Just Make Believe

Chapter 6

"So." Hook started as he sauntered over to by hammock. "I have a proposal for you, it would be your choice between life and death. And of course I will urge you to choose life."

I just stared at him, waiting for him to finish his dramatic pause and continue in his bullshit speech or "proposal". I raised an eyebrow and nodded once to tell him to go on. 

Seriously, I can hear just fine, speak already so I can turn your dumbass down.

"Alright, so as you may have wondered, how you exactly lived. You should've died," He starts.

No, you should have died. 

"but of course here we are. As I said earlier, I had a proposal for your life or death choice.  I have come to the conclusion that you my dear, would be very valuable on my crew." He says in a matter-of-fact voice. 

Inside, I was laughing so hard I was crying. Me?! On your crew?! like that'll happen. 

"A girl who cannot die of especially mortal wounds? A girl with so much anger that she could cold-bloodily kill any man? A girl who can stay so silent because she does not have a voice to speak with?" Hook stated these things in such a way it makes me realize exactly how desperate he is to get what he wants. "My point, is that if you come to be a part of my crew, I will let you live, I will feed and house you, and I will let you go back to your home every so often, even." 

I raise one eyebrow, wandering exactly what the catch was and what he was so desperate to find. 

"Or you can choose your second choice," He looks me square in the eyes, making me almost shrink back due to the intensity that filled them. "You can turn down my generous offer and I will not kill you, no, that would be too merciful. No, I would drag you back to your home and force you to watch everyone you've ever known be killed in the most horrible way you could think of. All of your friends, family, hell even pets if I must. And then I will force you into a blank cell whose only purpose would be to force you to think about them. How they died. How they bled out until nothing was left. How you let them down. Their fear shining on their faces as all you did was watch. And as you sit in this cell, you will know, all the way to the bottom of your heart, that you did this to them. That you could have saved them. But you were too self righteous to do so." 

My heart had stopped, he seemed to have inched so close to my face that he was breathing directly over it. I has been struck silent, no thought ran through my head except for the image of what they could have done to Peter. All these threats and all I could think of was exactly what they did to my only friend. 

I feel tears well in my eyes, surprisingly, as if they had been held back for far too long. I looked back up to Hook, who seemed to be pleased with my response to his threats. Little did he know that I wasn't thinking about him. 

Then Hook leaned in closer, right next to my ear, and whispered menacingly, "but have hope my dear. We won't torture them nearly as bad as we tortured your little Peter." He pulled his face back and glared at me with a satisfied smile on his lips, "Oh would you like the details?" He asks rhetorically. 

Tears were streaming down my face as I tried to pry my hands from their bounds, to try to cover my ears from him. I shut my eyes hard and shook my head side to side as I tried to drown out his talking. 

"We made sure that he felt everything. First, we all tied him to a chair in this very room. That one to be specific." I opened my eyes to see him pointing to a blood stained chair in the corner closest to the window. "Then, we dragged all of our knives across his skin as he screamed in agony. Every time he screamed we would do another and another until he was just barely whimpering. Then, we started yanking off his finger nails, dragging them slowly and watching his face twist with pain. Oh how your little Peter screamed." 

I was fiercely shaking my head back and forth, trying to drown out the noise of Hook's voice and the details, but I just couldn't do it. 

"Then even after that, he was still trying to crack jokes, still trying to act as if it didn't hurt. But them we made sure he shut up. We then took that little trinket you had, that little gun, and aimed it at his leg. As he was bleeding out, he screamed louder and louder. Calling out your name. Calling for you to help him." 

The tears were sticking to my face, the only noise I was able to make was the sound of my heavy breathing. I cried hard, thinking of Peters face, his usual happy face, sitting in the chair in front of me, going through the worst pain he would ever feel.

I was mouthing words but nothing would come out, mere scratched of real words were just slipping my lips. I tried harder and harder but hook didn't seem to want to give me mercy.

"You know, even when you were fighting me, he was not dead just yet. He was waiting, watching from the open door, as I sliced you to shreds. And he screamed. He screamed to spare you, to take him instead. To leave you alone and let you be and to kill himself. But we decided no mercy.

We made sure he saw the very light leave your eyes before dragging him to another ship, to torture him more. Until he finally gave up. And you wouldn't believe it, he said something right before he died, do you want to know what he said?" 

I shook my head as hard as I could, I didn't want to hear this. I didn't want to hear the morbid details of my best friend. I tried to scream, I tried to thrash, I tried everything. But hook grabbed my arm and held me still by placing his hook on my neck. 

"He said, his very last words, were your very name in a plea. He was begging for your forgiveness. He wanted to see you, to tell you he was sorry for dragging you into this. But we decided no." 

I was still, I didn't move any more. My wounds had opened with my thrashing and my throat was hurting with my tries to scream. I laid in the hammock, staring at the plush chair in front of my eyes, covered in blood, and cried. I cried silently, no sniffles, no gasping. I was done. This was the last straw for me. I stared blankly at the chair until hook dragged my face away from it in order to look at him. 

"I will do the same to all of your loved ones if you do not follow my offer. They will suffer until their last breath, that I can swear to you." He glared into my eyes, trying to intimidate me. 

I stared straight back, my eyes dry now, the only sign of my tears were the streams on my cheeks. I glared right back at him, I had nothing anymore. Nothing to lose, nothing to gain either. And then I mouthed, clear and wide enough for him to understand the first time I would do it.  

I don't love anyone.