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Post by Sally Fitch/Clever Else on May 10, 2013 19:52:59 GMT -5
The door creaked open. A fire was ablaze in the hearth, the room so warm and inviting... with food on the table; a meager peasant's meal but still inviting. Else just looked at it, doubting it's existence, but puzzling over the aroma of the stew...
She heard a light coughing from the room under the loft.
"Father?" she found herself saying. She quickly made her way over to where he would be, only to find an empty bed. There was a pain in her heart at that disappointment; as if seeing an untrue mirage of him would still sooth her. Her head immediately reared when she heard light steps and giggling above her. She ran up the wooden stairs and down the narrow hall to the room she had always shared with her sisters.
But she stopped at the door. That smell... it over-turned her stomach. It was... death... blood... gore... Something she had almost forgotten...something that was only in her worst nightmares... dreaming that she was back in the Sorcerer's castle...
Blood was starting to seep out through under the wooden door of their room. She could hear sobbing now. Her name being cried in desperation.
She backed away. She didn't like where this was going. She just had to remember that none of this was real... but she couldn't help from trembling. And her heart nearly stopped completely when she backed right into him. She didn't even have to turn to know who he was...
"Else, Else, Else..." He murmured. Bringing his soft, regal hands up her shoulders, and to her neck. "Clever Else... my bride..."
The queen was frozen with fear as the sorcerer took in the scent of her hair with an obscene fervor.
"You smell so intoxicating, my love... so delicious..."
"...You're dead." Else finally managed, hoping the truth would make this mirage disappear. "I killed you..."
"Not very well... apparently." He chuckled, slipping a hand to the front of her neck, the rings on his fingers feeling ice cold against her skin. "I want to finish what we started, beloved." He whispered into her ear.
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Post by Captain Killian 'Hook' Jones on May 10, 2013 21:09:45 GMT -5
He stumbled through the grass and thin wood to see a small, but seemingly well lit cottage.... but it was off. The trees and plants all around it were definitely not native to Neverland, and from the window he could see two figures, one about Else's height and the other... he didn't recognize.
He trudged up the hill to the door, pushing it open," Else?" He called, she wasn't in the entry way.... he listened a moment hoping he'd hear something... a sign of where to go, the figures were upstairs weren't they? Hook carefully, and quietly climbed to the top
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Post by Sally Fitch/Clever Else on May 10, 2013 21:28:15 GMT -5
"Time to join your sisters, my little bird..."
A cleaver was suddenly in one of his hands, as he gently edged her towards that stinking door. Else tried dragging her feet, but you can't fight what your mind is telling you is hopeless. They were almost at the door, but she put a boot up against the door frame, desperate to stay out of that room, sure of what her memory would conjure...
"Else?"
She heard it...it was distant... compared to the roaring horror before her... but she had heard it.
"K-... Killian..." she barely managed. She was suddenly thrown against the wall, collapsing to the floor. She looked up to see her assailant; he was as she remembered him... but not... his crimson robes flared out as if they had a mind of their own...his armored hands almost looking like talons.... giving him the appearance of a sort of treacherous bird of prey. Only his ginger hair and beard signified the monstrous man that was seared into her memory. His distinguished handsome looks looked more like a caricature of the man she knew on this creature before her.
But it mimicked him so perfectly.
"Has my little bird been untrue?" He asked, pointing his cleaver at her on the floor. "You are mine... mine alone, Else. Do you understand?" She attempted to crawl away; he laughed with amusement at her attempt. "I'll MAKE you understand..." He pulled her up by the waist, dragging her towards that horrid door.
She knew if she went through that door, she wasn't coming out...
"KILLIAN!" She screamed.
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Post by Captain Killian 'Hook' Jones on May 10, 2013 21:40:21 GMT -5
THAT he heard right away, the shrill cry of his name put volts through him, he charged up the remaining steps and barged into the room he knew se was in.
