The ship groaned as another harsh wave beat the side of the ship. They now sailed not far from Singapore, in the rough waters of East Asia.

Elizabeth used her hand to steady herself on the wooden crate-turned bed which she sat upon. Once she felt her balance regained, she brought the quill in her hand back to the ink pot, which she had cleverly joined to a barrel near her bed using candle wax.

Day two hundred and seventy four, she wrote in a blank journal she had found in the charting room.

I think it is day two hundred and seventy four, based only on the markings I have made on the wall in my little corner of the cargo hold. Of course, this is the number of days since we first left Port Royal, and not from Tia Dalma's island. Time has begun to escape me, for I cannot believe that our journey has been so prolonged. I do not know what I suspected- I suppose I had surmised that Singapore was as near as England was to Jamaica. Alas that journey took just three months, with little help in the way of tail winds. The nine months upon this hellish ship has been gruelling. Each day crawls by, growing longer as every night passes. I tired so long ago of what little books could be found in the charting room- of course, none good enough to read twice. I do long to be on land once more, for this journey taxes me far more than anticipated.

The ship rocked once more, sending an ink drop upon the page as Elizabeth waited in thought. A soft sigh escaped her lips as she shifted positions, her boney rump beginning to ache against the less than agreeable makeshift bed.

It affords one no comforts. The food is dry and the water stale. I feel like I am once more back in the prison cell deep within the bowels of Port Royals fort, fasting against my own wishes and left with only the wretchedness of my own mind. I suppose I cannot complain, for I have held a firm hand with all that has lead me here.

A glass jar fell from one of the crates in the darkness past the crates that guarded her sanctuary, causing her to flinch. Once she was sure that she had no unwanted company, she began writing again.

Writing here is the only solace that I have. It holds semblance to having another to speak to, for that I do miss. I feel that for so long I have been alone and so much has happened over this year last, and yet I have hardly spoken a word of it. It seems inconceivable that I can write the words this year past, as it seems impossible that a year could have gone past. How has it been so long? Nearly a year since the wedding never to be. Nearly a year since I found myself in love with one that was not my fiancé. . . nine months since I found myself married to that man and just as long since I fed Jack to the Kraken. It is certainly impossible that it has been so long, and it feels longer still for I have not seen the one I love for that time too. My hearts aches when I think of Cutler and for that I try not to. I can only hope that he is near, only waiting for me to retrieve Jack so that we may see each other once more. Time-

Elizabeth's eyes watched the entrance to her corner, waiting to see the darkness move.

-Time and tide waits for no man. My father used to tell me that. The words feel so relevant now, as time surpasses me. I lose track of the days, the months, the seasons. I feel myself in a sort of time capsule, being stuck on this ship. The world around carries on, while we are here, only able to wait as we grow older, wasting days that could be numbered staring out at a deep blue sea. It was months ago now that I realized my birthday had long since passed; and now another approaches. By the time I leave this ship I will have surely aged more than a year. I try not to think about the second trek out of Singapore to a place far away, unknown to me. I wonder how long that journey will take, but fear the worst- perhaps in a year still we shall not be there, and I shall still be writing here my woes, declaring my love for my husband and my father-

Another bump came from within the maze of crates. Elizabeth closed her journal and tucked it safely under her pillow before standing to peer into the darkness. Naught but the creeks and groans of the wooden hull came. She sighed and crossed her arms with the slight roll of the eye at her own silliness.

'I'm going mad,' she murmured.

'Not quite so,' a familiar husky voice came from the darkness. 'For madness only truly takes over, when one claims that he is not mad.'

Jack Sparrow stepped into the golden ring of light cast by the lantern sitting on a nearby crate. It was an eerie sight to behold, a dead man dosed in shadows, but it was one that Elizabeth had rather maddeningly grown accustomed to. It was a ritual torture that her mind frequently put on show for her over the past few months.

Elizabeth's jaw tightened and she lifted her chin, 'If I am not mad then why do I see you? You're dead.'

'Ah see,' he sat on a nearby barrel, closer to the light, 'you'd be mad if you had forgotten the latter. Why do you see me, a dead man? Easily explained Lizzy-' he paused in a moment of thought as he eyed her form- 'You're a pestilent, traitorous, cowhearted, yeastly codpiece, and you feel guilty for being so.'

'I don't see myself as such.'

