The scene played in Elizabeth's mind unrelentlessly since the day he left.
The way he carried her onto the sand… the soft, scruffy kisses he left all over her body in anticipation… the longing sort of gaze he drove into her right beforehand…
…And of course, the moment it happened.
She wasn't entirely sure if it went well. The whole time their bodies touched, there seemed to be a raw sort of sadness for what they knew was to come of them after their marriage celebration. Instead of feeling pleasure, desperation and unyielding angst was filling her body with every touch of Will's hand. And as he left the island, letting her go… it seemed to explode onto her whole life.
She spent countless nights sitting atop a grassy hill on the island from where he departed, gazing out on the sea and wondering if that was the way a newlywed was supposed to feel. Was one supposed to get married, only to depart? Was one to make love, knowing that it might be the first and only time… and then be left to spend their years alone without the person next to them every night?
The idea didn't sit well in Elizabeth's mind. Her thoughts criticized her, asking why it made sense to live a life the way she did. She had once ached for her soul and heart to be free, and for her power of self to conquer lands and seas… She once felt pride out of being Pirate King, and she used to grasp adventure lustfully, taking what she could and giving nothing back. Things had changed since then. Now, her mind stirred with countless thoughts of her lost innocence, nightmares of youth slipping away as her husband lived on ferrying souls, and of dreams about days where she could live freely without worrying about betrayal… without worrying about destroying the chances of breaking the Dutchman curse.
Her marriage, without Will around in person, had turned into a responsibility, not a desire. She felt like she had the chore of breaking his curse, and that was the only reason they were wed. She felt almost enslaved to the chore, feeling that it came before everything else in her life… even happiness.
She hadn't pirated… not a bit. Though there was a pirate living inside of her, she was afraid to let it live without restraint. She was afraid of the technicalities of Will's curse… like what was considered "betrayal", and what it meant to be untrue to him. She also wasn't sure that she would be able to contain herself in the pirate atmosphere.
Thoughts of her almost-affair with Jack came to mind, as well as numerous other flirtations and fantasies that she could never speak of out loud involving him….
With those in mind, she knew she couldn't trust herself to not let her mind lose itself after years of being without love. She also dreaded possibilities such as accidentally failing to show up to wait for him in 10 years if she ever left… which now sounded impossible to her (since it's all she seemed to think about)… but she couldn't help but let the "what if…" scenarios persuade her otherwise. She would imagine Will's face… the anger and resentment he would experience if she had failed to meet the requirements… she imagined the tentacles grow on his cheeks…
She almost had herself convinced she wasn't going to ever leave. She was so close to letting her past adventures fade away, until the night a friend visited her in a dream.
In the dream, she was lying on a beach, in her undergarments and Will's boots, just like she had the day he left. The wind was blowing sand onto her stomach, and her hair around her face. It seemed that it was a day that meant to be lonely, just like many others.
But as she lay, she heard a familiar noise. She felt the vibrations of the tide's waves hit the sand next to her in a way that made her heart pace faster. Something inside of her told her to sit up, so she did.
"Keep a weather eye on the horizon…"
She looked out to the sea, and a boat with a tiny black flag was drawing near. She stood up, placing her feet at the shallow end of the tide. A grin spread across her face, hoping to see Will… hoping to have the curse broken so she could be free….
However, the bandana she saw in the distance was not the captain of the Flying Dutchman's.
"Jack!?" she whispered to herself in confusion. But after moments of quiet contemplation, a small contented grin grew upon her lips. "Jack!" she shouted.
He rowed up as far as he could, getting out to swim eventually. Elizabeth ran into the water until she was mid-thigh deep in the sea. She moved her hair out of her face, watching him through the wind. When he got close enough to be heard, he shouted back.
"You look bloody awful!"
Her eyebrows narrowed. "Excuse me?" She felt herself become defensive, but she found herself getting a bit of pleasure from this greeting. She and Jack's spats were things that, though ridiculous, reminded her of the past she loved.
Jack staggered through the shallow waves to face Elizabeth about three feet away. After fiddling with his hat a bit, he made contact with her eyes. "I mean that you look less impressive that when I previously saw you, Elizabeth… Lizzie… Captain." He coughed, letting the taste of sea water leave his mouth. "Which is actually a compliment, if you think about it, because I am congratulating you on the impressiveness of your past actions which, after all, are the most life you have now days, isn't it?"
Elizabeth squinted. "I fail to understand the compliment in that, Jack."
"I mean the best, love," he defended simply.
