The town was overrun. Flames hungrily devoured building after building,
consuming one before jumping to the next in line. The sounds of screaming
and cold laughter battled with the roaring of the flames. Women ran
terrified from the pirates chasing them, clutching their nightgowns close
to them and tears running down their faces. The men tried to protect them,
but most were not a match for the pure brutality of the pirates. Windows
shattered as pirates grabbed for valuable objects that they could
contribute to the wealth of the ship and to their wealth as well.
In the middle of it all, Jane Travers stumbled down the middle of the street, calling for her sons. Not a single person stopped her. Not a single man to drag her from harm, or a woman to tell her to run, or a pirate to take what he wanted from her. Jane had been labeled as different from the day she had arrived in the small port town, escaping the narrow minded persecution of those that called her a witch. They were not wrong in calling her that, but wanting her death for being a child of nature was more than she could bear. So in the middle of the night, she had fled to the docks with Andrew and Joshua. With what money she had, she bartered passage. When they had arrived on the island, the people knew something was different about her, yet they weren't quick to condemn her, nor were they friendly about it.
Even now, in a time of terror, it showed that they were scared of her. Not a single soul touched her as she cried her sons' names in the street, houses burning around her, people losing their lives and enduring things that would leave them scarred for the rest of their lives. She saw children leaning against buildings, crying for their mothers and fathers. But none of them were her sons. She looked around her, taking in everything. Worry gripped her so tightly that it was hard to breathe and she was worried for a moment that she might pass out.
Then her world came crashing to a halt and fell down around her. Picking up the hem of her nightgown, she sprinted towards the alleyway and the two distinct shapes lying on the ground. She ran across broken glass and didn't even notice as the shards pierced her foot and she bled out onto the dirt street. The shapes were two little boys, lying motionless. The younger of the two lay on his front and she could see the blood seeping out from underneath him. The older was lying on his stomach, blood staining his white shirt and dead eyes staring up into the sky. Jane felt for the alley wall, her legs feeling weak. She slid to the ground, tears welling up in her eyes and she began to rock back and forth, crying out their names.
Around her, the chaos continued, the world paying no heed to the pain she felt. The only two people in her life who had never judged her, who had looked up to her with love in their eyes without being judgmental, were gone. She sobbed into her hands, lying against the wall of the alleyway.
Slowly her sobs began to abate as anger welled up inside of her. She had never felt this way before, not even when the husband she had loved and trusted so much had accused her of witchcraft. She had never hated him, only pitied. But this was different. She hated the men who had taken the lives of her son and wanted them to suffer. Those thoughts took her to a dark place in her soul that she had never been to before. Her feet took her out into the middle of the street again, her arms hanging limply at her sides.
"Well, well, well...what do we have here?" She stared at the pirate as he turned from the man he had been so patiently torturing and walked her way. She could tell he was the captain by the way he swaggered and the way he dressed. He was the fanciest of them all, and she could see by the way he carried himself that he knew that. "Ain't you a pretty little thing?" He put one of his dirty hands, stained with blood, against the side of her face. "I think I'd like to have a little bit of fun with you."
Captain Joseph Harper wasn't as well known as most of his compatriots on the Spanish Main. One reason was because he was a stupid man. He was all flash and not enough common sense, leading him into one problem after another. If he had been a smart man, he would've realized that what he was doing was a mistake. He would've seen it in her eyes.
Jane looked up at him, her eyes dark with fury. "I curse you for what you've done." She told him through clenched teeth. "May your crew never know rest because of your stupidity. May they know the darkness of their souls and suffer with it forever. Time will not go on for them and they will live forever in the hell of their own making!" She screamed at him. "And you who were their undoing will watch. You will watch them suffer, knowing that you were the one who will forever condemn them." With that said she shut her mouth, lips pressed together in a thin line.
Captain Harper was silent for a few moments before a smirk slowly appeared across his face. "I don't believe in curses, luv." He let out a laugh that sounded more like a bark and shoved her back into the grasps of two of his men. "Have fun with this one. She has spirit." He told them.
