The Jolly Roger landed on a completely desolate planet. Winter and Peter exited and saw nothing but gray skies and a destroyed landscape. The entire ground was completely black covered in either ash or completely dead soil. “This is where Smee lives?” Winter asked.
“It was last time I was here.” Peter looked around confused, unsure of where he now was.
“Well? Where is it?”
“I don’t know. Last time he had this magnificent little hut that was bigger on the inside than the inside.” Peter marched on, looking for any sign of Smee.
“I thought you told me he was now an extremely high paid thief? Why would he be living in a little hut on a completely dead planet?”
“Smee’s a weird dude. He’s very cautious about who hires him and he can be very paranoid. He picked this planet because not a single other soul would be able to live here. Not to mention if anyone tried to attack him, he would see them coming from miles away.”
“Anything else I need to know about him? He sounds nothing like he was in the book.”
“Well, not anymore. The man has a huge ego now. Absolutely is in love with himself. Every part of him. His body, his cool hair, that scar he has.”
“Bigger ego than yours?”
“No one can have a bigger ego than me.” Peter stopped walking and looked around dazed.
“His hut was right here!” Winter stepped toward him and noticed the ground had a metallic sound when her boot hit it. She scraped her boot and noticed it was a different texture entirely.
“Peter!” she yelled as a warning, but it was too late! The ground collapsed beneath them and they went soaring down! They plunged down into a pit of blackness, unable to see their nose in front of them. “Peter! Activate your boots!”
“I tried! They won’t work!” Peter yelled right before they hit a hard-metallic surface. They thought they would stop plunging, but what they landed on was a slide. Sliding down, they tried to grab anything they could to slow them down or hold onto. It seemed never ending until both of them shot out of a hole.
Peter and Winter collapsed onto a cold hard surface, still pitch black. “Winter! You okay?” Peter shouted as he got up, still not able to see a damn thing.
“I’ll be alright!” Winter yelled over as she brushed off the dirt from her pants. Lights illuminated the room revealing it to be a completely bare room with no decoration or door in sight. “Pete, what is this?”
“I don’t know,” Peter examined all of his equipment. “All I know is that nothing I have works.” He took out his laser sword and pressed the button to activate it, but no saber came out.
“Not even a blaster?” Peter took it out and fired at a wall, nothing. “Great.”
“Please prepare yourself,” a robotic voice echoed across the room. They looked around to see if they could find a source for the voice. “If you wish to see the master of capers you must complete the Trials of Smee.”
“Trials of Smee?” Winter asked
“I told you he had a huge ego. Smee!” he called out. “What’s with this? I’ve met you several times before! I’m in a hurry! Come on!”
“I’m afraid your pleas will do you no good here. Please complete the trials if you wish to see the master. Do you accept?”
“What choice do I have?” he said aggravated.
“Very well, please pick a weapon.” Suddenly, a hanging rack of metal swords rolled out from one of the walls. They walked over and found them all to be ancient old metallic blades. Some were from the medieval era and some had the classic pirate scabbard.
“He’s joking right? I’m expected to fight with this old timey junk?”
“Pick a weapon, you won’t have much longer,” the robotic voice explained. Peter let out a sigh of frustration and picked up a saber with a thin long blade and a shield hilt. He flung it around to get a feel for it.
“So weird.” Winter studied the row of swords. Peter picked the one that she would probably be best with, but she was able to find a similar one, but didn’t have a shield on the hilt. She reached out to grab it when a shock went throughout her whole body once she touched it.
“Ouch! What the hell?” she yelped.
“Only one weapon per challenger,” the robotic voice iterated.
“We are two challengers you moron!” Peter yelled out.
“If you use language like that again, I will have no choice but to incinerate the entire room.” Peter’s eyes went wide.
“Perhaps you should be nicer to the customer service robot,” Winter offered.
“Please be aware, the first trial will start now.”
