The song is called He Died Of… and it's by a very talented local group named No Hollywood Ending. Sorry it's taking me so long to get these chapters up, but I've been sick since before Thanksgiving, first with a virus and then with two blown eardrums…yeah. Not pretty. So please forgive me, school is also taking up a lot of my time and hopefully I'll have more time to write…now that drama is starting…so I'll get them up when I can. :0) Sorry y'all!
~*~
Chapter Eleven
Everlasting Heat
~*~
One cut for every kiss
One slice to my skin for every time
I wrote the words I love you
For your deceiving eyes
One more little slit just cause your not around
To stop me from doing this to myself
These drops of blood run down my arms
And into my palms
Those lovely tears roll down your cheeks
When you realize what it is that you have done
I'm dying to know what happened between you and him
I'm dying~*~
Elizabeth sat at her mahogany desk, the soft silk waves of her ivory dressing gown spilling around her chair. She absentmindedly twirled her quill between her fingers and examined the point briefly, carefully; making sure no ink stained her fingers. The sharp edge of the quill had dulled a little, but she was too lazy to sharpen it. The quill was left on the desk on top of a half-written letter to Will. Once again Elizabeth had attempted to put her thoughts into words but that was not something she was good at.
She walked across the room and carefully opened the two glass-paneled doors that led out onto her balcony. With a glance behind her to make sure that none of the maids had heard the doors open, she hurried out onto the balcony and shut them behind her.
The Caribbean night was cool, but the breeze still carried a hint of the everlasting heat. Elizabeth drew her thin nightdress more tightly around herself as she walked over to a rose plant that she had been growing. The blossoms were still closed save for one, which had opened early and was beginning to wilt at the corners. Elizabeth knew that in the morning it's browning petals would be spotted with crystal dew, a sight spoiled only by the death that so obviously haunted the flower. This thought made her depressed and she turned the blossom away with the back of her hand. She crossed the balcony to the railing and set her fingers on the smooth surface, the ivy leaves that were growing up the trellis tickling her fingers. The landscape that you could see from there was magnificent. The green mountains rose in the distance, blocking out the stars. The moon shone bright, leaving a silver trail on the ocean. Elizabeth stood and watched the waves for a little while, watching them froth and curl onto the beach. She picked out the stone road, the bridge, and different buildings in the town that she knew. The world looked so different at night!
Finally her eyes found the fort and she sighed when she saw the Union Jack flying high above the towers of the stronghold. It whipped around in the wind, reminding Elizabeth of those days…they seemed so far off now, those days when she had watched the Jolly Roger whip about in the breeze…
The hunger for adventure had once again awoken in the governor's daughter, but Elizabeth was still distracted by thoughts of the Commodore Norrington. Would he never give up on her? Would he never accept that her heart belonged to William Turner? "I will be Elizabeth Turner," she said defiantly to the night, "Never Elizabeth Norrington."
~*~
Days passed slowly on the ocean, and the horizon revolved around the Black Pearl like a never-ending kaleidoscope with changing clouds. Will was leaning against the rail of the ship, thinking about Serenity once again and staring out to the ends of the ocean. The land that they had left behind had disappeared days ago, and the smoke that usually followed a ship out from Tortuga had also disappeared. All that was left was the memories, pleasant and not. Still raging inside was Will's internal argument with himself over whether or not he had seen Serenity that day, or if it had not been her. He was feeling very confused and agitated and it took him a moment to realize that something had appeared on the horizon and was coming towards them at a steady rate.
"Jack," he called behind him.
"Yeah?" answered the captain.
"There's something on the horizon," Will answered, walking over to where Jack was digging through his pockets, looking for something. Not finding what he was looking for, Jack glanced up at the horizon and squinted at the foreign object. Jack shrugged.
"Send someone up there, then," he said dully, as if things like these happened every day.
Will glanced around the deck and found his immediate area empty, so he decided to climb up into the nest himself. A lazy wind buffeted the ropes as he climbed, remembering not to look down and fighting the temptation to do so. He reached the nest a few minutes later, swinging from the ropes into the nest with an agility that would have surprised him had he seen himself doing this a year ago. But he had no time to dwell on how much things had changed, and he reached inside his belt to produce the telescope that he always kept there. It lengthened easily in his hand and it fit against his eye as he looked out over the ocean, and over the myriad waves to see…a ship.
~*~
"All hands on deck!" Anamaria called shrilly down into the bowels of the Pearl. "Wake up, ye scallywags! We've got a ship, now!" She kicked the trap for good measure, the brass handle on top of it rattling with the force of the motion. Jack was doing an excited little dance over at the wheel, glaring through his own telescope at the ship as he kept his left hand on the black wood of the wheel.
"Aha!" Jack called triumphantly. "She's flyin' a Roger! We can take her! Load up the guns!" he said, shouting this last to the newly materialized crew. Half of them were rubbing the sleep out of their eyes, but the others looked reasonably alert.
"Ye 'eard him!" Ana prodded one sailor whose face was half covered in shaving soap. "Load up the guns!"
A nervous energy filled Will as he hurried below with the rest of the crew and began lining up cannon balls next to the loading holes of one of the big guns. It took about three men to operate just one of them, and there was about ten cannons lining each side of the ship. They were close enough to know that the ship- which was flying the Jolly Roger, as Jack had said- would be passing them on their right side had they been standing towards the bow of the ship with their backs facing the stern. So the ten guns on the right side of the ship were being filled with cannonballs at that very moment, and extras were being brought to them for when the guns were emptied. After most of the loading was finished, Will returned to the boat deck again, which was populated with half of the crew to do the deck fighting. The others remained below with the guns. Will's hand instinctively went to the hilt of his sword as he walked across the deck to where Jack was standing, excited, keeping his eyes on the ship which was closing in steadily.
"She's a big'un!" said Jack happily. "I hope she dun' get too damaged in th'blows so we can't take 'er!"
"Or that we don't get too damaged in the blows so that she can't take us," Will added cynically. Jack looked at him sideways, the corner of his mouth twitching down, the brim of his hat tilting with the motions of his head. He shook it once, making the beads on his braids rattle.
"Or, that she dun' get too damaged in th'blows so we can't take 'er," he repeated, and smiled. "Battle's at sea," he said contentedly, "nothin' like it."
~*~
"That's a ship, isn't it," Serenity said dryly to the silent sailor, her only friend.
"Yup," he said, keeping his gaze straight ahead at the ship. It had appeared that morning, much to the excitement of the other sailors, but they never told her anything. She wasn't important enough.
"We're- you're gonna have to fight it, aren't you," she said.
"Yup," he answered.
"What's your name?"
"Christian."
"I'm"-
"Serenity." He looked at her sideways. "I know."
"Oh," she said awkwardly. "Well…good luck," she said, meaning in the imminent fight ahead.
"Battle's at sea," he said, oddly relaxed. "Nothin' like it."