Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize.
I think it was the first time I saw a hanging that I felt the ocean's call. But the first time I answered it was on my thirteenth birthday, when my parents, the famous Will and Elizabeth Turner, took me to England for a gift, and Captain William Kidd was caught.
I passed by him when we were going to our fancy hotel, and I was trying to sneak away. I still remember his exact words. "You remind me of my daughter, you'll be great at what you do." Then he gave me a quick smile. The men who were bringing him to the House of Commons didn't hear it, neither did my parents. But I still remember it to this day.
I was there when they hung him. When the noose was placed around his neck, he was looking straight into my eyes. As he fell, his eyes never left mine. Departure from a hanging is a very rough and rowdy time, and that was all I needed.
I managed to sneak away from my parents in the crowd, and steal my way to the empty dock. The ocean was vicious that night, breaking upon the dock horridly as if to mourn for the loss of a great pirate captain, but I sat on the edge of it, the waves comforting me as I cried. I stayed there the whole night through, and was found by my Pa the next morning.
Captain Jack Sparrow's hanging was the one that I will never be able to recover from. On the eve of his scheduled hanging, my parents were jailed to ensure everything ran according to plan. The next morning I waited outside the jail house to walk with Captain Sparrow to the gallows. His guards, assigned to him by Commodore Norrington, weren't happy about it, but there was nothing they could do to stop me.
We talked about the Black Pearl mostly, and how she was going to never be the same again. I told him the sea would mourn it's loss of the last great pirate captain, and he laughed. He told me that I could continue the chain, and his Pearl would help me, told me that if I wanted to, I could have his Pearl. We laughed about it, but he was serious, and I realized that.
He told me that pirate blood was in my veins, and to watch out for Norrington, because he'd be after me next. Said to say goodbye to my parents for him, seeing as how they'd been asleep when he left. I told him that I loved him and he couldn't leave, and he said I just had a case of hero worship.
As Gillette read him his crimes, he looked straight at me. And when he paused, Jack managed to pause the ceremony, if just for a minute.
"Bridget Leigh Turner, I love you. If I wasn't about to have a rope 'round me neck, I'd ask you to marry me."
"And I'd accept." I called back to him.
I tried to stop the hanging. I broke the Commodore's nose in at least three places, knocked my grandpa, Governor Swann, off the special stage area he had reserved, and tried to re-enact the save that my parents had completed nearly thirty five years prior to that day. But I failed.
I watched as he crossed out of the world of the living. I ran as they celebrated, straight to the Black Pearl. Interestingly enough, the crew expected me.
That night, as we sailed to Tortuga, it stormed so heavily, that everyone ended up going below deck, in fear of being swept overboard, save for myself. I welcomed the storm, and wept for the last time.
Some ten years later, I was caught. By Norrington, as well, which made it that much worse.
"Bridget Leigh Turner, let it be known that you have. . . ." Gillette's nauseating voice called out to the crowd as he read off my list of crimes.
"Captain, Captain Bridget Leigh Sparrow"
Gillette's voice called out again before he put away the scroll he was reading from. "And for these crimes you have been sentenced to be, on this day, hung by the neck until dead. May God have mercy on your soul."
Right before the rope was placed around my neck, I called out to my parents, who were forced to watch helplessly, "I love you both so very much, forgive me."
And they nodded. I can only hope that Jack forgives me as well. After all, I kept his Pearl in perfect working order. I left Gibbs and Anamaria to work as co-captains, so hopefully the ship is still in perfect working order as Jack and I left it.
The rope was place around my neck, and I looked to the ocean. There would be no daring rescue, nor even an attempt. I hope my life meant something, that I influenced someone.
The rope pulled taut and the noose tightened to the point of unbearable pain. However, I kept struggling for air. I refused to let piracy be taken over by those who hadn't a clue on why it was glorious. But I failed again, and I felt my life straining away. And I stopped struggling.
That night, exactly ten years after the death of Captain Jack Sparrow, and twenty two years after the death of Captain William Kidd, the sea raged. No ship was on the seas, and everyone felt the rage of the ocean. The sea mourned for the loss of the last pirate captains who had a purpose. Waves broke upon the docks of the Spanish main, and of Port Royal, tearing the boards apart, ripping the docks to pieces. The wrath of the ocean was finally felt. And for the first time, people wept.