“How many trials are there?” Peter asked, but was cut short by the furthest wall sliding, revealing itself to be a door that contained 4 different humanoid robots! 3 of them were like a metallic mannequin, with no facial features and stiff joints. The last one, was similar in facial structure with no discernible features, except that it was short and fat. They all were covered in blue and white horizontal stripes. At once, they all lifted their hands and two metal swords were produced from each one.
The fat chubby one ran at Peter, flailing its arm around like an idiot. Peter side swiped to the left. The chubby robot ran past him and Peter kicked it hard in the backside, sending it flying to the corner on its back. It couldn’t seem to get up, but continued to flail its arms. “This should be easy.” Peter said as he braced himself for the other robots. Of the three remaining, one marched towards Peter. Peter charged it and stabbed it right in the chest. The robot fell down immediately. He pulled out the sword and turned back to Winter, “Looks like we’re meeting Smee today,” he smirked.
“Um, Peter?” Winter asked gesturing to the movement behind him. Peter turned and found the robot was standing on its feet again. The slice Peter made in its body was welded back together from the inside of its chest.
“Self-sustaining? Okay, I’ll figure this out,” Peter said with a sense of doubt. He raised his sword just as the robot slashed toward him.
“You think you can figure it out any faster?” Winter told him. Peter dodged another slash by rolling out of the way.
“Are you in a hurry or something?” Peter said as he sliced at the robot’s feet. The robot hopped out of the way and sliced again toward him.
“I think we should be! Look!” Winter pointed over to the two other robots that were now marching into battle. With a quick look to his back, Peter discovered both robots were about to slice him down.
“Great!” he yelled as he ducked out of the way. Luckily their blades slashed right into the third robot’s body, but yet again, it quickly healed itself as their swords were removed. “How am I supposed to beat these?”
“Maybe try stabbing it and leaving the sword in!”
“Then how am I supposed to fight the others?”
“Steal one of their swords, you dimwit!”
Peter isolated one and stabbed it, causing a shut down. He quickly reached over to its hand and tried to pry the sword from it with no luck. He tugged harder and harder until the other two robots got approached him and swung their blades. Retreating, Peter had to grab his sword out of the robot’s body, effectively reactivating itself.
“What about their head?” Winter threw out. Peter effectively dodged the swipes of the three robots all at once and rolled around them, facing their backsides now. He slashed toward one of its heads and was met with a clang of metal on metal.
“How did people ever fight with these things!” he shouted as he retreated to try and get some space between the three robots. Winter was about to throw out another idea when she heard clanging behind her. The chubby robot was still attempting to get back on its feet, swinging its arms around. What’s the point of this one, she thought. Winter tried putting herself in an egomaniac’s mind when a thought popped into her mind.
“Peter! Throw me your sword!”
“And how am I supposed to defend myself?” he shouted between swipes of his sword.
“Just do it!”
Aggravated, Peter threw his sword to Winter. A blade was coming right for him, so he grabbed one of the robot’s arms and aimed it at the other. Winter grabbed the blade and ran over to the chubby robot. Peter was able to disable two robots, but the third backed him into a corner, unable to dodge or roll out of the way. The robot raised its arm to swing down at him.
“Winter!” he yelled, bracing for an attack, but nothing came. He looked up and saw the robot was standing still. The three robots put away their swords and retreated back to the closet, then deactivated. Peter looked over to Winter, whose sword was now deep in the belly of the chubby one. “How did you?” he questioned out of breath.
“I figured that Smee hated the book version of himself. A fat no good pirate. So, he would want to kill that version of him. Make the other robots unstoppable, probably how he sees himself. It was a trick. You were only supposed to kill the version of himself that he hates. And I’m assuming he wants to prove that whoever is going to hire him, knows him well.” Peter had to give her credit on that one.
“Wow, good idea. Better than mine. Might as well take this,” he gestured to the sword. “Who knows what else is out there. As he reached for the sword it shocked him right when he touched it. Pulling back in pain, he kicked the robot out of frustration.
