Ch. 5 Ghost Stories And Memories

Elizabeth had "sneakily" grabbed a knife from the table as Barbosa turned toward the monkey to pet him before he continued.

"There is one way we can end our curse, all the scattered pieces of the Aztec gold must be returned, and the blood repaid. Thanks to ye, we have the final piece." Barbosa said as the monkey ran off.

"And the blood to be repaid?" Elizabeth asked already fearing the answer.

"That's why there's no sense to be killin ya, yet. Apple?" Barbosa joked as he held out an apple.

Elizabeth jumped up and after smacking away the apple, she took out the knife she had hidden. She tried to run out but Barbosa was blocking her way. When she finally got passed him he grabbed her at which time she just turned around and stabbed him in the chest with the knife. Barbosa paused and slowly took out the bloody knife as he looked at it then her.

" I'm curious, After killin me, what is you're planning on doing next?" Barbosa joked.

Elizabeth slowly backed away from Barbosa as she went out the door and when she turned around she turned around she saw the crew but they were all skeletons and they were walking around, clothes looked to be rotting and falling away. She started freaking out and running around as she kept running into different skeletons. She even saw the one pirate who was nice and he was standing off to the side leaning against the railing with a grin on his face that looked terrifying.

The grin scared her the most as she knew that he knew her secret, what if he decided to tell Captain Barbosa? When she had this thought, she finally started to run back inside before she was stopped by Barbosa who grabbed her and turned her to face the cursed pirates.

"Look! The moonlight reveals us for what we truly are. We are not among the living so we cannot die, but neither are we dead. For too long I've been parched of thirst and unable to quench it, for too long I've been starving to death but haven't died. I feel nothin, not the wind on my face, nor the spray of the sea, nor the warmth of a women's flesh." Barbosa said as he slowly reached his hand out and it transformed into skeleton.

Elizabeth backed up in fear as Barbosa continued.

"You best start believing in ghost stories Ms. Turner, you're in one." Barbosa said as he slowly walked into the moonlight revealing his true form, and then he opened a bottle of wine and drank it.

Elizabeth could see it going down his non-existent throat and dying his bones red before she immediately ran past him to hide inside. Barbosa then smashed the bottle on one of the doors and slammed them shut before he turned around and laughed, the crew laughing as well.

"What're ya laughing at back to work!" Barbosa then said.

Dante then walked up to Barbosa.

"Hahahaha, I think you scared her half to death, Captain." Dante joked

"Well we gotta have our fun somehow hahahaha." Barbosa said back as he and Dante walked up to the top deck.

"You know the only reason you're able to act so casual with me is that you can beat every soul aboard this ship without even breaking a sweat, that includes me. I never asked, and since it's almost time for our curse to be broken, I'd like to know. Why did you decide to let me be Captain?" Barbosa asked

"Simple, I have my own ship and I'd rather be my own Captain than a Captain of a stolen ship hahaha." Dante joked.

"Really? Your own ship, where did you get it and where are you hiding it?" Barbosa asked as this is the first he'd heard of this in the 12 years he knew Dante.

"That's for me to know and you to always wonder. But for the sake of our friendship, let's just say it's in a safe place that no one would ever think to look." Dante said mysteriously.

"Well nevermind that, you have already made enough improvements to this ship for me to not care if you have your own hahahahaha." Barbosa said.

Barbossa wasn't kidding, Dante had made a lot of improvements to the ship, namely it's canons. He had installed a new way to load the guns. He built rudimentary metal railings throughout the bowels of the ship that had cannonballs lined up. The cannonballs would slide down the rails and then eventually fall into a metal catch connected to the canons sort of like the dog toy you'd use to throw tennis balls.

With a flick of a leaver it would load the cannonball and activate a series of pulleys connected to a small piece of flint and steel to light the wick. This allowed the cannons to fire at least two times faster as they didn't have to manually load. Dante had also found a way to add a little more gunpowder to the canons and it made the cannonballs shoot out a lot faster because of the increase in power.

