Chapter 18
Once Cutler, Jack, and Elizabeth arrived back at the Black Pearl they noticed the fog from before they left had lifted. Barbossa was standing at the helm, seemingly calm when they thought back to the state they left him in. The mermaids seemed to have left him alone, which was strange as they were known to be vicious flesh of men-eating creatures.
'I see you took good care of her, second mate' Jack made the comment he made towards Barbossa roll from his lips as smoothly as possible as he padded the wooden balustrade of the Pearl. Barbossa didn't seem bothered and even looked rather concerned as his eyes kept on moving from the three of them and back to the seawater that softly hit the hull of the Pearl every few seconds.
'Finally, what took ya'll so long to fill up some bottles?' Barbossa mumbled sarcastically, still ignoring Jack now taking the wood of the helm, trying to take over, Barbossa was still not bothered by Jack's jealous behavior.
'We.. had a certain encounter at the lake, a ten-minute walk further upland' Elizabeth decided to inform Barbossa. Barbossa raised his bushy eyebrows and watched both Jack and Elizabeth on his side at the helm. Soon his eyes traveled to the third person climbing onboard.
'What's wrong with him?' Barbossa's eyes watched Cutler making his way away from them, to the other part of the ship, where he stood at the balustrade of the Pearl and leaned against the wood, staring blankly at the ocean. His body language had betrayed his experience at the lake. Cutler's shoulders were slouching as he had made his way across the deck. The bloody sword was still in his hand like he had been ready to strike any moment. His eyes looked red, the expression on his face drained from what took place only half an hour ago.
'At the grand lake, we encountered a Siren, you know those mermaid-like creatures that live on land' Jack started. Barbossa raised his eyebrows.
'That must have been the shadow figure we saw when we arrived' Barbossa watched the ocean below the Pearl once again.
'Aye, and creatures like that might even be more frightening than those in these waters' Jack's brown eyes now too moved to the small waves the ship's hull created.
'Let's say it left a certain impression on him' Elizabeth nodded her head in Cutler's direction who still seemed to stare into the endless nothingness, while she thought about the fact Barbossa still didn't know about Kate.
'He's not used to much, eunuch you know..' Jack whispered with his hand sideways onto his cheek at Barbossa nodding in Cutler's direction while letting the words slip from his tongue as smooth and sarcastic as possible. Elizabeth rolled her eyes. It wasn't that she felt particularly bad for Cutler, but the situation had left an impression on her as well, and she was sure on Jack too. But Elizabeth knew Jack was the kind of man to laugh away pain and confrontation.
'Well, let's continue our journey then before any of these mermaids are back and we end up as dinner. While you were gone I cleared the path' Barbossa ignored the previous subject and pointed at Jack still holding the helm.
'How did you get rid of them? And the fog too?' Elizabeth asked while looking across the horizon that was visible again after the fog had left. Barbossa started shrugging his shoulders, and it was obvious to Jack and Elizabeth that it hadn't been Barbossa who had made the path free.
'You were just lucky, weren't you?' Jack watched Barbossa holding back a grin.
'I don't know what happened, but there was a light just before you all arrived, that wasn't there before, like suddenly a new day arrived and the sun started to shine brightly. That's when the fog was lifted and the Pearl was free to sail on. The moment the mermaids vanished too' Barbossa looked at Elizabeth and then at Jack.
'That's impossible, it has been daytime for hours now' Elizabeth said and asked Barbossa to take a look at the time. Taking out his pocket watch it showed to be early afternoon, so it would be impossible for Barbossa to have witnessed a sunrise.
After a couple of hours of sailing there suddenly was a swift of light. Barbossa started shouting as it felt like they hit another reef or sandbank. Jack started cursing loudly as it felt like the Pearl would hit yet another obstacle.
'How is this possible?!' Barbossa seemed even more annoyed and the Pearl came full force to an abrupt halt. The whole crew seemed to be utterly confused by the state of the Pearl. Elizabeth looked around and realized the sky had turned dark, almost as dark as it would be at night. But as Barbossa told her before just a little while earlier, it was mid-day.
'I don't understand. Look the fog is back' Elizabeth watched both Barbossa and Jack now in full anger at what was happening, both fearing for their beloved Pearl. It seemed like they were stranded again and without any idea of when the fog, and the disappearing and reappearing reef and sandbanks would be gone again, they weren't sure when the Pearl would be able to continue. It started another fight between Jack and Barbossa. Elizabeth decided to leave them to it and made her way inside, deciding to take some rest for her and the baby, after entering her cabin.
