Night of the Third Day
No Time Remains
"Alright, Skull Kid, ha ha, good one," said a small yellow fairy as she nervously chuckled at the unflinching eyes of the mask her friend wore. "Now let's push this moon away and go home." There was a soft rumbling as the moon drew closer, its grimace ever unchanging. The yellow fairy hovered beside another fairy, violet in color, and wagged her finger at the mask's unblinking yellow and green eyes. "Hello? Can you hear me? I'm talking to you, Skull Kid!" she yelled, her body tingling with anger and fright.
The Skull Kid tilted his head to the side, almost not hearing the fairy's words. He slowly turned his head to the left, towards Ikana Canyon. He swiveled on the spot to face Snowhead, and then turned to Great Bay, then at last to the Southern Swamp. Skull Kid's shoulders sagged as he whimpered out, "They didn't come…" He slowly floated down until his feet touched the hard wood of the Clock Tower, but his feet alone could not hold him, and so he sagged onto his knees and looked up at the fearful scowl of the moon. Skull Kid's eyes began to water as he began to pull the mask off. He never knew what the mask was, but he had no reason to care. It had given him power, freedom to do whatever he wanted. Yet it could not reunite him with his friends. Skull Kid pulled at the mask but hesitated a bit. How am I going to fix this, he wondered. He sat there for a spare minute as the yellow and violet fairies continued to yell at him, though he was not listening. An idea had sprung in his mind, a very foolish idea, but it was better than no idea at all.
The Skull Kid stood up and pushed the mask further onto his face. He levitated himself into the air, up and up, until he could feel the cold rock of the moon against his sweaty hands. Therefore, Skull Kid pushed. He pushed with all the might he could muster from both himself and the mask. He pushed against failure, against sadness, against loneliness. He pushed until there was no strength in his fingers to make a fist, and looked down proudly to see his progress. Then his blood ran cold.
The moon had not slowed down at all the whole time Skull Kid was pushing. He quickly looked back up and began to push harder, until he realized his feet were pressing against the Clock Tower itself.
"Wh-why can't I stop it?!" he cried as tears streamed down his cheeks and onto his orange and green clothes. He looked desperately to his fairy companions, who were also nudging against the moon with their tiny bodies. Skull Kid's wooden brow furrowed as he summoned new strength to push against the impossible. He had failed everyone; the mask salesman, that person he turned into a kid, the Bombers, the professor at the observatory. Skull Kid had failed and humiliated everyone, but he would not fail his closest friends.
The Skull Kid felt his knees buckle under the pressure of the moon but kept going anyway. He would not let this childish tantrum destroy all he loved. He summoned up as much power as he could from the mask he wore and channeled it into his desire. I will make this right!
"You have far too many weaknesses to use my power."
The Skull Kid froze in place, his trembling ceased and his tears ended. The two fairies darted around in search of the voice that had spoken. Skull Kid released the moon and was relieved when he discovered that it stopped its descent. He fell to a crouch and crawled outward to the surrounding wall of the Clock Tower, where there was room to stand. The two fairies joined him as he too looked around for the mystery voice.
Skull Kid turned to the yellow fairy and said, "Tatl, did you find who said that?"
Tatl bobbed side to side and offered a shrug before saying, "I got nothing. Tael?"
The violet fairy, Tael, shook his head.
The Skull Kid clenched his fists and climbed atop the wall. He surveyed the area but found nothing, no dogs, no Deku, no construction workers. He walked slowly along the rim of the Clock Tower until he came face to face with the moon itself. He raised a trembling hand and pointed directly at the moon as he whispered, "W-was it y-you…?"
"Of course not, you pathetic stack of firewood!" bellowed the voice again. It sounded… close, yet echoed…
The Skull Kid jumped when the voice had spoken, nearly causing him to fall off the Clock Tower. When he regained his balance, he turned and saw that Tatl and Tael were staring at him, both of them paralyzed with fear. Skull Kid's eyes darted left and right as he too froze with utter terror. "Is it… behind me?"
His gaze fell onto the fairies but he quickly saw that they were shaking their heads. Tael mustered all of his courage just to utter two simple words: "The Mask…"
Skull Kid's heart beat against his ribcage as he slowly lifted his hand toward the mask he had worn for so long, but stopped when the mask wrenched itself free of his head. Its cold, wide eyes stared back into the reddened ones of the Skull Kid. Even with no mouth to use, it spoke again. "A puppet that can no longer be used…" the mask lurched forward, barely two inches from the Skull Kid's trembling beak, "is but mere garbage."
The mask slowly began to float away from Skull Kid until Tatl batted it with her fist. "How dare you call my friend garbage!" she screamed, her fists bouncing harmlessly off the mask's surface. Tatl rammed her body against the mask with all her might, but bounced off once more. "Skull Kid is not garbage, you are!"
The mask merely stayed there and waited for the fairy to finish her little tantrum. After a minute of the speck of yellow light launching itself at the mask, its eyes lit up in a demonic light, freezing Tatl in place with fear. Streaks of dark blue energy began sizzling over the surface of the mask as it stared into Tatl's eyes.
"Fool! I am Majora's Mask!" it screamed, nearly shattering Tatl's eardrums. "You are dust to me!" said a voice that sounded neither male nor female. Majora's Mask tilted to the side as it turned its attention towards the Skull Kid. "You, child, have been useful to me these past days. But now, your role is ended." Then, a sound echoed through the Skull Kid's ears that caused his heart to lurch in its place. A sound he had heard before on numerous occasions. The sound of his own laughter that was now laughing at him. This mask was what called the moon down, not him. He had merely been its tool in its plot to destroy Termina.
Tael's voice pierced through the laughter as the timid young fairy asked, "Why destroy Termina? What did we ever do to you?"
The laughter silenced so quickly it might not have been there at all. Majora's Mask tilted to its side, almost blinking in confusion. In a matter-of-fact tone, the mask replied, "It sounded like fun. Don't you like fun?" More laughter began to echo through the trio's ears, but this laughter was not that of Skull Kid. It seemed malevolent, demonic… evil. Skull Kid pressed his hands over his ears, but the laughter seemed to be coming from everywhere, even his own mind. He screamed, but none could hear. Majora's Mask bobbed up and down in the air, its trail becoming that of fire and lightning that began to arc up at the moon.
Skull Kid knew what was about to happen, though he was powerless to stop it. He gently held Tatl and Tael in his hands, even as they struggled to block the laughter. He hopped down from the wall of the Clock Tower and climbed down to the entrance to the Clock Tower roof, where he sat and cradled his two best friends against his chest. Tears streamed from all three pairs of eyes as they held each other in their final moments on Termina. The laughter had grown to near-deafening volume, but they ignored it. They focused instead on being with each other for the last time. Tatl hugged her brother and Skull Kid's hand tightly as the moon made contact.
Skull Kid closed his eyes and held his two fairy friends to his cheeks, where they clung to him for dear life. The laughter finally ended, as did their lives.