“Congratulations on the completing the first of the trials,” the robotic voice echoed throughout the chamber. “I’m afraid you won’t be able to bring any other weapons for the future trials.” One of the walls slid open, revealing another chamber. “Please proceed to the next trial. Thank you and good luck.”
“You ready?” Peter motioned to Winter.
“I’m the one who saved us last time. Are you ready?” she smirked as they entered the next chamber.
As soon as they entered the wall shut behind them, trapping them in. The first thing they noticed was that the walls were all lined with various hooks. There were different styles, different metals, some were clean while others were rusted to their core. At the end of the furthest wall in the middle there was a crevice opening just big enough to put your hand in.
“Welcome to the next trial!” the robotic voice began. Both Winter and Peter rolled their eyes, tired of the theatrics. “For our next test to determine if you are suited to meet with the great Smee, you must find the correct key and insert it into the opening. If you are able to turn the key, congrats! You are safe and are awarded with going to the next trial. If not, you must try again in due time. Let’s just say, time is pressed up against you. Good luck!”
Peter and Winter examined all the hooks. The room was quite wide, room enough for them to be six feet apart. “Which one could it be?” Winter questioned to herself.
“There must be a hundred hooks here! How are we supposed to find the right one?”
“Well, it has to be about Smee right? From his life. Is there any one which resembles Hook’s? Like an exact match?” Peter found one that looked exactly like Hook’s.
“Here!” he stated as he grabbed it off the wall.
“Are you sure that’s it?” Winter rushed over.
“Pretty sure.”
“Oh, come on Peter,” she grabbed the hook while rolling her eyes. “If we don’t choose the right one, we could die. Who knows what will happen if we mess up.” She began examining the hook, then realized she never really got up close and personal with Hook’s. She reluctantly gave it back to Peter.
“You think it’s fine?”
“You tell me.” She said tossing it back. Peter studied it and based on his recollection, it wasn’t any different than Hook’s.
“I think it’s fine. Want to do the honors?” Peter said offering the hook to Winter. She took it and walked over to the crevice in the wall. As Winter walked over, Peter noticed something in the floor. There were small grooves that stopped toward the middle of the room. He bent down and noticed scratches all throughout the floor. Looking closer, he realized they were fingernail scratches. “Winter, wait!” he shouted, but he was too late. Winter inserted the hook! Right when she did, the entire chamber started rocking and the walls began to close in on them!
Winter tried to turn the hook with no luck. “Peter! What do we do?”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Try every hook! We don’t have much time!” They each scrambled to the walls and took off as many hooks as they could hold and ran to the crevice trying them. They were in such a rush they ran into each other.
“Dammit, Pete!”
“That was your fault!” Peter said scrambling to pick up all the hooks.
Winter collected hers first and quickly placed each on in the crevice. Each one would fit just fine, but none of them were turning. Peter had a hand full of hooks, waiting for Winter to finish her lot.
“Come on! Come on! Winter hurry up!”
“Shut it, Pete!” Winter couldn’t believe the situation she was in. She glanced at Peter and he looked like a toddler waiting for his turn to play.
“This isn’t fast enough!” Winter complained.
“How about you grab hooks and just hand them to me? Like a conveyor belt!” Winter agreed and started grabbing hooks while Peter tried the lot in his hand. Still, none of them worked. The walls were about halfway to crushing them. They wouldn’t last much longer. Peter looked over and saw that they hadn’t even completed one full wall of hooks. This method would surely get them killed.
“Winter, we have to think of something different! This isn’t going to work!”
“Well what bright ideas do you have?” Winter shouted back as she continued to grab hooks.
“Ummm,” Peter was dancing on his toes trying to think. “It has to deal with Smee right? What about these hooks come to mind when you think of him?’
“That he used to work for Hook!”
“Besides that!” The walls were nearing their completion. In just a few moments, Peter and Winter would be pancaked between the walls.
