Hooked

Chapter Four

"Where are we?"

"We..." He opened a map, "are below deck."

"No, I mean... WHERE are we?"

He paused before saying with hesitancy, "...Neverland. No more questions."

I nodded silently.

"I suppose you've never heard of Neverland, me, or of The Crocodile before now."

"No, I haven't." I said, curious.

"Well I am Captain Hook. My stories have been told in many worlds."

"You mean... We are in an entirely different world right now?"

He nodded, giving me a perturbed look. Well that would explain the fact that time didn't pass here.

"May I continue?" He asked, very annoyed.

I nodded, knowing his short temper.

"My stories are... Quite amazing, if I do say so myself." He smirked, stepping away from the large map, toward me. I backed away slowly. "Do you know of any of them?"

I shook my head.

He smiled mischievously. "Well there is one... That says I'm quite the heartbreaker. The bad boy, I suppose. There is another that says I'm just a captain. Another says that I am a cruel man with the taste for blood." He paused as my back hit the back of the wooden wall. "Which do you believe?"

I swallowed hard. "All of them."

He chuckled. That's when I noticed he had a hook for one of his hands. I must not be paying attention whenever he's near. I decided not to ask him about it. It would upset him.

"The Crocodile..." He swallowed, clenching his teeth. "He took my hand. I'm sure you noticed it before now." His eyes were glinted with hatred.

I nodded. I soon regretted it afterwards. He advanced toward me and placed his hook under my chin, choking me slightly. He must practice this. He pushes his hook against your neck in a certain way - enough to get air needed to give him information, but not enough for it to be comfortable and keep the victim alive for long.

"Well? Aren't you going to ask me how I lost it to that... Crocodile?"

"How...?"

"The Crocodile and I were fighting, when he decided it would be funny to cut my hand off. It's a reminder of his shadow... That black shadow that haunts me every night."

He loosened his grip. When he completely took his hook off my neck, I gasped for air, falling to the ground.

"I..." He swallowed. Hurt showed in his eyes. He quickly removed the trace so I couldn't see it any longer. "I think you should go to your room for a while." He nodded to himself and let me go, not looking back at me as I got up and left in a hurry.

I didn't get why I was supposed to go in there in the first place. Maybe he wanted to show me where Neverland was. But that was what a kind person would do. Not the infamous Captain Hook. No. Never.

"Princess Madeline! There you are!" Smee said as I hurried up from below deck. "I was looking all over for you."

"I'm sorry, Smee. Hook just told me to follow him below the deck."

He gasped. "What did he do to you?"

"What do you mean?" Did I look flustered?

"He's done some cruel things below deck..."

I understood what he meant immediately, remembering the cold hook against my bare neck. I nodded. "But when is there ever a time when he isn't cruel to anyone?"

He smiled. "Never."

I shook when he said the words. Never? He's never been kind to a single living thing other than himself? No. He hasn't even been kind to himself. I could tell that he was beaten up by his own thoughts.

"Don't you ever wonder what happened in his childhood to make him this way?"

"I don't think there were any life-changing experiences for him. I think he was just born ready to kill."

"What about The Crocodile? That must've done something to his mind."

"He probably didn't tell you who The Crocodile really was, did he?"

"...I suppose not..."

"He is but a boy. Maybe your age. He cut off Captain's hand for his own defense. That wouldn't scar The Devil of the Seas." He must've meant Hook, "He did terrible things to that boy."

I stared at him, waiting for him to go on, but to my disappointment, he didn't continue with the story.

I heard 'clomp's of boots heading toward us. It was Hook's.

"Captain." Smee said, turning around quickly and saluting him.

I didn't turn. I didn't want to see him or think of the hurt he had caused me just moments ago by nearly choking me.

"Madeline...?" He said expectantly with a stern voice.

"What?" I snapped, still not turning around.

My arm was grabbed violently by his large hand. "You salute your captain." He said with a spark of threat in his voice.

"You are not my captain. You never will be. You have no control or authority over me." I tried to shake his arm off, but that only made things worse. He squeezed.

"Salute me. Now."

"Never." This was Neverland, after all. I laughed in my head at my own joke.

I suddenly felt my circulation cutting off. "Are you sure you don't want to change your mind, Madeline?"

My eyes grew at the realization that I could no longer feel my arm. "Please. Stop!" I tried to pry his fingers off of my red/blue arm, to no avail.

His eyes softened slightly (but they still had an edge to them), and he released his grip. He turned away, and that was when I realized I won him over. I convinced him to release me from his death grip. I don't think a man on this ship has ever done that before. I had the courage. Maybe I could convince him to not do harm to others.

Even though he was a beast at heart.