Chapter 2

The Runaway

Samantha was fourteen when they found her on the sea and now, three years later, everyone treated her like she had been Governor Swann's daughter her whole life. The maids tended to her every will and treated her kindly, the residents of Port Royal said hello to her when her and her sister passed in the street, and Elizabeth loved her as if they were blood relatives.

The day of the shipwreck was never mentioned when the children were around. It was believed that if it was not mentioned that it would slip out of their memories and it seemed to be true. The subject was never mentioned between the two sisters, but both remembered it well. When Samantha needed someone to talk to about that day she went to the Blacksmith's and found Will Turner, the boy that was found on the raft that same day. Both knew that they were found from the same shipwreck, but neither knew why the other was there. They had the same type of bond that Elizabeth and Samantha had. They were best friends.

As months went by Samantha began to get bored of her privileged life. One night she decided to go visit Will. She climbed up on to the top of building and snuck in through a hole in the roof. She jumped down onto the rafters and walked across until she spotted Will. He was crafting a sword with a hammer. She waited until he was done. He put the sword into a bucket of water and began to walk towards a big pile of hay. She jumped down and pushed him into it. She landed right on top of him. Will realized what had happened, looked up at Samantha and began to laugh.

"How is it that you sneak in so quietly?"

Samantha rolled off of Will, they both sat up.

"Years of sneaking past guards to get to The Interceptor", Samantha responded.

"And that is why you have spent so many nights in jail", Will laughed.

"They have the Dauntless, the crown jewel of Port Royal's vessels, if I took the Interceptor they would be down one ship."

"The fastest ship in the Caribbean, Why do you want to take it anyway?"

"Because it might be the fastest ship to get me away from here. I spend nights in jail because father believes spending a night with criminals will scare me so much it will straighten me out, but it isn't. He does not understand me."

"He just wants you to act more like a lady, like Eliz..."

"I know, like Elizabeth. I'm not like her. I don't like to wear dresses and walk around swooning boys. I want a life of adventure and freedom, not being stuck here to attend royal festivities and sit around looking pretty."

Will gazed at Samantha's grief stricken face.

"I know what you need let's go outside."

They went out on the roof of the Blacksmith's and gazed at the ocean. For years, Will and Samantha had come up her to talk. It seemed to make all their problems disappear. After staring at the sea for a time that seemed like an eternity, Samantha spoke.

"Ah, the sea, it can be so peaceful and beautiful, and with the change of the winds can become a monster that steals life and memories. Do you remember the day that we were found out there?"

"As clear as day", Will answered.

"How did you get out there anyway?"

"I was looking for my father. He was a sailor, never at home and when my mother died I decided to go looking for him. I stowed away on the merchant ship hoping they would take port and I could ask people if they had heard of my father. At one point I heard gun fire and screams of pain. I left hiding to run on deck and then... nothing. After that I woke up on the Dauntless in front of your sister."

"So, you never found your father?"

"No". Will bowed his head and remembered that feeling of never knowing who his father is or was and then he remembered Samantha didn't have any true parents. Hers were dead and she was adopted by a family that she did not fit into, at least she had a family now.

"What about you", he asked. "The adopted daughter of Port Royal's Governor, who could only remember her name and dead parents. Have you remembered anything"?

"Not exactly, almost every night for as long as I can remember I have had a dream of being on a ship. I'm searching the brig for something but I can't remember what and just as I'm about to find it my father appears, my real father. He tells me he needs me for something very important and that we must hurry. After that all I can remember is waking up in furious pain and seeing the image of a piece of gold in the back of my mind.

"It's always felt like the dream was real, like it had something to do with my past. The pain that I felt in the dream felt real and I can still see the image in the back of my mind. I think if I go back out to sea it might help me remember my past. I'm drawn to the sea. That's why I came to see you, to tell you that I'm leaving tomorrow morning. I paid a sailor to give me his sloop; I'm going to sail out until I find somewhere to stay. I promise I will return once I'm ready. There is no way I would leave you and Elizabeth in Port Royal by yourselves. You must promise that you will not tell a soul, even Elizabeth that I'm leaving."

