HOOKed

What is this place?

I'd like to think I could describe my first flight. You think that's something a person would remember. Flying through the air, thousands of feet above a city, while holding on to your little brother and a psychopath that can fly seems like it would be memorable. But all I really remember is holding on tightly to Michael and the boy holding on tightly to him, while the boy tried to kick me off a few times before he finally gave up and laughed maniacally while everyone held on.

I don't remember much else. Other than I vomited a few times and the boy got even madder and told me I'd pay for that.

I'm not sure how long we flew or where we fly. I still wasn't sure how we were even flying. I assumed I must be dead. Having hit my head when a firefly knocked me down and this was some weird thing my brain was doing as it gasped its last gasp.

Nothing else made sense about any of this.

We flew and we flew and I was getting weak with exhaustion and fear when I realized we were breaking through the clouds. We were coming down and I could see an ocean that went on for miles and miles in all directions and right in the middle sat an island. There was a large mountain right in the center with smaller mountains surrounding it, giving way to hills then beaches at the island ran toward the ocean. It was covered with forests and the beaches were beautiful white sand and the water of the ocean was the most beautiful turquoise color. To one side was a large bay where a huge pirate ship was docked.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

Where were we? Certainly not anywhere I had ever been.

We were flying fast and getting lower and lower and I started to fear we were going to crash. The boy flew straight for the woods and Michael and I squeezed each other. He pulled up right before hitting the ground and dropped us. We hit hard and rolled in the dust. I laid there for a few seconds letting the pain slowly ebb away.

I heard noises all around us and lifted my head. Michael was up and perfectly still. John was standing before me with his hands on his hips. Surrounded by about twenty other boys.

"Isn't this amazing!" he yelled. "This is so cool!"

I looked around and all the boys were younger than John, some even younger than Michael. They were all dressed in ratty, torn clothes and only a few had shoes on. I could smell them as a whole and I'm not sure there was enough soap in the world to cut through the stink.

"Where are we?" I asked, lifting getting myself to my feet, with not even one of the louts offering to help a lady up.

"This is Neverland," John declared. "Peter told us all about it in our room, and now we're here."

My mouth fell open. "Where?"

John sighed in exasperation. "Neverland, Wendy. A place where boys don't grow up. Peter told us all about it and now he's brought us here and we'll have the best time."

"Who the fuck is Peter?" I said grabbing John's shirt. All of the boys gasped at once.

I guess they'd never heard a curse word before. They would one day look back at the moment the girl was dropped to the ground by a flying kidnapper as the moment they heard all the curse words. Ever. I was getting madder by the second.

"What!," I yelled at he closest boy.

He looked down at the dirt like he was embarrassed for me. Little brat.

"Peter," John said. "Peter Pan. The boy who brought us here. Remember."

Oh, I remembered. I let go of John and started looking for that little shit. I scanned the faces of all the boys, but none were him.

"Where is he!" I yelled. All of the boys took a step back.

"Do shut up," I heard the boy called Peter Pan say from behind me. "You're being very annoying."

I let go of my brother's shirt and whirled around to face him. "Annoying? You flew us to some strange island and I'm annoying." I threw my hand out to slap it and he caught it and jerked my arm down forcing me to turn around while he wrenched my arm up to my back. Then he kicked me in the butt and let go when I flew face down into the dirt.

All of the boys cheered. My face flushed with red and I tried to get my feet under me, but Peter Pan flew to me very fast and put his dagger in my face.

"Do be quiet," he said. "Or I shall kill you. And I would think that would disappoint your brothers, who happen to look like good fighters and I need good fighters to help me in the fight against the pirates. They would probably complain, so I would have to kill them too. I would really dislike doing that."

I looked into his cold blue eyes and saw a void. He was void of emotions. Void of everything.

I didn't say anything.

Peter Pan nodded and stood up and raised his arms. "See," he said, "girls aren't as stupid as they seem."

The boys cheered this. I stood up and spit the dirt from my mouth and brushed my clothes off. I dawned on me that I was wearing my pajamas and no bra. I crossed my arms in front of me.

I was about to ask the boy to please take us home when the firefly flew around the crowd then buzzed my head a few times. I swatted at it to shoo it away.

"Hey!" I heard a high pitched voice say. "Stop doing that!"

I looked around at the faces of all the boys staring at me to see who had spoken. Something sharp grabbed my ear and twisted it.

"And don't think I don't know what you're doing," the high-pitched voice said again.

"Oww," I squealed and slapped at my ear. I felt a sharp stinging in my hand like I had been poked. I looked at my hand and there was a drop of blood on my finger.

Then I heard a high-pitched laughing. "I told you to stop doing that." The firefly buzzed away from me and all the boys were laughing as I sucked my bleeding finger.

"That's Tink," Peter Pan told me. "Don't mess with her." He gave me a stern look as if I had started it.

I wanted to cry. This place. This boy and his firefly thingy that stabbed people. What kind of nightmare was I having.

"I just want to go home," I moaned.

Peter Pan stood before me and looked at me. He was incredibly young. I was shocked at how young he looked.  And how mean.

"Nobody leaves, unless I say they can," he said. "And since there's no one else to do it, you will take care of us."

I was shocked. "Take care of you? What do you mean?"

Peter smirked. "You will wash our clothes, repair them, cook our meals, things like that. We had a mother before, but she tried to escape." He shrugged as he said this like everyone knew what happened when you tried to escape.

I saw some of the little boys' shutter at the thought of what had happened to their previous caretaker.

"Please," I said in a voice that sounded more whiney than I had intended. "let us go home. John, Michael, and me. We won't tell anyone."

John piped up from the crowd. "I don't want to go home. This is an adventure."

I looked at Michael who looked as scared as I did.

"No," Peter said. "You will take care of us."

He glared at me as he flew away.