Singapore Enchantment Chapter 3
Title: Singapore Enchantment
Author: Aquaseamage
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: James/Elizabeth
Characters: James, Elizabeth, Chai, Mei,
Genre: Drama/Supernatural/Action
Word Count: 3100 words
Warning: AU
Summary: Set during AWE. After James is stabbed by Bootstrap, Elizabeth manages to rescue him from the Dutchman onto the Empress. But is the weird Singapore magic strong enough to save his life, especially since she is the one who has to use it?
Disclaimer: The characters are not mine. They belong to Disney.
NOTE: This chapter describes the wound a bit so expect a little blood (might be gross to more sensitive individuals).
It’s no big deal…. Or so Elizabeth tried to tell herself. It’s not like she’d never seen a shirtless man before, because she had. At least one of Barbossa’s pirates had been shirtless or mostly so, like that big black man that had slapped her as soon she had came onto the Pearl that very first time. What had been his name? Elizabeth was unsure, except that he had been Barbossa’s first mate. Still, undressing James just wasn’t the same somehow. She had never seen him in anything less than full dress, complete with his navy frock coat. Of course, he had seen her in naught but her nightgown more than once! Somehow that didn’t seem fair. Besides, James was dying. This was no time for her to worry about being proper!
Elizabeth knelt down next to James and reached out towards him, dismayed to see how her hand was trembling. She had thought herself sturdier than this, but then she had never had such a heavy burden placed on her thin shoulders and doubt kept sneaking into her thoughts. Steeling her courage, her lips formed a severe pale line across her pretty face. She was a Pirate Lord now and she would do this without fainting like one of the weak women back at Port Royale. Her hand steadied and she quickly untied his cravat from around his neck, gently pulling the long length of white cloth free and setting it aside.
Pausing a moment, she pondered on how best to get his frock coat off without disturbing the wound too much. Mei had already untied the ropes that had held him in place on the carrying board, so perhaps if one of them lifted him somewhat they could get the jacket off?
“I lift..” Mei stated as she quickly moved to stand near James’ head. Bending, she gripped him and lifted his upper body up.
Elizabeth found it a bit awkward pulling his coat off, as it was not as easy as she had thought. He was unconscious and of no help at all and that made it much more difficult somehow. She bit her lip as she pulled one sleeve free of his arm, scared that every movement would send pain shooting through him. Still, she was thankful now for the task as it helped her thoughts to keep her hands busy.
Moving to his other side, she freed the other arm and sighed with relief that the frock coat was now off. She folded it neatly and set it aside on the floor of the cabin atop the cravat. Bending over, she undid his golden belt and pulled it free. It, too, joined the growing pile of clothing.
Next was his golden waistcoat. This had a lot of buttons going down the front so she knelt again as she started undoing them. The upper ones were easy, but as she grew closer to the wound the buttons were not so clean anymore. In fact, they were wet and sticky. Elizabeth frowned as the wet blood got onto her fingers, causing her stomach to lurch unpleasantly.
It is just blood…it cannot hurt me.
But her stomach didn’t seem to be listening.
No one had ever mentioned this sort of thing when being a pirate. Oh, she knew it was dangerous, of course. She wasn’t an idiot. She was on the hanging list, was she not? But hanging was a clean death, more or less. There really wasn’t any blood involved. And she knew people could get killed in fights or drown at sea or get blasted apart by a cannon, but it had never been anyone she had known personally. This was different and it cut her to the core.
No one had said how the waistcoat would stick, either…
Elizabeth bit her bottom lip as she found herself pulling on the waistcoat gently, trying to free it from the wound where it had gotten stuck thanks to the blood. James moaned and she felt a fresh rush of guilt go through her as well as a weird shiver down her spine. The shiver caused her to shudder uncontrollably for a few seconds, as if a cold gust of air had blown across her back. She knew peeling the clothing free must be painful but what else could she do? Logically, it would be better to do it now than later, after it had dried somewhat. She pulled more and finally the last bit came free and then she had to deal with the gummy buttons. Pushing these through the holes was a lot harder but she gritted her teeth and undid each one. By then her hands were a real mess, stained with drying blood. Mei lifted him again and she managed to pull the waistcoat off of him, getting fresh stains on it from her dirty hands in the process.
