Page 114 of Freeing Hook

“You’d be surprised at how good I am with kids,” says the woman.

“I thought you said you didn’t have any siblings.”

The girl pauses, but without seeing her face, I can’t surmise why. “Growing up in the…circles that I did,” she says, “well, there were other children who needed looking after. It takes time to adjust to the idea that you’ve been snatched out of your perfectly good life. Even for the kids who were plucked from the streets. You would think they would have liked being fed, but it came at a cost. They no longer had any agency about where they would go, who they’d see and serve. No way out.”

This time, it’s Peter who pauses. “I see what you’re trying to do.”

“Whatever do you mean?” says the woman, playing coy. I can almost see her batting her eyelashes in my mind’s eye.

“You think the boys will have a difficult time adjusting to their new home.”

New home? I frown. The Lost Boys have been in Neverland for…well, I can’t even figure out how long. None of them seem to have any sense of time about them, and I figured it was just this place. But the way they talk about it, you would have thought the Lost Boys had been here for years.

“The possibility hasn’t crossed your mind?” she asks.

Peter launches into an explanation that sounds rather rehearsed. “They didn’t have any dreams back at the orphanage. Not ones that could ever hope to be fulfilled. Their dreams were to get through the night without an unwelcome visit from the warden. So no, I’m not too concerned that they’ll have a dreadful time now that they’re here. All they had to look forward to was being thrown out into the street, then hanging from a noose. That’s where they were headed.”

“Still. It’s the idea that they can never leave…”

“Is this about the boys never being able to leave,” Peter asks, “or you never being able to leave?”

The girl snorts. “Peter, don’t be childish. You know I’d follow you to the ends of the earth. You’re my home. But yes, if you must know, the part about being secluded from the rest of the world wasn’t a feature I would have selected if it were up to me.”

“Then why’d you bother coming?” The familiar apathy in Peter’s voice is back.

“Because I love you. You know that.” There’s hurt in the girl’s response. Something desperate that I haven’t yet been able to detect underneath the general strength of her disposition. “Because I love you, and you love these boys.”

“You’re sure it has nothing to do with me getting you out from underneath the hand of your master?” Peter says, infusinghis question with a carefree lilt. Like he thinks teasing her will negate his defensive response. “And now you’re thinking maybe you should have run off when you got the chance?”

The girl must sense the truth behind his question, because she softens. “Peter. All I’ve wanted my entire life was to run. To see the world. And then you waltzed into my life, looking like the world was yours for the taking. And then I realized the world was there in front of me. You held it in your pockets. I just hoped perhaps you would share. No, if I had everything my way, we wouldn’t be secluded on this island from the rest of the world. But it’s not as if anyone else ever treated me like I was worth any more than the dirt underneath their feet.”

“There’s no use in thinking of them ever again. I don’t want you thinking of anyone else, Tink.”

Tink?

My mind sputters to a halt on her name. Strange, it should sound familiar, for how often it wriggles itself into my mind, how often I turn it over and examine it.

But on Peter’s lips it sounds foreign. Tainted.

I hate myself for the venom that excretes into my stomach, the jealousy that climbs my throat. I should be angry on behalf of my sister, and of course I am.

But I’m upset for myself. Almost to the point of petulance.

I can’t help but think of Tink’s flirtations in the cave—more than that, her insistence that she couldn’t speak. Anger rages within me when I consider how I thought she’d better understand Michael than most people. How I’d used my and his language to connect with her, invited her into my world and his.

And it had just been a game to her.

No, that isn’t logical. I’m sure she’s working an angle of some sort, probably for Peter. I’m not sure what she could possiblywant from me. Perhaps she’s simply tasked with throwing me off of Peter’s trail.

Something sours in my gut. If Peter and Tink have been working together this entire time, what did they do to Wendy?

My sister has always been strange. Not in personality, but in her affinity for darkness, despite her sweet demeanor. Something about that has always gnawed at me. The Sister had wanted her, back when she made the bargain with my parents. But she must have had her reasons, and I can’t help but believe it has something to do with Wendy’s infatuation with the shadows.

What have they done with her?

No. I shake my head, reminding myself that my feelings are lying to me, distracting me so that I miss important details, wander off on side roads and forgo the logical path.

There’s something strange about what I heard. The way Tink seems so confident that they’ve only just gotten to Neverland.

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