Will sat on the stairs leading to the poop deck, leaning his elbows to his knees, twirling the red charm on the string around his neck, biding his time, watching the colours changing from red to orange and back, waiting, reflecting.
Roused from his thoughts when someone blocked the his sun, Will looked up, not really wishing for company.
"What is that?" Jack asked, squinting as if to see better, reaching to touch the charm.
"Just something I picked up somewhere."
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"I may have deserved that."
Jack gathered himself at the baffled look on Will's face and strolled along, apparently undisturbed by the swift slaps received, not spending another thought on if they were deserved or not. Instead he continued familiarizing Will of the secrets of the town, enthusiastically enough not to notice Will was falling behind.
The woman would've gone undetected, nearly blending into the Tortugan street corner, her strange hat shadowing her eyes. She was crouched and wrapped into her skirts behind her small cart, invisible, if it weren't for the earthy smell so different from the pungent fumes Will had been inhaling. The sudden change, not necessarily into anything better, stank of rotting leaves, soggy earth, decaying wood and wet peat, hitting Will like he'd walked into a wall.
On the cart, over a tattered lacework, was a display of odd small…things Will couldn't think of being any use to anyone. Yet, he couldn't take his eyes of one of the charms, a red piece of jewellery, set in silver, topped off with a turquoise.
The woman shifted, her skirts rustling with her movement, the sound much more louder in Will's ears than it ought to be, still his eyes were fixed on the charm, as if his eyes were the only thing keeping it from blending into the thick air. The swish of the woman's cloth and the soft sound of her step told that she'd gotten up, and was circling around Will. Head swimming with the heady scent that grew stronger as the woman stopped and stood behind Will, her whisper would've gone without reaction, if it weren't for her fingers tenderly folding over Will's arm. "You know what you want. Don't you?"
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Will held the charm up for Jack to see, hoping he'd go away after he'd gotten his interest satisfied.
Jack nudged Will's shoulder with a bottle first, then briskly settled himself next to Will, giving him the options to either move aside and make room, or have Jack sitting on his lap.
"I don't know what it is. It just is."
Obviously Jack wasn't happy with the answer, since he was still trying to catch another charm, ignoring the one Will was offering.
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Her hand guided Will's over the pendant, sliding over his fingers, forcing him to clasp them around the charm. The thumping of his own heart was the only sound left in the world as he held the charm, his breath caught in his throat when an epiphany tried to break through the shroud the woman had cast over his mind, distracted and disjointed enough not to be alarmed by her hands raising, covering his eyes, blinding him, making him look into another place, another time, where there was a ship --
"William Turner where the bloody hell are you!"
Jack's bellowing called over the ruckus on the streets, making Will gasp and startle, the colours and sounds of the town pouring in all of a sudden, pushing the daydream aside, which vanished without leaving a mark.
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Jack batted Will's hand away, and took the small white charm in his own, turned it, and looked at Will incredulously.
"Never thought you so superstitious."
Puzzled, Will leaned forward, eager to know more about the charm.
"What is it?"
"You don't know?" Wide-eyed, not entirely sure if Will was pulling his leg, Jack searched Will's face, finding nothing but curiosity.
"It's an eye of a god called Shiva, the Ravisher and Destroyer of all," Jack begun gravely, only to be interrupted with a laconic utterance.
"That doesn't sound very promising."
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Will saw the woman standing behind her cart as if she's never moved at all, a wide smile showing blackened teeth until Jack appeared next to Will. Glancing over the cart and the woman with apparent distrust, Jack grabbed Will by the arm, pulling him away, the woman quickly withdrawing her hand and inclining her head deeper under the rim of her hat, shying away from inquiring eyes.
Not being the slightest bit interested in Will's protests, Jack hauled Will along, muttering about the sheer stupidity of staying behind like that in a town like this.
Irritated by Jack's behaviour, Will stopped and turned around to give the pirate a good snap about propriety, but was interrupted before even getting his mouth open.
"You didn't buy anything from her, did you?"
"No." Will was affronted by Jack's tone indicating Will was probably born yesterday, and at high noon at that. "I might have, if you hadn't so rudely interrupted -"
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Jack glared at Will's remark, making him clamp his mouth shut, and continued in an ominous tone; "In a moment of jest, Shiva's wife comes up from behind him and playfully covers his eyes with her hands. No sooner than she's done so, the whole world threatens to plunge into darkness, teetering on the edge of destruction."
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"Good." Letting go of Will's arm, Jack smoothed Will's vest almost apologetically, then patted his shoulder. "Good… Now, we're going to find this feller Gibbs. I've a good hunch where he might be, and I'd appreciate if you didn't disappear on me like that again, savvy? We'll be needing a couple of buckets and some water…"
Jack's voice faded as he moved, Will standing very still, frowning at the items he'd been hiding in his fist. The red one he remembered, but the white one with a spiralling pattern on it, he'd never seen before.
"Will! What did I just tell you?" The frustrated voice pushed Will back into movement, a few long steps bringing him head to head with Jack again, right after Will had tucked the charms into his vest pocket. This wasn't the time to linger wondering.
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"Then, instead of doing the reasonable thing and just pushing the wife's hands away," At Will's eye rolling, Jack quickly added, "Well, it's not like he couldn't 'ave, he has four arms an' all…"
Getting the customary jaw clench which usually meant that Will didn't believe a word said in response, Jack sighed resignedly, then went on with the story. "Anyway, then, Shiva's forehead suddenly sprouts a third eye, and he can see again, thus saving the world from a horrible destiny."
Will waited for the story to continue for a moment, unimpressed by the ending, even though the look on Jack's face clearly indicated there wasn't more to tell.
"Some jest…" Will held the charm in question in the air. "So what's it supposed to do?"
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Briefly, Will wished he could remember how he'd come about them.
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Jack straightened and waved his bottle towards the necklace.
"It's supposed to protect you from all evil, give you support and infinite wisdom and help you make the right decisions - Aha, I'm starting to see why you'd want to wear that…"
Finding that poking fun at Will probably wasn't the wisest move, Jack shifted uncomfortably. "How'd you come by it anyway?"
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No one had noticed the two coins loosening from their ties in Jack's hair and dropping off, clinking and bouncing across the stairs leading to the bowels of the Black Pearl, one of them rolling to where it would never be found again, the other sliding between boards, sticking out of the crack enough to glimmer in the light of a lantern, catching Will's eye while he was hauled into the brig.
Deliberately stumbling over his own feet, Will landed on his knees and pinched his fingers around the small piece of metal. Anything could prove useful in trying pick the lock of the manacles on his wrists, as long as it was big enough…which the coin decidedly wasn't. Will enveloped the coin into his hand nevertheless while being hurried with a rough shove from his imprisoners.
In his cell, still a little surprised he'd been freed from his chafing restraints, Will held the coin up between his thumb and a finger. Looking at his world through the small hole in the middle of it, the tunnelled vision allowed Will to see his life in sharp relief; himself on one, Elizabeth on the other, then a grimy group of jailed miscreants on yet another side of the coin.
Sighing, Will dropped the coin into his pocket. It would serve as a reminder if he'd ever get through this alive. He'd never trust a pirate again.
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"Tortuga. I'm sure I got it from Tortuga."
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