Chapter Six

A Curse Unearthed

"Where am I?"

Kate heard that question come from Will, and even though she thought about how to tell him even before he asked it, she didn't know how to respond. How do you tell someone that they just skipped three hundred years into the future and told them they had to adjust at the drop of a hat? Exactly. You don't.

"Well...where were you last time?" Kate asked. "I mean, where's the last place that you can remember being?"

Will squinted and looked at something in the distance. "I was...I was at Tia Dalma's house. She's a clairvoyant...if you believe in that kind of things." He cleared his throat. "And I was about to go to sleep in a spare bedroom, and...after that..." Will shrugged. "I can't remember anything after that."

"Alright, so you were at Tia's house," Kate confirmed.

Will nodded.

Kate stood up and made him an English muffin and some tea that only her mom drank. She couldn't stand tea, she just made it so that things would seem somewhat familiar to Will. She felt the heat from the toaster as she stood by it.

"Everything is so different here, though," he said. "I'm not in the Carribean, am I? And I didn't sleepwalk, either..."

Kate was quiet for a few moments. She walked over to the chair across from him. If she was going to tell him, they both would probably need to be sitting down.

"It's because it's not." She brushed a strand of brown hair out of her eyes.

"Is it even 1701?" he asked.

She let out the breath that she had been holding in for a while. "It's not. It's 305 years later, to be exact."

Will looked off into the distance. His brown eyes were becoming blank, if not a little confused. "That's impossible, though." He looked around the kitchen. "Everything's so different...the clothes, and the...things." He gestured to the oven and microwave.

"I know. And you may not want to believe it, but I think you did time travel."

The toaster dinged. Kate stood up and buttered it for him, then gave it to him.

"I don't belong here! I need to go back to Elizabeth and–" He became silent. "Elizabeth," he whispered.

She knew he was thinking about the kiss that Jack and Elizabeth shared right before Jack was eaten by the Kraken. Kate couldn't imagine being hurt like that, even though it wasn't what it seemed.

"She...she hasn't been killed by Beckett, yet, has she?" Will asked softly.

She shrugged. "I wasn't there. I don't know who Beckett is."

"Oh, he's...he's no one," he muttered. "No one that you would care to hear about."

Kate remembered who Beckett was. Who could forget him? He was the person that everyone loved to hate. She remembered that if Will and Elizabeth didn't return with something of Jack's (the details were a little foggy), they would both be killed. Understandably, he was worried for his (still?) fiancée's life.

"It can't be 2007," he said, trying to focus his attention to the present time.

"It is. It's June 1."

The silence between them grew deeper like a child digging a hole to what he thought would be China. Only now the digging between them seemed to make things between them more tense.

"But how did I get here?" he finally asked.

She shrugged. "I don't know. Your guess is probably as good as mine." She started playing with the medallion, dragging the pendant across the golden chain. It seemed to be a habit of her's already.

"Where did you get that?" Will asked.

"What? This?" she asked, now only holding the medallion. "It's nothing. I got it yesterday at a store. Sorry, does that noise annoy you?"

"No. I mean, yes, that's what I was talking about, but no, the noise doesn't bother me. I...I know this may sound like I've gone mad, but I recognize that necklace."

Kate frowned, "How?"

"When I was a boy–"

This was Will's medallion. The one he had his blood cut on! But how could it have...the woman at the store said it was cursed! And Kate didn't believe in curses. Not until now, anyways.

Kate took it off quickly and shoved it across the table. "I'm so sorry. It's your's. Here. Have it."

"No," Will said, sliding it back to her. "You bought. You keep it. I wouldn't want it back if you paid me."

She looked at the medallion, then slowly put it around her neck. "Do you want me to reheat that for you?" she asked after an awkward silence.

"What are you trying to say, Jack?" Melissa asked, storming behind Jack's trails like a madwoman. "That curses are real? And I'm wearing a cursed necklace? And how do you know that this is cursed and you're not making it up?"

He stopped dead in his tracks and turned around, causing Melissa to nearly topple over him, something she was sure he would have loved. "Ten years ago, I had a friend named Bootstrap Bill. Curse came upon him, some smart pirates thought it'd be a good idea to kill him. Only did they know that we needed his blood to undo the curse. I was cursed for ten years, lass, ten years! It was undone a year ago at Isla de Muerta, killin' Barbossa. There's your explanation, ya banshee." He started walking around again.

"I knew it!" she said. "I knew curses were real! The woman at the store said that it was!"

"Good for her, then."

She stopped. "So it's real? It's a real curse?"

He stopped, too, and turned around. "Yeah," he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, his eyes big. "Now isn't that interesting? Cap'n Jack's right."

Kate's Blog Entry

I figured it out! Will is here because that's his blood on the medallion! It still kind of grosses me out. I really should clean it. I suppose my theory of the paint/permanent marker was wrong. How can Melissa be right about a curse? Wait...if she wore it, and her's had blood on it, too, who does she have? I'd laugh if she has Jack. She couldn't go a day with him. Ha!

XOXO

Kate

Melissa's Blog Entry

So Jack's here because of my medallion. I knew I shouldn't have put it on! He's everything that everyone makes him out to be: he's annoying and arrogant and says all these superfluous words and sayings that make no sense...he and Kate would be perfect. I wonder, since she put on the medallion, too, if she has anyone, like Elizabeth or Will...maybe Beckett...or...no!! Barbossa! I need to make sure she's alright!

Love,

Melissa Rose