The Challenge

Chapter Twenty-Three

A/N: Sorry for the delay everybody, I'm on vacation right now.

"Welcome everybody to your next challenge, X Marks the Spot!" TJ announces which has the cast clapping along just like they are instructed to do every time.

"For this challenge, you and your partner will be strapped together, suspended two hundred feet in the air. When I say go, you will be flung over the water, where there will be targets floating down below. Your goal is to release your partner at exactly the right moment and fall perfectly inside of the target. The white targets are worth ten points, the blue are worth twenty-five and the red target in the center is fifty points. You will each take a turn being the person to release your partner and also the one being dropped. Whichever team collects the most points at the end will be today's winner."

And then TJ pauses with a very serious expression on his face and Emma's heart shrivels up and cowers away in fear. She glances over her shoulder at Killian who immediately stiffens. Then her attention swings to Regina, clenching her fingers especially tight behind her back. Fuck. Something bad is about to happen.

"Now, today is a purge day. The loser of today's challenge will automatically be sent home, straight from here and lose out on their chance in the final. The team that comes in second to last will be going into elimination. You definitely don't want to be anywhere near the bottom when we are getting so close to the final."

Emma's heart jumps in fear, brutally slamming against her sternum and bruising her chest from within. She has two opportunities today to be eliminated from the game, two. What in the actual...

"Swan, come on, we have to do our interview," Killian gently reminds her, placing a kind hand upon her shoulder.

He guides her over to where Elsa and Kristoff are waiting but her mind is a fuzzy mess and she can't think of anything at all to say. Her tongues suddenly feels too heavy and her stomach won't stop producing backflips. She's going to be sick.

"Does this queasy sensation before a challenge ever go away?" She blurts out, taking her partner and crew members by surprise but they keep rolling.

Killian plasters on a fake smile, tossing his head back in laughter as he hooks an arm around her shoulders. "Nah, it doesn't." He suddenly becomes very serious. "It really doesn't."

Emma frowns up at him, her body trembling in fear before he starts laughing again and babbles on and on about a strategy she can't possibly pay any attention to. She's stuck in her own head, paralyzed by the possibility of returning home when she knows the final is in her reach. She's so close, she didn't come all this way and fight her way through three eliminations just to go home right before the final.

When she hears TJ blow his horn, her mind instantly sharpens, sweeping away the fog, so she can focus on the contestants before her. Okay, focus. All she has to do is watch when the person is being released and remember where they land in the water and use that information to help guide her. Sounds easy enough.

Graham is the first to release Ruby and by the angle from where Emma is standing, it appears that he is trying to aim for the white target. Maybe he is thinking that if he's a little too late, she will fly to the next target which would be red? However, Ruby flops way too soon into the water and completely misses all the targets.

Everyone sighs, expressing how sad they are for the team but Emma is puzzled, wracking her brain and wondering how his timing could have been so off?The targets are set up in squares, so the person can sink right in between the shape floating in the water. From high above, the entire shape is a cross, four white targets, top, bottom, left and right. The following targets are blue, directly inside of the white and then there is only one red target in the middle. Which leaves plenty of opportunities to fall into at least one target. Except, she was nowhere near the bottom white target.