Chess Piece

Chapter 4—Cheaters Never Win

“Now, this was not part of the rules!” In the short time I had known him I had seen two sides of Pan. I had seen the gentle smile that attempted to make me trust him, and the mischievous smirk that told me I should not. The face staring down at me on the beach was neither of those.

Pan looked at me as though he was madder than anything: brow furrowed and a look in his eyes that made me shudder. “I thought I made a fair enough game,” he said. “but it seems that you’re nothing but a cheater.” I heard Felix and the other boys arrive on the beach.

“I really wish you had cooperated Chess. It would have been so much easier…”

Pan’s face changed and he smirked.

“…on you.”

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Pan, Felix, and the other boys half walked, half carried me back to the camp. Felix was unnervingly calm seeing as I had just kneed him in the balls. Pan seemed almost giddy. Also unnerving. I thought, especially since I had broken the rules of his game.

When we got to the campsite I was returned to my original spot on the tree, tied once again and tighter than before. Pan addressed Felix and the other boys.

“Boys, you did well! We won the game!!” Cheers erupted from the boys, many of them hidden from my view. “However,” he continued “it would seem that our playmate here didn’t adhere to the rules. That makes her a cheater!” A low ‘Oooooooooh!’ came from the boys.

“And we all know, don’t we boys, that cheaters never win!” More cheering. Pan then told the boys to go enjoy the fire and play before bed.

Once again, Pan was unnervingly close to me. He leaned in and whispered in my ear, “And after they go to bed, we’re going to play.”

Shit, again.

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Pan left to go to the main campfire where the other boys were. He left Felix to stand guard over me. How many times can I say shit in one day? Because shit.

The look in Felix’s eyes told me that this was the last place on this island I wanted to be right now.

“Do you know why you’re not dead right now, girl?” he asked.

I figured this was a rhetorical question and that it would be best to keep my mouth shut.

“Because for some reason, Pan wants you here. And as long as Pan wants you, I can’t hurt you. But make no mistake, the second he is through with you…you’re mine!”

Yep, I was going to die here. And who knows what else was going to happen between now and then. I shuddered at that thought.

I must have dozed off (and could you blame me after the day I’d had) because the next thing I knew I heard Pan telling Felix to go to bed.

The fire at the main part of camp was completely extinguished and the one closest to me was mostly embers. This cast an eerie glow on the boy before me. My captor, and who knew what else soon enough, Peter Pan.

“I thought you would follow the rules. Cheaters never win, Chess. You’re about to learn that.”

Author's Note: I promise the good stuff is coming!! Next chapter!! :)