Chapter 9
"Jack!" Anamaria screamed as she saw him keel forward and land on deck in quite the same way as Greoff had. She barely noticed as the crew parted for her as she ran to the wheel and knelt by his side.
"He's still breathing, Ana." Ryan offered shocked to see the mix of rage and pain so deep in her eyes. "Gibbs!"
"Let's get him below." Gibbs took hold of the pirate's shoulders and both he and Ryan carried him down to the cool chamber located under the ship's deck.
"We'll leave him with you?" he asked, he understood that Jack was on the brink of death but Anamaria needed time alone with Jack, she had after all known him the longest.
Anamaria nodded mutely and Ryan helped to lay Jack across the bed and propped up in her embrace to save him further pain to his back. It was not an uncomfortable position for either of them and the two men left before they could see the tears in her eyes.
Jack lay so still it looked as if he was just sleeping. How she wished it were that simple, she could just playfully smack him on the cheek and he'd wake with his familiar grin and taunting look in his eyes. After a brief round of name-calling he'd get her to join him on his bed or hammock and she'd stay with him until he woke up completely.
Taking a soft piece of cloth from the small table along side the bed she wiped off his smudged eye-liner. He re-did it every morning but at night she would insist on removing it before he got some in his eyes. Now it was all but faded and streaked from where perspiration had streaked down his forehead.
She marveled at how much different he appeared, mustache and all he looked about five years younger when he didn't have his eyes outlined so dark and the soot dotted on his face.
~ "It is your time, Jack Sparrow. Let go and we'll bring you to where you need to be."~
"I need to be here." Jack fought against the current that was drawing him away from Anamaria's grasp. He forced himself to concentrate in order to respond to the voice.
~"It is not your decision to make." The darkness became even darker and it sent grey waves of dizziness rushing through him.~
"I can't die yet, I'm not going to leave her!" Jack bellowed and wrenched free of the grey mist. He needed to hold on, he wouldn't just give in and allow them to take over.
~"You will, else you wouldn't be dead." The voice mocked in a taunting whisper.~
"No! I'll not go!" Jack kept fighting with his last strength reserve he struggled against the laughter and dark nothing that slowly closed in on him.
~ "It's not a choice." He felt the air ripple around him as shapes from his past rose up faster and faster they spun. "We have you now, little Sparrow, and we'll not be letting you go."~
"There's always a bloody choice! Right from wrong, black compared to white, pleasure and pain, love and hate. . . it's the way the blasted world works!" he yelled trying to get through to whatever was taking him further away from everything and everyone he cared about.
~"Black and white?" both colors mixed and went around his head so fast it made his stomach turn, "Pleasure from pain?" it felt as though a feather was being drawn down his back and a shiver went through him at the sensation. Quickly as it came pain bombarded him as he felt the whip-lash at the hand of Greoff. "You don't know right from wrong, there's no use explaining." ~
"You seemed to have missed one." Jack panted, it was all he could do to just keep up with what was going on.
The entire time a smaller voice in the back of his mind murmured for him to let the blackness consume him until all the pain was gone. How he so wanted to just give up, to stop struggling against what seemed hopeless. It would be so much easier just to let everything go and give in to weakness for once in his life. The voice taunted him with promises of peace and comfort, both of which he desperately needed.
~"You chose wrong over right. Bad over good, evil over righteous. . . " The voice hissed, Jack flinched in Anamaria's arms and she held him closer and closed her eyes not able to bear the pain in her heart. Just the thought of losing him made her hands clench in his shirt and her soul tear a little deeper.
"Jack Sparrow, I won't let you give up!" she shook him by the shoulders, "I'll not give up. I'll follow you to the gateway of hell, you understand? You bloody, infernal man!" a tear rolled down her face.
"I didn't choose at all." Jack latched on to her voice, the sadness and helplessness he felt in her. If only she would keep talking it would all be okay.