Later that night when his crew had come back to the ship and the spoils were divided, he noticed that something suddenly felt very wrong. His suspicions were confirmed when morning never came. The men were puzzle by this and asked questions, but he would have no answers for them. It continued on for weeks, and then months, and then years. A century had passed and everything had changed except for them. Not a single man looked a day older or different. They couldn't die, caught in a time loop where the night that doomed them repeated forever.
Harper was irate, realizing what had happened. His crew was cursed, hell unleashed upon their souls. He grew angry, convinced that all the forces of the world had turned against him and his crew, and he only knew one way to fight back.
"Our souls have been damned to an unmentionable hell for crimes that other men have committed and gotten away with." He snapped, looking down over the crew. "We shall see none of heaven and never find out peace, but I say we take something for what we lost." The men cheered loudly, knowing what was coming. "I say we take the souls in payment for the ones trapped here!" He called out to his men. "What say you?"
-----------
"In response to the captain's decree, the deck was filled with the cheering of damned men." Will finished. He hadn't realized that he'd had such a rapt audience. Jack, Nina, Hannah, and Emma were all staring at him, not uttering a word. Jack was the first to look away, a thoughtful expression on his face. Hannah stared numbly at the sand, Emma sitting in her lap and staring up at Will with her mouth hanging open. Nina tapped her fingers against her lips, trying to think of something to say. Which was more than enough of a challenge as she was someone who hadn't believed in the supernatural before and was just hit with enough proof that she couldn't do anything but believe. Will rubbed his arms, feeling the goosebumps rising in the chilly night air. "That's the story as was told to me by my father. A well known legend around the Caribbean, and it was supposedly nothing more than a story to scare children into staying in their beds and night and discourage them from sneaking off."
"So now we're chasing a real live bed time story across the Caribbean." Nina said, raising an eyebrow. After the news report on the attacks and Jack came up with his theory that the pirates would attack the last three islands before disappearing again, they'd left to find a way to intercept the ship. Between Nina and Jack's quick talking, and more than a little bit of lying on Jack's part, they had managed to get an emergency charter at the airfield outside of town. It was up in the air that Jack had declared his love for the sea numerous times by stating that it wasn't right for man to fly, while Will had spent most of the trip with his face tinged light green and holding tightly to the flight sickness bag. Once they had arrived, the only thing anyone could think to do was wait. So they'd headed to the beach and Jack had asked to hear the tale again, about the origin of the curse.
Hannah nodded. "We are, only it's not just a bed time story. It's a nightmare come true." She said quietly, pulling her husband's jacket closer around her shoulders. Her fear was growing for Danny, if it was possible to be more worried than she already was. She didn't know what kind of hell he was in or what they were doing to him. She just wanted to find him and put her arms around him again.
Emma pulled herself out of her mother's grasp and got to her feet. She quietly walked over to stand in front of where Will was sitting and put her little hands on his cheeks so he couldn't look away from her. "You're not my daddy, are you?" She said after a few moments. It amazed Nina how perceptive children were, much more than adults gave them credit for. The scene before her broke her heart and she looked over at Jack. The pirate wasn't even paying attention, the expression on his face showing that he was thinking up some scheme. Hopefully a successful one. Hannah reached over to grab her arm.
"Emma, what kind of a question is...?" She was cut off as Will answered.
"No I'm not." He felt like he was being interrogated under the little girl's gaze and felt incredibly guilty about something he didn't even do or know that he did for that matter.
"I know because you didn't kiss Sparky goodnight last night." She said, looking a little wounded. "She's kind of mad too 'cause she always gets a kiss goodnight, but she didn't last night." Will looked at her for a moment before both eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"Sparky?" He asked. Without saying a word, Hannah held up the dog stuffed animal that Emma had been toting with her into the living room when she couldn't sleep the night before. "Oh. Then I must apologize for my indiscretions." He caught himself when Emma looked confused at the word he'd just used. "My...mistake. I hope she'll accept one tonight as an apology?" She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"I'm havin' a thought here." Jack's voice caught their collective attention and they turned towards him, attentive to what he had to say. He spoke up louder to be heard over the beat of the music from the open-air nightclub down the beach. "The captain condemned his men to their fate or so the story says. So the key to breakin' the curse has to be the man who did the condemin' to the crew in the first place because they wouldn't be cursed if he didn't do somethin' to condemn them, aye?"