“He wears glasses!”
“He loves money!” Peter shouted.
“He was Hook’s right-hand man!”
“You already said that!” Then something dawned on Peter. “Wait I got it!” Peter faced the crevice and lifted his right hand toward the crevice. “I hope this works!”
“What are you doing?” Winter yelled as he got closer to putting his hand in, when he came to halt as something dawned upon him. Winter and Peter were so close together, they only had a few seconds left. Peter switched out his hands and put his left hand in the crevice.
“Come on! Come on!” he yelled as he successfully turned the lock and stopped the walls! “Yes!” he cheered. Winter felt like throwing up. She had thought for certain that they would soon be as flat as a pancake. “You want to find out how I knew?”
“Don’t really care,” Winter said still trying to catch her breath.
“Oh, come on! You got to explain your story!”
“You can talk, I may not listen,” she said as she sat down on the floor, processing everything.
“Well, you said he was Hook’s right-hand man. but, none of these hooks would work! So, I thought maybe my hand would work? But then, I had an epiphany! He’s technically not Hook’s right-hand man, because Hook doesn’t have a right hand. He’s actually the left-hand man.”
“Interesting,” was all Winter could say.
“That’s it! That’s all you can say! Ugh!” Peter slumped down on the floor next to Winter, moping.
“I’ll be excited for you when these stupid trials are over.”
“Congratulations on passing the second trial,” the robotic voice spoke out. “You have nearly proven yourself worthy enough to do business with the great Smee!”
“I’ll be excited too,” Peter remarked. The wall with the crevice slid away revealing an all-black corridor.
“Please continue on to the final trial and best of luck!” Peter and Winter both eyed the corridor, wondering what other task would come from this insane game of trivial Smee.
“Well, last one,” Winter sighed as she got up and offered a hand to Peter. Peter grabbed it and pulled himself up. They descended into the dark corridor, hoping for the best.
The tunnel seemed to go on forever. The light behind them from the previous room slowly faded away and they were left in complete darkness. They pushed on, hoping it would eventually light up. As they walked, Winter felt a prick on her neck.
“Ouch! You feel that?” she asked.
“Feel what?”
“Never mind.” Winter rubbed her neck, but all the pain was completely gone. As the tunnel got longer, Winter wasn’t sure how much more she would be able to take. “Ugh, how long is this tunnel?”
“Shouldn’t be much longer,” Peter said.
“What makes you think that?”
“I have no basis for it. I’m just willing it, you know?” And sure enough, a warm orange glow appeared off in the distance, getting stronger and stronger with each step forward. As they got closer, it became more apparent they were heading toward a fireplace. At the end of the corridor, they found a simple room with green carpet and wallpaper being emitted into light by a roaring fire.
“Glad you could make it,” a dark and mysterious voice said. They turned to find a shadowed figure sitting in a maroon comfy armchair, drinking what they assumed was whiskey. There was a small brown night stand right next to him with a single gold coin.
“Smee, what the hell man? All of this when we already know each other?”
“Need to make sure you’re still qualified to have a chat with me,” Smee laughed. Winter looked around the room suspiciously, something was off about it.
“So, what’s next?” Peter rolled his eyes. “Some other stupid trial or can we finally talk business?”
Smee calmly picked up the gold coin on his table and twirled it in his fingers. “You know, I don’t think I care about business right now. But I do care about taking out Hook’s greatest nemesis. Stun them please,” he ordered calmly.
Peter and Winter braced for an attack or someone shooting at them, but nothing happened. Instead electric shocks convulsed through them, causing them to fall to their knees. Their backs and legs went stiff into a perfect posture, unable to move a single muscle. Miraculously they could still speak. Peter tried to budge out, but no luck.
“Was this your plan the entire time? Wear us down until you were able to trap us?” Peter speculated. Something about this all felt wrong to Winter. How were they stunned, but somehow were able to speak? Or keep their backs straight? What kind of stun could do that?
