The song below belongs to the lyrical geniuses known as Thrice. The song is called The Melting Point of Wax. If you like that kind of music I strongly urge you to pick up their new CD (The Artist in the Ambulance) and if you don't look at the lyrics anyway. It's worth the whole $12.99 I spent on it at FYE.

Disclaimer- I don't own PotC. I do own Serenity and Daniel and also Graciela, Rosalia, and Carmela. I also own the Silent Pirate. Yay for me!

~*~

Chapter Four

The Almost Silence  

~*~

there's no promise of safety with these secondhand wings but I'm willing to find out what impossible means I climb through the heavens on feathers and dreams cause the melting point of wax means nothing to me  nothing to me I will touch the sun

or I will die trying

 

~*~

               "She was such a pretty thing!" Daniel drunkenly reminisced over a foaming mug of rum. Serenity was hiding up on the rigging again, enjoying the solitude. The night was still, and it would have been silent as the grave had the sailors not been drunk.

When are they not drunk? Thought Serenity. Every night's a party, every morning is the hangover, and every afternoon is like the silence before the storm…and then the cycle repeats itself. It repeats itself again and again and again…and again.

The fiesta happened to be even livelier this night, as they were quickly approaching one of the small inhabited islands that the Caribbean was dotted with. No doubt the sailors would find a plaything other than Serenity this night, which was why she was able to steal away, here, to the almost silence of the rigging.

There was a creaking footstep on the wooden deck below, and instinctively Serenity curled up tight, clutching onto one of the ropes attached to the crow's nest to prevent falling. Once she had caught her breath and gotten a secure grip on the rope she leaned over the rigging as far as she dared. A shadow stretched, a patch of darkness in the light thrown by a solitary lantern. It was the sailor, the silent one. She leaned back against the nest and watched him as he went inside.

Would he also find 'love' on the Caribbean?

~*~

"Jack, you're an idiot!" said Anamaria.

"Sticks and stones, love," muttered Jack under his breath as Anamaria rambled on.

"Last time we were in Tortuga we didn't leave for a week!" she said, stomping the heel of her foot angrily down on the deck. Will, who had been writing in his journal hoping to have caught a quiet moment, sighed. There was no solitude on this boat. "We can't go there!"

"Last time I checked, I was the captain of this bloody pirate ship!" said Jack, prompting an abrupt laugh from Mr. Gibbs, who was clutching one of the precious few bottles of rum in his hand. Anamaria glared at Jack.

"Well I would be the captain of me own bloody pirate ship had you given me another one!" she yelled. Gibbs shook his head and descended the stairs below-decks.

"Bad luck, mate," he muttered as he disappeared below the wooden façade of the boat.

Eager to return to his pen, Will finished scratching their position and a few notes about the weather before he turned to a loose sheaf of paper that he had brought out. He tuned out the argument between Jack and Anamaria, only listening to the scratching of the ink on the paper. Dear Elizabeth, he wrote mechanically in fairly neat script. His hand held the pen poised above the paper expectantly, but suddenly his mind went blank and he realized that he had nothing to say. "Elizabeth," he whispered to himself, hoping that his lovers name would bring him some inspiration.

It didn't.

After about five minutes his hand grew tired, and he placed the pen down and tore off the top of the paper. It left him with a blank paper, again.

Dear Serenity, he wrote then, and he was not at loss for things to say.

~*~

A blob had appeared on the horizon. Serenity had noticed it as she was enjoying her bird's eye view of the ocean. Already a light had appeared on the beach- a torch. The watch, having spotted the island from over the rim of his rum bottle, cried out a "'Land, ho!" and then issued some orders to the sailors that had appeared on the deck. Hurriedly Serenity made herself look busy, already up on the rigging. The men, drunk, hardly noticed her presence and worked as if nothing was abnormal. They murmured nonsense words about women, excited about the prospect of love found on that island. A few dark marks on the beach could be identified as people, and as the ship drew closer an anchor was thrown down. The ship skidded on it's own momentum for a moment before scudding to a stop. The rowboats carried most of the pirates to the shore of the island.

"Fresh meat," muttered Serenity.

"Fresh plunder!" one of the old pirates said heartily before raising his rum bottle and swigging half of it in one breath. "A payday for us all."

Serenity tucked a loose strand of hair inside her floppy hat and leaned against the railing. A single scream was carried on the wind from the island, bringing some of a nightmare back to Serenity as if in an echo of her own.

It was less than an hour later that the pirates returned to their ship. They had kidnapped three women from the island and had brought them on deck along with the rest of their booty. Rum, money, jewelry, all was spilled onto the deck to be divided among animals. The three women huddled close with each other, sobbing and pleading with their captors. Serenity saw several frightened glances thrown her way, and also slightly beside her, to the silent pirate that appeared leaning against the rail next to her. It occurred to Serenity that they thought she was a man. Their fear stirred Serenity's heart, for it was an emotion that she had been long numbed to now. She reached up and took off her hat, letting her hair flow free halfway down her back. She saw the pirate slip a glance at her from the corner of his eye as she went to the three women.

Those three women were now her sisters.

~*~

There were several empty bottles scattered about the deck of the Black Pearl. Will selected one and slipped the letter inside. "I miss you," he whispered and dropped the bottle from his fingertips. It landed with a plop in the ocean and was soon swallowed by the waves, bobbing up a moment later before being swallowed again. "I will always miss you."

~*~

"I'm Serenity," she said, extending her hand. The three women regarded her with fear.

"Are you a pirate?" one of them asked in stuttering English.

"No," she answered. "I'm just like you."

The one woman, who seemed to be the most confident of the three, leaned forward a bit. "I'm Graciela." She said cautiously. "This is Rosalia, and Carmela."

"It's nice to meet you," said Serenity as some pirates paraded by, their hands filled with loot. "But you'd better get used to this."