Pirate Dreams
Chapter 4
It was 10am and Caris was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, hardly daring to breathe as she ran her hand over the small golden rod that lay beside her.
It was a dream, she told herself, I'm probably just imagining it. She reached out her fingers and quickly withdrew them as if she'd touched a hot pan. But it wasn't hot - it was cold. Cold, smooth and unnervingly real.
Caris threw off her quilt, covering the thing from view, and headed to the bathroom. From there she only briefly glanced at the folded quilt on her bed as she packed up her equipment for fencing and left for her lesson at the local rec.
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"Wow!" someone yelled after her as she left the Rec, hot, sweaty and tired after an hour of rigorous physical anger relief. Looking around, Caris saw it was the last partner she had sparred with, Gary.
"You were really great! We should spar more often, you know." he fell in step with her hurried march home.
"Yeah, OK." she said, not especially wanting to talk, only to get home and check her bedding.
"I'll see you later." he said, and waved as he crossed the road towards his house. Caris nodded and then carried on in silent anticipation until she got home.
She almost flew up the stairs to her bedroom, tossing her kit on the floor. She picked up the duvet, held it up in front of her and shook it violently.
Something clattered to the floor.
Slowly, Caris lowered the duvet.
The sceptre lay there on the floor. It's gold finish shone in the sunlight streaming through her bedroom window. The rainbow of jewels twirled around the shaft, exposing different colours as it rolled slowly across the carpet.
A lump swelled in her throat and sat there uncomfortably as Caris watched it. Nothing happened. Her stomach slowly turned over and each breath became louder and louder until a rushing sound filled her ears. Tiny prickles of light danced around the corners of her eyes. The blood rushed to her cheeks and Caris' vision became blurred. As she blinked, her surroundings darkened and she fell forwards, landing safely on the end of her bed, unconscious.
-
The darkness lightened into a swarm of red flashes and flickering grey shadows. The rushing sound became more defined as voices and music mingled together. Caris blinked, and slowly her surroundings became clearer.
She was back in the tavern.
"Now where did you go?" a slurred voice asked from next to her. She wasn't as surprised as she had thought she would be when she found herself sitting next to Captain Jack Sparrow at the same table as the one she had dreamed about.
"The little girls room." she replied, leaning forward to rest her arms on the table and get a better view of her surroundings.
Jack just raised an eyebrow at her and took a sip from a tankard in his hand. After a moment of silence, or at least silence between the pair of them in the noisy hostelry, Jack gestured lazily at a second mug on the table, "That's yours, by the way, so now, mind telling me where it is you're from?"
Caris opened her mouth to speak but at that moment the door slammed open with such violence that a deadly silence fell upon the occupants of the tavern. In from the dark streets came a dozen men with long, tied back hair. They all wore similar long, dark coloured jackets over loose, light brown shirts and black trousers. Each of them had a sword hanging at one side, and a holstered pistol at the other. Leading the group was a man with short, shaved hair with a navy blue bandana covering most of it. His jacket was smarter than the others, with large lapels, a high collar and long cuffs fastened with two sets of plain silver buttons.
Their boots clapped along the floor as they made their way to the bar, looking cautiously around at the other clientele as they went.
"Your sort ain't welcome 'ere." a man shouted from somewhere on the other side of the room. The leaders head snapped to scowl in the direction of the voice.
"Well, well. What have we here..." Jack murmured quietly from next to Caris. She looked at him. All visual hints of drunkenness had instantaneously disappeared and he was leaning forward to get a good look at the strangers.
The leader looked around, opened his mouth and said clearly "RINNNGGGGG RINNNGGGG."
-
Caris' eyes flew open.
RINNNGGGGG RINNNGGGG
The phone. Caris picked herself up off the bed and hurried out to the hall to answer the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hello, is that Caris?" A gravely mans voice said.
"Yes..." Caris replied.
"This is Mr. Harrison, Julie's husband." The wheels started turning in Caris's head. Mr. Harrison continued, "I'm phoning on Julie's behalf, she's ill so I'm afraid she won't be able to take your piano lesson today."
It all clicked. "OH! That's no problem, It'll give me a chance to finish some coursework," Caris laughed, "So what's wrong with Julie?"
"Oh, it's just a cold but she's taking it easy, just in case."
"I suppose that's the best thing to do."
"Yeah, she says she'll make it up to you sometime during the week."
"OK, we can sort that out later, then. Thanks for calling Mr. Harrison."
"No problem, bye."
"Bye"
Caris hung up the phone and walked back to her room. The Sceptre lay on the floor where it had fallen, as did the quilt. Stunned, confused, anxious, apprehensive. On top of these feelings pressed a familiar nervous panic about coursework, surrounded by an strange feeling of unimportance.
