Hooked

Chapter Thirteen

I woke up, my head spinning and rocking like the sea. I touched my forehead. My temple. My nose. My mouth. Everything seemed in order.
I heard nothing at first, but then I started to listen to the music of the waves crashing against the bay. A symphony made up of air, rock, and water. Beautiful.

I took a deep breath of the salty air that aroused my senses, but immediately started to have a coughing fit.

I felt the burning sensation of an acid rising up in my throat. Could've come from my lungs. Could've come from my stomach. Either one was a possibility.

I felt my chest heave, and I coughed up some sand. I peeled open my eyes just slightly to see that I spit it out right in front of me, the color a bit more dark from my saliva.

I felt the world shift, and suddenly it started to spin. I looked to my right with my eyes barely open, dizziness not fading. I could see many different colors, but none of them formed anything.

Until...

I saw a girl. A gorgeous, beautiful girl.

Her brown hair had a few grains of sand in it. The wind was blowing her locks away from her face.

Her eyes were a deep brown, like chocolate. She was looking at me.

It all felt like a hallucination. Maybe this wasn't a girl at all, but an angel. Come to take me after my ship wrecked.

Yes, I'm sure that's what it was. I tried to speak, to make a few words, but none came. And before I knew it, the world fell beneath me as I felt my head settle back on the sand.

...

I heard a sound. Of a girl - undoubtably the girl that I saw when I was on the shore.

She was speaking in a hurried tone, "Shh. He's coming to."

I sat up, groaning, wincing at the pain stabbing my head from multiple directions. Rubbing the sand from my eyes, I saw the angel-like girl. She was staring at me intently, wondering who I was.

My voice was cracked and hoarse, but I managed to make words form, "My... name is... Eric. You are...?"

She scowled at me. Then she looked down in the water.

I heard whispering going on. Her eyes flickered up to me, and then quickly back down to the water.

...

I wanted to go into the ocean like Ariel. I wanted to disappear, because I had no idea what to do. He was probably getting curious as to why I was whispering to the sea.

"What should I do?"

She gave me an annoyed look, "You should just leave him. He obviously likes you. We don't want that, do we?"

"Not at all. But then what? Are you suddenly going to sprout legs and come to his rescue?"

"... I have something figured out. He just has to wait until tomorrow." A devious smile spread across her face, "Knock him out."

"What?!"

"Shh."

I looked over to the man, whom was starting to stand.

"What?" I said quietly.

"Knock him out. Just hit him hard enough so he'll be out cold for a day. Then leave the rest to me."

"Okay... You better go now."

"Bye." She dived, swimming to the ocean floor.

"What's your name?" Eric said.

I turned my head to see that he was dangerously close to me. To give Ariel some credit, he did have gorgeous eyes. They were bright blue, like the sea itself.

"Erm..." I got up and made my way to the tree line.

"Where are you going?"

"Nowhere. Just... Just... Looking for food."

"Oh," he said pleasantly.

"I'll be right back."

He smiled, "Don't take too long."

Oh, I wasn't. I had immediately found a rock suitable for my task. It was larger than both of my hands, and heavy. I could just barely lift it.

I turned around with the rock in my arms. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"We need something to cut and eat on, right?" I explained myself.

He shrugged, "I guess." He looked forward, staring at the horizon, "You wanna know what's funny?"

"No. But I'm sure you'll tell me anyway."

"Time. It doesn't pass here."

"So I've heard."

"So you aren't from around here, then?"

"Nope," I responded, popping the 'p'.

"Well I think it's humorous how none of us will grow old. We'll just... Be. We won't really live. We will all have boring, never ending, unfulfilled lives."

I guess I never really thought about it that way. "How depressing."

He bobbed his head up and down, "The only way we can escape it is by death. That's why Hook wants to kill people. So he can have the island all to himself."

"I don't think he's so heartless as to kill everyone."

"No, you're right. It's his curse that is heartless."

I paused, remembering the cuts on my skin. Stupid curse. stupid me. I should've forgiven him when I had the chance. But that chance is long gone.

Maybe that's a good thing.

I placed the rock just above his head, then dropped it from my hands. I heard a crack, and Eric fell, unconscious, into the water. I dragged him by his feet onto the dry sand, so he wouldn't drown.

"Sorry," I whispered, then left.

I really hope that I didn't kill him.