Cowards Have Their Uses
Emma reluctantly agrees to be Walsh’s date when their friend group attends a haunted attraction. But when he pushes her into a scare actor dressed as a pirate, Emma decides she was glad she said yes.
Once Upon A Time: Emma Swan/ Killian Captain Hook Jones
Crown Jewel estate was a property that frequently hosted themed events. Every Halloween, the entire property turned into a scare attraction. Each area had a design revolving around a specific horror theme.
One of the more popular places was the cursed pirate ship. Engulfed in green lighting, it gave the impression of being submerged in murky water.
“It’s said that the special effects are super realistic.” Walsh told Emma. “I know how much you loved the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. So what do you say, be my date?”
For several weeks, Walsh had been asking Emma to go on a date with him. And for several weeks she had been turning him down. Emma just wasn’t sure she and Walsh had any chemistry.
Walsh struck Emma as being kind of preppy. She had yet to see him with facial stubble. And she was pretty sure he had never worn a leather jacket in his life.
But, it was Halloween, and the Haunted attractions did sound like a lot of fun, especially that pirate ship. Plus, their entire friend group was going, so it wouldn’t exactly be a full on date.
So Emma gave in and agreed to be Walsh’s date to the Halloween event.
She figured that in the worse case scenario, they would realize they were not right for one another and move on.
Not wanting to take the chance of having to rely on Walsh to get her back home, Emma claimed she had some things she had to do, so would meet everybody there.
Walsh looked disappointed, even offered to pick her up when she was done with whatever she was doing. But Emma assured him she would be fine. And that they would just hang out when she arrived at the park.
Massive and intricate rot iron gates were the first thing that greeted her when she arrived on the property.
A plump man in a booth said, “Twenty dollars per person. Ten dollars to park your car.”
Once she handed over her thirty dollars, an aerie chiming of a bell rang out. Then an ominous deep voice said, “Welcome to the realm of the damned.” followed by a chorus of laughs of various octaves.
“That’s really impressive.” Emma thought as she drove through the now open gates.
The parking attendants, dressed as grim reapers, directed Emma to a spot. Since her yellow bug was so easy to spot, in a matter of seconds, her friends were running up to greet her.
“Isn’t this place amazing?!” Mary Margaret exclaimed. “The Jones family are so talented. Every event is so immersive.”
“For twenty bucks per person, it should feel immersive.” Walsh grumbled. “And why is it ten bucks to park a car?”
“On the website, the Jones family explains they charge ten dollars to encourage people to carpool or take a ride share.”
“I didn’t realize this place was always in your wallet.”
Emma was glad she had decided to drive her own car. The way Walsh was acting, she was certain he would have been in a sour mood by the end of the night. Which would have been a miserable car ride home.
“What should we do first?” David asked the group. “The haunted forest trail. The haunted castle. Or the pirate ship?”
“Why don’t we do the pirate ship first?” Mary Margaret suggested. “Then we’ll grab some popcorn and hot chocolate before riding the haunted forest trail ride.”
The path leading to the haunted ship had skeletons in decaying pirate clothing scattered everywhere.
Large tentacles emerged from the ground and seemed to be moving. Projectors made images of sharks appear to swim through the air. Hidden spears played sounds of water and of hush voices warning of terror.
The ship itself was massive. Tentacles bigger than the ones along the path were wrapped around the vessel, seeming to squeeze around it. The sails that were billowing in the wind had large holes in several places and appeared to be fraying. The whole area was aglow with an eerie green light flickered slightly, giving the appearance of being the the murky depths of a haunted sea bead.
It was the most scary beautiful thing that Emma had ever seen. She could hardly breathe at the amazing imagery as the group made their way through.
Inside, the green light was the only light available. Emma soon realized that the ship was built like a maze and the low light was hiding the quick exit as well as the scare actors.
Most of the group ended up being separated from the others, but Walsh remained closely at Emma’s back.
When she saw a room with a glowing sign above it saying “Captain’s Quarters" and she tried to move in quickly to explore the elaborate room, Emma realized Walsh had a deathgrip on her jacket keeping her from moving too swiftly.
Extra light came from a lamp on the table in the center of the room, and was reflecting off piles of coins and jewels of various colors.
Just as she moved closer to explore the items, a man in a long black leather coat jumped from the shadows shouting, “No one touches the captain’s treasure!” while pointing a long sword and shaking an arm with a hook at the end of it at them.
Never in all of her life had Emma heard such a high pitched scream.
She would have laughed at a grown man making such a sound, if at the same time he made that sound, he had not also roughly pushed her toward the actor.
With incredible reflexes, he moved his sword out of the way and kept Emma from falling to the ground by catching her with his hook arm.
Once she was steady on her feet, she turned to give Walsh a peace of her mind for pushing her, only to discover he was long gone.
“Did that fool really just….?”
Emma and the pirate zombie looked in the direction that Walsh had just run.
The two looked at one another, without exchanging a word, the actor handed Emma his sword.
Together, her newly acquired sword and his hook raised high in the air, they screamed maniacally as they chased Walsh down.
Having gotten lost, Walsh screamed in terror when he saw his date and the zombie pirate after him.
And ran face first into a wall.
Scrambling, he headed toward where he saw bright light. Believing eventually he would find an exit.
That strategy actually paid off. Soon he was exiting the ghost ship and inhaling fresh air.
It was when they all emerged from the dark house that it was discovered that the front of Walsh’s pants were soaked.
“Liam, we have a code yellow at the Jolly Roger.” The pirate called over a walky talky he pulled from his coat pocket.
