Chapter Four: Collapse
A/N: Okay, so this is where the change is hella noticeable, this chapter is disturbing like really fucked up and it remains that way no fluffy white clouds. Enjoy or don't, whichever one is morally acceptable. I mean seriously if you can't handle disturbing things and I mean really disturbing things go no farther than this. I put Zelda through hell so be wise about going forward if you can't handle it.
Disclaimer: I do not; I repeat do not own anything Smash Brothers!
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Zelda stared at the door to her living quarters for hours, she didn't go back to sleep after the night terror she had. Every time she closed her eyes she saw that child holding his head staring dead at her. Despite how much Samus wanted to stay up with Zelda she couldn't keep her eyes open for very long until she was out like a light. After sitting cross legged for hours she got out of the bed carefully not wanting to wake the mercenary and went to shower so she could get ready for the grueling day before her. "I feel like a pile of shit, and what's worse is that I have a match today." Zelda complained. Before entering the bathroom she glanced over at the peaceful sleeping Samus, "She looks sort of cute…okay she looks really cute." Zelda thought examining the woman's relaxed features.
Before turning away from the peaceful scene it turned into a disturbing one: Samus's eyes were gouged out with maggots crawling in and out of the holes, her intestines were ripped out and laid before her, she had Glasgow cuts on her face, her limbs were ripped off with what seemed to be with brute force, and she had a giant chunk of meat taken out of her throat which resembled a bear bite. The warrior began to tremble at the sight but not with fear, the smell of fresh blood aroused her, the sound of flies buzzing around the corpse made her giddy with excitement and before she knew it there was a sadistic smile adorning her features. Zelda suddenly felt numerous amounts of what felt like tiny wet pebbles in her hands, she looked down to reveal numerous bloodied dislodged teeth and eyeballs. "Ah!" Zelda yelled throwing her hands contents and snapping out of the disturbing scene she had been captivated by moments before.
"Ev'rything okay sweetcheeks? Samus asked as she yawned and stretched awake. "You aren't looking to good today that dream still botherin' you?"
"Dream what dream? I wasn't dreaming!" Zelda answered nervously her eye darting back and forth.
"Y'know the one that woke you up las' night?" Samus squinted one eye in suspicion trying to figure out why Zelda was acting so weird.
"Oh that dream? Why didn't you just say so?!" Zelda looked at the ground feeling tense as if she was being interrogated. If Samus knew what she had just seen, the woman would see her as a potential threat she needed to avoid that all costs. Besides Peach and the mercenary were the only people in her corner.
"I'm pretty sure that was the only dream ya had unless ya went back ta sleep, which I highly doubt." Samus said with an annoyed tone.
Zelda's eye was vacant she was now elsewhere, thinking about that disturbing delusion, where did it even come from? Something like that has never happened before in her life. "Ey if you're goin' to ignore me then I'm leavin'." Samus got out of the bed slipping on her pants and boots, slinging her leather jacket over her shoulder. "If you decide ya wanna talk you know where ta find me." Samus said as she left Zelda's room in a growing fit of rage. There was nothing in this world that Samus hates more than being ignored.
The Hylian stared at the door feeling even worse if that was even physically possible, "But if I told you, you would hate me…" Zelda whimpered silently. Now wasn't the time to worry about anyone other than herself, after that delusion she needed to tread lightly even if that meant pissing a couple people off.
Zelda walked into the bathroom and examined herself in the mirror, her skin was a pale grey, her eye was bloodshot, she had black bags under both eyes and her brown hair was disheveled. The warrior felt like she had a bad case of the flu. Her body ached and shivered, her head pounded, light irritated her eye, her stomach churned, and she was delirious and disoriented. Everything right now just sucked ass, her body had been invaded by something and it was eating away at her every being.
As she turned away from the mirror the bathroom lights began to flicker violently making her dizzy. She turned back to the mirror and gripped the counter to help keep her balance. Zelda looked up at the mirror to see someone looking back at her. The person occupying the space where Zelda's reflection should have been, had deep black holes for eyes with black liquid pouring out, it had an abnormally giant grin decorating its face with blackened teeth and fangs, and its hair was snow white. "Is that me?" Zelda asked shaken up by the monstrosity with her face in the mirror. At that question the monster began to laugh hysterically yet silently, causing the mirror to crack. Crimson blood with faces of suffering screaming for solace and maggots began to pour from the mirror's cracks. "What is this?!" Zelda gasped as she fell backwards trying to get away from the distorted her.
