Jack Sparrow's Sea Witch: The Fight for Calypso's Pendant (Part 1)

You reached the stairway to the main deck, or what was left of it. The steps had been blown away by cannon balls. You looked up threw the empty hole in the deck floor. It was at least twelve feet up. Dropping to one knee, you cupped your hands in front of you.

“Jump boy, I’ll push you up,” you shouted to Patrick. Even though he could barely hear you over the commotion of the raging battle above, Patrick knew what you wanted him to do. He took a few steps back before sprinting at you, running as fast as his legs could boost him. He jumped on your hands and you threw him up high enough so that he was able to get both arms on the deck floor. He crawled up the rest of the way.

He shouted back down to you, “I’ll get a rope!”

“Get to the Rouge!” you ordered him. He nodded and disappeared from your view.

*************

Patrick stood and looked around trying to find the Jolie Rouge. It was hard to see anything beyond the fighting pirates on the ship and the smoke that blackened the air. He could see sails on either side of the Fortaleza Litoral. Even if the ship was not the Jolie Rouge, it was better place to be than his current situation.

He picked the ship to the left. He began to make his way threw the fray, ducking under sword-swings, punches, and kicks.

*************

Still below, you piled broken pieces of wood hoping to get a heap high enough to reach the main deck. You tried the pile. Jumping several times, you still could not reach.

“Bloody hell…” you cursed between your teeth frustrated. You ran to find more to throw on the stack. You found a long broken hull board and slid it onto the pile. It was almost long enough to use as a ramp if you ran up fast enough. You stood on the end of it and started to run. As you did, a man from the deck was kicked down the stairwell hole landing on the other end of the board. Acting as a lever, his weight pushed down on the other end of the board and propelled your end upward. You shot up threw the stairwell letting out a surprised shriek.

Hearing your scream and seeing you fly up from below deck, startled on of Gato’s men and Gibbs who were fighting next to the stairway. They both stopped in mid-sword-swing and stared at you came back down. You landed directly on top of Gibbs’s opponent, knocking him down and unconscious.

“Thank ye lass fer droppin’ in.” Gibbs said pulling you to your feet. Still stunned, you could only smile back at him. He slapped you on the back before taking on another adversary.

With your wits back, you knew you had to find where Patrick had gone. Scanning the deck, you saw the boy creeping his way towards the Jolie Rouge. You also saw Jack’s back half laying on the deck. His front half was leaning over the side of the ship. Seeing his body stretch downward was the only way you could tell he was alive.

A bright flash caught your attention. You saw a large man with a burned face raising a hatchet over his head preparing to swing it down and hack into Jack’s back. In the moment, the chaos aboard the ship seemed to move in slow motion. You didn’t have time to fight through the crowd to get to Jack. You could never scream loud enough for him to hear your warning. Like an involuntary reflex, your hand drew your dagger from your thigh sheath and pitched it across the ship. The blade spun through the air until sinking into the back of the man’s neck.

*************

Jack stretched his arm as far as he could but his fingertips could only brush over the Pendant’s chain. Suddenly, he heard the thud of something hard fall to the deck beside him. Turning, he came face to face with the buson with a blade poking threw his neck and dreadful shock imprinted in his lifeless stare.

Jack rolled up on his side, looking back to see who had killed the man. When his eyes met yours, he gave you a quick wink and smile.

************

A sigh of relief left your lungs seeing that your dagger met its target and, for the moment at least, Jack was alive. He was now cutting loose a grappling line that secured the Fortaleza Litoral with the Jolie Rouge. For a brief second, you started to wonder what he was going to use it for but your attention on Jack was jerked away. From the corner of your eye, you saw Patrick get lifted up in the arms of Captain Williamston. Patrick jabbed him in the back with his elbows trying to get loose. Williamston ran his hand over his face, wiping away the blood from his broken nose. He flicked his fingers splattering the blood in the air.

You could feel your blood warm as rage filled your body. This time, you would make sure that Williamston was dead.

A vile stench filled your nostrils and a callussed hand gripped your throat. You could feel blood run down your leg and soaking through your pants. Gato had you by the neck. He lifted your body off the deck and threw you back against the mast. The force of hitting the mast knocked the wind out of your lungs. You slid down the mast to the deck on your hands and knees gasping for air.

