The grounds outside the mansion were quiet and still for but a moment before a large hearse pulled by a skeletal horse and a ghostly coachman glowing with a bright blue mist in the moonlit Louisiana night. As the stone rubble went flying and the hearse crashed down and continued racing down the road, Jim screamed from where he, his kids and Jack and Stacey were being tossed around in the back,
"Hey! I thought you said you could drive this thing!"
"Don't you worry! I know exactly what I'm doing!" Ezra said turning his head towards them. But when he faced front again, he caught the low branch that was aimed right for his and Emma's heads.
"AHH!" they shouted at their heads dissolved and then re-manifested.
"Well, you just better keep your eyes on the road, Savvy! "yelled Jack.
"Move over!" ordered Emma trying to take the reins.
"What are you doing?" asked Ezra.
"I'm driving! If you keep driving you'll kill us all!" exclaimed Emma.
"Well, that's where you're wrong! Some of us are already dead! HA!" laughed Ezra. Hearing their conversation, Stacey yelled up to them,
"Well, some of us ain't and I aim to keep it that way!" Then she turned her attention back inside as she saw Megan point out the window and exclaim,
"Dad look!" They all turned their heads to follow the three passing bicyclists in Victorian clothing and glowing a happy blue. They peddled up into the air as the road took the sharp dip into the vast cemetery that they could now see filled to the brim with bright glowing specters of all shapes and sizes wearing all sorts of costumes from every era. Ghosts were in the trees, on their respected headstones and laughing and chatting as if someone had forgotten to explain they were dead.
"Dad?" asked Michael.
"Yes son?" asked Jim.
"Don't say it!" warned Stacey. Michael ignored her and said,
"I see dead people!" Stacey sighed up at a confused Jack,
"He said it!"
"Excuse me! Why are all these ghost still hanging around here?" Jim asked Ezra. Emma answered with a sad tone,
"When they died they couldn't find the light. and now...now they're trapped!"
"Doomed to wander the Earth for all eternity!" added Ezra.
"How melodramatic!" observed Jack. Stacey sighed looking dryly out the window,
"What am I doin' here? If things went righ' in my life my parents would be alive, I woulda' graduated college and made a nice little life for myself. Nevv-eer had'a worry about ghosts or getting pirates back to their righ' time!" Jack grinned down at her,
"But then you wouldn't have met me Luv!" Stacey shrugged not seeing Jack's smug expression turn serious with longing. They passed an executioner who was just getting ready to chop a knight's head off. They both smiled and waved a friendly wave. The living waved back and Jim smiled,
"Nice! Nice. Good job!" Looking up at Jack who looked like he was about to be sick, Megan asked,
"What's wrong with you?" Jack said to her,
"When you've come as close to having your head chopped off or dangling from a rope as I have, you tend to frown upon executions!" Jim scoffed and asked,
"Oh yeah? And what did you do to almost get executed?" Jack sighed and looked up to the ceiling of the hearse in thought before saying,
" Arson, kidnapping, sacking, raiding, looting, pillaging, plundering, grand thief, sailing under false colors, commandeered a ship of the fleet, impersonating an officer of the Spanish Royal Navy, impersonating an officer of the British Royal Navy, impersonating a cleric of the Church of England...you know...the usual general lawlessness." Stacey and the kids all dropped their jaws in disbelief as Jim said dumbfounded,
"Oh...yeah...yeah I guess that would do it!"
"Sweet Jesus help me, I'm sharing a hearse with a man who should be on 'America's Most Wanted'!" quipped Stacey. Jack grinned wickedly at her and whispered,
"Didn't stop you from sharing my bed the other night darlin'!" She flamed up red for a moment before smirking and retorting,
"Well if sharing a bed with you Jack Sparrow means I get a good night's sleep...I don't see any harm in it!" Jack's face fell as the hearse pulled to a bumpy stop. Jim was about to lead everyone out, but when he turned he jumped in surprise at two ghosts in traveling clothes right in the hearse with them.
"Whoa! Hey! Hey, what are you doing here?" Jim demanded. The tall fat on whispered to his friend,
"Can they see us?" His short friend with a long beard told him,
"No, of course not!"
"Of course I can! I see you right now in your stupid hat!" Jim told them as the fat ghost looked cross eyed at the hat on his head.