Before him stood a rather flamboyantly dressed ginger holding a sharp- but bloodied- cleaver in one hand, and Else's waist in the other. Hook could only guess who this was... the magician? A cannibal right? He could have guessed that from the familiar smell of dead human flash stewing in the other room, but other than being a sick individual, his man meant nothing to him.
Hook drew his sword and snarled at his opponent,"Le her go, mate"
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Post by Sally Fitch/Clever Else on May 11, 2013 7:44:15 GMT -5
Sorcerer glanced back at the intruder. "This, my good man, is a PRIVATE affair..." He waved his hand with the cleaver in it, sending that useless sword out of Hook's good hand. "Just turn around and leave, sailor. This is a domestic squabble between the little wife and I..."
Else eyes her closed tight, trying to will away this apparition, but it had it's own will, just like the crocodile did, and only grew stronger from the slightest amount of fear growing within her.
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Post by Captain Killian 'Hook' Jones on May 11, 2013 19:51:11 GMT -5
Hook watch the sword fly off to the side and clatter to the ground, then looked back at the man. This had happened before.... brief blips of the day Rumplestiltskin took Milah's heart flashed through his mind AGAIN, the island playing on both their weaknesses.
But if this magician was anything like The Dark One, he was only a coward, using his powers to prey on the weak and defenseless.
Hook lunged at the man, swinging his arm in an arc and landing his Hook in the mans chest. Not lethal, but it was plunged far enough into his ribs so The Pirate could pull him towards himself and away from Else.
"This isn't the first time I've gotten between a man and his wife," He growled," You're nothing. Nothing but a nightmare, and I'm not afraid of you"
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Post by Sally Fitch/Clever Else on May 11, 2013 22:38:12 GMT -5
The sorcerer looked down at his chest, as if blow might kill him... but he slowly met hook's blue glare with his own golden eyes. He cracked a smirk.
He grabbed hold of Hook and brought him in close to his face. "It doesn't matter if YOU'RE not afraid." He said, glint in his eye, before tossing the pirate over the railing of stairs. Hook landed with a loud thud on his back, upon the meager table of the common area.
"Killian!" Else screamed.
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Post by Captain Killian 'Hook' Jones on May 12, 2013 17:48:49 GMT -5
Pain riveted through Hooks body as he was thrown to the wooden table, he cringed as he pulled himself up.
Damn, this was Else's nightmare, of course.... he'd have next to no sway in what happened to this bastard," Else! This is in your control! You have NOTHING to be afraid of!" he called out to her," He's just like the crocodile!"
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Post by Sally Fitch/Clever Else on May 12, 2013 22:03:01 GMT -5
Else was still left as a cowering little heap on the wooden floor upstairs, but Hook's words reached her. She knew this already... but it didn't seem to affect anything... her sister's room still smelled like fresh death and the sorcerer was making his way down towards Hook, Sharpening his cleaver against his armored fingers.
"Now... usually I prefer the virtue, wisdom, and youth of a beautiful woman... but you appear to posses SOMETHING that appealed to my Else... perhaps I should take it for myself." The evil man laughed. He seemed to be talking about something as natural and commonplace as the weather... not about eating human flesh. "I suppose everyone should indulge once in awhile. Even with complete and utter garbage." He used the cleaver to tip Hook's chin up, inspecting his prey.
It was a small cottage, so Else could hear the Sorcerer threaten Hook. She clenched a fist. It was one thing when it came to her...she felt truly helpless... stuck in an everlasting battle with her own insecurities...
But now Hook was in danger... some one else... someone she cared about. If it had just been her alone in the Sorcerer's castle, she would have been killed for sure; her flesh making the man younger and wiser for another few decades... but her sisters depended on her. It was the only way she had gotten through it all...
Else struggled to her feet and went up to her sister's door without hesitation, dark eyes set with determination. She turned the brass knob and went in...only to find a clean room, as it always was, three beds arranged against the walls. She banished away the dark grisly torture cell that the sorcerer had promised her before. She walked right up to where her bow and quiver hung.