Dante had based the design off of his own ship that he got around a year after the mutiny.

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**Flashback 9 years ago**

Barbosa had the crew looking for new places to pilage and for traces of the gold of Cortez that we had been searching for. Dante had been walking around a random town they had stopped at to get supplies and since Dante liked to actually clean himself, Barbosa made him the go to to gain information at any of the towns they passed through. All Dante had to do was change his outfit a little to fit in and he was golden. He walked around wearing the time period's version of a trenchcoat with slacks and a vest he also kept his holsters for his guns so people wouldn't think he'd be easy prey. He also decided to move his swords to either side of his hip.

[Images Here]

As Dante was walking around, he was approached by a weird courier.

"I've been looking for you, got something I'm supposed to deliver, your hands only."

The courier said this before he handed a letter to Dante after which he just ran away. Dante paused because the entire interaction seemed very familiar to him. Ignoring the strange courier for a moment, Dante wondered how the courier even knew him, not to mention they were originally going to stop at the next town so there was no way for the courier to know where he was. Dante quickly turned around to see if he could see the courier running away but it was like he disappeared.

Dante just decided to deal with that later depending on what was in the letter. Dante went into a nearby pub and got a table in a secluded corner. He opened the letter and as he read it, the contents made everything fall into place. The strange courier and their words, how they were able to know where he was, and what he looked like, and why it was sent in a letter in the first place.

The contents of the letter were this.

{Hello young man,

I hope you remember me, I had to use a way to contact you that would seem inconspicuous to any normal denizens of the world, but just strange enough for you to open it in a secluded place. I am contacting you in regard to your cheat for your own ship, I couldn't just give it to you at the very begining as it wouldn't make much sense for a young man to have his own even if I made it be inherited from your father. So I will do it this way. Enclosed in the envelope is a map to a distant island where your ship will be located and how to gain access to it. I must also explain some things about your ship. Even though what you asked for in the cheat was just the fastest ship, such a ship already exists and you requested to be the only Captain, so I had to create a unique ship based on the others in this world to accommodate your cheat. It has some special caveats and abilities that you can examine when you find the chest in the Captain's cabin.

Good day and good luck young man.}

Dante then looked inside and he found a map and a key. The map showed the route to reach the island and had a small note attached to it that explained how to get inside the chamber where his ship was stored. Dante had made his decision. He walked back to the Black Pearl after changing back into his pirate attire.

Dante walked to the Captain's cabin and knocked.

"What do ye want? Barbosa asked annoyed from behind the closed door.

"It's Dante."

"Should've just walked in I don't know why you insist on these manners." Barbosa replied.

Dante walked in and said with a grin. "Why would I not do it if it bothers you so much hahaha."

"Hmph, whatever. What news do you bring?" Barbosa said as he scoffed at Dante's antics.

"I have a possible location for the treasure of Cortez." Dante said as he brought out a map.

Barbosa's eyes widened as he quickly got up and walked toward Dante to look at the map.

Dante had re-created the map he recieved but made all the words in Greek so that none of them could read it.

"What the hell kind of language is that?" Barbosa asked as he narrowed his eyes as he tried to read the obscure writing.

"The words are in Greek and read as 'Pigaínete sto nisí pou koimátai anámesa ston ílio kai to fengári kai vreíte aftó pou échei kryfteí apó ta mátia' which loosely translates to "Go to the island that sleeps in between the sun and the moon and find that which has been hidden from sight" Dante explained to Barbosa.

Beneath it was an illustration of how to get to the island, but evidently it couldn't be seen unless it was during twilight. Which could be considered as the point between night and day, between dawn and sunrise.

Barbosa listened to Dante and then grabbed the map and headed topside to the deck of the ship as he walked to the helm.

"We have our heading boys, Cortez' treasure awaits."