Sarah had to admit; she was a bit intimidated by the Governor's house and the lady of it. Elizabeth had been up, bustling around with the servants, cleaning the remaining mess. When Jack and Sarah had entered the house, she had stopped, eyeing Sarah curiously. After Jack explained the situation, Elizabeth had graciously given each of them rooms.

Sarah lay in bed, fingering the beautiful fabric of the bedspread. She felt uncomfortable here; as if she were being lured into a false sense of security. Laying down, she listened with her superior hearing to the sounds of the house. A cat crept along the hall outside her room, someone set down a teacup in the kitchen, then an undistinguishable sound…one of trapped alarm. Sarah sat up, listening. There it was again, coming from the connected room. She got up and went to the door adjoining the two chambers. Swallowing hard, she opened the door and peeked in. Despite it being mid-morning, there was no light in the room. The drapes were pulled tightly together, like soldiers blocking out the sunlight. Sarah stepped into the room and realized the noise was coming from the bed. She tiptoed forward until she was standing next to the double bed.

"Jack," she whispered. He was in a deep sleep, yet his face was distorted with panic. Sarah bit her lip, weighing her options. She could go back to her room and listen to his dream-terror or she could wake him up right now. Sarah resolutely poked Jack in the shoulder. "Sparrow, wake up."

Jack sat up, his hand grasping Sarah's wrist tightly, although his hand was shaking. He looked around the room wildly, as though to get a grip on where he was.

"Jack, are you alright?"

He looked at her for a long moment. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine, kitten. 'Sus sleeping on land. My body ain't used to it. Water, that's my bed."

Sarah smiled and removed her hand from his grasp. "Right." She moved to go back to her room, but Jack grabbed her wrist.

"You're free to stay with me, darlin'," he said with a mischievous smile on his face. Sarah clenched her jaw. Damn him! Why did he have to be so persuasive? She felt herself moving slowly toward him, almost as if he had a magnetic draw. No!

"Jack, you know what would happen if I stayed," Sarah said tersely, as if she were a schoolmarm and he a little boy who didn't know the obvious.

"Yeah, I do. And the problem is?" His eyes reflected lighthearted joking but she could see something else. Something dark.

"You still don't forgive me. Until you do, I am a friend and ONLY a friend." With that, Sarah turned and walked resolutely back into her room.

A day and a half later, Sarah was trying not to go insane. It seemed like forever since she had had a good meal, even though the feasts that the Turners had every night were brilliant. But they didn't fill Sarah. No matter how much food she ate, it couldn't substitute for blood.

It didn't help that Jack was avoiding her like the plague. Since the night in his room, he had only spoken the obligatory 'Hello, how are you?' to Sarah. She couldn't really blame him. She herself didn't know how to feel about the situation; how could she expect for him to have everything sorted?

These were the thoughts filling Sarah's head as she slid her boots on in the middle of the night. She was going to get some dinner. If she didn't do it now, she wouldn't be able to hold herself responsible for any further 'accidents' in the Turner household.

Sneaking out the front door, she took a deep breath. It was cool…no, cold. She vaguely remembered a time when her breath would have been visible, but now breathing was not essential, only something she did to keep the guise of being human alive.

A cloud obscured the moon, darkening everything. Sarah's senses sharpened; her eyes focused, her ears pinpointed every little sound. Including the sound of someone walking toward her. Spinning around, she swung out to hit whoever was following. Her hand hit air. Sarah's brow furrowed.

'You just imagined it,' she thought to herself. Walking into the dark streets of Port Royal, Sarah felt exceptionally uneasy. Footsteps with no owners, shadows with no body to attach it to….

Walking past a dark alley, Sarah reacted too slowly to escape the pair of hands that reached out to grab her.

"Hello, pet."

Sarah sighed, realizing what a stupid mistake she had made. Inside the Turner's glorious mansion she had been immune to any evils that lurked about. Stepping outside of that fortress had been a huge miscalculation.

"Good evening, Axel." Even in the shadows, he was gorgeous. Dark brown hair, eyes a girl could drown in. All part of his draw.

Axel smiled slowly. "I've been looking for you, Sarah. You've been very hard to find…but its worth it now."

Sarah lifted an eyebrow. "Sorry Axel, but you've wasted your time. I don't want to be with you. I didn't then and I don't now. So g'bye." She yanked herself out of his grasp and started stalking back to the street.

She suppressed the cry of shock that threatened to burst of out her when a hand grasped her hair and pulled her backwards. Axel looked down at her face. "I don't like to cause you pain, Sarah. But you force me to do this when you don't listen to me." He relaxed his grip on her hair a bit. "My proposal is still standing. And before you say a word, I won't accept anything but a 'yes'."

Sarah smiled sarcastically at him. "Well when you ask like that…"

Axel's face darkened and he twisted her hair tightly. "Think about what you're doing. You have the chance to be the queen of all vampires. Join me on my throne and I promise life will be good."

"Like when you promised life would be good if I agreed to become a vampire? Huh, Axel? Isn't that what you promised? 'Turn into a vampire and you will be gloriously happy. You will live forever and never feel pain again.' I've felt more pain in my life as a vampire than I ever could have felt in twenty human lifetimes! And you know why? You, Axel! You were the one who turned me with false promises and then left me to die when I didn't measure up. Remember?"

Axel pursed his mouth and let go of her hair. She remained standing indignantly in front of him. "You're alive, aren't you? And if I'm not mistaken, didn't you kill the man who pulled you out of the water? Him and his whole family?" Axel said acidly.

Sarah's face flushed. "I had to! I would have died if I didn't."

Axel decided a different approach was in order. "Then what are you going to do for the rest of eternity, Sarah? Answer me that. Will you wander from port to port, searching for the adventure that never comes? What will happen when your pirate captain dies? What then? You'll be alone, darlin'. Everyone you love will die sooner or later, unless they are a vampire."

"I could turn him," Sarah said desperately, feeling horribly alone at the thought of losing Jack. Axel touched her face tenderly. "You wouldn't do that. You hate me for making you what you are; you could never give that gift to anyone else."

"It's not a gift! You've condemned me," Sarah said with quiet hate.

Axel laughed arrogantly. "If that's the way you feel…" He looked at her with a dark menace. "I just hope you're prepared to face the consequences of your decision."

Sarah searched his face for some sign of what would come. "What are you going to do, Axel?"

He shook his head and walked away with a smile on his face.