She watched him stagger around a bit more, adjusting the belt that the waves pushed lopsided and pulling the sleeves that he pulled up to swim back down. His skin looked warm, scarred, and moist underneath his white shirt, and his eyes and the same dark, nonsensical shine to them as they had before.
"I also don't understand," Elizabeth continued, "why you're here, and why you're calling me Captain." She gave him a significant look, and he gave her a playful one back. She gave him a passive scowl and he rolled his eyes as Elizabeth began to walk up the shore, an aura of torment around her.
Jack began to follow her to the shore, coming up to meet her at her side. "I am here, Captain," he stressed, "because I am a figment of your imagination that you conjured up simply because you missed me so much." He moved in front of her so that they stopped ankle deep in the water. "So, if you're unhappy that I am being insensitive, it's mostly your fault, really."
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "I can hardly say that you're the main person I miss," she said. "I also can't believe out of everyone I could dream up here, I picked you." Her voice was filled with the kind of disgust and attitude she usually put into it when having a conversation with Jack… though inside, she couldn't help but feel her insides stir at the thoughts of her previous desires and situations with him. She tried to shake the thoughts away, not knowing if you can be considered impure for having these thoughts in a dream…
"Of course you miss me!" Jack said, interrupting any sort of confusing internal monologue. "I'm a pirate! I'm… pirate-y…if you will. And you long for pirate-y things, therefore… you miss me. Savvy?"
He grinned his gold teeth at her and she gave a soft, pensive smile back. She remembered the time they spent together on the ship alone, without Will… the conversation, the tension… the freedom…
"Maybe I do miss pirate things," she stated, a distant look in her eyes. They finally met the shoreline and sat in the sand, feeling the water hit their already drenched legs. "But I can't let myself do that anymore. I'm too… afraid about-"
"You don't need to explain your worries about the curse, dearie," Jack said. "Since I am, infact, a figment of your dreams, imagination, hopes, and whatnot, I, unlike my normal self, have every idea of what is going on in your pretty little mind." He gazed at her with a quiet sort of intensity, and she may have felt her pulse skip at the thought.
her mind kept saying in the background, though she wish she could push it away."If you have every idea of what is going on in my mind," Elizabeth replied, "then you wouldn't be calling me Captain… because you would know that I decided to give up pirating."
Jack shook his head, standing up in excitement. "Wrong!" he exclaimed, and started looking around the beach. He was peeking inside bushes and around rocks, not giving any information as to what he was actually doing. He finally got a gleeful look on his face as he spotted a rock on the opposite side of the island.
"What do you mean 'wrong?'" shouted Elizabeth as he walked away. "And what are you doing anyway?"
Out of what seemed to be no where, Jack picked up two swords. He gave Elizabeth a devilish grin. "You say you've given up pirating, yes?"
She nodded, eyeing the swords and his curious gaze. "Yes, that is what I said." Jack smiled, throwing a sword at her. Though startled, she caught it with a free hand.
"Then fight me," he said simply, holding the blade of his sword out to her.
"What?" she said, backing away with the sword to her waist. "Fight you? Why?"
"I know you can't resist, mate…" he teased, hitting her sword's tip lightly with his. "You love to get me into violent situations, don't you?"
She bit her lip, being reminded of the guilty situation of the kraken. " That's not funny," she said, her eyebrows furrowed.
"Oh really?" he said, tapping her sword once more. "Are you getting a bit… riled up by it?"
She shook her head stubbornly. "No." he was trying to get her mad at him and she didn't know why. Jack started to circle her with his sword, pretend-fighting with her and holding her gaze the whole time. Elizabeth's mouth opened in a humored kind of smile, rolling her eyes and putting her hands on her hips. "Jack, there's no point in me fighting you." She grinned and added cleverly, "And besides, it seems that you have enough fun fighting by yourself."
Jack stopped his game, taking a step closer to her. Elizabeth's smile got smaller and her eyes widened.
"What if I can guarantee that there's a point?" he said, taking another half-step closer. The tip of his hat was almost touching her forehead. He tapped her sword again, holding her eye-contact. "A rather good point."
"I can hardly take your guarantees seriously," she breathed onto his face. She was starting to get riled up… in more ways than one.
'You have a responsibility… you have a curse to break…'
Jack smirked. "And after luring me in with your feminine wiles, assaulting my mouth, leaving me to die, and then not speaking any word to me about it… I can hardly say I can trust you either." He paused, watching her face grow tense. He felt her getting angry and he smiled at it. "Which means, when you say you 'quit pirating', I barely take your claim seriously."
Elizabeth stood still, the tense look in her face unmoving. Jack was searching for her breaking point with his words, she knew he was… and he was getting way too close to getting what he wanted.
