A/N: Somewhat ambiguous spoiler. Sorry for the confusion, so don't hesitate to bombard me with questions XD Jack wasn't hallucinating, just the effects of weariness and such the such part you'll learn a bit more in future chapters and not to mention how strange the scene before him looked. As for your questions: yes and yes. Enjoy!
Everyone who was anyone scrambled out of their homes in their finest clothing the moment they heard the announcement. They wore their finest because they found it to be more of a social gathering and must appease their own status in front of everyone.
"Can you believe that pirate? Always getting caught, he certainly is the worst pirate I've ever heard of," a snotty nasally voice belonging to a weasel looking woman said.
"Too true, Nadine," a young woman said with her nose in the air. "But has he not also escaped the noose multiple times?"
"Too true," Nadine said nodding.
"I wonder how he'll escape this time…"
"If he escapes," Nadine said with disdain. "But with Port Royal's newest Navy men, I doubt he will."
Will and Elizabeth tried not to listen the conversations going on around them from inside their coach, but they could not block them and the dread. How did they manage to sleep through the morning and part of the afternoon? Though the staff and the men watching Jack denied waking up late, the young couple saw through their lies. Jack seemed to have been impervious to the sleep that wrapped its way around the rest of them and he probably sought out his escape.
When they arrived right when the town clerk started to read off the crimes that Jack has committed over long years as a pirate and his pseudo-dual roles. There was Jack next to the executioner and noose. He stood tall and proud for a man whose wrongdoings are being said out loud and facing death at the gallows once again.
As the town clerk said Jack's crimes, the pirate seemed to have been in a daze because usually, last time, he smiled and joked a little upon his previous crimes. Though he stood tall, his breathing became erratic and the blood seeped through the tough material of his clothing. His face was bleached of all colour, however, not because of the gallows but because of blood loss.
"This is still wrong. Can't you do anything?" Elizabeth asked turning towards Will. She looked straight into his dark eyes as if searching for an answer.
He shook his head grimly and in a defeated tone said, "All I have is this dagger. It was the one that my father gave me. Still sharp, but it's not meant to cut rope easily."
Suddenly, the drums stopped. The town cleric has finished. The executioner stepped forward and was ready to pull the lever. Everything was still and quiet.
Jack seemed to come back to life, for he clucked his tongue. He looked around the crowd as if searching for a friendly face among strangers and enemies. He did find that redhead and his family, they were a few feet away from him. Will and Elizabeth were a few feet to the left, his left, of them and they seemed like they were planning something. In the shadows, there was he somewhat loyal crew. He didn't expect either group to help him. This was it.
He looked at the executioner and noticed something. It annoyed him that the other man didn't even attempt to swipe it away. Jack boldly stepped forward towards him and the executioner stepped back fearfully. With his wrists bound together, he lifted them up as one, quickly removed the stray colourful feather with a flick of his wrist and released it back into the sky. There was a slight breeze and it fluttered back on the executioners' head. He stepped back to remove it only to be angrily pushed back.
"Enough!"
"Last word?" Jack blurted out weakly.
The town clerk looked at him disapprovingly through his spectacles. Jack had a feeling that the man was imaging himself as the one to pull the lever.
"Make it quick," The phony Norrington said.
"Thanks, mate. As you all know, I am Captain Jack Sparrow! The most feared pirate of the Seven Seas and ladies man, as some would say. Today, is probably a most joyous occasion for ye, much drinking afterwards I expect. Just know that this is the day that you will always remember as the day that yo-ahh!"
In the next second, Jack was cut off and he choked on the words that he won't be able to utter to his audience. The executioner had pulled the lever and the trap door beneath Jack had collapsed down.