Drabble: 'Escape' (Jack/Pearl - PG-13)

[dwgm]

100 rather dark and angsty words for the current prompt at blackpearlsails...



~ Escape ~


You let them go? You shall take their place. Runaways are whipped, Jack. Slaves are branded…

He jerks awake to Beckett’s ghostly murmur, a shameful mewl coiled in his throat, hovering on his lips.

By God, he’ll be damned first.

He lies there in the black, heart like a triphammer, sweat pouring, hearing the hiss of words and whip, smelling sickly cologne and his own seared flesh.

He lies there, in the black.

The black.

Puts his hand out, groping, touching the charred bulkhead of his ship. His Pearl.

Not slaves. Not now. Not ever.

The Black Pearl is freedom.


~.~

Comments

[luvvycat.livejournal.com]

Wow! A very powerful 100 words! One wonders how many times Jack awoke from this particularly vivid nightmare, reliving what must have been one of the darkest moments in his life. Perhaps this explains how (why?) he developed his overwhelming fondness for rum, as well as his proclivity for burning the midnight oil whilst the rest of the crew were abed in their hammocks. Easy to understand his reluctance to give himself up to sleep, when it might be haunted by such dark dreams.

Poor Jack! At least, here, he has his beloved Pearl to afford him comfort, and freedom.

And the final line -- great callback to the desert island scene in CotBP, when he spoke those same words with passion to Elizabeth, and might well have been the source of the haunted darkness hovering behind Jack's eyes as he reveals his brand and scars to her in the deleted scene.

As Pearlseed said, quite chilling!

-- Cat

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the lovely comments. I'm very happy you thought this worked (and I was pretty chuffed at coming in at a hundred words, too).

I have to agree, there are a lot of reasons for Jack to overindulge in rum, though I think he does it less than he'd like everyone to think. *g*

[sharklady35.livejournal.com]

> ... there are a lot of reasons for Jack to overindulge in rum, though I think he does it less than he'd like everyone to think. <

Either Verbinski or Bruckheimer has said in interview, most of the time Jack is faking his inebriation so his enemies will underestimate him. His first escape from Norrington indicates it's an effective strategy.

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know I must have read that at one time or another. Very tricksy, is Jack.