Hooked

Chapter Fourteen

I felt the grass and dirt slosh between my toes as I faced the forest before me. Dangers rushed through my mind. Maybe I should just stay on the sand...

But then I remembered... Eric would wake up and see me, then Ariel will be upset with me, and get her friends to kill me in my sleep.

Ariel is a real lovely creature...

I faced the horrible dread that filled me, and stepped into the tree line. Bravery rushed through me, and I let my feet take me further into the foliage.

My favorite color was never green, but since the blue color of the sea reminded me too much of the traumatic experiences on Hook's ship, yellow being the encounter with Ariel and Eric, red the blood trickling down my forearm, and orange the color of that beautiful sunset that actually made Hook and I have a nice moment, green and purple were the only colors in the rainbow that I enjoyed looking at now.

Everything else brought back my pain or fear.

So the green moss growing on the side of the trees was a very welcoming sight. I felt the cool breeze rush past my face.

I walked forward, hoping time and time again that I didn't kill Eric, and that Ariel wouldn't send her friends to kill me as a rude awakening.

Why was I even here? Why did Hook have to capture me? Why did I have to be dumped onto this strange land by an unknown boy in the middle of the night, and be left to fend for myself?

I've never even been on an escapade outside of the kingdom. I've never been traumatized. I've always been guarded. But since I got here I have seen men get tortured by a cursed captain whom I -might've - cared for, and I knew that it was possible to fly.

Fly.

That's exactly what I'll do.

I'll fly away from this wretched land and escape. Fly my way home. To Jordan's joyful smile and Piper's jokes. Away from all the awful things here. Safe.

I looked around for a suitable tree.

One problem... I didn't know how to climb one. I stretched my hand up one, trying to reach for a knot in the wood. I couldn't even touch it.

I looked for another, and another... Until finally I found one that I might've actually had a chance to climb successfully.

One thought lingered in the back of my mind as I rose above the ground. 'Don't fall to your death, Maddy.'

I hung onto a high branch, and somehow pushed myself over it so I could stand if I really wanted. But if I did that, then I would've became unbalanced and fallen.

So I sat uncomfortably against the trunk, my legs in front of me, on the limb, at first.

Then I propped myself up, carefully placing my feet. Should I have thought of this as possible suicide? Probably. But it was too late. My feet thought for me, and before I knew it, the wind was rushing past me, a whistle in my ear. I was falling to my death. Not rising.

I panicked. I screamed. Within an instant, I saw the ground right in front if me. So painfully close. But I didn't feel pain. I felt nothing.

I opened my eyes slightly, to see that my nose was just about a centimeter away from the grass and mud.

I swallowed, relief overtaking my questioning thoughts.

"You should be more careful next time."

I didn't recognize the voice. It sounded cruel and unforgiving, though.

I strained to look up, to see a pale woman in a black dress, a silver crown placed on her head. Her lips were a dark red.

"Who're you?"

"I just saved your life. No grateful 'thank you'?"

"...Thank you."

She flicked her wrist, and I felt myself lift above the ground, and become upright. When my feet touched the ground, she flicked her wrist again, and I was free of her spell.

She gave a small hint of a wicked smile, "I am...

... TO BE CONTINUED ...

Well? Who do you think she is?

~StarrySkies7