"Don't listen to him! He's lying!" said the short ghost. Jim looked to Jack who shrugged before sighing and starting to climb out saying,
"Whatever! Come on kids let's go! Come on!"
"I could swear he was looking right at me!" said the fat ghost.
"He's physic!" exclaimed the short ghost. Jack was the last one to leave when he stopped to say to the fat ghost,
"I don't think your hat's stupid, Mate!" The ghosts looked at each other very confused.
Barbossa returned to the docks to find his men waiting. But the Turners and the two crewman he left them with were gone.
"Where are they?" barked Barbossa. A tall black man with native African priecings answered,
"They were gone by the time we got here!" Just then, Pintel and Ragetti floated up from the water and landed on the docks. When he saw the captain and the rest of the crew glaring at them, Ragetti answered,
"What we miss?" Barbossa stomped forward and grabbed Pintel by his shirt collar and demanded angrily,
"Where are they?"
"This was to have been her wedding dress." said Edward as he escorted Sara through the dusty old attic. Sara looked at the gown and breathed,
"It's lovely!"
"It would have been lovelier still if she ever had the chance to wear it!" said Edward dryly brushing a hand over the light netting that kept the dust away. He continued, "Now it only serves as a dark reminder of what could have been."
"To love someone so much and then lose them so suddenly. I can't imagine how awful that must be!" said Sara shaking her head. Edward caught her gaze again,
"If you truly love someone they never leave you. They remain in your heart forever!" Sara tried to avoid his intensive stare by looking up and around the attic but suddenly, lightning flashed sending the room into brightness. Up in the bell tower, Sara could have sworn she saw the faded image of someone hanging from his neck from a noose. When everything faded into darkness again, she saw nothing was there and somehow, she had ended up clinging to Mr. Gracey's arm. He held a protective arm around her waist as he cleared his throat and said,
"Come. There's one last thing I must show you."
Will led Elizabeth into the darken hallway of the gallery sighing in exasperation and saying,
"I can't believe we've just went around in a circle again! How the devil did anyone find their way in this house?" Elizabeth continued to let him rant and rave, trying not to concentrate on the images of death she was seeing appear in the painting on the wall. Then she got a strange sensation to check the mirror in her coat pocket. When she pulled it out, she saw it was glowing a bright green again. Looking into it, Elizabeth saw an image of Sara looking around in fear at Mr. Gracey and a group of dancing ghosts spinning around them. Then she saw Sara in a white gown collapsing to the floor with a deathly pallor on her face. Elizabeth gasped,
"Will! We've got to find Sara now!" Will stopped and asked her seeing the glowing mirror,
"What'd you see?"
"No time to explain, hurry!" she said rushing forward. He pulled on her arm to stop her,
"Wait! We're lost! How are we going to find her?" Unsure for a moment, Elizabeth looked down to the glowing mirror in her hands and said to it,
"Show me the way out of here!" The mirror wavered and showed them the gallery then it whizzed down the hall to a door.
"Come on!" said Elizabeth leading the way.
"Isn't that romantic? He was willing to throw everything away for love!" sighed Megan talking about Mr. Gracey as they walked further into the cemetery. This area was a little less populated with ghosts but that still didn't stop any of the adults from keeping a wary eye. Jim said sarcastically,
"Well now he's broke, dead and cursed. Nice move!"
"I agree. My guess is that Miss Elizabeth killed herself because she was afraid of what people might think and the pressure got to her. If Gracey's half the gentleman he claims to be, he should have sensed it before she even contemplated hurting herself. You know he probably did detect something was wrong? Poor fool probably tried to convince himself it would work out for the best!" said Jack as Jim started to help the kids over a large fallen log blocking the path. Jack climbed over and then turned to help Stacey as she asked,
"And what should Mr. Gracey have done instead if he realized the pressure of being from two different worlds was too much for her?" He helped her down grabbing her waist. When he didn't let go right away, Stacey was caught in his dark brown eyes as he said with just a hint of sadness,
"He should have let her go without a fuss. And only pray that while she found her happiness...she'd remember him from time to time." As he let her go to continue on, Stacey got the distinct impression that he wasn't just talking about Mr. Gracey and his love. She was shaken from her thoughts by hearing Jim complain after a rather loud squish was heard,
"Oh crap! These are my new shoes! Hey kids watch your step!"
