So Original

When There's a Will...

...The Universe has a way of chucking it in your face and taunting you with unfulfilled dreams and ambitions that you know you'll never get to. Like sleep.

I rubbed my legs together between the sheets in an effort to get warm. Of course, I could go change into actual pajamas, but my exercise shorts were going to have to cut it for tonight. Besides, I just shaved and this is the only moment for me to truly feel like a dolphin before the hairs grow back and make my legs feel like prickly cacti. I rolled over and stared at the glow-in-the-dark stars that were stuck to my ceiling, outlining famous constellations and other made up constellations.

I curled up into fetal position, finally feeling my conscious decide to take me off to the hallucinogenic world of dreaming. Right when I felt myself drifting off into forgetful bliss, my brain decided to torture me. What would happen if dinosaurs never really went extinct, but they just went underground, farther than mankind has reached? They've just been working at their burrowing, not quite hitting the center of the earth but still out of--I groaned into my pillow. Of course my brain would wonder about dinosaurs at this hour and right when I was almost asleep. I tried burrowing my head into my fluffy pillow, pulling my blanket tighter around me.

I relaxed all my muscles in hopes of relaxing into sleep. I felt myself hover closer and closer towards sleep when a bright light lit up my eyelids, causing me to squint harshly against the deep red. I opened my eyes the tiniest bit and saw a man standing over me with a wicked grin on his face, almost completely covered in a black cloth. His brown eyes were visible in the moonlight and I could see the wrinkles outlining his eyes, reaching toward the gray hair that arched over his ears and to underneath his--was that a hat? He didn't leave me much time for consideration as he snatched me and my blankets off the bed and ran to the window, which he had apparently opened while I was trying to sleep. He had cocooned me in my blankets, making my efforts to try and break free futile. I screamed and kicked, landing a soft punch to something hard. I groaned and kicked again, but it was still futile.

I felt myself suspended in the air but still being held onto by the man who had kidnapped me. I think we were rising, but I wasn't sure. I tried peeking out of the opening between the fabric, but my face was roughly pushed in before I could see what was going on. I managed to glimpse, however, the small town of Oceanway disappearing below me as we soared toward the sky.

I squeaked and held onto the blanket as though it would save me if I were suddenly dropped. My breath increased and my heart felt like it would pound right out of my chest. The air temperature dropped and the air became thinner, forcing me to take more ragged breaths. Just as it felt like I was going to pass out, the air warmed and became humid, making me choke on the sudden change.

I was dumped onto a rough surface and I promptly cradled my head in my arms, not looking out toward my surroundings. The blanket fell away and impossibly bright light flooded my lidded vision. I squinted up to see a blur of a...tree? No, but it was a tall wooden pole. There were people around me who were blurring in and out, going from only ten people to nearly thirty. My body swayed with my vision as it finally focused. I was on a ship. How lovely. That bright light that was blinding me was the sun. In the space of what felt like twenty minutes, I had either traveled halfway across the world, or my kidnapper had killed me and I was in Heaven. That is, if Heaven had men with peg legs and ratty clothes and bad teeth and eye patches.

"What the dear fudge nuts is going on?" I asked no one in particular.

"Have you ever had fudge nuts before, Hapley?" A tall brunet male asked above me. "They sound like a sweet exotic delicacy. Let's try them sometime, yes?"

"Aye, aye, Captain," a voice replied back.

I looked around and would not have been surprised if Spongebob popped up from under the sea. "Where am I?" I ask again, starting to freak out. "Who are you? Why am I here? You know, my dad is a really, really good detective, so I suggest you return me immediately or you'll have a 54 year old man going ham on your butt like he's freakin' Muhummad Ali."

"That was a big sentence for such a small wisp of a girl," the brunet man said again. "We are in the middle of nowhere, probably traveling to nowhere, and I don't know what a 'detective' is, so you're probably better wasting your time on stitching up a new simile."

"Or a new hat for you," I snapped back. "'Cause yours is ugly."

He grinned at my weak attempt to level with him, his brown eyes crinkling and dimples appearing next to his cheeks. He reached down and pulled me up from my blankets. "I don't think I'm the one to dress odd," he said, giving my power rangers t-shirt and shorts a quick up-down.

"If you put a feather in your hat, then you're definitely the odd one out, Yankee Doodle."

He gave me an inquisitive stare and led me to the cabins, but I yanked my arm out of his and stamped my foot down on the deck, crossing my arms defiantly across my chest. "So, let me guess what's going on real quick before you pull me into the dungeons of murder and torture," I said, eyeing the dark hallway below the upper deck warily. "I just got pulled here from another world or time or just area in general, to appear on this ship."

I stared at him to see if he wanted to give me any input. He stayed silent and leaned against the stair railing, motioning for me to continue.

"I'm here because you need a sacrifice from a different world or something, or some prophecy said it needed to be me, or you read your tea leaves wrong."

I paused again to see if he would give any hint or suggestion, but he stayed silent with the corner of his mouth quirking up, so I kept going. "You have a dilemma that you think you can solve all on your own with you and your crew, but the prophecy or tea leaves or quest or whatever, told you that you need help."

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, but still said nothing. "And now that you've got me, we're going to return something of great importance that will help you save the world and we'll become great heroes and 'woohoo, we did it, we're awesome' as we are celebrated with rose petals and flower crowns being thrown at us."

He stared at me for a second longer, something bordering on impressed and smug, then let a side of his mouth quirk up in amusement. "Have you been here before, Ryn?"

"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot that one time when I went out sailing on an old ship with a lot of pirates," I responded, rolling my eyes. "Listen, you don't need me to help you to help everyone else. Just give the big scary monster or whatever the ol' razzle dazzle and you'll be set."

I was about to speak again when my breath hitched in my throat. "How did you know my name?" I asked, regarding him warily.

"I've been--"

"Watching me?" I interrupted. "I almost forgot that too. 'I need you to do something so I'll catch you off guard by using your name without you knowing mine because mystery is usually a sure selling point'."

"I don't sound like that," the man replied, winking. "And, if you must know, my name is Peter."

"Well, frick my life," I responded. "Peter Pan?"

"What?" he asked back, this time genuinely baffled.

"Just checking," I said again. "Since we've both made it clear that you don't need me anymore, I'm going to just jump ship and swim to the nearest island if that's cool."

"You're absolutely right, I don't need you," he responded with a gleam in his eye. "You're good to go."

I knew what he was trying to do. Reverse psychology would not work on me because I already used it on him, so it was entirley uncool of him to try to use it back on me. He was testing me to see if I would follow through with what I said. I just hoped I was right and not some psychotic kid who heaved themselves overboard. I had read too many books to count where a kid is taken from their world and thrust into another that is waged in war that seemingly only they could stop. I frowned as I realized that was the basis I was going off of, but quickly straightened my face. I would find out sooner or later, I guess. I regarded him as I gave a small indifferent sigh and walked straight over to the gang plank of the ship. I gave him as much of a devious smirk as I could and raised my hand in salute, jumping high into the air and towards the water.