FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

27—The Smell of Death

DISCLAMIER: Jack'n'Lizzie etc. do not belong to me. I make no money from the writing of this fan fiction.

A/N: Thanks to everyone for the kind words about Sophie and—of course—the reviews! You're all wonderful!!! *Sends cookies and cupcakes*

Just a little warning, this chapter is slightly graphic as it goes into some gruesome details about Jack's prison break-in. It may not be the exciting, edge-of-your-seat experience you'd see in the movies, but I think it's a more realistic depiction of how things might have gone. It's not too vital to the story line, so if you want to skip it, you can.

The night was exceptionally quiet as the Pearl sailed through the ocean's inky black waters. There was little wind and it was a wonder that she was moving at all, but neither one of them seemed to mind, or even notice for that matter. The moon glided eerily behind the clouds, the stars obscured by them. The light from the cabin's last candle was dull and close to flickering out, with only a small amount of wax left, reflecting the mood quite efficiently.

What was most troubling, however, was how quiet Jack was and had been over the course of the evening. Elizabeth wasn't exactly sure what time it was, but she knew it had been at least a few hours since he'd been back. The usual mischievous glimmer in his eyes had disappeared and he'd hardly said anything… she practically had to beg him to bed her, and even throughout their lovemaking, he wasn't himself.

She lay in the crook of his arm, watching him as he stared absentmindedly up at the ceiling, her hand flat against his smooth chest. Other times like this, she was too preoccupied with the wonder that she was simply with him (and subsequently, he with her) to think of much else. But tonight, all she could do was ponder his thoughts, wondering what she could do, if anything, to get him to return to his usual sly, jovial personality.

"I know I'm only stating what's painfully obvious," she finally said, her voice low and unobtrusive, "but you're awfully quiet this evening, Jack." She paused for a few minutes, her eyes falling from his face when he didn't look at her. "I miss you," she said quietly.

He said nothing for a long while, but she was comforted a great deal when his grip on her waist tightened and he pulled her closer to him. After five, possibly more, minutes, he sighed heavily and spoke. "M'sorry."

"You needn't be," she replied, all too quickly. "I just wish… if something's troubling you…" She stopped, frustrated that she couldn't formulate her thoughts proficiently. "If you're troubled, you can confide in me."

Jack smirked, however slightly. "Just that I feel like I can brood around you, is all," he told her nonchalantly. "M'comfortable enough to, anyways. An' that's a compliment, just in case you didn't see it."

Elizabeth laughed softly. "I did. I still wish you would confide in me, though."

"Oh, my dear, sweet Lizzie." Jack bent forwards slightly, kissing the top of her head before running his fingers once through her hair. "I appreciate your effort, luv, but it's nothing worth troubling your pretty little head over." Elizabeth grinned and pinched him, making a point to use her nails. "Ouch!" Jack practically squealed. "What was that for?" he cried, pulling away slightly.

"You silly, ridiculous pirate," she chided. She clicked her tongue at him. "You should know me better by now."

He scowled down at her for a few moments before his brow softened and he let his head lie back on the pillow again. "Fine," he said, his voice pouty. His eyes fluttered closed before he spoke again. "I'll let you in on a secret then, Lizzie."

She pulled out of his embrace and propped herself up on her elbow, her attention fixed on him. "Please do."

Without opening his eyes, he twisted the ends of his mustache with his fingers. "I'm human," he said, his voice sultry and low.

"No!" she gasped, feigning disbelief. She slapped his chest playfully. "Jack, be serious."

"I am bein' serious, if ye'd only shut up and listen," he replied, artfully dodging another slap. "What I mean is…" He paused in a way that suggested he didn't really want to continue, but was going to anyways for her sake. "…I feel the same way you do. Things… things are bothersome sometimes. They resonate an' refuse to give me any peace." He finally opened his eyes and looked at her. "I might act like an unfeeling wretch sometimes, darlin', but m'not." He closed his eyes and smirked again. "Try as I might."

"Oh, Jack," she sighed, leaning back into him. She kissed his side. "I know that." She rested her head on his chest, wishing he had trusted her enough to let her accompany him to Hell's Gate, for that was clearly still what was troubling him. "Tell me more."

"I told you, it's not worth troubling you over. I'm troubled enough for the both of us, dearie."

"Please? Jack… please?" She kissed him again. "You'll feel better for it."

"Go to sleep, Lizzie."

"Jack?"

"We'll discuss it later."

"Jack."

He groaned and released his hold on her, pushing her away slightly before turning on his opposite side and ignoring her completely. She tried (and failed) not to be hurt by this, but sucked in a deep breath, edged close to him, and placed a feather-light kiss on his bare shoulder.

