Maelstrom
By TwinEnigma
Standard Disclaimer: All Pirates of the Carribean characters belong to Dinsey.
The first time he sees her, James Norrington is a boy and he is on his first ship. It is near dawn and the boatswain had ordered him to the galley for water, but he finds himself unable to move when he finally sees her.
She stands on the bow, long red hair twisting around her head in wild tangles as she winds her pale, milk-white hands around the rigging. The pale green dress she wears is in frayed tatters and strange beads, shells and ornaments dance along the fabric with a hypnotic quality as the sun breaks over the horizon in bloody fingers of light.
The boatswain pulls him away and bribes him with sweetmeats and a sip of whiskey so he won't tell anyone what he saw.
James thinks about her again that night, while the ship moans and pitches in the storm. He finds it difficult to sleep.
He sees her again when he is a Midshipman, this time while in port. He is young and stupid and, moreover, he is drunk. His shipmates, best friends – daft bastards the lot of them – are even more drunk than he is and he finds himself being pushed forward, towards the fiery-haired woman in the pale green dress.
She sees him and smiles coyly, raising eyes the colour of the ocean to meet his and he is lost in an instant.
The rest of the night is a blur of drunken laughter, clumsy hands and hazed beyond recognition. His shipmates cheer him when he returns in the morning, clapping him on the back for his conquest, but the return to sobriety leaves him in a state of unease.
James has grown up, but she – she has not.
The smell of salt will not leave his skin.
Port Royal is now his destination and he is a Lieutenant. He has seen her again in the wreckage of the merchant vessel that the boy must have come from, though her dress is finer, more vibrant blue like the waters of the Caribbean. She remains ever the same as she was when he first laid eyes upon her. Now, she smiles and watches him from a torn portion of the deck, a strand of black pearls carelessly twined in her fingers. Her milky-white face seems eerie and malevolent in the mist, like a spectre.
The others do not see her and, for that, he is uncertain whether he should be comforted by the knowledge or disturbed.
There is not another survivor to be found. As the longboat returns to the Dauntless, he tries to convince himself that spirits are not real.
He does not sleep, his mind wandering back to her and that terrible smile.
She comes to him on the Dauntless, a few days into their pursuit of Captain Jack Sparrow and whispers to him that he belongs to her. She is both more lovely and wicked that ever before, but he finds himself unable to move from his bed. Her grin is feral as she taunts him for his failure to escape her and capture the heart of Elizabeth. She growls out the name, eyes roiling with jealous rage, and she trails her fingers down his chest, once again smiling wickedly.
Her milky hand is like ice, startling him into action, and he scrambles away from her in horror, now finally seeing her for what she truly is.
The red hair is seaweed the colour of blood and her dress is naught but sea foam, mist and torn sails, draping over her body in a mockery of clothing. She stares at him with eyes that are black and fathomless as the depths of the ocean and screams in pure rage, cursing and spitting at him for daring to spurn her.
She then flees the cabin, leaving a trail of watery footprints up to the deck, where they soon disappear over the side.
Already, he can make out the angry, pitch-black clouds of her vengeance manifest gathering in the distance.
James Norrington is alive, though he does not know how he came to be on the beach or where he is. He dimly remembers shouting orders only to lose them in the deafening wind and lightning striking down with furious vengeance upon the Dauntless. After that, there is only the cold, dark water and salt.
She is there, smiling at him again in her sea foam dress – a shark's smile, vicious and predatory. She was the sea and storm incarnate, beautiful and terrible in the same breath.
And he knows without a doubt that he will never escape the capricious goddess.
AN:
There is a thin line between sea god and sea monster.