"You know, you have been staring at that same plank of wood for the better part of the last half hour?" Groves said, coming to stand next to James.
James grunted in reply and continued to stare at the plank of wood, lost in his thoughts about Antanasia's revelation, as well as the things which Synnove did not say.
"Is Antanasia's story bothering you? You know that there was nothing any of us could have done to change what happened," Groves said, trying to console his friend. Groves did not mention the fact that he was sure that he felt even guiltier that James did. But he would have to address his own concerns later.
"I realise that, but I cannot help but think what would have happened differently if I had still held my post that maybe things would have turned out better for the poor young girl."
"There is no point in speculating about that, what's done is done. But I know that is not the only thing that is bothering you, so out with it."
James dragged his gaze away from the patterns in the deck and looked straight at Groves, "what do you think Miss Synnove meant when she mentioned the elder Miss Osmosechu warning her away from us? Do you think that Miss Synnove does not trust us, does she doubt our sincerity?"
"I do not think so, but you can ask her for yourself," Groves said, motioning behind James. "I see that she is making her way over here right now." With that final word, Groves removed himself from his position next to James and walked towards the young woman.
"Hello there Miss Synnove!" Groves said nodding his head to her before continuing onwards.
"Hello Mr. Groves," she replied, smiling happily and coming to a stop standing next to James, who remained unresponsive. "Is something wrong James? You do not seem your usual self at the moment."
"I just have a few things on my mind, that is all," he said, waving his hand dismissively at her.
"It certainly does not seem like something which is so easily dismissed," Synnove said moving closer to James and looking up at him with her pleading blue eyes. "Please tell me what is wrong."
James let out a low sigh, but before he could continue on the Captain interrupted.
"Herr Norrington, I am in need of your assistance!" Captain Gibbons yelled from his place at the wheel of the ship.
James nodded to the Captain in silent response, "perhaps we should continue this discussion later Miss Synnove. It appears I can never go for long until the Captain finds something for me to do. Forgive me," he said bowing his head and turning away from her. Synnove let out a sad sigh as she watched James walk away from her, they were only about halfway through their journey and she was losing him already Synnove realised. He would only get more distant from her from now on. She shook her sad thoughts away and decided to return to her room and find some way to pass the time until dinner, taking one last look over at James.
James took over the Captain's position at the helm of the ship and watched as Gibbon's staggered off to who-knows-where, but by the size of the empty bottle he was clutching, it was obvious he was looking for a refill of sorts.
James closed his eyes briefly and allowed the salty winds to lash around him; standing tall and proud he took a depth breath in and then let it out in a low sigh. He then slumped over the wheel in the most uncharacteristic manner, feeling sadness and desperation well up painfully inside of his chest. It hurt in the exact same place where Bootstrap-Bill had run him through with the sword and he doubled over in pain, feeling as if the blade was repeating the same path as before. James' face contorted in pain but he did not make a sound, he found that he could not make a sound due to the excruciating pain he was feeling.
All the sounds of the ship disappeared and all that James could hear was the roaring of his own heartbeat pounding in his ears. He slumped further over as he tried to regain his breath, but nothing was working. A slow curtain of darkness began to drift across his vision and he could tell that he was about to lose consciousness.
"James!" a female voice cried next to him. He felt small hand grabbing at his shirt and attempting to steady him and make him stand properly, before moving to cup his face. "James!" the same voice cried again, the darkness which had been creeping across his vision disappeared and he could finally recognise who the distressed voice belonged to.
Bright blue eyes were staring straight at him. Synnove's eyes, which meant that Synnove had been the one calling to him. It was Synnove's small hands that were tightly gripping onto his shirt and pulling his face towards her. Why had he not been able to recognise her voice?
Pain still stabbed through his chest, but it was more bearable at the moment, if only slightly so. He stood tall once again and met Synnove's concerned eyes, but he still found himself unable to talk.
