HOOKed

Dear Reader...

Dear Reader,

I know what you've heard. That wonderful bedtime story. The one about a boy who never grows up and lives in a land where everything is magic and the only thing ruining things is a mean old pirate.

The pirate. Supposedly a vengeful, deceitful character who just can't let things go, who will stop at nothing to harm an innocent boy.

Well brace yourself. Because all of that is, quite frankly, utter bullshit.

Oh, there is a boy. And there is a pirate. And there is a pixie or fairy or something flying around giving the boy the power to fly. Those things are true.

And the boy did cut off the pirate's hand. That is also true.

But nothing else is true.

The boy isn't nice. And neither is the fairy.

You see they kidnapped me. And that's the least of their crimes.

What you've heard, what you've been told, is just a story to make Neverland sound appealing. Stories made up so little boys will want to join up with the Lost Boys and defeat the evil Captain Hook.

But there are secrets in Neverland. Secrets he doesn't want you to know.

What secrets, you ask.

For starters, the secrets about Captain Hook.

Oh, he's a captain alright, and he's got a hook instead of a hand. Those aren't secrets.

The secret is that I loved Captain Hook. He was a good man. And the boy took him from me.

But that evil boy doesn't want you to know the truth.

The boy doesn't want you to know the truth about himself, the truth about Hook, the truth about me, and definitely not the truth about Neverland. The truth that once he brings you to Neverland, he won't let you leave.

But I'll tell you all about Neverland. Starting with the biggest secret of all.

I'm going to kill Peter Pan.

-Wendy Darling