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Post by Captain Killian 'Hook' Jones on May 13, 2013 18:51:57 GMT -5
Had Hook realized how strong this man was- despite his slimmer physique- he may have not engaged him so directly. The cleaver came down and had Hook not caught it in the amount of time he did, he'd be missing his entire arm, not just his hand.
Hook struggled trying to twist away the cleaver from his hand, but the blade continued to come closer, moving to his neck.
"ELSE!" He called, grunting as he managed to slip out from under the line of fire. He rolled off the table, cringing at the hard thud as the cleaver cu into the table.
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Post by Sally Fitch/Clever Else on May 13, 2013 19:19:14 GMT -5
The Sorcerer grunted with frustration at his prey, but he was also very quick. He was once again in front of Hook. Cleaver poised.
"You are a bit of tough meat, aren't you, my good ma-" Before he could finish, an arrow point popped out his chest... right were his heart should be. He looked down at it, astounded, as more popped from his gut and into his arm, making him drop the cleaver. Hook moved his leg just in time to clear it.
The sorcerer looked up at the stairway, seeing Else crouched low to the steps, another arrow poised. He reached out his arm to her, as if expecting tenderness.
"Else..." He rasped.
She replied with an arrow to his right eye. And as the convincing mirage screamed the most inhuman scream, she lifted her current arrow to a wall lantern, lighting it ablaze, and shooting it at his voluminous robes. He lit ablaze so easily, as if made of paper. He staggered about, dragging his burning robes across wooden floor, leaving a trail of fire.
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Post by Captain Killian 'Hook' Jones on May 13, 2013 19:43:09 GMT -5
Hook quickly got to his feet and grabbed Else, they needed to get away from the fire- it was spreading so quickly, consuming everything.
They ran down the stairs and out into the grass, a distance away. The two tumbled into the grass, Hook shielding Else from the heat the best he could.
Inside he was terrified, having no control over that setting, he knew Else had felt the same with the crocodile.... He shut his wide eyes and clutched Else to his chest, breathing hard.
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Post by Sally Fitch/Clever Else on May 14, 2013 16:38:24 GMT -5
Hook held on to her, and she held back. He was, after all, the reason they were alive. Indirectly so, but still the source. He finally looked up at her; what did one say to another after experiencing that...
"...You left me." Else managed. "I woke up... and you were gone..." With only her darker thoughts to keep her company and manifest themselves.
She still had the bow and quiver of arrows. For once she didn't question the impossibility of their existence. She clutched them closer. The light from the burning house was getting brighter, an inhuman scream echoing in the night from that little cottage. She closed her eyes tight and covered her ears, knowing that sound too well.
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Post by Captain Killian 'Hook' Jones on May 14, 2013 16:50:38 GMT -5
"I..." He blinked, and then let out a breath looking away, cringing at the sound of that scream" I couldn't sleep, not with being so close to the sound of children's tears,"
It had reminded him of Bae, the boy he'd given away, let the lost boys run off with as soon as Hook couldn't argue with him anymore, convince him to stay. As soon as it was too hard.
He'd tried to convince himself that Bae had made his own , Hooks land he'd be considered responsible for himself, 'of age' technically. But the guilt followed him into the night along with so many other dark thoughts, and he couldn't hide behind rum to make them go away.
"It won't happen again- let's just... let's go back to the woods" He whispered, pulling her away from the fire
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Post by Sally Fitch/Clever Else on May 14, 2013 17:23:36 GMT -5
Else let Hook pull her along. She looked back, at the glow, still hearing that distant scream, but as she turned back towards the coolness of the island forest... it faded away to nothing, as if it had never existed. Her gaze was far off, as the sound of crying children grew closer.
The pirate seemed to be leading them TOWARDS it. The queen looked up at his profile, but saw that it was unreadable. She clutched at her newly acquired bow tighter.
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