Nina glared at him. "I'm just going to shake my head in agreement and pretend I know what you just said."
"Maybe if you took a moment to think about it. It always helped Gibbs out." He responded quickly.
Nina was about to say something when screams erupted from nearby. Jack got to his feet, grabbing Will by the collar of his shirt and yanking him along. "Stay here!" He called to Nina and Hannah as they ran for the nightclub. Nina got to her feet, staring down the beach. She could see dark shapes moving into the beating strobe lights on the dance floor. The screams grew louder and the music suddenly stopped.
"If he thinks that I'll just stay here while he takes my lover's body into battle, he's got another thing coming." Nina said angrily. She was just about to take off running when Hannah grabbed her arm.
"Where's Emma?"
--------------------
The young woman's eyes rolled up into her head as she went limp in his grasp. Captain Harper smirked and let her slide limply to the floor, already searching for his next victim. His hunger for souls to torture remained unslaked and he wanted more to keep him satisfied. Like a predator he moved around the dance floor, avoiding people who came running in his direction, chased by one of his crew. His attention went to a young girl, no more than sixteen by her appearance. She was curled up in a corner, sobbing hysterically. Just what he was looking for. He moved towards her, enjoying the look of terror on her face as she realized she had been spotted. He grabbed her by what little shirt she was wearing and pulled her to her feet, stroking her cheek with one hand.
"Please..." She begged between tears, grasping the hand that held so tightly to her shirt. "Please don't hurt me. I don't want to die." She broke down into sobs again, the rest of her words unintelligible.
"Who says you'll die?" He asked her and her eyes grew wide at the thoughts of other plans he might have for her. "Let me show you something."
"I think she just wants to be let go, honestly." Harper turned to look over his shoulder to see who had regarded him with so much ease. His gaze fell on a dark haired man leaning up against the bar. Dressed in a simple white T-shirt and worn blue jeans with boots, he didn't seem like he was any threat to Harper. But the fact that he had spoken without so much as a hint of fear in his voice intrigued him. He let the girl go and started for him.
"You dare speak to me like my equal?" He asked as he came closer. "You should fear me. I am what nightmares are made of. You'll soon find that out. What's your name, so my crew will know who needs the special treatment."
"Captain Jack Sparrow." Jack watched the cocky bastard sauntering his way like he actually thought he could hurt him.
"Jack Sparrow?" Harper burst out laughing. "Jack Sparrow is dead, you imbecile. He's been dead for a very long time."
Jack shrugged. "I am dead. I'm just takin' leave of heaven for a while." He pushed away from the bar, one arm still held behind his back.
"Taking a leave or kicked out?"
"Well, you don't think I could stay up there when there's someone like you running about, do you?" Quickly Jack pulled the cutlass from behind his back, swinging towards Harper. The surprised pirate jumped back, the tip of the cutlass tearing through his shirt. He yanked his blade loose and blocked Jack's second strike.
"I should've known. Can't stay out of the people's attention for long, can you?" Harper said, pushing Jack back. He pushed forward a thrust of his own, but Jack parried it easily to the side.
"It's not the attention, mate, it's the reputation. But this time it's personal. You have something that belongs to my family and I want it back, savvy?" He pushed away another thrust and pushed forward with his own attack. Jack's blade cut through the shirtsleeve, drawing a red line across Harper's arm.
"That's not fair." Harper growled.
"Pirate."
------------------
"Get out! Hurry!" Will shouted into the panicking crowd. He couldn't understand why the panicking crowd was looking for places to hide under booths and behind the bar when they could be free just by heading down the stairs onto the beach. "Go!" He shoved a nearby man and his female friend towards the stairs, hoping that more would follow after them. "It's safer on the beach!" What they didn't understand was on the elevated dance floor, it was easier for them to be grabbed.
