Am I pulling out and completing a draft from, like, six months ago just because Robbie was announced to be coming back to Once for the 100th episode and like the DarlingPan trash that I am, I couldn't resist writing this?
Yes, that's exactly what I'm doing.
This was inspired by the game Nightmares of the Deep: The Cursed Heart. It really drew me in and I loved the themes of it, so naturally I had to do this. This story is going to be a lot darker than anything I normally write, but the timelines should be fairly easy to follow, since for the most part the characters from different points in times are the same as in the show's canon. Ah, you'll see what I mean later.
As usual, I own nothing. Enjoy!
Wendy slid the heavy bronze key into the lock, fingers trembling with anticipation. The door to the Storybrooke Naval Museum creaked open slowly, and she made a mental note to remind her father, who happened to be the curator, to find someone to oil the hinges.
The open area that made up the lobby was scarcely lit as they stepped inside, and she felt along the wall for a light switch while Peter closed their umbrella and placed it in a corner to dry. The two of them were close friends and had been since they were children, and at the age of fifteen they were at the right time of their lives to cause a bit of mischief. That, however, was not their intention that night. After nearly a month of Wendy pleading and doing extra chores, George Darling had granted them permission to see the largest and most extravagant exhibit the museum had to offer before the public could.
Wendy finally found the light switch and flipped it; the room illuminated so quickly that she had to shield her eyes. Thunder rumbled outside as rain beat down on the windows and glass dome at the top of the ceiling, the occasional blast of lightning giving the room an odd glow momentarily before it was engulfed back into its former state of semi-darkness.
"Hell of a night to do this, Wend," Peter said.
"I told you - the exhibit opens tomorrow," Wendy replied. "Father said that if we wanted to see it first, this was our only chance. Unless," she raised an arched eyebrow at him, "you're scared?"
Peter smirked, his usual response to her light teasing. "As if."
"Prove it."
"You're on."
Wendy knew the museum like the back of her hand - she had practically grown up marveling at the artifacts with her little brothers. The only reason that Michael and John weren't accompanying them was because at the ages of ten and eight, Mother had said they were too young. She led Peter further in, the banners promoting the new exhibit that they themselves were there to see looking eerie hanging from the ceiling in the dim light.
On the banner, the ghostly face of the dreaded pirate captain cast his gaze outward. Captain Killian "Hook" Jones, former scourge of the seas and once the most feared pirate in the world - his body had been a monumental find off the coast of the town. How Mayor Mills had managed to keep the scientific community from taking the corpse to examine it was beyond Wendy - all she knew was that eventually it would be going to New York, but the fact that they got it first was extremely important and good for business and tourism.
"Creepy…" Peter murmured, and when she gave him a smug look he quickly added: "Come on, look at his face! You've gotta admit, that's unsettling."
"Whatever you say, Peter,"
They made their way down the hallway and right over to where the crate containing the captain was. It was next to where the exhibit would be, though for some reason it wasn't set up yet. Maybe the rain had delayed things. Oh, Father will not be pleased….
The crate was sealed shut, and there were several boxes along with it. As they approached the crate containing the corpse, Wendy felt a slight chill down her spine.
"Stop it," she hissed at Peter, sure that he was messing with her.
"Stop what?"
"You know what!" He didn't react besides looking confused, and the two of them looked on at what awaited them.
Wendy began to search for a crowbar.
"What are you doing?" he asked as she stepped around boxes, seeing if she could find one.
"Looking for a crowbar."
"What for? We can't open that thing."
"How are we supposed to see it if we don't open the box?"
"Won't your father be mad?"
"If he saw that the exhibit was in this state with so little time until it opened, he would be furious. If we at least do this, we'll be doing him a favor," Wendy explained. She couldn't seem to find one, so she stood. "I think there's one in the janitor's closet. I'll have to grab the key from Dad's office."
Peter silently followed her and they made their way to her father's office; she unlocked the door and pushed it open and was surprised by the sudden contrast as they turned on the light. This was well-lit unlike the rest of the museum, and looked rather comfortable. Her own bedroom at home wasn't this nice.
