London Calling: The Sequel to The Attainment of Evangeline

Chapter One

Folkestone, England.
April the 16th, 1745.

It seemed a dream, a complete whirlwind. Evangeline had attempted to reason, but logic, too heavy for the occasion, never came.

This isn't real. I must have fallen asleep, and dreamt up a scenario where Jack Sparrow could possibly love me. The past predicts the future. Is this real?

Jack took her through the back alleys of town, their hands tangled together in a web, promises trapped inside. After the rain had ceased, the cobblestone shimmered under their boots, and water fell from the rooftops with a solid rhythm. He stopped three separate times to turn to her and smile, asking if she truly wanted to follow him back to the Pearl. Her answer every time; Yes.

Now they found themselves alone in the captain's quarters of the Black Pearl, in his bed, completely beside themselves with illogical happiness.

"When did ya know?" Jack asked. He carefully reached for her hand, and wove his fingers with hers again. "Ya said you've felt this way for years, but when did you realize that ya loved me?"

She felt Jack's heartbeat through his fingertips. It was rapid and strong, much like a storm, and it mimicked hers. The raised skin on his palms read like a map, and she traced the scars with her fingers, attempting to find her port.

"I was eighteen, and you had just left for the Pearl. Expecting to fall for Nathaniel, I fell for you instead. It became apparent after he kissed me that night on my doorstep that I lived for you. I dreaded your departure, I aimed to spend every minute of my day with you, but it wasn't until you left that I realized just how deep my feelings ran," she whispered. "I chased after you that day to tell you, but you were gone when I reached the hills. I thought of you every day for four years, and still every day after that."

Jack's eyes became sullen. "I truly had no inkling, luv. If I had only known..."

"I attempted to tell you so many times. I desperately wanted you to know."

He laid his hand on her cheek, and she closed her eyes to put the feeling to memory.

"I hurt you," he said, barely above a whisper.  "That was never what I wanted. I went out of my way to make sure the opposite happened on a daily basis, but...I caused it meself."

"I know you never meant to."

"It was always there; the thought that perhaps I felt more for ya than I initially gathered. There was an attraction that I couldn't name. I knew ya made me happy; thoroughly, purely happy. I knew ya were everything to me, yet I didn't bloody understand what I wanted. Then ya were gone, and it shattered everything in me. I lay awake for days, waiting for ya to wake up, terrified that ya never would. After the second day, I knew; I became completely aware that I could not possibly live without ya, because I am hopelessly yours. All that I am belongs to you," Jack said, as Geline clung to every syllable.