"Oh crap!" said Michael after another squish was heard.
"Hey Michael! Don't say crap!" reprimanded his father. Stacey shook her head and smiled as Jack told Michael,
"If you were a pirate...you could say whatever you'd like...Savvy?" As Michael grinned enthusiastically, Jim stopped and asked Jack,
"Hey what are you telling my son?"
"Not a bloomin' thing Mate!" said Jack with a wink to the children. Jim rolled his eyes as he looked around the clearing and asked,
"Alright, where is this place, where are we?" Michael answered,
"I think the gypsy said something about making a left at an oak."
"Ok, glad she was so specific!" said Jim sarcastically.
"Maybe it was a left at a black crypt and a right at an oak!" offered Stacey. Jim caught something on the wind and listened. He asked his companions,
"What is that? Do you hear that?"
"Yeah." said Megan quietly as Jim lead the way around a corner. They saw with surprise four stone busts, obviously inhabited by a barbershop quartet as they sung,
"And harmonize! When we ghosts come out to socialize! (Doom, doom, doom...sang three as the bass sang)
"When the cryptos creak and the tombstones quake,"
"Spooks come out for a swinging wake!" they all sang together. Jim stepped forward an interrupted them saying,
"Guys! Sorry to bother you, but we were wondering if you would happen to know where the mausoleum was?" To the groups' confusion, they sang,
"Down by the old... mill...steam...(Old Mill Steam!) Where I first... met... you..." Jim interrupted again,
"No, I think they said it was an old oak. That's what they said its by, um..." But before the others could warn him, their faces fell when the singing busts sang,
"By the light...(By the light, by the light!) of the silvery moon...(Of the silvery moon!)"
"Guys look you sound really good, your harmonies tight, but we have to save my wife she's..." said Jim.
"She'll be...coming round the mountain when she comes...(When she comes!) She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes..." Jim sighed in defeat as Jack patted his shoulder as said,
"Let me try!" Jim waved towards the haunted busts and said,
"They're all yours!" Jack put his hands together as if in prayer before stepping forward and addressing the singing busts,
"Gentlemen! Although we appreciate your vocal and musical capabilities, I regret we have no time to dawdle for we are in the middle of a grand expedition to locate and retrieve an item that may lead to the destruction of the very curse that binds you to this purgatory!" The singing busts looked at each other in silence for a moment trying to understand what Jack said. Jim muttered to Stacey,
"What...in the world...did he just say?" Rubbing Murray's ears, Stacey sighed,
"How am I suppose to know? I just met the man four days ago!" Satisfied he had their attention, Jack asked,
"So Gents! If you will be so benevolent to instruct us on the whereabouts of a certain key..." The busts burst into singing,
"Where's...the key, where's the key where's the beautiful key? You and me you and me, Oh how happy we'll be!" Sensing he was losing his audience, Jack said plainly lifting a finger in exclamation,
"The key I'm trying to find is in the mausoleum!"
"You left your key...in the mausoleum...down in Dixie!" Jack lowered his finger in defeat as Stacey patted him on the arm. Megan looked to her left and exclaimed,
"Dad there it is!"
"Dad there it is! (Dad...there it...is...is...is!)"
"Thanks...for nothing!" said Jim walking off with Jack and Stacey following. It was a large massive stone crypt with 'Gracey' on written high above two shrouded angels of death holding lit torches.
"Ok we made it! Alright kids stay close!" Jim told them. Seeing the craving on the door, Megan looked behind to her father and said,
"Hey look! It's a warning!" Not recognizing the written script, Jim furrowed his brow as they stepped up to the door,
"Now how'd you know that?"
"I studied Latin for three years Dad. You said it was dumb remember? You said it was a dead language." Megan told him dryly. Jim gestured all around him and said,
"Oh we see how wrong I was about that!" Megan ignored her father and read the inscription out loud,
"Beware all who enter. Here...here..." Seeing she was struggling with the words, Jack finished,
"Here lies the passage to the dead!" Stacey gawked at him.
"Now how did you know that?" she asked. Jack smiled,
"I studied Latin for seven years." Seeing the stunned looks on their faces, Jack added, "What? I wasn't always a pirate, Savvy?" Then Jim noticed his son turning and walking away,
"Hey! Hey. Hey, hey where you going?" he said catching his arm and crouching down.
