VICIOUS (II) : peter pan ouat

How to Drown

Chapter 5

Mermaid's Lagoon is essentially next door to the new hideout, so it's barely a hop skip and a jump before I arrive at the shore.

The rock I sat on last time I was here still sticks out prominently from the sand. I remember when a mermaid tried to drown me here, when I was hyped up on drugs.

Man, when those were my biggest problems. Now, I'm stuck with trying to corral a bunch of girls ignorant to the dangers around them. I'm not some sort of Mary Poppins; practically perfect in every way. My intentions aren't to be these girl's nannies, although they seem to bring trouble everywhere they go.

When I climb up on the rock and cross my arms, I stare down into the water. I watch as Blaize pops up from under the water, wiping the hair out of her face.

"What are you looking at?" She chortles.

Before I add a word in, she dives back under the water.

"She's been like that for hours." I turn to see Frank, sitting on the shore.

"Where are the other two?" I demand.

Frank shrugs. "The whiny one has refused to leave her tent, and the annoying one is still trying to coax her out."

I scoff. The more I get to know Frank, the more intense she seems. Her legs are crossed on the shore, and I watch as she takes a knife out of her pocket, whipping it into the trees. It sticks in one, straight on.

"Where did you get that?" I demand. "Who gave that to you?"

She chuckles. "It was on five finger discount."

Of course she stole it from our armoury. Why am I not surprised? Frank tucks a strand of her long hair back, turning to the water as Blaize resurfaces.

"Come on in." She tells me.

I shake my head, and I am about to tell her off when I see her climb out of the water, on to the grassy shore that hangs just above the ocean. She places a light blue shell down on the ground.

Scattered around her are various little things from the water. Mostly shells, but a couple rocks. I hop off the boulder, moving next to her on the shore. She's sprawled out in nothing but a tank top and jeans, staring at the rocks around her.

"Those ones were glowing earlier." She tells me, pointing at a couple of grey pebbles. "Before I grabbed them anyway."

I scoop them up off the ground, and watch as the colours twinkle in the moonlight. The sun still hasn't risen today, so it still is quite difficult to see.

"How are you doing that?" Blaize asks, peering down into the jewels in my hand.

I can't rip my eyes away from the rainbow of colour. Various shades, all which gleam and shimmer as the stars reflect off of them.

When I feel my hand hit up, I snap out of my gaze. I look over to see Frank's angry face.

"Don't touch those again. You guys were staring at them in a trance for like ten minutes."

The same thing happened when Peter showed me these before. I thought they just were indicators of magic, but apparently they are magic themselves. You can't trust anything that comes out of mermaid's lagoon.

"This is why you can't just run off exploring." I shake my head at Blaize. "We have rules, and we have order. There's a lot of dangerous things in these woods; magical and otherwise. You can't just go running off."

"Please, I'm not dead." Blaize argues.

"Yet." Frank adds.

I can't tell if she's simply siding with me or she's just against Blaize, but either way I'm thankful for the development.