Page 7 of The Curse Breaker

Captain Kimble motioned to Aggy. “Better get on with it or we’ll be waiting another two hundred years to end this.”

Two hundred years? Gil tried to work the words through in his mind. The pirate couldn’t possibly mean… Gil looked at Benny and Zara’s strange dress again. Kimble’s very un-pirate-like garb and the way they all spoke. His heart started to flutter fast, and he scratched his itchy chest harder. Gil looked around at the island as if seeing it for the first time. “How long have we been on this island?”

Aggy’s lip quivered. “Not two hundred days. It’s actually been two hundred years.”

Gil heard Thomas inhale sharply beside him. Laurel’s shoulders tensed. Gil tried not to look alarmed. In a way, he’d been waiting a very long time for Aggy to share her secrets. Heaven knows he’d been keeping his own. But this wasn’t something he was expecting. He stumbled back in shock.

“We’ll give you all a minute,” Benny said kindly, steering Zara and Kimble away.

“Years?” Thomas’s voice came out like a hiss. “That’s impossible!”

Aggy put Winks back on the ground again. The cat sat there, licking her front paws, listening. Aggy took a deep breath. “I don’t want any of you to be frightened, but it’s the truth. Time here works differently. It’s a kindness, really.” Her round eyes were teary. “The island’s way of protecting us while we stand guard over the treasure.”

“I don’t want the treasure! We gave it back once we were well again!” Laurel sounded upset.

“I know,” Aggy started to say. “But that’s not how the treasure works. We took it for personal gain.”

“Are you saying the island punished us for saving ourselves?” Thomas asked. “That’s why we’ve been trapped here? Why was Sparrow spared?”

“Evelyn stole treasure to save our lives. She did not take treasure to help herself, so the island let her go, just like it let Captain Kimble go once it realized so many years later that the captain was trying to return every piece to the chest.”

Laurel started to cry. “So we’ve been here two hundred years? How could the island be so cruel?”

“I know this is a lot to comprehend,” Aggy whispered, a tear trickling down her cheek. “I don’t have answers for everything myself.”

“No!” Gil said roughly, his voice raw. “The timeline can’t be right. We haven’t grown old!”

Aggy bit her lip. “That’s because the treasure has kept us young.”

“Are you saying I’ve been fourteen for two hundred years? Then that would mean…” Gil scratched his chest. “Everyone we knew…our families…Sparrow.” His voice cracked. “Are you saying she’s gone? They’re all gone?”

Aggy’s voice was barely audible. Her eyes pooled with tears. “Yes.”

Gil felt the wave of emotion crash over him, and his legs gave out. No. Not Sparrow.

“Gil!” Laurel cried, reaching down to help him up.

Gil forced himself not to cry. You’re a survivor, he reminded himself. He heard his mother’s voice in his head. You’re meant for an adventure. She had no idea on her deathbed how right she was. But Sparrow…Evelyn…was gone? It wasn’t fair. He wanted to cry out. Scream. Hit something. But not in front of the others.

Gil rose awkwardly and took off running down the beach, not stopping till he reached the rock. There, he sunk into the wet sand, the tears coming fast. Staring out at the water, he could see Greenport. The shoreline looked different, but his memories were the same. He and Evelyn together. Now that day would never come.

Sparrow... You knew you wouldn’t see us again. But you did all this to save us anyway. The thought only made him miss her more.

“Gil!” Aggy reached his side and sat down beside him. She was crying too. “I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you. I couldn’t,” she said. “I didn’t think anyone could survive if they knew the truth. I almost didn’t survive. I wouldn’t have if—” She cut herself off.

The two sat there a moment, their sobs carrying on the wind. In the water, Gil saw another strange boat glide by. “I just can’t believe she’s gone. How do we go on without her? Without anyone we knew and loved?”

Aggy looked him square in the eye. “We go on because that’s what Evelyn would have wanted. For us to live. Evelyn gave us a gift.” She looked down the beach at Benny, the pirate, and Zara, her brown hair blowing in the wind. “And now we’re going to honor her by making sure the rest of the treasure is found and our curses are broken.”

Fire rose up inside Gil as he found resolve he didn’t know he had. “And then, and only then, we make sure this blasted treasure is hidden on the island so that no one ever finds it again.”

Four

Benny

Benny felt like her heart was breaking when she saw Gil run off and Aggy chase after him. From reading Evelyn’s journals, Benny could tell Gil and Evelyn had been close. Maybe even had a crush on each other, if Benny was reading things right, but now Evelyn was gone, and the others’ lives were completely changed.

The treasure really is a curse, she thought.