"BASTARD!" Rose screamed out, alone in her cell. Although already in a great deal of pain from her beating earlier that evening, she threw herself against the iron doors in a hysterical fit. Again and again she charged at the bars, but nothing budged, and she wasn't heard.
"Read it again, Rose."
Rose instantly stopped her fit, swinging her head around, eyes wide. She shouldn't have been able to see anything, but there, in the utter darkness of her blindness, stood her mother, arms crossed.
Rose shook her head. "You're not real," she whispered. "You're just a vision from the past."
Anna gave a crooked smile and raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps not, ma cherie. But do you know what is real? What you have just gotten yourself into."
Rose began to pace her cell. "I know. That…bastard! He betrayed me!"
Anna's vision suddenly appeared in her path, stopping her. "I could have told you that, cherie." She then leaned down to peer into Rose's dark eyes with her own, glimmering purple pair. "Did you think he loved you?"
"I…I don't know!" Rose said in a panic, running her hands through her matted hair. "He…he made me believe that he wanted to help me. And I thought that we were so similar…" She began to cry. "He did it just to get me to trust him, didn't he?"
Anna gave a slight nod. "The Admiral's a clever man. You were foolish to let your guard down."
Rose felt a pang of anguish at these words. She turned away. "I know," she said demurely.
Just like that, Anna materialized in front of her once more, again blocking her progress. "I don't think you do. Did my pain teach you nothing?"
"He's not like my father!" Rose protested. "How could I learn from your mistakes when I saw no similarities?"
"He is exactly like your father!" cried Anna. "All men are the same, cherie. Even your beloved Benjamin." Rose was visibly shaken at the mention of Ben's name, and this vision of Anna capitalized on this visceral reaction. "Or is it that you have forgotten your love already? How long has he been dead again?"
"Stop it!" Rose spat.
"You seem to have moved on rather quickly to another man. Another heart."
"Ben never loved me!" Rose shouted this, and when she did, she took a moment to realize the truth of her words. She had heard Tia Dalma tell her this many months ago when she was initially mourning Ben, but never was it real until she was speaking it aloud now. "He…he never loved me. He needed my help, nothing more."
"Aye, as did this one. Ben needed your help, and you gave it all to him. The Admiral needed your information, and you gave it all to him." Anna sneered as she continued, "Edward's other child only needed you when it was convenient for him." She then leaned closer to her daughter. "When will you learn, cherie, that there is no one else in this terrible world but you? If you do not put yourself above all else, if you trust anyone else but yourself, this is how you meet pain."
Rose recoiled. "Aye! I gave everything I had to help people who hurt and used and sometimes even hated me! But I'm not like you, maman. You trusted no one and where did that get you? You were bitter and alone until the day you died!"
Anna opened her arms out wide and looked around. "Et vous? Are you not alone and destined to die here in a fortnight?"
Suddenly, a smile formed across Rose's lips. "No, maman. I was never alone, nor am I now, nor shall I die in a fortnight." Her eyes shined as she murmured, "I must go to Shipwreck Cove."
"Pourquoi, cherie? To warn them all before they die?"
"Precisely. I must go to them." Rose started to pace again as she thought. "I must make up for what I've done and make it to Shipwreck Cove to warn them of what awaits them. The song has been sung, so the pirates are convening as we speak. Pirates from all over the world will be there…"
"And who else do you think will be there?" Anna asked from behind her.
Rose stopped. "Father."
Anna came around so that she was in front of her daughter and looked at her skeptically. "And you honestly believe he'll help you? After how he treated you? After how he treated me?"
Rose grabbed hold of the two mother of pearl pendants. "With Jack gone, he'll have no choice but to hear me this time."
Anna rolled her eyes. "Once again a slave to man, cherie. I did not raise a daughter to be subservient to anyone."
