Chapter 20

I don't want to be,

Anything other than what I've been trying to be lately,

All I have to do,

Is think of me and I have peace of mind,

Ganondorf's castle was even more dark and creepy than it had been the last time that I was there. As Link and I snuck down the hallways, I made sure that I stayed close to him so we didn't get separated like the last time we were there together.

"Lya, remind me again of where you got this information…" Link said as we rounded another gloomy corner.

"Well, it's…kind of complicated…" I said hesitatingly.

"Then how do you know it's true?"

"Trust me, Link, I know it's true. Ganondorf has at least one person here as a hostage," I whispered as we came up to an open door. There was a dim light illuminating a section of the hallway in front of the door, and as we looked into the room, I recognized the chamber where Ganondorf had kept me, and later Hannah, as prisoners. As I looked through the room, I realized that it was empty. The door to the little cell was hanging off of one of its hinges.

I gasped as I ran into the room and started looking through everything. No! He can't have done it already! I thought, remembering Ganondorf's threat if I decided to go against him. There wasn't much to search, and in a few moments I knew that there was no way for me to know what he had done with Hannah.

I spun around and ran out of the room, dashing back the way we had come. She has to be here somewhere! He just moved her, that's all.

"Lya, wait!" Link called as he tried to catch up to me. "Lya!"

I ran faster, ignoring Link's voice in my panicked state. Where did he put her?

When I finally stopped, I was gasping for breath and I fell to me knees for an instant. Before I could get back up Link was standing over me, trying to catch his breath, but not in as bad a state as I was.

"Okay, that was fun," he said sarcastically, "now you need to tell me what's really going on." I started to protest, to convince him that I had told him the truth (unfortunately I still hadn't told him everything, but I just couldn't bring myself to admit that I had been working for Ganondorf, even if it had been involuntary) but he stopped me, saying "Do NOT try to tell me that you got a tip from someone that there were some hostages here and you wanted to rescue them as soon as possible. I know that's not what happened. I want the truth. Now."

I tried to stand up and walk away, but Link held me down and forced me to look him in the eyes.

"Okay, I know that Ganondorf is holding someone hostage here because he told me so. It was a little while after he caught me that time we were here…"

"That long ago? Why didn't you tell me?" Link shouted as he straightened up and turned away from me. He ran his hand through his hair as he sighed in frustration, then added in a softer tone, "Lya, seriously, why didn't you just tell me? We could have had this fixed so much sooner."

I stood up and faced him, angry and tired of everything that kept happening to me. I didn't want to yell at him, but I couldn't help myself as I said, "I didn't know what else to do! I did what I thought was best in this situation!"

"You don't have to shout at me!" Link said, raising his voice, "But if you'd just stopped and thought for a minute when all of this started we might not be in this situation!" He turned away and muttered something.

"What did you say?" I demanded.

"Nothing," he retorted as he started back down the hallway.

"No, it wasn't 'nothing'. Tell me what you said!"

"Do you really want to know?" he spun around to face me, and as I caught sight of his enraged expression I wanted to run away, but I held my ground. "It was bad enough when I had to worry about everything that Ganondorf was doing to destroy Hyrule. But now I have to worry about you, what you're up to, and what you're not telling me! It's too much for me, Lya, having to keep fighting you for the truth. I can't keep doing this."

My voice quavered as I asked "What do you mean by that?"

Link sighed and shook his head, "I don't know. I just don't know," he turned and walked away from me. "Stay here and look for whoever's supposed to be here if you want. I'm going home."

I closed my eyes and turned to wander down another hallway as he left.

"Finally! I was starting to wonder if he was ever going to leave!" a voice behind me exclaimed. No way…

I spun around and cried out, "Hannah!" She stood somewhat stiffly by the door that I had just come through. "You're okay!" I started to give her a hug, but she moved away and gave me an icy glare. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said as she started pacing back and forth.

"Well," I said uneasily, "let's get out of here. I've got somewhere we can go where we'll be safe."

"No," she jumped back as I tried to pull her out of the room. "No, not yet."

"What do you mean?" I asked. What's wrong with her?

"I need you to do something for me first. I can't leave until you've done it." Oh great, here we go again…

I'm tired of looking 'round rooms,

Wondering what I've got to do,

Or who I'm supposed to be,

I don't want to be anything other than me

Lyrics: "I Don't Wanna Be" by Gavin DeGraw