Eiichiro Oda Owns One Piece and all it's amazing characters!

The Fright of Your Life

'Am I some sort of masochistic?' Nami questioned herself, her skin suddenly crawling as she accidentally touched the squishy sack of spider eggs that were hanging from the underside of themed queue barrier. She had fully expected Law to reject her compromise. She was sure he would say no to the tunnel of love, out of embarrassment if nothing else. Now, she was stuck, and had to go on this damned combined ghost train and haunted house ride.

Nami's heart sank when the barrier was lifted and a group of six went in, making her and Law next in line.

"How many?" A large man in a fishnet shirt croaked as they slowly closed the gap towards the entrance.

"Two." Law informed the man as he grabbed Nami's hand to gently pull her along.

The man disappeared through a blanket of mist at the entrance to the ride, his shrill cackle fading with him. Iron gates were painted to the outside of the ride canvas. A large mansion was depicted behind them, sat atop a misty hill in the distance.

No expense had been spared for this ride, not even in the waiting line. A painted canvas covered the uneven floor, with straw scattered over the top to disguise the illustrated bones. The queue barrier was made to look like wrought iron railings, adorned with cobwebs, very realistic looking spiders, and disgusting sacks of eggs.

She looked up at her handsome date, hoping he would see the fear on her face, and not force her to follow through with her promise, but he didn't even spare her a glance. He was too preoccupied watching the entertainers as they moved within the queue.

A man on stilts dressed as a gentleman skeleton was walking back and forth amongst the punters. His peculiar outfit filled Nami with a sense of hope that perhaps this might be more of a joke ride, and not a thrill one as its name, Thriller Bark, would suggest.

The skeleton had a large dark afro, and wore a jet black dinner suit, and top hat. His apricot shirt had a tall, stiff collar, and frilly cuffs. The shirt was unbuttoned, allowing his lower rib cage and spine to seen. His sternum was hidden behind a cobalt cravat, held in place by a three jewelled pin that was violet in colour.

He strolled the queue line with a jolly disposition. His distinct laugh of 'Yohoho' reminded Nami more of Christmas than anything Halloween, or slightly spooky. Though, the woman who accompanied him was an entirely different matter.

She had bobbed hair the colour of sand, and vacant dark eyes. She wore a short obsidian sleeveless evening dress, with a crimson feather boa draped around her shoulders. Her skin was pale grey, with painted lines on her cheeks, chest and arms to give the illusion that her flesh had been stitched together. That appearance was coupled with an unnerving sullen demeanour, which caused Nami to step deeper into Law's hold for protection every time the chilling woman passed by.

The more Nami thought about it, the more anxious she felt. "I feel sick." She complained, rubbing her free hand over her abdomen.

"Why?" Law asked, wrapping his arms around her, and leaning his head over her shoulder. "It's not like there is a psychopath hiding in there, whose going to jump out and cut you up for fun." He whispered as he placed a kiss on her temple.

"I guess. You can't really jump out at me if you are already holding my hand." Nami laughed as she turned to look at him and playfully stick her tongue out at him.

Nami blanched then as the attendant returned. "Welcome to Thriller Bark." He croaked as he lifted the barrier for them to pass through. He raised his arm, unveiling a tribal tattoo on his shoulder as his raven feathered cape slipped when he motioned towards an Edwardian looking horse-drawn carriage, barely visible through the mist just beyond the painted iron gates.

Law practically had to push Nami to get her into the carriage. It was so dark, she was convinced someone was going to jump out at her right away, and scare her half to death.

She sat down on the lilac cushioned bench, barely leaving enough room for Law to sit next to her. The second his bum touched the fabric of the seat, Nami had her back pressed firmly against him, pinning him in the corner, while hers eye fixed on the far window.

The moment Law shut the carriage door, the cab rattled to life and began to move. Dim, cerulean torches flickered a few times before their light became constant, illuminating the inside of the carriage with an ethereal glow. Nami immediately looked around, checking nothing else was in there with them, and dragging Law's arms around herself in the process.

"You can't be that scared."