He turned around to push more people towards the stairs and found himself face to face with one of the pirates. The pirate grinned, showing rotting teeth. "Look at what I got meself. Boy fancies himself a hero. Well, I'll just have to cure th..." His eyes locked on Will's and the young man suddenly felt like he was being tugged at although no one was touching him. He heard tortured screams and felt the heat licking at his skin, horrible taunts from the demons that beckoned him with long fingers, calling him to his doom...
Suddenly he snapped out of it, shaking his head as the pirate looked on in disbelief. There was a red mark on his jaw where Will had lashed out and scored a direct hit. The pirate's expression grew darker and he swung at Will with his cutlass. "You'll pay for that!"
Will couldn't move fast enough and the blade whipped across his stomach. He hissed at the shallow wound, which stung more than anything. The pirate swung at him again. He dove onto the floor, rolling away and getting to his feet. His eyes rested on another pirate who was intent on playing with his prey. The cutlass was still in its sheath. Will grabbed it and slammed the hilt down on the back of the pirate's neck. The young man he had been playing with elbowed the pirate in the gut as he felt his grasp loosen and darted for the stairs. Will turned back to the approaching pirate, ready to fight.
------------------------
Danny cried out in pain and dropped his cards onto the deck. All eyes in the room turned towards him as he grabbed his arm and cursed. Yanking off his dinner jacket, he noticed a red stain on his shirt. He unbuttoned the shirt and looked down at his stomach. A long bloody line, shallow enough, went from the bottom of his ribs to his hipbone, like someone had dragged a knife without much weight behind it along his stomach. "What the hell?" He looked up to his father.
Ben shook his head. "I don't...nothing like this has ever happened before. You didn't do anything to piss them off, did you?" Danny shook his head quickly. There was no tear in the shirt, just the wound beneath. He opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out was another grunt of pain as red soaked into the cloth of the shirt on his upper arm.
--------------------
Will held one hand against the new wound on his arm, staring at the pirate in front of him. The man grinned widely, admiring the blood that stained his cutlass. The fight had never been fair to start with, but being unable to actually injure the pirate had heavily tipped the scales in the man's favor. He backed up, his good arm still holding the cutlass up in defense.
The pirate lunged and would have run Will through if another body hadn't come flying into him and sent him flying through the rail to the ground below. He hit and rolled, the wind knocked from his lungs. Jack pulled himself to a sitting position, muttering an oath under his breath. Will propped himself up on one elbow, groaning. The mark across his stomach burned and his arm hurt and now his ribs were in pain as well. Jack looked a little worse for the wear, his hair ruffled and bleeding from the nose, as well as a vicious looking wound stretching from his elbow to his wrist.
"Bloody pirates." Will grunted. "I couldn't even injure one. As soon as I'd left a mark it had healed again." He took a deep breath and then paused as he noticed Jack staring at him.
"They healed? Just like that?" He asked. Will nodded. "The captain didn't. I left a few good marks on him before he scampered away. A coward at his finest." He looked around the beach where people were huddle in groups. In the distance he could hear sirens. "Next time we need something more than rushing in." Will nodded again in agreement, lying down on his side to try and abate the pain in his ribs.
"Jack?" Instead of lying still he got to his feet and started walking slowly towards the shore. Jack pulled himself to his feet without his usual ease and limped after him. When he caught up with Will, he saw Emma sitting cross legged with her back to them, looking out at the ocean.
"Not a good idea for you to be out here, luv. Not with the nasty men around." Jack said, but the little girl didn't move, giving no sign that she'd heard them. Will knelt down and put his arm on her shoulder.
"Emma..." He trailed off as the little girl fell backwards into his arms. Her eyes were closed, but he could still see her chest rising and falling. She was still alive, but she wasn't there. "No..." Jack swore and knelt down beside her. Sparky slipped off her lap and landed in the sand beside him as Will shook her shoulder.
"Come on, Emma." Jack intoned, picking up the dog. "Wake up, little one." Emma still didn't move and Will carefully opened one eye. A shiver ran up his spine as he was struck by how cold and lifeless the look in her eye was.
