A Neverland Tale - HOOKED (eng)

Chapter 3.4 - Capt. J. Hook

Both were breathing heavily, staring at each other, and yet the expressions on their faces could not have been more different. Hook's eyes still glowed with something like... anger that was only slowly fading, like a long-dormant volcano. But the boy - ha, James would have bet a chest full of gold that his knees were shaking. Well, James was wrong... because as before in the cabin, Luke didn't lower his eyes, but stared at Hook as if to reproach him. For not running away fast enough? Hrmph. It took James a few seconds to catch his breath, but the blabbermouth used it more or less skillfully than he had thought. Instead of begging for his life, proposing a deal, or making futile attempts to escape, as James expected from any other of his kind...

"Why?" (...) "WHAT is it about the coat that makes you want to track me to HERE and kill me for it, Hook?" (...) "You pierced the mantle without hesitation, tore it apart... And yet you pursue me like a bloodhound for it." (...) "WHAT is it about the coat that makes everyone want it? What makes it so special?" (...) "Why should I die for it? I have the right to at least know, don't I?" 
(-Luke)

The ensuing silence stretched as James seriously pondered the question. On the one hand, he has increasingly preoccupied with the thought that this fellow was not like a normal lost person to be, and on the other hand...
What is Luke dying for?
Oh, James never killed for no reason and normally he would have had a thousand answers for that. Not the least of which was that this was about a thieving snot under Pan's command. Hook actually took a while, and while his chest was still rising and falling in deep breaths, he hummed thoughtfully.
At the thought of slitting the boy's throat, he felt something like... remorse. Wouldn't it be a waste to kill this fellow? Young, still barely influenced by the other brats, and maybe actually malleable enough to have his view tipped a bit? However, such a wiry thing didn't have it easy anywhere and the fact that he had stolen Hook's coat had to have consequences. Because the respect of the crew, the fear of his enemies, or simply the status that James Hook had by now, was not earned by inconsistency and injustice. As strange as it may sound coming from a pirate, fair treatment for criminals was important under any flag. No matter if a skull and crossbones adorned it or not. Whoever dared to steal his coat - no matter if he was a lost man, a native, or even a pirate - had to answer for it... in front of no one less than himself.

In a place as depraved as Neverland, one had to set clear signs. People were full of greed, only willing to take and never willing to give. Some had already unlearned it, and others never really knew how. Whoever did not earn respect here sank like a stone in the water. You had to earn your reputation, in Hook's case by stabbing, punching, and killing... but also his intelligence and unique sense of strategy made him something... special.

And every day, the island took its toll on that. Not just from him, every woman and man, every being in Neverland paid him... whether willingly or not. So they all stained their hands with blood. Some killed only when they had to, others didn't care, and a few might even find pleasure in it. Not James, he didn't enjoy the sight of eyes going out, nor the smell of death and despair... but some things had already blackened his soul enough to look past small deaths on the sidelines. Stones to the sides of a path were so stained with shards and blood that a few more stains were barely noticeable.
Maybe that's why it took him a while to find the right words. Because of Luke's innocence, the naive thought that there was a higher purpose for which he would breathe his last... didn't fit at all into the image James had of the lost. They joked, eventually the laughter faded, then they begged, some became angry and yet could not suppress their despair. Tears, pleas, naked fear of survival... James knew all of this in its colorless facets and he had come to expect it from Luke as well.