"I am!" She spat back at him. Being in such an apprehensive state, Nami completely missed his slightly sympathetic tone. She was too busy trying to stop herself from trembling. She did notice when he tightened his arms around her, and dragged her to sit on his lap. The comforting gesture of his left hand rubbing her right shoulder didn't go unmissed, either.

Nami continued to stare out of the window. If something was going to come for her, then she was determined to see it first, and run as fast as she could in the opposite direction.

The carriage was travelling through a misty forest, eerily lit by scattered black lights. The chirping of bats, and the fluttering of wings could be heard from all around them. The knots in the bark of all the trees looked like grotesque faces, mocking her fear as the ghostly carriage passed by.

Nami jumped when a sonorous howl came from just behind the carriage. Her chest felt tight, and all the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end from the beast's shrill cry. "Nami-ya, you're crushing me." Law complained when she forced herself closer to him. Her feet were pressed against the bench opposite, enabling her to mould herself against Law with a fair amount of pressure.

"I want to get off!" She whimpered. Nami lowered her feet from the other bench just as a scratching noise sounded on the roof of the carriage. She felt Law brace himself in anticipation of being crushed again, but she kept her feet on the floor, and sank lower down in his hold until she was practically lying on his lap.

Nami felt Law begin to shake beneath her, so she turned her face up to him, and was deflated to see him silently chuckling at her. "Stop laughing, you sadistic bastard." She snarled with raging hostility, trying to manoeuvre an elbow to whack him with. For a moment, she actually forgot that she was scared, but that dread returned to her the second the carriage stopped in its tracks. "Why has it stopped?" She fretted, slowly lifting her head a little, and darting her gaze between both windows, then crawling to the furthest one.

"I think we're meant to get out." Law suggested, casually. "Look, there's the haunted house."

"I'm not going out there!" Nami said from her crouched position at the far window. Her head just barely peeking over the sill so her eyes could scan the misty forest.

"What are you doing!" She shrieked when Law looped an arm around her waist, and lifted her from the safety of the carriage.

"We have to go through there." He set her down, and pointed to a mansion beyond a graveyard. The carriage moved then, disappearing into a camouflaged knoll, to complete its circuit and pick up the next set of guests.

Nami immediately clung to him for dear life. She felt vulnerable and exposed in the ghostly forest. Her eyes were constantly searching between the trees for a sign of anyone or anything. "KYAAA!" She screamed as a beast like creature starting sprinting towards them.

"Come on." Law laughed, and tried to pull her away, but she was too petrified to move. He threw her over his shoulder and strolled into the graveyard through a pair of large wrought iron gates.

Law put Nami down and forced her to wait there a moment, allowing the creature to stalk them from the other side of the bars. She was tense with fear. She could hear her heart beating loudly in her chest, feel her knees trembling, and sense the knot in her stomach tightening. Law must have known how afraid she was because he stood behind her then and wrapped his arms around her.

Nami's tension eased a little from the protective chrysalis Law had turned himself into, guarding her from whatever tried to get her. She relaxed a little more as the beast circled outside, not entering the burial grounds, just staring like a predator watching its prey that just narrowly escaped its clutches. "Look, Nami-ya. It is just a guy in a costume making sure we don't loiter here and ruin the experience for the next set of people."

Any calm Nami felt soon vanished when she heard a low moan come from within the graveyard. Law slowly turned them to look upon the cemetery they were standing in.

Everything beyond the gates seemed dead. Twisted, skeletal trees the colour of charcoal adorned the grounds, their boughs appeared dry and splinted. Barren soil surrounded the cracked and crumbling tombstones, whose epitaph's were partially eroded, or completely missing.

Loose earth stirred from beneath one of the headstones. Nami swallowed hard as she looked on. Her mouth suddenly felt dry, and her tongue seemed swollen, making such a simple act quite difficult for her.

A decaying arm clumsily broke through the surface soil, knocking over a nearby urn and spilling its contents over the ground. Nami panicked as Law's arms loosened from around her. Zombies emerged in all directions, shuffling from their hiding places behind the gravestones, with a ghastly hum.

