Summary: The movie was never made. But, in the past, it all really did happen. A Medallion's missing and in the future, a young woman holds it as a family heirloom. Much to her suprise -and dismay-, she is transported back in time and must face danger and adventure that she never would have imagined experiencing. Self-insertion fic.
Rating: PG-13 for later chapters.
Disclaimer: Disney owns Pirates of the Caribbean because I would never be able to come up with something that good. I don't own PotC and I don't want to try and steal it, I'm poor, so, please don't sue me, all you would get is...nothing, really... The plot is just something from my mixed up mind.
Chapter One: It's Real, Not a Dream ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was only an hour into the Ward Halloween party when things started to get blurry. A few of the adults kept telling her to go lay down, so she did, only after the fourth one told her to do so. She didn't know if it was the paint she had been working with for face painting, not having eaten since breakfast or, if it was just that blasted corset she wore under her dress - or costume as most called it. But she loved that corset. She wore it nearly every Sunday to church, and whenever she was home. She claimed to "train", but she in fact wore it just out of sheer enjoyment, as crazy as it may have sounded.
She rested back on the couch, one hand on her stomach while the other hanging off the couch. She breathed in deeply, her chest rising as high as it would go in the restrictive stays. Maybe she was just tired... yeah, that was probably it. She was just tired.
Hearing footsteps, she opened her eyes and saw some of her friends, Evan, Michelle and Amy standing over her. "Are you okay, Jess?" Evan asked in a concerned voice as she leaned over slightly.
"Yeah, just feeling a little tired is all." Jess replied, smiling faintly as she pushed herself to sit up. Her hands went up to the chain around her neck, running her fingers over it sub-conciously as she stared off.
"Do you want to go home? I could probably get my mom to take you." Amy suggested as she played with the ring on her right index finger.
"I might take you up on that offer..." Jess sighed heavily and then pulled on the chain, fiddling with the gold coin that hung from it.
"Is that what your dad got you for your birthday?" Evan asked as she leaned over, trying to get a good look at it.
"Oh, yeah..." Jess lowered her head and looked down at it, turning it over in her fingers. "I think its Aztec..." She spoke quietly as she then reached back and unhooked the clasp so she could look at it better.
The coin was about an inch in diameter. In the center on the face of the coin was a rather angry looking skull surrounded by Aztec designs. The back had a different design, it was unusual like the front, but it didn't have the skull. It was heavy, but that was expected of gold.
"It's kinda creepy..." Michelle commented as she peeked at it.
"Yeah. I have to put it in a box to sleep. It's weird. Maybe its just me but, I swear sometimes at night I hear it whisper." Jess laughed slightly, "It's probably just me though. I get spooked easily." She ran her thumb over the front design, shivEvang slightly.
Evan sat down beside Jess and looked at the pendant with her. "It's very nice... can I see it?"
Jess nodded in reply and handed it over before pinning a fallen curl behind her ear, then playing with her earring.
Michelle stood silently before finally saying something, "Jess, your dress turned out amazing... Especially since you had only a month to make it, I mean, wow." She commented as she looked over the navy blue and gold, satin brocade dress, the beaded stomacher and the linen petticoat.
"Thanks..." Jess blushed a little, "I had help from my mom though, if she hadn't helped well, I never would have been able to get it done. And it's not entirely accurate." She looked a little slighted at her-self. "But then again, I am going to be making more... You all know I want that dress from Sleepy Hollow, right?" She nodded and grinned.
"Oh yes," Michelle laughed as Evan examined the pendant. Amy was gone, obviously in search of her mom so Jess could get a ride home.
Jess put a hand over her mouth as she yawned and then glanced up at the clock. "It's only 11? How come it feels so much later?" She yawned again.
Evan shrugged and then handed the necklace back to her, "You've been really busy today, maybe it's catching up to you."
"Maybe so..." Jess yawned once more and held the necklace in her hand, closing her fingers over it. "I need my bag." She commented as she stared at the wall.
"I'll go get it." Michelle held up two fingers and then rushed out of the foyer and into the gym where the festivities were going on.
Sighing, Jess pushed herself into a stand, "I never would have thought I would be leaving a Halloween party at 11 PM... 'Specially when it's not over for a good two hours. I'm tired at 11, this is blasphemy! You know what time I usually go to bed?" She asked, recieving a shrug from Evan, "Just about 3 am! A night owl I am! I hate going to bed early, and here I am feeling as if I'm going to fall over any moment!" And she nearly did: Evan had to jump up and catch her.
"Easy there, Jess." The petite dirty blonde laughed slightly as she helped Jess sit back down on the couch. "Thanks, Evan..." Jess leaned back against the couch and rested her hands on her stomach, yawning again. "Jeez! I can't stop it!" She whined, closing her eyes and wanting to slouch forward, but immediately straightened back up again.
