She knew that it was actually Virtue in there, playing a role,standing on stage, expecting her to do the same. But she didn’t know her goddamn lines. She smiled, nervously. “Yeah. I’m all right. Just—worried.”
“The pirates won’t find us in here.” His smile was beaming with pride. “This is mysecrethideout and they’llneverfind it.”
She really didn’t have the heart to tell him.
Besides, how did that work? Could she spoil the ending? Was she allowed to change the ending? Wasn’t that the point of what she and Sasha were supposed to do?
Would it even work if they tried?
“It’s a wonderful hideout.” Sidney felt like the worst actress in the world. And she probably was. “I don’t—geh!”She yelped and swiped at a giant insect that whipped up to her face.
Only the insect was glowing.
“Sweet Jesus mother of fucking Christ on a shitting pogo stick—” Ducking, she took another swipe at the thing as it angrily buzzed at her again. “What kind of fucked up super-insects do they have on this —”
Peter was laughing. Hard. But it wasn’t the laugh of Peter Pan, it was the laugh of Virtue. “I don’t think Wendy would swear like that.”
“Wendy’s not the one getting buzzed by a fuckin’ angry F-14!” Sidney managed to smack the insect, sending it flying into a tree. She straightened back up, glaring at the glowing insect now that she’d managed to get some distance from it.
There, clinging to the tree, holding her little head and rubbing her temple, was a very angry andverynaked glowing pixie.
The pixie glared at her. Then flipped her off.
Huh. That part wasn’t in the book.
“You’re changing it. Just by being here. If you swear, so will they. If you want this to be more of a mature story, they’ll be more mature. If you’re more modern, they’ll be more modern.” Virtue-as-Peter walked up to her, smiling at her with an amused and strangely hopeful expression. “You’re one of the authors, now.”
“So Tinker Bell’s naked and angry because I made her naked and angry.” Sidney furrowed her brow. That didn’t make any sense.
“Kind of? It’s…a mix. Like that cocktail you wanted.” Peter scratched the back of his head. “Part you, part the original story, part whatever Sasha is doing.”
It was like watching another actor dub over the lines for someone else. Virtue’s voice coming out of Peter Pan’s mouth. It was a little unsettling. But this whole thing was unsettling.
Tinker Bell was now spouting off at Sidney, waving her hands and yelling. Unfortunately for Tink, all her words came out just as weird little bell chimes and happy shimmery noises.
But Sidney knew she was getting cussed out, New York cab driver style. It made her snicker. “Sorry, Tinker Bell. I didn’t know it was you.”
Tink crossed her arms over her chest and let out a visibleharrumph.
Peter smiled, his voice snapping back to his own self. “I know what’ll cheer you up! We should go on anadventure!Wouldn’t that be grand? Let’s go visit the mermaids! Then, we’ll come back here and have a grand feast!”
Ah, shit. That was the part where it all went wrong, wasn’t it? The mermaids. But the smile on “Peter’s” face told her there was no dissuading him. “Y—yeah.” She smiled. “That sounds incredible.”
But part of her couldn’t help but be excited, even just a little bit.Mermaids.She was going to get to meet amermaid.
Everything that was going on was too much for her to process all at once. Being trapped in a book. A game that would likely wind up with either her or her sister dead. And the Hero of all Heroes staring at her with a boyish, lopsided, and extremely handsome smile.
But the idea of meeting a mermaid…made her wonder. Maybe this wasn’t going to be all bad.
Peter held out his hand to her. “Let’s fly.”
I’m going to get to fly…
Maybe a little adventure was just what she needed.
Sasha cameto while polishing a silver goblet. It was really disconcerting, just “waking up” like that. When the ground moved under her feet, it didn’t help matters, and she had to quickly grab onto the piece of furniture in front of her to keep from toppling over.
That meant she almost lost her grip on the silver goblet. Scrambling to grab it before it hit the ground, she caught it at the last second, letting out a breath of relief as finally everything seemed to stabilize.
