Set Your Sails...to Neverland || Peter Pan, OUAT

Chapter 34 - Kill or Be Killed

>Davina

I don't know what's going on anymore.

I don't know what time it is, what day, where I am, what I feel. I can't feel anything. I can barely open my eyes, barely breathe. There's only one thing I do feel.

Pain.

It has engulfed my body. My muscles are aching from being bound in the same position for so long, my lungs are begging for me to take a bigger breath, my mouth is as dry as the desert, and the skin on my back burns and screams from the pure agony of the repeated cracking of the whip. The first few times I cried out, pleaded Jones and his crew to stop, telling them over and over again that I don't know where the Elixir is. Now I just cry silently; the tears slip down my face every time I don't give Jones the answer he wants. They wouldn't, and won't, listen. I just want some rest. No, I just want to lie down. Maybe then I can slip into permanent unconsciousness. The only protection I have is death. The thin, white dress that used to be pure barely provides any cover for me. It's ripped in more places than I know, some of the fabric still stuck to my scabbing wound in my stomach, and only covering whatever dignity I have left.

I hear the door creak above me, but I can't lift my head to look who it is — my neck is too stiff. I focus on breathing in and out, in and out, in and out, in and out, in and out, in and out...

My rhythm is abruptly disturbed by water filling my nostrils. I feel it drip through my hair, down my neck and back, down my face and chest. The waterfall stops and I gasp for breath.

"Still alive, Davina?" Jones says.

I can't answer.

I sense him bend down in front of me; his claw forces my head up to look at him, "What? No smart reply? No...sarcasm?"

I stay silent. Sometimes it speaks louder than words.

I peer at him through my eyelashes and down my nose. He chuckles, letting go of my chin. And then he slaps me across my left cheek, drawing blood across my cheekbone and down my face.

"Come on, Davina. I know you have more strength than this. How about you use it to tell me where the Elixir really is?"

I take a deep breath, "I. Don't. Know."

I scream at the new agony of a jagged dagger being plunged in my thigh. I draw in a long breath, gritting my teeth against the desire to cry.

"Don't lie to me!" He yells, "I know you know where it is, and I know you haven't taken it, because if you had, you would have healed."

"I'm telling you...I don't know...where it is!...If I did...I would tell you..." I croak out.

"Would you really?"

"Yes. Anything...is better...than this..." I explain curtly between dry breaths.

He holds the dagger and twists it ever so slightly, "Then where is it?"

I clench my jaw against the pain, suddenly finding the energy to form coherent sentences, "Was I not clear? If I knew I would tell you! But I don't, so I haven't and I can't!"

He yanks the dagger out and I groan, breathing quickly and deeply through my nose. Jones plunges it back into another part of my thigh and I scream louder than I had ever before. His claw grips my chin and holds my face still.

I can't take it anymore.

His eyes bore into mine and he watches as pain takes over my entire being.

A tear slips out of the corner of my eye, "Please...just kill me," I whisper.