Alex sat in the tainted and putrid bilge water, flotsam and debris floating about her feet as she stared through the iron grid-lined bars of her new residence; a cramped cell in the lower brig of the Black Friday. The cell's previous occupant was still rotting in the corner of the small gaol. Alex's blue eyes were dark with spite and her features taunt and livid as she regarded the figure on the other side of the locked door.
I was wondering when you'd show your traitorous face," Alex hissed through clenched teeth, struggling to rein in her temper, "Come to gloat, have we?" The figure merely laughed impishly, and lowered the delicate lace-trimmed parasol that had previously hidden her face from Alex's.
"Just being sociable, my dear." Elsey replied winningly, her green eyes flashing with amusement.
"Crew members of the Drifting Maiden don't make social calls. Unless they're capturing husbands to break their curse. Seeing as I'm not really suitable husband material, you're here for a reason."
Elsey's emerald eyes widened in unchecked surprise, "I commend you and your astute observations, young Alex. When did you know?" Alex locked her fiery eyes on Elsey's jade ones, hate and loathing projected with so much force that Elsey would have turned on her heel and fled, had their not been a solid metal cage separating the two. Instead she merely sighed and tossed her auburn hair.
"I knew as soon as Will fell for you that you had him under a Siren's Song. Right from that night on the Naval ship it was obvious. I said nothing to Jack, but I suspect he had his suspicions. I did not draw attention to you, so as to lure the Drifting Maiden into trailing us, so Jack could make his move and be rid of you once and for all, but then the Vice Admiral arrived and took me away. But I know that you wouldn't give Will up, so what have you done with him?"
"Relax, little Alex, he's safe and soundly asleep aboard the Drifting Maiden, in a quaint and seemly abode much akin to your own. He'll awaken once we've berthed at Barbadien's Island, just in time for our marriage ceremony. I would invite you, but you'll be dead."
"Marriage ceremony; don't you mean sacrifice? Will doesn't love you – he won't break you curse. You'll only kill him."
"Maybe, maybe not. I'll guess we'll find out when we get there. He was awfully easy to win over; I barely needed to use any persuasion tactics at all."
"He'll never love you." Alex growled.
"Alex, my dear, take a long look at yourself. You're sitting, dejected and filthy in five inches of bilge water. You're wearing torn and tattered pirates clothing – your face is streaked with blood and your hair is nothing less that a rats nest. You're here because Jack Sparrow and William Turner renounced you, and their lack of concern is going to cost you your life. You're going to die because of them, and they couldn't care less. Now look at me," Here Elsey twirled for full effect, her expensive bronze-coloured dress fanning around her ankles. "Is it any wonder Will is with me, why you remain alone, forsaken and unthought of. Like anyone would trouble their self to wonder about your fate. I stand corrected; there is a certain Captain Peril who seems to have taken an interest in you."
"Who's Captain Peril?"
"Captain Peril, Captain of the Black Friday, the ship on which you are prisoner," Elsey laughed cruelly, "Silly girl. You may know him as Vice Admiral Stone."
"Why the name change? What's his story, if you know it at all." Alex demanded sardonically. Elsey looked torn between keeping the information secret or gloating about it to Alex to break her further. "Yeah, I didn't think so. Head's as empty as a barrel of rum in Tortuga."
"Stone died in a naval battle off the coast of the Orient nought over two months ago." Elsey snapped, "To preserve his life, he made a pact with the Devil himself. If the Devil gave him a ship to sail for eternity, Stone would give him his soul. The Devil gave Stone the accursed Black Friday, which after being claimed by the Devil many years ago had remained in limbo, sailing the seas of Hell's molten larva. Stone became Captain, and in losing his soul, he gained his new name; Captain Orion Peril.
Enslaved and indebted to the Devil, Peril carries out the Devil's wishes. And the Devil wished for us to join forces to capture the three of you; I get Will, Cassandra gets Jack, and Peril has you." Elsey grinned a bewitching grin, "I'd keep the good Captain entertained if I were you." She winked before sauntering back up the steps of the brig and back up to the main deck.
And so the plot thickens. All the hidden nasties come crawling out of the wood-work. The two people at the Navy ball have reappeared; Elsey and Vice Admiral Stone, neither are who they initially said they were. Jack's lost, dead love Cassandra is neither lost nor dead; she is very much alive and still chasing after Jack, ever since 20 years prior he managed to unwittingly escape her after his ship went down and he almost died. Cassandra 'The Lady" - Captain of the Drifting Maiden and the original maiden that caused her crew to become cursed – has followed Jack so relentlessly because she believes Jack to be her beau whom she refused and whom in turn cursed her – Barbadien. She believes Jack will be the one to break the Curse of the Drifting Maiden.
Alex is trapped on the Black Friday with a psychotically insane Captain Peril, Elsey - one of the 60 cursed Maiden's crewing on the Drifting Maiden - has William unconscious on the Drifting Maiden and it's implied Cassandra also has Jack, and they're making a beeline towards Barbadien's Island to break the curse. Yeah, I think that's about it. Any questions?