'You certainly see yourself as a murderer-'

'-a woman strong enough to make a sacrifice to save those who were not at fault,' she quipped with her eyes slit and her chin up confidently.

'And then there's poor William, who you lead on,' Jack went on, flashing a smile. 'A man entirely absent of fault, who's heart you break every day. I can't imagine the damage that will be done when he finds out that his bonny lass is married off to Cutler Beckett.'

Elizabeth had no clever retort for this. Her dark brows furrowed defensively. 'And?'

Jack stood from the crate. 'It's nearly been a year since you were due to be married to young William. . . all of which, you've been tied to another. While William wonders what he has done or has not done, under the impression that perhaps there is still a chance for him, once this is all over. You have moved on for him, betrayed, and taken another's name, all while he still calls you his fiancée. You're a coward, Lizzy.'

'And you're dead-' she bit out angrily through gritted teeth. 'You're not here, only in my head- do tell me who is better off.'

'Perhaps I am just in your head,' Jack agreed, 'perhaps I am just your conscious, reiterating all of your guilty thoughts. Perhaps I'll always be here, like your evil other half, just to remind you of all your wicked doings. You don't deserve to ever forget, Lizzy.' He stepped back, further into the shadows. 'I think if one looks at it like that, I am the one better off.'

Elizabeth squeezed her eyes shut and gripped her fingers in her hair. 'Just go away, please,' she demanded.

'Elizabeth?' she opened her eyes. It was another voice, coming from the place that Jack had stood. It was Will. 'Who do you speak to?'

'I uh-' her eyes searched the darkness behind Will. 'No one, nothing.'

Will glanced down at his boots and cleared his throat. 'We reach Singapore soon,' he said. 'Barbossa has informed me that we shall make port far from the city.'

'Why is that?' Elizabeth uncomfortably paced her small area of the ship, moving books from one crate to another to avoid looking in Will's direction.

'There is a temple in a remote forest,' he informed. 'A map, which Barbossa claims will assist in our escape of the locker, rests inside. We make port there and leave the ship; I will retrieve the map while the rest of the crew makes their way to Singapore by foot, including you.'

'Why afoot?'

'Sao Feng is a cruel man, hunted by the guard in Singapore. He does not like attentions drawn his way. Barbossa assures that it would be in our best interest to do so if we wish to tempt him to our thinking.'

'So we shall be leaving the ship for good?'

'Yes, Feng is suspicious always of the allegiance of other pirates,' Will said. 'He trusts none, not even his own. If he sees that we have a ship of the fleet, he will no doubt wonder who's side we're on.'

Elizabeth made a sound from her throat, acknowledging what was being told to her. Her teeth held tightly to her bottom lip and her cheeks flushed scarlet in shame. She couldn't bring her eyes to look at Will- she never could, and favoured hiding behind her long dark lashes. Looking at him brought unmeasurable bouts of discomfiture- seeing his pitiful boyish eyes only made her feel more wicked. The tension in the air was palpable. All the words left unsaid hung heavily in the humid air. Elizabeth wished that he would retreat back to the main deck of the ship, leaving her to wallow in her own guilt alone.

'Anything else?' she bit out with an air of irritation, though the words were meant to sound casual.

Will stepped forward, forcing Elizabeth's eyes his way. She reluctantly took in the sight of him; sadness clouded his features. His forehead puckered in thought and his jaw tense, she knew all that played on his mind. As expected, the familiar pangs of guilt struck her swiftly, sending her ears hot and palms clammy. Her shaking hand went to brush an absent strand of hair behind her ear as she tried to look at anything but Will, suddenly feeling so defenceless under his scrutinizing gaze. It felt to Elizabeth that when his eyes fell upon her, he knew all of her secrets. As if he could see the ways she had betrayed him; able to watch the scarlet memories which floated in her mind with such clarity it was as if he had witnessed the events himself. Able to watch as she had first taken off her clothes for Lord Beckett and watch as he took her on the stairs of their mansion; able hear her declaration of love and moans for him. This of course was not true and Elizabeth knew it, but Will could indeed see the unrelenting look of guilt that made a home across her features when he looked her way.

'Elizabeth. . .' his voice was soft. 'I just-' he sighed heavily and scratched his head. 'I feel that we haven't spoken, not really, since the day prior to our wedding. . . I wish I knew why. What I could do. At least know for certain so that I may stop asking myself so many questions.'