"If that is what you believe you need to do, then go, but remember the longer you stay away the more the people who love you will be filled with sorrow."

"I know, but I have to do this. I will miss you while I'm gone Will, you have always been like a brother to me."

"And you have been like the sister that I never wanted", Will laughed.

"Awe thanks", Samantha said as she playfully punched him in the arm. "Well I have to go get ready, I'm leaving before dawn so Norrington's men don't see me and warn father."

"I guess this is goodbye then ... for now."

"Until destiny brings our paths together again." Samantha placed her hand out for Will to shake. He went to shake hers back, but before he could she pulled his arm in and hugged him.

"Good bye, Will Turner."

"Good bye, Samantha Swann."

She left Will on the roof of the building, wondering when he would see her again and hoping she would come home safely.

Samantha snuck in to her home making sure not to wake anyone. She stepped up the staircase to the second floor and entered the room she shared with her sister. Elizabeth was sleeping in her bed; to Samantha she looked like an angel sleeping on a cloud. She loved Elizabeth even if she wasn't her real sister. They had grown close the very first day she stayed under the Swann roof and had been inseparable ever since.

Even when Samantha began to get sick of her privileged life, they would stay up all night talking about the sea and the notorious brutes that sail on it. Her sister had a secret passion for studying pirates and Samantha loved listening to stories about the most notorious pirates of the sea. She was fascinated by pirates, how free they were, how they had no fear, and a sense of adventure.

She tiptoed to her side of the room, and began packing. She knew that her sister of all people would grieve at her disappearance. She grabbed her bag and walked over to her sister's bed.

"Good Bye, Elizabeth", she whispered.

Then she kissed her sister on the cheek and left.

She found the sloop exactly where the sailor said it would be. It was a rather small ship, but it was something. She set sail just before dawn. Port Royal was behind her by the time any of the guards would have woke. She sailed late into the next night. That was when she noticed the winds beginning to change. A massive storm hit the sea, rocking her boat back and forth. She had never sailed a ship in a storm before. The only time she sailed a ship was when her father would let her steer the Dauntless out of port.

The winds were furious; the deck filled with water, the wheel was hard to keep straight. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning hit the mast. Pieces of lumber fell towards her. She could not steer the ship anymore, she had to do something.

All of a sudden, in the heart of the storm, she spotted a small island. She realized if the ship kept going in the direction it was going in, it would be close enough for her to jump into the sea and swim. She waited for the ship to be aligned with the island and jumped in.

She swam against the waves. Water passing through her mouth as she swam.

It seemed like an eternity before she made it to the island. She crawled out of the water, and collapsed upon the beach. She took deep breaths, coughing up water from her lungs. Samantha had gotten her wish. She was trapped on an island in the middle of the sea, where she could do all the thinking she wanted.

She was marooned on the island for 2 weeks without any sign of being saved, but she still got what she wanted. Over the weeks that she was on the island she would sit on the beach and think. Think about her past, about what she could not remember.

One morning, Samantha was dreaming the same dream she always did. She was searching the brig of a ship. Suddenly, she found Will, as a child, inside a barrel crying.

"They're coming for me", Will sobbed.

"Who?"

"And you're next!"

Suddenly, Will screamed and Samantha turned around. She awoke to herself screaming, she felt a horrible burning pain in her right leg. She ripped off her shoe and saw that her scar was burning red. She tried to touch it, but it hurt to touch. The scar faded and the pain disappeared. She had had that scar as long as she could remember, but she did not know how she got it. The idea that she had no memory of this scar sent an icy shock down her spine.

Samantha stood up, putting her boot back on, she walked out towards the beach. Passing some trees, she saw a person lying on the beach. She ran to where he was laying. She dropped to her knees. He was lying on his back. He was tan and had long dreadlocks. He had a sword and a compass hanging from his waist. She saw a pistol lying in the sand beside him. Samantha remembered the stories Elizabeth told her and realized that he was dressed like the pirates from them.

She reached out and gently caressed his face. As she stared at him, his eyes slowly opened. Samantha took her hand off his face. He had beautiful brown eyes that stared at her.

