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Chapter 11, Something's Missing

Captain Jack Sparrow

I opened my eyes, promptly wishing I hadn't. A throbbing pain in my neck and head sent tears to my eyes.

"Bloody hell! Who--"

"Eh shut yer yap, Jack, you're not the only one 'ere with a splittin' 'eadache!"

I turned to face the person who so freely offered his opinion and was utterly surprised to see who it was.

"Ah. It's you." Barbossa stared at me with disinterest. "And how, pray tell, did you manage to get yourself on such a fine ship as this? What…is the name of this ship, by the way?" I asked. I looked around myself at the cold floor and noticed that Gibbs, Ragetti, Pintel, and the eunuch all lay unconscious on the floor. I glanced out the porthole of the ship to see that it was night outside.

"This be the Dauntless, and you be in the cargo hold. Damned captain got no apples 'ere. Plenty of rum, though." My headache disappeared immediately.

"Did you say rum? Where?" I asked, sounding a little more eager than I should have.

"Oh, the rum? Eh I drank it all."

Of course. I'd only now noticed that his eyes were bloodshot, his words slurred…and his breath reeking of rum. I rather envied him.

"You drank all of it? Every last drop?" I whimpered.

"Yep. Were good, too." Barbossa burped happily. Then, pushing my longing for rum aside, more important matters (as much more important than rum as things can be) pressed on my mind.

"How'd we get here? The Dauntless, you say? That's one of the Royal Navy's ships, innit?"

"Right you are, Jack. Davy Jones stole it for his good friend 'Captain Feng'--more like Captain Fang, you should see the bloke's teeth—anyway, 'e stole it right out from under the noses of Cap'n Norrington. Boasted about it, 'e did…all day and all bleedin' night." Barbossa half-kicked at an empty bottle of what once used to hold precious rum.

"Captain Norrington? He's been reappointed?" I asked, feeling entirely shocked. He was better than I thought.

"Yeah. Got himself a full pardon, cleaned up 'is act, joined the navy, got a ship." Barbossa stood up, swaggering with the effects of the rum and the swaying of the ship, and crossed the small cargo hold to a crate in the corner. He grabbed the edges of the lid and pulled it open. He began rummaging inside it, throwing out packing straw, while I thought up more questions to ask while he was drunk and most honest.

"How did they get here?" I asked, motioning to the rest of my 'loyal' crew. "Last I saw of 'em they were runnin' off to the hills like little women!"

"Feng and Jones scoured the island…didn' want to leave anyone…behind…now that they're so bloody fixed on findin' all pirates, that East India Company!" he said angrily. He wasn't making sense, so I ignored him.

"Do you know where we're going, then?"

"Oh yes. That's the other thing, Jack. Cap'n Norrington struck up a bargain with the East India Company, 'e did. Gave away Davy's heart. Some 'Beckett' has it now. And last I 'eard, Beckett be headin' to Tortuga with it. So Jones hired Feng to go on land and steal it. Feng's plan is to pretend he's only there to turn in all the pirates he finds for a trade…" He continued to look through the crate while my mind thought of all the possibilities.

"Why doesn't Jones just go ashore and take the heart himself?"

"Eh well…the way 'e see it, if Beckett saw 'im comin', he'd stab the heart and that'd be the end of it. Kinda hard to miss a walking squid. But if he doesn't see Feng--"

"Then Feng can steal the heart right out from under them, no fuss!" I finished for him, quite proud I'd figured it out. "How do you know so much, dear friend?" I asked, trying to sound unsuspicious.

"Overheard 'em. Well, I didn't drink all the rum. They had a good bit themselves. And when you've 'ad a lotta rum, the tongue…gets loose…" Barbossa said, pulling out more packing straw. "You know what I'm sayin'?"

"Yes. I do," I said, chuckling at the irony. Just like yours, Barbossa, I thought. Then I became serious. "We should definitely stop them. I'm missing something, though. I can't remember what it is. Did they take my compass?" I looked in my shirt and found my compass there, wet but still present. "No…maybe my r--" I checked my fingers, but all of my rings were still there. I sighed. I knew I was missing something. What was it? I couldn't think with the pounding of my head. Oh, the pounding.

