Link lay in bed with his arms around Malon. The darkness around them had fallen like a shroud, pressing against them and holding them together. In that darkness, there was only the two of them. She was asleep by now, but Link still lay awake. She usually fell asleep before him, and Link would lay next to her just enjoying the proximity. At this distance he could smell her hair. One of his fingers was resting on her cheek and Link could have spent hours just enjoying the softness of her skin.
This was heaven, as close to it as anyone could come. Laying here next to his wife, the woman he loved. The knowledge that he would spend the next day with her then lay with her again the next night. That was bliss. A smile touched Link's lips and lingered as he thought back through their years together. This was heaven, it must be. Link had been happy and content for almost as long as he could remember.
Link felt himself fading off to sleep, murmuring over and over in his head that he was in heaven.
But he wasn't. A thought flared up in Link's mind like a red hot coal. This was hell, it must be. Not Malon, she was everything he had described her as, but the memories that had suddenly been born. He knew they were real, too real. So real that Link could almost feel the pincers biting into his flesh and the icy air inside that cavern. They were both real, more than fantasies.
The pain from those memories still burned as if it had only occurred minutes ago. And then the realization came. The one he had made just yesterday, last night, or was it tonight. He was being torn away from Malon, or she was being torn away from him. Either way he could only imagine the torture he would be put through tomorrow, or possibly the next night, when Malon was gone.
Link felt his breath starting to quicken and he instinctively tightened his grip around Malon. Some part of him thought that if he could just hold on hard enough and long enough, then he could fight of the inevitable. If only he held onto Malon, then nothing could hurt him.
Malon murmured something in her sleep and Link felt her shifting weakly. He caught the words "too tight," and realized that he must be hurting her. The thought repelled him and Link loosened his grip immediately. But then the fear and insecurity began to seep back in.
But maybe if he didn't sleep, then maybe he wouldn't wake to find her gone. That seemed to make some kind of sense. It was a weak idea, Link knew. For he couldn't go forever without sleep, and the next time Link closed his eyes he might lose Malon forever. That was a horrifying thought, but it was better than losing her now. Anything was better than losing her now.
So Link clung to that bit of hope. In time it became distorted, changing to a desperate fantasy. If only he managed to stay awake through the night, then it would all over. The nightmares, both during sleep and waking hours, would cease. It was crazy, but Link thought he might die if he allowed the fantasy to crumble.
So there he was, struggling to stay awake despite his dry burning eyes. They ached and Link could feel the lids constantly threatening to shut despite his pleas.
That was when the itch started. Sometime in the middle of the night while he was fighting for a vain fantasy, something on the edge of Link's vision began to vie for his attention. Link had been focusing on Malon, feeling her breathe and becoming fixated by her hair and the exact number of strands. But suddenly there was something on the edge of Link's vision, screaming for his attention.
For the first half second he had been more than ready to find out what it was, but then he became skeptical. What if this was a ploy of some sort. Maybe staying awake truly was a way to free himself and the torturer didn't want to release him. Maybe the torturer was trying to distract him and lull him into sleep somehow. But Link was too smart for that, and he wouldn't be tricked.
Whatever was over there, Link did his best to ignore it. He counted Malon's hairs from top to bottom, then bottom to top. After he had done that an absurd amount of times, Link began searching for something else to distract himself. As he searched, Link found himself being drawn to whatever it was behind him. The unseen thing was alluring and Link's curiosity almost overcame him a multitude of times.
Each time Link managed to fight off the impulse, but each time he won a fragment of a second later. Once, Link found his head turning of its own accord before he could even think to stop it. That scared him, and Link wondered what would happen if he didn't manage to catch himself before it was too late. What would happen if he actually looked.
While he was preoccupied by overthinking it, Link's head turned of its own accord.
Link's breath caught as he found himself staring at the thing. A simple circle, with two dots and a curved line. It made a face, a smiling face with an absurdly wide grin. It reached literally from ear to ear, or from where one ear would've been to where the other would've been.
His eyes continued to wander and Link found himself staring at the multitude. A smiling face covered every surface of the room. The wooden dresser had faces carved into it. The walls had faces painted on, and the polished surface of the floorboards had been chipped away to make faces. Not all of the faces were the same size, either. Some were as large as dinner plates, while others were smaller than an egg.
The largest wasn't actually there, just a shadow. It seemed the curtains had been pulled shut, then lacerated to create a smiling-face shadow. There was no circle, just two eyes and a grinning mouth painted in sunlight. The faces almost seemed to be laughing at some grand joke. Something only they knew about. Something…
Link almost choked as his gaze flew back to the shadow. There were no shadows at night, no sunlight at night.
He whipped around and stared straight at the window. A face had been cut into the drawn curtains, but that wasn't what drove horror and fear to fill Link's heart to the brim. It was morning! Link turned back to the bed, terrified of what he knew he'd find.
Malon was gone, as if she'd never existed. There wasn't even so much as a wrinkle on her side of the bed. Link looked back at the smiling face in the curtain and realized he'd just been let in on the joke.
Link screamed. He just couldn't take it any longer. This was hell. Nothing could possibly be more tortuous than this. Link roared out in his agony, the cry of a dying animal. But he wasn't dying, because that fucking smiling face thing wasn't done with him. He could die a million times over and it wouldn't matter. This might never end.
