A/N: Hey guys! I'm sooooo sorry for the long update, but here's chapter three! And it's mostly a dialog, and it got pretty long, but you can read it. I BELIEVE IN YOU! And by the way, this is written from Elizabeth's POV. I think all the chapters will be from now on, I haven't really decided yet.
Disclaimer: I don't own Pirates (sob)
3: A late Night Promise
Murderer, murderer…
Jack's accusing last word… His eyes…
Murderer, murderer…
The taste of blood in my mouth…
Murderer…
I scream.
I'm nineteen years old and I scream like a baby. I can here that, even in my dream. That I scream like a baby.
- Elizabeth!
Tia Dalma's slender, dark fingers under my eyes. Wipes away my tears. Wakes me up.
I open up my eyes. I'm so entwined in my blankets that I hardly can move, I'm soaking in cold sweat and tears, I can hear my own hammering heartbeats.
My nightmare is still flashing in front of my eyes. But Tia Dalma's here and she's looking at me with concern.
- Were you dreaming? She whispers with her funny accent.
I nod and bite my bottom lip. I hardly realized that I'm crying in streams until now.
Yes, I'm crying. I'm crying and sobbing and snuffling like… Like a baby. Tia Dalma cups my face with both her hands and draws her thumbs under my eyes. And right now it feels like no one else in the entire world cares about me.
- A nightmare, I sob. Such a god-awful nightmare!
Tia Dalma nods.
- About him?
- Mm! I squeak and nod.
Tia Dalma smiles sadly and cups my chin.
- You want a drink?
I nod once again. Tia Dalma takes my hand – my god, I'm shaky! – and pulls me out of bed. As soon as the blanket slips off my shoulders, I get so cold that I'm shaking. Which is sort of odd, since we're in the Caribbean, and it's one hundred degrees in this little hut.
Tia Dalma looks at me, amused, and points to a chair in front of a table in the tiny room.
- Why are your teeth chattering? She whispers.
The entire crew sleeps in this one room. And everyone's doing it on chairs, on the floor or tables. I got the only bed, just because… Well, when it was bedtime I was crying and shaking so much that Tia Dalma offered me her bed, and slept on the floor herself.
- I'm so cold, I mumble between my clattering teeth.
Tia Dalma puts a cup in front of me, not entirely unlike the one I got when I got here.
- You're in shock, she says and enters the room with the curtain.
That I'm in shock is plain as hell. And I haven't stopped crying.
- We are going to get him back, Tia Dalma says when she comes back into the room. Barbossa is a good pirate. I know you miss him, but…
- That's not it! I cut her off and wipe my nose on my pajama's sleeve. I…
My voice cracks. Tia Dalma pours something in my cup from the black bottle she's holding. She's waiting calmly without taking her eyes off me.
- It was me who… I start again.
- What did you do, Elizabeth? Tia asks patiently and pours a glass to herself with the mysterious drink.
She knows. She knows what I did. She just wants me to own up to it.
- I left him for the Kraken! I break down, still whispering. I kissed him and then I chained him to the mast and I think Will saw me and now he hates me and when Jack comes back he will hate me, too, and I'm going to die alone and I…
- Drink, Tia interrupts me and points to my cup. You need some sleep. And, if not, you need to calm down.
I take a sip of the drink. It burns down my throat, worse than rum, but it warms my form inside.
- I always told Jack his lusting was going to kill him, Tia says with a sad smile.
I swallow the drink and some of my tears.
I don't understand how Tia can talk o me this way. Jack was her friend, and I killed him. She should hate me more than I hate myself.
And still she sits in front of me. Talks to my in a way she actually haven't done before. She usually speaks with me as the mysterious, strange voodoo queen she really is. But now it's like we're equals.
Like I wasn't a killer.
At that thought, the tears rise up in my eyes again. Tia sighs.
- Elizabeth, for Gods sake, she says. Drink! And stop crying, listen to me instead!
I nod, almost startled.
- You think Jack will hate you, Tia whispers and takes a sip of her drink. But why ever would he do that?
That's such a weird question that I almost stop crying.
- I killed him, I say quietly. Why ever would he not hate me?
Tia smiles.
- Jack's compass, she whispers. Have you not seen whom it points to when he holds it?
I look at her. The tears are still flowing, even though my eyes have gotten twice as big.
No. No, he wouldn't.
- You have no idea how much he wants you, Tia whispers, smiling. Have you never thought about why he went back to the Pearl when the Kraken attacked her?
- Yes, of course, I say, but…
- He cares about you, Tia cuts me off.
- Yes, I know, I whisper. And I know he wanted me, that was pretty obvious. But…
- If you had slit his throat or something like that, Tia cuts me off again, he would have hated you. That I can promise. But the way you killed him was the best way ever, for the both of you.
The last three words she utters immediately catch my attention.
- Both of us?
- Yes, Tia says, like it's the most obvious thing in the world. Since you wanted him, too.
The shock doesn't allow me to say anything right after. It gets stuck in my throat, smothers my voice. Tia smiles that way again.
My god. Am I that easy to see through?
- No, I manage to say at last. You're wrong.
What a good comeback. I'm so proud of myself.
- You didn't want him? Tia says and takes another sip. Then why did you kiss him?
- To chain him to the mast! I whisper, panicking. To save everyone! I had to…
- You had to? Tia asks, smiling. So you hated to kiss him? Were you truly suffering?
I slowly open my mouth.
- No, I say once again. I wasn't. I like kissing.
- Yes, Tia says. And you liked Jack. And you can't make me believe that there was no other way to chain him to the mast. I'm not that stupid.
- Yes, you are, I hiss. If you think I wanted Jack you are that stupid. I love Will, and no one else!
Tia calmly waits for my tantrum to end. Then she drinks the last drips out of her glass and says softly:
- I'm a voodoo queen, Elizabeth. Even if I would believe those things now, I would find out the truth eventually. So you might as well say it right now.
I sigh and turn around. Will is sitting behind me, sleeping.
He's sitting at the table he was throwing his knife into when we got here. His head is resting against the light stabbing marks and he's still holding the knife.
His left hand, the one that's holding the knife, lies under his cheek. He faces me, his mouth is open, his eyelids flutter, like he's dreaming.
But he's also frowning. He's having a nightmare, just like I had.
And maybe he's dreaming of Jack and me.
Maybe he's dreaming that my face is pressed against Jack's. Maybe he's dreaming that my tongue slips into his mouth, that I put my hand on his neck.
Maybe he's dreaming that. Just like I did.
Yes. He looks plagued. But in the meantime, when he's lying with his eyes closed and his mouth open, he's good looking in an almost feminine way.
Will is good looking. He's sweet, he respects me, he's safe and caring.
But Jack.
Jack.
No Will on the planet can cure me.
I turn back to Tia. Her black lips are smiling, and I know what she's thinking. She doesn't have to tell me.
I draw my hand under my eyes and empty my cup in a single swig.
- Promise me… I start before the tears crack my voice.
Tia refills my cup without taking her eyes of me. I take another sip and starts again.
- Promise me we'll get him back, I say, my voice raspy.
Tia's smile gets wider.
- I promise.
I nod. Then I get up, leaving Tia and the almost full cup behind, and go back to the warm bed.
And then I cry fresh tears into the pillow until the crew wakes up and the sunrise paints a thin, bright line over the horizon.
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