CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Forty Feet Below
The trek across South Shore Cove, where they'd landed, and then a stretch of the island was slightly treacherous given the snow which slid under their feet with every step, but finally they reached the south-eastern corner of Oak Island where, according to the map Elizabeth was clutching, the Money Pit lay. Jack had been expecting something rather more impressive than what he was seeing; on the surface it looked rather like a small sinkhole, half covered in snowy plant-life. They stopped some feet away from it, looking at it with mixed feelings. Jack glanced at Elizabeth, trying not to appear uncertain.
"This is it, then?" He asked. She silently handed him the map. Indeed, it indicated that they were standing right before the Money Pit. "Right. Well. In we go then." He wasn't in the least bit enthused by this prospect. His mind strayed back to Katie; she'd probably volunteer to go first if she was here because she liked to get things done. Jack and Elizabeth made a couple of reluctant steps towards the pit, but looking round, Jack saw that not a single member of the crew had moved even an inch, including Gibbs. The latter spoke up:
"It looks like it might collapse."
"Nonsense!" Jack said loudly, though he didn't believe it himself.
"We'll have to crawl to get in." Marty, another return to Jack's crew, pointed out.
"An' we don' know 'ow far down it goes." Another crew member said.
"Dead men tell no tales!" Cotton's parrot squawked forebodingly. The crew glanced around at each other fearfully. Jack looked round at Elizabeth; she rolled her eyes.
"I suppose we'll 'ave to do all the work, as usual." Jack said, exasperated. Elizabeth went first, crawling through the tiny gap in the top of the land, the snowy ground soaking her as she went. She had to lower herself entirely to the ground and shimmy her way through the gap. Jack watched ahead of himself as her feet disappeared, then edged towards the gap himself. He didn't realise he was holding his breath until he heard Elizabeth's voice, some way below ground level. "There are steps!" Jack followed her a little less hesitantly then, and found that there were indeed logs inserted every few feet within the rock. It was dark and almost impossible to see anything, though what little light there was seemed to come from the walls of the pit itself and not from the tiny opening above. Jack and Elizabeth climbed silently down for what felt like an eternity. Down, down, further down, and Jack was about to ask just how deep this thing might be when his next step had him hit something like the ground. The strange glow from the walls was brighter down here, and Jack could make out Elizabeth's face.
"Where now?" He noticed they were ankle-deep in water.
"There's only one way." Elizabeth pointed to a narrow cave way that had clearly been eroded into existence by water, given the strange markings on the walls that told of something of a current pushing against it time and again. Jack remembered the stories of how often this place supposedly flooded and decided haste was their friend now. He began to lead the way, but then hesitated and drew his sword. He heard a whisper of metal as Elizabeth copied him. They edged through the tunnel, having to turn sideways to fit through parts of it. Again, it seemed to go on forever though as soon as either of them began to think of time passing, it opened up.
Jack knew immediately they had found the place they were looking for. This was the real Money Pit. The mysterious light was at its maximum here; though looking up the sky was almost visible hundreds of feet above them. The sky appeared sunny, though in reality it was grey. And before them was treasure. Chests, coins, trinkets of every kind, filled the pit from edge to edge.
"Captain Kidd was said to have first come upon this place." Elizabeth mentioned, "I remember reading of it in the books about pirates I used to read." The very books she had read stories of Jack, though those stories were equally negligible as the one she was speaking of now.
"Captain Kidd weren't a pirate. He was a privateer who weren't of no use by the government when they thought he'd name names of real pirates. They hanged him for bein' politically useless, not because 'e was a pirate." Jack murmured in answer. It had always been common knowledge to him, having being raised by pirates, that Captain Kidd had never been a pirate. "An' he never came here, either."
"There were skirmishes and acts of piracy to his name." Elizabeth insisted.
"More likely their verdict 'ad been reached before 'e was given trial. He was just one of the first of many that the government made it impossible for him to be anythin' other than pirates, at least in their eyes." The brand on his arm seemed to throb as he said it. He had escaped the gallows, for sure, but not the conviction. Elizabeth was no stranger to this either, because her old life had been taken from her on these same grounds. She checked the ripped out page from a particular book that she had brought with her. It had a picture of a stone on it where something was written. Jack peered over her shoulder at this. "Forty feet below, two million pounds lie buried." He read aloud.
"It was to keep unsuspecting explorers looking for something they'd never find." Elizabeth told him.