Link felt tears starting to form in his eyes but he ignored them, howling in desolation as he was. He remembered thinking last night that nothing bad had happened for years. This must be the price for that kind of luck.
Link felt his whole body grow weak and he just fell to the ground. Link's arm struck the bedpost as he fell, but it didn't matter. Link just lay there in his misery. Soon enough he would be dead in any of the most horrifying ways possible, but then he would be alive again. Torture, then rebirth for the singular purpose of more torture.
Link lay there sobbing like no grown man should, but he felt this was an exception. "Help… me…" Link's voice sounded strange to his ears, a choking sound that was full of pain, "this is hell, I'm in hell." His words broke off for a few moments, replaced by a wordless moan of utter defeat.
Then suddenly Link began to climb to his feet. Both hands pushing against the floor, then one hand grasping the bedpost and pulling himself up.
"This is hell, this must be hell," Link murmured over and over again. In a flurry of movement, Link flew to his feet and roared, "Oh Goddesses! What did I do wrong?" his words were intermixed with sobbing gurgles, "What did I do? I. AM. IN. HELL." Link screamed, "Why…" the last word left him with the last of his strength.
With dull, deadened eyes, Link glanced around the room. He knew deep down inside that he couldn't escape, that he couldn't avoid it.
"Where… is it?" he moaned.
A bit of movement caught Link's eye and he found himself looking at a painting that hung on the wall. It was a painting of hyrule field. Inside the painting was a dark figure, black as night. There were no features on its face, just a blank slate. Its whole body was the same, simply the deepest black and no more.
It seemed to be calling to him, beckoning with one of its hands.
With a last bit of resistance, a last bit of hope that he could somehow defeat this thing, Link turned to get his sword. It was gone. The place where it usually was simply remained empty. Link remembered dropping the sword into the sea of glass and realized it was gone. Simply gone forever. He would never see the weapon again.
Link shoved his hand into his pocket and sighed as he felt the folded picture there. He hadn't lost that, but he could. Link thought about leaving it behind, where it would be safe. But there was a chance he'd never return to this place. Never see the picture or Malon again.
He left the picture in his pocket.
Link turned back to the painting and took a deep breath. Pain and fear, horror and torture, those were the things that waited for him, and there was no escape.
Link put one hand on the picture frame and hoisted himself inside. It felt strange to enter the picture, like climbing in a warm vertical pool.
The surface rippled as Link climbed through and disappeared.
Link walked the plains, looking around warily. This place seemed calm, peaceful, and that terrified Link. The only reason the torturer would lead him here was if something horrific lay just over the next hill. But Link didn't find anything horrible there, and he didn't find it over the next hill either. The peace just drove nails into Link's skull as he searched tirelessly for the new source of torment.
Link was almost able to convince himself that there was nothing here to hurt him. However, just that thought managed to re-arouse his suspicion. There had to be a trap somewhere, hidden inside this daydream. Somewhere among these rolling hills, there was a nightmare waiting for him.
On a whim, Link stopped. Still nothing happened. He was about to begin his leisurely yet paranoid stroll, then he happened to look down.
Just beside his boot there was a small mound of dirt. Moving about on the surface was a multitude of tiny specks.
Link crouched down to get a better look. It was an anthill. A hole at the peak of the mound erratically spat out ants. There were ants crawling toward the entrance as well, carrying bits of food. Some carried seeds, while others dragged bits of fruit or fragmented berries.
Link's blood turned to ice as he saw about a dozen ants dragging along tiny limbs. One had an arm clenched in its jaws, while another definitely seemed to be carrying a portion of a torso.
Link let out a cry of disbelief and leapt away from the hill. He kicked the hill over and turned to run. It was coming, whatever it was. The terrible thing was on its way. Surely he only had seconds left before it started.
As if on cue, the colors of the world began to seep away. The green of the grass became dull, then sepia, then grey. The sunlight stopped altogether. As Link observed, the world seeped out of existence and leaked away.
Then, for as far as Link could see, everything turned black. He was in a void, just absolute darkness. As the moments ticked past with unbearable sluggishness, Link began to feel a pressure all around himself. It was thick, and cold, like…
With a start, Link realized he was underwater. He slammed his mouth shut and stopped breathing altogether. Swiveling his head around, Link searched frantically for the surface, trying desperately to save himself. Far in the back of his head he knew there was no escape, but the animal part of him insisted in trying.
Link caught sight of a light, far off in the distance. It was just a speck, but Link began to swim in that direction regardless. As he approached, the light grew larger and larger, illuminating more of the water.
Link quickly came upon the source, despairing as he found a thing that could've been a fleshy, bulbous torch that pulsed with white light. His lungs began to burn as the shattered hope rolled over him with the weight of a tombstone.
His momentum carried him forward, and the light began to show him more of the surroundings. Link thought his eyes might pop out of his head as he caught sight of the fish. Beady eyes stared straight toward the light. A mouth full of teeth like swords twitched excitedly. A line of sinuous flesh connected the bulb of light to the fish's forehead.
A human form floated near the light with one hand reaching out toward it. Link tried to look closer but in the murky water he could only recognize faintly blonde hair.
Link's lungs felt like they might burst, and, unable to stop himself, Link took in a mouthful of air.
Except that it wasn't air.
Link drowned.
And Link died.