Disclaimer: I do not own the movies or the characters. I am making no money off of this story.
Chapter Four:
The Troops Assemble
The teakettle hissed and shouted in the fireplace, causing Elizabeth to jump in her seat. God how she hated being this frightened, like a little girl. But she couldn't help it. Some old woman had basically just told her that she and her son were going to die, and sooner rather than later at that. She couldn't afford to act like a child afraid of the monsters under her bed at the moment. She needed to draw her strength from the part of herself that she had unlocked years ago, a part of herself that she hadn't known existed: her warrior side. After all, a pirate king didn't cower in the face of danger. Most of all, she had to pull herself together to protect her son.
"Here ye are missy," Gibbs said, handing her a steaming cup of tea in a delicate china cup. "I added me special ingredient. It'll calm ye right down," he added, sounding proud of his special brew.
"Thank you," Elizabeth replied, taking a small sip of the scalding liquid. Sure enough, it was like no tea she had ever tasted before. It was heavily laced with rum. The taste was so overwhelming that she almost choked. Her eyes watered at the sides a bit but she closed them and took another drink from her cup. She couldn't deny that the concoction was tasty and perhaps just what she needed.
Gibbs gave everyone else a cup—although Elizabeth snatched Thomas' away before he could consume it—and took a seat on a cushioned stool across from the mother and son.
"Don't take that witch's words ta heart," he said. "She's just a crazy ol' loon. If I believed in every curse or hex someone put on me, I'd be a dead man ten times over! This old git can't predict the future. Trust me, she was just trying ta put ideas in your head. A pile of dung, all of it." By the end of his pep talk, Gibbs was so worked up that he gulped the rest of his "tea" down and poured himself another cup.
Elizabeth shook her head sadly. At first she wished to agree with Gibbs, that the Gypsy woman's speech was rubbish, but upon reflection, she knew better. "No, that woman was right. Something evil is coming. I knew it even before she said anything. I just didn't want to accept it. Now, I have no choice. But I'm not just going to sit here and be easy prey."
"What are ye talking 'bout?" Jack inquired, confusion playing across his handsome face.
Elizabeth sighed and looked down at her "tea" before draining it. A rush of warmth swept over her body. "I think it's time I told you about my dreams."
"Sounds promising," Jack said, perking up.
She ignored his comment and began to recount every bit of information she could remember from her nightmares, but attempted to leave out the most gruesome descriptions for Thomas' sake. The expressions playing across his face told her that he was frightened and concerned.
"Well…" Jack said half an hour later when she had finished. "Those dreams aren't anything like I imagined they would be." He sounded disappointed.
"Sorry Jack, but my nightmares don't consist of half naked women sword fighting or oceans of rum," Elizabeth responded, drawing her son into her arms and hugging him tightly.
"Aw, the good days," Gibbs said, lost in memory.
"Focus, please, Mr. Gibbs," Elizabeth commented, trying to keep the men on track. "What do you think the nightmares mean Jack?"
The pirate had gotten up during the conversation and was standing by the front window, gazing out across the grassy hill and sipping at Gibbs' brew. He seemed to be contemplating something.
"No clue," Jack said absentmindedly, continuing to peer out of the window. "But if they have anything to do with that man standing in the trees, then we may be in for some trouble."
The three people sitting glanced at each other quickly, and then jumped up and crowded around the window, eager to see the man Jack spoke of.
"Mum, I don't see anyone," Thomas said confused.
"Where is he?" she demanded of Jack, squinting her eyes as she scanned the area for the intruder.
"I swear he was just there," Jack replied, sounding dumbfounded. "He was standing right there, all tall dark and handsome like, staring in this direction. He was wearin' a black cape too. It's as if he just…just…" he made a popping gesture with his hands, "Poof! Vanished!"
Although it was completely illogical for anyone to vanish into thin air, there was something in Jack's voice that told Elizabeth he was being serious. She could see it in his eyes too. He was completely flabbergasted. She believed him. If Jack claimed he saw someone in the trees, then there was someone there.
"That's it!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands up in frustration. "I don't know who or what is out there, but I know one thing. I refuse to sit here, patiently waiting to find out...or worse…" She let her sentence trail off, afraid she'd upset Thomas, who was already staring up at her in alarm.
"We're getting out of here," she stated with a tone of finality. "Now."
"Welcome to me humble abode," sang Jack, bowing them inside in a dramatic fashion that made Thomas giggle. The seven-year-old didn't know how to view Jack just yet.
