"All right, so, for the day, we're going to be investigating a house that is claimed to be haunted, in the meantime, we'll also be sure to check out some other stuff we get from calls," Snow said.
It was annual roleplay day and the entire town was getting wrapped up in a mystery. A fake mystery, but it had been created for fun, mainly. Like it was scripted and stuff. Oh, never mind, just get on with it.
"Is it going to be like Paranormal Investigation?" Henry asked excitedly.
"No, it's much more serious," Emma said seriously.
"What if I don't want to be serious?" Cora whined.
"Too bad. It's your first day on the fake job, I don't want you screwing anything up," Emma said.
"All right," Cora said, getting into front of the car while others got into the backseat.
Pause.
"Wait... are we... you guys are back there... and I'm up here..." Cora said slowly.
Another pause.
"OH MY GOD! AM I DRIVING?!" Cora shrieked.
"Yeah. You do know how to drive... right?" Emma asked.
"I... I think so!" Cora said.
"Facepalm. Just make it up as you go along," Gold said.
"WAIT!" Snow suddenly shrieked.
"What?" Emma asked, slightly annoyed.
"I have the perfect sound effect for this!"
Everyone was silent as Snow pulled out her phone and pressed a button. An audience applauding sound was heard from the phone.
"See? Isn't it awesome?" Snow asked, beaming.
Pause.
"Anyway, let's get going. Cora, start up the car!" Emma said finally. Regina groaned.
"This is gonna be along ride," she mumbled.
"All right." There was a nervous expression on her face as Cora toggled with the controls.
"So, like I said, we're going to be investigating a haunted house," Emma said.
"Yeah, I know, I was there when we organized the event," Regina said, slightly peeved.
"Basically, the idea is that people who have been visiting this house have been disappearing," Emma said, ignoring Regina.
"Wait... you mean.. they disappear?" Henry asked suddenly.
"Yeah."
"Like... they... are gone?"
"Yeah."
"And no one ever sees them again?!"
Pause.
"Yeah."
Henry leaned forward. "TURN AROUND THE CAR, CORA!"
"Eep!" Cora shrieked.
"Calm down. We're gonna be fine," Emma said.
"Oh. Okay, then," Henry said, calming down.
"That was surprisingly easy," Emma said. "Anyway, like I said, we're going to be investigating this place. Just for clues and to see if we can find anything suspicious."
"Coolness!"
"EEP! SQUIRREL!" Cora shrieked, Snow clutching onto her goldfish bowl tightly. She'd insisted that she bring it although nobody saw the point.
"Are you all right?" Emma asked.
"Yeah. I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm- I'M NOT FINE OH MY GOD WE'RE GONNA CRASH!" Cora screamed.
"EVERYONE! WATCH OUT!" Emma shouted.
The car crashed and the group was jolted by the impact.
"Oooww," Cora groaned.
"MY HAND IS MISSING!" Charming screamed. "MY HAND IS- Oh, never mind, my jacket sleeve was just covering it up. Sorry."
"WAIT! Don't move. I have the perfect sound effect for this!" Snow shrieked. She held up her phone and pressed a button, a shattering glass sound effect emitted from the device.
"Alrighty, then," Emma said with a groan, stumbling out of the car followed by the other nine.
"Sorry about your car, Regina," Emma said.
"You guys totally owe me a car," Regina said.
"Sorry..." Cora apologized.
"Humph," Regina said crossly.
"Well, here we are, then," Emma said, changing the subject.
"This is the house?"
"Yeah."
Pause.
"Uh..." Hook asked slowly.
Another pause.
"Wait... we're... we're going IN there?" Hook gasped.
"Yeah. And you're first!" Emma exclaimed cheerfully, pushing Hook into the place.
"EEP!" Hook shrieked like a little girl. The rest flooded in.
"All right. See if you can find any clues!" Emma said.
The three walked down a path quite slowly, Hook following Emma, Emma following Gold, Gold following Belle, Belle following-
Oh, you get it. They were in line.
They walked for a few moments, before Snow, at the front of the line, suddenly spun around with the flashlight pointing up at her face. As soon as Charming laid eyes upon her, he screamed and turned around, and then Neal screamed upon seeing Charming. Charming turned around and screamed, but Cora smacked him in the face.
"All of you, we need to split up, all right?" Emma asked with a sigh.
"Okay!" Charming said as Emma walked to the front of the line and continued inspecting. She suddenly stopped, leaned over, and picked up a piece of cloth. She stood back up to examine it and-
WHAM! The line fell over like dominoes.
"GUYS! I said, we need to split up!" Emma groaned, pointing the other way. The group nodded and slowly filtered off in the room.
"Hey, I think I found a clue!" Henry said, picking up something just as Cora snuck over to a closet and opened the door.
Cora screamed.
"Cora!" Emma yelled, "What is it?"
"I FOUND A CIVILIAN!" Cora howled, pointing at a chair in the closet.
Pause.
"Cora, that's a chair," Emma said. "Did you take your meds today?"
"I don't take meds," Cora said.
"Well, it's never too late to start," Emma mumbled. "Look, it's just a chair, Cora."
"BUT WHAT IF IT'S HAUNTED?!" Cora thundered.
"Right, it's haunted," Emma said. "I suppose we'll defeat it and then afterwards we can go get milkshakes and ride off into the sunset on pink ponies, pigs flying in the distance."
Cora's face lit up. "That sounds brilliant!"
"I think I found some evidence!" Henry cut in, the group gathering around him and Emma.
"Cora, you go watch the chair. What is it, Henry?" Emma asked.
"Look!" Henry said, holding up a piece of dust.
"Let's go back to the other room, we can interrogate the chair," Snow said.
"Not you," Emma said. "It's just a chair."
"It's haunted!"
"I'll go back and show you there's nothing to fear," Gold said.
"AAH! But I don't wanna go back! Can Cora do it instead?" Henry asked.
Pause.
"Yeah, I guess so," Emma said, turning around, to find Cora was missing. "...Cora?"
Pause.
"IT WAS YOU!" Snow screamed, pointing at the chair.
"AH!" Henry yelled.
"Snow, we need to get the dirt on this chair," Gold said.
"How do I do that?"
"I dunno. Just go look for some evidence!" Gold said.
"Got it," Snow said, running outside.
"So... Mr. Chair... I hear... you're quite the businessman! Must be rough, being a chairman and all that..." Gold said.
Snow ran back inside and dumped a handful of dirt on the chair, looking up expectantly, except everyone was gone.
"Guys? Where are you?" she cried, looking at the chair. "YOU KILLED THEM!" she yelled, before pausing. "What... what if it wasn't the chair? What if it was someone else? There was only one person who had the car... only one person with the sound effects... Only one person who put the dirt on the chair..."
"IT WAS YOU!" Snow yelled, throwing her arm out and...
pointing at herself.
Pause.
"NO! IT WASN'T ME! I SWEAR, IT WASN'T!" Snow shrieked.
"No it wasn't," Hook said as he walked to Snow. "We just went in the kitchen to get cookies."
"Yeah," Emma said. "Apparently Mr. Laundener, the owner of this house, had no clue about the whole drama setup thing. He was nice about it, though."
