ROPE-WALKER

By Jashi

N O T E: I return after a long hiatus. I apologize. PotC isn't mine, I promise. Okay, there's disturbing stuff in this chapter. Read at your own risk.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

She was falling.

Her hands reached out for a rope, a bar, a ledge to grasp and stop her murderous descent. But there was nothing—only air. Her heart slammed against her ribcage in utter fear. When had she come to fear falling? She used to fear nothing. That was when she was younger, when she was sixteen and a boy on Follighaer's Black Pearl. But it was nothing but a fleeting mem'ry now. Air screamed around her as she fell faster and faster, and when she opened her mouth to cry out desperately, she landed.

In a cell, dank and dark.

She blinked, lungs heaving. This cell looked familiar...like the one she'd been held in in Spain...yes, this was it. The last one, when Jack had broken her out.

But no Jack came.

A stoic figure clomped up to the cell bars. More figures followed, opening her cell, binding her hands and shoving her out. She relentlessly struggled, until a fist crashed into her face. Blinking dazedly, Tades looked up into the face of Romulus Rackham.

"Romy, what th' blazes..."

He seized her with his massive hands and brutally shoved her out to the hangman's noose. She fell uncharacteristically into the dirt and was dragged up by none other than Will Turner and his father.

"Bootstrap, you're dead!" she managed to cry before Anamaria nearly threw her towards the noose. They pulled her up to the contraption of death and there to pull the noose was Jack Sparrow. He leered at her as he pulled the noose around her throat.

"Sir, sir, it's me! Tades! Please, Jack, don't do this ta me!"

He slapped her across the face with the back of his hand. "Quiet!"

And then Tades caught a glance of something behind him...a shadow...a figure of darkness with immense, ebony wings, muttering incoherently in a language that left a black stain on her spirit.

"Wait..." she whispered, horrified beyond all tears or scream, "I'm not quite ready t'die yet, sir..."

Jack grinned like Hades must have when Persephone ate the pomegranate seeds, and pulled the rope as hard as he could. Tades flew up into the air, dangling. As she struggled for air she heard the laughter of Romulus and Will, and Jack's sinister chuckle, and then the winged shadow behind Jack opened its eyes to meet hers. The eyes were so cold and dead that she could see herself dying in them.

"Tades! Tades!"

Tades convulsed in her sleep, drenched in cold sweat. Jack tried to shake her awake and her eyes flew open wildly at his first touch. She quickly sat up, gasping deeply for air, still shaking a little.

"Oh Christ," he heard her mutter, and she ran her fingers back through her hair.

"Tades? Ye alright, love?" he inquired. She looked at him, her eyes flashing fright for a brief second. She sighed, closing them.

"Yessir. Just a bad dream." Tades shivered. "I'll take the watch now. I won't be able to fall back asleep."

He cocked his head at her a moment. "Aye, then. 'Night, Tades."

"'Night, Jack."

He did not bother to correct her. He settled down to sleep by the dying fire, wondering what could have shaking Tades so. He saw her stretch and then curl up again, clutching her knees to her chest.

He couldn't find the rum.

He looked everywhere for it.

It was gone.

No one had anymore.

Hell.

Hell.

"BLOODY 'ELL!" he screamed in his cabin one desolate night aboard the Black Pearl. He felt murderous. In fact, he felt very murderous...like something rotten had crept up inside his soul and started to reside there, planting itself and growing with long, hateful tendrils to snake around his heart and brain. He picked up his knife and flung it at the door, not knowing that Will had opened it to come in without knocking. The knife embedded itself in his windpipe. Will's mouth opened in a wide O, his eyes full of shock as he fell do the floor, dead. Jack's heart froze in his chest. What had he done? He walked to Will's corpse and pulled the knife out with a sickening crunch. His hands began to shake. Anamaria stuck her head inside the cabin.

"'ey, Cap'n—sweet Jesus!"

"It was an accident!" he heard himself screaming as the knife flew from his hands into Anamaria, who staggered.

"...'e's...'e's...gone mad..." she managed to mutter as she sank slowly to the floor. Jack cried out, his voice full of confusion and rage. His body moved without his knowing it, and as he walked out of his cabin, his hands killed Gibbs and a cabin boy.

Then he saw Tades.

"Jack, what th' 'ell are ye doin'?" she demanded, and he lunged for her.

"Run, love!" his voice was harsh and desperate as he landed on his watch, tearing at her with his bare hands. Tades tried to get away, struggling. He didn't want to hurt her, no, never...he screamed at her again to run, to flee away from him as he went mad. Not Tades, he thought, please not Tades, don't lemme hurt her, not Tades... He felt tears falling down his cheeks as he killed her against his will.

Jack snapped open his eyes and nearly jumped to his feet, stumbling backwards until he leaned against the rock wall.

"Jack?" came the questioning voice of Tades Rackham. She stood up and crossed over to his side of the fire. "Is somethin' wrong, Jack?"

Jack leaned over, hands on his knees, trying to swallow and when he felt Tades' hand on the back of his head, he murmured, "Captain."

"What?"

"Captain Jack Sparrow, lass."

She rolled her eyes. If he was well enough to bicker about that, he was fine.

Ana and Will decided to get going again. The sky was still dark but neither of them could sleep after their sadistic dreams, so they began walking down the path once more. They walked in silence, absorbed in their thoughts about their dreams. Why had they come? And why so violent and terrifying?

Ana's thoughts were interrupted as she heard a shot crack in the distance. She stopped and looked down. A gaping hole lay in her chest, a perfect shot that went all the way through.

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

Three more holes.

"Ana, move!" cried Will, shoving her to the side. She was in shock, unmoving. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

A sliver of metal flew out of the forest towards Will...he drew his sword, leaving Ana as he tried to block the stick. It evaded him, moving around on its own as though guided by an unseen hand. "Hold on, Ana!" he managed as the other blade cut long slashes in his arms.

Jack and Tades walked, and Jack hummed an old soldier's tune. He decided that the dream was the result of him drinking too much. He considered relaxing on the rum little, but decided that his sanity was best kept whole. The two walked, the pale, waxy moon shining down on them. Jack walked through a patch of moonlight, absorbed in his humming.

Tades, however, stopped dead.

"Ye told me you weren't an immortal anymore," her voice was a whisper of conviction and fear.

He blinked. "What in th' seven hells are ye talkin' about?" He turned around towards her. Tades drew back.

"Ye're...ye're...undead, sir...look at yerself..."

Jack looked down at his arms and his eyes grew wide. He was an undead pirate again, his skin gone and his rotting bones gleaming in the white moonlight. He wiggled his fingers, and murmured, "My God."

His hands had gone numb, and so had his legs and feet, and he said so.

"Can ye feel this?" said Tades quickly, grabbing his hand. Jack shook his head. She frowned and withdrew her hand...taking his hand with her. She shrieked and dropped it, and Jack's tattered limb fell to the dirt. Jack grabbed his stump of a wrist and clenched his teeth so hard he thought he heard one of them crack.

"I...felt...that..." he gritted out.