"Fire all!" I scream. Cannons go off and smoke erupts. Wooden planks fly from both ships and a pirate falls into the ocean. I cling to some ropes for support. Just then I see a cannon aimed right at me. I run down from the helm, covering my head.
Across the ship, Gibbs is shooting a rifle and taking cover behind the rail of the ship. I crouch low and crawl towards him, trying to avoid the bullets being shot around me. Some miss me by inches. My eyes sting and the smoke reaches them. Cannonballs blast into the side of the Interceptor and the Pearl.
Suddenly I feel a hand on my shoulder. I tense and whirl around. Will is beside me, holding a rifle. I crouch beside him. He straightens, aims, and shoots. I hear a scream and see a pirate fall overboard from off the Pearl. I'm surprised at Will for a brief moment. Being a blacksmith I thought he only made the weapons, not used them. He hands me the rifle and takes another one from his side. I pour more powder down into the barrel and shove a lead ball down inside it.
"We could use a few more ideas, lass," Gibbs says as Will shoots once more. He switches guns with me.
"It's your turn," I say roughly.
"We need us a devil's dowry," Gibbs says.
"We'll give them her," says a voice from beside me. The first mate holds a flintlock up to my cheek, a crazed look on her face. I look back and forth between her, Will, and Gibbs.
"She's not what they're after," Will protests. Of course.
My hand flies to my chest and I look down.
"The medallion," I hiss to Will. He hands me his rifle swiftly and stands. I watch him run below deck. He must have left the medallion on the table.
I look back at the pirates and take a deep breath. I can no longer sit still and watch the battle ensue without me. I will not let the Interceptor be overtaken—but this will be the first time I've shot to kill. I stand up, aim, and then flex my index finger, feeling the kickback of the gun. I barely miss the pirate with dreadlocks and I kneel back down quickly as he looks my way.
I'm cleaning my rifle when I see the pirates converging and lowering ropes from the sails.
"Prepare to board!" I hear Barbossa bark.
A cannon goes off and I hear a loud snap. Our mainmast splits cleanly in half and falls slowly, clearly intending to rest right where Gibbs and I hide. I grab his arm and turn him to look at the lowering mast.
"Look out!" I shout as we dart out of the way. The mast hits the side of our ship, breaking through the wooden railing, and reaching across the ocean to fall halfway onto the Pearl. I cover my head with my arms. Dust scatters and for a small moment, everything is silent. I move each of my limbs to make sure they are all still intact. I release a breath when I find that they are.
Just then, shots begin to ring out once more. I hear Barbossa shouting orders. Grappling hooks fly into the air and secure themselves onto our ship. The pirates are boarding.
I continue to shoot, finally catching one of the pirate's hands, who screams in pain. I quickly clean my rifle as a pirate swings over his head. I hit him square in the back and blood spatters over the deck. He buckles, but stands up again slowly.
The pirates are still immortal.
I shoot again, trying to disarm him somehow, but I know it's a lost cause. Barbossa's crew cannot be killed.
Someone grabs me from behind and I hit his face with the barrel of my gun. He drops to the deck. I run forward to hit another pirate across the face with my palm. Suddenly a pirate grabs my elbow and raises his sword. But someone stops his hand. I look around the pirate to see none other than the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow.
He looks the same as when he first rescued me. Matted, long, brown hair and strings of dangling beads, a red cloth around his forehead. I feel a familiar sense of resentment towards him.
"That's not very nice," Sparrow scolds the pirate. I grab hold of an oar at my side and I hit my attacker in the face with the end of it. He tumbles overboard. Gunshots ring out and bullets barely miss me. Sparrow grabs my shoulders and pulls me down beside him into a crouch.
"Where's the medallion?" He asks me.
"Wretch!" I shout, trying to slap him. He grabs my wrist and stops me, glancing down at my bandaged hand.
"Aah," a smile grows on his filthy face. "Where's dear William?"
My stomach seems to swallow my heart.
"Will," I whisper, turning around to look at the deck door. I run towards it amongst the fighting pirates and shooting crewmembers. Bullets fly past me. I kneel beside the deck door.
"Will!" I cry, looking through the holes in the door. He's right below me and covered in water, which seems to be shooting out of the walls.
The Interceptor must be sinking.
"Elizabeth!" He yells up to me. I have to get him out before he drowns! I pull at the door but something is keeping it closed. I try to move wood and debris off of the door but it still doesn't not budge. My breath is slowly slipping away. I can't get him out. I can't get him out.
"I can't move it!" I gasp to Will in desperation.
Suddenly large hands grab hold of me and I'm pulled away from the cargo door.
"Will!" I screech, fighting the hands that hold me. I fight and kick and slap and squirm. Two pirates hold both of my arms and I am helpless against them.
"Gents, our hope is restored!" Barbossa calls from the Pearl. Somehow he's obtained the medallion. I look around at the Interceptor's crew. They stand motionless and empty-handed. Barbossa's deranged crew surrounds us. It seems we have surrendered.
I struggle against my captors, looking back at the cargo door which still has not been opened. I cannot hear Will's voice any longer. My throat burns red-hot.
I'm forced at gunpoint to walk across the Interceptor's fallen mast and onto the Black Pearl once more.