"I don't like Latin!" said Michael turning again.
"Hey wait Michael! We've been through this before. You're ten years old now you got to start acting like a man!" Jim urged him.
"I just turned ten! I'm still getting used to it!" Michael said. Jack took his pistol out and checked to see if it was loaded as he said,
"Ok here's what we do. Jim and I will search the tomb."
" Right. Megan, stay here with your brother." Jim told his daughter standing up.
"What?" asked Megan in disbelief.
" I'm not gonna leave him out here by himself. You guys stay here together. I'm going ahead and I'll take care of this with Jack. Ok? Alright." he said beginning to make for the door.
"I'll stay up here with the kids...make sure they're safe." said Stacey. Jack smiled,
"I wasn't going to have it any other way Luv!" Stacey smiled at the warm look Jack gave her and his gesture of kissing the back of her hand. He turned to help Jim pull open the door. The latch was nearly rusted over and it creaked with a groan as Jack and Jim pulled it open. A wave of fowl air blew up from the dark set of steps. Jim took a torch and exclaimed,
"Ok...Be right back!"
"Twenty minutes tops right?" Megan asked.
"Twenty minutes tops." Jim nodded. Jim started down the steps and Jack was about to follow when he paused and said,
"Stacey...?"
"Yes Jack?" asked Stacey in anticipation. Looking to the kids, Jack sighed and said,
"If...I don't survive this little adventure...tell Will the Black Pearl is his."
"Jack...you'd give Will your most prized procession?" asked Stacey in shock.
"Only 'cause I can't give her to the person I care about more than anything in the world." said Jack looking directly into her eyes. They were silent a moment before Jack turned and descended the stairs, pistol ready.
"What was that about?" asked Megan. Stacey sighed,
"I wish I was sure!"
Meanwhile, watching Jim and Jack descend the stairs of the tomb from Leota's crystal ball, Ramsley said to Captain Barbossa,
"If they manage to get out of the family crypt, kill them." Ramsley turned on his heel and left. Following behind, Barbossa protested,
"Now wait a second Mate! My crew and I got cursed twice because we took lives! We ain't gonna make that mistake again!" Stopping in a room with a lit fireplace, Ramsley said,
"If that brainless bunch of worms you call your crew had done their job properly, I wouldn't have to ask you to take their lives. But now they have gone too far! They must be stopped once and for all. Besides...I would imagine you'd be eager to exact your revenge on Captain Sparrow for your untimely death!" Barbossa met this man's cold gaze with one of his own.
"Perhaps...but of all the Pirate's Code, they only rule I followed was this one. 'Don't take an innocent's life.' And there ain't nothing you can do to make me kill a pair of children!" Suddenly, Ramsley's icy orbs roared to life with red fire and the fireplace nearby surged with flames, the stones falling away to reveal a great canyon of red fire and sulfur, screams of torture and pain radiating it and sending a chill into the pirate's heart. Then the bricks returned and closed the hole up and Barbossa looked again to Ramsley who now had only a few flecks of fire in his cold angry eyes.
"Never question my authority again, Captain. Now...do your job...so I can do mine!" he told Barbossa.
"What was it that gypsy told us to look for?" Jim asked Jack as they entered a great underground tomb. There was wrought iron beams holding up the ceiling and silent, still crypts lining the walls. Jack furrowed his brow in thought saying,
"Look for a crypt with...look for a crypt with..."
"Look for the black crypt with no name!" Both men gasped and Jack pointed his gun towards the voice behind them. It was only Megan.
"Ahh! what's the matter with you? Man, put down that gun! That's my daughter!" Jim said pulling Jack's hand down. Jim continued to Megan,
"You can't be hopping out like that! You gave me a heart attack! I thought I told you to stay with Michael!"
"I was worried you wouldn't find it. Besides, Michael's fine! He's with Stacey!" said Megan coming down the last few steps to them. Jack smiled and then shouted up the stairs,
"Well I'm glad Miss Stacey is keeping such a sharp on ye!"
"Nobody up here but us chickens!" called down a southern drawl. Then a small voice that had yet to go through puberty added,
"Bra-awk!" Jack looked dryly to Jim who only shook his head slightly amused.
Meanwhile, Stacey and Michael were sitting on the steps of the tomb waiting nervously and glancing back to the dark set of stairs behind them.
