The Sacrifice of Love

~2~

Enid Hastings was once a mere mortal woman, who lived among the high society of Port Royal with her father, who had been a blacksmith. Nowhere near as talented or popular as the infamous blacksmith, Will Turner, but the Royal Army had taken a liking to her father's work.

When a brave soldier of the army had approached her father with the intention to marry Enid, the father made haste to have his daughter betrothed. She was promised a lavish life, with riches beyond her wildest dreams and a level of respect and honour that no other man or woman in her family could ever achieve.

At first she refused, for she did not know who the man she would marry, or if she would entertain the notion of being a wife at all. But after numerous nights and long days of pleading from her father, Enid had no choice but to surrender. 

"The money I make from my work will not last you long, my dear. I would like to know that someone would be there to take care of you when I am gone," he had reasoned. Enid did not have it in herself to argue with him any further, and so she accepted the soldier's proposal.

What she did not expect, however, was to be tossed into the sea while sailing with her soon-to-be husband and his crew. She did not know of the beasts and monsters that lived far beneath the waves, waiting for a ship to pass so that they could strike.

She did not know the ocean could be so dangerous to a simple woman such as herself. Nor did she expect her adoring husband to throw her to a monster when faced with danger, and Enid found herself dragged to the depths of the ocean.

Air was no longer breathed into her lungs, life was no longer held in her eyes, and her heart no longer maintained its steady beat. Enid had been lost to the sea when an enormous, squid-like beast had devoured her fiancé and his ship - had the soldier not attempted to sacrifice her to the beast, she would have been gobbled up along with the rest of the crew.

But Enid knew that she would not survive past this day, for she could not free herself of the restraining corset and heavy dress so she may swim. Her eyes had slipped closed when she felt her lungs tighten and beg for air, and she instinctively opened her mouth, but all she swallowed was water.

Her eyes stung painfully, and her ears felt blocked and ready to burst from the ever-growing pressure as she slowly sank lower to the ocean floor. When her back thudded against the ground it made her gasp in pain, which allowed more water to fill her lungs.

Her body felt as though it was lit on fire, an unrelenting and agonizing fire that was determined to burn her from the inside out. Shadows moved slowly above Enid's head, but her blurred vision and stinging eyes could not detect any sort of danger that may have been approaching her.

She had given up, and she was prepared to meet her end at the hands of the ocean and its creatures. Her body was then lifted from the ocean floor, and what felt like hands began to roam her figure. She didn't resist, nor did she feel any fear, and she felt her consciousness slip from her grasp.

~~~~

A voice. Enid could not see where the voice was coming from, for her eyes were sealed shut. She could not feel her body, or feel anything for that matter, except for the numbing cold that seemed to surround her.

The voice was humming loud enough for the weakened girl to hear, and her stiff body relaxed. The biting cold was replaced with a blazing warmth as the humming grew louder, but Enid was not afraid. What a pleasant tune, she thought to herself. A comfort song to die to...

~~~~

Enid did not expect to open her eyes ever again, or to feel the air enter her body and fill her lungs. Her eyes slowly blinked open when she felt her hands and arms begin to twitch as she woke up. She could see the flickering light from way above her head as the ocean waves dragged on.