"James? What is wrong?" she asked him, one arm was wrapped around his waist and the fingers belonging to the other hand were caressing his cheek, "James?" Synnove was supporting much of his weight and it was beginning to take its toll on her small frame, but she did not say a word about it.
"Miss Synnove, I do not know what is happening," he managed to say between gasps of pain. His hand was over his heart and it was then that he could feel a sticky liquid on the tips of his fingers.
"Are you hurt? What can I do?" Synnove said, panic evident in her voice.
James removed his hand from his chest and brought it to where he and Synnove could see it better. His fingertips and the palm of his hand were covered in dark red blood, which dripped from his fingers onto the deck below. His shirt was also stained a dark red with his blood. Synnove let a gasp escape from her lips and her hands began to dart towards his buttons in order to undo them and discover what sort of injury he had. But before she could remove her arm from around his waist, before their eyes the blood soaked into James' skin and disappeared. The pain in his chest receded as well and it was as if whatever had happened had been a figment of his imagination.
"What on earth?" Synnove gasped her eyes wide. Her hand which had been on his cheek made its way down to rest over his heart. She pulled her fingers away to check for any evidence of blood, but her long pale fingers provided no such information.
James stared in silent wonder at her fingertips and he brought them closer to his face to inspect them, "please tell me that I am not the only one who expected to see something different?"
"Where did the blood go James? And where did it come from in the first place?"
"Your guess is as good as mine Miss Synnove," James said.
"Are you still in pain?" She asked, her eyes searching his face for any signs of discomfort.
"No, it seems to have came as quickly as it went. Thank you for your concern Miss Synnove, but I think I should be fine for now."
Synnove took that as her queue to leave and her arms reluctantly dropped away from him and she stepped back slightly, "I find the more you try to make sense of something, the stranger it becomes. However, strangeness aside, I think I should return below deck until dinner," Synnove said, her eyes showing a hint of sadness within them as she remembered James' less than enthusiastic manner earlier.
"Please don't go Miss Synnove. I do apologise for being so short with you earlier, I had some things on my mind which were distracting me and I felt that I needed some time to think."
"But you did not get your time," Synnove said.
"I feel that I do not need the time anymore," he said nodding to himself and smiling slightly at her, "will you come and stand here with me Miss Synnove. If I cannot show you the stars at this moment, I can at least teach you to steer a ship."
Synnove smiled at James "I thought that required months of training? Or at least that is what my Father said every time I suggested he take a nap and allow my brothers and I to steer," she said pouting slightly at the memory.
"Perfecting the art takes months of training, but I will be at your side throughout, so you need not worry Miss Synnove."
"Alright then, you have convinced me to stay!"
"Come and stand here at the wheel," James said motioning towards where he wanted her to place herself.
Synnove slid into the small gap between James' body and the large ship's wheel. She subtly let her body sink back to rest against James before smiling up at him, "what do I do now James?" she asked.
James found himself struggling to swallow as he stared at her beautiful face, if only she knew what she did to him, or how much he struggled to stay in control around her. "Hands at 10 and 2 Miss Synnove," he ordered.
Synnove raised a questioning eyebrow at James not understanding a word of what he had just said.
"Think of the shape of the wheel as a clock," he said reaching around her, "this is 12," James grabbed the top handle of the wheel. He removed his hands from the wheel and took her small hands in his, entwining her fingers with his and placing them where he deemed 10 and 2 to be positioned, "which makes this 10 and this 2."
"How do we know where we are going?"
"The Captain determines the bearings, and that compass over there tells us what we need to know to stay on course. Gillette up there," James said pointing to the top of the crows-nest, where a thoroughly bored looking Gillette was perched, "will warn us of danger from reefs, hostile ships flying pirate colours, or if he spots land."
"I see," Synnove nodded in response, "so you will help me steer?" she asked.
"Of course, we wouldn't want to cause any sort of accident now would we?"
"Most certainly not, although we could always blame Gillette for not noticing something sooner," she said giggling up at him.