"Corset?" Evan grinned mischeviously.
"Yeah, and you be quiet." Jess pointed a finger at Evan; "I don't mind them, really! There are just some inconvienience's." She straightened her shoulders up and yawned again: she probably wouldn't make the 5-minute ride home if she kept it up.
"So." Evan looked at Jess expectantly.
"So, what?" Jess questioned before covEvang her mouth to yawn again.
"How're you and Taylor?"
"Fine I guess."
"Are you two going yet?"
"Dating? Oh, no. I don't date, remember? I'm just not the dating type. I'm the 'hang out' type, not the dating. Plus I haven't found too many guys that I like who I'm willing to date. I still can't believe Michelle set me up with John..." She shook her head and heaved a sigh, "He's a nice guy and all, but he reminds me too much of my friend Pete." Jess noticed the look Evan was giving her then, "Look, I know I may sound picky but like I said, I'm not a dating kind of person."
"So you'll be one of those who marries your first serious boyfriend?" Evan teased, but Jess shrugged, "Who knows. Maybe. No one can really tell about these things."
The two sat in silence when Michelle came back with Jessie's bag. Jess, meanwhile, had been taking down her hair. The dark brown, almost black curls tumbling down as she put the bobby pins on her lap. "My head hurts..." She muttered while reaching up and taking out some more pins.
Michelle gave a small smile and handed over the bag. "I saw Amy talking to her mom. If she can't do it, I'll take you home. I've got the van tonight," She gave a play-wicked cackle and jangled the keys.
"Thanks, Michelle." Jess smiled and then shoved a handful of bobby pins into her little bag and then pulled out a tube of lip balm and coated her lips evenly. With a sigh, she put it away and looked between Evan and Michelle, "Well, even though it was cut short, I still had fun." She said, nodding.
"Yeah, we did too." Evan patted Jess's back and then stood up as Amy walked into the foyer. "My mom wants to hang out here... sorry, Jess." She shrugged.
"That's okay, thanks for askin' though." Jess smiled and stood up, "Mel's offered to take me home." She stepped over and put an arm around the smaller girl's shoulder.
"Oh okay. So I'll see you Sunday?"
"Most definately." Jess nodded and then pointed toward the door, "Away we go! I must get sleep!" She let go of Michelle and then sauntered over to the door, swaying her hips, causing the hoop skirt to swing from side to side.
"Bye guys," Michelle laughed, and waved before following Jess out the door, failing to noticed the shadowed figure wearing a rather large hat with a feather, standing off to the side of the outside doors.
Michelle parked infront of Jessie's town home complex and ended up having to walk her to the door: both of them feared she would pass out on the way there. At the door, Jess fumbled with her keys as she tried to get the right one in the lock.
After a couple of tries, a few times upside down, a few times the mail key, Jess finally got the right key, in the right way. Turning the key, she pushed the door open and stumbled inside, laughing with Michelle as they nearly fell flat on they're faces. "If I didn't know any better, Jessica," Michelle helped her over to the couch, "I would think you were drunk." She commented before dropping the dark haired girl's bag on the bench infront of the couch.
"Oh, but you do know better, Mel! I don't drink. Never have. I just get drunk off of sugar... but trust me, as soon as you leave; I'll be 'sober'. Always happens." Jessica shrugged before slipping out of her shoes.
"Well, that's good." Michelle nodded and put her hands on her hips, "Well, I should get back. I'll see you on Sunday, maybe even tomorrow, mm-k?" She turned around and headed for the door, glancing back at Jessica -who waved-, "Night!" She called out before shutting the door.
Once Jess was alone, she let out a heavy sigh and pushed herself off the couch. Grabbing her bag, she walked over to the door and locked it before trudging up the stairs to her room. "Mom?" She called out, but knew that no one was home. Her sister was out with her friends partying and her parents were probably out as well. Though, usually, they would have been home by then.
At the top, she turned to her right and pushed open the door to her bedroom. It was small, but her bed made it so. Just a few weeks ago, her mom "upgraded" her bed to a bigger one with a four poster frame just like her moms own. Before then, Jess was used to sleeping on two-twin mattresses stacked ontop of each other on the floor. It was a nice change.
Stumbling slightly in the dark, she reached her bed and leaned against it while unhooking her stomacher and loosening the front of her corset: it would be too much work to take it all off and she figured if she laid down for a few minutes, she would be recharged and have enough zest to get out of her costume, take a shower and then properly get in her bed.
"Just a few minutes..." Jess murmured as she climbed up onto her bed and rolled onto her back. Resting her hands on her stomach, she let her eyes slowly flutter shut and before she knew it, she was completely asleep.