~"Oh, but you did. Your soul was forfeit the moment you crossed over. You're mine!" the voice cackled furiously, "You're mine for the taking." ~
Anamaria felt the gasp escape his lungs and the paling of his skin. Without thinking she propped him up higher and put breath from her body into his. If he didn't stop breathing he wouldn't be gone, she forced the air into him and made his heart keep beating. One breath, another. . .
"Nooo!!!" Jack screamed as the nothingness finally finished closing in. He felt all the pain from as if far away, he couldn't keep up anymore, it was too much. With that last scream of denial he fell. . .
He landed softly in an all white room that released gentle light that soothed rather than irritated his already sensitive eyes.
"Where. . .?"
"You made your choice." A voice echoed in the room, Jack looked around warily. He saw the figure appear before he made the connection. "William?"
"Who else, mate?" Jack saw the similarities between father and son so clearly he wondered if this was just another ruse to get him to give up.
"Why are you- what are you-"
"They decided it would be better if'n you knew someone." He grinned roguishly, "Wouldn't want you fighting one of them o'er this."
""Will, you have to believe that I would have done anything to prevent-"
"No apologies, Captain." Will smiled, "It's much better here. Now the important issue, you have one very determined woman looking out for you."
"Ana." Jack stated knowing already, she was the one who had kept him from giving in too the darkness.
"Yes, Anamaria. I would ne'er have believed it." Will laughed, "You and her always goin' at it like you did. She's gone and saved you, you know. I don't have to be telling you that, and it seems like you have more than just luck on your side."
"I'll be..."
"Might not want to finish that. Wouldn't go over to well considering." Will raised an eyebrow, "Now comes the hard part. You need to want to live, your soul's still intact but it'll want to escape when I send you back. You have to keep hold of it because if you don't there's nothing I can do for you anymore. You'll end up either here or where you were before, the land of shadows."
"I much prefer here if anywhere." Jack remarked dryly.
"Like the white, do you? Remember, Jack, if your soul gets free..."
"I'll remember." He vowed. "Your boy still thinks of you, he's a smart kid. Does some stupid things sometimes, but like father like son, eh?"
"Married the Elizabeth girl." Bootstrap smiled softly, "Yeah, I saw. Who do you think taught him to sail?" At Jack's questioning look he chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, so maybe you had more to do with that, but I've always been lookin' our for him."
"I know. Just like you looked after the crew and your Captain." Jack met his eyes squarely as he gave the highest compliment he could, "Never had a crewman 's good as you were, missed you after all that."
"No wonder, kept that ship floating I did." He laughed lightly, "We all sacrificed what we thought was needed, no regrets on my part. It was my decision, Jack, none other."
"Aye, no regrets here either."
"Keep close the words I told you. This is it, Captain. Keep an eye on Will for me?"
"Always."
* * *
Ana never stopped talking to Jack in her mind convinced that she could somehow keep him tied to the world by sheer will. She felt his breathing turn shallow and put her hand over his heart in desperation.
Every breath he took might be his last, just knowing this made her swear to get back at whatever gods dared to try and take him from her. She knew that everyone had to die eventually, but he was barely even forty, it was an age seldom reached by pirates but she had seen older. Why, Barbossa must have reached his sixtieth year and he was as ruthless as ever.
"Please, Jack." She whispered, "You can't leave me. Not yet." It seemed as though his heart would grow stronger again, but then it felt like it had stopped. She stared at him in horror as comprehension dawned through the fog of determination.
Her mind went blank with shock, she shook with violent shivers that wracked her body despite the warm climate. She looked at his chest, there was no movement at all, he was completely still.
"No." she whispered, "He can't be! He's Captain Jack Sparrow, fright of the Spanish Main, the best pirate to sail a ship in the Caribbean." She said these things even though a little voice told her that none of it mattered anymore. "He's- he can't be dead!"
She rose from the bed and stood in the middle of the room, her hands were clenched at her sides and her eyes burned inhumanly. The pain that raced through her nearly brought her to her knees.