"They took her soul." He said quietly. The scream from behind them made them both turn around and look up, just in time to see Hannah fall into Nina's open arms, sobbing. Nina's eyes were wide in horror, staring down at the small child lying in Will's arms, not moving. She hugged Hannah tightly, tears coming to her own eyes as she looked away. Will looked up at Jack, his look intense.
"We have to stop them."
In the middle of it all, Jane Travers stumbled down the middle of the street, calling for her sons. Not a single person stopped her. Not a single man to drag her from harm, or a woman to tell her to run, or a pirate to take what he wanted from her. Jane had been labeled as different from the day she had arrived in the small port town, escaping the narrow minded persecution of those that called her a witch. They were not wrong in calling her that, but wanting her death for being a child of nature was more than she could bear. So in the middle of the night, she had fled to the docks with Andrew and Joshua. With what money she had, she bartered passage. When they had arrived on the island, the people knew something was different about her, yet they weren't quick to condemn her, nor were they friendly about it.
Even now, in a time of terror, it showed that they were scared of her. Not a single soul touched her as she cried her sons' names in the street, houses burning around her, people losing their lives and enduring things that would leave them scarred for the rest of their lives. She saw children leaning against buildings, crying for their mothers and fathers. But none of them were her sons. She looked around her, taking in everything. Worry gripped her so tightly that it was hard to breathe and she was worried for a moment that she might pass out.
Then her world came crashing to a halt and fell down around her. Picking up the hem of her nightgown, she sprinted towards the alleyway and the two distinct shapes lying on the ground. She ran across broken glass and didn't even notice as the shards pierced her foot and she bled out onto the dirt street. The shapes were two little boys, lying motionless. The younger of the two lay on his front and she could see the blood seeping out from underneath him. The older was lying on his stomach, blood staining his white shirt and dead eyes staring up into the sky. Jane felt for the alley wall, her legs feeling weak. She slid to the ground, tears welling up in her eyes and she began to rock back and forth, crying out their names.
Around her, the chaos continued, the world paying no heed to the pain she felt. The only two people in her life who had never judged her, who had looked up to her with love in their eyes without being judgmental, were gone. She sobbed into her hands, lying against the wall of the alleyway.
Slowly her sobs began to abate as anger welled up inside of her. She had never felt this way before, not even when the husband she had loved and trusted so much had accused her of witchcraft. She had never hated him, only pitied. But this was different. She hated the men who had taken the lives of her son and wanted them to suffer. Those thoughts took her to a dark place in her soul that she had never been to before. Her feet took her out into the middle of the street again, her arms hanging limply at her sides.
"Well, well, well...what do we have here?" She stared at the pirate as he turned from the man he had been so patiently torturing and walked her way. She could tell he was the captain by the way he swaggered and the way he dressed. He was the fanciest of them all, and she could see by the way he carried himself that he knew that. "Ain't you a pretty little thing?" He put one of his dirty hands, stained with blood, against the side of her face. "I think I'd like to have a little bit of fun with you."
Captain Joseph Harper wasn't as well known as most of his compatriots on the Spanish Main. One reason was because he was a stupid man. He was all flash and not enough common sense, leading him into one problem after another. If he had been a smart man, he would've realized that what he was doing was a mistake. He would've seen it in her eyes.
Jane looked up at him, her eyes dark with fury. "I curse you for what you've done." She told him through clenched teeth. "May your crew never know rest because of your stupidity. May they know the darkness of their souls and suffer with it forever. Time will not go on for them and they will live forever in the hell of their own making!" She screamed at him. "And you who were their undoing will watch. You will watch them suffer, knowing that you were the one who will forever condemn them." With that said she shut her mouth, lips pressed together in a thin line.
Captain Harper was silent for a few moments before a smirk slowly appeared across his face. "I don't believe in curses, luv." He let out a laugh that sounded more like a bark and shoved her back into the grasps of two of his men. "Have fun with this one. She has spirit." He told them.
Later that night when his crew had come back to the ship and the spoils were divided, he noticed that something suddenly felt very wrong. His suspicions were confirmed when morning never came. The men were puzzle by this and asked questions, but he would have no answers for them. It continued on for weeks, and then months, and then years. A century had passed and everything had changed except for them. Not a single man looked a day older or different. They couldn't die, caught in a time loop where the night that doomed them repeated forever.
