A Tale That Could Not Be

Selvina had no idea how long the hurricane lasted but when it finally, graciously, ended she had lost all feeling in her arms and her stomach was completely empty. She lay flat on the ground under the table that had been her anchor throughout the storm and listened to the beating of her heart. Rapunzel’s hair had held strong and she, Snow White and Goldilocks had fared rather well. Wendy had lost grip of the table leg at one point in the storm and was bruised and battered but had miraculously suffered no severe injuries. The windows were cracked but they too had remained intact.

“I will forever cherish the thunderstorms and blizzards back home,” Selvina said, her voice muffled from the carpeted floor. “I never want to experience another hurricane ever again.”

Wendy, seated nearby, smiled. “They aren’t always this bad and to be honest I’m amazed the ship didn’t sink. We are lucky.”

“Lucky?” Goldilocks asked from her position on the newly reconstructed pile of pillows. “We’re stuck on Pan’s bloody ship! I heard him laughing out there like a damned maniac! I’d consider us lucky if the treacherous bastard had been killed.”

The door suddenly swung open and the devil himself floated into the room. “Killed? You aren’t so lucky, dear Goldilocks! I am alive and well and I simply cannot wait until another storm like that hits us. Aren’t they just fun?!”

“Aye, about as fun as pool of crocodiles…”

“I had one of those once! I even called one Hook because he had a really curved tooth. He tried to bite me too, like the real Hook, so I killed him and ate him. It’s true what they say; they do taste like chicken!”

“You’re a godsdamned nutcase, you are.”

“Pish posh, wish wash, you delightful little Easterner! I do love your accent, especially when you try to insult me.” Before Goldilocks could say anything else Pan had sped to her side and placed his knife against her throat. Selvina flipped over and sat up so quickly she nearly bumped her head on the underside of the table. She noticed Wendy’s body tense and both Rapunzel and Snow White were eyeing Pan intently, their eyes wide with fear. He watched them all with that disturbing grin on his face and then burst out laughing. His whole body rocked and his knife’s blade kept tapping dangerously against Goldilock’s skin.

“What do you want, Pan?” Wendy asked with a frown on her bruised face.

Pan, as if completely forgetting about Goldilocks, sheathed his knife and hovered to where Wendy sat. He grabbed her face in his hands, eliciting a wince of pain from her, and pursed his lips together. “You poor thing,” he said with exaggerated concern, as if talking to a baby, “look at all these ugly bruises on your pretty self. I do hope she still takes you despite your despicable outward appearance.” His eyes suddenly snapped wide open and a great smile stretched from ear to ear. “That reminds me why I came here!” He let Wendy go and flew to the open door, gesturing for the girls to follow. “Come, come, come!!! I want to show you something!”

The five girls exchanged confused and worried glances before Pan set his feet on the ground and started tapping them impatiently. No one wanted to know the limits of his patience so reluctantly but eventually they all stood up and followed him to the deck of the ship.

Pieces of canvas and broken bits of wood littered the main deck as pirates busied themselves cleaning it and fixing whatever was broken. The sky was grey and made the ocean appear black as a light but cool wind blew over its surface and tussled the hair of everyone who had some.

Selvina noticed Eric flipping over an overturned cannon with the help of another pirate. He was as skinny as always but appeared uninjured, at least no more than he usually was. Once the cannon was flipped back on its wheels he wiped his brow and glanced over at the girls, greeting them with a nod and a smile. Selvina smiled back briefly before Pan started speaking again.

He was pointing down the ship at a dark shape far ahead. “Look straight ahead, girls! There, rising out of the horizon is our destination!”

Selvina fixed her gaze on the dark shape that could be nothing else but a large island. Pan guided the girls to the bow of the ship and ordered them to stay there as he dealt with his damaged ship. Gripping anything they could to keep themselves steady as the ship dipped and bobbed in the waves, the five young women studied the dark island in the distance.

“Do any of you know that island?” Rapunzel asked, twirling the fingers of one hand nervously through her hair.

Goldilocks and Snow White shook their heads. Selvina shrugged and looked at Wendy, expecting a similar reaction, but instead saw narrowed eyes and a face paler than usual.

“I might be mistaken,” she started, “but that might be Skull Island.”

“Skull Island?” Selvina asked as her mind rekindled memories of a similar name from storybooks she had read in the past. “Don’t you mean Skull Rock?”