"Jack! Look what it is, mate!"

"What? What?" I asked, struggling to stand and make it to the crate. Barbossa leaned down and pulled out a bottle. I froze.

"Rum!"

Elizabeth Swann

The room was rather cozy. The walls were paneled in expensive oak. The furniture was made of rich brown wood, shiny and clean. The colors in the room were soft and warm…inviting. It was awfully hot, and I was underneath a silk coverlet. I threw it off me and stood up, trying to remember where I was. It took a moment before I realized that I was completely and utterly naked. But I did notice that my leg was bandaged, and so was my collarbone area.

I didn't see any clothes, so I began searching in drawers for them. I didn't find any—but I did find a rather useful pistol. I checked inside of it and found that it was loaded. I smiled, and continued searching for clothes.

The door began to open and I rushed myself back into the bed, covering myself as quickly as I could, hiding the gun under the cover. Sao Feng's face greeted me.

"Ah…Elizabeth Swann. I've heard much about you." He sounded nothing like a pirate at all, but I still felt as though some part of him was just as despicable.

"Yes…I…my name is Elizabeth. What do you want?" I asked, glancing around the room, still searching for clothes.

"Just to talk, Miss Swann." He began to cross the room, and I pulled the covers more tightly around me, sitting up, my back against the headboard. Finally, he sat down at the foot of the bed, one hand on his knee, the other hand lying on the bed, very close to my calf. The nearness of him made me nervous, and I bit my lip in fear.

"Talk about what?"

"You."

"Why?"

"Why all the questions? Can't a man be civil to a woman without having ulterior motives?"

"No." I said. I really did believe this. Every man I'd ever come into contact with, other than my father, really had had disgusting motives. Probably even Will. Most definitely Jack. The thought of him sparked something in me, and I was suddenly very curious as to where he was.

Sao Feng was laughing.

"Oh, is that so? Well then, would you like me to be uncivil to you, Elizabeth?" he asked, sliding closer, his eyes filling up with lust and desire. I slid back as far as I could until my back was pressing so hard against the headboard that it was almost painful.

"Miss Swann, if you don't mind. And I'd much prefer it if you were neither civil nor uncivil as you propose, but entirely indifferent."

"Indifferent works for me, Miss Swann," he said, still coming closer. His hands were almost upon my thighs.

"When I say 'indifferent', I suggest the utmost of indifference, the kind where you come into no contact with me whatsoever, so as to save both your reputation and mine."

He stopped, staring into my eyes. He looked as though he was considering something. Then he began moving again. His hands found their way to my thigh, with only a thin cover and a sheet between his hand and my flesh. His touch was icy cold and sent a jolt of electricity through me.

"I hope you don't mind that I disagree, Miss Swann. And as for my reputation…it doesn't matter to me one way or the other, because in the end, I always get what I want."

The hand not on my thigh slipped under the cover and came ever closer to my center. But just before his fingers entered me, he stopped, looking into my eyes again.

"Please understand I rarely do this. It's just that…William Turner…Jack Sparrow…James Norrington until quite recently...all highly wanted criminals…and they all had, or were to have you, at one point. So you see, I'm merely curious as to what is so enticing about you that even the most wanted of men find themselves at your mercy."

I tried to think. I couldn't shoot him. If I did, the crew would hear it and come running, and I'd have no chance. They might even kill Jack, just to spite me. I couldn't…I couldn't…

"Surely you wouldn't deny me what I want when I've taken such good care of you. I bandaged every wound on your body. Not that it bothered me to undress you, Miss Swann." He flashed a wicked smile at me, and I was shocked to see the condition of his teeth; they were sharp and pointed, much like fangs. It was though he'd filed them to a point. Suddenly, he so much resembled a shark to me that I felt like a helpless, doomed fish.

"Get away from me!" I begged, trying to push him away, realizing this wasn't going to end soon. He retracted his hand, but his head came to my neck, and his teeth began biting my neck painfully. It was quickly becoming more and more serious. I had to make a decision. Immediately.

"I said," I pulled the pistol out from under the covers and put it to his head, cocking it, "get…away…from me."

End Chapter

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