Enjoy the chapter! Thank you so much for reviewing and giving me feedback on my story. I hope the story is so far to your satisfaction.
By the way, I'm looking for a Beta reader to beta my stories. If anyone is up to it, please PM. However, I'm asking for this Beta to be good in grammar, spelling and have knowledge of writing and writing styles.
Anyways, I do hope you are enjoying Napoleon Basset's character!
I'm also thinking of starting another story that centers around Calypso and Davy Jones but it is still undecided.
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Tortugan Beginnings
A Swig of Alcohol
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Angelina felt her heart drop to the pit of her stomach as the obsidian ship halted to a stop. The white sanded beaches were only just in her vision and it would take little less then an hour to feel the sand underneath her feet. It was true that she had agreed to come with the pirates onshore but that didn't mean she wasn't dreading it with every ounce of her frail body.
She was clutching the rail until her battered knuckles turned white. The whole crew sensed her apprehension and anxiety, most even foreseen it coming. However, what the crew had not foreseen coming was Angelina's desire to rescue Audrina. Or lack thereof. It wasn't that she didn't want to, more like she didn't think she could rescue her and face her demons all at the same time. She was more then frightened, Angelina Lewis was blood stricken terrified.
"Yer holiness, the boat is awaitin' ya." Jack said from behind her.
Angelina turned, not amused by him at all. But she did not retort an insult or perhaps even a threat, she only shrugged. That disappointed Jack, he wanted to get a rile out of her. It perhaps made him crave Audrina even more. "All right." She said and walked towards him with her eyes averted from his face.
As she stood before the ladder, Jack immediately saw her hesitation and reluctance to climb down and lower herself into the boat to be rowed to shore. By her side, he smirked at her smugly and she glared back at him. "Would I be correct in sayin' that you do not want to go rescue little miss 'Rina?"
"No!" She protested but her facial expression decided quite the opposite.
Her face was pallid and her eyes wide as saucers. In surprise to his statement or even fear, Jack wasn't sure, but her mouth was slightly parted as if she was to say something more but no words left her lips. That alone showed Jack that he was indeed correct about her rather wicked thoughts. However, Jack didn't entirely blame the 'Angel'. She was traumatized and terrified. He could almost picture the angel and demon perched upon her quivering shoulders, battling each other. They were battling each for what was right and what was easy.
Angel seemed to be in limbo, not really listening to either but still keeping their whispers in her ears into consideration. Jack knew the feeling. He knew it all too well. He often took the easy way out. He was a pirate, people expected it from him.
Jack shook his head at her. "That's interestin' because everythin' about yer body language states quite what I had implied."
"Maybe you're right." She said softly, more to herself than him.
"More people should be sayin' that nowadays. Ya don't have to go, luv. There are no heroes in the world of pirates." He tried to reassure her and he wasn't lying either. Heroes in the world of pirates were as foreign as snow in the Caribbean. Thieves and murderers had no heroes.
Angelina nodded absentmindedly, still gazing at the beach in the near distance. "I don't want to be a hero. I just don't want to be a prisoner anymore."
"Luv, concernin' the great world of piratin', we are all free men or we die tryin'. You are not a pirate, it's about time you've become one."
Angelina blinked at this statement, in utter shock. Her a pirate? She loathed pirates with all of her heart. How would she become a pirate? "I….I could never hurt anyone, Captain. I could never be a pirate. Never." She stuttered.
Jack merely shook his head at her. "It's not all about plunderin' and stealin', luv. A pirate is freedom in definition. And from time to time, everyone wants a taste of that freedom."
"I'm afraid of what that freedom will taste like. I haven't tasted it in years."
Jack smiled at her, the glint of gold in his smile catching the sun. "Curiosity, darlin', everyone wants to know what it tastes like."
Angelina turned back to the pirate. "Which is it? Freedom or curiosity?"
"That's the thing, luv. They come hand in hand."
The captain turned and descended down the ladder. Angelina was left alone on the deck with a few of the pirates that were staying behind. With Jack's last words reverberating in her mind, she followed him down the ladder with the fear residing in her heart subsiding only slightly.
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Audrina, with her eyes shut tight, was being led off the dark depths of the Abaddon by a calloused hand and a pistol pressed up against her spine. As the cool oceanic breeze caressed her cheek, she found the courage to peek open her eyes.
The small town in the distance was foreign to her. She couldn't quite see the name of the town that was written in blocky letters on a sign quite far from where she was standing but she was sure that she wouldn't have recognized it.
She didn't even quite understand where in the world she was. Audrina figured she was in the Caribbean due to the white sanded beaches and the crystalline water that lapped against the shore. She didn't even quite notice the heat at first but as she stood on the shore with the bitter steel of the manacles binding her hands, she immediately recognized it. Rivulets of sweat cascaded down her face but she murmured no protest to either the heat or the manacles.
