Disclaimer: I don't own anything in the franchise btw this isn't nearly as angsty as i wanted it to be sob

Today is Halloween.

Jack o' lanterns light up the nighttime streets of our neighborhood and little children dressed up as Gibdos and ReDeads are everywhere, romping around and asking for candy. Some kids are wearing tunics to dress up as the Hero and others are parading around as princesses and warlocks.

I should be out there too, trick-or-treating with my best friend, Link, in my adorable little pink ball gown with the tiny tiara.

Instead, I'm sitting on a stump in the middle of the forest, sobbing and screaming with my torn dress and missing tiara, very sad and very lost.

It's cold and dark and scary and this stump is making my butt wet because it was raining yesterday and I really wanna go home and eat candy with Link.

"DADDY!" I scream for the sixteenth time. "DADDY! LINK!"

There's still no answer, save for the owls hooting and I think I hear a howl in the distance. My throat is starting to hurt from yelling so much, so I pull my knees to my chest and rest my chin on them, sniffling quietly. What if they never find me? I'll be all alone for the rest of my life and I won't get to eat candy with Link or stay up late watching our favorite cartoon or eat Mommy's food or Daddy's apple pies or anything ever again.

I have a little handheld flashlight at my side, so I somberly switch it on and off. On and off. Click. Click. Click.

I hear a twig snap on my left so I gasp, whirling around. Is it a Bokoblin? Daddy always told me that Halloween was when all the monsters came out; was he telling the truth?

"H-Hello?" I call softly.

What if it's a Hylian? What if it's Daddy?

"Daddy? Is that you?"

I shine the flashlight in the general direction of the noise and bite my lower lip. The leaves rustle and…

It's a squirrel.

Aww, that's cute…

But it's not Daddy, so I'm sad again.

"Hi, Mr. Squirrel." I mumble. "Are you lost too?"

The little brown squirrel stares at me with big black eyes for a while before turning around and running away. I frown and draw my knees in again.

"Fine. It's not like I wanted to talk to you." I murmur.

Crickets are chirping and the wind is howling and I can't hear the neighborhood anymore, even though everybody was laughing and screeching and having fun. There's nobody here.

I sniffle again and wipe my eyes. Maybe I should keep looking around? Daddy always told me to stay still when I'm lost, though.

"Hi there."

I scream and jump off the stump, tumbling on the leafy ground and shining my flashlight wildly.

"WHO'S THERE!?" I shout.

"Whoa, calm down, your Majesty. I'm not gonna hurt you."

It's a disembodied, ethereal voice coming from every side of me, slightly echoed and lilting. There's something… oddly familiar about it.

I'm confused about the "your Majesty" but, but I yell, "Come out where I can see you!"

The voice laughs eerily before saying, "Whatever you say, Princess."

I'm still holding my flashlight like it's some kind of sword but I know it won't do anything if this is actually a Bokoblin. It does have a very pretty and light voice for a Bokoblin, though. I'd imagine Bokoblins to sound rougher and angrier than this.

A hand gently grazes my shoulder and I shriek, squeezing my eyes shut, ripping out of its grasp, and flashing the light at its face.

"Oh, goddesses, stop that- You're blinding me, Princess."

I open my eyes slowly and cautiously and look up, prepared to see some disgusting, gross troll face but instead, I'm greeted with a young boy just about my age and looks oddly like…

"Link?" I ask.

The boy draws back. "You remember my name?"

I quirk an eyebrow up. "Huh? No, I've never met you. You just reminded me of my friend, that's all."

Remember him remember him WHY DON'T YOU REMEMBER HIM-

I can only see one of his eyes because the other one is covered by his hair, which happens to be very long, by the way. It's tied up in a low ponytail and reaches the middle of his back, a nice blond color, just like mine.

He's wearing a really weird tunic thingy, just like the Hero of Time, crisp, clean, and bright green.

He grits his teeth, upset. "Of course you wouldn't remember. How many hundreds of years has it been?"

What does that mean? I'm only ten; not hundreds of years old.

"You didn't even remember back then; why would you remember it now?"

"I-I don't-," I start, but the boy cuts me off, beaming forcefully.

"Alrighty then, so your name's Zelda, right? Nice to meet you again!" He sticks out a hand, and I take it absently, focusing on the fact that his smiling face seems strangely familiar.

Again?

"Nice to meet you too…"

"C'mon," He says, dragging me along, "You wanna get back home, right?"

He can get me back home? He can get me back to Link and Daddy and Mommy?

"Yeah!" I shout.

"Well, follow me, then."