Then there was just his white shirt and she set to work on that without thinking too much. Button after button came free and slowly his expanse of chest appeared. She knew she was coming upon the wound itself now and she started to grow nervous. Would it look truly horrible? Would things … inside be visible and if so, would she be able to stand the sight?
Had James ever seen things like this? She figured he must have. How did he stand it without getting sick? Or was that what the emotionless attitude was for, why he hid his feelings most of the time? He had been more open during his brief stint as a pirate on the Pearl and hadn’t been so concerned with being proper. She could have spent more time with him then, but at the moment she had been only interested in Will.
But of course, that had fallen apart and they had felt they couldn’t trust each other anymore.
That had been a sad moment.
But she could always trust James, couldn’t she? He had come through for her, putting her before his duty. She knew it must have been hard for him to do that, to throw away his new commission as Admiral. And not just his commission but his life. He would have hung for setting them free, for associating with pirates.
He had been willing to die for her.
If that didn’t prove his love than what would? Yes, he loved her all right even if he didn’t always show it openly as Will had done.
And now she had to save him.
She glanced down to realize she had run out of buttons to open. Holding her breath, she slowly peeled back the two portions of his blood-stained shirt to reveal his bare chest and stomach. She didn’t think she could stomach looking directly at the wound, but she did somehow. It was probably better to get that part over with so she could concentrate on healing him or that’s what she told herself anyway. The wound itself was an angry dark slash against his pale skin, the width of the sword blade. Thankfully she didn’t see anything ghastly poking out of it nor could she see too deeply inside. Mainly it was just a dark reddish-black hole, the skin around the edges looking a bit jagged. Still, just seeing it was making her queasy and she forced her eyes away, swallowing rapidly in an attempt to keep herself from getting sick.
“Remove shirt…” Mei reminded her.
“Yes, all right.” Elizabeth replied as she forced herself back into action, pulling the stained garment off of James’ arms one at a time. The shirt was probably ruined beyond all saving, as blood was the devil to get out and then there was the sword hole. Still, she tossed it away into a corner to deal with later. She stood still for a moment, breathing in the fresh air that was blowing in from the gaping hole in the back of the captain’s cabin. It lifted her now almost-dry hair off of her shoulders, the light brown tresses blowing in the breeze. They would have to seal the hole later somehow so James could stay warm…but she found it refreshing as it helped calm her stomach now.
After a moment, she turned to look at Mei and was surprised to see the Chinese woman with a hand full of colored crystals. Each one was small, no larger than her fingernail but brilliantly colored. As she watched, Mei started to carefully place each tiny crystal on James: a red one near the groin, an orange one by the belly button, a yellow one just under the breasts, a green one in the center of the chest, a light blue one on his throat, a purple one on his forehead and a white one at the top of his head after she had removed the white powdered wig. Unlike when James had been a pirate and had longish hair, his hair was now cut extremely short.
Staring at the line of colored crystals, Elizabeth realized she had no idea what was going on at all. She felt lost and confused, totally out of her element. She knew ships, she knew pirates and she knew how to be a governor’s daughter, but this was totally foreign to her. “Is that going to help heal him?”
“Yes. These power points in body.” Mei explained as she pointed at each one in turn starting with the lowest. “Root, Spleen, Solar, Heart, Throat, Third Eye, Crown. These help heal.”
“So what do we do next?” Elizabeth asked, unsure what was going on. How could she heal him if she didn’t understand how it worked or what to do? She had thought just the magic rock was needed, but apparently there was more than that involved.
“You clean hands.” Mei replied as she stood and brought over a bowl of clear water. It was a miracle it had survived the cannon fire but somehow it did.
Elizabeth raised her hands and was somewhat shocked to see they were reddish, the skin feeling abnormally tight. Every little crease in her skin was plainly visible thanks to the dried blood and it was under her fingernails, too. Suddenly she couldn’t wait to scrub it off and eagerly sunk her filthy hands into the large bowl. Rubbing her hands together, she saw the once clear water starting to turn red. Soon the water was as bright red as a ripe cherry and she gave up. Her hands were clean enough, she supposed, and doubted if the water could hold any more.