Smee put the coin back down and approached them. As he walked, the shadow followed with him, covering any facial features about him. “Possibly, possibly not.”
“This is all a part of Hook’s trap isn’t it? How much is Hook paying you?” Peter demanded.
“Trap? Payment? Oh, how elementary of you dear boy. I don’t care about a payment.” As Smee explained he pulled a tiny dagger out of his pocket. “This is for me, my own enjoyment.” Smee put the blade to Peter’s neck. Winter eyed the gold coin still sitting on the desk, then went back to Smee’s shadowy face.
“Come on Smee! This is how you’re going to off me? Where’s the honor in that?”
“Honor? Peter, you’re really asking a pirate about honor?” Winter looked back at the knife to Peter’s neck and then her whole body relaxed. In a few seconds Peter’s throat would be slit open. Smee began to dig the knife into Peter’s flesh.
“Winter,” he managed. “I’m sorry.” Winter jumped up and ran over to the gold coin.
“What are you doing?” Smee said startled. She grabbed the coin and tossed it in the fireplace.
“No!” Smee yelled as he dove right into the fire. As soon as his body hit the flames, the whole room started electronically dissolving into a blank corridor, similar to the other two they were in. Peter got up on his feet as he watched the room turn into a blank gray landscape.
“Winter? What happened?” Peter said perplexed.
“All of it was fake. Everything. I felt this weird prick in my neck as we walked. I think it was similar to the implant you put in me. You know, allows you to see stuff? Anyways, I noticed the room was cold even though we had a fire right next to us. We could never see Smee’s face and we were somehow ‘stunned’ but were still able to stand on our knees.”
“Wow, how about you ditch whatever you were planning on doing and become a detective? I thought I was a goner!” Peter rubbed his neck where the blade was. It felt so real. “How’d you know to throw out the coin?”
“That was the biggest flaw in all of this. In every tale I’ve read or seen, Smee doesn’t care about being a pirate or doing demented things like killing just to do it. He only cared about money. At least, that’s what the stories said.”
“Well lucky for us, that part of the story is true.”
“Congratulations on completing the Trials of Smee. Please move into the next room to collect your prize, a consultation with Smee, the amazing!” The fireplace wall slid to the left, revealing a hallway with a door at the end.
“You wanna bet there’s another trial through that door?” Peter bet.
“I’m in.”
They approached the door and opened it expecting another dark corridor or room filled with nothing but empty space, but to their surprise they found a simple office with a massive desk chair turned away from the door, concealing whomever was sitting in it.
The desk was prestige and something was very recognizable about it. Once they entered, the room turned to be much more massive than they initially believed. All along the walls were priceless masterpieces. Paintings from every era of Earth. The Mona Lisa, The Statue of David, Mural by Jackson Pollock. Winter’s eyes went wide in amazement. It was like she was in her own little museum. There were other works that Winter didn’t recognize, but seemed awfully beautiful.
Smee turned around in his chair, revealing himself to Peter and Winter. “Peter my boy! Congrats on completing the trials!” he greeted. The floor opened up and two chairs appeared in front of the desk. “Please, have a seat!”
“You really think we’re going to have a polite chat with you after all I-” Peter started but was hit in the side by Winter. “Sorry, after all we went through?”
“Oh,” Smee eyed Winter. “This girl you have is very interesting. But, back to the subject at hand. You sought me out and went through all of the trials just to speak with me, so I deduce you really need something. And I don’t need anything from you Peter. So yes, I do expect you to have a nice polite chat with me,” he smirked.
“But I’ll make it worth your while,” he said as he pulled three whiskey glasses and a bottle of scotch out from his desk and poured one for each of them. “How about this, friends?” Smee offered. Peter and Winter were motionless. “Oh, come on! You could have at least told me before I poured a fifty-year-old bottle.” Smee poured all the glasses into one and returned the bottle inside the desk.
