CHAPTER THREE
CURSED AGAIN?
"Oh my goodness..." Elizabeth gasped. "Is that?"
"Yes. It is." Will said.
"But how? Where did you get it?"
"Sammy bought it off of a peddler down by the docks today. She said that it reminded her of the one I always told her about, and she thought I'd like it. Look," he said, pointing something out to Elizabeth. "It even has the chain I put on it."
"And the bloodstain. See?" Elizabeth said. Will nodded and handed his wife the medallion. Elizabeth took it and brushed her thumb over the stain. It was her blood, and Will's. "This is not possible. Who could have gotten to Isla De Muerta? Nobody knows where it is."
"One of Barbossa's crew could have escaped, a sailor could have stumbled upon it by accident, a million things could have happened." Will said. He sat down at the table next to Elizabeth.
"Does this mean that the Black Pearl is cursed again?" she asked.
"I don't know. But someone has to be." Will said. Elizabeth looked up from the coin and into her husband's face.
"Samantha?" she whispered.
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Samantha's eyes went wide as she listened to her parents talk in the next room. After she'd seen the look on her father's face when she'd shown him the coin, she knew something was wrong, so once her parents thought she was in bed, she snuck downstairs. She sat at the bottom of the steps, with her knees pulled up to her chest. She put her hands up to look at them, half-expecting to see them covered in decaying flesh, like the cursed pirates her father had told her about. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that they weren't.
"Even if she isn't, it can not be good to have this around. We must get rid of it." said Will. Samantha heard her mother set down the coin on the table and she ran back upstairs to her bedroom, closing her door softly.
"How? We have no way of getting to Isla De Muerta, and there's no way of getting in touch with Jack. What do you propose we do Will?" Elizabeth said, panic starting to accompany her voice.
"If the Pearl is cursed again, they will come looking for this. The medallion calls to them, remember? We may be able to sell it back to the man Samantha bought it from."
"What if we can't?" Elizabeth asked.
"Then we'll send it and a message for Jack to Tortuga. They're bound to stop there for supplies, it's the only island where they won't be arrested. I'll send it tomorrow."
"Will, I know you'll take care of everything, but you know Jack, he's not exactly the most trustworthy man, and how do we know he's not dead? It's been eighteen years."
"Jack is not dead. I don't know if Jack can die."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Elizabeth asked. "He doesn't still have a piece, does he?"
"No, no of course not. But Jack's not one who likes to be caught."
"So I've realized." Elizabeth said.
"But none of that matters. Consider the matter taken care of. Now, let's go to bed. It's late."
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Samantha waited in her bedroom until she heard her father's snores before climbing out of bed and haphazardly throwing clothes into a bag. She snuck into the hallway and tiptoed down the stairs to the kitchen. The medallion was on the table, in the same place her mother had left it. She picked it up and secured the chain around her neck, making sure the medallion was hidden inside her dress, and left through the front door, closing it gently behind her.