Elizabeth remained silent, staring at the lantern on the wooden barrel as she tugged nervously at her sleeve. There was nothing that she wanted to say, or for that matter, could say. The only answer that she could give Will would hurt him terribly and amidst the chaos that would soon amass once they reached Singapore, she felt it would be cruel to put more on his mind. Though she knew that this was merely an excuse, for it seemed with each passing month since the doomed wedding, she had another cock and bull reason not to admit her treachery.

'I sometimes feel that if I were not to come speak to you, that we might never speak again,' he continued. 'And I wonder if you would be satisfied with that. I wonder what has lead you to be so.'

'Perhaps it is my nature to be so-' Elizabeth crossed her arms over her chest with a huff- 'I cannot answer those questions for you.'

Will let out an agitated breath at her diffidence towards his questioning. Elizabeth's eyes flashed his way for only but a second, long enough to see that the sadness that had clouded his features had been exchanged for slit eyes and a brow that she knew meant irritation.

'All I want is for you to explain to me how two people are happy- dressing for their wedding, and then-' he took three steps forward, sending Elizabeth two steps back- 'and then suddenly they are mere strangers.'

'I cannot answer those questions for you,' Elizabeth reiterated coldly, recoiling further into herself.

'I thought that day when I saw you on Isla Cruces that you had come for me, unable to bear to be without me, but not a word was spoken,' his voice was desperate. 'Now I wonder why you left the prison in the first place. How it was that the heart of Davy Jones went missing, why Jack thought that it should be safely in the jar. I wonder why you were so eager to fetch Norrington and why it is that the two of you were spared of the prison once more in Port Royal, despite the warrants against you. And why now, Beckett, the man working with your father, possesses the heart.'

Elizabeth had paled at his words, but put on a poker face. Her golden eyes burned into him. 'Did you come here to enquire of the state of our relationship or to proclaim that I am a traitor?'

'I do not proclaim that,' he assured with a shake of his head. 'Only that you might have made a deal which would lead you to be so. For that I would not ridicule you, Elizabeth. If you would speak to me to that I may understand- so that I might help-'

'-there is no help that you might give me, Will,' she went to her makeshift bed and sat down. With her head held down and her fingers clutched tight to the wooden edge, she put in her last word on the matter. 'I do not wish to speak of this anymore.'

Will stepped forward once more, and with a deep breath so closely came to denying her wishes and argued further. Elizabeth was thankful when no words passed his lips, and instead he turned, his footsteps furthering through the maze of crates, until finally he was gone. She breathed a sigh of relief and moved to her pillow to retrieve her journal once more.

Cutler, Elizabeth began to write. She thought of the ship that she had seen thrice following the commandeered frigate. Once just before the journey through the canal and then just thereafter, and once more only a month prior just as they made port at Marshall Island. It was the same company ship and Elizabeth knew that it must have been commissioned by Cutler to follow her trail. When the crew left the frigate behind once reaching Singapore, she would leave behind the journal with hopes that a member of the commissioned ship would get it to her husbands hands.

I made it to Tia Dalma, and there she raised a man who I thought to be dead. Barbossa, who now takes us to Singapore, and thereafter to the locker. A journey which will take us to Jack, if successful. Our journey to Singapore holds two purposes- convince Sao Feng the Pirate Lord to convene the Brethren Court (I believe Barbossa has the same needs as we, to please Tia Dalma for his return) and to find the navigational charts which will help us return to the land of the living. We shall abandoned the ship and make our way afoot to Singapore, for Feng is suspicious and would not be pleased for attention to be drawn his way. Barbossa fears that if he sees our crew in possession of a company ship, he will question our loyalties and deny our requests. I intend to leave this journal upon this ship as we leave in hopes that it will be returned to you.

Elizabeth ran the soft quill over her cheek in thought.

I love you. I long to see you once more.

Elizabeth.

WRITERS NOTE:

Thanks for reading it means so much! It's been becoming exceedingly difficult to write- it seems every time I write I new chapter I think, 'Cool I TOTALLY have time to start writing the next!' And then something pops up that just takes up my free time. As I think I said before I am currently dealing with Visa stuff and the stress of it has basically turned my mind to mush. With most of these chapters I wrote them in an hour with no problem, whereas these last few chapters have really just been difficult. When I've tried to write I just end up staring at my laptop screen until my eyes hurt and I claim I'll do it tomorrow. . . and then I repeat. But hey the next chapter is already in production, yay!