“Vera,” James says leaning closer to me. “I won’t have it.”
I smirk at him as he leans over the boat. His hand is braced against the edge. I reach out, tracing a finger over his hand next to the bandage and leaving a wet trail on his hand. “Sorry but I owe you one.”
“I’m not going to be responsible for your death,” he protests.
“And I won’t be responsible for yours. If you think about it, I made that crocodile. If it eats you then that’s on me.”
James frowns deeply as he sinks back into the rowboat. Just like undersea, I have no difficulty seeing his expression even though it’s night. There is a blueish light all around us, like the kind that you would see in a movie, reminding me that we are in a strange world where anything is possible. “So, what do we do if neither of us is willing to kill the other, but that’s our fate anyway?”
I curl my fingers into a soggy fist. “We fight fate. This story is going to have a happy ending, James, I swear it.”
When I get back home, I’m changing the ending for Hook and Moira. Maybe they deserve more than just glimpsing their chance at happiness before they destroy it.
I’m tired of living a tragedy.
It’s time that I finally take control of my life and make it a funner story. A comedy or perhaps a romance.
I shake my head and dip into the water, to help wash that ridiculous idea away. Good grief, you survive life and death with a guy and suddenly you get all delusional.
As I surface, I turn my attention to the sky and the silvery stars over our head. There are exactly two. In fact, the only spot of light in the whole sky are those two stars.
“If we can get to the heart of Neverland and wish upon the second star… we will have our wish, James.” I reach out, grasping his nearest hand, which happens to be his hook. It seems safer than grabbing his actual hand anyway, afriendly gesture but not at all romantic. I rub my thumb over the curve of steel. “That’s how Naia and Frederick got back home in the script. And that’s how we will get home now.”
“That’s a lovely sentiment and all, but wouldn’t the heart of Neverland be in the… I don’t know, center of the island?”
I nod. “Yes, and?”
James clears his throat and then gestures awkwardly at my tail. “It’s just, how exactly do you expect us to get there? It isn’t as though I can carry you the whole way.”
