Author's Notes -

:Shrinks down in fear and shame: I'M REALLY SORRY! Okay, I'm seriously not dead, please don't kill me, but I've been ... well ... time seems to have been against me lately. Whoever said senior year was easy needs to be boiled alive because I have had absolutely NO free time lately and everything just gets more and more hectic.

All right now that I've apologized and hopefully you've lost some of your murderous desires, I WILL tell you that I plan to have the next chapter out by next Monday (Memorial Day) and that this story is NOT discontinued and I am NOT dead ... yet.

Again, I am super amazingly sorry and I really hope that you enjoy the chapter.

A-

Last time

"Yes but if ... if they got captured, then what? How are we supposed to know? I mean, what if they're hurt? Or even dead? Then what?" she asked nervously.

"I don't know, Liz. I don't know," Will replied, sounding tired.

A-

Beyond the Horizon

Chapter 22 - Cat and Mouse

There was a knock on the door and I turned as the door opened. I stared into the frame and saw Rion standing there with Juaquiem beside him and a look of sheer smugness on his face.

"Buenos dias, senora," Juaquiem said, his tone unreadable.

"Senorita," I corrected quietly as Juaquiem approached.

"Welcome to my home. I trust that you will make yourself comfortable," he continued in English.

"You speak English?" I half-stated, half-asked.

"Yes, I do. Are you surprised?"

I glanced from Juaquiem to Rion and back to Juaquiem before answering. "A bit, yes."

Rion continued to stand in the doorway as Juaquiem walked to a chair and sat down. "Sit down, senorita, please."

I sat slowly, not taking my eyes off of Rion.

"So, let's have a little chat, shall we?"

I nodded slowly but did not speak.

"Who are you?"

"I beg your pardon?" I asked, not sure I had heard him correctly.

"Who are you?" he asked again, his blue eyes twinkling.

"Christina Smith," I said, hoping this was what he wanted.

"You misunderstand me, Senorita. I want to know about you and how you came to be with Captain Sparrow"

Carefully, I told him the story that I had discussed with Esperanza and Diego, making sure not to mess up, I only had one shot and I knew it.

When I finished, he nodded. "Fascinating, senorita. Now allow me to tell you about myself. My mother was a prostitute in Cartegena and my father, well, had the typical experience one has with a prostitute but for some reason brought her to England with him, he was an Englishman, after all. My mother gave birth to me a few months after they arrived and was fine for the longest time. Then she started coughing. She had caught the coughing sickness and after a while she was coughing up blood. She died before I was a year old. My father raised me as well as he could but always seemed to resent me, thinking that my birth had weakened my mother. When I was old enough, I left and returned to Spain. Time went by and I made a name for myself and here I am now."

I chewed my lip for a moment. "What do you want from us?" I asked, keeping my voice calm and casual.

"Oh senorita, you don't know?" he asked and when I didn't reply, continued, "Captain Sparrow attacked one of my ships, stole my goods, left my crew in the boats and sunk my ship."

"Oh," I said, trying to measure my answer before I spoke. "But he didn't kill anyone? He didn't do any unnecessary harm?"

"Isn't it harm enough that he destroyed what I had!" he cried angrily.

I raised my hands slightly. "I didn't mean to imply it wasn't significant. I was just asking, sir."

Juaquiem raised an eyebrow and left the room without another word, Rion following. I heard the door locked in and knew I was stuck. I could get out the window but there was no point in getting out to get caught by guards once I was out.

A-

Mr. Potts stode down the streets of Cadiz, watching carefully for anything out of the ordinary as he went. He had his assignment, check the pubs, pretend not to know Parker if they were to meet and be back by morning. After stopping in three pubs and asking if there were any ships that arrived recently and if they might need workers, he still hadn't gotten any information. And he was getting increasingly frustrated. He knew that the chances of him getting information that was valuable was much less the longer the night wore on - the more one drank, the more one forgot, after all.

Finally, in the fifth pub he visited, he got what he needed. After asking his question for the seemingly millionth time, Parker's strode over to him. Mr. Potts raised an eyebrow at him but before he could say anything, Parker punched him.

"What the hell?" he hissed as he threw a punch at Parker.

Parker dodged the punch and whispered, "I got 'em! Keep playin' along."

"Where?"

Parker threw a light punch into Potts's shoulder. "Not now."

"Ge' out! Ge' out! No fight here!" the stocky barman bellowed in accented English. "GO!" he cried as he and other men pushed Potts and Parker towards the door before slamming the door in their faces.