It started to darken quickly, soon it was pitched black as the night had begun. The Pearl had been stuck still, and the whole crew had decided to lay anker here for the night. Cutler was lying down face up on his small cabin bed. He found himself staring at the wooden ceiling for longer than he wanted, he felt empty and lost. He had felt guilt, pain, and sorrow all at once, and after skipping a meal this evening his stomach now felt like it was carrying a stone. But he had no apitite. Finding the Locker now seemed almost impossible, and he felt like it was only a fool's chance they would be able to find it. He realized it could be years or decades, and that it never occurred to him that it might even be impossible to enter the Locker. Cutler was twisting the closed compass inside his hand, turning it again and again. Something that always made his mind calm when his head was running without stopping. He couldn't figure out the compass, the orange beam that was guiding them seemed to be endless, maybe it was just a trick and it would lead nowhere. But it had to, right?
Suddenly there was a scream. Cutler's heart sunk after he finally had felt his eyelids close slowly after turning and turning the compass over and over. Taking away the pain his heart felt. But now his heartbeat was fully back again as Cutler was running up the stairs of the hallway, to the main deck to see what the sailors were screaming for.
Elizabeth, Jack, and Barbossa were standing at the helm now too. Barbossa shouting at his crew who seemed to be in a panic, Jack staring through his spying glass, and Elizabeth looking around holding her belly. Cutler saw the deck was lit by a light. Not just any light, but it almost seemed as if a ship three sizes bigger than theirs was shining a hundred, no a thousand lanterns into their direction, all directed towards them. For a full five minutes, the deck was so brightly lit that everyone onboard was pinching their eyes. Jack quickly lowered his spying glass as it was impossible to see anything, it hurt his eyes.
'We're being attacked by an upcoming ship!' one of the crew members hallowed across the deck. Barbossa seemed frozen, something that was unusual for him as he had of course been attacked many times before. He was shaking his head from side to side and started pacing up and down. After that nodding his head as if he figured something out.
'No, it's not a ship. It's the same light I saw during the day, but this time it is much more bright because we're at night' Barbossa growled. Everyone seemed lost for words. Every single soul onboard seemed vexed, frozen, and nailed to the ground, all staring at the light. It was an impossible and unearthly experience to behold and the hairs of Cutler's neck were rising as he saw the big light covering the deck of the Pearl. He had never seen anything like it before. They suddenly noticed the light had made the fog disappear and the Pearl suddenly came into movement slowly. As soon as Barbossa noticed he started to shout the crew needed to get ready to set sail again, and so they did. There was chaos on deck but soon the Pearl started to sail at full speed.
A couple of hours passed, and nobody dared to sleep as they did not know how long the light would hold on. How long they had left to sail before the light would disappear again as Barbossa had it figured out that the fog which seemed to be a barricade, was only gone where the light was there. And soon it became clear he was right. This time the light seemed to have been there a little longer, but it was gone again. Everyone felt the Pearl come to an abrupt halt again, the scraping of the ship's hull seemed to piece Jack into his soul each time a little more and everyone tried to breathe again as the chase for the light stopped once again. It seemed to turn into a cycle, a race against time.
'What in the devil's name are we doing..' Jack whispered only a few minutes later, sitting on the ground against the side of the ship, drinking some of the last rum they had brought along. Barbossa shrugged his shoulders, not sure what they were chasing.
'Well, one thing is certain, at least we're lost. Now let us hope that the entrance of the Locker will soon be upon us' Barbossa watched Jack for a slight second who nodded egreeingly.
Cutler was at the back of the Pearl again, staring at the dark horizon of the ocean at night. He couldn't remember a time he had been so lost. He didn't feel like thinking, his mind was cloudy and he wasn't sure how to ignite the fire that kept him up for so long. He felt a sigh move from his lips but suddenly felt a presence next to him.
'I still can't find it in my heart to forgive you after everything, and I probably never will. But loving someone so deeply is probably the one thing only the two of us truly understand here on this ship' Elizabeth had appeared from the darkness and strolled holding her pregnant belly tightly while she arrived next to Cutler. Cutler's eyes slowly rose and he watched Elizabeth, her face strict, but a softness was read from her brown eyes too.
'What Kate did for me I will never forget. She was like a mother to me. She understood me, saw me, when nobody did, when I was a young girl lost in a world of men. I know people like Kate are rare. You are so lucky a woman like that loves you. And now she needs you, so no matter how hard it is, don't lose yourself to the weirds of the Locker already, this is only the beginning' Elizabeth watched Cutler's surprised look, mixed in with emotion from the things she said.
'But, we did not enter the Locker just yet' Cutler almost whispered, confused by Elizabeth's words.
'Don't you see it? Of all people here onboard you should know' Elizabeth spoke, signed Cutler to follow and he did as she requested. Elizabeth arrived back at Barbossa and Jack, who seemed to have given up any sort of conclusion and probably decided that drinking rum might solve some questions. Elizabeth coughed once, trying to get their attention, and so she did as both Barbossa and Jack looked at her surprised.