“That desk looks familiar,” Winter said. “How do I know it?”
“Oh, an Earth girl I see. Peter, you certainly know how to repeat your same mistakes.” Peter’s fists clenched so tight he broke the skin in his palms. “Yes, you may recognize it. This is the desk from the White House. Some political association with some country, but as I understood it was quite valuable.”
“Wait, so America replaced the desk you stole for all these years?”
“No, not at all. I made the replacement. The best thieves steal without anyone ever knowing. Everything around here I stole, then made a replacement. Kind of a Sunday afternoon hobby.”
“If the best thieves steal without anyone knowing,” Peter mocked. “Then how come we know you stole a universe combining device from Grottowia and stared blankly at a camera?” Smee took a drink and grinned.
“Quite curious, isn’t it?”
“Where’s the device?”
“I’m sure Hook is probably in the works of setting it up near Earth,” Smee pondered. “Perhaps you should go after him,” Smee shooed them away.
“Why does Hook want me to go back to Earth so badly?” Winter asked.
“Oh, he wants you to go back? It was my assumption that he wanted Peter to go back.”
“He does want me to go back,” Peter elaborated.
“Hmmm, interesting. Maybe you should go ask him who is correct in this situation because I’m out of ways to find out.” They weren’t getting anywhere with Smee, Winter thought. They had to change their tactics. Winter looked around the room and started approaching The Statue of David.
“This is really THE Statue of David?” Winter questioned playfully.
“You recognize it? Very interesting. I never met a fool in this galaxy that knew a pinch about art,” Smee acknowledged as he took another drink. “That makes you quite valuable. What was your name?”
“Winter,” she said eyeing and circling around the statue.
“Oh, you sound like you know art. Luckily for you, Smee always thinks of how valuable people are. New plan. How about, instead of going back to Earth, you come work for me?”
“Are you serious right now, Smee?” Peter asked dumbfounded.
“Oh, I never think about kidding around. How about it, Winter? You come with me and together we can sell everything I steal from Earth. You can visit whenever you want, but you’ll have a full life here. Do whatever you want in Neverland.”
“Whatever I want?” she repeated, pondering the idea.
“Winter you can’t-”
“Can it green tights!” Smee barked at Peter. “Think about it, Winter. Peter’s going to take you back no matter what. At least, that’s what Hook tells me. With me, you can have a life.”
“Interesting,” Winter said eyeing the statue. “Well in that case,” she placed her hands upon the Statue of David. “Tell me where the device is or I’ll push this over,” she said fiercely eyeing Smee.
“Oh, come on, you’re not serious,” Smee bickered. “I doubt you can even push that with its weight.” Winter gave a gentle push that caused the statue to move the smallest bit. “We could have been so great together darling. Seriously, I have no idea.”
“Hmmm,” Winter pondered. “Yeah, not buying it.” With all her strength Winter pushed the statue over.
“No!” Smee shouted as he ejected from his seat to hold the statue up. He braced himself using his body weight to hold the statue in place, but not strong enough to push it back up. Smee was perfectly trapped between the statue and the floor.
“Why does Hook want me to go back?” Winter demanded.
“And why does he want to merge worlds?” Peter added.
“I don’t know!” Smee yelled eyeing a door at the end of the room. Peter and Winter glanced over and then back. “I. Don’t Know,” with each word he spoke he moved his eyes right back to the door.
“You can’t just tell us what’s in there?”
“I have integrity okay! And I’m not supposed to tell you anything, and technically I still haven’t!”
“I’ll check it out,” Peter rolled his eyes. “If there’s a trap or anything else in there that doesn’t help me, Winter, push it on top of him.” Peter headed over to the door and opened it, seeing what he would never have expected, the device from Grottowia. He picked it up peculiarly, questions racing through his mind. “Winter?”
“What’s in there?”
“Get the statue back up, release him.” Winter obeyed and helped Smee push the statue back to safety.
