Page 23 of The Last Lost Girl

“It shouldn’t. He’s a wretched cook.” Hook smiles affectionately even as he teases his friend.

The giant man shrugs. “Never said I was the best, but I can manage a sandwich, if you’d like.” He looks at me and patiently awaits my refusal or acceptance.

“A sandwich would be great – after I clean all this off me.” I look down at my bloodstained shirt, desperately wishing they had a shower instead of a tub. Glancing toward the Captain’s quarters, I wonder if that’s where the tub is, or if it’s in the belly of the ship. Will I have any privacy at all? The front and sides of the Captain’s generous room hold three broad windows, each with a grid of warmly-tinted, warped glass, which doesn’t leave me with a whole lot of confidence.

Belle used to enjoy watching television shows that showcased the finest homes in the world. Houses that had seven-car, marble-floored garages. But it was their bathrooms she scrutinized. If the house didn’t have a walk-in shower with water flowing from a waterfall and blasting from a dozen different showerheads in as many directions, she would sniff at the lack of quality and find something else to watch instead. Not that we have anything more than drywall, a plastic tub insert, and a cheap, half-clogged head with scaly mineral deposits that even vinegar and holy water can’t dissolve.

The man warily scans Hook. Because he carried me, his dark clothes are glossed with Wraith’s blood, too. “What exactly happened ashore?”

Hook juts his chin toward me. “Wraith was about to take her to Pan.”

The giant blows out an unsettled breath and attempts to offer me a reassuring smile that looks more like a grimace. “I’m glad you intervened before he could.”

Hook sighs and scrubs a hand down his face. “Pan sensed her and saw her enter the skiff with me. He’ll do everything in his power to draw her back onto Neverland’s soil now.”

The mermaid on the bow screeches like she’s interjecting something important into the conversation. She chatters a tight pattern of noises that sound like words strung together into sentences.

Her staccato ravings escalate until Hook marches to the bow and threatens to spill her guts into the murky water. But as soon as he returns to his giant friend and is out of her sight, she starts anew – quieter, more tentatively, but still insistent.

When the men stroll farther onto the ship and lean closer to speak in one another’s confidence, the mermaid doesn’t stop or even slow her words. It’s like she knows I’m there and I can still hear her.

I desperately wish I could understand her or communicate with her so she could tell me how to free her. Because this might be Hook’s ship, but I can’t just stand by and watch her be tortured and starved to death. Hunger hollows her every feature.

Eight days…

I wonder if I can strike a bargain with her. If I free her, will she take me to the shore? Or would that chiseling hunger cut away at any noble effort she might make to keep her word to me? I shudder at the thought of her serrated teeth tearing into my skin.

Without thinking, I shift my weight and sharp pain lances through my damaged foot. This cursed injury complicates everything. I push my hair away from my face and stare toward the shore as the sun turns the shallows to crystal.

I don’t hear the pirate approach, but Hook suddenly leans against the rail in front of me, blocking my view of the shoreline. “Tell me, Lifeguard, why do you look like you’re considering jumping ship and swimming to Neverland despite the fact that you’ll die within moments of splashing into the water?”

“You don’t know that,” I argue.

He laughs. “Oh, that much I know for sure.”

“Maybe I’m looking at that island despite the dangers because it seems like I might be safer there.”

He licks his bottom lip. “Are you afraid of me?”

Of course I am! I shriek inwardly. Instead I answer, “You killed someone, then kidnapped me.”

“To save your life,” he hisses between pearly teeth.

“You… pin mermaids to your ship.”

He has no retort for that and shows zero remorse.

I narrow my eyes. “You only saved my life to keep me from Pan until you can figure out why he wants me. And by the way, if you learn why, can you let me know?”

He fumes, “I don’t for a second believe you’re ignorant of the reason.”

“Believe what you want!” I snap.

He leans forward, his hand and hook digging into the sides of my barrel, effectively caging me in. “Pan is coming for you, and I don’t give a damn why he wants you. That he does is more than enough reason to keep you from him. I’m more than ready for him.”

Anger pours from him. His chest swells and crashes like an angry wave is trapped inside it. And for a long moment, he stays uncomfortably close, looking intently into my eyes.

“Why didn’t you just meet him on the shore, then?”

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