“Ye filthy whore,” He snarled pulling the same pistol that he has shot you with before. “Thought I’d dispatched ye before, temptress witch.”

“Like a bad but shiny penny, bucko.” You reached for a sword or pistol, but had none. You were totally unarmed. You rocked back on your haunches, ready for the Cat’s next move.

“That lascivious, wicked snare between yer legs cost my son his title.”

“It was the wife’s title, obviously he’s controlled by his woman? He always did need more ballast in his trousers.”

Gato fired his pistol, nicking you in the right shoulder. You knew that was only a warning shot. You put pressure on the wound with your left hand, the blood trickled threw your fingers and ran down your arm. The ball was obviously dipped in the same poison as the one he shot into your hip. Your shoulder began to throb as the poison seeped into your veins, the pain shooting through your body.

The Grindstone, Kieran’s flagship, fired its six pounders again, the captain’s cabin of the Fortaleza Litoral exploded as the cannon balls ravaged through it. A fire now spread over the man of war, the masts and sails looked like torches reaching up to burn the skyline. The ship was dead and going down. Although, the Cat seemed to be aware of his ship’s fatal state, his aim didn’t falter away from your heart. His finger began to tighten on the trigger.

**************

Jack heard a shot which strange piercing pitch sounded out from the rest of the gunfire and blood shed. He spun around with the grapple still in his hands. First he saw the boy struggling to free himself from the man he recongized as the one you kissed in Quebradillas. He was carrying the child to the rail of the ship, no doubt to throw him overboard between the two ships, a hazard sure to crush and drown the boy.

Glancing in the direction of the shot, he saw you leaning agaisnt the mast, bleeding heavily with Gato about to put another ball in your chest, this one a kill-shot. He snapped back to the pendant, so close. He could reach it easily with the grapple. Patrick’s excitable struggles pulled Jack’s attetion back to him. He was almost to the railing. Jack’s eyes flashed back to you completely at the Cat’s transgressions.

His hand gripped the iron shaft of the grapple turning his knuckles white. ‘What to do, what to do? Bloody hell, what to do?’ There was no time to think. Jack turned off the rambling voice in his head and let his instints take over. Giving slack to the grapple’s hook, Jack twirled the hook over his head before hurling it over the edge of the ship catching the chain of the pendant. Twisting his back, Jack snapped the pendant threw the air in your direction, the golden crab glistened in the light of the fire as it sailed threw the bullet-riden air.

With a loud and determined grunt, Jack continued his swing. The grapple cut threw the air before lodging it’s barbed hook in Williamston’s back. Williamston staggered a few weak steps forward, still holding Patrick high over his head, before coughing up a mouthful of clotted blood and dropping to his knees dead. Jack watched as the boy fell overboard. He leapt up onto the railing and jumped overboard to save him.

****************

Gato’s mouth was clenched in a rage-filled scowl of disgust and vengence. Beyond him, you saw Williamston, carrying Patrick, moving closer to the edge of the ship. There was a determination to hurt you in his stride by killing your only child. A flickering light caught your eye. It was the pendant, by some mysterious life-saving power, was flying threw the air towards you.

‘Love is stronger than all the seas. Close mortal heart within boned chest of those who never die taming the damned fire.’

The phrase from the tattooed skin echoed inside your mind. To save Patrick, you had to kill the Cat. To kill the Cat, the pendant had to enter his chest, killing his lifesource. But you had no weapon…

You felt a weight tickling the skin. It was the bone necklace that Tia Dalma had given you. At that moment, you realized that it was more than a tool to locate Gato and a good luck charm. You reached up and caught the pendant in your left hand as it flew over Gato’s shoulder. With your right hand, your ripped the bone off of its string. Lunging forward with all your wieght, you slapped the pendant over Gato’s heart and stabbed it with the bone shattering his sternum and forcing it deep inside his chest.

At first he did nothing except laugh. He grabbed you by the shoulder and stuck his pistol under your chin.

He put his face in yours. You could feel his hot, putrid breathe on your skin. “Just how many times do I ‘ave to tell you nescient fools I can’t be killed!” He pushed his pistol against your lower jaw so hard that it forced your head back. You expected to hear the pistol fire and then nothing after as your brains explode against the mast, but the Cat let loose of the hold on your shoulder. He dropped the pistol and took several shaky steps backwards. His hands shot up and he began to desperately claw as the gapping hole in his chest. Blood tinted stagnant water gushed from the wound, turing redder and redder as it splattered on the deck. His greenish skin slowly turned flesh colored. He was returning to his human form, his mortal form.

