I figured I would submit this here after I posted it at a LiveJournal site I moderate, miscficchallenge. It won Second Place in the last challenge and needed to delete the file, so posting it here means it'll be off my computer and I can still find somewhere to read it. It's short and I don't expect a lot of reviews or attention from it. Just a spot to put it.
I felt the bullet hit me and, although the flower of warm blood blossomed through my shirt for all to see, I was cold. I was horribly cold. The curse of the aztec gold had taken away everything from me, everything but The Pearl. I was a man of feeling, of emotion, even though it seemed I was nothing but a heartless scrounger of the sea. The salt water spray on my face, the smooth wood of the deck under my fingertips, the sip of sweet wine against the bitter bite of apple...
I fell to the rocks beneath my boots, rocks colder than I felt. I heard the clang of metal as coins bounced down the piles of riches and fell into the water with a splash, a gentle shower of droplets hitting the water in the coin's wake. Rocks and coins and jewels dug into my skin and pressed against my clothes, the pain and pressure welcome in compairison to the numbness I had felt for ten years. And the blood spread from my chest wound and dripped onto my arm, from my arm onto the rocks, from the rocks into the water. I couldn't watch the red mingle with the blue to form a dangerous purple that would attract all sorts of deadly fish and other oceanic life that fed on dying things. Things like me.
Ironic that the moment I could be myself again, to feel, taste, see, hear, and smell everything, I would die.
I had looked forward to the moment when I could sit in my cabin on The Pearl, the smell of roast pork and fruit heavy in the air, mingling with the sound of the waves outside carrying my ship to distant seas. I had looked forward to the first bite of my first feast since the curse was lifted, tasting every bite and every bite tasting better than the first. I had waited for the day when I could see and truly appreciate the sunrise as a normal man, waited for the night when I could be with a woman and experience every moment of passion. Although it was only ten years since I had experienced everything in life I loved, ten years can feel like a lifetime.
None of that would happen now, I remember thinking as I heard the boots of my crew, of Bootstrap Bill's son, of elegant Miss Swann, and of that wretched Jack Sparrow. With my last bit of strength, I reached into my jacket and there was the apple I had placed in the pocket. The skin was smooth and, as I raised it to my mouth, I couldn't see it anymore. My vision dimmed and I started to feel the numbness sweep over me again.
Death wasn't something I was afraid of. I had been dead for ten years.