Forever Cursed

by Sarah J. Pepper

  I took note of an ink stain on his wrist. Skull and crossbones were tattooed on his forearm. I didn’t have to look closer to know there was a dagger pierced in one of the skull’s eyes—the crest of Neverland’s monarch. I knew the Monarch of Neverland branded his men, but I never suspected Mario to pledge his allegiance.

  “Cimarrón,” I purred. “Mario, it’s been far too long.”

  “You’re trespassing on mi tierra, Tinker Bell,” Mario snapped and then pointed a small knife at me.

  I fought the urge to strike him for uttering that name. James barely raised his arm, it was enough to keep me rooted in place. I would follow him. I trusted him, but damn it, I hated hearing my name spoken aloud.

  “You are willing to live here?” James jested, but his eyes were locked on the weapon in Mario’s hand. I could practically see the multitude of ways James was calculating to disarm him.

  “Marooner’s Rock is no place for the living,” Mario growled. His voice used to roll with vibrato, now it was dull. Muted even. “I never thought I’d have the opportunity to face you again. So, I’ve long stopped contemplating the many diverse methods in which I’d kill you, but rest assured I’m still quite imaginative.”

  Chapter 2

  Miss Bell

  James didn’t move.

  The muscles of his body had to be at war with themselves, flexed and stiff, yet unmovable. As still as he was, physically, I would bet my life that his mind was racing as to what to do with Mario and that knife he insisted on pointing at me.

  Though, I did deserve it.

  What penance would make up for a lifetime sentence on Neverland? Mario was my very first victim, though he bore no crow’s feet. His hair had not grayed. It was still a luscious black, as were his eyelashes. The darkening of his complexion and the fading of his clothes were the only testaments that time had passed.

  “Is it not odd how the sun turns some things dark and others light?” I asked, watching Mario step off the bleached bones and walk closer to James and me.

  “Now is hardly the time for a philosophical debate, Miss Bell,” James groaned, stepping in front of me as though the knife Mario was clinging to somehow changed everything.

  It changed nothing.

  Perhaps it just shed light on our situation. We had been condemned to Neverland, of which there was only one way off, and it involved fairy dust and a tattoo needle. Of which, I would never allow fairy dust of my ancestors tattooed on my skin. The creatures on the island had every right to hate me and the witches of the sea blamed me for their own misery. A boy whom I created in my own shadow hunted us. Death and destruction followed him.

  As they did with me.

  “Best be putting that weapon down, lad,” James warned. “Death will come for us all. You don’t need to provoke it.”

  “Some call fairies portadores de la muerte,” Mario said, crossing the sand dunes. His voice echoed in the cannon. “But they are wrong. Fairies don’t bring la muerte, even if you beg for it. They bring you here to live in misery. And then they trap you here, on Marooner’s Rock.”

  “You named it after yourself?” I scoffed.

  “She named it,” Mario said.

  That made much more sense. I glanced over my shoulder. No mermaids were in sight.

  “Feck, is she not you?” James asked me.

  Honestly, how was he not keeping up? I replied, “A mermaid. He is a pet.”

  His eyes darkened. “Like Hope was?” he asked of the woman whose freedom I negotiated, costing me a mermaid tear.

  I nodded, glancing at the tattooed monarch’s crest on Mario’s forearm. “It appears so, but before he must have sworn his alliance elsewhere.”

  “Balls,” James groaned.

  “I do what I must to survive!” Mario yelled.

  “What does the monarch think about your underwater master?” I asked.

  He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. Groaning, he suddenly rambled Spanish obscenities in frustration. “No es posible escapar!” He yelled out, his screams echoed long after he abandoned his fit of rage. “I cannot speak my mind. I cannot leave. I cannot escape. I cannot even end my own life! She forbids it. And even if I could, he would not take me back.”

  “The monarch, I presume? Why wouldn’t he take you back?”

  “Because he is enchanted by some mermaid,” I replied for Mario since he couldn’t speak that answer. It seemed that whatever mermaid had enchanted him, demanded he not reveal much of anything. “Am I wrong to believe the monarch will not take you back because the mermaid ordered you to spy on him?”