The Zelda distortion began to laugh even harder but it still had no sound, "Wha…a…re…yo…a…frai…o…f…?" Zelda winced when she heard the distorted, garbled voice echo within her head. "I…a…m…you…af…te…all…."
"No, there is absolutely no way!" Zelda cried holding her head in her hands.
"Wh…can…t…you…acc…ept…i…t…?" The distortion stopped laughing as her face twisted into a livid expression.
"I won't accept what I don't believe in…" Zelda whispered fearing what was to come.
"O…rea…lly?" The distortion began to slam up against the mirror with intent to break out. "Wil…you…acc…ept…m…e…wh…n…I…ki…ll…eve…ry…thi…ng…in…th…s…wo…ld…?" Distorted Zelda stopped slamming up against the mirror and wore a frighteningly innocent expression as she tilted her head in curiosity.
Zelda stared at the distortion with sheer terror on her face, "What are you talking about?"
"I…ve…wai…te…lo…ng…en…gh…fina…lly…gi…v…n…stre…to…es…ape…my…ti…me…is…co…ing." The mirror began to crack and bleed more; maggots began to fall off the counter in tens. "Yo…ha…yo…ch…nce." Maggots started to burrow in and out of the distortion's flesh, a centipede crawled out of one eyehole and into another. With every second the distortion stared at Zelda waiting for some kind of response she looked as if she was rotting. "I…ma…ke…del…sio…ns…re…lity…."
"No! You can't!" Zelda sprang up from the ground and placed her hand onto the counter making a squelching noise because of the thousands of maggots she had squished. The lighting of the room turned red resembling a dark room.
"Yo…ha...ve…no…right to…or…d'r…me…a…ound!" The distortion growled deeply with murderous intent. Zelda recoiled in fear from the mirror, feeling weak, helpless and just downright pathetic. How could she allow this thing to scare her, and most importantly lie to her saying that they were one in the same. There was no way that could be true…right? Blood began to waterfall out of the mirror spilling over the counter and onto the floor. "You…wi…wi…wi…will…drow…drowN...!"
After that being said everything went back to normal leaving Zelda petrified at the events that had just transpired. She was told that she would drown by Cerberus on the first day in Smash City, is this what she meant? The Hylian put her fingertips to the mirror and a painful jolt went through her as the distortion and red light appeared again for a split second causing Zelda to rip her hand away in pain. She looked at her fingertips they were singed and her fingernails were split and broken with blood slowly pooling out of the cracked keratin. "That…that was real?" The warrior stared expressionless at her hand not knowing what to do and what to think. Her reality was being stolen away from her piece by piece by piece by piece. Lifelessly she walked toward the shower and turned it on, slipped out of her clothes and not waiting for the water to warm up she hopped in.
As the water hit her frail body she didn't react to the cold, she didn't react to anything that was going on, not even the water turning to blood as it got warmer. The warrior felt the liquid growing thicker and finally cast an eye to the shower head, to her horror her mother's decapitated head was there in its place spewing blood from her agape mouth. "NOOOOO!" Zelda shrieked jumping out of the shower slipping and smashing her head against the wall. "Agh!" The Hylian hissed in pain as she began to gently rub the new open wound. She slowly got up in an attempt to find a towel to put pressure on the wound, "What the hell is going on with me?" She mumbled lethargically. Grabbing a towel hanging on the towel rack she pressed it to the wound cringing at the contact. After standing in place in an almost comatose state she realized the shower was still on, a wave of dread crashed over her as she cautiously walked toward the shower knobs.
"It's all in your head Zelda…" The Hylian reassured herself as she slowly pulled the shower curtain open revealing clean, crisp water coming from a shiny silver shower head as it was supposed to be. Unknowingly to Zelda the distortion watched her from the mirror, "Ad…mi…you…are…lo…sin…yo…r…gr…p…I…ca…n…he…lp…yo…."