Until now Caris had forgotten about one small outstanding essay, due the following week. It was only 2000 words that Caris had already written out in draft, but now the labourious task of proof reading it again and again...
Caris sighed and sat at the desk in the corner of her room, her back to the rest of her room, and pulled out various pieces of paper and text books.
-
An hour later Caris was completely fed up with photosynthesis and cell respiration, but she was finally able to close her text books and put away her notes. In front of her lay the final copy of her essay. Caris looked at it, grinned and yawned, stretching her arms high above her and arching her back.
Something didn't feel quite right. All the good feelings about finishing her work vanished as her mind moved on to the next thing weighing her down. That damned sceptre.
Caris slid her chair back and as she swung her leg out to stand, her foot knocked something on the floor.
How the.. Caris thought as she stared at the sceptre. How did you get over here...
Something caught her eye as she bent to pick it up. Her body froze but her hand closed around the sceptre. A chill ran down her spine as she stood, gripping it tightly, and turned to face the bed. Slowly, her gaze wandered from the golden rod in her hand, to a dark figure perched on the end of the bed. She took a step back and swept her hands behind her, concealing the sceptre from the stranger in her room.
He wore a light brown shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the collar open wide, exposing some of his chest. He wore black trousers and his feet were bare and dirty. His long straight black hair fell loosely around his shoulders, and when his eyes met with Caris's, she saw that they were dull grey/blue, like a cloudy twilit sky. His face was stern but his features were soft, defined cheeks, thick eyebrows, red lips, square chin. His tanned skin gave him a foreign appearance.
The man frowned at her, then stood and took a step forward. He looked her up and down, then glanced left and right, briefly taking in his surroundings.
When he looked at her again, their eyes met and Caris felt as though all the breath had been drawn out of her. She gasped as the man took a few more steps towards. He moved to the side, trying to see what Caris held behind her, but Caris shifted too, to block his view.
He took a few more steps towards her, and a few more until she could have reached out and touched him. The Sceptre tingled in Caris' hand. Grasping it tightly, she side-stepped away from her desk and backed away from the man until she touched the wall.
The tingling sensation in her hand increased. Caris felt as if she was being opened up, her mind was being revealed to this man, and through her, a warmth emulating from the sceptre flowed. The man lifted his head as the warmth reached him and took another step towards her.
He looked down at her from where he stood, inches in front of her face.
Go away. Caris repeated in her mind over and over again, unable to open her mouth and form the words. Give me what I'm looking for, his voice seemed to speak into her mind. The hand holding the sceptre shook behind Caris's back.
He took another step towards her and placed his hands on her shoulders, gently pulling her away from the wall. He pressed his body on to hers and let his hands slide down her arms until they arrived at her clenched fist.
The shaking spread to her arms and then her whole body trembled as the stranger rubbed his rough calloused hands over her hand holding the Sceptre. Feeling her shake, the man released her hand and wrapped his arms around her in an embrace.
He rested his chin on her shoulder and spoke to her softly, trying to calm her down. His voice soothed Caris's nerves but her grip remained firm on the sceptre.
Don't worry, his voice echoed in her mind again, the sceptre's all I want. I won't hurt you.
Who are you, Caris thought, more to herself than to him but she knew that he'd heard her. She thought back to the last time she'd visited that strange tavern in her dreams and as she replayed the events, came to the conclusion that he must be one of the strangers that had intrigued Jack so much.
The man holding her frowned as a scene played out in his mind. Caris could feel his reactions of surprise, confusion and then a mild understanding as her memory flowed to him. He saw the tavern, the old men and women, the dirty walls, old paintings and Jack. He saw all of it as if it were his own memory, and then felt her arrive at the same question - who are you?
I'm no-one important, he said and pulled her close to him again as he felt her tremble in his embrace, this is only a dream, after all.
It's not a dream to me, Caris replied. Although his voice was soft, Caris could almost feeling his mind working as she spoke. He only wanted the sceptre but now the idea of killing her was playing on his mind. He enjoyed killing, he was, after all, a pirate.
Who are you, Caris thought again. She could feel the end of his patience start to fray. His body became cold. Suddenly, every part of her body that touched his tingled. The Sceptre now burned hot in her hand as his touch became ever colder.
"GIVE IT TO ME!!!" He roared in her ear. Caris pulled away, trying to escape his grasp as a chill shook her body. GO AWAY!! She screwed up her eyes and felt him release her. Her body became cold and she swayed backwards, then stumbled forward onto her knees.
Opening her eyes, Caris looked around to find that she was alone in her room. Her hands, now clenched in front of her, were shaking violently.
Looking down, Caris saw that she still held the Sceptre in her hand. She threw it across the floor and scowled at it as she knelt on her bedroom floor shaking.
What the hell...?
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by Astramina