Lost Boys of London [EN]

Chapter 9 - Wendy

„One girl is more use than twenty boys."

- Peter Pan, JM Barrie - 

By now, nobody was in the streets of Westminster, for it was as well past three in the morning. It had started to rain, everything seemed even gloomier, and the rumbling of thunder in the sky reflected the mood inside Hook.
The doctor in the hospital had given him opium to ease the pain. Whether he would ever be able to use his hand again would remain to be seen. His body was, therefore, just as weighted and heavy as his thoughts.

As James Hook climbed the stairs to his home, only the living room light was still on behind the curtains. His wife was sitting in her rocking chair in front of the fireplace, knitting. When he entered, her face offered him first relief at seeing her husband return home, then the rising anger he had been expecting.

"James Hook, do you realize that it has already struck the third hour?!" her voice reached his ears, muffled yet full of loving resentment. There was nothing more terrifying and, at the same time, more enchanting than the fury of his wife.

"I know, darling," said the usually stoic captain, ashamed in the face of female displeasure. His shoulders heaved, if that was possible, and instantly sank lower.

His wife's features softened as he stepped up to her rocker and leaned in to place first a kiss on the corner of her mouth and then another on her large, round belly.

When his wife saw the injured hand, her expression turned to worry.
"James! What happened?!" She rose cumbersomely from the chair and carefully fumbled for the sleeve of his coat, wet from the rain, to help him take it off.

"Pan," he remarked, his voice full of frustration and resignation. "We almost caught him."

"James." His wife's soft hands laid against his cheeks and stroked his always neatly trimmed beard. "You're going to get lost in this case. You're gone for nights and days, returning home late. Your daughter hasn't seen you for days." she whispered softly, and James felt the weight of this truth upon his shoulders.

"Children grow up far too quickly. We miss you. You're James too. Not just Captain Hook." she reminded him.

"I know." he quietly uttered, and with a sigh, he placed a kiss on the inside of her palms. "Come. Let's go to bed. It's getting late."

He knew that his wife was right. His thoughts were constantly circling around Pan and this case. How he could capture him and finally put a stop to his crimes.
James Hook ran his fingers through his dark curls. A strange, restless feeling settled in his gut. The corridor lay there in peaceful darkness. The big grandfather clock ticked in the parlor, and the moonlight fell through the gap between the nursery door and the hallway.

James stopped in front of the door. Carefully and quietly, he put his hand on the doorknob for as not to wake his daughter and then slowly pushed it open a little further.
Was he mistaken and already imagining things, or had he just heard a noise?

"Wendy?" James asked quietly into the silence of the night, "Darling?"

At that moment, he felt the cold draft that entered the room through the opened window as it swept across his face. His heartbeat picked up instantly, and he became petrified.

Something rolled out of the darkness, tumbling against his boot. James' gaze dropped to what lay before his feet in the dull light of the moon, casting a dark shadow:

An acorn.

- The End ? -