Zelda whipped her around to the now unoccupied mirror and fell to her knees as the room began to spin as if she was on an amusement park ride. "Make it stop…" She moaned in pain. After five minutes passed the spinning finally stopped leaving Zelda on the ground in a puddle of blood, tears, drool and mucus. Slowly she lifted herself from the ground, her head pounding like a hammer to a nail and proceeded to get dressed. She put on her undergarments, black cat pants and a black wife beater. After dressing she brushed her teeth listlessly trying not to agitate the wounds on her fingertips ignoring the mirror that had caused her a great deal of dread. She spat the contents from her mouth and dropped her toothbrush into the sink; she was in too much pain to pay attention to details or being sanitary for that matter. Before leaving the bathroom she grabbed a hand towel and wetted it with warm water to place onto the wound on her head.
"I…need to eat something…" Zelda exhaled not wanting to think about eating anything but knowing she had too. She walked out of the bathroom to the case that held her prosthetic arm within and attached it to its base, then wiggled the fingers making sure that it worked properly. "I need to dress these wounds quickly…" Zelda thought dryly as she began to unconsciously scratch the palm of her right hand. She stood up and grabbed a medium sized leather pouch that was filled with medical supplies for moments such as this. She took out a couple of alcohol pads and began to clean the wound on her head wincing with each dab at the wound. After cleaning it thoroughly she wrapped the wound up tightly so that it could stop the bleeding and so it wouldn't fall off during the battle. Before grabbing another alcohol pad she noticed that she had broken the skin on the palm of her right hand from unknowingly scratching it, "Why is this so fucking itchy?!" Zelda began to scratch harder ripping the lines on her palm open, revealing a swarm of maggots squirming and wiggling. "No, no, no, no…" Zelda chanted as she began ripping the invaders from the many openings in her palm. The maggots' heads became Ganondorf's head, "I've invaded your castle, and now I've invaded your body!" The Ganandorf maggots guffawed in unison with tiny obnoxious voices.
Zelda broke out into a cold sweat as she watched the maggots mock her, "Oh yeah?" Zelda stood up running to her sword and ripping it out of its sheath. "But for how long I wonder?" Zelda chuckled her words shaking with insanity. Lifting her sword over her head she held her arm out ready to chop it off, "Zelda sweetie stop!" Peach yelled in horror. The warrior dropped her sword and stared at the Mushroom princess with the eye of a maniac, "P-peach?" Zelda whimpered the tone of her voice fluctuating. "What in King Boo's name are you doing?!" Peach ran into the room and gripped Zelda's right wrist firmly.
"I was just…the maggots were…and Ganondorf he…I-I must look really crazy right now."
"What happened to your hand, and your head?"
"I told you! There were maggots under my skin and I tried to rip them out by scratching…."
"Sweetie…what maggots?"
"Huh? But they were…I swear I'm not…lying…" Zelda slid her wrist out of Peach's hand not wanting to discuss this further and sat down on her bed returning to dressing her wounds.
Peach walked over to the bed sitting next to Zelda, "Samus told me to come check on you, she said that you were acting really strange this morning and that perhaps I can help in some way?"
"Princess, I…" The Hylians eyes widened as she saw Peach's head hanging onto her neck by a small ribbon of flesh. Her eyes were rolled completely into her head as blood spurted out of the gaping wound like a tiny geyser. Zelda jumped backwards at the sight trembling in what she wanted to believe was terror but couldn't convince herself that it was.
"Sweetie!" Peach yelled shaking Zelda's shoulders.
"Huh, wha?" Zelda sputtered in a dazed fashion.
"You just spaced out with a blissful smile on your face, was your act with Samus this morning just a farce?!"
Zelda froze in sheer terror; she was smiling at her best friend's mutilated corpse. Tears filled the brunette's eye as realization came crashing down on her like a giant shelf of books. "Peach, get out." Zelda spoke weakly.
"Now there is no need to be rude Zel-"
"GET OUT!" The Hylian shouted sternly pointing at the door, feeling a strange sensation in her chest.
"Fine, come talk to me when you attain some manners." Peach huffed as she left Zelda's room.
Zelda snarled lowly as she punched the wall in frustration with her prosthetic arm. She looked at it noticing that it was bleeding, "What the hell is this?!" With no time wasted Zelda began to peel the broken pieces off of the prosthesis revealing fetid meat with an equally if not worse putrid smell. The smell punched Zelda in the gut making her double over and dry heave violently. She shakily grabbed the base of the prosthetic arm and tried to detach it until a jolt of pain went through her arm. "What? No, this can't be!" Zelda pulled harder and a wet ripping sound hit her ears making her turn to see skin separating from bone. Rotten strings, chunks and ribbons of meat held the now real arm in place. The Hylian couldn't fathom how this could have happened; no magic in the world could give her arm back.