She quickly felt defenceless without Law behind her. "Run!" He urged as he took her hand, and headed towards the ominous mansion.

The zombies slow shuffle turned into a frantic dash as they chased Nami and Law into the mansion. Their moans sounded more aggressive the faster they charged. Nami ran as fast as she could, not once looking back at what was chasing her.

As they got inside the mansion, the heavy oak looking door promptly slammed behind them, leaving them in the pitch black corridor to listen to the zombies pounding against the wooden entrance, trying to get in.

A cold breeze rushed through the mansion, sending a shiver down Nami's spine. She quickly covered her mouth and nose with her free hand. The air within the ride smelt dank, and old. "I hate you for this." Nami declared, squeezing Law's hand tighter so he couldn't get away. "You'll pay for this, and not just financially!" She threatened.

Nami blinked her eyes a few times, ignoring his scoff, hoping the darkness would lessen, but it didn't.

Her heart skipped a beat when a hand found her shoulder. Nami screamed and pulled herself closer to Law.

"It's me." He said through a chuckle.

"Don't do that." She whined, softly punching his chest as punishment. She flinched again when his hand found her chin to tilt her face up to him so he could place a soft kiss on her lips.

"Is that not enough to make it up to you?" Law asked. She could hear the smile behind his words. He was obviously expecting her to say no, so she didn't disappoint.

"You'll have to try a lot harder than that."

Over the pounding of the zombies at the door, Nami heard him take a step closer to her before his body was lightly pressed against hers. The smell of his aftershave quickly flooded her nostrils, comforting her in the darkness as it completely disguised the odour of the mansion. She rested her hands on Law's hips, then balled her fists into his t-shirt as she looked up towards him, expecting another kiss.

She didn't flinch this time when both his hands cupped her face. Nami felt the warmth rise in her cheeks as he placed a kiss on her forehead, then one on her nose, then gently let his nose glide along hers from bridge to tip, before finally closing his lips over hers.

Law wrapped an arm around her, while the other moved to the back of her head. He grabbed her ponytail and used it to pull her head further back, to angle her face towards him for a deeper kiss. Nami's heart began to race in a good way then, and she found herself thinking that she wasn't scared while she was in his embrace, kissing him, obviously completely distracted by him.

Their kiss was interrupted by the sudden lack of noise. The zombies had finally ceased banging on the door, and a foreboding symphony began playing in the distance. Nami felt that her blood curdled upon hearing it. She instantly hugged Law, squeezing him tight, and putting an ear to his chest. She tried to concentrate on the steady beat of his heart instead of what she deemed was the sound of melodious death.

A nearby candelabra ignited. It was dripping with cobwebs, and burned with a jade hue, casting a gloomy green glow around the mansion. Then, a couple more lit up, illuminating the corridor further along.

The mansion's interior appeared to be more like a castle than an old large house. Naked stone lined the walls and floors, with heavily cobwebbed candelabra chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.

"Please, don't." Nami begged, as Law moved her arms from around him.

"We have to keep moving, Nami-ya." He said with a smile, and offering his right hand. Nami took it with her right, and moved so his arm draped over her shoulders. She wrapped her left arm round his waist and huddled against him.

They walked the crepuscular corridor at Law's pace. Nami wasn't certain, but she was quite sure he wanted to drag out the experience for as long as possible, despite knowing full well that she was desperate to get out of there.

Nami looked to the walls. Portraits from possibly the Edwardian period hung from the stone, illuminated by a single candle. She stared at one gentleman, keeping her eyes fixed on his. She knew there was a trick to them, that it was just an illusion that their eyes followed her movements, but they still made her anxious and paranoid.

'They really do look real.' She thought to her self as she passed the painting, turning her head as they walked to continue looking at it. Then, Nami blanched and her body became frigid. The life seemed to drain from her when she definitely saw the man in the portrait blink.

"What's wrong?"

Nami lifted a shaky finger and pointed towards the portrait. "He blinked." She said, unable to control the tremor in her voice.

"You are just imagining things. If you are that frightened, then stop looking at them, and look at me instead." Law suggested. He pulled her back against his side, and continued to walk her down the corridor.