"How could you." She hissed, "You had no right, he did naught to you. Damn you all to hell, if this is how you repay good men I want nothing of it. Damn you!." She spoke to the gods, a god, whatever spirits happened to be listening in.
"No!" she panted trying to keep the excruciating grief at bay, "No. You can't go, Jack. I've never asked you for anything, come back to me. Oh please come back." She wrapped her arms around her stomach to try and ease the pain.
Hearing nothing in return she screamed in blind headlong rage and grabbed whatever was the closest to her. It happened to be a wash basin and ceramic pitcher. Both hit the floor with a resounding crash, it wasn't enough. Cups, an empty rum bottle, and numerous other things were thrown, shredded, and tossed onto the floor.
Her black hair flew about her head like a dark shadow, her eyes were dry and blazing without seeing. She had to escape the grief, she wouldn't let it take her. "No, no, no, no!!" she screamed raking a wall with her shortened nails.
"Curse you all!" she stomped her foot and threw herself down to where Jack lay, "I love you, Jack. I love you so much."
It was then she let the tears fall, she knelt next to him and buried her head onto the soft sheets near his shoulder. The sobs racked her body and she cried with all of the heartbreak, sorrow, and helplessness she felt. She wanted him to wrap his arms around her and tell her it would all be alright, she wanted to see him grin lazily as he got closer to the bottom of a bottle of rum, she just needed to see him open his eyes again.
Knowing that would never happen again she held the bandanna in her fist and let out everything she felt.
Gibbs heard the commotion from inside the room, the rest of the crew did too. None of them dared to go inside however, deciding instead to keep the ship sailing. It didn't matter to where anymore, they would wait and pay homage to their Captain.
Authors Note: Is he really dead? You'll have to find out, he can't be dead, you say. I don't know yet, Jack had a promise made to Bootstrap, but Ana also had a promise to him. Which will happen? I'll keep writing and find out for myself too. Lol.
"Jack!" Anamaria screamed as she saw him keel forward and land on deck in quite the same way as Greoff had. She barely noticed as the crew parted for her as she ran to the wheel and knelt by his side.
"He's still breathing, Ana." Ryan offered shocked to see the mix of rage and pain so deep in her eyes. "Gibbs!"
"Let's get him below." Gibbs took hold of the pirate's shoulders and both he and Ryan carried him down to the cool chamber located under the ship's deck.
"We'll leave him with you?" he asked, he understood that Jack was on the brink of death but Anamaria needed time alone with Jack, she had after all known him the longest.
Anamaria nodded mutely and Ryan helped to lay Jack across the bed and propped up in her embrace to save him further pain to his back. It was not an uncomfortable position for either of them and the two men left before they could see the tears in her eyes.
Jack lay so still it looked as if he was just sleeping. How she wished it were that simple, she could just playfully smack him on the cheek and he'd wake with his familiar grin and taunting look in his eyes. After a brief round of name-calling he'd get her to join him on his bed or hammock and she'd stay with him until he woke up completely.
Taking a soft piece of cloth from the small table along side the bed she wiped off his smudged eye-liner. He re-did it every morning but at night she would insist on removing it before he got some in his eyes. Now it was all but faded and streaked from where perspiration had streaked down his forehead.
She marveled at how much different he appeared, mustache and all he looked about five years younger when he didn't have his eyes outlined so dark and the soot dotted on his face.
~ "It is your time, Jack Sparrow. Let go and we'll bring you to where you need to be."~
"I need to be here." Jack fought against the current that was drawing him away from Anamaria's grasp. He forced himself to concentrate in order to respond to the voice.
~"It is not your decision to make." The darkness became even darker and it sent grey waves of dizziness rushing through him.~
"I can't die yet, I'm not going to leave her!" Jack bellowed and wrenched free of the grey mist. He needed to hold on, he wouldn't just give in and allow them to take over.