“Skull Island, Skull Rock; what’s the bloody difference?” Goldilocks asked, her voice higher than usual. She appeared uncharacteristically frightened. “They all sound like murder to me.”

“Working at Neverland Inn,” Wendy started, “I would hear tales from sailors and seamen of all sorts and I remember hearing of Skull Island only once. I was serving a table of old captains and one of them, someone I had never seen before, was telling them about it. He said that he had weathered a fierce storm and had been in need of repairs and just before he was about to abandons ship he caught sight of the island.”

“Did he land on it?” Selvina asked as the other three girls listened intently, occasionally glancing at the ominous landmass slowly enlarging before them.

“He took a hunting party ashore for food and supplies and found plenty of good lumber for his ship and lots of animals to hunt. They ventured deeper, curious to know more about the island, and that’s when he said he came across a huge mountain in the shape of a skull. That’s when he realized where he was and I remember the way his face turned white at what he said next.” Wendy looked up and eyed the island, her back straight and her fingers clenching the gunwale tightly.

“Well, don’t leave us hanging like that,” Goldilocks said hurriedly. “Bloody well spit it out already! What happened?!”

Wendy took a deep breath before continuing. “They found creatures on the island, huge and dangerous ones. He said some looked like crocodiles that walked on two legs while others were gigantic insects. He lost men to some of them but before he could reach the shore his hunting party was attacked by the most dangerous of all the creatures. He described it as a huge ape, thirty feet or so high, with black fur, a silver back, and unstoppable rage. It killed his hunting party, tossed him into a tree like a doll, and then roared and beat its chest with its knuckles before slipping back into the forest, gone like a ghost. He managed to crawl back to shore to his rowboat where he hid for days before the rest of his men, still on his ship, finally came to inspect why the hunting party hadn’t returned. Some of them wanted to go search for survivors but he wanted none of it. He and his men grabbed what supplies and food was already gathered and sailed away, never looking back.”

“She,” Rapunzel breathed, fear clinging to the word like frost. Her chest heaved and her breath quickened as the implications of what that meant slowly crept into everyone’s mind. “That’s who Pan’s talking about! That’s the she! That ape!”

Selvina’s body froze and she gulped down a small fraction of the terror gripping her. “Why would he sail us all this way to sacrifice us to a huge ape? It doesn’t make sense, even for Pan.”

“Why else would he?”

“I don’t know, Rapunzel, but I have a feeling it’s something else. I don’t know why I think so, I just do.”

Pan returned then, grinning as always. He noticed the fearful expressions on the girls and raised an eyebrow. “Now what has all of you flustered? Is it the island? Now I know you all enjoyed our wonderful sea voyage but it has finally come to an end. I’d be glad to take you on another once this is all over.”

“Once this is all over?” Rapunzel asked curiously.

“Well yes, I won’t leave you in the island forever.”

“So you aren’t going to sacrifice us to that big ape?” asked Goldilocks.

“Big ape? Oh, you mean the king of the island? No, no, no, no, no, no I would never do that to such pretty little things as you girls. He can have the top of the island. I’m taking you inside of it.”

“Inside of it?” Selvina questioned, utterly confused.

“Yes! There is a very special queen that I want you all to meet. She lets me hunt for fairies in her forests if I give her pretty girls to play with. When she gets bored of them she either beheads them or gives them back to me. I’ll try to make sure she gives back at least most of you.”

“So instead of giving us to that ape, you’ll give us to that bloody queen as playthings?” growled Goldilocks. “I’d rather take my chances with the ape!”

“She especially likes blondes,” Pan said, grabbing a tress of Goldilock’s hair in his hand. She tried to pull it away from him but he tugged back forcefully and she soon stopped. “You and Selly are going to make her really happy. She both loves and hates blondes for some reason. I think one of them really messed things up for her once. Her name was Ally, I think, or maybe Alix? I can’t remember.”

Pieces of the puzzle began to fit together in her mind and before Selvina could stop herself she breathed the name, “Alice…”

“Yes! That was it! You girls better keep that name to yourselves, though, or she might get very angry and behead you all on the spot. Anyhow, get back to the cabin and stay there until I say so. My men are starting to look at you all with hungry eyes and I’d rather not have to kill any more of them.”

“More of them?”