"Aye. An' to make sure the right hands found how to bind Calypso for the right reasons." They looked at each other uneasily, because this was the sticky part: were they binding Calypso for the right reasons? A sea goddess who wished to free did not want binding at all, for any reason. Elizabeth considered this closely, turning back to face Jack.
"I'll have to be the one to take them. I'm not doing this for personal gain." Jack thought this reasoning to be quite logical and probably correct. After all, he was planning to bind Calypso to save his own life.
"You know where exactly in here they are?" Jack checked, and Elizabeth nodded.
"I've been working out the clues as we sailed here, they'll be-" Clunk. Elizabeth's eyes rolled and she fell to the ground, unconscious. Jack's eyes watched her fall before bouncing back up to look at the source of her fainting, and the noise that had preceded it. And right before him, twirling the pistol she had used to club Elizabeth with in her hand, was Angelica.
It felt as if all the wind had been knocked out of him.
"I wondered how long it would take you to get here, Jack." Jack's eyes quickly took her appearance in. She looked almost exactly as she had when he had left her on that island, her olive skin smooth, her dark eyes shining, her sarcastic smile. While she twirled the gun in one hand, he noticed she was playing with a sheath of papers tucked into the pocket of her coat with the other. So, she had the original Brethren Court notes already. Of course.
"I hope yer not planning to shoot me." Jack croaked. He felt like vomiting at the sight of her, the woman who had broken his heart twice now. He was revolted. He wanted to hurt her, hurt her more than she had ever hurt in her life. But he couldn't move, he was rooted to the spot, he could only stare hatefully.
"It's a shame to see you looking at me like that, Jack. Your eyes once devoured me." He remembered that time, and he remembered how the mere cadence of her voice used to stir him delightfully. But now, clear in his mind, he once again saw Katie's weak, bleeding body on the table on Shipwreck Island.
"If ye do plan to shoot me, I advise ye do it now. Elizabeth here has bested you before." Angelica glanced down at Elizabeth's still form momentarily.
"My father told me of Oak Island. He came here, and some of this treasure was his. So, mine now."
"I. Don't. Care." Jack growled through gritted teeth.
"So Jack, you are married now," Angelica said, again ignoring him. "I had the pleasure of meeting your wife."
"Give me the papers." He thought about raising the sword he was still holding but then he knew it was pointless threatening someone who could not die.
"It was a shame that Moss died, he was useful."
"Give me the papers!" He said again, louder this time. In his periphery he could see Elizabeth opening her eyes, but he was not about to give her away to Angelica.
"But that would make it easier for you to stand in my way, Jack." Jack thought he heard a noise but didn't dare look around. Elizabeth had crawled slowly out of Angelica's sight, unnoticed, and was moving behind her as silently as a cat. "How long do you plan to play with that woman before you leave her as you always leave every woman who is foolish enough to love you?" As Angelica's hand left her pocket to move a strand of hair out of her eyes, Elizabeth's own quick hand darted around and nimbly lifted the papers from Angelica's pocket. Jack did his best not to show on his face what he had observed and Angelica had missed.
"Angelica, I don't want to hurt you," He told her threateningly, as Elizabeth raised her own pistol behind the Spanish woman.
"Ah but you cannot hurt me anymore, Jack! Only I can hurt you! You will face the wrath of Calypso whatever you do and it will be by my hand!" Thwack. Elizabeth clubbed Angelica even harder with the pistol than she'd received shortly before. Angelica dropped to the ground, unconscious, but she wouldn't be for long.
"Let's go!" She said, grabbing Jack's wrist and yanking him away, pulling him along the tunnel and towards the logs they had climbed down. As they began to ascend once more, a great, threatening rumble sounded from behind them. Jack glanced back in time to see a fast rush of water pouring into the section of the pit they were in. Both he and Elizabeth began to climb faster and more frantically, trying to beat the speed of the rapidly rising water. It was lapping at Jack's ankles when he finally pulled himself up and out of the tiny gap and back into daylight above ground.
He rolled out of the way of the sopping water bound to burst free and overflow onto the snowy ground, but when he looked back there was nothing. Elizabeth looked equally confused and afraid by that water and the way it had disappeared. Had it really flooded, or had it been merely an illusion? Either way, Angelica was still down there.
