In the Hands of Fate II: Dead Man's Chest

Chapter Fifteen

The Dutchman doesn't get any less scary. Not even a third time. Perhaps because it looked condemned and haunted. Perhaps it was just the crew. Or maybe, it always found the opportune moment to pop out of the sea.

"Lord on high, deliver us," Gibbs whispered from in front of me.

Jack stepped forward. "I'll handle this, mate." He stepped to the railing and held his jar up. "Oi, fish face!"

Jones turned his slightly amused attention on him. His face suddenly turned worried.

"Lose something? Eh? Scungilli!" Jack yelled as he fell down the stairs. I rushed to him, though he popped up three seconds later. "Got it! Come to negotiate, eh, have you, you slimy git? Look what I got."

I winced. "Calm down with the insults, please?"

"I got a jar of dirt, I got a jar of dirt and guess what's inside it?" he sang.

Outraged, Jones turned to his crew and ordered them to open fire.

"Hard to starboard?" Jack mumbled.

"Hard to starboard!" I screamed. "Brace up the foreyard!"

Jack and I raced up to the helm. He immediately took over for Gibbs and I went to lean by Elizabeth.

"She's falling behind!" she pointed out.

"Aye. We got her," I mumbled.

"We're the faster?" Will asked.

I nodded a slight smile on my face. "Against the wind, the Dutchman beats us. That's how she takes her pray. But with the wind…"

"We rob her advantage," Gibbs states.

I walk to the mast and rest my forehead on it.

"They're giving up!" Marty calls from above me.

I smile for a second but a deep foreboding felling tugs at my stomach and it drops. "That was too easy."

A sudden something jolts the ship and I hear Jack's jar fall and cringe when he can't find the "thump-thump."

"We must have hit a reef!" a crew member calls.

"No," Will and I say together.

"It's not a reef! Get away from the rail!" he yells.

"What is it?" Elizabeth asked worried more for Will's sanity than anything else.

I barely say "The kraken," when everyone aboard starts screaming.

Will shouts orders but I hardly hear them. No, I look to Jack as he readies a longboat. It wasn't until he steps over the rail do I realize what he's doing.

"JACK, NENOROCIT LAŞ!"

He looks at me, sadness overflowing in his eyes. "Sorry, love," he mouths.

I shake my head feeling betrayed and go find Will. It doesn't take long before the putrid green, barnacle-covered tentacles of the kraken slither up the sides of the Black Pearl.

"Easy boys!" Will tells everyone below deck.

"Will?" Elizabeth whimpered.

"Steady! Steady."

"Will!"

"Hold. Hold."

"I think we've held fire long enough," I snap. "Will!"

"FIRE!" he orders.

Everyone does just that. The resulting noise is deafening. Tentacles slam into the deck and fall back into the water. When the last little bit is no longer seen, the crew's cheers of victory could be heard.