A Tale That Could Not Be [Book 2 of Selvina's Tale series]

Chapter 20: The Slave Girl

Jack was standing on the balcony and looking up at the moon when Red joined him. He gave her a small smile as she approached but said nothing. She could tell he had a lot on his mind and for several minutes the two stood in silence, their gazes on the night sky and the slumbering city all around them.

"You can't sleep?" Jack asked her after a while.

Red shrugged. "Not really. There's a chance we'll finally be looking for Selvina tomorrow and I'm rather excited."

"I was thinking about that too."

Red eyed him with worry. "You don't look excited, though."

Jack sighed sadly. "Red, we don't even know where to go. Pan took her and that is all we know. He could be anywhere in this world. We'll have a ship to go after him, or at least it looks like it, but we don't know where to sail it to! I talked to Captain Hook earlier and he knows of a few small islands Pan would sometimes go to so he's thinking of checking those out but what if she isn't there? What if we never find her?"

Red struggled to find words of comfort. "We'll find her, Jack. Hook won't stop until he does."

"The captain won't stop because he wants Pan. I know he wants to save Selvina too but if she ends up dead he can still have his revenge on Peter Pan. I...I don't get that..."

Red placed a hand on Jack's shoulder, alarmed at how tense it was. She squeezed it slightly, hoping to loosen some of that tension. "If Pan wanted her dead he wouldn't have captured her, Jack. He would have killed her on the spot but he didn't."

"That doesn't make me feel any better, Red. He could have just taken her somewhere to torture her for a while and then kill her when he's had all his fun. Pan doesn't think or reason like we do. He sees the world differently and for all I know he's already killed Selvina and tossed her overboard." Jack's hands reached out and grabbed the railing that surrounded the balcony, clenching tightly. "I can't live like this. I can't stand here wondering all the time. I need to know if she's alive..."

"Jack, I want her back to us alive too, but there's no way to know."

"What about magic? Aren't there crystal balls or fortune tellers or something we can go see? All I want to know is if she's still alive, Red. That's all..." Jack turned his head away and reached up with one of his hands, rubbing his face briefly.

Red pursed her lips sadly, her eyes moistening at how much pain Jack was clearly in. She wanted to help him but she did not know how. Talking could only do so much. A walk might help, though. That was usually effective on her thus trying it with Jack might yield the same result. "Do you want to get out of here and maybe go for a walk somewhere?"

Jack gave it some thought, looked up at the moon, his brown eyes glistening, and then sighed. "Yes, I need to move so it feels like I'm doing something..."

Red nodded and followed him through the lavish room, which was more like its own apartment with enough bedrooms for everyone. Bigbad slept in the middle of the area, stretched out to his full length. He opened one eye and tilted an ear toward Red and Jack, listening to them walk across the floor. Red whispered to him to go back to sleep and the wolf obeyed, licking his lips and closing his eye.

"He's not coming with us?" Jack asked, referring to Bigbad. He reached the door leading out of the inn and held the handle as he waited for Red's answer.

"No," she replied, eyeing her massive friend. "He can stay here and guard the others. I have my crossbows if anything happens."

Jack shrugged and then opened the door and walked outside. Red followed, closing the door quietly behind her. Once on the street they both decided to head to the docks where fresh air coming off the water might ease their minds.