James raised his eyebrow at her, " we most certainly would not want to do such a thing," he said before leaning closer to her ear and whispering, "but it always is good to have someone else to blame when plans go awry."
"Not that an upstanding officer such as yourself would have ever done such a thing!" Synnove replied.
"Assuredly not Miss Synnove," James commented in fake outrage.
Silence descended on the pair as James contemplated how best to broach the subject had been previously giving him cause for concern. He wanted to ask Synnove the truth, but he did not want to say anything which could potentially anger her, or upset her, and cause her to leave his current position in tightly squeezed between him and the ship's wheel. He did rather enjoy having her so close after having to spend such a long time away from her day in and day out as he followed the orders of the Captain. Sometimes James swore that the drunken man delighted in separating him from Synnove, if only so that someone else could be as miserable as he seemed to be with his position. James let out a sigh, it was now or never, he decided.
"Miss Synnove?"
"Yes James," she answered tilting her face backwards to catch James' eye and smiling up at him.
"What did you mean earlier when you mentioned that the elder Miss Osmosechu warned you away from us?" he asked, "away from me?" he added so quietly that Synnove almost missed his words.
"Yulia and I had an argument about whether or not it was sensible for me to trust you, Groves and Gillette after having known you for so little time. She pointed out that, from a logical point of view, I barely knew you, and that your intentions could have been anything but noble. Yulia was worried that you would be like the man who harmed her sister, noble and proud on the outside, but rotten to the core on the inside," Synnove explained. "I told her that I had no reason to doubt you, and then I told her that if she continued to hold such a dim view of the people that I trusted implicitly, then I could no longer share a room with her. After that she began staying in her Mother's room along with Antanasia. Are you mad at me for not mentioning it earlier?" she asked, looking slightly worried about James' potential response.
"No Miss Synnove, I have no reason to be angry with you, or angry with Miss Osmosechu either. I was simply concerned that I had lost your trust, or that you doubted our sincerity," he said, pausing while he took a deep breath. "I can understand her concern for you, from an outside point of view I suppose it could look a tad on the suspicious side."
"You have to realise James, I trust you completely, please stop doubting that. If it is not too forward of me to say, I would follow you anywhere James, because I know that you are a good and honourable man."
"Thank you Miss Synnove," James said smiling at the raven haired young woman who was staring up at him. "But what stops you from thinking that this is simply a façade for something more sinister?"
Synnove let out a sigh, "there really is no pleasing you is there James? So I doubt my answer will suffice. The answer is in your eyes James," she said simply as if that was enough to explain everything that she was thinking.
"What is in my eyes?"
"They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul, and your eyes show kindness and compassion. There is a small bit of darkness held within them," when she saw the look upon James' face she quickly added, "but the same can be said for everyone you come across to varying degrees. For what would goodness be without darkness to make it shine more brightly?" she asked, not looking for an answer.
"You are wrong Miss Synnove."
"Oh?" she said raising her eyebrow.
"That answer did suffice."
Synnove smiled at James, but she was silently contemplating the fact that deep within his eyes she also saw a lot of pain. She hoped that one day someone would be able to make that pain go away, even if that someone was not her.
The pair continued to talk and did not move from their comfortable position until the sun had dropped from the sky and the first stars began to appear in the night sky. As the night began to grow darker Captain Gibbons returned from wherever he had originally gone so many hours ago. He was no longer staggering about in a drunken manner, but he had managed to replace his empty bottle with a slightly larger completely full vessel. He removed the cork from the bottle and threw it over the side of the ship, not caring where it would land, or the fact that it nearly hit Keys as it bounced over the side. Captain Gibbons told James and Synnove that their assistance was no longer required and just like that, the pair was dismissed.
They called Gillette down from his post and had him replaced by one of the younger passengers, who should have been stationed at such a post in the first place. Groves joined the trio shortly afterward and together they all made their way to the dining hall. Tonight the dining hall seemed to be bustling with members of the crew and their families in numbers which had not been seen since the night of the initial banquet. Synnove took the table next to the Osmosechu family, who were also surprisingly in attendance. The younger girls smiled and waved at one another, but Mrs. Osmosechu remained unmoved by any gestures of friendship.