“All this work? Just to steal something and keep it in here? Not even use it?” Peter perplexed.
“The device was here the whole time? Why would Hook go through all this trouble just to make you think he stole it and not to use it?”
“Because it was a trap,” Peter explained as Smee went back to lounging in his desk. “Isn’t it?” he questioned Smee.
“I don’t know, you’re going to have to take that up with him.”
“Winter, destroy the statue!”
“Hey! Hey! I don’t know! Honestly! And hey, aren’t you from Earth? You should know how precious that is and yet you’re being all willy nilly with it. I swear, millennials, they have no respect.”
“I’m not a millennial!” she exclaimed as she placed her hands on the statue with full intentions to push it off.
“Okay, okay! Stop! I really don’t know what he’s planning, but I’ll tell you what I know. Hook wanted you on Earth and wants you there now, but he still wanted to know if you were still loyal. I explained to Hook that he probably does go back there several times just undetected, but Hook wouldn’t believe me and was impatient. So instead of waiting around the wormhole, he went there himself, since he knew you would follow him there. But you left too soon. He didn’t have enough time, you left far too quickly for him to set up whatever he was doing. Luckily, I was already following you.”
“How long were you following me?” Peter asked.
“Enough to learn quite a bit about you and your past history there,” Smee grinned, causing Peter to glare at him. “Anyways, to ensure you went back to Earth, I set up an insurance policy,” he motioned to Winter.
“You were the one!” it dawned on Winter. “You pushed me into his ship! I knew I recognized you!”
“Tis the curse of handsome men,” he grinned. “And that’s all I know. Please don’t tell Hook. He pays very well.”
“You really think you’re in a bargaining position right now?”
“Oh, come on Peter. My whole business is based on the promise that I won’t blab.”
“Don’t worry Smee, I won’t tell anyone,” he glared. “But I will tell everyone about all your trials and how an Earth girl beat them all.”
“She didn’t beat all of them!”
“Who are they going to believe? I can tell everyone, granting access to anyone. And something tells me you owe a lot of money to numerous in the galaxy that would be so grateful to know how to track you down.” Smee look horrified and ashamed. Peter did hold all the cards and there was nothing he could do about it. Peter turned away from Smee to the exit.
“Let’s go. If Hook set a trap, let’s spring it,” Peter said as he marched toward the exit.
“I was quite surprised about her,” Smee called out. “Tragic way, really.” Peter skidded in his tracks. “I learned quite a bit while I was down there. She had quite a bit of life left you know?” Peter slowly turned toward Smee. Winter stood there thinking of a way to possibly defuse the situation.
“Peter, let’s go,” Winter pulled him away, but he wouldn’t budge.
“Hook and myself truly didn’t believe you would take Winter with you. Haven’t learned from our past mistakes, have we?”
“Shut up,” Peter said defiantly.
“What makes you think you can ever keep her safe?” Smee taunted. “She’s just going to end up the same and you know it.” Peter sprung towards him and grabbed him by the collar. “Oh, so the happy boy isn’t so happy all the time I see?” Smee sneered at him.
“Peter! Stop it!” Winter insisted.
“I’ll kill you,” Peter said with a deadly flare in his eyes. Peter turned his grip into a chokehold.
“Just, like, you killed, her?” Smee was between gasps.
“Peter!” Winter screamed. This caught Peter’s attention. “Put him down! Now!” Peter threw Smee to the ground.
“If only you could have obeyed Wendy like you obey her,” Smee laughed. “Oh, Peter how much you’ve fallen. Such a prisoner of your own woes.”
“Shut it, Smee!” Winter beckoned. Peter looked at Smee as if he wanted to kill him, but couldn’t.
“We’ll always have control over you Peter. Always.” Peter knocked Smee out with a single punch, breaking his nose and glasses.
“Peter!” Winter gasped but Peter had already trudged out of the room without saying a single word.