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William sighed as he rested his head back against the main mast in the middle of the ship. He couldn't stop thinking about James and Alistair. James hardly ever left his cabin anymore, leaving Aakash in charge for the most part, and whenever William tried to get into James's quarters, the wolf would just tell him that he was busy and didn't have time to talk to him.

He's been talking to himself even more lately, but it wasn't like it used to be, now, it sounded more like discussions and debates with himself than anything else. The crew was starting to worry as well, but none of them did more than wonder what their captain was doing.

Lance wasn't too happy with what was going on either; apparently, Greg thought that James was starting to go crazy, and he suggested mutiny against him, but Lance shot him down immediately and said that they had to have faith that James knew what he was doing.

Kahn was, surprisingly, quiet the entire time. He really only spoke to William and (sometimes) Lance. He was left free to roam around the ship all he liked, and they even let him keep his weapon. He's been behaving himself pretty nicely, even helping out around the ship sometimes, and not once even suggesting to William that they take a rowboat and make a break for it. William was impressed with the Dalmatian.

Alistair still remained in the storage room and not showing his face at all. William was starting to get tired of it; ever since the demon has come on the ship, James has started acting strange and only got worse as time passed. Could the demon be the one causing James's delusions?

A flutter of anger flared in his chest; James won't tell him anything, Alistair won't show his face, and nobody knows what's going on! He hated being in the dark when something big is obviously going on. He stood up quickly, catching the attention of Lance and Kahn as the prince strode in angry strides toward the storage room door. As he got closer to the door, the other crew members started to notice him, some of them trying to call out to him to stop and not bother the demon, but William didn't listen. As he came up to the door, the bone chilling whispers became audible again, making William want to just turn around and not bother, but he wanted answers, he NEEDED answers, and something told him that the demon was the only one that would provide them.

Nervously, he knocked on the door and waited. When there was no response he knocked again, but still the demon didn't answer. He was about to knock a third time when one of the crew members from behind him hissed; "Don't bother it! The last thing we need is to irritate it!"

Then the whispers that emanated from the door stopped, and silence befell the entire ship. The waves of the sea stopped, the wind quite moving, and not even the groaning and creaking of James's ship was audible.

Everyone was silent, waiting, watching to see what happens. Nobody moved, or maybe, nobody could move.

William, watched the door. It could just have been paranoia at the time, but he could swear he saw the wood marks on the door start to move and shift. Then, the door started to open slowly, seemingly by itself. The creaking that the door made felt like the loudest thing William had ever heard, but it was really the only thing he could hear, other than his heart beating in his chest.

The door only opened far enough for William to see the pitch blackness of the room beyond. The whispers were back now, the waves and winds started again, the boat rocked gently, and everything seemed to be right with the world again, except for the pitch black room behind the slightly ajar door, and still, nobody moved.

William stared into the pitch blackness, waiting to see if something would come out, but the longer he stared at it, the more he thought he saw perilous movement on the inside. Once or twice, he was even sure that something might have been looking back at him. It was hard to believe that this room was the same room that he had been held captive in briefly before. It now seemed to be a doorway into hell.

Taking a deep breath and shaking himself from his daze, William began to make his way toward the door. He reached out, nearly touching it before someone grabbed his arm and yanked him back. "Are you crazy? You can't go in there!" Kahn said, spinning the prince around to face him.

"Why not?" William asked, wriggling free from the Dalmatians grip. "We aren't getting anywhere by just standing here! Our captain has locked himself in his cabin, we're clueless, and the demon is the only one that is opening doors (Literally)!" He was now talking to the entire crew more than just Kahn. "We can't just sit here in the dark, waiting for something to happen!" He looked back to Kahn. "I'm going to find out what's going on."

He spun on his heel and walked to the door, keeping his mind quiet so that he couldn't talk himself out of entering the room. He reached out and made contact with the door. It was freezing, not just the door, but a chill, stiff breeze washed over him upon entering the room. The light from the doorway did nothing to illuminate the room, so William held his hands out as he searched for the back wall.

From his last time in the room, he remembered that the room was only a few yards from door too wall, but the more steps he took, the more ominous the room seemed. It was bigger now, and the smell of rotten eggs and ham was no longer present. Instead, it smelled more like blood, and... Roses?

There was no sound except for his own breathing and the outside world that nervously watched the young prince enter a demons lair. William heard footsteps behind him, and a hand touch his shoulder. "Right behind you," Lance whispered.

"I'm here too," Kahn said, but it was more of a hiss than a whisper.

He could still feel Lance's hand on his shoulder, and kind of appreciated it. It made him feel like he wasn't alone.

He watched as Kahn passed him, only being able to make out the faint outline of the Dalmatian and this reflection of the light from the doorway on his sword. Kahn was talented with a sword, so having him made him feel a lot better too.

Then he watched as Lance passed him, seeing the lemur round orange eyes look around the room. William stared wide eyes at the lemur as fear and dread sunk to the pit of his stomach. If Lance was in front of him, than who was touching his shoulder?