~"You will, else you wouldn't be dead." The voice mocked in a taunting whisper.~
"No! I'll not go!" Jack kept fighting with his last strength reserve he struggled against the laughter and dark nothing that slowly closed in on him.
~ "It's not a choice." He felt the air ripple around him as shapes from his past rose up faster and faster they spun. "We have you now, little Sparrow, and we'll not be letting you go."~
"There's always a bloody choice! Right from wrong, black compared to white, pleasure and pain, love and hate. . . it's the way the blasted world works!" he yelled trying to get through to whatever was taking him further away from everything and everyone he cared about.
~"Black and white?" both colors mixed and went around his head so fast it made his stomach turn, "Pleasure from pain?" it felt as though a feather was being drawn down his back and a shiver went through him at the sensation. Quickly as it came pain bombarded him as he felt the whip-lash at the hand of Greoff. "You don't know right from wrong, there's no use explaining." ~
"You seemed to have missed one." Jack panted, it was all he could do to just keep up with what was going on.
The entire time a smaller voice in the back of his mind murmured for him to let the blackness consume him until all the pain was gone. How he so wanted to just give up, to stop struggling against what seemed hopeless. It would be so much easier just to let everything go and give in to weakness for once in his life. The voice taunted him with promises of peace and comfort, both of which he desperately needed.
~"You chose wrong over right. Bad over good, evil over righteous. . . " The voice hissed, Jack flinched in Anamaria's arms and she held him closer and closed her eyes not able to bear the pain in her heart. Just the thought of losing him made her hands clench in his shirt and her soul tear a little deeper.
"Jack Sparrow, I won't let you give up!" she shook him by the shoulders, "I'll not give up. I'll follow you to the gateway of hell, you understand? You bloody, infernal man!" a tear rolled down her face.
"I didn't choose at all." Jack latched on to her voice, the sadness and helplessness he felt in her. If only she would keep talking it would all be okay.
~"Oh, but you did. Your soul was forfeit the moment you crossed over. You're mine!" the voice cackled furiously, "You're mine for the taking." ~
Anamaria felt the gasp escape his lungs and the paling of his skin. Without thinking she propped him up higher and put breath from her body into his. If he didn't stop breathing he wouldn't be gone, she forced the air into him and made his heart keep beating. One breath, another. . .
"Nooo!!!" Jack screamed as the nothingness finally finished closing in. He felt all the pain from as if far away, he couldn't keep up anymore, it was too much. With that last scream of denial he fell. . .
He landed softly in an all white room that released gentle light that soothed rather than irritated his already sensitive eyes.
"Where. . .?"
"You made your choice." A voice echoed in the room, Jack looked around warily. He saw the figure appear before he made the connection. "William?"
"Who else, mate?" Jack saw the similarities between father and son so clearly he wondered if this was just another ruse to get him to give up.
"Why are you- what are you-"
"They decided it would be better if'n you knew someone." He grinned roguishly, "Wouldn't want you fighting one of them o'er this."
""Will, you have to believe that I would have done anything to prevent-"
"No apologies, Captain." Will smiled, "It's much better here. Now the important issue, you have one very determined woman looking out for you."
"Ana." Jack stated knowing already, she was the one who had kept him from giving in too the darkness.
"Yes, Anamaria. I would ne'er have believed it." Will laughed, "You and her always goin' at it like you did. She's gone and saved you, you know. I don't have to be telling you that, and it seems like you have more than just luck on your side."
"I'll be..."
"Might not want to finish that. Wouldn't go over to well considering." Will raised an eyebrow, "Now comes the hard part. You need to want to live, your soul's still intact but it'll want to escape when I send you back. You have to keep hold of it because if you don't there's nothing I can do for you anymore. You'll end up either here or where you were before, the land of shadows."
"I much prefer here if anywhere." Jack remarked dryly.
"Like the white, do you? Remember, Jack, if your soul gets free..."