"Think they're going to be okay?" asked Michael.
"Sure! They're gonna be just fine Sugar!" said Stacey.
"So how'd you guys know the mirror was here?" asked Michael.
"Apparently the other half of the mirror showed them New Orleans and then a gypsy told us to go to Gracey Manor...wait a minute!" said Stacey dryly putting the pieces together.
"Are you scared?" asked Michael.
"Honey, I'm as scared as a convicted white collar criminal who's dropped his soap in the shower!"
"Huh?" asked Michael not getting it.
"Yeah Kid. I'm scared!" she told him plainly. Michael nodded but then stopped when they heard a low growl.
"Michael. Tell me that was your stomach!" said Stacey.
"No. Was that Murray?" asked Michael.
"No and it wasn't his stomach either!" said Stacey putting Murray down and standing up. She and Michael went down the steps and looked into the dark Louisiana night. Stacey gasped when she looked through the trees and saw a pair of dark glowing blue eyes. She pulled Michael behind her as a large pit bull, at least as big as a horse stepped out of the woods. Only he was glowing a bright misty blue and he was semi-transparent. A broken dog chain hang dangling from his collar. It continued to growl at them as Michael exclaimed,
"It's a ghost dog!"
"Yeah and right now it's thinkin' breakfast, lunch and appetizers!" said Stacey backing away. Even Murray tucked his little tale in between his legs and whimpered.
"What do we do?" asked Michael.
"Get inside the tomb. Shut the door. I'm gonna make it chase me!" said Stacey hardly believing what she was saying,
"But Stacey!" protested Michael.
"Go!" she said pushing him back. The ghost dog growled at the boy who stood frozen on the steps, when Stacey blocked his vision.
"Hey fella! Hey! Why eat him huh? I got a..." she slapped her hip, "whole lot of meat on me! You want some? Well, come on!" Stacey threw a rock at the creature's nose. Even though it went straight through him, the ghost dog was angered and immediately began to chased after Stacey. Emboldened by his mistress, Murray growled and began to chase after the ghost dog barking his little head off.
Back underground, Megan said,
"She said find the black crypt with no name, or soon your fate will be the same!" They looked around the room, before spotting a moonlit black coffin in the center of the room on the other side of a wrought iron bridge.
"That must be it!" said Jim.
"Good hunch Dad!" said Megan dryly.
"Then let us proceed, shall we?" said Jack.
"I'm officially starting to get sick of this place!" said Jim as they crept forward across the bridge.
"And we're here because of who?" asked Megan.
"We're here because I take my role as breadwinner seriously! I want you kids to have everything I didn't have!" said Jim.
"I didn't know you had a bad childhood." said Megan.
"I didn't have a bad childhood!" said Jim as Jack furrowed his brow.
"Then why do we have to have everything you didn't have?" asked Megan as they stopped before the crypt.
"Because...hey don't be tricking me you little Latin speaking thirteen year old! Let's just get this over with! Hold this! Hold this with two hands now." Jim told her handing her the torch.
"Ready?" asked Jack putting his pistol in his belt.
"Ready!" said Jim as he and Jack place his hands on the top and pushed off the heavy lid. It fell to the floor and a maggot eaten corpse laid before them, a wave a death stench wafting up their noses.
"Ahh! Phew! Oh man!" said Jim turning up his nose. Jack smiled and coughed a bit,
"Try hanging out with a crew who doesn't know what soap is Mate. The smell ain't very different!" Jim nodded at this in consideration before turning his attention back to the dead body. In his right hand folded over his chest, was a small key, in his left hand, a silver mirror. Jim reached in saying with disgust,
"Excuse me one second! Sorry to bother you! Ah, eww!" he pulled out the key and then the mirror handing it to Jack. He asked ready to hurl from the smell, "Is that it?" Jack examined the mirror and then smiled seeing half of the inscription.
"Aye Mate! It is!" he said in triumph. Turning Jim lead them back over the bridge saying,
"Ok, alright! That wasn't hard was it? Let's get out of here! That gypsy had me thinking it was gonna be hard, that was easy!" Jack frowned,
"Yeah, a bit too easy!" Suddenly they all stopped when they heard a low growl behind them They slowly turned seeing the once inanimate corpse sitting up and turning it's head to growl at them. They all jumped back in fear.