He feel to the deck in a heap. He looked up at you, an astonished and dumbfounded expression on his pale face. His mouth moved but no words came out. You knew what he was trying to say, “How?” His body fell and became lifeless. Your wounds stopped bleeding.

You picked up the Cat’s pistol and emptied it into the back of his head. “If yer gonna kill someone, do it right and make sure they’re dead.” You hissed.

The storm that hovered over the battle cleared as fast as it had come. The waters became calm and the wind stopped churnning. The men under the Cat’s and Carrere’s command stopped fighting and lowered their weapons in surrender. Everyone of the Pirate union began to cheer in victory.

You looked over to the side of the ship and saw Williamston’s bludgeoned body but did not see Patrick. Your heart began to beat hard inside your chest, so hard that you could hear it inside your ears like a drum. You shouted his name but it only came out as a whisper. You swallowed, trying to rid the lump in your throat. Scanning the deck of the Fortaleza Litoral and the Jolie Rouge, you hoped to spot the boy celebrating with the rest of the pirates, but did not.

Your stomach began to feel sick as you slowly walked toward the side of ship. You stepped over Williamston without looking down at him. Standing at the rail of the ship, you took a deep breath before looking over. If Patrick’s body was floating face up in the water below, you would never be able to forgive yourself.

“Don’t stand there lolly-gaggin, help us up!” A voice called up from over the edge.

A joyful smile spread across your face. You leaned as far over the railing as you could without falling. There was Jack holding Patrick on his shoulder, standing on your two swords that you wedged in the hull earlier in the battle.

Jack pushed Patrick up so you could reach him. You pulled Patrick up and hugged him.

“Momma!” he choked out.

“What dear?” you asked.

“Lemme go, I-I can’t breathe you’re holdin too tight!”

Laughing through your happy tears, you let go. You lowered a line to Jack. As soon as he climbed over the railing and stepped on deck, you wrapped your arms around his neck and kissed him with all fiery passion. He kissed you back with the same fire, holding you tight around the waist. Any pirate within view cheered louder than before, chanting your names.

“The Cat is dead, and the boy is safe. It’s all done.” Jack said resting his forehead on yours.

“Almost…” you backed away from him, staring deep into his eyes before turning around. Jack knew what you were doing. You walked over to Gato’s body and dragged him by his arm over to the side of the ship.

“It must return to the sea, or we’ll have other tyrants to fear.” Jack helped you lift Gato’s body over the railing. His body only floated on the water for a brief moment. The water around him turned as black and thick as tar before flowing over him and dragging him down to the bleak depths of the locker.

**************

The pirate captains met for a drink before going their separate ways. Although being battered, bruised, and exhausted everyone was joyful and toasted to be rid of Santos Anibal Gato and the pendant. Even the Scarred Turk gave you a nod of respect. He still hated you with every once of his being, but respected you none the less.

Later, lying belly down on Jack’s bed naked, you watched Jack dress with a contented grin. He was rambling on about where he was sailing next, his next great adventure. His words blended together into incoherent mumbling. You weren’t actually listening to him, just taking him in, all his pecular movements and ticks and his overall eccentric nature. You could never love anyone as much as you loved him.

He plopped down on the bed beside you as if worn out from his own talking. Jack’s fingertips traced your spine making goosebumps rise as he moved from the nap of your neck to your lower back.

“Savvy?” He repeated it a few more times before you actually heard it.

“I didn’t hear a word you said.” You answered, smirking.

“Not a word?”

You just shrugged.

Jack laid down beside you with his arms behind his head staring at the ceiling.

“Ask me, Jack.” You said quietly.

His headed snapped, he looked in your eyes for a moment and then turned his head back to the ceiling. You see his eyes moving nervously in their sockets as he tried to figure out what to say. You began to giggle, which made him more nervous.

“Ask me to stay, Jack.” You said between laughs.

A releaved wave washed over him. “Dammit Luv, I thought you wanted me to ask ye to mar…”

“Just ask me to stay.” You interupted. You didn’t need the ring on your finger, or his last name. Just for him to want you with him.

“I’ll ask on one condition….”

You rose up on your elbows, your face looking down on his confused.

“My boy stays too.”