A Pirate's Life for Me

Chapter 28: End of a beginning

On the Pearl, Jack frantically fought with his shackles.

"Bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger." Jack cursed, both his current situation and Elizabeth bloody Swann. If he had had his pistol, he swore he would have shot the blonde Swann, to hell the fact that she was Annalise's twin.

'This is what you get for making the 'right' choice.' Jack thought darkly as he whacked his sword butt into the shackle. It was a good thing he hadn't tried to use it against Elizabeth, else he would have been trapped without even that - not that it did much to improve his mood.

'This is why love is for land-loving fools. If I get out of here, I'll swear...' Jack's dark thoughts and visions of strangling Elizabeth continued, conveniently forgetting how he had abandoned his crew moments earlier after having landed them in the mess to start with.

Jack's stream of curses finally finished as he managed to break his shackles free. But it was too late.

Jack froze as he heard a groan under his own feet, and he glanced around sharply. The Kraken was coming, there was no doubt about that. Could he escape? No, Jack knew that was a foolish thought - but he could go down fighting. If it was the last thing he did, he was going to prove Elizabeth Swann wrong and for once in his life he wasn't going to run.

'Not that noble when you know you wouldn't survive either way.' The tiny, sarcastic voice in his head commented.

'Shut up.' He replied just as he felt a giant presence rising behind him.

Jack turned slowly, and his lip curled when he saw the enormous open mouth emerging up from the sea as the Pearl tilted toward the Kraken when the beast grabbed the ship. Teeth the size of two of him pointed his way as the Kraken widened its jaws and roared, splattering Jack with its saliva. Jack wasn't sure which was more disgusting - the slimy, wet mucus that covered him or the smell of rotting flesh coming from the Kraken's mouth that gave 'bad breath' a whole new meaning.

There was one good thing though: a familiar feathered hat landed on the deck before him and Jack grinned as he picked up his old hat.

"Looks like it's just you and me at the end."

Jack stuffed the hat on his head before he faced the gigantic beast that he had no hopes of winning against. But if he could stick it with one tiny hole, he felt that at least he'd feel a little bit better.

Smirking, Jack greeted, "Hello, beastie."

The Kraken snarled and it moved toward the ship as Jack lifted his sword and charged. As those terrible jaws closed around him, Jack reared back to stab the beast in one last ditch effort to stick the sucker with some pain. And in that moment before death, all other thoughts including his murderous intents for a certain blonde Swann disappeared and one last image of Annalise's face floated to the forefront of his mind.

It was quite a peaceful picture, one of a simpler time when feelings hadn't been complicated and their future wide open even if it had been uncertain.

Annalise was standing at the railings of the Interceptor at sunset, the orange light throwing a pretty glow on her as yet pale face while the light reflected from the sea danced in her clear blue eyes. She wasn't looking at him yet, her gaze on the far horizon as she stayed deep in thought - no doubt of her missing sister, Jack had thought at the time. Her dark hair was loose and flowing, as free as her caged spirit longed to be. It had not yet occurred to Jack back then to fear how he was attracted to that caged fierceness, how he longed to release that spirit and tempt her to sail away with him.

And as the world turned black around him, Jack recalled how back on the Interceptor, Annalise had turned after sensing his approach. And unlike the Annalise as of late (his own fault but for the moment he forgot that), the vision in his mind smiled at him, her gaze light and soft in the orange sunset.