"OH! Oh no!" said Jim accidentally dropped the key through the slots of the bridge and into the water below. Jack groaned,
"Leave it out!" Jim pushed his daughter to the other side,
"Go get the key! We'll take care of him!" Megan ran around the bridge and into the flooded water.
"Got any ideas?" asked Jack as the creature climbed out. Jim said as it crept closer,
"Hey, man! Go back to bed! Get back to bed!" Jack looked at him saying,
"You've got to be kidding me! I'll get behind him, you distract him!"
"What? Oh! Hi! I'm Jim Evers of Evers and Evers Real Estate! What's your name?" rambled off Jim as Jack slowly crept around the undead. Jim continued, "I just came down here to get the key! The gypsy told me it was alright to get the key so...oh!" said Jim ducking from the zombie trying to grab him. Jack picked up the dropped torch and hefted it in his hand.
"Just lighten up and let me tell you something! I'm trying to get the key! I got to get my wife...I don't want no trouble! Seriously, back up! You're asking for it!" Jim continued as Jack swung the torch around and knocked the creature's head off. Jim pushed the rest of his body over the bridge and into the water.
"Ha!" shouted Jack.
"Next time you're gonna think twice before coming back from the dead ain't you?" Jim told the monster. Jack crotched down asking the girl,
"Did you find the key?" Pushing the thick murky water aside, Megan cried,
"I'm looking! I'm looking!" As Jack stood, Jim told her,
"Take your time, relax. We've got everything under control! Completely under control!" Then more growling was heard and low rumble. Jack and Jim looked up and saw corpse after corpse crawl out of crypts or burst through walls hissing and growling and coming straight towards them. Jim shouted,
"Megan you better look faster!" Megan shook her head in disgust and said to herself,
"Oh I don't want to do this!" Then she dived under the questionable water as more and more of the undead came out and slowly hobbled over as if their joints were locked up.
"Jeez!" exclaimed Jim. Jack took his pistol out of his belt and shot at one, but the bullet tore straight through its body and three others. Jack's face fell as he said,
"What I wouldn't give for some Aztec gold right now!" He and Jim began to duck and dodge the zombie army, kicking at their arms and legs, aiming mostly for their heads. Under the water, Megan swam down to where the key lay on a rock. Just as she grabbed it, a zombie head came up and growled. She continued to scream as two more zombies underwater began to grab her arms. Jack saw her predicament and threw off his coat making a perfect swan dive into the slimy depths. He swam down and punched one zombie across the jaw, kicking the other one away with his foot. He grabbed Megan around the waist and hoisted her to the surface. As they both took a deep breath of air, Jim crotched down having managed to block the zombies' advances for the moment,
"Give me your hand! Ok, come on come on come on!" They jumped out the water, following Jim up the stairs with the zombies following behind. They saw the entryway and Michael yelling,
"Come on guys, hurry up! Hurry up! Hold on!" But then the door slammed shut on them. Jim and Michael began to pound on the door with Jack shooting at the zombies as a last attempt to defend themselves.
"Michael! Michael! Open the door!" demanded Jim.
"Michael it's locked from the outside! Michael open the door! Michael open the door!" begged his sister. But Michael backed away from the door in fear as dozen of large black tarantulas crawled out of everywhere to cover the door.
"Dad, there's spiders everywhere and I don't have a magazine!" cried Michael.
"Michael are you scared?" asked Jim from inside.
"Uh huh!" nodded Michael.
"Michael look it's okay to be scared! Everyone gets scared sometimes! Daddy's scared right now!" Jim told him.
"You are?"
"Yes I'm very scared right now! Please open the door son!" Spending his last bullet, Jack just threw the pistol at the advancing hoard, satisfied the creatures stumbled back. He shouted out to the boy,
"Michael, get Stacey to open the door!" From his viewpoint, Michael watched Stacey run from the left side of the clearing to the right, chased by a ghost dog and a yapping Murray.
"AAAAHHHHHGGGGGG!" she screamed.
"Stacey's a little busy right now!" In a high pitch voice, Jack said exasperatingly,
"Busy! How can she be ruddy busy!"
"Michael open the door or I'll kill you!" threatened Megan.
"Oh that's great! Keep him calm!" Jim whispered to her. He said to Michael as Jack kicked the zombies back again and then rushed up the stairs, "Hey Michael, it okay to get scared! Everyone gets scared now and then son! Even Jack's scared! And he's a pirate! See? You just can't let fear stop you!"
