Devourer of Men: A Captain Hook, Crocodile, and Wendy Darling Reimagining

I lurch awake surrounded by darkness.

I stumble to one of the oil lamps and light it with a match. A flickering gold light fills my quarters.

I grab a nearby glass of unfinished rum and sling it back, then turn to the bed to check on Wendy and Roc.

Except there is only one figure curled in the sheets.

Where is Roc? How long has it been? He shouldn’t be awake yet.

Beyond my quarters, there is a crash, then a thud.

I hurry down the hall. The ship heaves over a wave and I bang against the wall.

Another crash.

When I emerge in the dining room, I find Roc hunched over a table and on the floor is one of my men—or rather, half of one.

“What the bloody hell is going on?”

The ship rolls again. I widen my stance, bracing myself. Several dishes fall from the table, shattering on the floor.

Roc rights himself. His eyes are glowing yellow.

“What are you doing?” I yell at him.

“Captain.”

“You can’t go around eating my men!”

“Captain,” he says again.

“What?!”

He flashes to his beastly form, then back to his solid form.

I surge forward once the ship rights itself, but when I grab Roc by the arm, he disintegrates in my grip like he’s nothing but ocean mist.

“Something is wrong,” he rasps and then shifts again.

The ship crests a wave and Roc stumbles toward me, but he goes right through me like a ghost.

I turn around just in time to see him re-solidify and crash into a table. When I come up on him, he’s blurred again, but there is a face swirling in his mist.

The Myth Maker witch.

Christ.

“What’s happening?” I ask again.

He clutches at my jacket, his yellow eyes wide.

There is terror in his gaze.

“What do I do?” I ask him, desperate for something, desperate to save him.

I can feel him shaking as if he can’t quite hold himself together.

“I need Vane. I need my brother. Take me—” He sucks in a breath. “Take me back to Neverland.”