"Free like a sparrow"

Elizabeth had her own huge bathroom, also very luxurious. Elizabeth sat behind me, brushing my soaked hair. The curls I had had earlier, was now gone. Washed out by the rain. I collected some bubbles from the bathtub with my right hand and blew it away. I curled my legs up to my chest, covering the scars on my thighs. I knew she had seen the ones on my back but hadn't asked about it. Maybe she was trying to be polite, not pressuring me, but I knew she thought about it. Wondered. Worried. My hand clenched around the medallion of gold. I wondered if it was real."Where did you find that?" Elizabeth asked me. I looked at the necklaces."It was laying on the ground.""Ahh thank you! , it's actually mine, I thought I had lost it" she said. I looked at her."Oh, I didn't realize," I said, taking it off. I gave it back to her. "Sorry""It's okay. It's my fault I lost it. I guess I'm clumsy""Yeah you are" I giggled. She splashed me with water."Saying the one who fell of a cliff" she shot back at me. I looked down at my knees."I can't believe I was that close. I actually swam in it.""Swam? Sweety, the word you're looking for is drowned." There was a pause of silence."Like mother like daughter". More silence. Then we both broke out in a laugh. Elizabeth slapped her hand over her mouth."I can't believe you just said that!" she giggled. I turned around, raising one eyebrow at her."I can't believe you laughed at it." Her eyes widened. "Well you did too" she blamed. We laughed. I leaned back in the bathtub. The earlier boiling hot water was now cooled down."It feels good to laugh," she said."Yes indeed. It doesn't happen very often.""And I have a feeling it won't last forever," I almost whispered."Never with our coming future," There was a bitter silence again."Is it wrong of my wishing I just died today? When I drowned?" She sat back on the chair she was sitting on. "I don't know. It depends on your choice of the future. If you choose to fight or not do anything.""Your right I guess. But even if I chose to fight, i could never win. I'll end up like I always do. Being stepped on by everyone else.""And why is that?""Why is what?""That you choose to get run over instead of standing up to yourself?" I looked her in the eyes."I don't know" I said. "Maybe I'm just tired""Or afraid""Of what?""Change"Another silence. This one lasted for a long time. That wasn't true. I wanted all the change in the world. I wanted to live another life. But I couldn't. I couldn't leave my father. What if Agnes chose to treat my sister, Lucinda, the way she's always done with me? What if she ended up with scars like me?"Why is it that you're younger than me, but both look and seem older?""I'm very wise""Hey, where did you get that necklace anyway. Doesn't seem like your style." She looked at me."If I tell you, you can't tell anyone, okay?" What was she talking about? Had she stole it or something?"I promise" Right now, I wasn't even sure I wanted to know. She seemed so serious. "It's Will's" she said. Was that all? Talk about drama queen."The handsome blacksmith? So you two have-""No! No, not like that. He didn't give it to me" "What?" I turned to face her."When I was just a little girl, we found Will in the middle of the ocean, near a shipwreck. He had it around his neck""But, it has a skull on it. The sign of a pirate" I thought out loud. She nodded."So I took it"

I understood why Elizabeth had taken the neckless. If someone had seen it, he wouldn't have been here today. Elizabeth handed me a rope of silk. I slipped in on, and jumped onto her bed, which also was covered by silk. I laid my head on a big pillow.

"The prince wants to share a room with me" I said. She looked at me and cringed. "Yeah, just what I thought."

"I promise you, if you sleep in the same room as him, that man will rape you."

"Yeah don't you think I know that? I can't stand the thought of him right now" I sighed. "Or anyone for that matter"

"Not even me?"

"Not even you," I joked "Just messing with you."

"You better be" she said as she sat down on the bed.

"No but I'm serious. My family didn't even try to find me. Checking how I am. If I'm hurt. Which by the way I am." She got a worried look and lifted her hands to my cheeks, looking for injuries. "Mentally. My heart is hurt."

"I'm sure they are worried, Felice. They're probably looking rig-"

"'-No they're not. They couldn't care any less. Agnes has my father tied around her little finger. My sister doesn't pay much attention to me" I said. Emotionless. "Of course I love them. They're family or except Agnes. We have good memories together. But sometimes I can't help but wonder if this wasn't made for me"

"What?"

"I don't know. My life. My sister loves her life. The way we live. With servants and maids doing everything for us" I explained. "I can't stand it. Or this. Or anything. I can't do anything without someone watching me". And just as I finished the sentence, someone knocked on the door.

"Come in" Elizabeth responded. A maid came walking in, with a heated water pad. She stopped as she saw me.

"Miss Swann, are Miss Bonny staying here tonight?" she said, as she set the tray on the wooden table. I sat up from the bed.

"No, it's okay. I'm su-"

"Yes she is" Elizabeth interrupted. I looked at her.

"How wonderful. I'll get another heating pad" the maid said, walking back where she came from.

"Bring some hot water too!" Elizabeth commanded. I laid down on the bed again, exhausted,

"Thank you" I said.

"Continue" she said. I tried to remember where I had left of.

"I just… I'm so different. My mother was different from my father too." I reminisced. "You know, almost everyone came running down to the dock after my fall. You, the prince, Norrington, your father. Everyone except my own father." I knew Elizabeth didn't know what to say. About anything. I knew she couldn't relate. She was designed for this life. She laid down on the bed beside me. I tried to find another subject.

"I wonder what happened to the pirate" I said. She looked at me. "What?" I asked.

"What do you hope?"

"That they caught him of course!" I insisted. "I hope they shot him, and that he now sits in the coldest, darkest cell"

"You better. That bloody pirate is nothing but filthy and disgusting. I can't believe how he treated you!" she said, turning her pillow to the cold side. "Or how he spoke to you!"

"Yeah, right," I said, raising my hand to my throat, where I now was sore due to the handcuffs that he had pressed towards it. "I hope he is suffering for what he did" I convinced myself. But I couldn't help to feel curious about the pirate Jack. I realized he had the same name as my father. He seemed so different from everyone here. I couldn't decide if his name fitted him. If it fitted him, a free man, or my father. I decided the strange feeling I felt was jealousy. Jealousy for his...freedom. He was free just like a bird. A sparrow. Flying free on the sea. Jack Sparrow.