Stefan burst through the doors and entered into the dining hall, followed closely behind by Captain D. Gibbons. A cold wind swept through the hall as the doors had been thrown and Synnove shuddered, wondering what was going on, and who was steering the ship if the Captain and his First Mate were not on deck.
Stefan's eyes were burning with what could only have been deciphered as determination. He snapped his fingers and barked out a command in German. The members of the crew and the passengers all leapt to their feet in the same moment, apparently following Stefan's orders. The Osmosechu women along with Synnove, James, Gillette, Groves and Keys all slowly made their way to their feet as well.
A low growling sound emitted from Key's throat as he stared at Stefan and James moved in front of Synnove, guarding her from whatever threat he perceived there to be. She clutched onto his coat from behind and grabbed a hold of the rope around Keys' neck which served as a collar. Groves and Gillette moved in front of the Osmosechu women to shield them from whatever was happening.
Synnove balanced on the tips of her toes and whispered to James, "what is going on?"
"I do not know Miss Synnove, but stay behind me where it is safe and if I say run, I want you to run."
"Alright, but please be careful."
"To the deck!" Stefan yelled, although he did not need to because none of the passengers were making any sounds. They simply stood, staring at Stefan with wide blank gazes. Immediately they all began to move forwards and make their way to the deck, just as Stefan had ordered. Their feet marched in time as if they were in some sort of trance, the passengers which were seated behind Synnove and her companions began to surge forward. They pushed those in front of them forward and in the throng of people James almost lost sight of Synnove. For a moment he panicked, not able to see her long black hair anywhere amongst the crowd of passengers, he felt a panic rising in his chest as his eyes darted around, searching for her. His panic subsided the minute he felt a tug on the sleeve of his coat and was met with Synnove's scared face. James' dropped his arm down and wrapped it around her waist and tightening his grip on her in order to pulling her closer. They lost sight of Groves and Gillette along with the Osmosechu women, but Synnove knew they would be alright as long as they were still together. She tightened her own grip on Key's makeshift collar with one hand and grabbed onto James' shirt with the other. Synnove's grip on them both was so tight that her knuckles were going white and her hands were shaking in anticipation and fear.
"I will not let anything happen to you, I promise," James said bending down slightly and whispering in her ear.
"I trust you," she said turning her face towards him and whispering back.
As they made their way up the stairs and onto the deck where the other passengers had stopped, Keys continued to growl, getting louder the closer they got to their destination.
Stefan stood at the back of the ship, his hands placed on his hips as he surveyed the people standing before him. Captain Gibbons stood behind him at the wheel, a bottle in one hand and his other placed on the wheel.
"Haul them forward!" Stefan's voice rang out. He raised his arms in the air and pointed towards Synnove and James.
Before anything could stop them, the members of the crew as well as the other passengers surged forwards, their arms reaching, swiping and clawing at the group which was huddled together. It was not long before Antanasia and Yulia were dragged away from their Mother and Synnove was wrenched out of James' grasp. Without any weapons, they were helpless to fight back against Stefan's orders. They were prodded and pulled until Groves, Yulia, Mrs. Osmosechu, Antanasia, Gillette, James, Synnove and Dr. Watkins were all aligned along the deck. James struggles to remove himself from the hold of his captors and free Synnove, but it was ultimately fruitless. The crew members had seemingly acquired more strength than James thought was humanly possible, and their grip only tightened the more one struggles against them.
Keys broke away from his captors and charged at the members of the crew who had their hands upon Synnove, his teeth bared and snapping at the men. As Stefan made his way down the deck, Keys turned and charged towards him instead, his sharp teeth sinking into Stefan's arm. Stefan let a sound of pain escape his lips before raising his leg and kicking Keys away. The dog let out a yelp and struggled back to his feet, limping he charged at Stefan again. And again he received the same kick to the ribs which sent him spiralling away. Synnove watched on with wide-eyed terror as the dog weakly made his way back to his feet for a third time.