"You live here?" Gibbs questioned, non-believing. He didn't receive an answer from the other man.
Elizabeth picked up a china-faced doll from a lounge seat and gave Jack a quizzical look. Her arched eyebrows asked her question for her. The pirate snatched the fragile doll out of her hands and snuggled it up to his face.
"Don't touch…Janessa. She's the only woman who won't slap or judge me for being a fool," he explained.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes and dropped the topic. "Look, we need to focus on what's happening. I keep having these nightmares, you've been hexed by a Gypsy," she said to Gibbs, "and now there's a possible madman stalking us. For the love of God! What's going on?"
A sudden dizziness overtook her and she swayed where she stood. Raising a calloused hand to her forehead and squeezing her temples, she tried to dispel her dizziness. However, instead of making her feel better, it made her feel worse. The room around her became hazy and unfocused; she could feel her knees go weak.
"Mrs. Turner?" Gibbs asked in a worried voice, but they were the only words she heard. Elizabeth felt herself start to fall. In another heartbeat her world became black and everything around her ceased to exist.
Several raindrops landed on Elizabeth's face, causing her eyes to flutter open then shut again. I really must fix that leak in the roof, she thought to herself. Her head was throbbing, but she couldn't imagine why. Must have been that "tea" she reasoned. She turned over onto her side and heard a crunching beneath her. Odd, she thought.
A rumble of thunder that was much louder than it should have been made her realize that she wasn't in her home or in any building for that matter. She was outside, in what appeared to be a cornfield.
"Fan out men. We must not let the creature escape!" a man shouted somewhere off in the distance.
Elizabeth sat up and tucked her legs underneath her. If this was another nightmare—which she supposed it was—it wasn't like any of the other ones she had had. The rain was cool against her face and her clothes were sopping wet, chilling her to the bone. Suddenly, the stalks to her right began to move and a moment later a young man emerged from the corn.
He looked to be about sixteen-years-old and was easily taller than her, even though he was hunched over to avoid being seen. Dark, wet hair just touched his broad shoulders. His eyes looked black in the darkness and the expression there worried Elizabeth. They were filled with a mixture of fear and anger. A dangerous combination, Elizabeth knew. People were unpredictable when they were afraid; to add anger to that formula was asking for something bad to happen.
The young man stopped only long enough to catch a breath before he sprinted off past Elizabeth, running through her as if she didn't exist.
"This must be a nightmare," she confirmed, hastily getting to her feet. For a moment she struggled with indecision. She was obviously supposed to follow the boy, but should she? If this was the boy her father had been searching to kill, did she really want to know whether her father succeeded or not? Elizabeth wasn't sure she could handle seeing the boy be murdered as well.
The voices of the men pursuing the young man were getting closer and made up her mind for her. She ran after the boy, pushing through the cornfield as she ran in the direction he had gone.
In no time at all, she was in front of the tiny farmhouse from her nightmares. She didn't want to go inside, afraid of what she would find, but she also knew that she would keep having this dream until she discovered the meaning behind it. Hoping to get some answers, Elizabeth entered the house through a back door.
She walked inside, passing through a homey kitchen, just big enough to put a table and chairs in the center of the room. Elizabeth found herself wishing she could have had a meal with this family rather than having to suffer through a three-course dinner at the large and impersonal formal dining table her father used to insist they eat at.
The frightened young man from the cornfields had knelt down beside the charred remains of his parents. Only patches of skin could be seen; most of their flesh was black, making it impossible to see any distinctive features that may have been there previously. Elizabeth wondered how the fire hadn't spread throughout the farmhouse. The farmer's bodies were the only things that had been burnt.
The boy was sobbing uncontrollably, his entire body shaking with the effort to stay quiet. He reached out an unsteady hand to touch his mother's forearm, but it crumpled to ash beneath his touch. His cries became louder. Elizabeth, too, felt like crying. A terrible sorrow filled her heart, and she braced herself against the doorframe to keep herself from falling over.
I can't imagine what he's feeling right now, she thought sadly to herself. To lose both parents so suddenly and violently…especially at his age.
She recalled her mother's untimely death in her head. She had only been four-years-old when it had happened, and she could hardly remember anything from that night, except feeling as if her world had just been ripped out from underneath her. But the boy in front of her would always remember this night, and she knew that the visions of his parent's disintegrated bodies would haunt him for the rest of his life. Tears filled her eyes as the young man tried to stop crying long enough to gulp for air.
