White and Black Pearls 3 - Ten Pearl Strand

Chapter Twelve

When Jack came above deck with a bounce in his step and rum on his lips, he smiled and looked around. He paused when he saw Calypso and Davy Jones playing kissy-face by the mast, and tilted his head to the side, making a disgusted face and sticking out his tongue. “Fishy,” he mumbled with a shake of his head before peering across his ship in search of Celestiana.

He wandered past the reunited couple and looked up towards the hull of the ship, but froze on the spot at the sight before him. “Celestiana?” Jack whispered, having a hard time believing what he was seeing. He watched as she stumbled along the railing, and towards the stairs; she reached the top step and dragged another foot forward, one hand clutching the rail and the other holding her stomach where the blood was still pouring out in a black streak all the way down the front of her dress to the floor now. Dropping his rum bottles, Jack broke into a run as he saw her lift a foot to try and take the first step. “Celestiana!” he cried out, thundering up the steps and catching her in his arms as she fell. His strength was not great however, after his two week imprisonment, and the both of them fell down the stairs together with Jack taking the brunt of the blows. When they hit the deck together, he rolled her onto her side so that he could get out from underneath her, and looked at her back. “Celestiana,” Jack said urgently. “You’re bleeding, you’re… you’re hurt!” He couldn’t believe the foolishness coming out of his mouth, but it was hard to believe what he was seeing at all. Goddesses didn’t bleed!

“Jack,” she rasped, lifting her eyes to look up at him between her sharp little gasps. “Get away from me!”

He was taken aback by this, and left speechless.

“Get away from her!” Calypso cried out.

This caused double the confusion as Jack looked over his shoulder at the sea goddess. When he turned back to look at Celestiana once more, however, he was staring down the very blade that had been sticking out of her just moments before; it was in Celeste’s hand and she grinned wickedly before thrusting it forward, aiming to bury it into his skull through his eye. Jack dodged the thrust with a startled yelp, before scrambling back away from her.

“Celestiana, darling, can’t we talk about this?” Jack blurted as he watched her get up and aim the knife his way again. He held up his hands defensively while taking a few more steps back.

“There’s no talking!” Calypso said urgently, her reunion shattered, “Not with her! That’s Bloody Celeste! Run!”

He didn’t have to be told twice, he’d heard the stories too. Jack bolted back down into the bowels of the Black Pearl, leaving every man for himself above deck. He fumbled with the keys at his side before finding the right one and unlocked the brig, swinging the door open and slamming it back shut with himself inside alongside Barbossa. Jack locked the door in a hurry before taking a nervous seat beside the man. It was then that Jack noticed that Barbossa was awake and staring at him. “You don’t want to go up there, mate,” he said with a point of his thumb towards the stairs. “Trust me.”

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