"Well, I have woke up in front of strange women I don't know before, but I never expected for it to happen on this island. At least my pants are still on". Samantha laughed. He sat up, turned, looked at her.

"You are definitely the most beautiful of the bunch. Judging by your looks you did not get her the same way I did. So how did you get here?"

He waited for her to answer. She was about to when he spoke again.

"It doesn't matter either way you and me are going to be here for a while. There's no point of that time being boring, eh? So, you need to help me find something, Savvy?"

Samantha shook her head.

"I have heard myths that rumrunners use an island somewhere near here to hide their cargo for The EITC. If those myths are true, then this island could have a pirate's paradise full of rum underneath it and we are going to look for it."

She thought of the island, she had walked around it a million times, but never saw anything peculiar. Then she thought of something.

"I know where it is", Samantha told the pirate.

"Then let's find it", Jack screamed.

When boredom set in, Samantha would climb the trees on the island. One day, she found a tree with certain strange sound to it. When she knocked her fist against the trunk it sounded somewhat hollow. She ignored this and climbed the tree. After she jumped down, she began to walk away from the tree and noticed something else. The ground was caving in slightly. She jumped up and when she landed, she realized something was under the sand. She knelt down and brushed the sand away from where she was standing. Where the sand used to be was wood. She thought it to be a door to something, but never actually opened it.

She remembered this well as she lead the pirate to it. Finding the tree, knocking on it to make sure it was the right one and walking forward until she found the caving in sand. She found the end of wooden door and brushed off the sand over it.

"Help me", she demanded.

The pirate grabbed the door as well and they both pulled it open. The door was hiding a treasure trove of rum filled bottles. Samantha looked at the pirate whose eyes were filled with delight.

"We found it! I think this calls for a drink, eh?"

He ran down the steps and grabbed a dusty bottle.

"Just my luck, to be marooned on a god-forsaken island visited by rumrunners", he yelled in delight.

Samantha and the pirate made a fire as the sunset and the drinking began. She had never seen someone drink before. She had seen Mr. Brown passed out all the time from drinking, but no one actually drunk. After a few hours though, the pirate was every definition of the word. He began to dance around the fire and as he passed Samantha, he pulled her to her feet and twirled her around.

It was the most fun she had had in a long time. They finished dancing when he fell on to the sand. She sat down beside him.

"Did you know that I am a pirate? Captain Jack Sparrow, they call me and I've got a ship too". He took another swig from his rum bottle. She looked at him and he looked at her with a puzzled look.

"I have been on this island with you all day and do not even know your name, what is it?"

"Samantha ..."

"You got a last name?"

She did not know if she should tell him her last name. Did she really want to be cast under a name that was not even truly hers? No, Samantha decided to take this opportunity to make a new name for herself, a name that would show her sense of adventure and freedom, a pirate's last name.

"O'Scarlett. Samantha O'Scarlett."

"Nice to be acquainted to ya, I'm Captain Jack Sparrow, but you can call me Jack."

Samantha laughed.

"You know, I like you O'Scarlett. You got the makings of a great pirate in you", he drank the last of the rum from the bottle, "When we get of this island and I get my ship back you can be my apprentice, Savvy. We will sail the seven seas together and..."

Jack lost consciousness and fell back on to the sand. Samantha laughed again. She thought of what he said, the life of a pirate, sailing the seas. That was something she used to dream of doing and now the opportunity was lying in the sand. She would go with him and become a pirate. Her period away from home would have to be prolonged.

"On your feet, Samantha!" Lieutenant Norrington was standing in front of her. His sword was withdrawn and pointed towards her throat. "Your presence is wanted back in Port Royal. We are to take you there right away and you will come with us without any trouble."

Samantha had fallen asleep far away from Jack last night and now she was glad she did. For he may have been taken back to Port Royal alongside her.

She stood and followed Norrington to the Dauntless. She knew there was no point in trying to fight. She boarded the ship and as they sailed away she watched the island slowly disappear along with her dream opportunity of being a pirate and the mysterious man that she met on it.