Disclaimer: I don't own POTC. Chapter title is a poem written by William Cullen Bryant.

Chapter 8: Thanatopsis

They made it back to the house safely and quietly. To Camille's surprise, most of the household had already retired. Only Gabriel and Ana Maria were still up. Ana Maria was fixing a kettle of tea just over the fire. Gabriel just looked at the two of them.

Camille nodded to him. "I told Jack, of course."

Gabriel didn't look as upset as he did awhile ago. He looked up at Jack. "Does the mark mean anything to you, Captain Sparrow?" he asked.

"Aye," Jack said darkly. "The six of us are in quite the predicament."

"We don't know exactly what the danger is yet, I'm afraid," Camille said.

Ana Maria narrowed her eyes, silently demanding an exclamation. Camille wanted to explain, but hesitated at the thought of that unnatural mark burning over her skin again.

Luckily, Jack volunteered as he stepped forward towards the fire. "Allow me," he said, rolling up his sleeve. Even though she and Gabriel had already seen it, they stood just as close as Ana Maria to the fire, watching the thing again.

Ana Maria's mouth hung open. She stepped back and looked at Jack threateningly. "You of all men should know better than to fool with cursed treasure!" she said, shoving him.

"I'll not need reprimanding from you," Jack said coolly, rolling his eyes at her.

She cursed under her breath. "Damn this corset! If I had an ample amount of breath, I'd be hollerin' something awful right now, you can imagine."

"Ah, yes I could."

"So what now?" Camille interjected. "Are we to wait until that mark draws whatever danger out of the seas to us?"

Jack chuckled. "Now comes the fun part, love. Searching for clues," he said with an odd excitement.

"Searching for clues so that we can survive? Sounds thrilling."

"There's no need to be sarcastic, Camille."

"I'll bet we could find something in that extravagant library of yours," Gabriel piped up.

"I destroyed it this afternoon," Camille admitted. "But you're more than welcome to dig around in the array of mess that I left."

"Tomorrow," Ana Maria said. "Should we tell the others? Except for the children, of course."

Jack shook his head. "No."

But at the same time, Camille nodded. Then she looked at Jack. "Why not? They're our friends."

"D'you really want to see how they react to all of this?"

"Well, we can't just tell Will and Gretchen. Than Annie will be the only adult that doesn't know," Camille reasoned.

"Who says we're telling Will? Or Gretchen?" Gabriel asked.

"We can't keep this from Will! And Gretchen has the mark; she should know about it."

But Jack nodded. "The boy is right. It is impossible to tell the young lady without it slipping to the girl."

Ana Maria nodded. "Right, and Camille you know that dear Aunt Annie will just worry herself sick over you."

Camille bit her lip. "I don't like keeping them in the dark about these things."

"None of us do, darling," Jack assured her. "But I believe it may be best if we keep this between the four of us."

They all eventually agreed, although with the exception of Jack they all equally felt terrible about keeping it from their loved ones. Camille fell asleep with a giant pit in her stomach.