"So no one has seen hide nor hair of Hook and his ship is still here?" Emma asked with concern marring her face. "What about Gold?"
David scowled. "Haven't seen him either. Belle swung by the loft the other day and mentioned that Gold was planning a trip outside of Storybrooke soon to find his son and he wouldn't be back for several days. Problem is that he never said when he'd be leaving. He just disappeared. Apparently the dagger that was in her care is missing too."
"Shit," Emma spat. "I have a bad feeling about this."
"You and me both. I'm going to Gold's house and pawnshop. You take the docks and see if we can find anything about our missing villains," David said shrugging on his leather jacket.
Giving him a nod, Emma snagged her black gloves from the top drawer of her desk and followed her father out of the sheriff's office. Emma split from his side as she continued to walk further into downtown Main Street. People smiled and cheerfully offered salutations as she passed. With a tight uncomfortable smile, Emma breezed away from the overly festive townsfolk as they prepared for the Christmas Festival and headed straight for the pirate ship she knew to be moored at the last dock. Every day that she had passed through the harbor on her patrol, Emma paid special attention to any changes around Hook's ship. The last time she had seen any moment was four days ago, but the man in question was the fat man with the red beanie and not the leather clad pirate that had been haunting her thoughts.
Trotting up the gangplank, Emma called out a warning of her arrival only be greeted the call of seagulls perched on the topgallant yard. A sense of wrongness lingered about the air; the ship's magic called to her for its missing captain. Emma shivered as she walked briskly from stem to stern looking for any sign of recent activity.
Opening the hatch to the captain's quarters, Emma carefully descended down the ladder into Hook's cabin. The air was stale giving Emma reason to believe that Hook had not stepped foot on the ship for over a week. Worry pierced her gut at the thought of why Hook hadn't been back to his ship; he wasn't the type to leave his ship unattended for long especially in such a small town. Browsing the shelves stacked neatly with leather bound books and the odd souvenir, she took in the belongings of the ship's captain with interest. With a cleanliness she didn't expect a pirate, the private man who used flirtation as a shield against unwanted personal conversation had been proven to be more complex than her earlier estimation.
Numerous sheets of parchment bearing strange markings Emma could only assume were maps of Storybrooke were stacked meticulously on a desk. The hand drawn streets of Storybrooke were out of sequence and littered with graceful masculine calligraphy labeling the landscape with not the names of the streets but random words only Hook would be able to decipher: a true pirate map created by an apparent methodical Renaissance man. Emma's views of Hook in the Enchanted Forest from a deranged killer expanded to include an intelligent map maker with a steady hand and eye for detail.
Shifting through the papers, Emma found numerous buildings layouts and rooftop perches sketched in vivid detail. Even locals faces were drawn with notes detailing their habits and relations with other members of town generally centered on Gold and his dealings. Her own face appeared on numerous pages marked with her coming and goings as well as personal preferences of clothing and food. Indignation flared through her at Hook's invasion of her privacy.
His imagination had run wild on the last leaf of the pile with a full page rendering of the inside of his cabin with her laid out peacefully sleeping apparently nude under a strategically placed bedsheet that barely covered her most private parts. No matter the beauty of the way the cloth was draped over her body's dips and curves, it was still obscene that a complete stranger had taken so much time to dedicate his energy in imaging her in such a vulnerable position. Emma folded the paper and pocketed the intimate drawing.
With one last glance, Emma turned and climbed the ladder. She exited the ship as quickly as she came pushing away the thoughts of the pirate bent over his desk sketching away while he imagined her nude and at peace in his bed. It was time to see what David had found because her search yielded nothing that would lead them to either Hook or Gold.
The dark of the night smothered Hook matching his mood as he trudged through and over foliage deep within the Enchanted Forest. The robe that had formed around him after he emerged from whatever the hell spit him out into the Enchanted Forest was torn in several places from the thorns and branches that seemed to reach out from the overgrown path that the demon in his head was leading him down. He may have killed Rumpelstiltskin, but the Dark One permeated his mind with taunting visions of the Crocodile. With his revenge finally realized with a flick of his wrist plunging the Dark One's dagger into his crocodile's chest, Hook felt none of the peace he had expected after Rumpelstiltskin's demise. In his final moments, the old man smirked and gave a wet gurgling laugh as he choked on his own blood; the knowing look in his eyes spelled doom as Hook's triumph was snatched away from his grasp when the dark powers erupted from Rumpelstiltskin and crawled into its new skin.
Never once in all the years he had lived had Hook ever considered just how a Dark One was made. In hindsight, it should have been fairly obvious that the only thing to destroy a Dark One would be the only thing to create one. Hook knew he had to retrieve the dagger from where it had fallen from his hand as he went into shock in the Land without Magic, but crossing worlds was proving to be more difficult than even the last time when he had made his way with Cora into Storybrooke. He had already visited the previous Dark One's castle which had been already looted much to his disappointment. Only a few magical items were left in the crumbling walls.
'Such a waste too,' Hook thought as he cleared another fallen tree. 'It would have been a fine place to settle when not at sea.'
Hook brushed thoughts of any permanent lodgings from his mind; his thoughts of a proper home had crumbled when Milah was murdered and now that he was the Dark One, all hope had faded to find peace and build a family. Other than the Swan girl, there was no one that tempted the captain for anything other than a quick roll in the hay and only she would be a companion of sorts if he had taken her on the seas with him until he was tired of her assets in his bed. Hook grunted as his cock came to life as his imaginings took a lusty hue. She would have made one hell of a pirate on his crew and an excellent addition to the cold nights at sea.
As he made his way to the beanstalk that had yielded a magic compass and a dried bean only a few weeks ago, Hook meditated on tactics to lure the blonde temptress to his side whether by coercion or by trickery. The only main theme in any line of thought was that her son was the biggest weakness Emma had and it would also enrage the adoptive bitch of a mother Regina as well. Hook smiled into the dark and picked up his pace. Things weren't so hopeless after all. Now his revenge was complete, he may not find peace but he could still find pleasure.