Hi everyone !

I know I said I wasn't going to write the Jack chapter yet but I decided to anyway. I've been super busy with all my finals (I have to take them early because I'm leaving for two and a half months) and I haven't been able to write anything so I had half an hour and I wrote this. And I'm dead tired right now so I apologize in advance for all my mistakes. I'm pretty sure being this sleep deprived makes it difficult to write coherent sentences.

And I just got some new moleskines so hopefully it will be a bit easier to write without having to use my computer all the time ! I hope you enjoy this and I promise Philip and Syrena the next chapter - no fingers crossed this time :)

Happy reading ! R&R ! xx

"Jack?"

"Yes, love?"

"I heard what you said to that mermaid."

"No need to say it again then is there?" Jack said and then turned back to what he was doing.

Angelica stared at the ocean. They were on a cliff in the very center of the island that looked over both the island and the ocean. She knew there were many things she did not know but she was sure that she knew at least as much as Jack Sparrow.

"What happened?" she said.

"When? I must have missed it," he said, looking around.

"Jack. What happened with the mermaids?"

"You were there," he said. When she shot him a dirty look he spoke again. "I would not do the story justice."

She knew she was not going to get anything out of him. He would tell her only when he was in jeopardy of losing something and she knew that.

Jack knew exactly what she was talking about but he was not sure exactly how to tell her. It was not something he thought about often.

Twelve years earlier, in Tortuga, was the first time Jack had ever heard a mermaid tale. A man had walked into the tavern gasping for breath and in desperate need of drink. After he had a pint, he began his tale.

A ship had come to dock with holes in the sides and slices down the sides. It had barely stayed afloat as it anchored. When he walked up to the side of the ship he saw that the scars were not from canons or even from swords, they were from fingernails. Every mark that looked like a sword swipe from afar was a set of five thin lines. Naturally, the sailors, being of the superstitious variety as most sailors are, believed that the ship was haunted. Scratched by the lost souls, which haunted it, no doubt trying to bring the great vessel down.

When two of them finally had the courage to step aboard, they headed straight to the captain's quarters. In the once grand cabin, there were corpses, laying on all sides of the room. But they weren't men. These corpses had long hair and tails — they were mermaids. The first man ran screaming from the ship but the second — the man in the tavern — stayed behind to catch the captain's last words.

"It was not," he whispered. "It never was…"

"Sir," cried the second man. "Sir, what never was?"

But by the time the captain opened his mouth again, the man claimed that he saw the man's spirit part with his body and head straight into the ground under their feet. And that was the end of the captain.

Upon further inspection, the second man found a map and a series of ships logs that all indicated the same thing. The ship was after mermaids — not only mermaids but one mermaid in particular.

"Who?" asked one of the men in the tavern. "Which one of the mermaids did they need? Where is she?"

"What did they need her for?" another man asked.

"Yeah," the rest of the men agreed. "What was she for?"

"I don't know," said the sailor. "They needed her scale but I never found what they needed it for. The ship sunk at the dock and the rest of the sailors died before the ship sunk."

There was a long silence before any of the men spoke.

Jack was unsure whether it was fear or stupidity that silenced them — both being a likely cause. But either way, it provided him with an escape route. He left the tavern and headed straight back to the Pearl. He had only been first mate on the Pearl for a few weeks and Captain Hector Barbossa had already begun to distrust him.

He told Barbossa what he had learned and suggested that they take a trip to see Tia Dalma. Barbossa told him there was no chance they were going to see that witch unless it was absolutely necessary and instead gave orders to set a course for Whitecap Bay.

The men reached the island with relative ease. They ran into no trouble until a few of them men set out to find some beast to slaughter for meat.

Jack strayed from the group when he heard voices. He always enjoyed hearing secrets — they gave him the upper hand and they were often more useful to him than they were to anyone else. But it was not men he heard speaking. It was women.

Far across the briny sea

A roguish man I see

His hands are rough and dirty

But in them is the key

Jack saw them before they saw him. There were three women, lounging on the tree branches like they were velvet thrones, but he knew better than to reveal himself so soon. Their voices were too beautiful to be human.

"Oh Eris, Delilah!" the most beautiful of the threesome called. "I do think we've found one."

"He is so beautiful," one of them whispered.

My heart is pierced by Cupid

I disdain all glittering gold

There is nothing can console me

But my jolly sailor bold

Their glorious and haunting melody floated through his head and cleared his mind of everything else.

He had forgotten most of what had happened after that but he did get the scale and he remembered that one of the mermaids promise him a thousand deaths more painful than anything in this life for what he had done to her but for the life of him he couldn't remember her name.

Cecilia, he recalled. Her name was Cecilia.

Angelica and Jack head in the direction his compass pointed them in. He knew where they were going but felt no reason to tell her. Jack knew that she would get it out of him soon — she just had to thing of a way.

Far across the briny sea

A roguish man I see

"What was that?" Angelica whispered.

"We have to keep moving," he said.

As they walk on, Jack hears something and whirls around. Angelica was gone.

His hands are rough and dirty

But in them is the key

"Angelica," Jack called into the trees. "Angelica, where are you?"

He hears laughing and a chill runs down his spine. It was not Angelica.

Shady, right? Philip and Syrena next !

Hope you enjoyed ! R&R !