  His furrowed brow was all I needed for an answer. I turned to James and said, “Kaleo, the Mermaid doyenne—a queen of sorts—and Kensington, the first resident of Neverland, and the monarch, as he named himself, do not get along.”

  “You act like you are not to blame for their hatred,” Mario seethed.

  “I simply did what was requested,” I replied. “How was I to know what repercussions would follow?” I snapped back.

  “What you should be asking is why you didn’t kill me when you had the chance,” Mario bellowed. “Because I will be the one who ends your life now.”

  “Stand down, lad,” James said, again trying to draw Mario’s attention to him.

  Mario glanced at my captain. The corners of his eyes pinched when he saw the bandages covering what was left of James’ arm. James went utterly still. He must have seen it too and was trying to control himself.

  “You defend a monster. She only brought you here to gain magical power before dying away,” Mario said and then stared at me, laughing. “Is that sand on your feet, fairy? You were foolish enough to touch down?”

  I bit my tongue and swallowed the bile rising in my throat. He must die. I anticipated that others would learn of my anchorage to the island soon enough, but I thought that James’ arm wouldn’t still be so fresh.

  “He mustn’t tell anyone,” I whispered to James.

  “Then death has already found him,” James said. “Get to the water. There might be others and…just stay there.”

  “But your hand…” I trailed off when he gave me a look I deciphered as stop bloody talking.

  “Go,” James instructed.

  I slipped around him and inched along the water’s edge. My captain bent down, kneeling by a pile of bones. He picked one up and lightly held it in his hand.

  “I never thought I’d see the day. A fairy tamed by a man,” Mario chuckled.

  “Tamed?” James spoke the very word I was thinking. I would not be tamed. I was not tamed. “I can assure you that the wild is still very much alive in Miss Bell.”

  “Yet she obeys you.” Mario marveled.

  “That’s not obedience, lad,” James chuckled.

  “Then what is it?” he asked, staring at me as the oiled waves hit my feet. I dared not go any further. Foam had already begun to collect around my ankles.

  James smirked, and for a moment the darkness in his gaze clouded over his humanity. “Fear.”

  When he uttered that word, my insides churned. It was the truth. The unapologetic truth. I wanted to run, to flee, to do any number of horrible things to Mario to make sure that my secret didn’t get out. Not yet. And my captain understood that even before I acknowledged it myself.

  “She fears you?” Mario snapped.

  “Does it look like she fears me?” James replied.

  With their eyes on me, I stood perfectly still, hands clenched by my sides. Wind whipped around me, throwing bits of foam into the air. I concentrated on it until I could see each individual piece. My hair fluttered in my face, but I didn’t lose focus.

  “Leave,” I demanded. “Crawl back to whatever horrid piece of land you’ve been squatting on, and I’ll allow you to live.”

  “Afraid not,” Mario sneered. “Not until I get off this island, which means I’ll be needing those pretty black bones of yours, Tinker-”

  “It’s Bell now, cimarrón. And you will keep your filthy
hands off me!” I snapped and took a deep breath to try to calm the rage brimming over. It was harder to keep myself in check living on this island. It called to the darkness inside me and I was getting tired of holding back.

  My victim pointed his knife at James, creasing his brow. His gaze darted from James to me. “Keep me from collecting her bones and I’ll take more off that arm of yours.”

  “A mere cut,” James scoffed. He inched closer. “I’d warn you that I am one of the best swordsmen of the Seven Seas.”

  “We’re far from those parts.” The men took fighting stances. “You’re in Neverland now. Where bitches like her send evil like us. They collect us, placing us on this fucking island like trinkets. There’s only one way on and off this hellhole, and the magic lies in that cursed woman’s bones.”

  James charged. Armed with a bone, he swung at Mario. It was a far cry from a sword, and James was not as skilled with his less dominant hand, but he was not harmless by any means. He commanded his body like it was a weapon.