"You didn't raise me!" Rose screamed out. Anna cocked her head to the side, interested in her outburst, but radiating a silent rage beneath her expression. Rose continued, "You gave life to me and taught me English, that's all. You know who raised me? Desiree. Jack. Bill Turner. The McHenry's. Tia Dalma. I know not my parents, for you were just as absent as Teague was! And I am no one's slave!"
With this, she turned from Anna's vision and paced once more. She began talking out a plan to herself. "The pirates must fight if we are to end this. Yes, I have given up the name, but that's all they have! I can beat the Company there, and we can rally every pirate ship that still sails! The only matter at hand is my escape…" Rose then realized how massive this one hitch in her plan truly was, and she stopped. She turned her head. "How will I…"
Anna was gone.
"…escape?" Rose finished.
Read it again, Rose, she heard her mother's voice tickle her ear as though blowing past her through the wind.
"I must escape," whispered Rose.
"Hello?"
Rose stirred at the sound. She blinked awake, but still could see barely anything. This was in part because though it was morning, dark clouds still warranted an utter downpour outside, preventing much sunlight to enter to the soggy world beneath it. The other part was that in the night, one of Rose's eyes had swollen shut. She reached up to touch it, but recoiled at the pain.
"Rose?"
She swung her head around so that her one good eye could see the man who was addressing her.
Norrington.
"Leave me alone, miscreant," she hissed. She turned her head away, dismissing him.
He stood taller. "You are still my prisoner and you shall hear what I have to say."
She snorted, head in her hands. "I believe I am prisoner under His Majesty the King, Admiral."
"Will you kindly stop this charade and come here?" His voice was lowered and urgent, and got her attention. Skeptically, she limped toward the cell door where he stood on the other side. She grasped the iron casually and sardonically. "What is it, pirate?" she spat.
"Stop that," he ordered.
"Why should I? You are as much of a lying, deceitful knave as the rest of us, yet somehow you've evaded the hangman's noose. How is that, pirate? Is it because you deal in trading away other people's hearts? Jones's...mine..."
He blinked a few times, then proceeded, changing the subject. "I'm leaving today—"
"And you wished to say goodbye to your 'gypsy lover?' I appreciate the gesture but I—"
She yelped when he lunged at her. He did not strike her, however. Instead, he reached his hands around hers, which clung to the iron bars. He gripped firmly, and looked straight into her eyes. His gaze leapt from eye to eye, as though his were searching for something hidden beneath hers, or perhaps trying to send some nonverbal message. For some time, they stayed like this, and Rose was completely on edge, searching to find some meaning by this action.
What she didn't know was the importance of that moment for James. When he looked at her, even though he could only see into the one eye of hers that wasn't swollen shut, he saw in her the same downturned eyes as her father. Her father's eyes had haunted him since the day he, at the time only a small boy, slipped into the frothy depths of the Caribbean, crying out for help against the crashing waves. The only help that came was the owner of those dark eyes, who delivered him back into the care of the half-drowned boy's father. But care was there none, for the cold-hearted man weighed his son's life against a code of honor, and alas found the boy expendable. The boy had been rescued by the enemy, and he was no longer worthy of his father's approval, though he would chase it for the rest of his life.
His father had dismissed him, leaving the boy alone and humiliated on deck. Crestfallen and freezing, he looked to the ship of his rescuer, which was rapidly fleeing the scene. His eyes met a similar pair that did not belong to his rescuer, but to a boy not much older than himself. This boy had kohl-rimmed eyes and black tousled hair that was confined with a red bandana. His eyes radiated sympathy at the boy, but the boy only sneered back at him. The boy's heart grew black to this young pirate and all his kind.
The same eyes of the rescuer and his sympathetic son looked at the boy now, though this time they belonged to a woman, and the boy was now a man. It had become instinct for him to hate these eyes, be it father or son, but no matter how hard he tried, James could not bring himself to hate the daughter.
At last, he broke the silent tension by saying softly, "You need to keep up your strength. I've brought food."
She recoiled, pulling her hands out from under his. "I don't need your help!"
