I had worn my pirate clothes all day and I was about to get ready for bed when I heard cannon fire. I looked out the window and saw a ship in the harbor.

The ship had black sails and I cried with delight, "It's the Pearl!"

Without a second thought a grabbed my sword and climbed out the window. When I got on firm ground I started running down to the docks and I cried with happiness all the way.

I'm going to see Hector again!

I dived off the dock and swam out to the ship, thinking of nothing but my lover. I climbed up the back of the ship and over the railing of the captain's cabin. I opened the doors but no one was inside so I just sat on the bed and waited. After awhile I thought I heard Elizabeth's voice. I could also hear footsteps and for some reason I hid. I could tell there were people moving around, so I didn't dare peek out.

And then I heard a familiar voice, "There be no need to stand on ceremony, no call to impress anyone. You must be hungry."

I had to stop myself from screaming in delight. I had waited ten years to hear that voice again and I wanted to see his face too. So I peered out from my hiding spot behind a cabinet and saw Elizabeth stuffing her face and my beloved Barbossa sitting there watching her. He poured something in a goblet and handed it to Elizabeth.

"Try the wine." he said simply.

I watched as she gulped down the drink and as Barbossa held out an apple. I smiled because he had told me that his favorite thing to do with his mother when he was little, was to help her bake apple pies.

"And the apples, one of those next?" he smiled.

I felt so jealous of Elizabeth at that moment.

"It's poisoned." Elizabeth sounded scared.

"There'd be no sense to be killin ya Miss Turner." Barbossa chuckled.

He's so cute when he laughs like that. Wait a minute! Miss Turner? What's he talking about?

"Then release me, you have your trinket I'm of no further value to you!" Elizabeth pleaded.

Barbossa held up the medallion, "Ye don't know what this is do ya?"

"It's a pirate medallion." Elizabeth stated confidently.

"This is Aztec gold, one of eight hundred and eighty-two identical pieces they delivered in a stone chest to Cortez himself! Blood money paid to stem the slaughter he reeked upon 'em with his armies. But the greed of Cortez was insatiable and so the heathen gods placed upon the gold... a terrible curse. Any mortal that removes but a single piece from that stone chest, is to be cursed for eternity!" Barbossa told the story with a lot of feeling.

"I hardly believe in ghost stories anymore Captain Barbossa." Elizabeth sounded superior.

"Aye! That's exactly what I thought when we were first told the tale." he got up and walked right past my hiding place and I breathed in the familiar smell of rum, "Buried on an island a dead what cannot be found, 'cept for those who already know where it is."

He leaned down next to Elizabeth, "But find it we did! There be the chest. Inside be the gold. And we took 'em all!"

He walked back over to his chair but continued to stand, "So we traded 'em and spent 'em and friddled 'em away on drink and food and pleasurable company!"

My blood boiled at the last thing, but I kept still.

"But the more we gave 'em away... the more we came to realize that drink would not satisfy, food turned to ash in our mouths and all the pleasurable company in the world could not slake our lust!" Barbossa continued to explain and I continued to get angry when he talked about pleasurable company.

"We are cursed men Miss Turner. Driven by greed we were, but now... we are consumed by it!" Barbossa took a step back and a monkey started screeching.

He has a monkey? And what's this Miss Turner business?

"There's but one way we can lift the curse." he walked over to pet the monkey and it climbed onto his shoulder, then he walked back over to Elizabeth, "All the scattered pieces of the Aztec gold must be restored and the blood repaid."

The monkey jumped off his shoulder and ran to another part of the room, "And now thanks to ye, we have the final piece."

"And the blood to be repaid?" Elizabeth sounded unsure.

"That's why there's no sense to be killin' ya... yet." Barbossa grinned.

Elizabeth looked horrified and Barbossa held out the apple again, "Apple?"

Elizabeth knocked it out of his hand, grabbed a knife off the table and tried to run. But Barbossa went around the other side of the pole and she stabbed him in the heart.

No!

He looked down at the knife, then he pulled it out, "I'm curious! After killin' me, what was it ye were plannin' on doin' next!?"

Elizabeth gasped and ran out onto the deck. I could hear lots of screaming, but Barbossa just stood there watching. He was wearing a dark blue knee length coat over a white shirt, a greenish brown vest, the same yellow sash tied around his waist and dark blue pants. He also had on black boots, his blue bandana and a wide brimmed black hat with an ostrich plume stuck in the band. Finally Elizabeth rushed back into Barbossa's arms.

"Look! The moonlight shows us for what we really are! We are not among the living so we cannot die, but neither are we dead!" he spun her around and she started backing up, but he followed her, "For too long I've been parched of thirst and unable to quench it, too long I've been starvin' ta death and haven't died! I feel nothin'! Not the wind on my face, nor the spray of the sea, nor the warmth of a woman's flesh." he reached toward Elizabeth and she got a horrified look on her face as he continued to walk forward, "Ye best start believin' in ghost stories Miss Turner. Yer in one!"

He grabbed a bottle of wine and drank from it. For some reason Elizabeth screamed and ran back inside. Then Barbossa turned around and I saw that he had become a skeleton.

What has happened to him!?

Barbossa threw his bottle to the deck and slammed the doors shut. I could hear him laughing outside. I walked over to where Elizabeth was huddled under a desk.

"Elizabeth, are you all right?" I asked quietly.

She gasped, "Sylvia!? Did they capture you too?"

"No, I came on my own." I replied.

"But why?" she sounded confused.

"I wanted to see Barbossa." I confessed.

She stared at me like my hair was on fire, "You want to see that monster!?"

What she said really hurt and I said quietly, "He didn't used to be a monster."

"Sylvia, I'm sorry. I can see you really like him." Elizabeth gave me a hug.

"It's alright. I'm gonna go talk to him." I smiled bravely.

I turned and went out the door. The skeletal crew didn't pay any attention to me as I walked to the other cabin. I went in and saw Barbossa sitting on the bed with his back to me.

"Hello." I said softly, walking up to him.

"Sylvia?" he sounded surprised and happy at the same time, as he turned to look at me.

He was definitely older. There were more lines in his face and his hair was turning gray, he also had a mustache and a short scraggly beard.

I smiled and said, "It's me alright."

BARBOSSA'S POV

I can't believe she's actually here!

In the candlelight I could see that she had a few lines in her face but she was still beautiful as ever.

I wish I could kiss 'er, but I wouldn't be able ta feel it!

"You didn't come back." I flinched at the reproach in her voice.

"I couldn't! Not like this."

"I don't care! I only want to be with you. No matter what." she tried to smile but her lips were trembling.

I'm bein' selfish! She needs comfortin'!

I grabbed her and held her close.

"I've missed you so much Hector!" she sobbed.

"And I've missed ye." I whispered in her ear.

SYLVIA'S POV

I opened my eyes. It was dark, but I realized that my head was on Barbossa's chest and his arms were around me.

I snuck over to the other cabin only to find the door locked.

Of course it's locked you idiot. Elizabeth doesn't have anyone to protect her.

I returned to Barbossa's cabin and curled up on the floor with a blanket.