Black Stones

Something To Die For

They drag me away, deep into the fortress. My legs are shackled together, as are my hands, and I soon loose all sense of direction in the winding pathways. All I know is that we are going down, deep into the earth. Finally we reach a cell, and I'm thrown roughly inside. The door shuts with a loud clang behind me, and then I'm alone. The silence is deafening, there isn't a shred of light, and I can't even tell if my eyes are open or shut. I'm not sure how long it lasts, perhaps an hour, perhaps a day, perhaps a week. When they finally come for me, I had nearly lost my mind in the suffocating blackness.
"Hello William," Jack says to me, "are you enjoying your stay?" I look up from the slimy floor. Jack stands in the door, Thorn on one side and Strider on the other. When I don't answer, Jack gestures to the guards.
"Pick him up," he orders, "it's time for me to repay him for his hospitality last time I was in his care."

They drag me away. I fight them at first, but give up quickly. Wherever they were taking me, they would take me there no matter what I did. Better to conserve my strength for when it would matter. They take me to a small room that smells of death. Chains and sharp tools lined the walls, there is blood all over the floor, and a long table with shackles sat in the center of it all. I know instantly what Jack has in store, and I begin to struggle again. It is useless though, and I'm quickly strapped down. As I struggle against the restraints biting into my wrists and ankles, Jack looks down at me with glee.
"Comfortable? No? Good. I told you that you would regret that little conversation we had aboard Dauntless," Jack says, rubbing his still out of place jaw, "and now I get to have a bit of fun."
"What do you want?" I ask, "you have me. You have my crew. You have my ship. You have Ann for Gods sake! What more do you want!?"
"What do I want?" Jack says with an evil gleam in his eye, taking a hot iron stick from a nearby fire, "what I want, is to see you die, as slowly and painfully as I can make it." And then the screams start.

I wake up in my cell some time after that. I had passed out from the pain at some point, and then they threw me back into my hole. Several of my teeth are missing, there are cuts all over my body, and the skin on my chest still sizzles and burns from Jacks first instrument of torture. Once again I am alone in the darkness, and I drag myself over to the wall. Even though I can't see anything, I can feel a shape settle down next to me.
"You're pitiful." Ben's voice says, "captain William Heartless, scourge of the seas, reduced to this. Pitiful."
"I'm sorry Ben," I whisper.
"You're sorry? You're sorry!?" The voice shouts, "sorry won't help Amos. Sorry won't save Ann. Sorry won't bring back Smitty! Sorry doesn't cut it!"
"Ben, I tried, I couldn't do it," I wail miserably.
"Is this the legacy I left?" The voice asks, "a failure of a cabin boy?"
"Don't listen to it," a second voice says. I recognize it as.... Ben?
"Don't listen to it," Ben repeats, "it's a lie."
"You are a lie Will," Ben's voice say, "a pirate? A captain? A protector? All of it is a lie!"
"Will, listen to me!" Ben pleads, "you did all you could. You did what you thought was right. This other voice, it's just in your head!"
"We are all in his head," the voice cackles, "all of his mistakes, and his failures, everything is just in his head. And we won't ever go away."
I cover my ears but the voices don't stop. Of course they don't. The voice is right, all my choices, all of my mistakes, all of my ghosts, they're all in my head. And I will never escape them.

I stay in that cell for a long time. I loose track of the days and nights, time doesn't pass in the depths of hell. Then one day, the cell shakes. I dimly hear booming sounds, and realize that they were cannons. Soon after my discovery, the cell door clanks open.
"Captain?" Benedict asks, "oh God, what did they do to you?" I stare at my former cabin boy, and walk unsteadily towards him. When I reach the door, I grab his throat with what little strength I have left.
"You could have stopped all of this," I growl as he claws at my hand, "none of this had to happen. If you had stayed with me, we could have avoided all of this! Instead you betrayed us, all of us! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't snap your neck!"
"Because... You... Need me...." Benedict chokes out. I stare hard at him, then release my grip and sag against the door. Benedict falls to the ground, and gasps for breath before picking himself back up.
"Why now?" I ask finally. Benedict looks at the ground, then back up at me.
"Because I'm done being a slave," he says, "I'm done living in guilt. I'm done with spending sleepless nights wondering if what I did was the right choice. I'm done doing bad things for bad people. For once in my life, I want to do the right thing."
"Ok then," I say quietly, thinking of my similar thoughts, "then let's go set things right."