Safely out of the pub without arousing suspicion, the two walked back towards the Pearl. Once on board, they went straight for Colin's cabin.

"We got 'em!" Parker cried victoriously.

"Where?" Colin asked quickly, excitement pounding in his chest.

"House on the cliff. Sorta guarded but the guards aren't well trained. Got it outta a drunk bloke," Parker said, his dark eyes excited.

"How many?" Colin asked.

"Dozen."

"We can do it, Colin!" Tad shouted from the corner of the room that he had been hiding in.

"Geh out, boy!" Colin yelled, exasperatedly. "We'll get ye when we need ye ... not until then!"

Tad retreated silently.

"We do it tonight. Get 'em ready," Colin said in a low voice.

Parker and Potts whooped.

A-

'Ninety-four bottles of rum in a room, ninety-four bottles of rum, open the door, let in Jack, no more bottles of rum in the room,' Jack 'sung' to himself in his head. 'Ninety-three rich ships on the sea, ninety-three rich ships, Jack comes in, steals from them all, ninety-three poor ships on the sea.' The trick was, Jack had discovered, changing what was being decreased each time ... made everything more interesting and difficult.

"Ahh, Mr. Sparrow, how are you?" a male voice asked as the door opened into Jack's cell but Jack couldn't see, no lamps had been lit.

"Captain, Captain Sparrow," Jack corrected indignantly.

"I trust you like your accommodations?"

"Been better. How bout lettin' in some light, mate? Can't see."

A candle was lit throwing the room into a slightly more lit state and in the dancing flames, Jack was at last able to see the man before him.

"Better?" he asked, unnervingly hospitable.

Jack nodded, his eyes quickly roving over the man, trying to gain some insight into what made him tick. But none came. The man, though he appeared rich, was dressed in simple clothing, didn't have much jewelry and showed no visible sign of enormous wealth.

"So, Mr. Sparrow," he began, placing a stress deliberately on 'Mr.', just to annoy him. "I want you to tell me about the girl."

"Girl?" Jack asked, playing ignorant.

"The girl with you. Surely you haven't forgotten her already?" he said, bating him.

"You seem to care about this girl an awful lot, mate. What does she matter to you? I mean, I thought I was the guest of honour, not her. Yer makin' me feel right disappointed," Jack replied coolly.

Juaquiem deliberately ignored him. "Why did you destroy my ship?"

Jack waved a hand in the air, his attitude dripping with laissez faire. "Your ship, the Queen's ship, the Frenchmen's ship, pirate ships. I destroy them all. I'm a pirate, mate, its part of the job description. Nothin' personal, yer ship was in my way, had too much gold and didn't move fast enough to get out of the danger line. You're the one makin' this personal."

Rolling his eyes, Juaquiem answered, "Fine, Mr. Sparrow. Fine. Do that. We'll see how much information you'll divulge after some persuasion. I'll be back later."

Jack didn't reply, just watched as Juaquiem left the room. There was half a second for which he was alone before the door opened again and a man with a short whip walked in. 'Great ... just great. As if I didn't have enough trouble.'

A-

I paced frantically in my room, my nerves getting the better of me. The house was filled with the sound of screams ... Jack's screams. They had started about five minutes before and seemed to be getting worse. At first, the noises floating through the house was the crack of a whip, a groan and then another crack but now ... now all I could think of was Jack with all the skin stripped off his back, raw and bleeding as the whip bit into him again and again.

I covered my ears and screamed loudly to drown out the noise. Desperately, I whacked my hands against the door for the fiftieth time and pulled hard on the door handle.

Silence ...

The cracking noise had stopped ...

So had the screams ...

'Jack?'

Silence ...

Who would have thought that silence would be worse than screams? How long did it take to whip someone to death? How long did it take to bleed to death?

Silence ...

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" a deep male voice bellowed through the house.

He was alive, the screams told me that ... but what had happened? I pounded on the door again, screaming myself. "JAAAAACK!"

Silence ...

Silence ...

Earsplitting silence ...

A-

Author's Notes

PLEASE don't murder me. Like I said, its been crazy. Crew, homework, papers, AP exams, more homework, musical, work, school, boyfriend, scholarship stuff, interviews, paperwork and more homework, prom. All right, that is just a mere shadow of my last few weeks.

Please review and please don't hate me. Next chapter WILL be out by Monday, May 31st, Memorial Day and again, I'm sorry.

CrazyCanoeingGIT