The Perils of Cornelious Hook chapter 1

My mother Angela. now an angel. but once a clockmaker looked out at me only four at the time from inside her workshop. I run to her jumping up in her lap and begin to play with her long blonde hair.

"I have a gift for you boy." She whispered as she reached into her dress pocket. "This pocket watch I have made for you. people end and they begin but time flows forever like a river never touching the same moment again. Mommy wants you to let this watch help guide you through time. Mommy won't be here forever, I love you Cornelius," She kissed my forehead.

That was the last time I saw my mother she succumbed to her cancer the next day. I sleep with the pocket' watch she made me even to this day.

I awake to the door slamming and my father yelling at me from below. I ignore him at first more content under my covers than attending to his drunken commands, but then the screams grow angrier, and I can hear him stumbling about. I reluctantly get out of bed and find my way through the piled-up clothes and trash to the door. The maze of clutter does not end there the dust and cobwebs have long sense made the walls there home while newspapers begin on the stairs and end at the ceiling. I navigate the broken steps only to find my father slumped against the fridge in the trash filled kitchen.

"Yes father?"

"Cornelious I... I have been," my father let out a large burp, "I have been flying. Like a, a kite." My father stumbled towards me.

"You're as drunk as a skunk dad here let me help you to bed." My father falls down into a pile of beer cans, "I'm just going to lay down here. What are you doing up boy you have school tomorrow."

I laugh I haven't been to school in a year, but my father hasn't seemed to notice. Neither has the school. He fell in the bottle the day mom died and the house seemed to follow. I make my way back to bed and drift back off to sleep. I hear yelling and startle awake, however this time it's not my father. I jump out of bed and trip my way down the stairs. I hit the floor with a thud, but the group doesn't notice me. My father stands surrounded by a group of men in pirate costumes. The man standing in front of my father was holding a pistol. "So, which will it be you or the boy?" The man snarled suddenly pointing the gun at me.

"Don't hurt my boy I told you I don't know what you're talking about." The deafening sound of a gunshot rang out. I stared at the pool of blood gathering on top of the trash bags hoping I was having a nightmare. "He made his choice." The man growled then turned to leave.

They grabbed me by the back of my flannel. As I was dragged by two large goons through the streets of London, I could hear them breaking through windows frantically trying to find something; but what I just couldn't understand. The crisp air nipped at my naked feet, almost hurting more than the concrete.

I can hear them whisper, "Have you found the shadow?"

What can one do with shadow? As I am dragged farther away from my home than I have ever been a thought so queer, so strange it couldn't be believed entered my head. There once was a boy in the only story my mother ever told me.

"This boy was the leader of a rag tag crew." She would always make sure to mention, "the boys are not very different from you. The leader is very courageous yet if there was one equally adventurous it was his shadow. " She would then pause and gaze out the window, "On calm nights like tonight if you listen really close you can hear windows opening and chuckling of that mischievous crew playing hide and seek through the homes of London."

I was startled from my thoughts by a loud yell, "It got away!" A short goon the with a look of terror on his face yelled to what appeared to be the man in charge. The captain looked at the man for a second then shook his head. Wasting no time, he took the rifle from his side and shot the man in the head. I guess the man had known the captain's temper. Blood and an eerie silence filled the streets. Like nothing out of the ordinary had happened we began to walk. It was only weeks ago when my father had come home in yet another drunken stupor rambling on about pirates plotting to attack some island far away from London. Pirates are only in fairytales, right? Or at least that's what I had thought only a mere hour ago. Now here I stood just in appearance the same person I had been earlier surrounded by the stench, dirt and high fashion style of a horde of pirates. Now my curiosity, amazement, and embarrassingly enough my jaw was ajar at the sight of what can only be described as a pirate ship appearing as if it had swum out of a nursery rhyme. How did it glide through the air and around buildings as if it was a minnow? A cling rang out as I realized that in all this strangeness, I had not let go of my mother's watch. I scramble to pick it up without being noticed and for the first time notice an engraving on the side which read "2nd star from the right."

On deck I was delighted to find the conditions were not as deplorable as the men smelled however this did not take much leaving cobwebs and rotting wood onboard. "Don't worry boyo," A greasy looking goon laughed as he smacked my back, "We have an important job for you."

"Yes, it's not often we get a new pet. Now all we need to do is pick a name for it." Another equally repulsive crewman giggled as he looked around at his fellow ship mates then back at me. I, confused for a moment, looked around trying to find the animal they had deemed as a new pet. There had to be a mistake I was just a normal boy. I found within me not courage but a little cowardice to speak up with, "Ex...excuse me.," I forced out naively raising my hand. "My name is Cornelious Hook. I'm sure threes been a mist.." The men parted as if a lightning bolt had run through them.