Chai appeared then, carrying a fancy silver tray with an exquisite China teapot and matching tea cups on saucers. The Chinese girl set the tray onto the floor near James and motioned for Elizabeth to sit. “Now you drink special tea.”
Following the instructions, Elizabeth sat down on the floor facing James, her legs folded up. She was about even with the wound but she tried hard to not look at it directly, as she had to drink tea now and didn’t want to get sick. Still, she could see the dark slash in her peripheral vision. “What is the tea going to do? If it’s a healing tea, shouldn’t he drink it and not me?”
“You drink.” Chai insisted as she handed Elizabeth the cup of hot tea.
Elizabeth accepted it, staring into the black liquid. She had drunk tea before, of course. All English people drank tea and in Port Royal it had grown very expensive due to the import fees. But this tea, this was clearly not what she was used to drinking, for it was a rich India ink blackness and had an unusual odor. Taking a small sip, she was startled at the bitter flavor that exploded across her tongue. She glanced over the rim of the cup at the two Chinese twins to see them conferring with each other, their heads pressed close together. They were speaking in their own language and she hadn’t the foggiest idea of what they might be saying. Hopefully they were figuring out how to best explain the proper way to use the magic healing rock.
The tea warmed her insides, which she welcomed. Truth be told, she was beginning to feel cold again. Maybe that was because full night had fallen and cold air was blowing in through the gaping hole behind her. A moment ago the breeze had felt good but now it was freezing. She upended the cup and was startled to find it was empty already. Setting it down, she glanced at the two women. “Now what do I do?”
“Hold magic stone.” Chai instructed as she, too, sat on the floor but on the other side of James.
Elizabeth glanced around, fearing for a moment she had lost it but soon spotted it nearby. Reaching for it, she picked it up and held it in both hands. Truth be told, she was beginning to feel a bit odd…
“Now close your eyes and look here.” Chai pointed at her own forehead, her finger tapping right in the center.
“But how can I look at your forehead if I close my eyes?” Elizabeth asked as she tried to ignore the strange, light-headed feeling that was starting to coarse through her. She had felt this way once before, when she had stayed up all night reading a forbidden book on pirates by candlelight. By the next day she was so tired that she was woozy in the head. She had just been a young child then and her father had feared she had caught some dread tropical illness, but then had found the dropped book on the floor. He had been both relieved and annoyed, as he just couldn’t understand why she loved pirates so much. Why couldn’t she be like other girls, concerned with dresses and such?
“No, your head.” Chai corrected, pointing the finger at Elizabeth’s head.
“You want me to look at my own forehead?” Elizabeth asked, truly shocked. “Is that even possible?”
Chai made a frustrated noise, clearly being blocked by the language problem. She and Mei spoke to each other in rapid Chinese, their hands flying about in the air. Finally they reached some agreement as the talk ended.
“Close eyes.” Mei instructed in a soft voice.
Elizabeth closed her eyes, wondering exactly what was in the tea she had drunk. Normal tea didn’t make you feel like this. Had it been some sort of drug? The rock was warm between her two hands but it now offered little comfort, as the doubt in her was growing. What if she couldn’t do this, whatever it was? The instructions made little sense.
“Now stare into darkness.” Mei simply stated.
Well, that seemed easy enough and Elizabeth stared into the darkness inside her closed eyes. At first she saw only blackness, as she always did before drifting off to sleep at night. But then to her amazement a tiny speck of light appeared. Where had it come from? She could feel her lashes on the tender skin just below her eyes so she knew her eyes were indeed closed. Yet there was a dot of light? Soon a second tiny spot joined it and another and then another! Before she knew it, there were a whole bunch of little dots of light floating in the blackness of her closed eyes. They seemed to be swirling around in a circle, moving at a steady pace.
“You see lights?” Mei asked.
