Chapter 2
Jones walked onto the deck, watching his crew work. Those on duty were all doing what they were supposed to and those who weren't were playing Liar's Dice, one of the few enjoyments Jones had left them. Everything was in order, the way he liked things. Jones suddenly remembered what he was supposed to do. He descended to the brig, his bone leg clanking loudly.
Carolyn sat in her cell, watching the little sea creatures climb up and down the walls. Her clothes were tattered and wet, and she had removed her cloak to keep herself warm. A small gash was slit across her cheek, thanks to Clanker. It was bleeding but Carolyn barely noticed. She just fiddled with her necklace and hummed to herself. It hurt to think Jones has such little care for his sister, but the way he treated her, Dawn's only child, there was no doubt in Carolyn's mind that Jones did not care in the slightest for ANY his family. She picked up a shell and threw it at the wall without any real force at all.
"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest…yo ho ho and a bottle of rum…" she began to sing softly but stopped at the sound of footsteps descending into the hold. Carolyn shrugged and continued to throw shells at the wall, the sound barely audible. The footsteps became louder until Carolyn saw Jones starring at her through the bars.
"So, decided what to do with me yet?" she asked dully, staring straight ahead and away from him.
"I have. I've decided if ye don't tell me what yer doing on me ship, now, then it's down to the depths with ye," Jones said roughly, eyeing the girl and threatening her for the second time that day.
Carolyn turned her head, got up and looked at him. "Ye know why I am here Davy Jones. Or did ye forget this too?"
And she held up the necklace for him to see. It sparkled in the light, the small swan on it spinning. Jones looked at it closer and then stood straight. "Aye I ain't forgotten that little trinket."
"Well then, ye should also know why is it I have been fourteen years old for the last two bloody centuries!" Carolyn exclaimed, throwing the necklace on the ground and stepping on it. "I haven't grown an inch! Not one! I've seen my whole family die before me and I still haven't changed!"
"And that's a problem because…" Jones trailed off, looking at the neglected piece of jewelry. He had wanted to be immortal. And he was. When Dawn…died and he took Carolyn as a baby he had given her the gift he hadn't been able to give his sister in time. He wanted the last bit of his sister to live forever. Why was she yellin' and compainin' because of it? Because she's an ungrateful whelp is why, the voice in Jones' head grumbled. And she's bloody spoiled too. I don't even know why yer wastin' yer time with 'er!
Because she's Dawn's child, another fainter voice in Jones' mind replied.
"It's a problem because I'm sick of being like this! I should be long dead by now and I am not! I am well alive!" Carolyn cried back at him. "And the same as I was almost two hundred years ago!"
"Again, ye're uselessly wastin' me time with yer petty complaints and I'm losing me patience. Ye're tellin' me ye don't want to be like this anymore?" Jones said, beginning to lose his temper-again-as the memories built up in him.
"Yes! I want to grow up and do what normal people do when they are older!" Carolyn said. "So I am here to get that. I want me mortality Jones."
Jones looked at her angrily, forgetting what they were talking about. "Ye're a Jones too ye know!"
Carolyn shrugged, losing her temper too. "Well you wouldn't tell by appearance, that's for sure!"
Jones was at boiling point now. He stared down at Carolyn and narrowed his eyes. "Fine. Ye want yer mortality but there's nothin' I can do about that. This life ain't about gettin' what ye want missy," he spoke to her in a grave tone that made the hair on the back of Carolyn's back stand on edge but she didn't care. She was angry and frustrated.
Carolyn shook her head in disbelief. "Can you hear yourself? You are DAVY JONES! There is plenty you can do! Not to mention the fact it's your fault I'm like this!"
"Aye, and ye should be thankin' me fer it!" Jones said arrogantly, his voice rising to a yell very quickly.
"Well I don't so remove it!" Carolyn ordered, stomping her foot on the ground. "And I'm not leavin' here until ye do. And I'll tell yer WHOLE CREW I'm yer niece. Then they won't fear ye anymore. I'll make bloody sure of it!'
Jones stared at her, and Carolyn stared back. Both were angry. Jones couldn't believe she had defied him this way, not to mention THREATEN him and Carolyn couldn't believe Jones was so stubborn. If he wanted her out of his hair, er, tentacles so much, why didn't he just free her? Jones' mind was working hard to find a way around this. He couldn't let the crew know about her or her mother. It would deface him and the fear that loomed over the ship and the sea and made them work would fade. Then slowly a smirk slowly grew on his face as his eyes widened in realization.
"Alrighty missy I'll strike a bargain with ye. That's the most I'll do," Jones snapped. "If ye don't agree ye get off this ship and seein' as ye know SO well what I can do, ye should know I can throw ye off this ship quicker than ye can say anythin' at all. And it will be painful, ye can count on it." He smiled sinisterly at this, thinking of the million torturous ways he had inflicted on people in the past.
Carolyn bit her lip in thought then nodded. "Fine. What's your offer?"
"I'll free ye from yer immortality but in return ye will spend fifty years on this ship, like the rest o' them out there. Ye will work fer me, and be treated like everybody else." Jones said, accenting the last part. "Do we have an accord?"
Carolyn thought for a moment. She had been awaiting this moment most of her life but was she willing to be freed just to be back in an imprisonment for fifty years? It seemed like too long, for anyone. But she wanted her mortality and she had gone so far to get it, there was no turning back now. She looked up at him and stuck her hand out of the bars. "Agreed."
And with that fatal word Jones shook her hand, leaving his trademark brand on her hand. Carolyn was sickened just looking at her hand. It was covered in green slime and in her palm lay a big black mark. It seemed to be moving and growing, digging further into her skin.
"I am supposing this isn't going to come off with water and soap, now is it?" she asked, barely hopeful, trying to peel the slime away.
Jones shook his head and turned to walk away.
"Are you going to let me out?" she asked him.
Jones made a sound between a laugh and a huff and walked up the stairs, the clanking pounding into Carolyn's ears. She sat back on the floor and huffed. He had her in the crew now, why did he leave her here? She looked back to the brand on her palm. It was alive. It was bubbling and moving! By that point if Carolyn hadn't already regretted her choice, she was now.
"Fifty years. How am I supposed to do fifty years on this hell ship?!" she cried to herself. "I am so stupid! I want mortality and then I go and give away half my life to HIM!"
This time she threw the shell and the wall with all of her strength, shattering it into tiny little pieces.