"Stay down boy!" Synnove yelled, her eyes glistening with tears, "please stay down!"
Keys looked at Synnove, as if he understood everything that she was saying, before his legs gave out from under him and he collapsed onto the deck.
"What on earth do you think you are doing?" I am the ship's doctor and I demand to be set free!" Dr. Watkins yelled from his position.
"And set you free I shall," Stefan said, a malicious smile spreading across his handsome face. He raised the pistol in his hand level to the centre of Dr. Watkins' head and pulled the trigger. Dr. Watkins moved no more as his blood splattered across the neck and Synnove's light blue dress. She screamed as she watched his body slump lifelessly onto the floor. Antanasia began crying hysterically while Yulia remained silent, staring blankly at the empty space where the doctor had once stood.
Mrs. Osmosechu struggled against her captors, yelling words in her native language that made her daughters cringe at the sound of, before spitting in Stefan and Gibbons' general direction.
Once again Stefan raised his pistol and fired, this time killing the older woman before Yulia could finish her scream of protest. Another lifeless body lay slumped on the deck in a crimson pool of their own blood.
"Does anyone else wish to share their opinion?" Gibbons asked, laughing darkly at the horrified looks etched upon the women's faces.
James opened his mouth to say something, but one look into Synnove's blue eyes forced him to remain silent. Flecks of blood covered the side of her face that had been closest to Dr. Watkins' and she was shaking with fear that Stefan would turn his gun on James and remove him from her life.
"Excellent, let us continue on then shall we?" Stefan asked rhetorically.
Stefan snapped his fingers and suddenly the crew members began to dissolve. Their faces turned to liquid and dripped blackened water onto the deck before the rest of their bodies followed suit. As quickly as they had begun to dissolve, they rapidly re=solidified into thick black ropes. The ropes clung tightly to the prisoners' exposed skin and clothing, wrapping around their limbs and leaving them all unable to move. The ropes entwined around Antanasia's body, in a manner similar to a constrictor snake, holding her upright as she passed out from the shock of what had happened to her Mother.
"What did you just do?" Groves asked.
Stefan turned to glare at the man, as if contemplating to shoot him as well. "I did what I had intended to do all along. A part of me regrets the fate which will befall you all. But another part of me think that you all deserve it for being so completely trusting, and so infinitely stupid," Stefan said, pacing up and down the line of his captured passengers. "None of you thought twice about joining my crew?" he asked rhetorically. "None of you stopped to think that perhaps it was too convenient that just when you needed a ship to take you where you wanted to go, one suddenly appeared? Did none of you stop to think that it was perhaps a little suspicious that the ship left the day after our little banquet instead of the scheduled time afterwards? None of you questioned the fact that, apart from meal times and scheduled time on the deck, none of the crew or their families were nowhere to be found? You were all too absorbed in your own affairs to see the signs that things were not as idyllic as they appeared," Stefan let out a deranged laugh. "And now you are all too powerless to do anything." Stefan took a deep breath before continuing his explanation, "the crew and the other families travelling on this ship were never real to begin with my friends! They were my little puppets; I brought them out when I needed them and made them disappear when I did not. We are the only living beings on this ship and we always have been. Oh how easily it is to fool people who are content! The sad man is always looking for reasons to be sad, but the happy man, why he just continues to live in this little bubble of happiness. He questions nothing as long as he remains happy! Fools, the lot of you are fools!"
Stefan stopped his pacing and came to stand in front of Synnove, he smiled at her, showing his blackened teeth. His long fingers stretched out and caressed her cheek in a sign of affection before he tightened his grip and wrenched her face forward so that she could feel his breath brush against her skin. Synnove wriggled against his grasp but he tightened his grip, undoubtedly leaving marks on her pale skin. His other had travelled down her neck and over her collar bone. His fingers touched her bare skin and Synnove shuddered in response to the repulsive feeling. Stefan's fingers continued to trail lower before they reached the top of her breasts; he yanked on the chain around her neck and pulled her necklace out of its hiding place.
