A Neverland Tale - HOOKED (eng)

Chapter 1.6 - Capt. J. Hook

Hooks POV

For a little while, he simply listened to what was happening outside the captain's cabin. Sabres and swords clanged against each other, screams rumbled through the darkness beneath cold steel, and clothes tore over vulnerable skin. How much order there was in this hopeless chaos. Hearing a pattern run through the disorder on deck.... gave Hook the strength to keep a clear head. Almost always. Where others lost track of what was going on and threw their hands up in despair at the sudden desire to be somewhere else... he faced the confusion fearlessly. Ah, the struggle was what had ultimately kept him alive all these years.
The little bit of tension that it planted under his skin when metal hit metal and two fiery hateful glances crossed each other. There was the faint hint of death in the air like a familiar smell, nuances he had smelled too many times to truly be bothered by. The adrenaline and pain of injury. At the same time, the honeyed taste of triumph, of victory, and on the other side of the coin, the bitter settlement of loss and defeat. Everything is condensed into the second of the fight. The breath in which everything and nothing was decided. For a split second, one carried one's bare life in one's own hands as never before. It was perhaps the only freedom that no one could take away.

James Hook took a deep breath and raised his sword a little higher, while the young man in front of him was trying to shift his weight slowly backwards to get out of the reach of the deadly blade. Did he think Hook wouldn't notice the kid's blue eyes darting past him...? looking at him and then looking for a way to escape? A way out to escape the fate the boy had inevitably met? Neverland had always possessed its cruel irony. A delicious poison that came at a high price to laugh at. Insidiously it ate through the minds of men until every morbid kind of conscience was destroyed and deadened like physical pain with the alluring morphine. The boy too would have to learn this lesson - his life or morals, he could not keep either. But it would never come to that, for before he could stick that innocent nose into any more things that were none of his business, James would thrust his sabre into his chest. The simple equation of animalistic laws of nature, the strong eats the weak.

"Ah... can you tell?" (...) "That I don't stink as much as the others, or that I'm so eerily clean, has betrayed me am I right?" (-Luke)

Was the pathetic specimen of a child trying to serve up his humour as a distraction? Hook tilted his head, looking at this... amazingly composed bundle of rags trying so valiantly to hide his fear, and something stirred inside him. An inkling that this boy didn't seem to be as whole as the other lost ones. He fidgeted less, didn't plead for mercy, hadn't insulted the captain once so far, and didn't trip over his own feet in fear. Thoughtfully, he regarded the fellow without replying, allowing the seconds agonising space to spread their full uncertainty in the petite limbs.
Lots of words, lots of phrases... trying to stall for time, talk his way out of it, or maybe just distract him? James had no intention of taking any of the chatter seriously. The only reason he hadn't stabbed yet was the fact that blood didn't wash very well from red brocade and he cared enough about his coat that he wanted to save it from that fate. But finally, a small grain of sand in the fellow's words swayed him - a lesson he might want to take to his grave before Hook slit his throat.

"How I could tell? It's the way you look at me, boy. You got... no respect." he clarified thoughtfully, meanwhile taking a menacing step towards the child, lowering his sabre slightly. His cloak, meanwhile, was closed into a tight embrace as if it were a shield against the relentless kiss of the sharpened steel. But the red fabric would not protect the boy... Not for long.
Even if his blood soaked the coat, at least he would understand what it meant to play for his life. This was Neverland. A game so fun and easy that one didn't notice when others were left behind or lost in the process. A unique plant that dissolved sweetly and delicately like sugar on the tongue... but no one considered how quickly it could kill. One immediately wanted more of all this freedom - Neverland intoxicated one's senses and amidst the howls of a large group, one felt called to great adventures after only a little coaxing. It was so easy to win a child's heart.