*No A/N for you right now, humans! So poo on you! :P I kid, look to the next chapter for the proper note :3*
FACT OF THE DAY: While this story was still in its earliest forms, I could guess what names my co-creators would pick for their characters. I know them that well.
"Mama! I wa'a go see the dancer!"
The tiny girl clothed in green pouted and pulled on her mother's yellow skirt toward the performer, a Gerudo who danced in front of a tavern. The woman chuckled and brushed her daughter's hand away. "Now, now, Mindy. Guess what? I have a surprise for you once we get home."
Mindy blinked up through her too-big black glasses frames. "A supwise?"
Her mother nodded. Mindy grinned her toothy four-year-old grin. "Yay! Is it a pwesent, Mama?"
"Perhaps. Now come; I see our house."
Mindy lost all previous interest in the dancer and raced towards the cottage. She saw a lit candle in one of the front windowsill and stopped, confused. "Mama, you said you blew out all the candles befowe we went to the store!" she exclaimed.
"It's okay, sweetheart. Now come, your surprise is waiting!" Mindy didn't notice, but her mother also seemed giddy with excitement as she set her basket of fruits down to unlock to the door.
Mindy rushed through the door into the living room. A man in a grey tunic sat in the armchair in front of the fire, blowing through a large pipe. Bubbles floated out of the pipe. Mindy edged around until she could see the man fully, and her face lit up.
"Papa!" she cried, jumping up into her father's lap and giving him a hug. "You came home! You've been gone so long!"
He laughed and hugged his daughter back, blowing some more bubbles through the pipe. Mindy cooed and reached up, trying to grab them.
"I see you kept your promise, Matthew." Mindy's mother set her basket on the dining table and set a hand on her husband's shoulder. He grabbed her hand reassuringly. "Of course. Am I a man to break my promises, Rebecca?"
She laughed. "No, I suppose not."
Mindy pouted a little, the attention shifted away from her. "Papa! Tell me the story again!"
"Which one, little warrioress?" Mindy's father asked, rubbing her cheek with a finger. She thought for a second, unsure of which one she wanted, then brightened. "The one where the hero Link saves our entire land from the giant falling moon!"
Mindy's mother smiled. "You know, that one's been her favorite since you've been on your trip."
"I'm not surprised," he replied. "It was my favorite as a kid, too. Now, it all began one day, when Link was leaving the Kokiri forest to find his fairy friend Navi…"
She was sleeping silently when she heard glass breaking from downstairs. Mindy blinked her eyes open and stood up on her small bed, grabbing her glasses off the head of the bed. Another sound of glass shattering.
Mindy nervously peered around the doorframe, where she had an easy view of the downstairs below. She could barely make out the outline of her mom and dad, slowly walking towards the living room. Wood cracked and the lantern in her father's hand fell and shattered.
Eerie musical notes floated through the air. Just then, her mother saw Mindy atop the stairs, and her eyes glittered with terror.
"Mindy!" she hissed. "Get back in your room!"
"B-but why, Mama?"
"Mindy, I love you. But you have to get back into your room. It's safe there."
Mindy clutched her cap in her hands. She gave her mom one final look, then fled into her room. She jumped into her bed and buried herself under the sheets, holding her breath and trying to play dead like her father had taught her.
After a time that could have been a few minutes or the entire night, Mindy's bedroom door creaked open. Mindy froze, petrified in sheer terror.
"Mindy, dearest? It's okay now, you can come out."
The girl in green dared to poke her head out from under the blankets, relieved to see her mother in the silver half-light. She let herself exhale and scrambled, hugging her mother tightly.
"Is Papa okay, too?" Mindy asked hopefully, smiling up at her mother.
Then something strange happened. Mindy's mother looked down at her, and instead of her eyes being aquamarine blue, they were gold and the irises took up almost her entire eye. Her mouth curled into a cruel grin, revealing porcelain white fangs glinting in the dim moonlight.
"Oh, he's not," she cooed maliciously. "And you won't be either."
Mindy screamed. She shoved the creature away as hard as her little body could, and raced down the steps. Her vision narrowed to what was directly in front of her, and her only thought was I have to get outta here!
The front door was locked, like it usually was, and Mindy was just barely too short to reach the chain. She jumped and swiped at it, aware of the evil chasing after her. Finally, with one final swipe, the chain fell and Mindy yanked on the handle. The door swung open.
She slammed it behind her and charged into the night. She only knew one neighbor, down the street. The ones who had a picture of Nayru on their door. When she found it, she knocked furiously, pounding in order to wake them up.
One of the housemaids answered, and she immediately recognised Mindy. "Why, child," she said in shock, "what are you doing at this hour?"
Mindy blinked twice at her, eyes filling with tears, and then her fear got to head. Her vision wavered, and she blacked out.
She didn't remember much of the rest of the night or most of the next day. She did remember sleeping in a different bed, people panicking and different people trying to calm them down. Many people tried to talk to Mindy, all of them for some reason saying "I'm sorry".
At some point, a man in blue tried to ask Mindy questions about what happened in her house, but she only flew into hysterics and locked herself in her makeshift bedroom, sobbing and screaming about an evil creature inside her mother for hours. She couldn't make sense why she was so scared of everyone until her head cleared several evenings later.
She knew, from chatter around the neighborhood, that her house was still a crime zone and nothing had been moved or touched yet. She sneaked out of the house she was staying in that night, and went back to her home.
The first thing she noticed was that the place reeked. It smelled like when her father accidentally left raw meat out on the table overnight. As quietly as she could, she crept over the old floorboards into the living room.
Something was carved crudely into the wall, words Mindy's young eyes couldn't read yet. Crimson stained the floor and rug in front of the fireplace. Then her eyes landed on two human shapes on the floor, motionless, covered by black blankets.
Clenching her teeth, Mindy grabbed the edge of the blanket and peeled it back. She saw the face of someone familiar to her, but his face was mangled. Bruises littered his cheeks, and blood leaked out of his mouth. It took her a second to figure out who it was, but when she did, she nearly broke down in sobs.
"Daddy? Papa...Mama? A-are you gonna wake up? Please...please wake up..."
"Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal." -Anonymous