“Yes! I see them!” Elizabeth cried, happy now that whatever it was, it was working. She tried to focus her eyes on the swirling shape and like magic it shifted right to the center of the blackness before her. She quickly found out she had to concentrate on it or else it tended to slide off to one side or the other. She could feel unaccustomed strain on her eye muscles but tried to ignore it. If this was what was needed to save James, then she would do it.
“Move towards them.”
Elizabeth frowned slightly, unsure exactly how to do it. The lights were there, in the blackness of her closed eyelids, but how could she move towards them? To her amazement, the lights were now slowly taking on colors instead of being just white stars in the night sky. First red appeared, then orange and yellow. The colors reminded her of the odd little crystals that Mei had placed on James’ body. Soon the greens, blues and purple were there, too.
“Think closer…” Chai offered. “It tunnel.”
“A tunnel?” Elizabeth asked, surprised. The lights did not look like a tunnel to her. It was more like a swirling round ball, but then the more she stared at it, the more it seemed to change. But no matter what it reminded her of, it was constantly swirling around in a steady and constant motion. Recalling the instruction, Elizabeth willed the swirling shape to come closer. Part of her doubted if it would actually do that, as just thinking it seemed too easy, but to her amazement it did seem to come closer. Encouraged by her somewhat success, she willed it closer again. Now the swirling rainbow lights were right before her, filling her vision and she could see it was indeed a tunnel. The walls were made of the swirling lights and there was a dark speck at the other end. “I see the tunnel…”
“Now go in.” Chai spoke.
Beginning to understand how things worked, Elizabeth willed herself to go through the tunnel. The rainbow lights zipped past and soon she came up upon the exit. Excited that the odd Singapore magic was working, she zoomed right out the other end without pause. She would heal James and then it all would be OK.
Although she had no idea what to expect at the other end of the tunnel, what she found was not what she had expected at all. To her utter shock, she was back in the captain’s cabin with Chai, Mei and James. Disappointment flooded her body and she was about to say something to the Chinese girls about it not working when something made her turn around.
And that’s when she saw herself, sitting on the floor with eyes closed.
And then she screamed.
TBC…
Note: I'm already half done with the next chapter.
Author: Aquaseamage
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: James/Elizabeth
Characters: James, Elizabeth, Chai, Mei,
Genre: Drama/Supernatural/Action
Word Count: 3100 words
Warning: AU
Summary: Set during AWE. After James is stabbed by Bootstrap, Elizabeth manages to rescue him from the Dutchman onto the Empress. But is the weird Singapore magic strong enough to save his life, especially since she is the one who has to use it?
Disclaimer: The characters are not mine. They belong to Disney.
NOTE: This chapter describes the wound a bit so expect a little blood (might be gross to more sensitive individuals).
It’s no big deal…. Or so Elizabeth tried to tell herself. It’s not like she’d never seen a shirtless man before, because she had. At least one of Barbossa’s pirates had been shirtless or mostly so, like that big black man that had slapped her as soon she had came onto the Pearl that very first time. What had been his name? Elizabeth was unsure, except that he had been Barbossa’s first mate. Still, undressing James just wasn’t the same somehow. She had never seen him in anything less than full dress, complete with his navy frock coat. Of course, he had seen her in naught but her nightgown more than once! Somehow that didn’t seem fair. Besides, James was dying. This was no time for her to worry about being proper!
Elizabeth knelt down next to James and reached out towards him, dismayed to see how her hand was trembling. She had thought herself sturdier than this, but then she had never had such a heavy burden placed on her thin shoulders and doubt kept sneaking into her thoughts. Steeling her courage, her lips formed a severe pale line across her pretty face. She was a Pirate Lord now and she would do this without fainting like one of the weak women back at Port Royale. Her hand steadied and she quickly untied his cravat from around his neck, gently pulling the long length of white cloth free and setting it aside.
Pausing a moment, she pondered on how best to get his frock coat off without disturbing the wound too much. Mei had already untied the ropes that had held him in place on the carrying board, so perhaps if one of them lifted him somewhat they could get the jacket off?
“I lift..” Mei stated as she quickly moved to stand near James’ head. Bending, she gripped him and lifted his upper body up.