"Michael if you're scared now, just wait until the zombies come out!" yelled Megan. As Jim glared at her, Jack grunted to her,
"Shut it Missy!"
"What zombies?" asked Michael from his side of the door.
"Michael! Hey Michael just open the door please man! We don't got a lot of time, just open the door!" pleaded Michael.
"Dad they're coming!" yelled Megan.
"Michael open the door right now!" yelled Jack.
"Open the door! Open the door!" yelled Jim as Michael took a deep breath and reached for the handle. As it opened, the spiders crawled all over his arms and Jim screamed as he and the others came out,
"Oh! AAHHH!"
"Lock it! Lock it! Come on alright!" said Jack as Megan helped him bolt the door on a zombies outstretched arm. Certain it would hold, Jack turned and saw Jim carrying his frozen and frightened son down the steps and began brushing them off.
"Get them off! Get them off!" yelled Michael. When the last one was gone and no bite marks were found, Jim hugged his son and said,
"Ok you alright? Ok, alright my brave little man! Alright!" Jack put a hand on Michael's shoulder and asked,
"You okay, Kid?"
"Yeah." nodded Michael.
"Where's Stacey?" asked Jack. Just then, Stacey ran back pass them with the ghost dog on her heels and Murray following behind.
"AAAAHHHHHGGGGGG!"
"Stacey!" whispered Jack in fear for her. He began to bolt after them. Stacey jumped up and grabbed a branch meaning to pull herself up into the tree, but the branch broke off in her hand.
"Oh!" They she got an idea. She turned to the ghost dog and said still running, "See the stick? See the stick boy? Wanna play fetch?" To her surprise, the ghost dog stopped and panted his tail happily. She backed up, seeing the sudden drop off over her shoulder. "Yeah...you want to play fetch dont'ca? Come on! Come on! Fetch!" She threw the stick over the drop off, but the dog leaped threatening to knock her over on impact.
"STACEY!" yelled Jack tackling her to the ground. The ghost dog flew over their head and with a yipe tumbled down the steep hillside. Jack and Stacey both looked over the edge with Stacey saying,
"I should' a thought of that sooner!" Jack helped her sit up before wrapping his arms tightly around her breathing in relief,
"I thought I almost lost you!" She pulled away to look at his face and say quietly,
"I didn't know I was yours to begin with!" Lost for words and feeling like a caught mouse, Jack sighed and stood up pulling her up with him. All while not saying a word. Ignoring Jack or her fluttering heart, Stacey picked up Murray and asked Jim as she and Jack returned,
"You got the key?" Jim's face fell before he searched his pockets and with relief pulled out the key with a couple kissing in the shape of a heart.
"Whoa! Ok , I got it! I got it!" Michael asked Jack,
"You got the mirror?" Having left his leather coat in the tomb, Jack panicked for a second before remembering he had tucked it in his back pocket.
"Right here! Here Stacey Luv. Keep an eye on it!" said Jack handing it to her. Stacey looked into it and saw an image of the ballroom and the fireplace engulfed with flames. Drawing her attention back to Jim, she heard him say,
"Now can we find a way back please?"
"Gladly mate!" said Jack as they began to walk away.
"Not so fast Jack!"
"I know that voice..." Jack said in a hateful and dark voice. They looked up to see manifest out of nothing, Captain Hector Barbossa.
"Not another ghost!" whined Megan.
"Barbossa!" spat Jack with loathing. Seeing and fearing the look in Jack's eyes now, Jim asked,
"You know him?"
"My mutinous first mate!" explained Jack still glaring at Barbossa.
"I'd rather call it enterprising' myself!" chuckled Barbossa.
"Well I rather thought I put a stop to your operation when I shot you in your black heart!" said Jack as Stacey kept looking back and forth between the two old adversaries.
"Aye but you know what they say Jack!" To the fear of the Evers and Stacey, a crew of twenty glowing blue pirate ghosts came out of nowhere and grinned wickedly at him. Barbossa continued, "If you can't beat 'em...join 'em!" The crew cackled at this while Jim pulled his children closer and said,
"Why didn't I just go down to the lake? Why, why, WHY?"
