Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Pirates of the Caribbean, I only write this in love for it.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Torn
Dusk swept over the glassy pool that gazed back at the heavens with stars in its watery gaze. It chased away the rambunctious foamy crests of the churning waves, leaving only the tranquil ripples that danced beneath the moonlight. Atop the unfathomable mirror of Uranus, the air, laden with the fresh taste of the sea, spun brilliantly as it gusted into the sails of the Black Pearl. The Pearl's hull slipped easily over the familiar Caribbean waters as they murmured a greeting. In her rigging, the mid watch seemed to be mere phantoms as they went about their duties.
In the evening's tranquility, it was hard to see why he couldn't sleep. There had been a restlessness in his heart for some days previous, but still he had slept through those nights. This night, the quietest in many, fell upon him too suddenly for him to be weary. Beneath his bare feet, the midship's deck felt steady as she sailed on to the illusive morning. The rest of his garb, his ochre trousers and linen shirt, flitted as the breeze overtook him at the railing. Trapped beneath the stars of paradise with a mind awhirl, there would be no sleep for William Turner this night.
Like a dizzying dance, his thoughts ran about his mind, each chasing another in utter chaos. One in particular crossed his mind the most: his love for Jack. Round and round it sped, pursued by his guilt for still needing Elizabeth. Jack had become the very breath in his lungs, the beat in his chest, but still, his heart at times longed to stay by Elizabeth, who had been there for him since they were merely children, and whom he thought he could spend the rest of his life with happily married. Instead of needing her to sustain him, he needed Jack. Instead of standing by Jack, his duty and even his purpose at times laid with Elizabeth. And still his thoughts ran onward, creating only more convoluted self-condemnation of fate and the twists that brought him to this perch at the starboard railing.
Scattered among the other wheeling distractions, was the rift he always felt between himself and Jack. Jack lived for the sea – he could breathe the ocean air and Will would swear that it was just as good as heaven to him. Every time they were even near a ship, Jack seemed to have a spring in his step that Will could never find for himself. Will needed cobble stones and marketplaces. Though he had always lived by the sea, he could never seem to harness the drive to simply go to sea. A forge and a bed to sleep in, he thought, and Elizabeth… And around again they sped.
Some distance off the starboard beam, his keen gaze caught sight of a single bird, its sleek form gliding over the sea beneath it. Effortlessly it made its journey, likely to some other island in the long net of the Caribbean Sea. In his eyes, Will saw the freedom he longed to have – the freedom to live somewhere between the sea and the shore. Somewhere between his forge and this ship. Somewhere… somewhere with both Jack and Elizabeth.