Creation

Trick Accepted

This chapter is an entry for the Ball Gone Wrong Challenge by Retold (Halloween Vault Prompt #23)

Word count: 600

Peter laughs as The Blue Fairy—who's clad in Ursula's costume—turns Tinker Bell's golden bun into bluish bubbles.

The Blue Fairy's laughter echoes amidst the jumpy music as Tinker Bell pursues Peter for his impudence. Peter dashes to one of the door-sized windows and hides behind its drawn iridescent curtain.

As he waits for her leave, he brushes the smooth surface. Golly, it's more than enough to keep Captain Hook drooling for the rest of his life . . .

As he contemplates, the curtain squeezes his arm like a python. It's painful. And fierce!

Peter's attempts to writhe out are in vain. In a blink, it wraps him like a sushi, and swings him to and fro.

There's nothing but darkness until he's awake.

Is he back to Neverland—Crocodile's Creek, perhaps? If he isn't . . . where is he?

There were splashes of water, swooshing wind like the one back at the ball, and . . .

Are those wing flaps—contradicting the furious current?

He was right. A horde of giant bats is sleeping upside-down, their snores drowned by their flaps.

Dread flips his heart like a pan. The curtain transported him to a land he hasn't acknowledged until today . . .

The Daylight Grave.

But there are no alive humans on the land according to the rumors . . .

Wait, so . . . are these bats carnivores? For Hook's sake!

True enough, a gigantic flap sweeps over him like a tide, when he isn't ready to counterattack.

Without his actual dagger, what can he do? And he has missed his sparring routine with Captain Hook lately!

He hastily scurries from the pack through the air—his last option to survive, with the shrill screeches deafening his ears.

A claw on his hood throws him off balance. His screams meddled with the sharp scratches on the walls.

Oh, why hasn't the end of the cave appear?

In the distance are translucent objects, sharp as fangs. Peter hates these obstacles with tongue-twisting names.

Entering the section, both parties' gaps are limited.

When was the last time they had supper? These fangs are aggressive!

Alas, his cave is unsymmetrical. There aren't any solid descriptions of the paths and the turns.

Hopefully, the bats can't reach him once he escapes.

Had he brought his dagger instead of leaving it, this horde may have met their doom early.

Peter hurried. His fatigue is overwhelming. His blood is draining from his injured back and scars . . .

A euphoric exclamation came as his outstretched hands bathed under the fervent sunlight. The bats backed off with disappointment, by only getting bits of Peter's bony flesh. They cry and screech, but forbid themselves from trespassing.

"Yes! I'm alive!" His voice is foreign between gasps and coughs.

But who set that curtain to transport him here? The ball's far from Neverland . . . it's in another realm!

"Someone didn't want me there." He brushed the dust coating his wounds, though it hurts. "But who?"

No one can answer except the cawing albatrosses above.

He needs to return to the Halloween Ball, and confront the forsaken culprit who has ruined one of his best nights.

But how?

Peter's sharp ears caught sounds of fervently-blown sails. Why—it's the ship with five folded sails and an unfolded one—Captain Hook's Jolly Roger!

He'll sneak into their flank, and enter one of the crates. Afterward, he'll escape, contact The Lost Boys, and use their stored pixie dust to transport him to the ball.

He must ask them to lend him a dagger. He'll need it when he confronts the culprit responsible for this misadventure.

Hopefully, he'll arrive before it's too late.