Suddenly, the boy let out a wail that shattered the silence in the room, alerting the men outside to his presence. The mob was on its way back; they would be there any moment. So why wasn't the boy moving? Why was he just kneeling there? Surely he must know that the men would kill him if and when they found him, just like his parents?
Elizabeth began to shout a warning, but her voice caught in her throat as she realized that the young man wouldn't be able to hear her. She wished there was something she could do to help the boy, but she remembered that this was a nightmare and she would have to let it play out as it was supposed to. This was what she was supposed to see.
He shouted again, the sounds coming from his mouth filled with extreme pain and intense rage.
"There he is! Kill him!" Elizabeth heard her father shout.
The boy stood and faced his enemies, all traces of fear and sorrow gone. The only thing reflected in his dark eyes was boiling anger.
"You will pay," he said, his voice no louder than a whisper, but as clear as if he had shouted his declaration. "Every last one of you will suffer at my hands for what you have done. I will not rest until you have all lost something you hold dear to your hearts! Even your children shall feel my wrath," he turned his hot gaze on her father. "Especially yours Swan. Your suffering and the suffering of your family will not end as long as I am alive!" It was not just a statement, but a promise.
"Which will not be much longer," her father spat out, giving the order for his men to charge.
The young man let loose another bellow, but it was all Elizabeth heard. She woke up screaming and writhing on the floor of Jack's house. Her heart was pounding against her ribcage and she was shaking violently.
"What the Devil was that about?" yelled Jack as Gibbs and Thomas helped Elizabeth stand up and move over to a chair. Thomas handed her a glass of water, which she gratefully accepted.
Jack continued his rant. "One minute yer here with us, making fun of me doll collection, and the next yer," he began to shake his entire body in an effort to reenact her convulsions. "Ye had drool coming out of yer mouth and ye were thrashin' about a lot. Ye were screamin' too."
"Ye gave us quite a scare," Gibbs translated.
"Were you dreaming again?" Thomas asked.
She nodded as she played with his long, dirty brown locks. "We really need to give you a haircut," she stated motherly.
"Mum, I don't think we need to worry about haircuts at a time like this," he responded, slightly annoyed. He pushed her hand away. She smiled. He was so much like his father.
"Maybe she's finally cracked up," whispered Gibbs loudly to his companion. "Ye know, with being on her own and all. Maybe she's gone loony," he suggested.
"I am not crazy Mr. Gibbs," Elizabeth stated softly. She could understand where his idea was coming from. It must appear to everyone else that she was crazy.
"Sorry, Mrs. Turner," Gibbs mumbled, shrinking back.
"She might not be crazy, but she certainly needs to do something about those nightmares," Jack said, sounding thoughtful.
"Well if you have any suggestions, I'd be more than glad to hear them. I would very much like to do away with this nightmare business," Elizabeth said half-heartedly. She didn't expect Jack to actually come up with a plan.
"I know!" Jack nearly shouted the announcement. "She needs Harriet!"
"Who is Harriet?" Thomas questioned.
"A friend," Jack replied.
"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Elizabeth asked.
As Jack began to protest her rhetorical question, the doorknob to the front door turned. Everyone froze. The door creaked open, revealing a middle-aged man and woman and their young daughter. Confusion was written all over their faces. The little girl was the first to speak.
"Daddy? Who are these people? And why are they in our house?"
Elizabeth let out a sigh as Jack waltzed up to the family.
"Yer house? What do ye mean? This here is my house, young miss," he stated.
"No it's not," her father countered. "We've lived here for ten years!"
"Oh, my mistake then. Must have forgotten me address again. That would explain the dolls," Jack said, holding up the doll he had called Janessa by her arm.
"Molly!" the little girl cried, snatching the doll out of his hand. Jack jumped back to avoid contact with the child.
"Well, we'll just be on our way. Ye have a lovely day."
Without another word he bolted out the door, leaving the rest of them no choice but to follow suit. They ran until the father's shouts died away and then stopped, exhausted and out of breath.
"Another wonderful plan from the ingenious Jack Sparrow," Elizabeth said sarcastically. "What are we going to do? We're out in the open with a stalker following us, and now we have nowhere safe to sleep!"
"But look on the bright side, luv," he suggested, "Now we have no reason not ta go see Harriet. Shall we?" he asked to no one in particular as he turned in the direction they needed to go.
The other three only followed because none of them had any better ideas at that moment.
Author's Note: Well, there's chapter four. I hope you all liked it. You've probably noticed that I am doing a lot with dream sequences. I hope this isn't bothering you. Tell me what you think, and thanks again for reading!