Elizabeth found it a bit awkward pulling his coat off, as it was not as easy as she had thought. He was unconscious and of no help at all and that made it much more difficult somehow. She bit her lip as she pulled one sleeve free of his arm, scared that every movement would send pain shooting through him. Still, she was thankful now for the task as it helped her thoughts to keep her hands busy.
Moving to his other side, she freed the other arm and sighed with relief that the frock coat was now off. She folded it neatly and set it aside on the floor of the cabin atop the cravat. Bending over, she undid his golden belt and pulled it free. It, too, joined the growing pile of clothing.
Next was his golden waistcoat. This had a lot of buttons going down the front so she knelt again as she started undoing them. The upper ones were easy, but as she grew closer to the wound the buttons were not so clean anymore. In fact, they were wet and sticky. Elizabeth frowned as the wet blood got onto her fingers, causing her stomach to lurch unpleasantly.
It is just blood…it cannot hurt me.
But her stomach didn’t seem to be listening.
No one had ever mentioned this sort of thing when being a pirate. Oh, she knew it was dangerous, of course. She wasn’t an idiot. She was on the hanging list, was she not? But hanging was a clean death, more or less. There really wasn’t any blood involved. And she knew people could get killed in fights or drown at sea or get blasted apart by a cannon, but it had never been anyone she had known personally. This was different and it cut her to the core.
No one had said how the waistcoat would stick, either…
Elizabeth bit her bottom lip as she found herself pulling on the waistcoat gently, trying to free it from the wound where it had gotten stuck thanks to the blood. James moaned and she felt a fresh rush of guilt go through her as well as a weird shiver down her spine. The shiver caused her to shudder uncontrollably for a few seconds, as if a cold gust of air had blown across her back. She knew peeling the clothing free must be painful but what else could she do? Logically, it would be better to do it now than later, after it had dried somewhat. She pulled more and finally the last bit came free and then she had to deal with the gummy buttons. Pushing these through the holes was a lot harder but she gritted her teeth and undid each one. By then her hands were a real mess, stained with drying blood. Mei lifted him again and she managed to pull the waistcoat off of him, getting fresh stains on it from her dirty hands in the process.
Then there was just his white shirt and she set to work on that without thinking too much. Button after button came free and slowly his expanse of chest appeared. She knew she was coming upon the wound itself now and she started to grow nervous. Would it look truly horrible? Would things … inside be visible and if so, would she be able to stand the sight?
Had James ever seen things like this? She figured he must have. How did he stand it without getting sick? Or was that what the emotionless attitude was for, why he hid his feelings most of the time? He had been more open during his brief stint as a pirate on the Pearl and hadn’t been so concerned with being proper. She could have spent more time with him then, but at the moment she had been only interested in Will.
But of course, that had fallen apart and they had felt they couldn’t trust each other anymore.
That had been a sad moment.
But she could always trust James, couldn’t she? He had come through for her, putting her before his duty. She knew it must have been hard for him to do that, to throw away his new commission as Admiral. And not just his commission but his life. He would have hung for setting them free, for associating with pirates.
He had been willing to die for her.
If that didn’t prove his love than what would? Yes, he loved her all right even if he didn’t always show it openly as Will had done.
And now she had to save him.
She glanced down to realize she had run out of buttons to open. Holding her breath, she slowly peeled back the two portions of his blood-stained shirt to reveal his bare chest and stomach. She didn’t think she could stomach looking directly at the wound, but she did somehow. It was probably better to get that part over with so she could concentrate on healing him or that’s what she told herself anyway. The wound itself was an angry dark slash against his pale skin, the width of the sword blade. Thankfully she didn’t see anything ghastly poking out of it nor could she see too deeply inside. Mainly it was just a dark reddish-black hole, the skin around the edges looking a bit jagged. Still, just seeing it was making her queasy and she forced her eyes away, swallowing rapidly in an attempt to keep herself from getting sick.
“Remove shirt…” Mei reminded her.