"Back to the Pearl! Quick! Anyone who falls behind is left behind!" Jack barked, and the crew responded to the panic in his voice by sprinting all-out to the ship. "Haul anchor! Make way! I need wind in these sails!" The crew scurried about the deck, numb, cold fingers coaxing the sails to full stretch. Soon, Oak Island was melting out of sight behind them as the sun set. Jack stood at the wheel, jaw locked, silent, for the rest of the evening and refused to be relieved. As crew members took to their hammocks, Jack heard the cabin door open. He knew Katie was standing behind him.
"She was there, wasn't she?" She said quietly. He tried to ignore his relief at hearing her speak- he was glad, more than ever, that he had made her stay behind. He could only nod though, eyes fixed straight ahead. Katie looked at his tense shoulders and back for a moment before approaching him. She wrapped her arms around his waist from behind, resting her face in the cleft between his shoulder blades. She had been in bed the whole time and so carried warmth with her, which felt amazing to a cold captain. He relaxed a little into her embrace, reached around guided her before him instead so that her back was against the wheel, which he still held firmly. Her bright green eyes were wide and moved across his face before she reached up a little tentatively to wrap her arms around his neck and press her lips to his. Again, hers were warm and his were cold and both moved closer together at the contrast. When they broke apart she didn't remove her arms from around him, and he had never moved his from the wheel.
"These waters are full of icebergs." He told her in a very soft voice.
"You need to rest." She let go of him and turned to face front, her hands gripping the wheel too. Jack let go but was impressed to see her holding it steady.
"Thanks for listening to me, love." He told her.
"Don't get used to it." She replied. Both smirked, though neither could see the others expression as Jack took her advice and went to get some well-earned sleep.
The voyage back was going to be tough as they were now quite low on supplies and had nowhere along the way where it'd be worth risking a stop to restock. As food was rationed and rum running low, many crew members grew irritable, which was predictable. Only the four who knew what their journey had been for were even slightly cheerful. Jack and Elizabeth were both still privately shaken up by the incident in the Money Pit, though they didn't bring it up or tell the other two. They just mentioned the confrontation with Angelica, at which Gibbs gave the nervous command to coax more speed from the Pearl.
"Calypso ain't goin' anywhere, mate." Jack muttered, when Gibbs came hurrying back into the Captain's quarters, where they were sat around the table.
"Have you had a good look at those minutes?" Katie asked Elizabeth.
"I've glanced over them but I think we'll need more expert knowledge to understand some of what it implies."
"Aye, Barbossa and Teague, those are who ye need for this sorta thing." Gibbs said thoughtfully.
"Barbossa wasn't exactly eager to help us before we left." Jack pointed out with distaste. There were many things Barbossa had done which he found hard to forgive.
"He told us eventually, and that's what matters." Katie said soothingly. He looked at her, marvelling at her ability to put faith into people that didn't deserve it. First himself and now Barbossa.
"All we can do for now is try to ensure we survive the journey back." Elizabeth stated resolutely, getting to her feet. "And any merchant ships that come into our path, we defeat them quickly and soundly as we did last time. We need water, at least." She exited the room, and Gibbs soon followed. Jack hadn't looked away from Katie since she'd last spoken.
"What?" She asked.
"Nothing." Jack looked away, fiddling instead with a loose thread in the sleeve of his coat.
"Teague was telling me that when he visited Oak Island one thing they did find was a sort of cave leading from the other side of the island into the pit. When they went back the next day to follow it once more the cave had disappeared." Katie informed him. The story had fascinated her when the old pirate had told her it, but weirdly she saw Jack shiver at its telling.
"I've had enough of that supernatural malarkey for a lifetime. For two lifetimes, in fact, considering this is technically my second." Jack announced. His mind was full of that water rising and then disappearing.
"How did she know where we were heading?" Katie questioned.
"I don't know." He mumbled, then: "I hate her."
"No you don't." You can't hurt me anymore.
"I do," He promised her, "If I could kill her, I would." Katie surveyed his expression, but it was unreadable. Blank.
"Jack, if there was a way to do it, it'd be my job. Not yours." And then Katie, too, swept from the room.
A/N: Thank you for reading! I'd just like to reiterate that while Oak Island and the so-called Money Pit are real places, this is a fictionalised version of what it might look like. However, the quote 'forty feet below, two million pounds lie buried' is a real quotation engraved into a stone supposedly found at the site. Please don't hesitate to drop me a review, I've had some lovely ones lately but remember any feedback is welcome!