"Gents you all remember Captain Jack Sparrow!...Kill him...and bring me the others!" ordered Barbossa.
"BARBOSSA!" yelled Jack in rage. Stacey pointed over to the right,
"Look! Walt Disney!"
"Huh?" exclaimed all the pirates including Barbossa. Stacey pulled the Evers and a reluctant Jack away and broke out into a run. Barbossa looked back and yelled,
"They've taken off! Move you slack jawed ingrates! Bring me their bleedin' livers!" The pirates began to gave chase while Jack ordered,
"Split up!" Jim and his kids took off in one direction while he and Stacey took another. The pirates broke off into two groups. One group was surprised to find Jim waiting for them with a tree branch pulled back. On impact, the ghost un-manifested and then re-manifested with all the wrong body parts. As they sorted this out, Jim ran to meet his kids and they in turn ran to find Emma, Ezra and the waiting hearse.
Meanwhile, Jack and Stacey had just hidden from their group of pursuers and once they were gone, Jack pulled her out and said,
"Come on!" But they stopped short when they saw Barbossa standing in their path.
"Jack...Jack! Do you really think you are a match for me now? I'm dead..." Barbossa threw a sword to Jack's feet and continued, "And you're not...yet!" Jack picked up the sword and told Stacey,
"Find the Evers and get out of here Luv."
"But Jack!" protested Stacey. Barbossa chuckled,
"What's this? The infamous Captain Jack Sparrow finding himself a bonnie lass? S'not possible!" Jack ran his blade along Barbossa's.
"Not probable!" Then he spun around and began a heavy assault on Barbossa who even as a ghost, struggled to keep up. Stacey backed away saying softly,
"If you get yourself killed Jack Sparrow...I'll never forgive you!" Then she stopped short upon seeing Pintel and Ragetti blocking her path and grinning with lust,
"Hello Poppet!" smiled Pintel as Ragetti chuckled. Something snapped inside Stacey and she shook her head putting Murray down,
"No! No! That's it! I have been lead around on wild goose chases, pinned to a flying table, chased by the brass section of a orchestra, a huge ghost dog, pirates...I have been scared witless, out of my skin and inside out for the last freakin' time!" Pintel and Ragetti looked uneasily at each other as she continued her voice getting hirer as she pulled off her earrings and her boots, "I'm under a lot of stress! A lot of strain! I'm done runnin'! If you want to kill me, go ahead!" She slapped her chest with her palms saying defiantly, "Bring it!
Jack and Barbossa were still parrying off when Barbossa un-manifested from Jack's sword swiping at his middle. Re-manifested, Barbossa said,
"Ye can't beat me Jack! And there's no cursed Aztec coin to save you now!"
"How about a dead horse, sucker!" Barbossa spun around and cried out as his spirit got trampled by the skeletal horse and hearse driven by Ezra with Jim seating beside him. Barbossa tried to manifest inside the coach, but Emma and the kids were waiting and he promptly whacked him over the head with a frying pan. Somehow, it is possible for a ghost to pass out, and Barbossa did just that on the ground below.
"Where's Stacey?" asked Jim.
"AAAAHHHHHGGGGGG!" yelled Pintel and Ragetti as they flew by them. Stacey came out a few seconds later, waving one of her boots high over her head screaming like a banshee. Murray followed behind barking at their heels.
"Stacey!" cried Jack grabbing her around the waist. Unlike before, she had a slightly mad look to her eye now. A look that strangely turned Jack on.
"I'll get 'em! I'll get 'em!" she shouted struggling to break free. Murray continued with the chase sending the two ghosts pirates whimpering up the tree.
"Get them later, Luv! Come on!" said Jack pulling her to the hearse.
"Come on Murray!" yelled Michael as the little dog happily chased after the pulling away carriage, using Barbossa as a spring board to jump up into the back.
"Good boy!" cooed Megan as she and her brother and Emma smothered Murray with tummy rubs. Barbossa woke just in time to sit up and see Jack jump on the back of the hearse with Stacey by his side. Jack saw Barbossa and gave him a mock salute by placing his fingers to his temple. Barbossa dryly looked up at his blubbering crew. Pintel said to his Captain,
"She's scary as hell, Cap'n!" Barbossa rolled his eyes and looked after the carriage saying,
"Still a hard man to predict Jack Sparrow. Still a hard man to predict."