Drabble: 'Give Him An Inch'

[dwgm]

Here's my entry for the drabble theme of the week, angsty and unbetaed, but exactly a hundred words...



~ Give Him An Inch ~


The blade'd been broken, but it'd been deadly sharp and only an inch away.

Yet the moment was too sweet. He'd had to gloat. "Heady tonic, holding life and death in the palm of one's hand."

"You're a cruel man, Jack Sparrow!"

Lord, that was rich, coming from Jones. "Cruel is a matter of perspective," Jack had replied, with gentle malice.

"Oh, is it now?"

The scene played behind Jack's eyes, over and over, on the way to Tortuga. Almost as bad as the Locker.

One inch to immortality, and happily ever after.

Might as well have been a mile.

~.~

Comments

[komandant-krech.livejournal.com]

Very nice! I've been wondering too if Jack really wanted to be the CotFD, _really_ understood what it meant and required from him, or was it just something that sounded 'cool' (immortality and the 'legend' coming with it). Character-wise, I think Will is better suited for the job, anyway -- after all, Jack might be a bit too impulsive and reckless... :D

But, yeah, it sounds reasonable that he felt guilt at some point (I played with the idea in my own story but didn't really take it further -- it _would_ be an interesting plot to explore deeper, anyway!).

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Hard to say how much guilt Jack feels -- he certainly doesn't let his sins and setbacks get him down, just keeps his eye on that horizon -- which is one of the big things we love about him. But he'd be less than human if these events didn't haunt him to some degree, and it's certainly conceivable that they could affect his future, and in particular any subsequent dealings with Elizabeth and Will.

This was an idea I'd been considering for a while. Every time I watch that scene, Jack's gloating hesitation disturbs me. It's such a clichéd trope in movies, but it goes entirely against Jack's policy of waiting for the opportune moment. ladymouse said maybe Jack felt he had those seconds to enjoy his the moment because he didn't expect such wanton cruelty from Jones, whose attack on Will was pure malice, achieving nothing. I thought that was a good point.

Glad you liked this one. Some interesting discussion came from it. Thank you for reading and commenting!