'I've been thinking of why this all is happening. And suddenly it all came to me' Elizabeth spoke so only the four of them could hear.
'Enlighten us Mrs.Turner' Barbossa spoke sarcastically while taking a sip from a glass of rum he poured himself earlier.
'Gentlemen, look around, we are in the Locker' Elizabeth spoke and for a moment it was silent. Jack frowned and watched Barbossa doing the same.
'Nonsense, that's impossible' Barbossa exclaimed and watched Elizabeth now with his arms crossed. He stood tall from his place on the ground.
'Impossible? Are you sure?' Elizabeth raised her eyebrows in a rather sassy way and started grinning.
'Think about it. When we rescued Jack from the Locker, how did we even know we arrived there in the first place? It was just a normal empty beach right?' Elizabeth continued while all three men were hanging on her lips.
'Well, maybe because of the fact that the Pearl was sailing through a desert had something to do with it?' Barbossa couldn't have sounded more sarcastic.
'Right! And why was the Pearl sailing through sand?' Elizabeth continued. All three men shook their heads in confusion at the same time. Elizabeth growled and rolled her eyes.
'Because it's Jack's world! He was stuck there, it were his nightmares and fears we witnessed. Everything that happened there was something that came alive from Jack's personal hell' Elizabeth exclaimed and suddenly Jack started nodding.
'I, myself didn't even know I was in the Locker. So if Elizabeth is right, and we indeed arrived in the Locker then..' Jack started but before he could answer Cutler continued.
'Then we need to find out what nightmares hold Kate captive..' Cutler whispered and swallowed away his words. His stomach started to turn and he suddenly understood his state of mind for the last couple of hours. It wasn't just the Siren attack. If they indeed had arrived inside Davy Jones' Locker, that meant they had arrived at Kate's personal hell and Cutler remembered by the hairs of his neck rising, that he had felt it earlier they indeed were.
'First the fog, it was a barricade, protecting something' Elizabeth continued.
'Then the island, Isle Sirena.. Cutler only knew this island from his book, it is a fantasy island, and it doesn't exist. I imagine Kate knew about it too, as she was a big reader?' Elizabeth asked as she saw Cutler's pale face turning more grey by the second, he nodded. Culter was sure Kate had read the same book.
'At first, I didn't understand, but after a while it all made sense. Everything bad disappears when the lights hit's right? The fog, the mermaids, the island full of creatures' Elizabeth continued and all men nodded.
'Earlier this evening I asked one of the sailors to take a look up in the crow's nest to search for something. And I was right. He found the source of the light' Elizabeth looked all the way up the crow's nest and too did the men.
'And what might that be?' Cutler almost whispered, it felt like he was about to lose his voice as he was careful to hear anything more about this place.
'It's a lighthouse! The moving light guides us, when touching us it sets us free, but when the darkness hits, we are stuck in her hell. Don't you see? Kate is asking us for help, she must be close to the lighthouse!' Elizabeth explained staring into the men's eyes.
'So that's why we are here? We are saving someone?' Barbossa suddenly interrupted and they all realized Barbossa hadn't been informed about why they were there. But it was worry for later and Elizabeth signed him to hold his tongue. Cutler looking up at him from the corner of his eyes was relieved to see Barbossa seemed to let it rest for now.
'Open the compass' Elizabeth suddenly looked at Cutler, begging him to hurry up and so he did with trembling hands. It reminded him he hadn't opened it for the last few days, since they had the orange beam that brought them further. Slowly Cutler opened up the lit, the arrow was turning and turning till suddenly it stopped. The orange beam seemed to move even further now, creating a ray of light that parted the fog into a pathway, and suddenly the Pearl started to move. All their eyes watched the beam going further and further until it seemed to hit its destination. And there it was through the thick fog very far away, it was the light that returned, but it was much quicker now, rotating and rotating.. like a lighthouse. And in the far away distance they saw indeed the tiny shape of a lighthouse, at the edge of what seemed to be land.
'Land in sight!' a sudden voice from the crow's nest that came from one of the sailors who was ignorant to all that they just discussed. So Elizabeth was right. Cutler felt the stone release from his stomach, it now set ablaze the fire inside of him that had almost gone out. The little fire ignited and started spreading throughout his whole body. Every light ray coming from the lighthouse that hit them seemed to light up the darkness beautifully with the same orange light that matched that of the compass. Cutler watched the firey beams of light and the orange hue lighting up his face. The same red and orange hue as her golden curls dancing before him. He could feel it, smell it.. and now almost touch it.