A few minutes later, a man dressed in a frayed royal navy uniform, face painted in grey and white, walked up to the trio.
“We’re going to have to shut the Jolly Roger down for a while. So we can clean up the puddle of urine. And remove any of the reel blood he left behind.” Liam shook his head with a sigh. “There’s always some twit who forgets that it's all fake, can't handle the fear, then soils himself. Making a mess that causes us to have to shut the place down so we can clean up.”
“That guy was chasing me! Scaring me through the whole place!” Walsh hollered.
“That’s literally what he’s supposed to do.” Liam furrowed his brows, looking at Walsh in disbelief. “That's what people pay their money for, to be scared.”
Emma saw the rest of the group emerge from the attraction. Hearing the argument between Walsh and Liam, they came closer to see for themselves what was going on.
“He pushed me at the actor. Then he just took off.” Emma explained angrily.
“I hope you weren’t expecting to see Emma in a sexy outfit tonight?” Will looked at Walsh with a smirk. “Cus it sounds like you’re never seeing her in anything sexy.”
“I thought you liked her? You just abandoned her? What kind of pathetic coward does something like that?” Mary Margaret accused.
“Obviously a spineless one.” David quipped, glaring menacingly.
“Well, Emma and her new pirate boyfriend chased me through the whole exhibit. I think I broke my head open, crashing it into beams trying to get away from them both.” Walsh accused.
“A beautiful lass such as yourself deserves better than some fool who will fly off at the slightest problem.” The zombie pirate said.
“My brother Killian is right. Any guy who would push his girlfriend toward the danger in order to get away is not worthy of her.”
“I am not his girlfriend.” Emma said adamantly. “This was only our first date.”
“I hope there's not going to be a second one.” The look in Killian’s eyes told Emma that he would show her a much better time, if given the chance.
Liam rolled his eyes. “Brother, could you be any less subtle?”
“I don’t believe this!” Walsh shouted. “First they chase me through that stupid ship, and now they’re flirting right in front of me?” Walsh pointed a finger at Killian. “I am going straight to the owner and demand he fires you. And if he doesn’t I'm going to sue this whole property.”
“Well why don’t I assist you? My name is Liam Jones. This here is my little brother, Killian.”
“Younger brother.” Killian corrected.
Ignoring him, Liam continued. “We’re co-owners of this premises.”
“Not for long.” Walsh threatened. “I’ll be owning this place soon enough. First I’m going to have you shut down, then I’ll have all of your precious attractions shut down. By the time I get done with you, you won’t even own a sock!”
Neither Liam or Killian looked the least bit concerned.
“You’re not the first to try to sue us and I doubt you will be the last, so you’re welcome to try. Our Lawyers would appreciate the amusement.” Killian smirked.
Realizing there was nothing he could say or do to save his pride in that situation, Walsh chose to stomp off. Grumbling the whole time about stupid scare attractions and idiot owners of said attractions.
“I’m glad he brought his own car here. I wouldn't want to have to take him home in mine.”
“You hitched a ride with Belle, Ruby and Graham.” Mary Margaret pointed out.
“Well I wouldn’t have wanted to ride with someone with soggy britches either.”
“Good point.” David and Mary Margaret said in unison.
“While I’m certain that he’s heading out now, we should still put out a notice to let security know if he continues to cause problems.” Liam looked at Emma’s group. “Am I to understand that you all do not feel the same as the friend that just left?”
“He’s not that good of a friend. More of an acquaintance really.” Will was the first to speak up.
“We came here to have fun, and knew what all that would entail. Walsh just doesn’t know what to do when his pride has been injured. But we’re not going to let his foul mood spoil things for the rest of us.” David said.
“Good to know. You folks enjoy the rest of your evening. By the way my brother is looking at your friend, I’m sure we’ll all be seeing a lot more of one another.”
“We close at eleven. Maybe you and I could meet for coffee after?” Killian asked Emma.
“Why don’t you join us at Grannie’s Diner?” Mary Margaret offered. It was clear to her that there was some intense chemistry between Emma and Killian. And wanted to help the two find their way to each other.
Attending the other attractions, Emma’s mind continues to the way Killian had looked and smiled at her. And she was excited to have the chance to sit and get to know him better.
If she thought the elaborate set up attractions had taken her breath away, it was nothing compared to Killian Jones walking into the well lit diner out of his pirate zombie attire and into regular clothes.
Over pancakes and hot chocolate, Killian explained how he and his brother had wanted to create a place where people could immerse themselves into a different realm and escape reality for a while.
“I guess some people find it too immersive.” He shrugged.
“Walsh is just a self absorbed coward. You did Emma a favor by making him pee his pants.” Ruby said.
“Well, him pushing you into my arms was certainly the best thing I’ve ever experienced while being a scare performer.” Killian waggled his eyebrows at Emma, making her blush.
The more she got to know Killian, the more she was grateful to have been Walsh’s date. If she had turned him down, then he wouldn’t have been behind her, wouldn't have pushed her, and she wouldn’t be talking to the sexiest man she had ever laid eyes on.
Later, Killian would ask to take her on a proper date, and Emma would of course say yes.
She enjoyed spending time with him and looked forward to getting to know more about him.
Crawling into bed that night, Emma smiled to herself.
As good as Killian looked in his regular clothes, when their relationship advanced further, she hoped to get him into pirate garb, for her own personal entertainment.
Her last thought as she closed her eyes was, "thank you Walsh for pushing me into my hot new boyfriend.”