He stood straighter. "I think you'll find the bread in your best interest."
"Leave me alone!" Rose cried, standing back. He said nothing, nor moved. "Don't you have a pirate fortress to raid?"
"Indeed," he said stoically. "I am going to a place that you cannot go."
Rose sneered, "And that gives you some sick pleasure, does it?"
James glanced over his shoulder towards the stairs, where an armed officer stood guard, then looked back, once more keeping his voice low. "You cannot go," he repeated.
Rose was bewildered by this strange utterance. Of course she couldn't go! She was to be hanged the next morning! What was he saying?
He moved back to where he had a plate of food prepared. He grabbed the bread, leaned close to the bar, reaching his hand through one of the squares. His outstretched hand held the bread out to her. "Take it." She didn't move. "Please!"
And finally, she did take it, however hesitantly. His hand brushed hers as they made the exchange, and his hand lingered there as he gave her a pointed look. He weaved his arm back through the bars, and gave her a final nod.
"Farewell, Miss Hexfury," was all he said. And he was gone.
She watched him go, followed by the guard that had accompanied him inside the cellblock. She then sat back down where she had been resting before she had been interrupted. True, she was hungry, but the entire exchange had put her off her appetite. She held the bread roll in her hands, and looked down at it.
Obviously, James was trying to tell her something. As Rose no longer trusted him, she did not expect him to be on her side in the slightest. Her first thought was poison. Maybe he had taken pity on her to give her a fast, painless death. Maybe, in this case, the bread was in her best interest.
Although...
She rolled around the bread in her hands, and found a small incision in the side. She tore it apart, revealing a small key, with a note that read:
Leave only after you see my ship clear the harbour. Consider this a promise fulfilled.
-James
Believe it or not, Rose still has that note, as well as the key. I've seen them myself. The key she wears on a strip of leather around her neck while the note is rolled into a vial that she keeps tied to her belt. She says she keeps then because of the weight of its importance to her. "Someone had my safety at the forefront of their mind, and in a time of such loneliness and confusion, it was at least good to be worried about," she says.
At the time, Rose was confused and uncertain about James's intentions in allowing her the power to be free, but she had little time to ponder that at that moment. She was not going to die there, nor did she want to anymore.
She had to help her people.
She had to beat Beckett, James, and Jones to Shipwreck Cove.
She did as she was told, and waited several hours for James's ship to be loaded and sail out of the harbor. As soon as it was out of sight, however, she dropped the roll and ran to the door. A guard was just outside the main door, so she could unlock herself without being noticed. She slid the key in and freed herself without effort.
Noiselessly, she ran up the stairs and approached the door, which opened outward. If the guard was doing his job correctly, he would be stationed directly in front of it. She positioned her hand over the handle, and silently counted down.
3...2...1...NOW!
She gave the push all her might, and she felt the door come into contact with a body and slam it into the opposite wall. She ran out, looking back to ensure that she had knocked the guard unconscious. Rose nearly let out a whoop of joy when she realized that it was Richards who she had knocked out! She dared not dally too much in her state of elation, however, so she took off across the courtyard.
There would be no hangings today, as it was Sunday. Therefore, she was clear from danger in the square as long as she raced across the cobblestone at top speed. She heard the sound of aggravated voices coming down the corridor after her, which forced her to run faster still, out of the stony prison and down to the docks.
As she ran, her mind raced with all the things James had said to her. I'm going to a place you cannot go. You cannot go.
She slowed her pace when she realized what he was trying to say. He was telling her subtlety to go anywhere but Shipwreck Cove, as it wouldn't be long before they found its location now that they had gotten the name of the fortress from her. He was trying to keep her safe from the inevitable raid on the fortress and the slaughter of thousands of her kind.
Apologies, Norrington, she thought, quickening the pace of her run towards the docks once more. She knew in that moment that the only way for her to save the lives of her people was to undo the damage she had already done.
She was off to Shipwreck Cove.