It was the same necklace which James has spotted around her neck all those night ago back in Tortuga. He had meant to ask her about it the next morning, but he had forgotten all about it and consequently never asked what its significance was.
Stefan pulled the tear shaped sapphire closer to his face so that he could get a better look at it. He seemed happy with whatever he found for he smiled at the sapphire. Next Stefan brought it next to his ear and flicked it with his finger. A loud melodic clink came from the sapphire, it reminded James of the sound of the dinner bell which used to be ring every night when he had lived in England with his parents as a young man. It was a peculiar sound for a precious stone to be making, but apparently Stefan did not think so. Once again he was smiling at the tear shaped sapphire.
"I was not entirely sure before, but now I am certain," he announced, "this is the Tår av Havet, the Tear of the Ocean. An heirloom which has been passed for Mother to Daughter for generations. This is the very thing I have been searching for," Stefan said, "as well as the woman who possess it. I was hoping to find you, my, my how you have grown. Such an enticing little morsel you have become my dear Synnove."
Synnove scowled at Stefan, she had never met this man before in her life, and if she had she would have been certain to remember him.
"But of course you do not recognise this face!" Stefan said, his spare arm moving to encircle around her waist and pull her tightly against his body. The more Synnove struggled against his grip, the tighter he held on to her. His fingers trailed over her lips and licked his own to moisten them. Before Synnove could struggle against him his wet cracked lips were pressed against hers. Stefan bit her lips and squeezed her chin, causing such pain that gasped and opened her mouth. Stefan took advantage of that moment and thrust his tongue into her mouth. Stefan's eyes locked with James' and he smirked as he continued to kiss the struggling Synnove, the hand encircling her waist drifting upwards towards her breasts.
"Get your hands off of her!" James spat, struggling against his bonds.
Stefan removed his hand from caressing Synnove's face and pushed his hand out towards James. Stefan clenched his fingers into a tight fist and all of a sudden James felt the same excruciating pain that he had felt earlier. His heart felt like a searing hot blade was being pushed through it and his could no longer hold him upright. James fought for air, and forced himself to stay upright.
Synnove ripped a hand free from her binds and slapped Stefan across the face.
The pain in James' chest receded and he finally regained his breath just in time to see Stefan pull back his fist and punched Synnove on the side of the face which he had previously been caressing. A sickening crack echoed through the silent night as Synnove's head snapped backwards. She let out a whimper of pain and her eyes made contact with James, silently begging him not to say anything further. She could not bear to see him doubled over in pain for a third time today.
"You still have such a flame in your heart Synnove, so much like your Mother. Though I daresay you have grown to overshadow her in beauty," Stefan said. This time he wrapped his fingers into her hair and pulled downwards, forcing her chin to tilt upwards and for her eyes to only see him. "I must say that I always have preferred women with blonde hair, like dear Antonetta, but you certainly give me cause to reconsider that preference."
"How dare you speak my Mother's name as if you are of a high enough standing to address her as such!" Synnove yelled in anger.
Stefan chuckled darkly, "Ah, my apologies Grevinna Synnove Nordenburg. I should show your dearly departed Mother some respect. Now, let me see, what was her full title again?" Stefan asked rhetorically. "Of yes, Grevinna Antonetta Oxenstierna, the only daughter of Greve Bengt Gabrielsson Oxenstierna, am I correct?" He asked, smirking as he knew that he was correct.
Synnove nodded in response while James raised an eyebrow at her, trying to figure out what that grand title meant.