“What did you think I was doing as you were all staring at the island? Some of the men had sinful looks in their eyes and I won’t stand for that so I killed them and tossed them overboard. You didn’t hear any of that?”

Selvina wanted to puke. “You…you killed your own men for looking at us?”

“They’re hardly my men. They are their own men but yes, I killed them for looking at you. They know not to do that.”

Selvina remembered when Eric had smiled at her and the other girls and thanked whatever gods were in this world that Pan had not seen that. The poor man didn’t deserve to die, especially just for looking and smiling. She gazed behind Pan, along the length of the ship, and saw him nailing a board over a hole in the deck. He and the other men were keeping their eyes locked on whatever they were doing and not averting their gaze for anything. Selvina wondered what it was that kept them on the ship. Why did they choose to work for Pan? How could they willingly help such a dangerously unstable maniac?

“Selvina,” Wendy whispered as she grabbed the teen’s arm and gave it a tug. The other women were walking across the ship and heading back to the captain’s cabin. “We have to go.”

Selvina nodded and followed Wendy back in the captain’s cabin, glancing at the men she passed by in amazement. Even when she accidentally bumped into one there was no reaction. He didn’t utter a word or even appeared to acknowledge her existence. It was as if she and the other women were invisible. She glanced at Eric but there was no smile to be had from him this time.

“Well that was creepier than I would have liked,” Goldilocks said once they were back in the cabin and the door was closed. She hurried back to the pile of pillows and buried herself within, leaving only her head visible.

Rapunzel and Snow White sat against the pillows as Wendy and Selvina huddled nearby, wrapping blankets around each other. For several minutes no one spoke, every woman struggling to quell the fear and uncertainty plaguing their minds.

“What do you know of the island, Selvina?” Rapunzel asked, her honey-smooth voice shattering the silence.

Selvina looked at her shrugged. “Not much, really.”

“You knew that blonde’s name,” Goldilocks said. “Alice, right? How did you know that?”

“I just remember a story about a girl named Alice who met a queen that liked to behead people. She didn’t go on any island, though, so it was just a lucky coincidence.”

“I don’t believe in those,” Snow White said, her quiet voice heard for the first time that day.

“In any case, we’ll be on that island soon and have to deal with huge apes and giant bugs.”

“Reminds me of Neverland Inn,” Wendy said with a light smirk.

Selvina was surprised to find a smile on her face but was grateful for it all the same. “Somehow I don’t think those apes are going to settle for some stew and ale.”

“Unless we’re in the stew,” frightened Rapunzel corrected.

Wendy and Selvina exchanged glances of concern. The older of the two sat closer to the young woman with the impossibly long hair and gripped her hands in hers. “We won’t become food for anything, Rapunzel. We can’t lose hope.”

“Easier said than done,” Goldilocks mumbled wryly.

The women were on rowboats within the hour, Pan hovering overhead and the man at the oars rowing powerfully and steadily. The boat bobbed up and down with the large waves, cold water splashing over its occupants constantly. The huge island loomed ahead, lush jungle greenery blanketing its surface with distant peaks poking through the foliage, drenched in mist.

Selvina hugged herself in a futile attempt to keep her wet body warm. She rubbed her arms as her teeth chattered and looked down to her left, where the water crashed against the side of the rowboat, ensuring that she remained soaked. A large, dark shape moved beneath the water, there one moment and gone the next. Selvina’s eyes bulged and she snapped her gaze elsewhere, fighting down the intense urge to panic. She looked to the right, where Wendy, Snow White, and Rapunzel were in the second rowboat with Eric at the oars.

“Row faster!” Pan ordered, the loudness of his high-pitched voice making Selvina jump. She looked up at him as he hovered in the air and watched him glance about, studying the water around both rowboats with what Selvina could only assume was fear. She looked to her left again, where she had seen the dark shape and, with a piercing chill running across her spine, found it there again. Whatever it was it appeared to be following the rowboats.

“You see it too?” Goldilocks asked from her position behind Selvina.

“I do,” she replied. “What is it?”

“No bloody clue, but I don’t like the look of it.”

Just then, their questions were answered. Between both rowboats, which were separated by about twenty feet, two massive jaws full of long, pointed teeth broke through the water’s surface. They were followed by an elongated reptilian head and half of its scaly body. The monstrous creature, which resembled a crocodile, directed its rapidly rising body toward Pan, intent on snatching him out of the air.