Harper was irate, realizing what had happened. His crew was cursed, hell unleashed upon their souls. He grew angry, convinced that all the forces of the world had turned against him and his crew, and he only knew one way to fight back.
"Our souls have been damned to an unmentionable hell for crimes that other men have committed and gotten away with." He snapped, looking down over the crew. "We shall see none of heaven and never find out peace, but I say we take something for what we lost." The men cheered loudly, knowing what was coming. "I say we take the souls in payment for the ones trapped here!" He called out to his men. "What say you?"
-----------
"In response to the captain's decree, the deck was filled with the cheering of damned men." Will finished. He hadn't realized that he'd had such a rapt audience. Jack, Nina, Hannah, and Emma were all staring at him, not uttering a word. Jack was the first to look away, a thoughtful expression on his face. Hannah stared numbly at the sand, Emma sitting in her lap and staring up at Will with her mouth hanging open. Nina tapped her fingers against her lips, trying to think of something to say. Which was more than enough of a challenge as she was someone who hadn't believed in the supernatural before and was just hit with enough proof that she couldn't do anything but believe. Will rubbed his arms, feeling the goosebumps rising in the chilly night air. "That's the story as was told to me by my father. A well known legend around the Caribbean, and it was supposedly nothing more than a story to scare children into staying in their beds and night and discourage them from sneaking off."
"So now we're chasing a real live bed time story across the Caribbean." Nina said, raising an eyebrow. After the news report on the attacks and Jack came up with his theory that the pirates would attack the last three islands before disappearing again, they'd left to find a way to intercept the ship. Between Nina and Jack's quick talking, and more than a little bit of lying on Jack's part, they had managed to get an emergency charter at the airfield outside of town. It was up in the air that Jack had declared his love for the sea numerous times by stating that it wasn't right for man to fly, while Will had spent most of the trip with his face tinged light green and holding tightly to the flight sickness bag. Once they had arrived, the only thing anyone could think to do was wait. So they'd headed to the beach and Jack had asked to hear the tale again, about the origin of the curse.
Hannah nodded. "We are, only it's not just a bed time story. It's a nightmare come true." She said quietly, pulling her husband's jacket closer around her shoulders. Her fear was growing for Danny, if it was possible to be more worried than she already was. She didn't know what kind of hell he was in or what they were doing to him. She just wanted to find him and put her arms around him again.
Emma pulled herself out of her mother's grasp and got to her feet. She quietly walked over to stand in front of where Will was sitting and put her little hands on his cheeks so he couldn't look away from her. "You're not my daddy, are you?" She said after a few moments. It amazed Nina how perceptive children were, much more than adults gave them credit for. The scene before her broke her heart and she looked over at Jack. The pirate wasn't even paying attention, the expression on his face showing that he was thinking up some scheme. Hopefully a successful one. Hannah reached over to grab her arm.
"Emma, what kind of a question is...?" She was cut off as Will answered.
"No I'm not." He felt like he was being interrogated under the little girl's gaze and felt incredibly guilty about something he didn't even do or know that he did for that matter.
"I know because you didn't kiss Sparky goodnight last night." She said, looking a little wounded. "She's kind of mad too 'cause she always gets a kiss goodnight, but she didn't last night." Will looked at her for a moment before both eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"Sparky?" He asked. Without saying a word, Hannah held up the dog stuffed animal that Emma had been toting with her into the living room when she couldn't sleep the night before. "Oh. Then I must apologize for my indiscretions." He caught himself when Emma looked confused at the word he'd just used. "My...mistake. I hope she'll accept one tonight as an apology?" She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"I'm havin' a thought here." Jack's voice caught their collective attention and they turned towards him, attentive to what he had to say. He spoke up louder to be heard over the beat of the music from the open-air nightclub down the beach. "The captain condemned his men to their fate or so the story says. So the key to breakin' the curse has to be the man who did the condemin' to the crew in the first place because they wouldn't be cursed if he didn't do somethin' to condemn them, aye?"
