Hours passed as the day slowly was lost, an hourglass sitting just outside her cell counting every last second of humanity she had left. Meris had settled into a restless slumber in his cell; every few moments she would hear him toss or murmur something in his sleep. She could only see a few wisps of his golden hair from where her cell was, and she wished more than anything her last few hours could be spent with him at least, or outside of this darkness. It seemed the Captain had made sure her last precious moments would be spent in these miserable conditions, and she was nearly about to fall asleep herself when suddenly she realized someone was looking at her.
She gasped and looked up, seeing one of the members of the crew looking down at her through the bars of the cell. But unlike the hardened and cruel jeers the others had given her earlier, this being looked far kinder. He was also less transformed than the others, only about half of his body having succumbed to the deathliness of the entire ship.
He silently took a seat upon a barrel just outside her cell before he began to speak to her. "I know it provides you with little consolation…but…I admire what you did, for the sake of your son…" he said quietly, his rough voice sounding by far the gentlest she'd heard today. "I have a son as well…far older than yours, but I know the feeling of wanting to protect your child from harm…"
Treva slowly edged to the bars where she slumped against them, looking up towards the stranger with a weary gaze. "Is that why you're here…trapped on this ship…?"
"No…I'm trapped her because of my own foolishness…my own selfish want…" he replied, his gaze falling to the floor. "Your sacrifice…it brings me great shame, to have witnessed you surrender your very soul to save your son from death…and to have sold mine away for wretched immortality…"
"Immortality…?" she echoed what he said. "You mean…when you become like that…you become immortal…?" The stranger nodded quietly.
"It's what many men have sought after since the beginning of time itself…of living forever, or having all the time they need to achieve everything they've ever wanted…it's man's foolish want to act as his own God, to be able to change his fate…but in exchange, he received this miserable one…" he stood from the barrel with a forlorn expression. "But yes, this is immortality…to become one with the sea itself, an unchallenged force in its own right. Of course, in our case immortality doesn't mean living forever…there are certain complications that could keep us from doing so…"
Treva listened to him in silence, listening to his voice crackle and shake slightly. "But how did you end up here…if you think immortality is so terrible…?"
He was quiet for a moment. "I've been a pirate for a good share of my life…Bootstrap Bill Turner, a title I used to be so proud of. But, I was sentenced to this fate when I chose to mutiny against the captain of my ship…we cast him overboard, and I thought that it would be like life starting anew again on the Black Pearl…but instead, I met with death. The other members of the crew turned against me as well, and I met my end with a sword across my neck…" Treva watched him dragged his pale, scaly finger across his throat to emphasize this, several small shells and other growths being torn from his flesh and falling to the ground. She cringed slightly and continued listening to his story.
"To most, that would have been the end of the tale…but for pirates that die at sea…there is another option they chose besides facing Judgment. You can sell your soul to Davy Jones, who gives you another chance at unhindered life…or so it seemed. Without a soul, your body is no longer human…it is possessed by the monstrous grip of the sea, and slowly merges with it. That is why I, as well as the others here, all appear the way he do now. Because we do not exist outside this ship, outside the sea itself. We can still walk on land, unlike the Captain…but there is little use to anymore. People would only fear us…for we are no longer amongst the living anymore." He paused for a moment, looking down at his intertwined fingers. "Life…is not without a sense of irony. In order to obtain immortality, you must give up the only eternal part of yourself…"
Treva picked herself up and sat down onto the small bench latched to the wall, setting her hands on her knees. "But I'm not a pirate…and I'm not dead…how can he hold me to this agreement without those prerequisites for becoming a part of his crew…?" she asked softly, and he just looked at her with a twinge of sadness.
"I don't know…" he said quietly. "But, I can promise you this…with whatever happens, I want you to consider me an ally…even if you trust no one else on board the Flying Dutchman…" he said, standing once more, his attention suddenly drawn towards the approaching voices and the thundering step of the Captain making his way down towards the cell. "Just do what you can…to stay brave for your son…" he said quietly, before walked off to the side. When she stood and looked to see where he'd went, there was nothing with an empty wall to greet her. She wished she'd gotten to talk with him a bit more, even with the strong fear plaguing her. He'd give her some sense of comfort that she and Meris would not be entirely alone, but he hadn't been able to warn her of what fate awaited her.
She sighed and took a seat once more, sitting there with as calm an air as she could muster, her hands folded on her lap and her eyes closed as the door into the makeshift dungeon burst open.
"Prayers will do you no good, my dear…" Captain Jones said as he watched her, unhindered by his words. He hands clenched into tight, painful fists as he spoke to her. "Because your soul no longer belongs to any higher power…it will soon belong to me…"