Revamped a really old story. Takes place after COTBP as if DMC, AWE and OST didn't happen. EW centric. Character death. Not worth much, just trying desperately to get myself to be able to write again.
Disclaimer: I own no part of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, writing for entertainment purposes only.
Dancing into Demise
Standing atop the wall of the great fort at Port Royale, a pale version of Elizabeth Turner watched the ocean. The cold water lapped at jagged rocks below her, covering them in a slick black layer of grime from the various plants of the Caribbean bay. She learned to loathe the sharp things, jutting out of the water and disrupting the peacefulness of it all.
"Washed up on the rocks, he did." The world spun slightly as she remembered the three year-old words of a marine standing in front of her. He had wrung his hat in his hands, nervously relating to her the last moments of her late husband's final journey. "Been up on a yard, tendin' to th' spanker. The storm tore them up something fierce."
The young woman's tiny little hands now twisted her gloves in the same manner the marine had abused his hat, and she tried to remember her reaction to the crude story. Elizabeth tried to scream at the marine to stop lying to her. She tried to go to the ship and find the exact spot Will was hiding, and she tried to convince everyone that Will had merely gotten off at the last port and remained.
In reality, though, she had stood and stared at the marine and wrung her gloves.
In the weeks that followed, Elizabeth tried to keep going with her life, but in reality she sat in front of her window and stared at the water. She tried to honor the memory of her adventurous and merry husband by keeping her spirits up, but in reality she found it harder and harder to get out of her bed in the morning.
Her will had been crushed.
Her will had been crushed.
Her Will had been crushed.
The water took her will from her, took him and pulled him down into the depths and crushed him, then spat him back. "Washed up on the rocks, he did. Been up on a yard, tendin' to th' spanker. The storm tore them up something fierce."
What did will find in those depths before he left Elizabeth's world? Had he found his freedom? His father? Did he sway in the water, as Elizabeth swayed on the battlements today, finding comfort in the memory of the spouse he was about to lose?
Feeling herself get lost in the feeling of her husband all around her, Elizabeth's eyes closed as she turned her back to the water with her arms wrapped around herself. Today, three years from the day she lost him, Will's arms were around her as she moved to silent music on the stone wall. The pink hue of the setting sun wrapped around the backs of her arms, and for the first time in years, the young widow smiles.
She knew now that she longed to find her freedom and her Will in those dark depths, to dance with him again. The feeling of falling such a great distance escaped her completely, her body still relishing in the feeling of Will's arms around her.
And she danced.
"Washed up on the rocks, she did." Sailors would gossip for the next several years. "Barely recognizable, but wit' a smile true as day."