When Jessica finally woke up, she shivered: her window was open and the wind started to blow her sheer, flowered curtains softly as it sounded like the wind was whispEvang to her. Blinking a few times, she sat up and rubbed her eyes with one hand before looking over at the clock. It was blinking 12:55. "Did the power go out?" She muttered before slipping down off her bed and walking over to the window.
There were no cars in the driveway. Lacing her eyebrows together, Jess looked at the battery powered hand clock hanging on her wall. It was a little after 2:30. Where the heck is everyone? She thought, stifling a yawn and brushing her tousled curls behind her ear.
Just as she was walking to her closet to pull out some clean clothes, she heard something down stairs. Usually the sound of the house came in the middle of the night, but this noise caused the hairs on the back of her neck to raise and shivers to crawl up her spine. "Great... I'm home alone; it's after 2 am. If it's someone trying to break in, or if someone has, I am so screwed." She muttered as she licked her bottom lip before biting it.
Taking a deep breath, Jess narrowed her eyes and slowly stepped out into the hall. She didn't hear anything else, but something was nagging at the back of her mind and refused to let go. Something was definately wrong.
There. It came again. Jessica shivered and swallowed before walking to the banister blocking the top floor from the opening below. She placed her hands on the trim and looked over. She saw nothing, but she could definately hear something. It was coming from the kitchen. Jess looked to her right and saw the linen closet open. "Hmmmm." She reached into it and pulled out the broom. Holding it close, and tight, she looked over the balcony again.
Something -or someone- moved. At first, she just thought it was a spider, but she would be screaming and crying out if it were that big.
Leaning over the balcony a little more, her necklace slipped out from under her shift and dangled over her. She then heard a muffled voice speak, it sounded like "Upstairs".
MuttEvang an obscenity, Jess stepped back and pressed her back against the wall next to her parent's bedroom door, tightly closing her eyes. She could hear heavy footsteps of at least four people. She muttered another obscenity and then lightly ran back to her room, shutting the door quietly and locking it, still grasping the metal handle of the broom tightly. Resting it on her shoulder, she began to pace. Her free hand pressed to her lips, she searched her room for anything that could help the situation. But a Thai umbrella, a collection of dolls and some CDs weren't going to help much. Then it hit her: the knife her friend got her for her 16th birthday! It was pretty darn scary looking if you asked her.
Throwing down the broom, Jess jerked open her closet door and climbed ontop of the bucket by her shelves. She reached up and felt around the top of the highest until she grasped it. It was a long, thin cardboard box that contained the most wicked knife she had ever seen. Just as she brought it out and had the box on her bed, she heard a sharp knock on her bedroom door.
Jess's heart began to pound as she looked up at the door, freezing with her hands on the box. "Crap..." She muttered.
The knock came again, but it sounded like someone had pounded against the door.
Obandoning the knife, Jessica picked up the broom again. Shakily, she stepped over to the door, reaching out for the knob with a quivEvang hand. She swallowed and then unlocked the door before stepping back and then to the side: into her closet.
Her heart was pounding so hard it was getting difficult to breath; the door came open and she heard people enter into her room. There were three. It was too dark to see what they looked like, but they were large and looked like they were wearing costumes. One was short and squatty, the other two were tall: one lanky, the other burly.
Taking a deep breath, Jess waited for them to walk into the room further, all looking around, and seemingly ignoring the closet. She gripped the broom tighter.
"Hey, where is she? She was in here a minute ago!" The tall and lanky one spoke as he turned a quick circle before noticing the box on the bed. "'ey, whats this?" He commented before stepping over and working to open the box. Once it was, he removed another box and opened it up. Inside rested a knife with a wicked looking blade and the hilt had the head of the Egyptian God Horus. "Ain't that somefin'?" He grinned as he picked it up and examined it in the dark, catching the moonlight rays that slipped through the blinds.
"Oi! Put that down you cad, We're here for the gold and the girl, not some shiny knife!" The short one snapped as he snatched the knife out of his hands.
Jess watched from her dark hiding place as they looked around the room: one looked under the bed while the other two looked under her desk and behind her bookshelf. She took that opportunity to run.
The tall lanky one noticed: "Oi! There she goes!" He cried out as he saw a flash of skirts round the corner and head into the hallway. He jumped across the room and reached out with his grimy hand before wrapping his fingers around Jessica's pale wrist. "Got'cha!" He grinned triumphantly.
Jessica gave a cry and turned around to look at her captor. Setting her jaw, she grabbed the broom with her other hand and slammed the end of it against his head, sending him into the wall and knocking picture frames from they're hooks. Immediately he put a hand over his eye and cried out, "My eye! It's gone!"