"I'll remember." He vowed. "Your boy still thinks of you, he's a smart kid. Does some stupid things sometimes, but like father like son, eh?"
"Married the Elizabeth girl." Bootstrap smiled softly, "Yeah, I saw. Who do you think taught him to sail?" At Jack's questioning look he chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, so maybe you had more to do with that, but I've always been lookin' our for him."
"I know. Just like you looked after the crew and your Captain." Jack met his eyes squarely as he gave the highest compliment he could, "Never had a crewman 's good as you were, missed you after all that."
"No wonder, kept that ship floating I did." He laughed lightly, "We all sacrificed what we thought was needed, no regrets on my part. It was my decision, Jack, none other."
"Aye, no regrets here either."
"Keep close the words I told you. This is it, Captain. Keep an eye on Will for me?"
"Always."
* * *
Ana never stopped talking to Jack in her mind convinced that she could somehow keep him tied to the world by sheer will. She felt his breathing turn shallow and put her hand over his heart in desperation.
Every breath he took might be his last, just knowing this made her swear to get back at whatever gods dared to try and take him from her. She knew that everyone had to die eventually, but he was barely even forty, it was an age seldom reached by pirates but she had seen older. Why, Barbossa must have reached his sixtieth year and he was as ruthless as ever.
"Please, Jack." She whispered, "You can't leave me. Not yet." It seemed as though his heart would grow stronger again, but then it felt like it had stopped. She stared at him in horror as comprehension dawned through the fog of determination.
Her mind went blank with shock, she shook with violent shivers that wracked her body despite the warm climate. She looked at his chest, there was no movement at all, he was completely still.
"No." she whispered, "He can't be! He's Captain Jack Sparrow, fright of the Spanish Main, the best pirate to sail a ship in the Caribbean." She said these things even though a little voice told her that none of it mattered anymore. "He's- he can't be dead!"
She rose from the bed and stood in the middle of the room, her hands were clenched at her sides and her eyes burned inhumanly. The pain that raced through her nearly brought her to her knees.
"How could you." She hissed, "You had no right, he did naught to you. Damn you all to hell, if this is how you repay good men I want nothing of it. Damn you!." She spoke to the gods, a god, whatever spirits happened to be listening in.
"No!" she panted trying to keep the excruciating grief at bay, "No. You can't go, Jack. I've never asked you for anything, come back to me. Oh please come back." She wrapped her arms around her stomach to try and ease the pain.
Hearing nothing in return she screamed in blind headlong rage and grabbed whatever was the closest to her. It happened to be a wash basin and ceramic pitcher. Both hit the floor with a resounding crash, it wasn't enough. Cups, an empty rum bottle, and numerous other things were thrown, shredded, and tossed onto the floor.
Her black hair flew about her head like a dark shadow, her eyes were dry and blazing without seeing. She had to escape the grief, she wouldn't let it take her. "No, no, no, no!!" she screamed raking a wall with her shortened nails.
"Curse you all!" she stomped her foot and threw herself down to where Jack lay, "I love you, Jack. I love you so much."
It was then she let the tears fall, she knelt next to him and buried her head onto the soft sheets near his shoulder. The sobs racked her body and she cried with all of the heartbreak, sorrow, and helplessness she felt. She wanted him to wrap his arms around her and tell her it would all be alright, she wanted to see him grin lazily as he got closer to the bottom of a bottle of rum, she just needed to see him open his eyes again.
Knowing that would never happen again she held the bandanna in her fist and let out everything she felt.
Gibbs heard the commotion from inside the room, the rest of the crew did too. None of them dared to go inside however, deciding instead to keep the ship sailing. It didn't matter to where anymore, they would wait and pay homage to their Captain.
Authors Note: Is he really dead? You'll have to find out, he can't be dead, you say. I don't know yet, Jack had a promise made to Bootstrap, but Ana also had a promise to him. Which will happen? I'll keep writing and find out for myself too. Lol.