"Are you mad?" Gibbs turned to Jack. We all knew the answer to that. "You're not seriously considering jumping?"
Again, we all knew the same answer. He was. He was both mad and serious, which is never a comforting combination. There was a moment of silence. It was cold and uncomfortable. I felt uneasy. "Jack, it's dark down there," I said meaningfully. Everyone avoided looking at Marty's arm. He looked at the ground.
"Well… maybe it's not that far down…" even he didn't sound convinced. "If someone wants to just…"
He didn't finish what he was saying and unsurprisingly, nobody moved. Nobody said a word. The silence around us was unbearable. I looked around, first of all at the crew. Nobody was looking at anyone else. I then looked around. We were completely encased; there was no way for us to get out. I couldn't see the roof of the cavern, there were too many shadows. And the shadows were creeping downwards, slowly like when you spill thick ink on parchment. We had light, but I was beginning to doubt how long it would last. I wasn't the only one to have noticed this.
"Well we can't just stand here!" Gibbs exclaimed when the silence became too much. Jack nodded.
"Agreed… why don't you just-"
BOOM.
Our surroundings shook like the outside had just taken a hit from something powerful. I heard something above us crumble. Tiny bits of stone began to rain down. There was a flash of light from the pit below.
"What in the name of all that is- "
Gibbs was drowned out by another boom. This time I watched as things crumbled down and noticed that the flash of light came as they were falling down the was safe. It was completely safe from the darkness. No sooner had we recovered from one thundering crash we were hit by another.
"Sounds like cannon fire!" Gibbs exclaimed. Just as he did so there was a loud creaking from all around and the sound of stones grating together. The giant stone mouth was slowly beginning to open up again. We stood, frozen as water crashed in and everything shook again. I could smell the gunpowder, see the flashes. Someone had caught up with us. My heart tightened in my chest, gripped by ice. Marty, being the smallest was the first to see the sails of the ship, while the rest of us could only see the hull. He paled.
"Blackbeard," he choked out.
"Jump!" I screamed immediately over the din. They all looked at me. "We have to jump!"
Without waiting for any of them to respond, I grabbed Jack's hand and jumped. The flash blinded me. I had about a second to regret jumping, another second to be thankful for Jack's solid hand and then we hit the water below.
It was boiling, but I had no time to react to it. My eyes were open and I could see the water around us was swirling and carrying us away from the surface at an increasing speed. I felt sick. The water burned me but I couldn't scream. I shut my eyes. I need air. If this was the end, it was my fault. I'd have killed everyone. 'I'm sorry,' I shouted in my head as if they'd all be able to hear me. I could only hope they hadn't jumped. Or that this would turn out to be the right thing to have done, but I was getting lightheaded. I wasn't sure how much longer I could hold on. My poor baby.
And then it was over.
I stopped spinning very suddenly. Maybe I was dead. I was cold now, that much I knew. Do the dead feel cold? Then I realised I could still feel Jack's hand in mine. He tugged on it. We were alive. I opened my eyes and took a welcome breath. We were floating side by side in a pool of freezing water, the stillest I'd ever seen. Around us I could hear the coughing and spluttering of the others. We were all here, and we were all safe and well. I immediately started shivering.
"We have… to… keep… w-w-w-warm," Jack's teeth knocked together as he spoke. "St-start swimming…"
I let go of Jack as we all began to swim towards the edges of the pool we had landed in. I was too cold to take in my surroundings. Too cold to talk. And evidently everyone else was too cold to scream. Nobody noticed the splash of someone disappearing below the surface because of the splashes we were all making as we swam. I only noticed because Jack was swimming so close to me. His head dipped beneath the surface and didn't come back up again I looked back at where he has been. Jack wasn't the only one missing. I looked down into the dark waters and saw Jack's distressed face looking up at me, sinking fast. And beneath the dark waters something darker moved.
I started splashing down towards Jack. What had happened to him? He was one of the best swimmers I knew. For a moment he was lost in the dark waters but then he shot back up towards me out of the gloom. I was so relieved that I let out all the air I had been holding in. Jack looked so scared. Then I saw why. Women with dark green skin, the colour and texture of algae, and scaly tales where their legs should be were swarming around us. Mermaids.
Jack and I kicked upwards. My head broke the surface and I choked down lungful's of air. A slimy hand grabbed my ankle and pulled me down with a ferocious strength. I kicked at the woman grabbing me with my free foot, twisting and turning in the water in an attempt to free myself from her iron grip. I looked towards the surface for hope and saw only Marty's short legs kicking freely. But not even he was safe for long.
I could see the glint of swords in the water as my companions attempted to fight for their lives. The water slowed their movements and the swords were rendered almost useless. A few managed to draw blood, but nothing life-saving was possible. Then I saw Gibbs. He was panicking and thrashing around. He'd forgotten about his bag. He'd forgotten that he was carrying the one thing that might save us. Our gifts from Indigo. She had known. She had known about this and somewhere in that bag was the small wooden box that might just save our lives. After all, Indigo hadn't been wrong yet. I changed tactics, instead of trying to swim up the way I started struggling towards Gibbs. The mermaid holding me was not expecting this. I swam as fast as I could towards Gibbs as she momentarily let go.
I grabbed his leg. Thinking I was another mermaid Gibbs swung his sword with great effort through the water. I swerved out of the way. It caught the bag. In his panic he tugged at it and the bag ripped. It was only a tiny tear, but it was big enough to let that small box of hope slide out.
I watched as our only chance began to sink like a stone.
Ooops, it appears we have a cliffhanger. Oh well :P
Please review, thanks :)
LV xx