"Acc..pt…it…acc…pt…it…acc…pt…it…" Those distorted words echoed in Zelda's head like a rhythmic chant. Her reality was being gobbled up right before her eye like some kind of twisted buffet. Standing before her she saw the villager child holding his head in his hands, "Everything must break before we can fix it up again!" The child said in a strangely happy fashion.
"Am I broken little boy?" Zelda asked with an insane smile on her face.
"Just about but not quite."
"You're broken little boy, can we fix you?
"No, I cannot be fixed."
"Can we try?" Zelda stood up slumping over with her head tilted in a sadistic fashion staring dead at the boy. "It won't hurt I promise, I can't heal right now but I can suture that right up." Zelda said in a whisper that would make anyone shiver in fear. The warrior reached out to the child slowly but stopped inches from his face.
"What's wrong miss?"
Zelda pulled back her hand and left the room without a word. "How could you have threatened a child you monster?" She whimpered into her hand as she held back tears. If things continued on this way she wasn't sure how long she could stop herself from keeping those delusions from coming true. She began walking towards the Mess Hall so she could get something in her stomach before the battle. With each person she passed she saw those bloody delusions with the same feeling arousal that came with them. "Just ignore it, just ignor-" Zelda's thoughts were interrupted by a rough shove given by Wolf.
"Watch where yer going whore!" Wolf howled as he continued to walk.
"Ex…cuse me you piece of shit with fur?" Zelda snarled, feeling her control weaken.
"I said get glasses slut!"
"I…wi…ll…ki…l…ev…ry…th…ng" Echoed inside of Zelda's head before she lunged at Wolf. Zelda grabbed Wolf by the shirt collar and head butted him in the nose making a wet crack. Then threw her hand on the side of Wolf's head and slammed him hard into the wall leaving a blood trail as he slid down. Once he hit the floor she stomped on his kneecap until it contorted into an unnatural angle. Wolf cried for mercy but they fell on deaf ears as Zelda picked him up by his injured leg and slammed him face first into the wall dropping him like garbage. "Disappear from my sight before I dispose of you like the garbage you are." Zelda growled before continuing on her way to the Mess Hall. Wolf feebly began to crawl away toward the infirmary as he was watched over by eyes that said "you deserved it" or eyes that said otherwise.
Zelda began to stagger as she grew closer to the Mess Hall she could see now that only a piece of paper stands between her and insanity. Her head was pounding harder than before, and the wounds on her hand stung something fierce, "I have to break before I can be fixed? I didn't think I was broken." Zelda pondered at a complete loss about the events that have transpired. Once she walked into the Mess Hall her stomach bubbled making her nauseated at the smell of food. "I'll just eat an apple" Zelda groaned. The Hylian staggered over to a fruit kiosk and grabbed a red delicious apple, her favorite. She sprinted out of the Mess Hall and back to her room wanting to remain unnoticed until she could trust herself.
She entered her room then sat down on the edge of her bed, staring blankly at the apple. She was afraid to take a bite lest she had another delusion. "Here goes nothin'." Zelda took a wary bite and chewed it slowly feeling her saliva turn acidic she spat out the chewed up apple into her hand. "I guess no food then." The Hylian stood up and threw the apple away, "It's about time I get ready."
The Hylian put on her battle garb and strapped her sword onto her belt. "Nothing good is going to come of this, I can feel it."
In a giant space within Zelda's subconscious was a giant wall of golden light and a giant wall of chaotic darkness separated by a cracked transparent grey floor stood a giant black throne with three dog heads protruding from the top of it sat a woman. "Soon my little dove you'll be here with me." The woman proclaimed. She stood up from her throne and began to walk forward, she was wearing a long black dress, she wasn't wearing shoes but she had a black ribbon tied around her left ankle. Her skin was pale, she had long black wavy hair, piercing yellow eyes and wore deep red lipstick on.
"If you don't accept me as a part of you, I will be forced to watch you collapse."
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A/N: I apologize if this chapter was just too much to take in; in this version I changed the relationship between Zelda and Cerberus that's why they haven't spoken to each other. The next chapter won't be bad on gore it's just insanity. Until next time which Chapter 5: Relapse!
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