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Last time on Catherine Costa, Pirate's Daughter...

A colossal roar of thunder issues from the sky and a blinding flash of lightning floods the room. I am gone; I rise from the bed and snatch a sword from the crest over the mantelpiece, then advance on Elizabeth. She screams and drops the candle. It lands on the rug and starts smouldering. I raise the sword to cut her from head to toe, but she ducks out of the way and runs out onto her balcony, shrieking.

I follow, intent on killing her – this girl who has tormented and teased me since the day we met, always boasting and showing off, always putting me down – I hate her, I hate her!

The rain is coming down in sheets. The floor of the balcony is wet and slippery. She is cowering, trembling with fear and cold. I advance on her and she stumbles backwards. She clambers onto the rail of the balcony and attempts to leap to the roof for safety.

I see what is going to happen before she does… she jumps for the roof, but her foot slides on the dripping metal and she slips… she falls, screaming a blood-chilling scream… she tumbles in her white wedding dress and falls from the balcony, plummeting down to the bushes below.

"Elizabeth!" I scream. I look down from the balcony, but everything is dark and I cannot see her. I drop the sword and flee from her room.

As I skid onto the staircase landing, I can see coarse-looking men running around, roaring and shouting and pilfering. A pirate raid! I pelt down the stairs, through the pandemonium. Servants are running around, screaming. Pirates are killing them off like flies. I see the Governor emerge from his study. He opens his mouth in horror at the scene, but before he has a chance to do or say anything, a passing pirate shoots a pistol right at his head. Bang. Gone. Just like that. Dead.

I scream in terror, and a pirate spots me. I see a sword lying on the floor, and am about to pick it up and slice this pirate from head to toe when I remember Elizabeth. I sprint past the pirate and out through the splintered front doors.

I run round to the bushes that lie beneath Elizabeth's bedroom, screaming her name. I spot a sliver of white in the midst of the black surroundings. I speed towards it.

It's Elizabeth's body. I kneel down beside her and roll her over onto her back. Her eyes are closed. A trickle of blood runs down the side of her face. I feel myself crying as I look at that face, so pretty, so beautiful, so spiteful and nasty.

I don't have to check her breathing or her pulse. I know she's dead. Without doubt. I know.

The thunder and lightning have stopped now. It's just the rain now, crying along with me. I curl up into a ball beside her dead body and I sob. Strange. A minute ago I was trying to kill her, now I am mourning her death.

I hear some pirates advancing around the side of the house but I make no move to run away. I sit still, hugging my knees up to my chest, as they see me and walk drunkenly over.

"'Ello there, miss," one of them leers at me.

I retort by screaming the worst words I know at the top of my voice. The pirates look surprised, and back off slightly. Then one of them spots Elizabeth, and nudges the other.

"Ain't that 'is daughter?" he says.

"Yeah," the other responds. "Sleepin' like a baby. Cap'n'll be pleased with 'er!"

They bend down and lift her off the floor, obviously unaware she is dead. One slings her corpse over his shoulder and they walk away. I watch them go.

Why don't I stop them?

I hate her. That's why.

I sit in the rain for a while. I've stopped crying. I just sit in complete silence with my eyes closed. I must have fallen asleep at some point, though it doesn't feel that way, because I open my eyes and the sun is rising. The rain has gone; its only trace is some dew on the grass.

I stand up and look at the Governor's mansion. Windows have been smashed; shards of glass litter the ground beneath; the window of Elizabeth's room is smoke-blackened... of course... the candle must have set the room on fire.

I enter the house. Bodies of servants lie prone all over the floor. There is a strange hush all through the house; the hush of death. As I think this, the gargantuan house suddenly feels too small, suffocating. I walk outside again and lie flat on the floor, staring up at the huge blue sky. It's as though whatever happens, you can always just look up and the sky will still be there. The sky doesn't fall; it's the people below it who do.

I don't know how long I lie there for, choked up, close to tears, but after some time I hear running footsteps up the gravel drive and two male voices. I know them. I know one of them especially. I'd recognise it anywhere.

Will.

Oh, God, Will! The wedding! What the hell am I going to do? I've killed his fiancée!

"Catherine!" Will sees me and runs over. He raises me to a sitting position, and tears are already spilling from my eyes. How am I going to tell Will that Elizabeth is dead; and, worse, that it is my fault?

The other speaker is Sparrow; he kneels behind Will, looking concerned.

"Catherine, are you all right?" Will asks, so nicely that I burst into a fresh wave of tears.

Sparrow mutters something to Will, who nods his head fervently. Sparrow makes for the house, but gets only as far as the open doors before returning to Will and shaking his head gravely.

"We heard of the attacks last night, but we were not sure whether the rumours were true," Will explains. "Are many of the servants dead?"

I nod my head, sobbing too hard to speak.

"Is the Governor –"

I shake my head. "He's dead," I choke out.

"Well, it's a mercy that you and Elizabeth are spared," Will sighs, absent-mindedly wiping away one of the teardrops from my cheek.

The silence that follows is the worst in my entire life. I look up into his face and into his eyes and I see his brow furrow with concern; then he asks, "Aren't you?"

I could tell him now. But my cheek is tingling with his touch... I could always tell him later... No. I must tell him now!

I am racked with a fresh wave of sobs. "Elizabeth – Elizabeth –"

"She's dead?" Sparrow asks, aghast.

I try to nod, but I can't move to tell them she is. I realise later that it seems as though I am denying it; I am giving Will false hope. "The pirates – the pirates..."

"They've taken her?" Will gasps.

I nod. It does not cross my mind once that he still believes she is alive, although of course that's exactly how it looks for him.

Will gets up, ashen-faced. "We must save her!"

And I realise, and I know I should tell him. I should tell him now before he gets his hopes up. But I don't. I can still feel a tingle on my cheek where he brushed away that tear, and I don't tell him. I stand there and watch his face, all troubled and heroic, and I let him and Sparrow take me away from the mansion and down to the docks on a mission to retrieve what is lost forever.

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