“Grab him!” my crew shouts, echoing my earlier sentiment. I watch everyone close enough reach out in an attempt to grab the boy, trying to stop his trajectory. Every single hand misses, and as the Jolly Roger corrects herself, Anthony tumbles right over the balustrade and into the violent churning sea.
The crew rushes to the side of the ship, looking into the dark waves to search for the boy. At least three of them toss their weapons aside and prepare to jump in after him, but they’re not like I am. The sea can claim them so easily. She can’t claim me, though. No one can claim my life.
I’m already running for the side of the ship, tying a rope tightly around my waist as I move. I toss my tricorn hat into an open crate as I go.
“Smee! The helm!” I command, certain my First Mate will take care of keeping the ship steady. I don’t give him time to answer before I’m diving over the side of the balustrade, falling into open air for a moment before the chilling ocean slams into me and closes over my head. The hot rain makes it so my body violently tries to correct it’s temperature. Any normal person might have had to fight locked up muscles.
The saltwater burns my eyes as I kick for the surface the moment my momentum slows. When I break it, I look around frantically for Anthony, searching, looking to my crew to direct me. They point to my right, urgency in their voices as they scream. I can’t hear them over the roaring waters, but I understand them just the same. The boy is running out of time.
The ocean is so violent; it tries to pull me under, threatening to swallow me whole, but I kick my legs hard, pushing through the water, fighting the current. I only have so much time before the sea claims him, before something comes along and decides he looks tasty. A large wave lifts me high, and I get my first glimpse of arms that reach for help, of a face that barely breaks the water to take a rushed breath before it goes back under. I push harder. Another boy will not die on my watch. Too many die as it is.
That’s when I hear the singing.
“Fuck!” I growl, pushing myself harder, but my clothes are weighing me down, my boots filled with water. I don’t hesitate. I kick them free, letting them sink to the ocean floor in favor of saving a member of my crew.
“Anthony!” I shout. “Swim towards me!”
I don’t know if he can hear me – I hope he can – but I keep moving, keep searching. The singing grows louder, the words clearing up to reach my ears. I curse again. I had to ask how this day could get worse. I should have known.
“Come little human, take my hand and see, I’m here to save you, come away with me.”
“Fuck off!” I shout. I’m close now, close enough that I can see Anthony take one last breath of air and slip under. He doesn’t resurface this time.
I don’t wait for him to come back up. I take a deep breath and dive beneath the surface. In front of me, Anthony struggles to reach the surface again, but he’s still weak, his time on the Jolly Roger not enough to be able to take on the sea. He fights against the current, but it only drags him under deeper, his clothing weighing him down, panic in his movements.
From the opposite direction, I watch another form swimming towards him, and while she’s fast, I’m far closer. I’m barely wrapping my fingers around Anthony’s wrist when an unholy screech pierces through the water, and I wince. Oh, she’s definitely pissed. I don’t wait for her to attack. I yank hard on the rope, trusting my crew to be ready to pull us aboard. They don’t disappoint. The moment I stop jerking the rope and wrap my arms fully around Anthony, his eyes still open but panic setting in because he’s out of air, the rope pulls taut and pulls hard against my waist. I’ll, no doubt, be bruised from the action, but I won’t complain. A few bruises are nothing compared to saving a life.
We both take great gulps of air as we break the surface, and I draw my dagger, prepared for a fight. The mermaid breaks the water in front of us, propelling near as we’re dragged closer and closer to the ship.
“So beautiful,” Anthony coughs, watching the mermaid with wide eyes. I’m sure what he sees probably is, but that’s the magic of mermaids, especially in Neverland. To him, she looks like an innocent woman, her eyes wide in urgency, her cheeks flushed, her lips plump, everything possible to lure someone into the sea. The problem is, it's not really how mermaids look. It's only their glamour.
“Look closer,” I rasp, the rope at my waist making my breath short.
“What?”
“Look closer.”
We slam into the side of the Jolly Roger hard enough to make my teeth rattle, but my arms don’t let go of Anthony, the boy too enamored by the mermaid to hold onto me in return.
Anthony squints his eyes at the woman. I can tell the moment he sees through the glamour. He jerks back as she flies closer, his arms finally wrapping around my shoulder and holding on for dear life.
“What the bloody hell is that?” he screams. He wraps his legs around me, too, and if it wasn’t such a dangerous situation, I might have laughed.
I remember the first moment I’d seen through a mermaid’s glamour. Peter had dropped me in the ocean at one point long ago, playing his games which were never fun for anyone but him. He let the mermaid get close enough to wrap her claws around me and attempt to drag me under before he “rescued me”. Bastard had laughed as I hacked up seawater, as I blinked away the spots in front of my eyes.
The mermaid had appeared beautiful to me, black hair, red lips, begging eyes. I’d felt sorry for her as she offered to take me away. I hadn’t seen through her appearance until it was almost too late. Pale skin turned mottled green. Pretty blue eyes turned pitch black. Bright red lips peeled back to reveal teeth like a shark. Suddenly, she was no longer a beautiful woman but a monster.
Mermaids are the predators of the sea in Neverland. Like a shark, they can sense a meal miles away, and they’re fast and strong.
The mermaid in front of us opens her mouth in a harsh scream and I hold my dagger out in defense as we’re lifted from the water by the rope.
“Stay back, sea bitch!”
“Give me the boy!” she cries. “Please. I’m so hungry.”
“Go choke on seaweed.”
She screams again and thinks about rushing us. She can’t kill me, not really, but she can certainly hurt me. I’d rather not go through the slow pain of regrowing a limb she ate. Slowly, we’re pulled out of reach, and then strong arms are looping beneath my armpits and dragging the two of us out of the sea.
“Captain, are you a’right?”
“Captain!”
“Can you stand, boy?”
My crew crowds around us, pulling Anthony away to allow me room to breathe. I take great gulps of air and slide my knife away. Pushing my hair from my eyes, I shake as much water from my body as I can. From the sea, unnatural screams sound, letting me know more of the hideous creatures have arrived, hoping for a meal, but they’ve discovered there will be nothing coming from my ship to fill their bellies, not today.
More than a few eyes linger on my wet chest and I curse the rising tension.
“I lost my boots,” I comment as the rain slows for a moment, turning into a mist rather than a downpour.
My crew chuckles and at least five of them offer me the boots from their feet but I shake my head. I have a spare set in my quarters. They’re not my favorite pair, the ones I favored now in the sea for the mermaids to collect, but they’ll do.