Hello, It's Mrs. Hyde

Prologue:Chapter 6: The Pirate's Fare

Jessica (Narration):
*"The world is quieter when you're alone.
The grief stops screaming, and starts whispering instead — asking you, again and again,
'Why did you leave?'
I didn't have the heart to admit it.
I hadn't left for me.
I'd left for him."*

The wind off the coast carried salt and fog, curling her hair and biting at her cheeks. Jessica stood at the edge of a moss-laced port town stitched into the cliffs beyond the boundary of the Land of Untold Stories. She could still see the mountains in the distance — the place she'd called home for nearly a year.
Now she was just another face in the mist.
She hadn't slept much. Hadn't eaten. Her thoughts moved in circles: Hyde's hand extended with the bag of money, his voice sharp with fear masquerading as command, and the way she'd walked away before she could beg him to ask her to stay.
But she'd made a choice.
And choices came with motion.
So here she stood, waiting.

The ship was impossible to miss.
Black sails that shimmered with enchantment. Wood that glinted like obsidian, runes carved just beneath the grain. And at the helm stood a man with a hook for a hand and far too much swagger for someone who was — frankly — overdressed for sea weather.
Captain Killian Jones.
"Right on time," he muttered as he eyed her, descending the plank. "You must be the one who asked for passage."
Jessica nodded. "I heard you'll take anyone. For a price."
"Not to anywhere," he corrected. "And certainly not to Neverland."
She held up a gloved hand and unwrapped a small satchel. Inside shimmered a single blood-red gemstone, faceted like glass, glowing faintly with dark energy.
Hook blinked.
"That," he said slowly, "is a soul-gem."
Jessica raised a brow. "From Wonderland. It steals youth from anyone the wielder uses it against and stores it inside the stone."
"I know what it is, love. I've had one tried on me."
"I have no use for it," she said, her tone calm but firm. "But I figured someone like Pan — someone who hoards youth like it's air — might appreciate it."
Killian narrowed his eyes. "You're going to bargain with Pan."
"I need something," she said simply. "One vial. Enchanted water from the Dreaming Spring. It heals the incurable. It's the last thing I need for a serum I'm developing."
Killian stepped closer, voice low and rough.
"Let me tell you what's going to happen," he said. "I drop you on the bloody God forsaken island at sundown. I stay docked until sunrise — no longer. I stay far offshore. You don't come back by dawn, I leave. With or without you."
Jessica nodded.
"Do you even know what you're walking into?" he pressed. "Pan doesn't give. He takes. And once he knows your name, you're already on borrowed time."
Jessica met his gaze.
"Im already out of time."
Killian's jaw ticked. He stared at her long and hard.
"You're doing this for someone," he finally said. "A man?"
Jessica didn't reply.
He sighed. "Just remember: once you step foot on that island... Pan doesn't find you. He lets you find him."

Jessica (Narration):
*"The water shimmered green when we passed through the sky.

Neverland rose from the mist like a memory you wish you could forget.

I was no longer Mr. Hyde's assistant.

I was a girl in the woods again.

And the monsters were waiting."*