She had no strength to do so anyway. The long voyage had drained her of her strength, her spirit and her honor. Her legs underneath her trembled with fatigue, she breathed hard only to be met with a quick spell of dizziness and faintness. She yearned for a moment of rest but she did not say anything or even utter a soft moan of pain. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction.
Audrina wasn't even quite aware of who stood upon the beach with her. She faintly recognized a few of the African pirates with their rings jingling as they worked upon the beach. She didn't see her hellish father, either. Nor did she see her companion Napoleon Basset.
She felt the pressing of a gun's barrel against her spine harder pushing her forward. Her heart lurched and she abided by the mysterious person behind her. They walked closer and closer to the town up ahead.
She knew what they were going to do with her and she yearned for Jack to come and rescue her already.
All she had to do was to wait.
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Napoleon Basset watched his friend from the outskirts of the beach, near the town's entrance. She was so completely lost looking, she looked so very wounded. He never imagined a woman like Audrina could ever even appear to be wounded. Her skin was cracked and swollen and blue in some places. Her dull hair lied limply around her face and was thick with blood and her own sweat. The manacles made her appear as if a prisoner. And she was. She was the definition of a prisoner. Napoleon could see her fidgeting; he could see her discomfort even so far away.
Audrina Hart had been changed. A once confident woman had been lowered down to the likes of the dogs. Her spirit had left her body. She was only a shell and nothing more. But Napoleon could still see that fight in her; he could still see her fighting for her freedom. The days were she was still a sassy young woman hadn't completely disappeared. Not yet, at least. Somehow, Basset had convinced himself of that as had Audrina. Those days of happier, more joyous times would return. Jack, in all his glory, with his fabulous glittering teeth and fathomless black eyes, would save them.
Them.
Napoleon Basset needed to be rescued as well. He needed to be rescued in a way that he knew no one could ever rescue him. He needed to be pulled from his eternal hell. Only his precious drink could make him forget. Every swig of rum made him forget another details. Another chug of alcohol made him believe that saints and angels still existed and that light really vanquished the dark.
But then as he was resurrected from his drunken stupor every night, he would suddenly remember. It would suddenly return to him in flashes. No, he had not experienced the rape, the mutilation and the ridicule but he had seen it. He had sat back and watched it all without any protests.
He couldn't protest or he would lose everything just like the poor women that were enslaved by Marcus Addison. So with every swig of alcohol, he convinced himself even further that it was all a bad dream.
And that one day he will wake up and his beautiful wife would be lying next to him. And that he would hear the wails of his newborn infant from the next room. One day, he convinced himself. One day I'll wake up and this will all be gone.
Napoleon Basset knew it was never going to happen. But the alcohol made him believe otherwise as well.
With those ugly thoughts racing through his mind, he turned away from her. Audrina hadn't noticed because she hadn't even seen him but Napoleon could almost imagine her disappointment. With a great sigh, he moved towards the town and the tavern to drown his sorrows once more.
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"Name?" The elderly man working on the docks asked the suspicious Captain and his crew.
"Let's forget the name." Jack said smugly, while he produced a few coins. "I believe we have an accord, mate."
The man looked at him and back to the coins. "Ah yes, sir, that we have."
Jack Sparrow flashed him a grin while moving towards the town. Behind him, Angelina, Lucas as well as a few other crew members struggled to keep up with his accelerated gait.
Lucas was at his side within a few moments. "Jack." He said simply to get the Captain's attention.
"Is there any reason fer yer to be annoyin' me, mate?" Jack asked simply without any malice or anger in his voice. He just said it. He seemed too deep in thought, Lucas assumed, to be annoyed by him anyhow.
"You do know where you are going?" Lucas asked feverishly.
Jack stopped suddenly and turned to him. "Towards the tavern, mate."
In that split second that Jack had merely uttered the word tavern, Lucas' face clouded over and his eyes narrowed. His heart had already accelerated and his jaw clenched and twitched with disapproval. Lucas could already feel his hand immediately going to the pistol hung at his hip but he stopped himself even in his fit of passion. Jack must have had a reason. Even to Lucas' embarrassment, he would admit that Jack was somewhat intelligent.
With a deep breath, he regained himself. "Why, pray tell, are we going to the tavern?" Lucas said, trying to keep his voice level.
"There never is a reason to not go ter the tavern." Jack responded. "And why, pray tell, do ya always doubt me?"
"You always give me a reason to, Jack." Lucas said somewhat calmly. "Will going to the tavern help us find Aud?"
Jack started to walk once more and Lucas walked along next to him. "Certainly, mate. Ya always find out the best of information in a tavern."
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