I thought I would never set foot on this filthy ship again.
The crew follows behind me, each sailor accompanied by a pirate. The pirates surround me and the crew, wrapping a giant rope around us and tying us to the mast. I'm squished between the crewman with the parrot, a man half as tall as me, and Gibbs.
I have to escape somehow. Will might still be alive. There might still be time. All of a sudden I notice a small amount of space between me and the rope. Ever so slowly, I begin to wriggle free.
The last two pirates now board the Pearl. Suddenly we begin to pull away from the Interceptor. I'm not yet free of the rope, and I watch as we float away from Interceptor. From my freedom. From Will.
I feel as though my heart is sinking with the Interceptor.
Barbossa's crew circles us. Pintel holds out his gun threateningly. I look down but continue to slowly loosen myself from the rope that holds us tight.
"Any of you so much as thinks the word 'parley,' I'll have your guts for garters," Pintel warns us.
And just like that, I'm free. I pull the rope over my head with every intention to jump overboard to save Will, but just as I'm approaching the side of the ship, before my very eyes the Interceptor explodes. A mushroom of fire consumes the ship, followed by a great cloud of smoke. Wood and debris fly into the air, high above the masts.
I stop cold in my tracks.
"Will," I say.
No breath enters my lungs. I can't feel. I can't think.
Cruel laughs echo in my ears.
Barbossa stands in front of me, twirling the medallion in his fingers. I have never felt such loathing towards a single person—or demon, rather—in my entire life. I want to blow a hole right through his forehead. Every second I'm not causing him pain in some form or another is a second unbearable.
I run forward and throw myself onto the captain.
"You've got to stop it!" I scream, trying with all my might to scar him in some way. He restrains me easily.
"Welcome back, miss. You took advantage of our hospitality last time. It holds fair now you return the favor," he laughs, pushing me towards the ghastly pirates. I scream and stumble towards them. They grab my arms, my dress, my waist. Their fingers tangle through my hair—
"Barbossa!" A voice shouts, and everyone stops.
"Will," I say. He's alive.
Will jumps down onto the deck, sopping wet. He grabs a flintlock lying in the pile of weapons taken from the captives. He holds it up to the Pearl's captain.
"She goes free," he shouts. His voice is determined and without fear.
"What's in your head, boy?" Barbossa approaches him. I struggle against the pirates holding me.
"She goes free," Will repeats menacingly.
"You've only got one shot, and we can't die," Barbossa says. Poor Will must have picked up Sparrow's flintlock.
"Don't do anything stupid," hisses a voice in the corner. Sparrow himself.
Will runs backward suddenly and climbs upon the railing of the ship, steadying himself against the ropes of the sails.
"You can't," he says, and points the barrel of the gun at his throat. "I can."
Will, no. Not now that you're alive. I squirm but the pirates hold me back once more.
"Who are you?" Barbossa demands.
"No one, he's no one," interjects Sparrow, somehow freeing himself and running between Will and Barbossa. "A distant cousin of my aunt's nephew twice removed. Lovely singing voice, though." Why on earth is Sparrow covering for Will? What need is Will to Sparrow? I wonder. Oh. Of course. Sparrow intends to trade Will for the Pearl. There can be no other explanation. I clench my jaw in anger.
"My name is Will Turner," Will announces. "My father was Bootstrap Bill Turner. His blood runs in my veins."
"He's the spitting image of old Bootstrap Bill come back to haunt us," Rigetti yells out.
I look around at the crew, who are stirring uneasily. Every second Will stands there is another he's in danger. Forget the crew and Sparrow. Will must leave this ship alive.
"On my word, do as I say, or I'll pull this trigger and be lost to Davy Jones' locker," Will threatens.
"Name your terms, Mr. Turner," Barbossa says in a low voice.
"Elizabeth goes free," Will shouts.
"Yes, we know that one. Anything else?"
"And the crew," Will points briefly with the flintlock. "The crew are not to be harmed."
Barbossa steps forward slowly.
"Agreed," he growls, his voice full of satisfaction.
No. Will cannot trade himself for my freedom. They are not likely to make the same mistake they did with me. They'll spill all his blood, I'll never see him again . . .
Barbossa nods to the pirates holding me and suddenly I'm released. I fall to the ground briefly, before immediately getting back up. I look at Will as I rise. His eyes look strange.
Of course. He knows what is coming. He knows what he's doing. He knows we'll never see each other again.
"Come about," Barbossa orders, and the ship's crew obeys. I look to my right and see a speck of land in the distance. A small, white beach, with nothing on it but a clump of palm trees.
Upon Will's word, they're going to leave me here.
Will drops his pistol and it clatters upon the deck. The pirates rush over and grab him. He struggles briefly, but with no intention of escape.
Suddenly a long, wooden plank is pushed out beside me. Pirates begin to draw their swords, pointing them towards me.
"Go on, Poppet, go!" Pintel shouts. "Walk the plank!"
The pirates laugh at my discomfort as their blades come ever closer. Soon I have no choice but to step over the railing and onto the wooden plank. I turn around and hold my skirt in my arms, looking down at the blue ocean which seems farther below than it really is.
I inch my bare toes closer to the edge of the plank.
I have to jump. There is no alternative.