The room went all black as the door slammed shut. They could hear pounding at the door from the other side as some of the crew members tried to pry it back open, but to no avail. The hand on William's shoulder was gone now and he couldn't see a thing, not even the faint outline of Kahn or Lance.

He started to shiver, not from fear, but from the coldness of the room. It felt like the temperature was dropping by the second. He felt another hand touch him, and he gasped and jerked away. "Relax, relax!" Lance's voice said. "It's just me."

"Oh, I thought you were something else..."

"William?" Kahn said. "Who are you talking to?"

"What do you mean? I'm talking to Lance." William said.

"Hey, Will," said Lance's voice, only this time, it sounded more distant. "I didn't say anything..."

William took in the breath needed to yell, but nothing came out as his body was jerked to the side, knocking him off his feet. He scrambled to get up, but something wrapped around his foot and dragged him even deeper into the darkness.

~*~

William gasped and fell backwards, flaring his limbs madly and fighting anything that touched him. He kept his eyes closed, feeling his fists come in contact with solid objects as he breathed heavily. Something wrapped around his arms and chest, preventing him from moving his upper body, so he began to kick wildly until something wrapped round them too.

"William!" Someone said, but he wasn't sure who it was.

He continued to thrash as whatever that was wrapped around him got tighter. "William! Calm down! It's just us!" That time, it sounded like Kahn.

The prince stopped thrashing, and slowly opened his eyes.

Bright midday sun shone down on his face as he looked toward a blue, cloudless sky. Looking around, he saw that he was just outside of the storage room door on the main deck with nearly everyone on the ship looking directly at him. Lance had wrapped his arms, legs, and even tail around the prince's back and arms while Kahn held his legs down.

"Wh-What happened?" William said.

Lance began to release Williams's upper body while Khan let go and helped William up. "You don't remember? You said you wanted answers and you touched the door, then you just stood there for a few seconds before you started going absolutely bonkers!"

William shook his head. "No, no, you lance and I went in, then something touched me, and I thought it was Lance and then something dragged me away and then-"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down there!" Lance said, holding his hands. "You didn't even make it through the door, so how did we end up inside?"

William opened his mouth to speak. But before a word could escape his lips, a deep, multi-toned chuckled emanated from the still slightly agape door. It began to open even further with nothing visible but darkness on the other side. Then, two bright red eyes opened in the darkness, with a shiny, sharp toothed grin appearing to be floating in the darkness of the room, getting closer and closer to the door.

The other crew members started to back away, which meant that whatever William was seeing, they were seeing it too. Kahn stepped protectively in front of William, sword drawn and ready.

Eventually, the outline of a fox became visible as he stepped into the light that managed to get into the dark room. The brightness of the fox's eyes got dimmer as he neared the light, and his grin didn't appear to be so evil as he stepped into the fullness of the sun's light. Now that he was out of the darkness and fully visible, he didn't seem that dangerous, in fact, his smile had somewhat of a calming effect.

The fox stopped a few inches from Kahn's sword tip. He stared at the Dalmatian, grin fading to a smile before he flicked his wrist to the side, and Kahn went flying in that direction. If it weren't for a few of the bigger crew members standing there to catch him, Kahn would have flown overboard. He took a few more steps, closer to William than anyone would have liked to be with a demon.

When he stopped, he stood up straight, held his hands behind his back and slightly tilted his head as he stared at William. "You knocked?"

Nobody said or did anything. Alistair was only a few feet away from William, and the prince didn't really know whether or not he should respond. "I did." William said, conformingly. He looked back to Lance, who was standing behind him but never took his eyes off from the fox. The prince looked back to Alistair, who was waiting patiently. "What's going on?" William said the first question that came to mind. "Why has Johnathan been acting so strongly lately? Why would Blackbeard risk capturing a spirit like yourself? What's going to happen?"

But instead of answering any of Williams questions, Alistair just stared at the prince blankly and said; "Who's Johnathan?"

William was dumbfounded. He didn't how to respond to that, not in fear of giving away James's real name, but the fact that a spirit of all beings wouldn't know what William was talking about.

"Oh!" The fox said, shaking his head and chuckling to himself. "You mean James Hess?"

Alistair and William looked around as the crew started to mumble as whisper to each other. He looked back to the demon fox. "Yes, why is James acting so strangely?"

"He's not acting strangely, or losing his mind, or going mad, or any of that. In fact, he's handling his predicament rather well, if you ask me."

"What predicament?"

"His fate." Alistair said, his tail swishing back and forth. With every saw of his tail, the waves of the sea would roll in that way, but William doubted that anyone else noticed it yet. "He's been discussing it for quite some time now."

"Discussing it with who?"

"Why, Davy Jones of course." The fox said with a devious grin.

At the mention of Davy Jones, most of the crew grew louder from the whispers into a mild panic. William turned to Lance, who was still staring at the demon. "Who's Davy Jones?"

