White and Black Pearls 3 - Ten Pearl Strand

Chapter Fifteen

The axe cut cleanly through Beckett’s neck from one side to the other, sending his head flying into the air and over the rail of the Black Pearl, into the water. His body thrashed a few times, limbs flailing, before it collapsed on top of Celeste.

She dropped the axe and fell limp on deck, coughing hard as Beckett’s body pushed the knife in her stomach deeper.

“Get him off!” Calypso pleaded, running over to her sister and grabbing at Beckett’s arms.

Davy grabbed at him as well, pulling the body away and tossing it aside for now as Jack scrambled forward and pushed the ring onto Celeste’s bloody finger.

“As captain of this ship,” Barbossa declared, “I now pronounce you man and wife! You may kiss the bride!”

Jack stared down at Celeste as she took in slow, weak breaths, coughing softly in between them and unable to move. Despite the blood on her lips and down her chin, he leaned in and kissed her fully on the mouth, sealing their union once and for all. The dark black patches that had started to develop on Jack’s chest and neck throughout the night shriveled and dried up, crumbling off like dry sand.

“D’you hear that love?” Jack whispered, his eyes searching hers for some kind of life and understanding. “Celestiana.”

“Blood…” the human woman beneath Jack rattled.

Calypso clenched her jaw as she stared down at her sister. “You went and beheaded the man before we could lift the curse,” she said quietly. She tried to sound angry but it only came out in a sad, gentle tone. “Foolish woman.”

Indeed Beckett’s body was still twitching on the deck nearby.

Davy Jones looked down at the dying woman before him respectfully. She had been many things to him throughout his life, but he couldn’t bring himself to hate her now as she lay there bleeding, brought down to a human state and having been willing to sacrifice everything she was for Jack Sparrow earlier on the beach. He glanced over at Calypso then, and they moved away from Jack and Celeste, letting them be alone in their only and final moments as man and wife.

Barbossa wandered over to Jack and Celeste, pausing to offer a nod of acknowledgement and goodbye to the woman before moving away as well. He approached Calypso and Davy over at the rail of the ship. Poking at the moving body with his foot, he shook his head and muttered, “That’s one state of immortality that I never want to know,” before looking up at the reunited couple.

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