"Let me stop you before you irritate me anymore boy. You are our new pet and forget whatever name your sack of potato father gave you. Your new name is James, and you will either go by that or not exist, understand?" Captain silvers, whose name I learned later that day, in all his intimidating glory boomed. A shiver went through me as I for the first time really looked at captain silvers. He had thick curly hair which ran to his shoulders under his massive red hat. His eyes were deep brown that had a madman look to them. Perhaps the creepiest of all was a large scar that ran from under his lip to the middle of his chest. Realizing I had forgotten to agree I nodded to his question. Then a man so large the only thing comparable is a tree came and dragged me to what I would learn to call home. I had heard of stories like these, and I was sure it was here that I would meet my doom. "Heres your room pet. This here is your roommate Schmee I will let him show you the ropes. If theres a person we kill more than anything on the Jolly Roger its a lad that don't earn his keep." The large man boomed as he opened the door to the room and threw me in. In this small closet now sat me and right beside me a boy on a chair, the rooms only furnishing, polishing silver.

"You don't need to mind Drake. He may be big, but he sure aint smart. The captains been making him mean for years. Most call him the Louisiana Devil on account of him coming from somewhere deep in those parts swamps, but it's more like the Louisiana idiot. My names Schmee!" Schmee who was odd in so many ways starting with his glassy almost colorless complexion ice blue eyes and snowlike hair, spoke. "I'm Cornelious, well James now I suppose." I let out a sigh. "Yeah, James is right those pirates sure do get cranky and kill people when you don't go along with them. You wouldn't be much company dead. Oh, and please don't pass gas in here I learned that the hard way. But aren't you just lucky they wouldn't change my name because they said Schmee was just too funny. I was at least hoping for a cool name like Rodney or Joe. I can tell we are going to be great friends." The boy yammered on.

I am glad he can tell we are going to be good friends because right now I am pretty scared about my living arrangements and the possibility of going deaf. Schmee was not a boy of few words. The previous I found to be quite true as he continued his mouth diarrhea while the Jolly Roger began to fly. "Its happy thoughts and pixie dust that makes it fly. " So apparently the skies would be awash with the thoughts of pillaging and gold. It was this day that I learned to properly polish silver and gold.

"You got to make it real shiny,"Schmee panted. "The crew are like cats they like anything real shiny." Almost fully out of breath now Schmee exclaimed. Apparently Schmee called polishing his biggest workout day and treated it as such sweat exhaustion and all. However, the question I longed to have answered the most was how had my father known of these pirates and their plans to pillage when he never went further than the local pub? That night as I lie on the floor next to Schmee I could hear sniffles form and be snuffed out by his sleeve. "I'm sorry cornelious. I really am. Its just the night always makes me so sad. You know I had a mother and a father once. They were grade A, they really were my mum would make me scones and tarts anytime I asked for them and my father would play ball with me in his spare time. But then...then my brother came and he was...well he didn't look like me he was perfect. My mum packed me things in a suitcase and told me that I needed to go stay at the Good Sisters orphanage for a while just til they could figure a proper place for me out. I couldn't go there no way! School was bad enough. I ran away. So one day there I was the paste boy as most called me I had spotted a cupcake unattended to in a bakery window so I went for it. Just as I was going to take a bite from it some dust fell on my head and on deck was where I ended up. From what I can figure one of the captain's slave fairies must have been out scouting the area and there I was with my happy thoughts. I was so scared I soiled my britches. Did you have a family?" Schmee finished in between sobs and laughs.

"I had a father but then I lost my mother and he disappeared." I lied trying to hold back tears. However, in all reality my father had been drowning in beer since my mother died. He had just surrounded himself in his castle of junk from what was and drank what told him it still could be. Then I thought of something that could really cheer us up I began to tell him of the lost boys and how they were parentless, but he stopped me. "If you think that's cool just wait till we get to Neverland. Now I have a story to tell you." A giant grin spread across Schmees face as he sat up and brought out paints from under his pillow. At this point I had no idea what to expect. Schmee told me who the leader of the groups name was Peter Pan. It was his shadow that the Captain was after. It had snuck through the captain's window late one night and put a needle under his butt. The captain not being one to take a joke has been on a manhunt ever since and vowed to end the shadows life.

"A lost boy that's what I want to be." I spoke." Never having to be someone's stupid pet ever again." And from this moment on that is what we planned on being.

"Get up you mangy animals" Drake shouted as he dumped a bucket of water over us. "Not if you'd give us a brush!"Schmee yelled back. I was quite excited about finally getting two meals a day here, but I shouldn't have been. Have you ever seen pirates eat? it's not an appetizing affair. Schmee and I had to go to a corner of the room and wait for the others to finish eating. hen we were given our small portion of hardened often molded bread, because in the word of Captain Silvers "That's what pets eat."After witnessing grown men whose beards boils and cracked hands were covered in grease fighting over the few salted meats that were left you didn't have much of an appetite. While the hardships of being a pet were great such as missing Gameboys or girls. The small amount of freedom you get out of it is great. Don't think I dislike like girls because I do like them, there's even a girl on the ship or so Schmee says. I still have yet to differentiate her from the rest of the crew. Although I had learned that she is responsible for killing three other crewman when they tried to flirt with her.