Nina glared at him. "I'm just going to shake my head in agreement and pretend I know what you just said."
"Maybe if you took a moment to think about it. It always helped Gibbs out." He responded quickly.
Nina was about to say something when screams erupted from nearby. Jack got to his feet, grabbing Will by the collar of his shirt and yanking him along. "Stay here!" He called to Nina and Hannah as they ran for the nightclub. Nina got to her feet, staring down the beach. She could see dark shapes moving into the beating strobe lights on the dance floor. The screams grew louder and the music suddenly stopped.
"If he thinks that I'll just stay here while he takes my lover's body into battle, he's got another thing coming." Nina said angrily. She was just about to take off running when Hannah grabbed her arm.
"Where's Emma?"
--------------------
The young woman's eyes rolled up into her head as she went limp in his grasp. Captain Harper smirked and let her slide limply to the floor, already searching for his next victim. His hunger for souls to torture remained unslaked and he wanted more to keep him satisfied. Like a predator he moved around the dance floor, avoiding people who came running in his direction, chased by one of his crew. His attention went to a young girl, no more than sixteen by her appearance. She was curled up in a corner, sobbing hysterically. Just what he was looking for. He moved towards her, enjoying the look of terror on her face as she realized she had been spotted. He grabbed her by what little shirt she was wearing and pulled her to her feet, stroking her cheek with one hand.
"Please..." She begged between tears, grasping the hand that held so tightly to her shirt. "Please don't hurt me. I don't want to die." She broke down into sobs again, the rest of her words unintelligible.
"Who says you'll die?" He asked her and her eyes grew wide at the thoughts of other plans he might have for her. "Let me show you something."
"I think she just wants to be let go, honestly." Harper turned to look over his shoulder to see who had regarded him with so much ease. His gaze fell on a dark haired man leaning up against the bar. Dressed in a simple white T-shirt and worn blue jeans with boots, he didn't seem like he was any threat to Harper. But the fact that he had spoken without so much as a hint of fear in his voice intrigued him. He let the girl go and started for him.
"You dare speak to me like my equal?" He asked as he came closer. "You should fear me. I am what nightmares are made of. You'll soon find that out. What's your name, so my crew will know who needs the special treatment."
"Captain Jack Sparrow." Jack watched the cocky bastard sauntering his way like he actually thought he could hurt him.
"Jack Sparrow?" Harper burst out laughing. "Jack Sparrow is dead, you imbecile. He's been dead for a very long time."
Jack shrugged. "I am dead. I'm just takin' leave of heaven for a while." He pushed away from the bar, one arm still held behind his back.
"Taking a leave or kicked out?"
"Well, you don't think I could stay up there when there's someone like you running about, do you?" Quickly Jack pulled the cutlass from behind his back, swinging towards Harper. The surprised pirate jumped back, the tip of the cutlass tearing through his shirt. He yanked his blade loose and blocked Jack's second strike.
"I should've known. Can't stay out of the people's attention for long, can you?" Harper said, pushing Jack back. He pushed forward a thrust of his own, but Jack parried it easily to the side.
"It's not the attention, mate, it's the reputation. But this time it's personal. You have something that belongs to my family and I want it back, savvy?" He pushed away another thrust and pushed forward with his own attack. Jack's blade cut through the shirtsleeve, drawing a red line across Harper's arm.
"That's not fair." Harper growled.
"Pirate."
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"Get out! Hurry!" Will shouted into the panicking crowd. He couldn't understand why the panicking crowd was looking for places to hide under booths and behind the bar when they could be free just by heading down the stairs onto the beach. "Go!" He shoved a nearby man and his female friend towards the stairs, hoping that more would follow after them. "It's safer on the beach!" What they didn't understand was on the elevated dance floor, it was easier for them to be grabbed.
He turned around to push more people towards the stairs and found himself face to face with one of the pirates. The pirate grinned, showing rotting teeth. "Look at what I got meself. Boy fancies himself a hero. Well, I'll just have to cure th..." His eyes locked on Will's and the young man suddenly felt like he was being tugged at although no one was touching him. He heard tortured screams and felt the heat licking at his skin, horrible taunts from the demons that beckoned him with long fingers, calling him to his doom...
