B is for… Believe
Angelica was getting desperate. How could she convince the scruffy yet dangerously handsome Jack Sparrow to not leave her on this island. Again. She had tried tempting him with the pretence that she knew the location of treasure. She had tried to fool him into thinking she was expecting his child. But what now?
"I love you." She finally said. He looked at her for a moment.
"As do I. Always have, always will." He admitted. The couple leaned towards each other, but before their lips could meet, Jack pulled back.
"I gotta go." He turned and started walking back to his boat.
"JACK! This is not over! JACK!" Angelica yelled after him, following him quickly. As he scrambled back into the long boat, she ran back to where she had dropped the pistol he had left her with. One shot.
"Missed!" Jack called, as the bullet landed in the water. He rowed away, leaving Angelica alone.
As Jack rowed the boat away from the island, Angelica kept yelling out, much of it abuse in her native language, but eventually she fell silent and just watched as the boat and Jack moved further away. Then she narrowed her eyes. Was it her imagination, or had the boat stopped moving? For a fleeting moment, hope welled up inside of her, but it was extinguished moments later as the boat started to move again. She sighed and sat down on the sand, huddling her knees to her chest and resting her chin upon them. Why couldn't she have been more grateful? Jack had saved her life. But in doing so, he killed my father she thought bitterly, and then allowed herself a moment to think back to the events of earlier that day.
They had reached the Fountain of Youth, and were moments from using it when the one legged man and his crew had appeared. The two crews had battled for a long time until the Spanish Empire had turned up and wrecked the legendary place. There had been silence as the rocks crumbled and the fountain itself was no more. Blackbeard, her father, had been distracted and that was when the one legged man had struck. He drove his sword through Blackbeard's heart. The silence continued as the man fell and his daughter ran to him. As she had reached to pull out the sword, one lone voice called out.
"Angelica no! It's poisoned!" but it was too late. The blade had cut her hand and the poison was already making its way through her veins. She had called Jack's name desperately. Why, though? Had she wanted his help for herself? For her father? Or had she simply turned to the man who, despite everything, she loved and wanted him there in her last moments? Jack had looked heartbroken, and had rushed off to find the chalices. Moments later he returned, offering one chalice to both Angelica and her father. Somewhere during this time, the one legged man and his crew and the Spanish had left, leaving the three alone.
"Drink this, this one has the tear." Jack told Angelica, holding it out to her. He turned then to Blackbeard. "You must drink the other."
Angelica had weakly protested. "No."
"I cannot save you both, one of you must sacrifice." Jack told her, his voice grave.
"You take it father, for your soul." Angelica said. Blackbeard had looked hungrily at the chalice being held out to his daughter.
"She's dying. You must save your daughter." Jack told the older man.
"This one takes life, this one has the tear and gives life?" He asked Jack for confirmation.
Jack nodded. "Aye. Hurry."
Blackbeard summoned all his strength to reach out and snatch the chalice he believed had the tear, drinking it himself. Angelica had watched, hurt that her father did not wish to save her. But somehow his words, "Angelica, save me my child" had convinced her to drink the other. Jack had protested, "No!" but Angelica had already taken the drink. "I love you father." She whispered. Jack turned away, seemingly upset. And then he had paused. "Wait a minute, in fact, it might have been the other way around… This cup had the tear, this one had the other bit." He was claiming that he may have mixed them up and, as Angelica looked at the cut disappearing on her palm, it seemed he was right. Of course, she did not believe that Jack had "mixed them up" and it seemed Blackbeard did not believe it either.
"Trickster! Devil!" He had stood up, ready to attack Jack when the water had taken his life. Angelica would never forget having to watch her father's flesh being washed away until his skeleton collapsed at her feet.
"You bastard! How could you?" Angelica had yelled at Jack who had simply told her that by saving her, Blackbeard's soul would now be redeemed.
She sighed, her thoughts returning to the present. Jack may have assisted her father's death, but he had done it to save her. She may have told her father to drink the one with the tear, but if he really loved his daughter he would have drunk the one without, wouldn't he? Her father had not cared if she lived or died. And the incident on the cliffs when there had been six pistols, two of them loaded and the rest not? She no longer believed that he had known which ones were loaded. She shook her head. Jack had saved her life twice during the quest for the Fountain, and how had she repaid him? Ok, so she may have always wanted a father, but when your father was willing to kill you to get what he wanted was he really worth having?
Tears pricked at Angelica's eyes as she realised the horrible truth. Her father was better off out of her life, and she had pushed away the one man who truly cared about her. She looked out at the horizon. Would she ever see Jack again? She had to hope so. She had to believe.