With a sickened and confused look, Jessica pulled up her petticoat and kicked him in the shin before rounding about and heading for the stairs. At least I'm not going up like in all those stupid slasher movies. She thought absently with a determined look before she nearly tripped on the steps while looking over her shoulder, the broom now held above her head.
Jessica had been busy looking over her shoulder that she failed to notice the man standing at the bottom of the steps. She plowed right into him and nearly fell back but he stopped her by grabbing her upper arms. She could feel his fingernails through the sleeves of her dress. Looking up at him, she let out a startled cry and tried to pull away.
With a grin, he showed off his rotting teeth as he let go with one hand to take away the broom. Tossing it to the side, he then slipped his hand from her neck down to the pendant hanging over her clothes. He held it up in the light and gave a satisfied sort of sound.
Jessica glared and tried to pull away again. "Let go of that! Its mine!" She hissed as she reached back to slap him, but he caught her hand just before it would have made contact with the side of his face.
"It's yours now is it, missie? We'll see about that." He snickered as he pulled her away from the stairs and looked up, "C'mon boys! We've got what we came for!" He called out as he started for the door, pushing it aside before stepping to the side more to keep his feathered hat from being knocked off. He pulled Jess out with him and stood under the covered patio, still in the shadows as the moonlight spilled over the sidewalk.
"What the hell do you want?!" Jessica demanded: she usually wasn't the one to swear -unless it was in her mind or under her breath- but she was highly confused and fairly ticked.
"What do we want, missie?" He smiled, showing off his rotting teeth again, "That there trinket around yer neck is what we want. And what we want, we always get, lass."
This has got to be some twisted dream. She thought as she tried to jerk her arm free, but there was no avail. She tried again, but only pulled him a little toward the moon's light. "Let me go, you stupid jerk!" She yelled at him. If by some weird chance it wasn't a dream, maybe yelling and making a scene would help her... it was a quiet neighborhood usually, so she made a lot of noise, maybe someone would call the cops.
"Stupid jerk?" The man raised an eyebrow beneath his hat before laughing and setting his ancient, blue eyes on her. "I won't be lettin' ye go, missie. You'll be comin' with us back to where we's from. And don't fret, you'll not be harmed until later. There's precious little we can do to yeh until this burden of ours is lifted." He informed her.
Jessica narrowed her eyes and then reached up with her free hand and clamped it over his before digging her nails into his flesh. "Let go of my arm!" She shouted, but he only laughed at her before releasing her arm briefly, only to grab hold of her wrist.
"There, I let yeh arm go. Satisfied?"
"Son-of-a..." She hissed as she jerked back, trying to get away and heading onto the sidewalk.
The man laughed once more, it was getting slightly irritating then, "I would suggest yeh not do that, lass. You'd be seein' something you wouldn't want to."
"Oh? Like what?" She hissed bravely, still struggling.
"Like this, lass." He stepped forward and let the moonlight flood over him. Instead of seeing a man, something else stood before her: a rotting corpse. She could see through him to the back of his clothes: his rib cage, spine, it was all visible to her. His face had reminents of decaying flesh with patches of his thinning beard.
Her whole body froze as a feeling of cold washed over her. Her mouth dropped open as she tried to scream, but no sound would come out. She'd seen things like this in movies, but this was real. By then she would have woken up, if it had been a dream. It was real. Her stomach began to churn; she tried to move but found herself rooted to the spot.
It was only when the three men from her room stepped outside, and into the moonlight, that she actually screamed. They had the same appearance as the other. She looked down at her wrist -which he still grasped- and let out another scream. A "bloody murder" scream. She could feel the bones against her skin, making her knee's knock together, trying to collapse beneath her but she fought the feeling.
"'Nuff of this, missie." The man stepped forward, causing her to lean back to distance herself from the horrific sight. "We've got to be gettin' back now," It looked like he was smiling, there were no lips to distinguish it. His teeth were clenched together as he grabbed her other wrist and pulled her over to a grassy patch of the lawn. The moonlight causing the wet grass to catch the eerie blue light.
"Lets go, gents." He jerked her closer and then looked up at the sky.
Jessica felt as if her stomach dropped as she breathed heavily, her chest rising beneath her corset; now she was wishing she had put off that sleep to change and then stayed asleep... or stayed at the party. Maybe it wouldn't have been happening if she had stuck it out and gone over to Michelle's to watch a movie and veg out. She closed her eyes tightly and then felt as if she had been jerked forward again, but this time, she kept her eyes shut and then felt like she was falling: when she hit the bottom, the only thing she knew was darkness.
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Wow o.o I actually wrote a chapter in one night! I'm so good...! Not really but hey, let me think what I want XD I'm a sad little girl. You may like it, you may not. Review if you want, but please be kind. This is my first posted PotC fan fic... My writing isn't the best but I'm givin' it my all. Am I a Mary-Sue? o.O