"Should be another ring of keys somewhere…" she said as they began their search.
Peter checked the drawers but Wendy's attention was drawn by a safe. It was rather small and hidden away, and she wouldn't have noticed it if she hadn't been looking at the picture in front of it. The picture was her and her brothers, and when she moved it out of the way to get a look at the safe, she saw there was a sticky note with a combination written on the back.
"I think I found it! Is this it?" Peter asked, holding up a key ring with several keys on it. It was the correct one and she nodded to tell him so, but her attention was drawn by something else and he knew it. "What did you find?" he asked, Wendy moved so he could see the safe and the combination. One shared glance told them exactly what to do, and he quickly unlocked the safe.
Inside, they saw a small, red jewel that almost seemed to be glowing, though it could have just been reflecting the light.
"Come on," Peter said, "let's get the crowbar."
He went for the door and Wendy followed, but first she pocketed the jewel. She wouldn't take it out of the building because her father would know if she had, but it felt too important to just leave in there.
They had to try a couple of keys to unlock the janitor's closet, and once they got inside it was mostly unlit except for a small lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. They had to search a bit, which was difficult because it was a rather cramped space, but they soon found the crowbar and made their way back to the crate. Together, they used it to open the crate.
Once they got it open and were able to see the corpse of Captain Jones, a lightning bolt flashed and the light refracting through the roof landed on the skull of the pirate, making it almost look like he was smirking.
There was a small piece of folded up paper attached to the inside of the lid of the crate. Peter tore it off and unfolded it.
"This says there's more to the exhibit than just the body," he said after reading it. "It's missing a pistol, a cutlass, and a silver hook."
"They must be in these boxes," Wendy said. Their search began anew, they opened the boxes one by one and slowly but surely, found the missing pistol and sword of the pirate. They placed them where they were supposed to go on the corpse according to the picture, yet they were still missing the hook.
"I wonder where it is…"
"Well, it says it's made of silver. Must be valuable, right?"
"Sounds like it. Want to check my father's office again?"
"Yeah. Who knows what else we might find there?"
They made their way back and began to search, though it was starting to prove futile. Just when Wendy was starting to lose hope, she stubbed her toe on something underneath her father's desk.
"Ow! Shit!" Whatever she had stubbed it on, it was large and heavy.
"Now, Wendy, is that language becoming of a young lady?" Peter asked, smirking. She rolled her eyes at him.
"Shut up and help me see what's under here."
They knelt down to the floor and peered under the desk - there was a wooden box. They pulled it out and saw the ornate carvings on it. There was a letter on top of it that Wendy read aloud.
"George Darling,
Upon hearing that your museum was the lucky one to be granted first access to this historic find, I knew that I had to send this to you. This box was discovered with the wreckage of the Jolly Roger, Captain Jones's ship, and is the most significant find besides his actual body. Unfortunately, we have been unable to discover what is inside due to not wanting to damage the box itself. As you can see, it has no keyhole and no other means of opening it, only this latch at the top. The latch looks as those you could put something into it to somehow open the box, but we have no idea what that could be. In short, I send this to you to help with your exhibit in the hopes that someday, someone will be able to open it and we may be able to discover more about the life and secrets of Captain Hook.
Yours, cordially,
Belle French
Storybrooke Historic Research Division"
"Isn't that one of the scientists that moved to town last year?" Peter asked.
"Yeah, I think so. The Storybrooke Daily Mirror did an article about it," Wendy replied. The latch that the letter had mentioned looked familiar to her.
Without thinking, she reached into her pocket and took out the jewel. Peter watched her, wide-eyed.
"Never took you for a thief, Wend," he said. She ignored him and slowly, carefully, placed the jewel into the latch. There was a moment where nothing happened, and then the jewel was pressed into the box like it was engraved into it, and one of the sides opened up. Wendy reached over and pulled out the missing hook.