  Mario jabbed at him with the knife. Still quick on his feet, James ducked and spun into Mario. He grabbed Mario’s wrist and jerked down. The knife fell.

  Suddenly the cannon trembled. The sand shook, covering the knife beneath the sand. Thorns began to free themselves of their boulders. Some slowly fell as gravity tried to maintain power over them. Once they touched down, the sand burst outward in an explosion of golden gravel and pulverized bone. A dense fog hung in the air. I licked my lips, breathing in the frustration and anger that hung in the air like the fog.

  Mario drove his fingers into the bloody wad covering James’ wound. James emptied a mouthful of curse words and stumbled back.

  “It’s death you want? I promise you’ll die soon enough!” I yelled, distracting Mario from James.

  Mario’s eyes narrowed to crinkled slits. “I will enjoy killing you.”

  “Your mermaid would allow that?” I scoffed.

  “She may just release me if I bring her your dead body,” he yelled.

  I clenched my hands, the fog hanging in the air compacted, making it difficult to breathe. It slowed Mario’s movements, giving James time to react.

  Tackling Mario to the ground, James scrabbled to grab a broken leg bone from the ground and swung. Hard. It cracked as it connected with Mario’s temple. As soon as Mario fell backward, James shoved the splintered, broken end through Mario’s chest.

  I relaxed. The wind followed suit. Gently, the sand fell to the ground like snow. It covered the exposed bones like a blanket, hiding the horror. A weight I hadn’t known was there lifted from my shoulders. A small part of Neverland didn’t look so execrable.

  “You wanted death, now you will have it,” James said.

  Mario wheezed, coughing up blood. I never saw a man smile like he’d just been given peace until now.

  James gripped the bone to free it from the dying man’s chest when Mario grabbed his hand. “You’re a fool to trust a fairy. She will betray you,” Mario warned. “No wicked creature that was created from this evil origin can have a good bone in her body, even if you do grind them to dust, curses remain.”

  “With fairy dust, you can leave this place,” James stated.

  I recalled the first part of the curse I’d admitted to James so long ago. The island is a powerful prison, trapping them in its dark magic. It is said that only the dust of a fairy’s bones can change that truth.

  Mario wheezed. “That’s only half of it—”

  I tightened my fist. The remaining fog which hung in the air tightened around Mario’s throat. He couldn’t get the last words out before death finally welcomed him. Breathing out, I released my hold on the air and its properties. Gravity regained its strength and pulled everything to the ground. The earth under my feet shook, and I fell backward into the water.

  When the dust settled, I watched silently as James knelt beside Mario and closed his eyes. After whispering a prayer, he clutched his arm. Sand had caked onto the wound, making it appear like melted gold.

  James’ chest heaved. His arm tucked against himself as he stood. Blood dripped from the soaked cloth. But he never whined. Never protested. Never commented about the pain. It would only suffice to warrant my point that he needed the tears far worse than I needed my wings back. Though, that was a fight for another time.

  “He wanted to die,” James acknowledged, grabbing the knife Mario dropped.

  “He wasn’t yours to kill!” a voice shrieked from behind me. “Why do you always take my pets from me?”

  “Tethys.” I acknowledged the mermaid without turning around.

  “You take what is not yours to have,” Tethys growled. “You will see what it feels like to be robbed of your human when I make him my pet!”

  My heart sank. A sense of dread washed over me. I thought I lost my captain months ago to the sea. I would not lose him again. My fingers went numb. My breath turned cold. My body hummed with the rush of anticipated dread of losing my everything when I saw that his eyes were not closed.

  “He will be easy to take from you,” Tethys snickered.

  Glancing over my shoulder, I faced her. Her streaky black hair fell over her face, nearly covering her red, serpent eyes. I eyed her blue-green tail cautiously. In water, mermaids were powerful creatures and it would be my mistake to underestimate them. Even so, I would end her life if she tried to curse James.

  I vowed, “If you enchant my captain, I will hunt you down and—”

  “Promises. Promises,” she hissed, sneering wide enough to show off her pointed teeth.

