Cut Throat | Captain Jack Sparrow x OC x William Turner

Cut Throat

I'm holding my head high as I watch over the crowd, some laughing, some looking smug but most are looking at the sky. For a moment I follow their example, I look up at the pale blue, cloudless sky and inhale deeply. The faint salty smell of the sea fills my body, I cling to it as the rope around my neck is pulled tight. No escaping now, the butcher made sure of that. My breathing is more labored, but still I focus on the scent of the sea, hoping that it is the last thing I will remember.

Endless night underneath the stars, surrounded by water and swayed to sleep by the waves. I was destined to be a lady, to act proper and accept a husband, but I was always reckless, always in search of adventure. My hair always curled and pinned up, stabbing my scalp, corsets always pulled too tight and dresses too hot for the summer sun. On the day of my eighteenth birthday I was done. With a blade strapped to my thigh underneath the many layers of my dress, I walked down the stairs, towards my parents and future husband. I knew by the end of the day I would be engaged and after that I would become the property of that man.

It wasn't until later that afternoon, when he took me to a secluded part of the garden that I found my moment to escape. He was talking and talking, going on and on about life and his accomplishments and his goals. The moment he leaned in to kiss me and seal our engagement, I pulled up my skirts without him noticing and put the blade to his throat. He backed off, giving me enough room to slice the bottom half off my skirts and cut off the corset. I ran towards the docks and slipped inside one of the boats. I stayed hidden for the whole journey, only daring to come out of hiding in the middle of the night and search for food. It took multiple tries to get where I wanted to be, Tortuga.

When I arrived I spent one year of my life stealing food until I was caught. The old pirate took me onboard, making me clean his ship, scrub the decks. From that moment on I was committed to the sea, unable to sleep without the sway, the scent and the stars looming over me.

I spent four years at sea, until we were caught and today I am standing with a noose around my neck, waiting for the latch to open up and making me drop to my death. I have watched the crew die, either on sea or just moments ago. A female pirate is a rarity, one they like to make a spectacle out of. Here I find myself standing, alone, but still with my head high as I pray.

The bell has been raised

from its watery grave...

Hear its sepulchral tone

We are a call to all

pay heed the squall

and turn your sail toward home!

Haul together,

Hoist the colors high.

Heave, thieves and beggars,

never shall we die.

"Penelope Esmeralda Wright, you are sentenced on this day to be hung from the neck until dead. May God have mercy on your soul."

"Poppy, it's Poppy you blithering idiots," I mutter.

Everyone is quiet as the drums come to an end. I don't dare to close my eyes as I keep looking up at the sky, inhaling deeply as I listen to the steps of the butcher until they stop. For just a few seconds, everything is quiet, the people, the creaking wood, the wind and every bird in the sky. The silence is broken by a grunt, followed by gurgling. Before I can even look at the origin of the sound the noose around my neck tightens and I stumble backwards. I try to take a hold of the robe above me, desperate to not die, but I find it gone. While my hands are still bound I quickly loosen the knot around my neck and throw it off. It only takes seconds to find the knife in the wooden pole behind me, with one swift move I cut the ropes around my wrist and pull the blade out.