Stefan turned his face to address the others, "for those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept of Swedish nobility, that overly long title means that your little travelling companion here is the equivalent of what you Englishmen would call a Countess," he paused for a moment to let the effect of his words sink in. His eyes trailed down the line of his prisoners before coming to rest on Norrington. "Oh do not look so surprised Norrington! Dear Grevinna Nordenburg here trusted you enough to escort her home and protect her, but she did not trust you with the knowledge that she is in fact the sole daughter of the union between a Swedish Countess and a Finnish Count."
James looked at Synnove, trying to make eye contact with her and ask if what Stefan was saying was the truth. But Stefan's fingers were still tangled in her hair and her head was tilted backwards.
"How do I know all of this? I am sure you are all dying to know. But I am sure some of you are more concerned with the fact that your dear friend has been lying to you all this time."
"James please listen to me!" Synnove cried, "I never told you what I was because I did not want to change your opinion of me. I told you once that I had never had any proper friends before and that is because every time I would make a friend, they would find out who I was and then they would stop being my friend. Whether they were afraid of my family's power or they thought I was faking who I was, no one ever stayed my friend for long," a silent tear slipped from her eye, "I did not want to lose you and your friendship before I even had the opportunity to have them. I am sorry."
"It's alright Miss Synnove, this does not change anything," James said before letting out another hasp of pain. Stefan's fist was stretched towards James and it was tightly clenched.
"I did not say that you could speak Norrington!" Stefan spat angrily.
James found enough strength to make eye contact with Synnove and say "everything will be alright Miss Synnove."
Stefan twisted his hand in a circular motion and a long black whip appeared in his hands. The whip was one which the former Naval Officers were instantly familiar with as they had seen it used many times as a form of discipline onboard vessels. The Cat o' nine tails whip cracked loudly in the air once before Stefan brought it down across James' chest.
"I told you not to speak Norrington! Now you will learn the consequence those who disobey me face!"
Stefan made a turning motion with his free hand and the ropes which held James turned him around and bent him over slightly so that he was ready for his punishment.
Stefan brought the whip down on James' back until the material of his clothing was left in tatters and his bare flesh was exposed to the power of the whip.
James eyes looked onto Synnove's, silently begging her not to cry as his blood ran out of the large open wounds on his back and seeped through his clothing. Each time the whip came down upon him, James fought the urge to cry out in pain. He bit his tongue in order to force his own silence and soon he tasted the metallic flavour of blood in his mouth.
More tears rolled down Synnove's cheeks as she watched on, completely helpless to stop Stefan's tirade.
"Stop it!" she screamed, "stop it now!"
Stefan turned to face Synnove, sneering at her before making the whip in his hand disappeared as easily as it had come into being.
"Gibbons!" Stefan shouted.
"Yes sir?" the apparently former Captain replied.
"Escort them down to the brig," he ordered, "and make sure that they all have separate cells would you, I do not want any of them getting ideas of freedom."
Gibbons nodded in response to his orders. He wrapped his fingers around each of the ropes and pulled them along behind him. Keys too was ensnared by the ropes and dragged below deck. The bodied of Mrs. Osmosechu and Dr. Watkins remained as they were, slumped lifelessly on the deck.
James fought and struggled with his remaining strength to reach out for Synnove, who also struggled against the ropes to reach James.
"Synnove!" he rasped, "do not cry, I will be fine," he called as he was hauled away.
His words did not stop her tears from falling.
Hello dears! This would have been posted sooner, but POTC COTBP was on television last night and I could not help but watch that instead of concentrating completely on writing. Or at least, I stopped concentrating on the story when James was on screen (and of course scowling when Miss Swann came on).
I hope the length of this chapter makes up for my recent absence. This is my last week of lectures and then onto exams (I can hardly wait). Also by the end of November I should know if I got accepted for the University Exchange programme *crosses fingers*
Thank you to my reviewers, in particular Norrieo, Smilindolfin, sparrowismyhummingbird and JhonnyRox for their words of encouragement (where would I be without you!)
As for this chapter – I am glad I finally reached this point, you know I have had this little piece planned ever since I started Serendipity and now I have finally reached it!