believed to be a monster who had taken over the hold of the ship, only to play into Peter’s hands.
There would be a showdown, one that Hook would lose, and it would result in him being fed to the real crocodile, no longer ticking, who lurked in the water waiting for his prey, just below the plank of the ship.
But ifsheknew how it all went, certainlyhedid, too.
“Mr. Smee.” Hook turned to her, lifting his chin, a faint smile that promised nothing good on his face. “Pick.”
This was definitely nothing good. “Pick what?”
He gestured at the line of tied-up teenagers. “Who dies first, of course!”
“Um.” She stared at him blankly. “I’m sorry. What?”
“You really must get your hearing checked. Come here, Mr. Smee.” He chuckled as if it were all just a harmless misunderstanding. “So I needn’t shout.” He waved her over with his hook. “Miss Wendy will not leap overboard in your absence, I am sure.”
Letting out a quiet groan, she let go of Sidney’s hand and walked up to Hook, feeling like she was walking up to the school principal after showing up late to detention.
“My dear Mr. Smee.” He placed the agonizingly sharp point of his hook against the underside of her chin, lifting it so that she was forced to make eye contact with him. “My boon companion.” He lowered his voice to a deep, dusky growl as he pressed his hook just a little harder against her skin, causing her to wince in pain. “You really must get with the program.”
When he finally relented, lowering the hook from her chin, she was shaking.
“Y—yeah. S—sorry.” It wasn’t a vague threat. It was a very clear one.Start playing along. Or else.“They’re not real.” Squeezing her eyes shut, she muttered the words to herself. “They’re just—just extras in a movie. They’re not real. NPCs in a video game.”
“Whatever you say, dear.” He patted her on the shoulder and walked away. “Pick, Mr. Smee.”
Eyes still shut, she pointed at random toward where she knew the crowd of Lost Boys was tied up. She didn’t want to know.
“Hah! What an evil choice. Let them watch the youngest die first.” Hook laughed. “You always had a cruel streak in you, Mr. Smee.”
“What?”She whirled. Sure enough, she had pointed at achild.The kid had to be no more than seven. He was cowering, wide-eyed, staring at her with a doe-eyedhow could youlook that made her want to crumble.
But she’d put money down that no matter where she’d pointed, that’d be who she would have wound up pointing at. Because she might have picked the cup, but he was the one controlling where the ball was.
She shut her eyes again. It didn’t matter. The kid wasn’t real.Just a character on a page. Just a personality written down in a novel by a dead man a century prior. If that. She wasn’t even sure. Maybe she’d just made him up on the spot—she had no clue.
The pirates were shouting and laughing, jeering at the child. When someone grabbed her by the upper arm and yanked her forward, forcing her to open her eyes, she wasn’t shocked to see it was Hook.
He pulled her forward and spun her to watch as the pirates marched the small child toward the plank.
The boy was crying. Weeping. “I want my mommy?—”
“I want my mommy!”One of the pirates cried back at him in a high pitched voice, cackling in laughter.