Lance finally peeled his eyes away from the fox to look at William. "Wait, you really have never heard of him? He's a myth, 'the Ruler of the Seven Seas' and whatnot. A bunch of baloney as far as I'm concerned."

"Ohhoho-au-contraire, Mr. Lance," The fox chuckled. "Davy Jones is very real and one of the most powerful spirits out there. In fact, I do believe that you have met him," The demon looked to the rest of the crew. "You all have."

"I think I would remember a spirit when I see one," Lance hissed.

"Not if said spirit was hiding in plain sight. You see, he likes to conceal himself as a young man, despite his age...but then again, I guess you could say that time doesn't really apply to us beings." Alistair explained. "Anyways, Davy has this 'Fate Fetish' thing going on (well, with him being the ruler of it and all), so he feels the need to make sure everything runs its course throughout entirety. You're friend James seems to have a rather important role in the game of life, which is why Davy has taken such a liking to him... which is kind of odd... the last person that had a big impact fate got turned inside-out by Davy himself... wonder what so different about this one..." He was almost mumbling those last parts, as if talking to himself more than William.

"What does this 'Davy Jones' guy want with James?" William asked.

"Huh? Oh! Right, I don't know." He said.

"You don't know? How can you not know?"

"Because Davy has been taking James to the Locker quite frequently. Once he's in there, I have no idea what's being said or what they're doing."

William looked down. He's heard of 'The Locker' but never really knew that it was. "Can you take me there?"

That question caught the demon off guard and he broke out in a loud, hardy laugh. He laughed for a while, slapping his knee and holding his gut before he stood up abruptly and said; "No."

"What? Why not?"

"Look, kid, breaking into the Locker is nearly impossible, and even if you do manage to get in, you're bound to get killed while in there." He tried to explain, but William had his confusion painted all over his face. The fox sighed. "It's like this; the Locker IS Davy Jones, alright? That's how big of a spirit he is. In fact, I think the Latin's called them Celestial Beings. Anyways, breaking into the Locker is just like a virus attacking a body; as soon as it gets in, the body tried to fight it off with white blood." He explained, but William (and everyone else on the ship) had no idea what he was talking about. "Oh right, mortals haven't discovered the molecular world yet... uhhhh, how would I explain this to a child....?" He said, mostly talking to himself. He scratched behind his ear. "It's like trespassing on a heavily guarded castle with guards literally two feet away from each other all over the grounds. It's impossible to get through without getting killed. In order to get into the Locker, you have to either have the right (Which mortals no not have the right to leave their world), invited, or dead. Otherwise, it's not happening."

"But I thought Spirits couldn't kill each other?" William asked.

"Who fed you that bullshit? Spirits are very well able to kill other spirits, in fact, I ate one not long before I came aboard this ship."

William tried not to imagine that mental image as he asked his next question. "Why does Blackbeard want you?"

"Uh, isn't it obvious? Because I'm the spirit of mischief!" He said with an evil look in his eye. "But why he needs me is beyond me. He doesn't need me to take over a country, he can do that all himself."

"I hardly doubt that one man could bring a country to its knees." Kahn chimed in.

"Man? Ohhhohoho no, Blackbeard is no man."

"Is he a spirit too?" Lance asked.

"No, he's a demon."

William and Lance exchanged glances. "What's the difference?"

"Spirits have to follow the rules, Demons don't."

"Rules?" William asked.

"What, you think that you're mortal realm is the only place with natural laws? Please. Davy Jones is one of the rules himself; no messing with Fate. You mess with Fate, you mess with Jones. Don't ask me about the details, it's a very confusing topic, even for me. Rule number two; never mess with freewill, it pisses Davy's sister off to no end. Rule number three, never jump realms unless you have the right or permission, though, most spirits and demons don't even have the capability to do something like that. There was a few more rules but I don't remember what they were."

"So what does that make you?" William asked. "Spirit or Demon."

"I'm a rare breed, if that's what you want to call it. I'm different because I'm a little bit of both, which means that I only have to follow some of the rules. And because my specialty is chaos, I'm not bound to following rules or regulations. Have you ever heard of the tale of Adam and Eve and the serpent? Well, needless to say, I'm the serpent... and Eve was a nice booty-call..."

"What's a booty-call?" William asked.

"Oh, right. That slang term wasn't created until the 2000s... anyways, I'm getting bored and you're questions are like an infant asking the simplest things." Alistair turned on his heel and made his way back for the storage room. "Oh, by the way, you may want to take cover..."

Take cover? William thought. What was that supposed to mean?

William didn't really think about what the demon had said before he felt something hit his chest. At first, he didn't really feel it, then he started to feel wet, like water was being poured on him. He looked at Lance, who looked back with horror in his eyes. William followed Lance's eyes onto his chest and saw blood trickling down the inside of his shirt. Kahn and Lance yelled something, but he couldn't make out what it was as he started to fall back. He landed in someone's arms, but couldn't really see who it was. The world started to go dark. What had just happened? Had he been shot? But by who?