  I scrambled up to attack, but something grabbed my leg. It felt like daggers driving into my skin. I opened my mouth as a scream tore from my throat, but it was silenced in a sea of water as another mermaid dragged me deeper into the abyss. Tethys wasn’t alone. She’d brought reinforcements, and I played right into their trap.

  Chapter 3

  Miss Bell

  He was not yours to kill.

  Tethys’ comment echoed in my mind as the other mermaid sunk her claw-like nails further into my leg, dragging me deeper underwater. I leaned forward and tried to tear her grip away, but the force at which she swam was too much. I got a mouthful of salt water. My hold slipped each time I tried to grab her jet-black tail.

  Her clawed nails had sunk into my thigh, tethering me to her. The saltwater poured into the wound, stinging like there was dripping acid embedded in her nail beds. I pounded my fists against her tail, but it didn’t faze her. Memories of the finned beasts ripping apart ships board by board flooded my mind. She could easily tear me limb from limb. But she didn’t. She was keeping me alive.

  Why?

  That thought sent my nerves on fire. I needed to get away, to escape. But underwater was their territory, not mine. I could beckon the winds, release a fury of fire, and manipulate water; but even I had my limitations. I wasn’t as strong as them—not here—not underwater.

  I would not drown, I promised myself. The promise tasted like a lie in my mouth even though I hadn’t spoken it. The water pressure on my chest felt like my ribs were cracking. Desperately, I looked around, trying to find something—anything—I could use as a weapon to beat her off me. My eyes burned as I strained to see. The glossy top of the water’s surface barely let in any light, and when it did, it cast rainbows. The edges of my sight darkened.

  The water cooled rapidly. In a matter of seconds, my body temperature dropped significantly. The freezing waters seeped into every crevice of my body. The bubbles that left my mouth didn’t float to the surface, they fell. The water around the air had turned to ice. They slowly cast downward, as did my gaze.

  Suddenly, the mermaid jerked me down so I could see her blood-red eyes. Her white hair drifted outward, and somehow in the darkness of the sea, her skin reflected even the smallest light. It made her skin appear to be covered with tiny scales. It was a harsh contrast to the black scales of her black tail.

  “Welcome to Davey Jones’ Locker,” she laughed and releas
ed me.

  Tethys swam up next to the ghostly mermaid. “Consider yourself honored, Tinker Bell. Alessia doesn’t allow many women down here,” Tethys said, exchanging a look with Alessia. A smile spread wide on her face when she looked down at me. “Alessia maintains the locker for our mermaid monarch, Kaleo. But after Alessia heard of your nasty habit of stealing my pets from me, she insisted you come here.”

  Alessia swam back, so I could take in the horror of the locker. It was the place where they dragged the natives from shore, pirates from their warships, and sailors from their ports. Named after the only man who got away from them, Davy Jones’ Locker was a dark, desolate place littered with bodies. They were suspended in the water, hanging there like disgusting trophies, and perfectly preserved with the look of shock on their faces as they died.

  “Your captain would make a nice addition to our collection,” Alessia snickered.

  My chest tightened at the thought of him drifting amongst the others, his lifeless expression… I couldn’t bear it. The thought of him dying, losing him again, was one thing my soul couldn’t bear; but the notion of him preserved like this, amongst other nameless victims, was a fate undeserved. I reached up, frantic to make it to the surface when someone rammed into my side, whipping me around. A mermaid with salmon colored skin and a shimmery yellow tail hit me hard enough to knock the remaining air out of me. Before I could stop myself, I cried out in pain. My eyes burned as the blackness closed in around the edges more. My head pounded. I was losing consciousness.

  I pushed away from her just as Tethys pummeled into me. Her body slammed into mine, but the impact she brought was nothing compared to the whiplash of her tail. Her fins smacked my chin, throwing me backward. Water filled my lungs, sending me into a coughing frenzy. And then her tail came down on my head. My back cracked. Dizziness washed over me. I tried to get away again, but soon a swarm of mermaids were around me, ramming me with their tails. Sleep beckoned me. I just wanted to close my eyes for a moment…then I heard Tethys’ laugh.