A soft knock at my door, I looked up from where his name had me transfixed. I blinked a few times; the knock had come as a kind of shock reminder that there were other people around now. I made a noise as an indication that it was alright for whoever it was to enter, but couldn't form a word. The door swung open and Teague stood in the doorway. I had been quite calm, quite composed until I had seen him. Things had been quite numb and quiet inside me until I saw Teague. There's something about the way that people look at you when there is clearly something wrong that makes you want to break down all over again. Teague saw my already red eyes fill up again and pulled me towards him. I closed my eyes. Teague softly told me that I could stay with them if I wanted. For as long as I wanted. I refused. There was too much here that reminded me of Jack. Too much of him in all of them, in their eyes, in their faces, it would be too hard to stay with those constant reminders.

"He's a prick!" I heard Hugh shout from down the hall. I opened my eyes and saw his blurry outline over his father's shoulder. It drew a wobbly smile from my lips, but I shook my head at his comment.

"No, no he's just Jack."

"It amounts to the same thing in my eyes."

"Well it doesn't in mine," I said firmly and pulled back from Teague, regaining my strength. The letter had got slightly crumpled in his embrace. I looked at it. When I looked back up Teague and Hugh were looking at it too. I held it out. "Next time you see Jack, will you give him this?"

"What does it say?" Hugh asked. I said nothing, but looked at Teague. Teague nodded and took it from me. Hugh looked annoyed and tried to look at what I had handed his father. This annoyed Hugh, he made a move to grab it but backed off when his dad shot him a look. He sighed. "I hope you're telling him he should jump of a cliff and deserves to die and ugly, lonely old man and if he ever comes near you again you're going to carve out his..."

"That's enough, Hugh!" Teague cut across him. Hugh stopped, but didn't look happy about it. "What Jack decided was regrettable, but there is not much that we can do. He is who he is."

"Who he is, is a-"

"Hugh!" Teague snapped. "I said enough!"

Hugh looked slightly more than annoyed, but stood back a bit, his lips clamped firmly together. There was a silence. Teague looked at me and I knew by the look in his eyes what his next question would be. I didn't know how to answer it. Telling him I was fine would be a blatant lie, but I didn't want to cry anymore. I knew he would try and convince me to stay, but I couldn't give in. It would sound like the easiest option for me, but if I caved into that I knew it would be hardest for me emotionally.

"Grandad! GRANDAAAAD!" Adam's childish sing-song voice brought an unexpected smile to my lips. Teague looked down as Adam squeezed through the small gap between Teague's leg and the door frame. He blinked up at me for a second before looking at his grandfather. "Gun."

Teague smiled, "No, lad, you can't have a gun just yet." We laughed, but Adam shook his head.

"No, gun!"

"That's right, no gun for you," Teague was still smiling but Adam was not. The little boy shook his head.

"No! Gun outside!" he pointed in the direction of the window. Teague's smile vanished immediately. He crouched down to Adam's level.

"What do you mean, "gun outside"?" he asked

Adam just looked at him, thrown by the seriousness of his tone and unsure whether or not he was in some kind of trouble. In the silence I saw both Teague and Hugh stop moving completely. I froze up too. We listened. The house stopped creaking and listened too. There it was sure enough… distant booms. Hugh frowned, "That's no gun… That's-"

"Cannon fire," Teague muttered grimly.

My hands automatically went to shield my stomach, as if I could protect the baby from the sound. Teague scooped Adam up and we ran to the window. For a moment there was nothing but darkness. We listened. A boom and a bright flash in a dark sea. Adam jumped. "Gun," he whispered. Nobody corrected him. Another flash and a boom, this one closer than the last. A distant orange glow indicated that something was on fire, but whether that something was just a tree or someone's house was unclear.

"Adam! Adam!" Kate's desperate shrieking caused us to turn from where we were all transfixed. At the sound of his mother's voice Adam called out.

"In here Kate!" Teague shouted. She ran in and took Adam from Teague. Adam looked more scared having seen our reactions to his news. Kate joined us at the window.

"Who is it?" she asked.

Teague shrugged. "No idea. It's too dark to see them."

With those words a single thought passed around the room. I knew what they were thinking and while I told myself I did not believe it, I had to question how I knew. Either it was, as Teague suggested, so dark that no ship could be seen even when firing, or the ship itself was so dark that it could not be seen when firing in the dark. As dark as the Pearl. I told myself it wasn't the Pearl, but who knew what state Jack was in, what he would do? What had I driven him to? And if it wasn't the Pearl, then who was it? Would they fire at the Pearl, or was the Pearl already gone? On the other side of the glass gunshots rang out along with fierce cries directed at this strange new enemy.

"What do we do?" Kate whispered, clinging to Adam and turning away from the chaos that was erupting on the other side of the window.

"We fight," Hugh turned away from the window. I followed him, despite Teague's suggestion that I stay inside with Kate and the children. There was a mad and desperately disorganised scramble for as many weapons as could be found and one by one, every member of Jack's family disappeared into the unknown darkness.

The adrenaline pumped in before I had even left the safety of the doorway. It was a beautiful feeling. It made me forget everything that had happened outside of that one moment I was in. My eyes and ears seemed to work better than they ever had before. The darkness outside was absolute in comparison to the light in the house I had just come out of. It took longer than usual for my eyes to adjust. When they did I could still only see vague shapes and outlines. It was hard to distinguish between trees blowing and people moving. I had to focus, cut everything out. A thought suddenly hit me. I had no idea who the enemy was and what was more not only could I not see them, I could not see anything. How then, was I meant to know if anyone I met was friend of foe? I couldn't wait until I could see them or call out because that would mean that they could shoot me before I shot them. But if I shot first I could end up killing one of Jack's family. Adrenaline turned to fear and my blood ran cold.

By now I had walked a distance from the house and everything was incredibly gloomy. Completely on my own and panicked I looked around, squinting to see if that would help me. I listened. In the distance there were cries and shouts. But around me there was silence… almost. I strained. What I had thought to be a breeze was starting to sound much more like heavy breathing. I thought I heard footsteps. I stopped moving and waited. There they were, footsteps, someone was not too far behind me. I looked over my shoulder, but saw nothing. I thought about calling out, but when I opened my mouth nothing came out. I couldn't risk it. I pushed myself forwards, away from the sound. I was far too scared to know what to do. There was far too much risk involved in anything I could think about doing. I hoped that if I tread as quietly as I could they wouldn't hear me. It didn't work. The footsteps rustling in the undergrowth sped up. I did too, quickening my pace until I broke into a run. Glancing behind me and gripped with complete terror at seeing nothing, no hint at whether or not my fear was justified I ran and ran. A light of a flame torch moved in front of me and my heart leapt up in my throat. It was moving towards me, flickering and illuminating the persons face in an odd way, contorting their features beyond recognition. I slowed for a second, unsure of whether to keep going forward or turn away. I tried to make out the face, to judge if they were a threat or not. My hand went to my pistol, but froze as I briefly recognised the person in front of me. I faltered, stumbled over who they were and how I knew them. I momentarily forgot about the person behind me as I tried to focus on who the one in front was. Until they grabbed my arm.