She rolled onto her back and stared upwards, just waiting… waiting for him to speak, waiting for his steady breathing, waiting for sleep to take her…

At least fifteen minutes must have passed before he finally spoke.

"I got lucky."

"What's that?"

He sighed, rolling onto his back.

"How I got in. I got lucky." Elizabeth said nothing, but rolled onto her side again, facing him. She waited patiently for him to continue. "Some poor bastard tried to make a break for it. Would rather dive into the ocean and drown than die in that place." He shrugged. "Didn't make it very far, but just far enough to let me slip in, unnoticed. Rather unexciting and hardly in the style of the great Capt'n Jack Sparrow, but… got the job done, didn't it?"

"I'll help you find a way to embellish the tale later," she said quietly. Jack chuckled softly, as if more than grateful for her attempts to ease his cluttered mind. "How were you not discovered once you got in?"

Jack shrugged again. "Don't know. Someone up there must like me." This time, it was Elizabeth who laughed. "Luck was on my side," he told her, wondering absentmindedly in the back of his head when that luck would run out. "I wouldn't have gotten away with it during the daytime, though."

"No?"

He shook his head. "I had the shadows to assist me," he admitted. "And that place…" She watched him as his eyes fell somewhere distant, his mind wandering back. He truly looked haunted, disturbed. "There was so much noise," he finally said. "The waves, for starters… the ocean, me constant rescuer."

He paused again. She could tell he didn't want to continue and she was surprised when he did. But his voice was different, shallow and quiet. "There was so much of it… every noise, every sound… it was all amplified… The sound of the whip against man's back… the sound of iron searing flesh… an' the sound of so many tortured souls, cryin', moanin'… just waiting… prayin'… prayin' for death.

"An' that's what it was like. I was surrounded by it. I could smell it… the smell of that place… the men there smelled like they were rotting inside. Rotting from the inside out… the smell of death.

"The wickedness of it was so great that I could hardly believe any of it was real. An' thank the sweet gods above for it, 'cause it was all I could do to keep me composure.

"The prisoners were so far gone, they didn't even notice I was there. For the most part, that is. I knew I'd have to get noticed at some point in time to get what I needed. The gent I was lookin' for… I had no name to go on… no description of the poor wretch…"

"A tedious task," Elizabeth said quietly.

"A tedious task, indeed."

"But you got the drawing of the key. How did you find him?" she asked.

Jack smirked, and a very small part of her was comforted by it. "I didn't really," he confessed, his shoulders moving ever so slightly as he spoke. Elizabeth's brow furrowed, to which Jack responded, "he found me." He breathed in deeply through his nose and Elizabeth watched his face as his eyes looked upwards, away from her. "I just started to wander. S'not much of a strategy, but when yer path is chosen for you based on keepin' yerself hidden, you adjust… work with what ye've got, so t' speak.

"So I just snuck around. Paused to listen every now an' then, hear what the prisoners were sayin' to each other, if anythin' at all. Most of 'em were too far gone to speak anyhow.

"I ended up at the crook of two hallways, a truly unfortuitous place to be. At any moment…"

At any moment he was likely to get caught. Guards could come from this direction or that and then he'd be done for. He'd no longer have to worry about finding the information he needed on Jones or the chest, for he knew he wouldn't make it out at all. And if given the option, he'd rather be unarmed against Jones and take his chances than stay in this place.

He came to the end of the hallway he had just wandered down, unnoticed, and peered to his right, then to his left. In either direction were seemingly never ending corridors of cells, yet not a guard in sight. To the casual observer, this might seem strange, but to a man with his mind, it was hardly unusual. Any man left in this place for longer than a night or two would be left truly defeated. They could still cry and scream and moan… but fighting back was no longer an option. This place, so full of despair and helplessness, sucked it right out of you.

Then he heard them… slight jingling at first, the sound of chains in the distance. He held his breath, daring not even to breath, and ducked around the corner as the noise was joined by footsteps and the familiar, haunting sound of someone being dragged along the cold, damp, unforgiving ground. If they were to round the corner, he'd be done for. Goodbye freedom… goodbye Pearl…. Goodbye Lizzie.

All too suddenly, the noises ceased, replaced by the sound of jingling keys. He didn't have to turn his head to know they were at the cell closest to him.

"Now," said one gruff voice, accompanied by the squeaking and wailing of the cell door as it opened. Jack winced as the sound of a body being thrown in against the hard ground echoed through the narrow hallways. "One more word out of you about that damned ship and it'll be solitary confinement for ye!"

The door slammed and the guard's companion cackled. "And nothin' more about monsters! They don't exist!!"

Both men roared with laughter and Jack listened with bated breath as their footsteps retreated from where they had come from. Ship? Monsters?

He stood still, silence resonating as the footsteps grew quieter and quieter until they disappeared completely. Then…

"Come out, come out, wherever you are…"

Jack frowned, turning his head slightly.