It was heavier than she had expected as she lifted it up in the light, and still sharp after so many centuries. She was careful to make sure her hands didn't wobble as she held it so she didn't accidentally scratch one of them.
"That is…."
"A rather historic find, wouldn't you say?" Wendy asked, grinning at Peter. He grinned back.
"You are bloody brilliant. Come on, let's put it where it belongs."
They made their way back to the crate that held the corpse of Captain Jones. Together, Peter and Wendy placed the hook back into the slot where the pirate had fashioned a makeshift sling to hold the device in place. There was a click as it successfully went in, a sudden flash of lightning and thunder in succession, and suddenly the entire museum went dark.
"What the hell? Peter asked. "What happened?"
"The lightning must have caused the fuse box to blow up," Wendy said. She felt the chill from earlier down her spine again but ignored it. "It's in the janitor's closet - I'll go fix it. You would get lost in here way too easily."
"Hurry back," Peter said.
Although she fumbled a bit, Wendy made her way first back to her father's office, using the crowbar to break open the emergency case to get a flashlight, and then to the janitor's closet very quickly in the dark. She grabbed the flashlight out of it and the axe as well, though she left the rope. She entered the janitor's closet and used the flashlight to find the fuse box, where she saw that her suspicions were proven correct and that the fuses had blown. She knew the janitor and where he kept the spares, so it was a quick matter to find them and put them back in place. One switch flip later and the room was illuminated.
There, see? Easy-peasy.
She made her way back to the exhibition hall and found Peter staring in shock at the crate that contained Captain Hook. Or rather, that had contained Captain Hook. The corpse was gone.
"Wendy! Get over here!" he said when he saw her. She ran over.
"What happened?!"
"I… I can't believe it… The body just… ran away…"
"Peter, this isn't funny! What did you do with the captain?!" Wendy demanded. How could a corpse just get up and walk away?
"I'm serious!" Peter said. "Look, it dropped something in the crate! In the wood shavings! Go look for yourself!"
Wendy rolled her eyes and went to investigate. Buried in the wood shavings, she found a small gold signet ring. It looked old and valuable. She stuffed it into her pocket without thinking.
"I'm going to call my father - something is very wrong." She ran towards his office.
"Wendy, wait!"
She ran into her father's office and tried to use the phone, but of course for some reason it wasn't working. Suddenly, she felt a presence behind her, and saw a large shadow that… No, it couldn't be! The shadow disappeared as quickly as it showed up, but Wendy's heart was in her throat as she turned towards the open door and the lobby. There was no one there - of course there was no one there, it was just the two of them…. Right?
As Wendy stepped out of the office and into the lobby again, she saw Peter, but this time he was standing on the second floor, looking terrified. She was about to say his name, but then stopped because of what - no, who she saw standing behind him.
"Wendy!" Peter yelled, but he was restrained by the corpse of Captain Hook who for some reason was walking and talking like he was alive. And he almost looked it, in the glow of the lights. He held his cutlass in one hand and had his hook at Peter's neck.
"You'll serve my purpose, coward! Sail forth, my ship - to Skull Island!" the pirate said. He raised his cutlass and eerie lightning erupted from it, going through the glass dome in the ceiling. There was a rumbling that shook the ground, and Wendy barely had time to lurch backwards as a pirate ship - an actual pirate ship! - crashed through the walls of the museum. Debris flew and Wendy scarcely avoided being hit by a piece of marble the size of her head.
Captain Hook jumped onto the deck of the ghost ship with Peter as his captive and began to shout orders to his ghostly crew. Wendy could still hear her best friend shout her name.
There was only one thing she could do at the moment, and that was save him.
The ship had partially crashed into the janitor's closet, knocking several items from it into the lobby among the degree. Wendy grabbed the stepladder and pushed it as close to the ship as she could, then climbed it. She grabbed the axe from her father's office and used it at a weak spot in the wood, trying to make a hole big enough that she could climb through. When she finished, she held the axe in one hand and the flashlight in the other, and climbed on through into the cursed ship.