Peter wrinkled his nose. There was an uneasy feeling in his stomach and the sickening suspicion that he had again forgotten something significant. Irritated, his gaze slid over Smee and Mullins, turned to concern at the sight of Sitara, then swung back to annoyance. He could not allow himself to be distracted or hoodwinked now.
"Save your lies, Hook!" he hissed, therefore.
Hook's beard twitched as his lips pulled the smirking grin further apart.
"Oh, it's no lie and no trick," Hook spoke with bottomless smugness. He smeared each word with black venom, pronouncing it stretched and pleasurable as if it were the sweetest nectar.
"An old friend of both of us was kind enough to give me directions"; Hook's eyes flashed maliciously at this, and Sitara's gaze went to Hook, eyes widened and full of terrible forebodings ... that were to come true.
"It took a little convincing... but she proved most accommodating. She told me everything. About your thirst for revenge, the pretty star at your side..."
He glanced at Sitara before the glowing dots fixed on Peter again. The dull light from them cast eerie shadows in the rotted features of pale flesh.
"She told me about this place. And about how you would warn the filthy savages about us ..."
Hook reached into his coat pocket, and immediately Peter's muscles tensed. What dirty tricks had the stinking stockfish cooked up now! His heartbeat tightened and drummed restlessly.
Was it a gun? Was Hook going to shoot at him again?
Peter tried to reckon with everything, already planning evasive possibilities. Perhaps he could hide behind the vines and roots and approach unseen?
But when Hook raised his hand, all color drained from Peter's features, and his mouth went dry.
Between the long, musty fingers lay Tinkerbell's pale and limp body. The little fairy looked terrible, her light almost entirely extinguished. Her hair was stringy and caked with golden blood - HER blood, for the delicate wings, had been torn from her back. Her head hung limply on her body, swaying powerlessly from side to side as Hook moved, and Tink seemed barely able to keep her eyes open. The ringing from her was so quiet that even Sitara could scarcely hear it, although she was much closer than Peter.
Peter could only see the state of the fairy, the dying glow, and recognized his friend immediately. At that moment, his features slipped away. All good intentions, his caution, and all his thoughts glided from his imaginary grasp and shattered like glass on the rock.
"I'm afraid your warning won't reach the savages..." purred Hook like a cat demonstrating its superiority over a mouse in a game it had already won. "The rest of my men will see to it thoroughly that this plague is wiped from the face of the island," he assured, twirling Tink in his hands as if still pondering the usefulness of his source of information.
"Be that as it may," the pirate made a throwing-away motion with his hook-handed hand, "let us return to our negotiation. I want the star ... and you don't seem to take me seriously enough."
Hook formed a feigned pout, then turned his hand and dropped the fairy from his hands like trash.
Her tiny body dropped like a stone and hit the hard stone floor in front of the pirate. Gasping, the little creature jerked and rolled to the side, obviously fighting faintness and pain. The little fairy sounded heartbreaking as she reached for Peter's help, and her face was soaked with tears and despair.
"Hook ... wait! Please!" yelped Sitara, but the captain did not heed the star's plea.
Instead, Hook placed his boot over her, his gaze on Peter's face as he pressed the hardened leather sole deeper.
"I'm afraid you leave me no choice, Pan, but to emphasize my point."
YOU ARE READING
When Stars Fall
Action** When a wish brings devastating consequences, Pan must join forces with a fallen star to stop the walking dead before Neverland sinks into eternal darkness. ** "We can sail away tonight on a sea of pure moonlight We can navigate the stars to b...