“Yes, all right.” Elizabeth replied as she forced herself back into action, pulling the stained garment off of James’ arms one at a time. The shirt was probably ruined beyond all saving, as blood was the devil to get out and then there was the sword hole. Still, she tossed it away into a corner to deal with later. She stood still for a moment, breathing in the fresh air that was blowing in from the gaping hole in the back of the captain’s cabin. It lifted her now almost-dry hair off of her shoulders, the light brown tresses blowing in the breeze. They would have to seal the hole later somehow so James could stay warm…but she found it refreshing as it helped calm her stomach now.
After a moment, she turned to look at Mei and was surprised to see the Chinese woman with a hand full of colored crystals. Each one was small, no larger than her fingernail but brilliantly colored. As she watched, Mei started to carefully place each tiny crystal on James: a red one near the groin, an orange one by the belly button, a yellow one just under the breasts, a green one in the center of the chest, a light blue one on his throat, a purple one on his forehead and a white one at the top of his head after she had removed the white powdered wig. Unlike when James had been a pirate and had longish hair, his hair was now cut extremely short.
Staring at the line of colored crystals, Elizabeth realized she had no idea what was going on at all. She felt lost and confused, totally out of her element. She knew ships, she knew pirates and she knew how to be a governor’s daughter, but this was totally foreign to her. “Is that going to help heal him?”
“Yes. These power points in body.” Mei explained as she pointed at each one in turn starting with the lowest. “Root, Spleen, Solar, Heart, Throat, Third Eye, Crown. These help heal.”
“So what do we do next?” Elizabeth asked, unsure what was going on. How could she heal him if she didn’t understand how it worked or what to do? She had thought just the magic rock was needed, but apparently there was more than that involved.
“You clean hands.” Mei replied as she stood and brought over a bowl of clear water. It was a miracle it had survived the cannon fire but somehow it did.
Elizabeth raised her hands and was somewhat shocked to see they were reddish, the skin feeling abnormally tight. Every little crease in her skin was plainly visible thanks to the dried blood and it was under her fingernails, too. Suddenly she couldn’t wait to scrub it off and eagerly sunk her filthy hands into the large bowl. Rubbing her hands together, she saw the once clear water starting to turn red. Soon the water was as bright red as a ripe cherry and she gave up. Her hands were clean enough, she supposed, and doubted if the water could hold any more.
Chai appeared then, carrying a fancy silver tray with an exquisite China teapot and matching tea cups on saucers. The Chinese girl set the tray onto the floor near James and motioned for Elizabeth to sit. “Now you drink special tea.”
Following the instructions, Elizabeth sat down on the floor facing James, her legs folded up. She was about even with the wound but she tried hard to not look at it directly, as she had to drink tea now and didn’t want to get sick. Still, she could see the dark slash in her peripheral vision. “What is the tea going to do? If it’s a healing tea, shouldn’t he drink it and not me?”
“You drink.” Chai insisted as she handed Elizabeth the cup of hot tea.
Elizabeth accepted it, staring into the black liquid. She had drunk tea before, of course. All English people drank tea and in Port Royal it had grown very expensive due to the import fees. But this tea, this was clearly not what she was used to drinking, for it was a rich India ink blackness and had an unusual odor. Taking a small sip, she was startled at the bitter flavor that exploded across her tongue. She glanced over the rim of the cup at the two Chinese twins to see them conferring with each other, their heads pressed close together. They were speaking in their own language and she hadn’t the foggiest idea of what they might be saying. Hopefully they were figuring out how to best explain the proper way to use the magic healing rock.
The tea warmed her insides, which she welcomed. Truth be told, she was beginning to feel cold again. Maybe that was because full night had fallen and cold air was blowing in through the gaping hole behind her. A moment ago the breeze had felt good but now it was freezing. She upended the cup and was startled to find it was empty already. Setting it down, she glanced at the two women. “Now what do I do?”
“Hold magic stone.” Chai instructed as she, too, sat on the floor but on the other side of James.
Elizabeth glanced around, fearing for a moment she had lost it but soon spotted it nearby. Reaching for it, she picked it up and held it in both hands. Truth be told, she was beginning to feel a bit odd…
“Now close your eyes and look here.” Chai pointed at her own forehead, her finger tapping right in the center.