The boy turns around and for a minute I see a gaping hole where his hair covers his eye, leaking and pouring blood, red stains covering his tunic and a deranged, gaping mouth, painfully screeching something that sounds like my name and something like REMEMBER ME before he goes back to normal; peaceful face and happy grin.

This is your fault you let this happen repent repent REPENT-

I let out a blood curdling scream.

"Princess? You okay?"

Pointing a shaking finger, I stammer, "Y-Your face- You- You-,"

"Huh? What about me? Is there something wrong with my face?"

"You- Your eye-,"

"My eye?" He gently touches his fingertips on the eye covered by hair and laughs. "Oh, this one? See? Look; it's just fine."

He brushes the hair out of his face and I clamber over to see that it is completely normal. Clear blue, just like his other eye.

"But I saw it!" I say. "It was gone- Your eye wasn't there."

"C'mon, Princess. It's right here! You can see it, right?" There's something terrifying about this boy's smile now, something forced and sick and scary.

"I-I see it, but…" I finish lamely, looking down at my feet. Maybe I did imagine it. Maybe that never did happen.

"Hurry up, your Majesty. If we don't go quickly, your parents will be worried."

"Okay…"

I follow the boy through the forest that he knows awfully well, weaving through trees and bushes and stepping over fallen tree trunks.

"Are we almost there yet?" I ask as I push a branch out of my face.

"Not yet, Princess. Just a bit more."

"…How 'bout now?"

"No, Princess, we're not there yet."

"… Now?"

"No, Princess."

We keep walking for a bit longer before he abruptly stops, pressing a finger to his lips. "Do you see the Wolfos, Princess? I'm gonna have to kill that, so stay still, okay?"

Kill? I don't even see a Wolfos, he's pointing at a tree-

"No, don't kill it, wait-," I pull at his sleeve to keep him from going but he turns around.

He pulls a sword and shield that I didn't even realize he had and grips them both tightly. "Remember, Princess, stay right here."

Kill?

The only memories he has are ones of bloodshed and loss-

The boy almost silently dashes behind the tree and there is no sound for a moment until-

Bam.

It's like an explosion.

The boy is screaming and there are canine growls, barking and snarling before it escalates into the boy screaming my name "ZELDA, ZELDA, REMEMBER ME," and the whining and crying of the Wolfos-

I drop to my knees and hug the tree at my side for support.

This is impossible. I can't be hearing this, this is wrong.

He comes back, though, not a minute later and his eye is gone again, the bloodstains are back on his tunic and the horrible screaming is back. "I've eliminated the enemy, your Highness. What shall you have me do next?"

My eyes wide with unspoken fear and terror, I quietly say, "Take me back to Daddy and Mommy."

"But of course."

It takes a few more minutes for the boy to stop twitching and spazzing before he returns to his normal, pleasant self.

"Um…" I clear my throat. "W-What was that?"

"What was what?" He asks.

"That… That breakdown."

He turns his head around, raising his brows. "What breakdown?"

Does he not remember? The screaming and the brutal destruction of that Wolfos? Nothing?

IT'S YOUR FAULT THAT HE DOESN'T REMEMBER REMEMBER HIM BRING LINK BACK TO ME-

"It's- It's nothing."

He screws his lips and shrugs. "Okay, then."

"We're almost there, y'know." He comments off-handedly about five minutes later. "Are you excited?"

I nod enthusiastically. "Yeah."

"Good." The boy smiles.

"So… Who are you, anyways?" I ask. "Nobody lives in the forest other than you."

"Me?" He asks. "I'm Link."

Link?

REMEMBER HIM REMEMBER YOUR LOVER REMEMBER YOUR LINK-

"Yeah, just like your best friend. I have the same name. Funny, huh?"

I nod. "Yeah, I guess."

There is silence for a few before I ask him another question. "So… what are you?"

He doesn't answer.

"Link? What are you-,"

"Hey, look, there's your neighborhood!" He turns around. "Well, it was nice knowing you, Zelda. Have fun for the rest of your Halloween!"

"But wait, Link-,"

"I'll tell you this every incarnation."

"What does that mean, wait, please-,"

"I love you."

"No, please- wait, what?"

He shoves me out of the forest and into the street and I turn around, shaking a fist, ready to yell at him for pushing me but-

He's gone.

There's nobody there.

"ZELDA!"

"Zelly!?"

"Oh, thank the goddesses you're not hurt! Are you okay?"

My parents and the otherLink are yelling but all I can do is sit and stare at the place this boy was just standing, openly and blatantly sobbing because I have just lost him again.

A/N: THANKS FOR READING IT'S 12 O'CLOCK PUBLISHING NOW FAST REVIEW PLEASE THANKS BYE HOPE YOU LIKED IT