She took his advice, ignoring the metallic rattle of a nearby suit of armour, Nami stopped looking around to cast her gaze up at him. Even with the unnatural green tint to his skin Nami still found him to be extremely good looking. She didn't like how much he was enjoying her fear, though. He had to be smirking at more than this hideous ride.

Nami got more and more freaked out as they walked the dark and twisted passageways of the gothic mansion. Her fear was overwhelming as they got closer to where the music was being projected from. It wasn't overly loud, it didn't need to be to fill her with despair. There was just an indescribable air of finality about it that made her feel threatened, and absolutely helpless.

The darkness of the gloomy corridor became more dense at the point when Nami noticed the surface of the flooring changed. The eerie symphony was silenced, and only the sound of scurrying and scratching could be heard.

The pair stopped walking as all the lights were quickly extinguished. "Law?" Nami fretted, still clutching him tightly. He stayed quiet, but rubbed her shoulder as he pulled her closer.

A vibrant jade glow flooded the floor beneath their feet. Nami instantly screamed when she looked down, then jumped on to Law's back for protection, scrambling as far from the flooring as she could. She wrapped both arms around his neck to ensure that she didn't fall.

She couldn't take her eyes of the floor. Nami couldn't believe where she had just been standing. Her skin crawled as she stared at the wispy green blanket of cobwebs that lay beneath the transparent flooring. Hundreds of spiders scrambled across it, and on the underside of the perspex. She trembled, and nausea washed over her when her leg felt itchy at the thought of where she had been stood.

"Please, just go." Nami whispered. She shut her eyes as a single tear escaped. "I hate spiders."

"You're strangling me." Law choked as he tried to ease her arms from around his neck.

The moment she felt Law begin to start walking, Nami loosened her grip, but only slightly. She kept her eyes firmly shut, and tried to ignore the tight congestion in her chest, and racing heart. 'He definitely owes me for this'

"KYA!" Nami screamed as Law stepped out of the exit. She felt something brush against the back of her neck. She jumped down from Law's back to frantically try and brush away what ever it was that touched her.

"It was probably your hair." Her date laughed. Law moved to stand behind her then, and wrapped his arms around her waist. Nami tried to turn her head to glared at him.

"That wasn't very long, was it?"

"It was long enough!" Nami shouted. She was terrified, and visibly shaking from the ordeal of Thriller Bark. "I hate you." She sobbed. He rested his head on top of hers and began to rock her gently while she complained.

"I was protecting you the whole time. You were safe." He affirmed.

"Doesn't matter." She wasn't going to let him off easily. "You definitely have to win me a toy now." Nami quickly countered.

Nami felt a change in his posture at that statement. She would enjoy watching him suffer playing those games, just as he enjoyed watching her suffer in that hell hole.

"Let's get you some food first. You'll feel better once you get your blood sugar levels up."

So, I've written this chapter from Nami's point of view, because I thought it would be more of a challenge for me to try and portray someone who is actually scared. I'm not the kind of person who scares easily (at all is probably more correct). I love haunted houses and ghost trains, but at the same time I think they are awful because they aren't scary in the slightest.

I wasn't a normal child though who was brought up watching Saturday morning cartoons. Me and my sister insisted that my mam video whatever the Hammer Horror Friday night movie was (usually something starring Christopher Lee), and we would watch that on a Saturday morning while eating our Rice Krispies.

I was watching Nightmare on Elm Street, Alien, The Fog, Pumpkinhead, Halloween, Friday 13th etc all before I was 8 years old, and the only thing that ever scared my was Jaws, when I was 5. I thought he was going to come up through my bedroom carpet and eat me while I was asleep! (not in the bath, where there is water, and a more normal child might be scared of being eaten a shark).

So, anyway, I hope that was alright :) I did think about Nightmare Before Christmas when I was writing this. I completely forgot that Oda-sensei said it was on of his favourite films. On that note of the mixing of Halloween and Christmas, I wondered if Dr. Hogback got his name because of Hog's Watch & The Hogfather by Terry Pratchet. Sorry, I'm rambling.

5th September 2014