Prison of the Mind

Confession of the Heart

The cold vice-like grip of dread was strangling her from the inside.

As she sat on the wooden chair, she felt like she was wavering in the calm before she was to be sentenced to death before a jury of the people she was supposed to love and respect; not betray.

All of the colors in the room blended together, leaving her with nothing to focus on but her limbs anxiously twitching, and her heart making a valiant attempt to escape from her chest.

When Tia Dalma ghosted across the room, Elizabeth had to remind herself to start breathing, not for the first time that night, and certainly not the last.

Tia stopped at her desk, and turned around, staring straight into her eyes, almost as if challenging her to run from her fate. Elizabeth stared back, and inclined her head only slightly towards the other woman. A small knowing smile creased her lips, holding a thousand different words. Tia turned back towards her desk, and picked up a glass bottle and a knife. The sound that emanated from the two clanging together was deafening to Elizabeth, despite the even more cacophonous sound of blood rushing past her ear drums.

Doors opened and shut. Her chest tightened, and she had to force breath through her mouth, because it was threatening to vanish from her lungs.

"Gather 'round."

Tia sliced her arm through the air, motioning to the remnants of the Black Pearl's crew, beckoning them to congregate around the pale shaking human embodiment of raw fear.

Once they all formed a half-hearted circle, Tia spoke.

"Elizabeth and I discussed a...possible way to retrieve the good Captain of the Black Pearl. A grand quest, as it were. One that a few of you will benefit from, I think, more than others."

Her words were aimed at William Turner, who was currently avoiding Elizabeth like the plague. His head jerked to look in the swamp witches' direction, eyes narrowed.

"My involvment in this possible quest is irrelevant. What is relevant is the fact that you declined to share this information with all of us at once. Why did Elizabeth need to hear it first? Furthermore, why do either of you assume that we actually want Jack Sparrow back from the dead?"

Elizabeth winced at the way her name passed through his lips. It was as if he was speaking of a fatal disease, instead of the woman he loved.

Tia sidled up to will, and positioned herself inches from his face. "William, you believe that with the Pearl, you can help your father escape his fate of eternity with the sea devil, Davy Jones himself. Do not underestimate how well I know any of you." She rotated back around slowly, allowing her words to sink into Will's brain.

"However, William's inquiry is fair. Yes, I did share this idea with Elizabeth first, and you all want to know why."

Four pairs of eyes stared back at her, three of them only holding curiosity, and one holding the most pure display of dread that had ever mingled with the consciousness of a human.

Tia raised her hand to touch one of the many ornaments hanging from the ceiling of the hut.

"The quest to raise a human soul from the Locker is a complicated one. It can only be done when the soul in question was sent there before their time, by a betrayal that was not supposed to happen."

She paused, waiting to make sure all of them were understanding.

"The price of returning life to a soul is to offer a replacement."

Elizabeth closed her eyes. She felt bile rising in her throat, and her skin broke out in a sweat.

She saw a hand gesturing to her in the haze that her vision had become, and words were spoken that she vaguely heard.

"If she would be so kind, I believe Elizabeth can tell you the rest."

When she raised her eyelids, they felt like they had a hundred pounds of lead resting on them.

Almost as if in a trance, her eyes drifted over to the man that had been a father figure in her young life. A man that had known two different paths in his own lifetime. A naval officer, and a pirate. Genuine worry was etched into his face. Joshamee Gibbs may be the only true friend Jack had.

Next to him were Pintel and Ragetti, two pirates that had been accessories to her captivity on the Black Pearl with Captain Barbossa. Now she had fought along side them in a battle to a near death.

Finally, there was the boy that she had rescued from a shipwreck when she was a little girl. The boy that had become her secret love, the man that she was never going to be able to marry because of their differences in social status. Now, he wouldn't even look at her.

Swallowing thickly, Elizabeth spoke.

"Captain Sparrow was betrayed. He did not choose to go down with his ship willingly, the choice was made for him. That is why his soul is able to be rescued."

Her breath hitched, and she hoped that further explanation wouldn't be necessary. She wasn't sure if she could make it through anymore.

"Why did Tia Dalma share this information with you first Elizabeth? Why?"

Will's words were slow and deliberate.

She shook her head in pointless denial of what she was about to share.

"When I climbed into the longboat, and told all of you that he had elected to stay behind, I lied. That much you already know. But there is another part of the truth that I have neglected to share with you."

She could feel their gazes burning into her skin, and she could hear the cogs in their brain turning.

"Will saw me kiss Jack, but it was not out of passion or grief. It was an impulse of trickery from someone who realized what had to be done in the spur of the moment. I shackled him to the mast of his own ship, forcing him to stay behind while all of our lives were saved."

Tears were now streaming freely down her cheeks. She raised her eyes to stare directly into Will's.

"I sent Jack to his death. I killed him, and that is why Tia spoke to me about this prior to any of you. I am the only one who can bring him back."