The pirate slashed at the boy with his sword, forcing him to either be sliced open, or jump backward and off the plank into the water.
The boy tried to split the difference and lean backwards instead. He slipped. Wailing in fear, he hung there for a split second?—
And then fell.
Sasha ran forward to the railing, leaning over, her heart in her throat. She prayed to see no break in the water—expected to see Peter sailing up into the sky, having caught the boy.
For a moment, that reality played itself out in her mind.
But the sight that greeted her over the railing was anything but a last minute rescue.
Pirates cheered and shouted.
The surface of the ocean was a spray of foam and crimson and the flash of crocodile tail and teeth.
Vhmmmmmm—SNAP!
She knew the boy hadn’t been dead when he’d felt the crocodile teeth bite into him. Not like the mermaid. Not this time.
No.
No, she couldn’t do this. She just couldn’t.
Turning from the railing she took a few staggering, broken steps away from the scene and laced her fingers into her hair.
Hook came up beside her, placing his hand on her back. “Breathe.”
Panic quickly overwhelmed her.
They aren’t real. They aren’t real. Just characters in a book. Just NPCs in a video game. You kill them all the time, don’t you?She was shaking.
Was she going to pass out? Holy shit, she might actually pass out.
The world was doing that…fuzzy tunnel vision thing.
Her hands and feet were starting to tingle.
The sound of shouting children and laughing pirates, the splashing of people being thrown to crocodiles all sounded far away. It was easy to ignore it, to pretend it was just a movie or a summer game being played a mile away through a field.
Strong arms circled her. Pulled her against a chest that smelled of roses and old books. A voice, close to her ear, urged her quietly back to reality.“Breathe,Sasha. With me. In.” She felt the chest beside her expand.
Pulling in a shuddering breath, she felt things start to snap back into place. Groaning, she lowered her head.
“There you are. Almost lost you for a moment.” Hook loosened his arms around her, before turning her chin up to look at him with the crook of a finger. “This is precisely why we’re starting small, do you see?”
Nodding, she didn’t trust herself to form words. She understood. Shooting pixels on a screen was one thing. Watching people die in an experience that was, for all intents and purposes, entirely real? Very different. Even if they didn’t have a soul behind them—if souls were real. The jury was apparently still out on that.
“Good. Now.” He took a step back away from her. “Pick the next one to die.”
“Oh, come on.”She shot him a glare again. She figured she’d be doing that a lot. “Are you serious?”
“Very. And do it eyes open this time, hm?” He gestured at the array of children. “And go on. Double time. We don’t have all day.”
Taking in a deep breath, she held it for a second, before letting it out in a rush. Great. Fantastic. Awesome. Cringing, she picked one of the older children that time, having learned from her mistake. When he was walked to his death, she didn’t rush to the railing to watch the crocodile eat his next meal.
“Again.” Hook was watching her with a smile on his face that wasn’t cruel, or sick. Or even sadistic. It wasn’t even amused. She couldn’t put a name to the expression at first—and when it hit her, it didn’t make any sense at all.
Fondness.