"Besides," he said slowly, touching a strand of her long, light hair. "Women never really know what they truly want anyway."
He had found it.
With a shout, Elizabeth lashed out, raising her sword to him only to have him block it easily. She moved to him, putting all of her strength into her strikes, her breathing becoming heavy and warm. With each clash of their swords Jack smiled peculiarly, putting just the same amount of strength into his defensive moves. Elizabeth was wondering why he was enjoying her aggressiveness and why he needed her to do this, but didn't stop regardless of the lack of sense it had. When Jack got a free moment he took the offensive, taking steps towards her, and his sword movements become more swift and powerful. Elizabeth, her mind alive with adrenaline for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, was alert enough to block every blow, and even catch Jack off guard a few times with her intensity. He was laughing mysteriously when she did.
They danced around the island shouting, prancing, and pushing each other to the brink. Finally, as Elizabeth backed Jack into a corner near a rock, her sword met his a final time.
"You're rather good at this, Captain," he said mischieveiously, bringing his face nearer to hers. "Both the sword-fighting and the cornering me…"
"Well you should stop being so easy to corner," she said hotly onto his face.
Jack grinned. "Maybe I like being cornered, Lizzie…"
His back was pressed against the rock, and she held her sword on his, pushing hard to challenge the strength of his arm. Their chests were almost touching; they were practically leaning on top of one another. And just as there gazes seemed to pierce each others minds enough to hurt, she removed her sword, choosing to win simply by slapping him in the face instead.
Jack's face whipped to the left as her hand hit his skin, and afterward her put his hand on the spot of contact, feeling the sting. Elizabeth, stunned that she won their little game, wasn't sure whether to help him mend the pain or to take pride in beating him. Jack simply smiled at her… a bigger smile than any he had given her before.
"That… was not in the rules," he said, still backed against the rock. Elizabeth took both their swords, setting them on the ground, and touched Jack's face lightly where she hit him. She saw his skin turn red.
"There are no rules," she said slowly. "Only… guidelines." Her mouth seemed to tremble as she said the words that used to be said to automatically.
Jack grinned, taking Elizabeth's hand away from his stinging cheek and holding it at his waist. With his other hand, he took off his hat and placed it on her head. "Pirate," he whispered onto her lips.
She looked down at their hands, to the swords on the ground, and finally to Jack's face. And as they stared into each other, she finally felt the power and happiness grow inside her heart. With every breath of Jack's she felt against her face and every drip of sea salt she could smell on his hat, she felt more and more alive.
"Jack," she whispered. She wasn't sure if she had anything more to say besides his name. With every look they gave each other, thoughts seemed to be understood wordlessly. He touched her hip with two fingers and she watched his lips unmovingly. "I want freedom… you were right…"
"I can give it to you, love…" he said, now lacing is whole arm around her waist as she pressed further close to him. "I could give it to you then, I can give it to you now."
Tears started forming in her eyes, though they didn't fall. "After all that I've done to you… I don't deserve your rescue…"
"Elizabeth," he said, "You came back for me after I died physically, now I came and helped you after you died… mentally. We're square now, love."
Elizabeth shook her head. "No. No, we're not." She put a hand on his forearm and whispered, "Not yet."
She slowly started bringing her mouth to meet his.
…And suddenly, she was back lying on the floor. Her eyes opened from their previously closed state, and she soon remembered that she had, indeed, been asleep… and he had been a figment of her imagination. Just as he said.
She sighed, touching her bottom lip… she longed to have the salty taste of him on it… and for the first time since Will left, she let herself accept that the taste she wanted wasn't his own… and that she could not allow herself to have an enslaved heart forever.
She sat up, staring at the horizon. She knew there were old boats here that she could use, she had seen them before. She also knew she had to get out to see and find the freedom that her heart yearned for so badly… the captain her heart yearned for so badly. However, she had no idea where to start. All she knew is that she wished Jack hadn't been just a dream so that she could have his help… along with knowing that he did in fact love her, and that they actually had a chance before she set sail alone in an old dingy, risking the destruction of her husband's curse.
She turned around considering her few options, pacing about for a few moments, when she suddenly noticed something on the floor of the beach.
A compass.
Her eyes gaped at it, and picked it up softly in her two hands. The object wasn't imaginary. It was real, and she could feel a power in it… a power that was all too familiar.
"What do you want most?" a voice echoed in her mind.As she opened it and saw the arrow point in a non-northern direction, she smiled softly, actually considering her true desires instead of the rules of a pirate curse.
"After all, rules are more like guidelines…. Right?"