Fathoms Below: Captain Jack Sparrow

Chapter 32: the traitors

We pulled ashore from the longboat and immediately noticed the sight of the horrific monster that lay washed up on the sand, the sheer size of it covering most of the beach off the island. I looked at Jack out the corner of my eye, seeing Hector also side-eyeing him, waiting for his reaction to the monster that had once killed him.

Jack stood at the waters edge looking at the monster on the sand for a moment with dark eyes, before walking forward towards the beast, a determination in his step.
Hector and I followed behind him, shooting each other another uneasy glance. The kraken was dead. Had Jones killed it? Surely he was the only person that would be able to.

Pintel and Ragetti, who had been very skittish around me since our altercation, followed closely behind, desperate to get a look at the beast.

When we reached the monster, gulls were picking away at it's decaying flesh, adding a layer of macabre so the already unnerving scene. Some of the gulls cleared as Pintel poked at the creature with a stick before walking all over it, him and Ragetti arguing about what type of creature it was and other unintelligible points. I walked to the side, making my way around the beast to look at the main body of it, seeing its thick squid like skin and demonic tentacles. I peered around the hump of its flesh to see Jack stood in front of the beast, gazing into its dead, glassy eye.

"Still thinking of running Jack?" Hector said walking up to him, "think you can outrun the world?" Jack made no effort to turn, still gazing into the creatures eye, the same creature hat had claimed his life. "You know the problem with being the last of anything, by and by there be none left at all."

I tried my best to distance myself from them, knowing they needed a little heart to heart, but I could only distance myself so far as the leviathan lay across the whole width of sand.

"Sometimes things come back mate," Jack said wistfully, "we're living proof you and me." I could tell by Jack's tone there was a lot more to his words than he made out, a sadness almost as if he considered himself to be truly defeated.

"Aye but that's a gamble of long odds ain't it," Barbossa said, trying to talk some sense into Jack. "Ye wouldn't be stood 'ere without yer woman fighting every odd to bring yer back."

I felt a gaze wash over me, but I kept staring at the creature, acting oblivious as though I couldn't hear the faint voices. Jack knew my opinion on the matter, maybe even agreed to some extent that we needed to gather the Brethren, though he didn't want to hear it. I could still feel Jack's gaze on me a few seconds later, though I could no longer hear anyone speaking.

A few more moments of silence passed, before Jack spoke out again, "summoning o'the Brethren Court then, is it?"

"Aye it's our only hope lad," I heard Hector reply.
"That's a sad commentary in and of itself."
"The world used to be a bigger place," Hector said, his tone sounding unusually downtrodden and wistful.
"World's the same," Jack said, his tone was flat, "there's just less in it."

I heard the sound of Jack's boots in the sand and I smiled gently in his direction as he grew closer, worried about how he would be feeling facing Kraken again, though this time it was thankfully dead. He threw his arm over my shoulder for a moment and I rested my hand gently on his chest, just over the two scars from previous shots on his left side.
"You alright?" I whispered, not wanting to ask too loudly. He nodded, not speaking for a moment as he looked at the beast in front of us.

He turned then, pulling me along with him as he walked over to the crew, gesturing for them to follow us as we walked further inland to hunt for supplies. Will had said that there was a freshwater spring nearby, so we first made our way there.
Ragetti stayed behind to mind the boat and kept an eye on the horizon from his semi-concealed spot in the tree line.