The Attainment of Evangeline

Chapter 43

Darkness continued to wash over her and as instantly as it had come, she was sitting up, unaware of her surroundings, dizzy and gasping for breath. There was sun, slowly filling up the room she was in and reflecting off a bottle that was set on a desk, a desk she had sat at hundreds of times; and she realized she knew this room.

"Just breathe," a calm voice instructed, and Evangeline turned to see Elizabeth sitting in a chair next to the bed. "You're alright."

"Captain Turner?"

"It's Elizabeth, yes."

Evangeline struggled to catch her breath; it was as if she had been fighting just before waking. Her heart felt foreign and as it beat against her chest, it caused her pain. Everything seemed surreal in that moment and she couldn't shake the feeling that she had just been involved in a life changing event.

"This is Jack's cabin?" she asked, looking around.

"Yes, that's right."

"Why...what happened?"

Looking shocked at first, Elizabeth stood up and made her way to the door of the cabin and opened it, relaying a message to whoever was keeping watch outside. Then, she calmly stopped at the desk, grabbed the bottle and sat, ladylike, in her chair.

"You don't remember anything?" the captain asked, handing the bottle over.

Not quite caring what she was drinking, Geline swallowed it all in two large gulps and handed the bottle back over to the woman sitting next to her. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to remember, but she thought it over anyway.

"I'm not sure, I just...I see blood everywhere and Jack looking down at me....and," Evangeline soon begin to realize what had taken place. "Oh my God, I died. Did I die? Elizabeth?"

Panicking, Evangeline looked down to see herself in a plain nightdress and she held her stomach where she was sure she had been wounded, but everything felt as if it were in place. She could have sworn there had been a gaping hole in her middle in some sort of dream she had been having.

"It's alright," Elizabeth assured her, taking her hands. "There are no scars or wounds of any kind. You remember...dying?"

"I don't know what I remember. What happened?"

Elizabeth, weary at first to retell the tale, started out slowly and with every word, bigger pictures begin to form in Evangeline's mind. Boone and The Grail and bright lights all swirled around together. Some things she could not recall but she believed every word that the captain relayed to her. But one detail that was never brought up was a voice that Geline kept hearing over and over in her mind: a sweet, comforting voice and she couldn't be sure where it came from.

"Is this all too much at one time?" Elizabeth asked.

"No, no. I'm fine."

The captain was now sitting in a position of ease rather than one acceptable for a lady, and she had a contemplative look about her.

"Where was I?" she asked.

"Jack...he brought me back instead of Annie," Evangeline whispered, for once unsure of what Elizabeth was telling her

"Yes. He brought you back, not only that Evangeline, but after he held on to The Grail, even though it caused him agonizing pain, he carried you the entire way back to the shores. I have never seen Jack Sparrow, stubborn as he is, so determined as he was in those last few hours. When we returned to the ships and all of Boone's men saw Jack, whose body was absolutely torn apart with you in his arms and their leader nowhere to be seen, they surrendered immediately. It was unbelievable: Jack took back both ships without uttering a word. Those men could have overrun and killed us, but as I said before, there was something so terrifying about the way Jack continued on in those last hours and those men could see it. They willingly stepped aside. We released all of our men, left Boone's men on the island, and we left without anyone putting up a fight. That was three days ago, and Jack has been either here by your side or locked up in the rum cellar the entire time."