Pan had been watching it, though, and banked aside, avoiding it fully and laughed victoriously as the huge crocodile missed its target and sunk back into the water with a great splash that drenched both rowboats and everyone in them. The ensuing waves nearly tipped both crafts over but the rowers, despite witnessing the frightening beast, kept pushing and pulling the oars.

A second crocodile, as large as the last one, shot out of the water like a torpedo with twice the height of the first. Pan rolled aside in midair, giggling with glee, as it too missed him, its gigantic jaws snapping closed with a bang. Unlike the first crocodile, however, it did not splash into water. It dropped directly onto the other rowboat, splitting it in half and sending its occupants overboard.

“NO!” Pan screamed in shock. “You beasts will not take my prizes from me!” Faster than Selvina ever thought was possible, Pan streaked through the air toward the floundering women and Eric. Rapunzel and Snow White, both unable to swim, flailed about uselessly, the former shrieking in terror and the latter’s face as pale as her hair. Wendy and Eric treaded water well enough but were just as terrified. A row of spikes cut through the surface like a shark’s fin, the creature bearing them slowly circling the four stranded forms. Pan was on the scene in a moment and immediately grabbed Rapunzel’s arms before she drowned herself. He yelled at the others to grab her hair, which Snow White and Wendy did, and then hauled them toward the island, his body hovering just inches over the waves.

“Eric!” Selvina called out, pointing at the man treading water alone, surrounded by the rowboat’s debris. She glanced from Pan to Eric and back to Pan. “You forgot Eric!”

“Eric is useless to me!” Pan called back as he passed by, his purple eyes flaring. “The queen cares nothing for young men! Besides, the crocs will be too busy tearing him apart to chase us! Hahaha!”

Selvina could only watch as Eric’s bobbing body grew more distant with every row of the oars. She wasn’t a strong enough swimmer to help him and would only drown trying. She wanted to try anyway—she truly did—but was unable to make herself do so. Tears began streaming down her face at her inability to act. She felt weak and cowardly to do nothing but watch. She decided after a few long, tense moments that she had to at least try. She leaned over the edge and was about to drop herself in the water when a huge pair of jaws shot out of the water, closing in on her on two sides. Selvina screamed in fright and threw her body back just as the jaws snapped shut, so close to her face that she felt the rough scales of the beast’s snout brush her nose. The crocodile dropped its head on the rowboat and began tipping it over under its own weight. The burly rower jabbed his oars at the animal’s eyes and managed to force it off the boat, preventing the vessel from flipping over just in time. The crocodile was relentless and pushed itself out of the water again but instead of going for Selvina it went for the rower. The man, being a much larger target than the young blonde woman, fell victim to the huge jaws and was quickly pulled over the side and taken underwater.

Selvina and Goldilocks, both of them shrieking their hearts out, huddled close together and hugged one another tightly. The rowboat bobbed about in the waves and the two girls did their absolute best to become invisible. For hours-long minutes neither of them moved, too frightened to risk attracting more crocodiles. In the distance, like a beacon of safety much too far to reach, was Peter Pan’s ship. Selvina had never thought she’d ever look at it as a sanctuary but at the moment it was the safest place to be. She slowly, ever so slowly, moved her head to look at where the rower had sat and noticed that one of the oars was missing. She could row it with one oar but it would be an excruciatingly slow process and she doubted she’d have the strength to make it to the ship. She had no other choice, however.

She was about to tell her plan to Goldilocks when the rowboat suddenly lurched forward and both girls screamed, imagining a crocodile nudging it with its snout in an attempt to flip it over. Instead, it turned out to be Pan grabbing the bow in both hands and pulling it toward the shore, using his ability to fly to keep himself out of the water. Selvina would have much preferred the safety of the ship and as much as she despised Pan, and as much as she hated to admit it, he was saving her and Goldilocks. She didn’t say a word and tried to quell the fear overwhelming her body, desperately attempting to appear strong in front of Pan.

The rowboat soon scraped its bottom on the rocky shore and Pan ordered Selvina and Goldilocks to exit it and head to shore where Wendy, Snow White and Rapunzel waited. Once everyone was rejoined, he set his feet on the ground, spread his arms wide, and grinned wide.

“Welcome to Skull Island!”