"I saw you, mate. No use hidin'. Come out. I don't bite." The prisoner's voice was weak and raspy and… oddly familiar. Against his better judgment (something he was used to ignoring anyways), he crept out from around the corner, peering towards the darkened cell. "Jack Sparrow…" A shell of a man was slumped against the bars, watching him with a toothless smile and yellowed eyes. "I thought so. Only the likes of you would be foolish enough to want in to a place like this."

Jack narrowed his eyes into slits, focusing on the face before reality hit him. "Seamus?"

The man shrugged, but with what little energy he had, it was hardly a shrug at all. "More or less." He coughed so violently his head flew back, hitting the wall lightly.

Seamus MacInbaird was one of the first friends Jack had ever made, one of the few people in life he'd actually been able to trust. They'd been cabin boys together about fourteen, maybe fifteen years ago, on the HMS Swallow. Both turned pirate around the same time, give or take a few months. That was the last time Jack had seen him, and all that was familiar about him was gone. The mess of curly red hair had disappeared. His once rosy cheeks were now gaunt, his green eyes sunken. Even his heavy Irish brood was hardly recognizable.

Jack suppressed a sigh and came to crouch down in front of the man's cell. "I was honestly hopin' I wouldn't see any familiar faces in 'ere."

"Sorry to disappoint ye," Seamus said, revealing a nearly toothless grin. "And you? What's yer story?"

"Snuck in."

"Never did adhere to the conventional," Seamus replied. "Why?"

"Doesn't matter," Jack lied. He began to fish through his effects, looking for something effective enough to pick the cell lock. He reached up towards his head (for finding strange trinkets there was hardly an odd occurrence) when he came across the reindeer bone. Just the thing… he smirked to himself as he began to unravel it from the braid it was attached to. He looked over his shoulder and then the other one to make sure no one was coming before deftly inserting the tip of the bone into the lock.

"You'll never make it out of here alive with me slung over yer shoulder," Seamus said, coughing again.

"Sure I will," Jack whispered. "I'm Capt'n Jack Sparrow."

"Of course. How could I have forgotten?" Seamus was quiet for a few moments as Jack continued to pick the lock. "I mean it, Jackie. It's too late for me. Don't bother with all that."

"Stop breakin' me concentration," Jack muttered quietly.

"Around the corner, to the left," Seamus continued on, his voice seeming to grow weaker by the minute. "I don't know for certain, but I think that's where they take the bodies. Every prisoner that leaves here does so in a pine box. You'll be wise to remember that."

"A handy method of escape for when the time comes," Jack said, nodding, refusing to tear his concentration from the lock. "And what of the two lovely gents what threw you in here? Am I to assume they're the crazy ones?"

Seamus chuckled, as best he could given his weakness. "You mean the monsters?" He drew in a shaky, ragged breath, closing his eyes. "They're real. As real as you'n'me, Jack. Be careful when yer on the outside."

"I believe you," Jack answered truthfully. "I've seen a few meself. What have you seen?"

"When you come across him, if you haven't already, you'll know it right away. But whatever you do, don't make him angry. He'll put his beast on you. I was foolish enough to dry an' deceive him an' me ship an' crew paid for it." Jack looked up to see his eyes growing wide, as if remembering all of it quite vividly. "One swipe of its giant arm and they were all dead. I'm lucky to have survived, though now… now I'd take death at his hands gladly."

"This beast…" Jack prodded, "a sea beast, I take it?"

"Aye," Seamus nodded. Jack watched him as he began to search through his ragged clothes, realizing that the man he'd been looking for he'd known all along. Finally, he pulled out a folded rag, reaching out with as much strength as he could muster and pressing it into Jack's palm through the bars. "Here. Take this with you. I've no use for it anymore."

Jack paused for a moment from what he was doing and unfolded the parchment. It was a key. Or rather… a drawing of a key.

"What's this?" he asked.

"The only way…" Seamus carried off, coughing viscously. "The only way… to stop him." Seamus leaned his head against the bars and Jack frowned, going back to his work.

"Hold on a few moments longer, Seamus. I've almost got it," he assured him. Finally, after only a few minutes, as promised, the lock sprung open and the door swung free. "Come on. We better hurry." Jack leaned forward to help Seamus to his feet, only to see a pair of lifeless eyes, wide open, staring back at him. Jack breathed in shallowly through his nose and closed his eyes for a few minutes. When he opened them, he leaned forward, just barely touching the other man's face, closing his eyes. "Peace at last," he whispered. "Goodnight, mate."

He rose to his feet and carefully pulled the bone from the picked lock. He'd reattach it later.

He left the door open, and, as instructed, took a left around the corner.

A/N: Thanks for reading, now go review! See you next time!