Never Letting Go || CS

Chapter Thirteen: The Attack

Emma had been on the ship for a total of four and a half weeks, and she couldn't have been happier. The ocean seemed to always calm her no matter what, and she loved the pirate life.

She knew she shouldn't, but she did love her life on The Jolly Roger. She especially loved spending time with a certain captain. Over the past few weeks, Hook and Emma had spent a lot of time together. Sometimes they would be talking for hours on end, and other times he would be showing her the ways of a pirate. Every moment she spent with him was valuable to her. She knew her time on the ship was drawing to a close, for she could not stop the inevitable. She had to get back to her Kingdom, her parents, her life. The life of a princess. Although she hated to admit it, this past month had been the best in her life. Especially with Hook. His perfect blue eyes that she could spent an eternity gazing into, his ebony hair that drooped over his eyes and the scruff that lined his chin.

She found herself staring at him far too often, more than she'd care to admit. Every time he walked into the room, her stomach did flips, and when she was with him, time seemed to stop completely. She loved the sound of his voice, it calmed her. He was so caring towards her, yet she had the sense that he had another side to him. One that she was probably lucky not to have fully faced. She could see the pain and brokenness on his eyes, even when he was doing his best to hide it from everyone. She'd tried to find out more about his past many times, but all failed attempts. He would just avoid the subject completely, although not long after their trip to Eelry she had found out his real name, and preferred to call him that.

One cloudy evening, they were both sat on the top deck eating their dinner together, just the two of them. They were enjoying a comfortable silence just watching the gentle waves on the ocean. The sun hadn't set yet, but they wouldn't have been able to see the sun, for it was cloudy.

Just as they'd both finished eating, a thick for started to roll in, seemingly out of nowhere. They stood up and peered around curiously. "Where the bloody hell is that coming from?" Hook asked as the fog enveloped the ship, making it hard to see very far in front of them.

Emma looked at him with fear as they heard strange screeching noises seeming to come from under the water itself. Hook went downstairs to fetch the crew, leaving Emma alone with the fog growing ever thicker around her.

In a matter of minutes, Hook was back with his crew in tow, all with a cutlass in hand. Hook handed Emma a cutlass before readying himself for what was to come.

The men looked over the side of the ship and saw eery silhouettes in the murky waters below. At first they thought it was in their imagination, but soon the shapes became more prominent and soon they could make out a head, body, arms. They looked like people except for one thing they noticed. The things had tails where their legs should have been.

"Mermaid attack!" One man shouted. Everyone looked to their captain for orders. "Ok men, prepare for battle! Load the cannons!" Hook shouted a few more orders at at a few individuals. Rain started to pour down heavily, soaking everyone to the skin. "Emma!" Hook shouted as he walked towards her. "You need to go below deck until I come and get you, then I know you're safe!" Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "Why can't I stay here and fight with you! I wanna help!" His expression turned to desperation. "No Emma you're not experienced enough. Please, just do as I say."

"No! I'm staying and there's nothing you can say to make me change my mind." Emma said sternly. Hook sighed in defeat, he knew how stubborn she was. "Don't say I didn't warn you." Hook stalked off to assist his crew.

Emma wanted to feel useful for once, she wanted to be helpful and contribute to this battle. Hook worried about Emma's safety because he knew what the dreaded creatures were like. Once they found their target, you were as good as dead.

Just then, heavy thunder filled the air as the rain continued to pour until it felt like they were all underneath a waterfall. The ship began to sway violently from side to side, making everyone lose their balance. Something launched itself out of the water and landed in the middle of the ship. It hissed as the men, and Emma, scrambled to their feet and assumed their defensive stance. Emma stood among them, her heart beating quickly.

"State you business aboard my ship." Hook said confidently, his cutlass raised in his only hand. The Mermaid smiled menacingly before taking in the sight of the men. "We've come to destroy you all." The voice was raspy and dry, like that of an old woman. Then, the ship began being jolted sideways as if something was hitting the side of it. The other mermaids were furiously slamming into the side of she ship in an attempt to sink it.

Soon they gave up and jumped onto the deck and started attacking everyone. The men slashed their swords furiously at the creatures as they screeched and cried. Emma presumed this was their language because they didn't seem in pain.

The creatures advanced on the men, slashing their hands in front of them, attempting to strike the sailors with their long, knife-like claws that were white against their blue-green skin. Emma was now also battling furiously with one of them, focusing only on trying to survive. Hook, on the other hand, wasn't fully focused on his fight, he kept glancing over at Emma, worrying about her safety.

As he turned back to his battle, a shriek was heard over all the noise. Emma. He turned to see the mermaid's long arms wrapped around her body, trapping her. Her sword was a few feet away from her. Emma was struggling furiously against the Mermaid's death grip. Everyone but Hook seemed to be oblivious to Emma's situation.

The Mermaid dragged itself and Emma further away from Hook. He was confused at first, but realisation dawned on him. "Emma no!" He shouted as loud as he could as he slashed through the many mermaids in his path. It was too late, the Mermaid had already jumped over the side of the ship with Emma still in its grasp.

Without hesitation, Hook dived over the side and into the icy waters. He swam deeper and deeper until he caught sight of her. Emma was still struggling, despite the lack of oxygen.

All of a sudden, a blinding white light emitted from where Emma and the Mermaid were. Hook's immediate thoughts were if Emma was OK, but when he looked over to where they last were, he saw the Mermaid floating lifelessly next to Emma, who was now unconscious.

The last thing Emma remembered was a pair of strong arms wrapping around her waist.

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a/n I'm not too sure on how this chapter turned out. Please feel free to voice your opinions of it in the comments section, but please don't be too harsh, I'm only human! The picture at the top is how I imagined the mermaids to look because I couldn't remember what they looked like on the show.