“But how can I look at your forehead if I close my eyes?” Elizabeth asked as she tried to ignore the strange, light-headed feeling that was starting to coarse through her. She had felt this way once before, when she had stayed up all night reading a forbidden book on pirates by candlelight. By the next day she was so tired that she was woozy in the head. She had just been a young child then and her father had feared she had caught some dread tropical illness, but then had found the dropped book on the floor. He had been both relieved and annoyed, as he just couldn’t understand why she loved pirates so much. Why couldn’t she be like other girls, concerned with dresses and such?
“No, your head.” Chai corrected, pointing the finger at Elizabeth’s head.
“You want me to look at my own forehead?” Elizabeth asked, truly shocked. “Is that even possible?”
Chai made a frustrated noise, clearly being blocked by the language problem. She and Mei spoke to each other in rapid Chinese, their hands flying about in the air. Finally they reached some agreement as the talk ended.
“Close eyes.” Mei instructed in a soft voice.
Elizabeth closed her eyes, wondering exactly what was in the tea she had drunk. Normal tea didn’t make you feel like this. Had it been some sort of drug? The rock was warm between her two hands but it now offered little comfort, as the doubt in her was growing. What if she couldn’t do this, whatever it was? The instructions made little sense.
“Now stare into darkness.” Mei simply stated.
Well, that seemed easy enough and Elizabeth stared into the darkness inside her closed eyes. At first she saw only blackness, as she always did before drifting off to sleep at night. But then to her amazement a tiny speck of light appeared. Where had it come from? She could feel her lashes on the tender skin just below her eyes so she knew her eyes were indeed closed. Yet there was a dot of light? Soon a second tiny spot joined it and another and then another! Before she knew it, there were a whole bunch of little dots of light floating in the blackness of her closed eyes. They seemed to be swirling around in a circle, moving at a steady pace.
“You see lights?” Mei asked.
“Yes! I see them!” Elizabeth cried, happy now that whatever it was, it was working. She tried to focus her eyes on the swirling shape and like magic it shifted right to the center of the blackness before her. She quickly found out she had to concentrate on it or else it tended to slide off to one side or the other. She could feel unaccustomed strain on her eye muscles but tried to ignore it. If this was what was needed to save James, then she would do it.
“Move towards them.”
Elizabeth frowned slightly, unsure exactly how to do it. The lights were there, in the blackness of her closed eyelids, but how could she move towards them? To her amazement, the lights were now slowly taking on colors instead of being just white stars in the night sky. First red appeared, then orange and yellow. The colors reminded her of the odd little crystals that Mei had placed on James’ body. Soon the greens, blues and purple were there, too.
“Think closer…” Chai offered. “It tunnel.”
“A tunnel?” Elizabeth asked, surprised. The lights did not look like a tunnel to her. It was more like a swirling round ball, but then the more she stared at it, the more it seemed to change. But no matter what it reminded her of, it was constantly swirling around in a steady and constant motion. Recalling the instruction, Elizabeth willed the swirling shape to come closer. Part of her doubted if it would actually do that, as just thinking it seemed too easy, but to her amazement it did seem to come closer. Encouraged by her somewhat success, she willed it closer again. Now the swirling rainbow lights were right before her, filling her vision and she could see it was indeed a tunnel. The walls were made of the swirling lights and there was a dark speck at the other end. “I see the tunnel…”
“Now go in.” Chai spoke.
Beginning to understand how things worked, Elizabeth willed herself to go through the tunnel. The rainbow lights zipped past and soon she came up upon the exit. Excited that the odd Singapore magic was working, she zoomed right out the other end without pause. She would heal James and then it all would be OK.
Although she had no idea what to expect at the other end of the tunnel, what she found was not what she had expected at all. To her utter shock, she was back in the captain’s cabin with Chai, Mei and James. Disappointment flooded her body and she was about to say something to the Chinese girls about it not working when something made her turn around.
And that’s when she saw herself, sitting on the floor with eyes closed.
And then she screamed.
TBC…
Note: I'm already half done with the next chapter.