Hooked

Hook was shaken awake by Ariel and before he could find out if something was wrong, he realized the sun was rising. His eyes met Ariel’s and he took in her appearance. She was dirty, her hair tangled and dark circles under her eyes but she was still beautiful.

“Killian?” she asked. Silently he stood before offering Ariel his hand to help her off of the ground.

“We should get moving,” he said, looking around them. “We need to figure out how we’re all going to get out of Neverland once we’ve taken care of Pan and gotten Henry.”

“You mean we don’t have a way back?” she questioned, concern filling her eyes.

“Not at the moment, unfortunately,” he said. “Unless you have any ideas?”

She thought hard, remembering that she had left Neverland before… but how?

“Baelfire,” she finally spoke, her gaze locking on Killian’s. His eyes widened in surprise and she continued. “He helped me when he was here… He found me after Eric—after… he gave me some food and helped me get to the Enchanted Forest.”

“The Enchanted Forest?”

“I hadn’t had my legs for long,” she answered. “I wanted to explore new places. And well, get away from any chances of running into Eric.”

“So how did you get there?” Killian questioned.

“Baelfire captured Pan’s shadow,” she answered, eyes growing dark as she remembered. She shuttered visibly. “We’ll have to go to Dark Hollow if we want to capture it.”

“I don’t see any other options,” Killian said, glancing at the trees behind them. “So how do we capture Pan’s shadow?”

“We’re going to need to get something first,” she said, also glancing around to get her bearings. This cove was familiar to her and she needed to know where she was going. “Follow me.”

---

They walked quickly, mostly in silence, for a while before Ariel came to a sudden halt.

“This is it,” she said, moving aside some brush before revealing the opening to a hidden cave.

“I know this place,” Killian said. “This is where Baelfire lived.”

“You know him too,” she asked. Killian nodded his head silently and followed Ariel into the cave.

Immediately she began digging through the small amount of items that were there. Killian watched her intently, noting the careful way she moved things around.

“Found it!” she exclaimed, holding up what appeared to be a regular coconut.

“A coconut is going to help us leave this island?” he questioned, eyebrow rising in amusement.

“Not just any coconut.” She pulled it apart, revealing a candle inside. “You light the candle, which will attract the shadow, and when it gets sucked into the light, you just put the top back on and you’ve got yourself a ticket out of here.”

“You make it sound so easy, sweetheart,” Killian said. “Though I’m sure that this task will prove to be quite difficult.”

---

They made their way through the forest as quickly as they could, getting mixed up a few times. But all too soon they arrived at Dark Hollow and Ariel shivered and felt Killian tense up behind her. Anyone in their right mind would be uncomfortable here; there was a noticeable chill in the air and an eerie light to it that created various shadows around them, but the one they were looking for wasn’t there.

“Do we wait for the shadow to show up?” Killian asked, glancing around them warily. “Or do we need to do anything to summon it?”

“It will most likely show up soon,” Ariel said, pulling the coconut apart. “We just need to get this candle lit.”

Ariel pulled off her pack and kneeled on the ground as she opened up one of the pockets, reaching in a hand and digging around. After less than a minute of searching she pulled out a book of matches she had found when she had been packing and figured would come in handy.

She opened it quickly, tearing off one of the matches and striking along the rough strip on the back in an attempt to light it. She’d never really had any experience with matches but she had seen other people light them… These ones just didn’t want to cooperate.

She sighed in exasperation as she tore off another match to try and light that one when a yell from Killian startled her suddenly. She turned just in time to see him being lifted off the ground by a shadow—Pan’s shadow—and being slammed into a tree.

“Killian!” she exclaimed, matches forgotten as panic rose up in her.

“Ariel—hurry!” Killian managed to get out before the shadow started choking him.

Hands shaking, Ariel returned to the matches, now frantically trying to light one. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes, believing that this may be it. If she couldn’t light this match neither of them would have to worry about getting off this island…

Killian was making pained noises somewhere behind her and it took all of Ariel’s concentration not to turn around and look. She needed to succeed, to light this candle; not just for their sake, but for everyone. Their whole group needed to be able to leave this place.

And finally, there it was. Fire. She barely had time to celebrate this feat as she quickly lit the candle. She stood up carefully and held out the coconut with the lit candle, the top half in her other hand. It didn’t take long for the shadow to notice and it immediately dropped Killian who fell to the ground with a thump and a grunt.

The shadow quickly descended toward her, straight for the candle. And just as quickly it was sucked into the flame and Ariel wasted no time in putting the top of the coconut in place, sealing the shadow inside. She hurriedly found something to tie around the coconut as extra security before carefully setting the coconut on the ground and hurrying to Killian who was just standing up.

When she was close enough she wrapped her arms around him, holding onto him tightly. She felt his arms around her not a moment later, gently pulling her closer.

“I thought that this was going to be it,” she mumbled into the leather of his jacket, happy that they had succeeded and that they were both still alive.

“It’ll take more than a shadow to take down me,” he said, pulling back a bit to smile down at her. She quickly returned it before leaning up enough so that her lips met his for a light, quick kiss.

“We should find the others,” she said. “Once we have Henry, we can go home.”