"Where is she?" I asked as I squinted." she is the one waving at me." Shcmee beamed.

"Schmee she is not waving at you she's mouthing she has a knife and is not afraid to use it."

"See I told you that was her. I like to think she is going to ask for my hand in marriage. " Schmee giggled. I just rolled my eyes. After breakfast we scrubbed the deck so it could have an equal coat of disgust, spiders and seaweed. This was my favorite part of the day because you could almost smell the sweetness of the clouds. The fairies flew higher than usual causing the clouds to dance with varied colors of light, The fairies were not just tiny people they had once been normal people as Schmee told me. A swift kick to the back of my head shook me from my daydreams.

"Pets don't think! Pets do!" With that sentiment from Drake, I was back to work. The next thing pets must do is not even decent to talk about; we have to go to the bathrooms and remove all the mess buckets contents and then dump them. As if that was not bad enough, we also had to scrub them. As the height of the sun rose so did the stench until Schmee and I were bathed in it.

In a high-pitched voice due to having a clothes pin pinching his nose Schmee said, " I heard we are looking for Atlantis now or we might be going to France." I smiled a little Schmee sure did like to stretch the truth or as he said speculate on what the more interesting untruth. He once told me that Drake was cousins with the Louisiana Swamp man and spent holidays with him and his wife bigfoot.

"Atlantis isn't real and what's so great about France?" Oh, great I had turned into an official bubble popper. "You are in a flying ship made possible by fairies who are enslaved by pirates and you refuse to even accept that Atlantis might be real? We are going to pick up more kids per the usual."

Why were we always picking up more kids? No sooner do we pick them up than they disappear altogether. Soon after this as the sky fell so did my eyelids once more. This routine began to become well routine the abnormal fairytale weaving itself into the normal portion of my brain. It was Schmee of all people to break that monotonous cycle.

"You can smell it." He frankly stated. A small bit of terror and confusion spread through me if he was going to blast a granddaddy fart, I wanted to be warned first.

"Smell what?" I hesitantly asked.

"You can smell the snails from France. Escargot they call them." He let out a long chuckle.

"Schmee, it just smells like regular air." I didn't have the heart to tell him that it was his own armpits that he was smelling. The sky was drab as if it was sulking in the rain clouds as we descended into the even more dull water below. There was a murmur among the crew that I would be tested today, but I had no clue how. Whatever it was I was ready. When I finally to take the blindfold off I longed to put it back on. Rain fell from the sky in angry strides leaving the smell of wet moss and dirt clinging to the streets. Then I saw it and knew there was no way I could pass the Captain's test. He had a boy who was only eight or nine on his knees against the concrete. The boy was shivering and whimpering. Oddly enough his sunken eyes made him appear as if he was already dead.

"Good pets do what their masters say. You can either learn the lesson or see what happens to pets when they are no longer useful." The captain said all this as he handed me his pistol. There is no way I could hurt this child, who was so innocent.

"No...I...I cannot. I won't." I stumbled. At least if I was going to die, I was going to die defiantly.

"I knew you were a soft shell just like your father." The captain laughed.

"You don't know anything about my father! You're a liar!" I couldn't contain all this rage built up against the captain for kidnapping me and killing my father but my father as well for not being there.

" I know your father was a coward and a drunk. The lush was full of booze when he accidentally got sprinkled with pixie dust. Pans shadow followed him and we of course followed the shadow leading us to you. You know your father would not shut up about his sweet Moira. He said if we wouldn't take you we could kill him. What an idiot expecting a pirate to keep his word!"

My anger began to not only boil but bubble over making me clench my fist. I looked into the reddened eyes of what seemed to be the most innocent person I had ever seen and saw pain. The next event was the moment that caused me to lose the last piece of who I was before. The boy used his hands over his face as if that would shield all of him from what I was about to do. The gun went off and I fell to my knees which soon were drenched in blood. To my horror the Captain made me carry the boy up to his bedroom and place him in his bed. The queerest thing was I couldn't seem to find the bullet wound. I shot him... I know I did, but there was no hole. He just lay on his bed looking peaceful as if he were just sleeping. I was instructed to wait down below for his parents to get home. There screams broke down whatever armor I had. This tragedy the captain, no I had caused didn't stop there. Ten minutes later you heard two more gunshots. I let the tears run freely, I had no honor to protect by keeping them in. I came to the realization I had just killed three people this was the end of joy, end of adventure, and the beginning of me succumbing to the demands of a demon. Later that night as I lie down I could hear the parents screams ,see the boys sad swollen eyes, I could even feel his lifeless body in my hands. I couldn't help but continue to sob. In all the time that I had lived alone with my father it was now that I felt most alone. I felt a small pat on my back, " I am so sorry Cornelious, But I promise if you try hard to make up for it the pain goes away just a little." Schmee and I then went to bed and slept what seemed like forever.