Suddenly he snapped out of it, shaking his head as the pirate looked on in disbelief. There was a red mark on his jaw where Will had lashed out and scored a direct hit. The pirate's expression grew darker and he swung at Will with his cutlass. "You'll pay for that!"
Will couldn't move fast enough and the blade whipped across his stomach. He hissed at the shallow wound, which stung more than anything. The pirate swung at him again. He dove onto the floor, rolling away and getting to his feet. His eyes rested on another pirate who was intent on playing with his prey. The cutlass was still in its sheath. Will grabbed it and slammed the hilt down on the back of the pirate's neck. The young man he had been playing with elbowed the pirate in the gut as he felt his grasp loosen and darted for the stairs. Will turned back to the approaching pirate, ready to fight.
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Danny cried out in pain and dropped his cards onto the deck. All eyes in the room turned towards him as he grabbed his arm and cursed. Yanking off his dinner jacket, he noticed a red stain on his shirt. He unbuttoned the shirt and looked down at his stomach. A long bloody line, shallow enough, went from the bottom of his ribs to his hipbone, like someone had dragged a knife without much weight behind it along his stomach. "What the hell?" He looked up to his father.
Ben shook his head. "I don't...nothing like this has ever happened before. You didn't do anything to piss them off, did you?" Danny shook his head quickly. There was no tear in the shirt, just the wound beneath. He opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out was another grunt of pain as red soaked into the cloth of the shirt on his upper arm.
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Will held one hand against the new wound on his arm, staring at the pirate in front of him. The man grinned widely, admiring the blood that stained his cutlass. The fight had never been fair to start with, but being unable to actually injure the pirate had heavily tipped the scales in the man's favor. He backed up, his good arm still holding the cutlass up in defense.
The pirate lunged and would have run Will through if another body hadn't come flying into him and sent him flying through the rail to the ground below. He hit and rolled, the wind knocked from his lungs. Jack pulled himself to a sitting position, muttering an oath under his breath. Will propped himself up on one elbow, groaning. The mark across his stomach burned and his arm hurt and now his ribs were in pain as well. Jack looked a little worse for the wear, his hair ruffled and bleeding from the nose, as well as a vicious looking wound stretching from his elbow to his wrist.
"Bloody pirates." Will grunted. "I couldn't even injure one. As soon as I'd left a mark it had healed again." He took a deep breath and then paused as he noticed Jack staring at him.
"They healed? Just like that?" He asked. Will nodded. "The captain didn't. I left a few good marks on him before he scampered away. A coward at his finest." He looked around the beach where people were huddle in groups. In the distance he could hear sirens. "Next time we need something more than rushing in." Will nodded again in agreement, lying down on his side to try and abate the pain in his ribs.
"Jack?" Instead of lying still he got to his feet and started walking slowly towards the shore. Jack pulled himself to his feet without his usual ease and limped after him. When he caught up with Will, he saw Emma sitting cross legged with her back to them, looking out at the ocean.
"Not a good idea for you to be out here, luv. Not with the nasty men around." Jack said, but the little girl didn't move, giving no sign that she'd heard them. Will knelt down and put his arm on her shoulder.
"Emma..." He trailed off as the little girl fell backwards into his arms. Her eyes were closed, but he could still see her chest rising and falling. She was still alive, but she wasn't there. "No..." Jack swore and knelt down beside her. Sparky slipped off her lap and landed in the sand beside him as Will shook her shoulder.
"Come on, Emma." Jack intoned, picking up the dog. "Wake up, little one." Emma still didn't move and Will carefully opened one eye. A shiver ran up his spine as he was struck by how cold and lifeless the look in her eye was.
"They took her soul." He said quietly. The scream from behind them made them both turn around and look up, just in time to see Hannah fall into Nina's open arms, sobbing. Nina's eyes were wide in horror, staring down at the small child lying in Will's arms, not moving. She hugged Hannah tightly, tears coming to her own eyes as she looked away. Will looked up at Jack, his look intense.
"We have to stop them."