Illuminating the darkness with his flashlight, Roy ran through the wharf as he looked for any signs of Marth's presence. Although the search party for the bluenet began hours ago, no one managed to find him. Yes, they already knew that Marth failed to arrive to work, so the pizza joint was off the list. Though it was late, Link and his family were still driving through the streets of Smashburg. Maybe Marth decided to run away! Yet, the lack of a text from Link told Roy that it was not the case. Ike along with his little sister Mist decided to check the hospital, thinking that Marth could have gotten into an accident. It was doubtful, though. Pit expanded the search party with his wings. By soaring though the air, he managed to find things that were blue. However, the only blue thing he did not see was Marth. Not the person who was willing to look after nightfall, Zelda just spread the news of the missing Marth to her neighbors, hoping that one of the, could give them a clue of what could have happened to him.
"Maaarth! Are you there?!" Roy called down a shadowy alleyway. He pointed his his flashlight down the dark, ominous alleyway. The beam of light only revealed some trash bags, trash cans, and some scurrying rats.
Roy turned to Eliwood, who was closely behind him. "Dad, do you see him?"
Eliwood sadly his head. "No, I don't." The older redhead checked his wristwatch. "It's getting late, Roy. We should head back home and look for Marth tomorrow."
"But Dad, it's only nine!" Roy protested after checking the time on his phone. "There are other places to look for Marth!"
"It's not safe to be here this late." Eliwood argued calmly, trying not to raise his voice. "Please understand, Roy."
Roy looked around the wharf for a brief second. His father was correct. Nearly all of the stores were closed, their windows dark in sleep. There was not a single person other than them in sight. It was unpredictable of what could happen next. "Fine..." Roy huffed in defeat. He suddenly thought of something. "Hey Dad, can we look on the beach before we leave?"
"It's dark, Roy." Eliwood stated sternly. "Even if it is safe, we still cannot see anything."
"Then why did we bring flashlights?!" Roy exclaimed, trying to urge his father. "Dad, didn't you find Marth on the beach when you first met him? He could be there waiting for us!"
Eliwood gave his son a small frown. His son did have good points. "Ok, Roy." he replied with a small smile. "Let's look for Marth there."
Roy thanked Eliwood with a smile and a nod.
Marth shivered violently as he swam towards the shore of the Smashburg beach. The salty, freezing water slammed into his face, causing him to squint his eyes and sputter for cool air. Looking back at the tiny island where the facility stood, he spotted searchlights frantically darting around the area, desperately looking for their precious escapee. It nearly looked like it was decorated with Christmas decorations, only that it gave onlookers a sense of panic, not celebration.
Once when his bare feet touched the soft, gritty, wet sand, Marth collapsed onto his knees. Water splashed onto his trembling body and soaked his thin, fluorescent-blue clothes. Through, Marth did not care. He was free! Free from his hellish nightmare.
With a weary smile, Marth shakily stood up and tried to walk. An abrupt twinge in his shaking legs caused him to collapse back onto the damp ground. Marth quietly whined to himself as he hugged himself tightly for warmth.
"How long was I swimming?" Marth asked himself, his voice quivering. "It's s-so cold..."
A dizzy spell struck Marth, causing him to wobbly tilt over. He barely broke his fall with his numb hands.
"I feel so t-tired..." Marth dimly mumbled to himself, shivering as the wind whistled in his ears.
Roy frantically pointed his flashlight around the beach. "Marth?! Maaarth?!" he called.
The redhead ignored the annoying sand tumbling into his shoes. He ran as quickly as he could in the lumpy dunes.
"Do you see him?!" Eliwood shouted through the blowing wind.
"No, I don't!" Roy responded, his teeth clattering. He looked around the shady shorelines of the beach, and noticed a shadowy, darker figure. "Wait, I see something!"
"Maaarth?!" Marth's cerulean's eyes widened and anxiously looked around. That voice... Could it be?
"...W-Woy?" Marth softly asked in disbelief. He tried to stand up and run to the source of the voice. His aching legs reduced his dash into a trudging limp, which turned into a stumble. Marth cried as he fell face-first into the sand.
"Marth?!" Roy shouted, trying to identify the figure. "Is that you?!"
He pointed his flashlight at the shadow, illuminating a familiar speck of blue.
"Dad!" Roy cried out excitedly, turning to his father while pointing frantically. "I think I see him! I think I see him!"
Eliwood tried to look at where Roy was pointing as his son hurried away. "Hmmm?" he hummed in confusion. Due to his age, a phone booth in comparison to Roy's cell phone, his eyesight was not as well as Roy's.
As he shakily got up, Marth's heart began to beat excitedly, not from panic and anxiety, but from joy and hope. Ignoring the twinge that sliced and swelled in his muscles like bubbles, he unsteadily stood up and tried to run towards the direction of Roy's voice. The pair of legs clumsily stumbled through the wet sand.
"W...W-Woy?" he asked, his cerulean sparkling in hope and his lips curving in a cheery smile. "Wooooy!" he screamed in joy when the running redhead's flashlight shone on him.
"Marth!" Roy cried out as he dropped his flashlight and opened his arms out wide.
His lips trembling, Marth collapsed with a loud, joyful cry, which eventually turned into hysterical sobbing. Tears washing down his face, he buried his wet, pink face into Roy's thinner, smaller shoulder. Roy had never been hugged so hard in his life. The bluenet was embracing so tightly, he thought that his ribs were going to crack.
"Wooooy!" Marth howled uncontrollably, hiccuping stridently. "I was so scaaaared! Waaaah!"
Roy groaned in pain and tried to move in a comfortable position. "Marth, you're choking me... What happened?"
Marth did not answer Roy's question. Lost in his overexcited, overjoyed emotions, he continued to bawl stridently.
Roy gave Marth a few pats on his shaking back before stroking his soaked, azure hair. "Marth, it's ok. I'm here."
A shaky nod was Marth's respond with the following of small, softer hiccups and a slow release. Marth clumsily sat down on the sand.
Eliwood eventually arrived at the scene. "Marth, are you ok?!" he worried asked as he took off his blue overcoat and put it on the shivering, fatigued young man. "You're cold!"
Marth only nodded yes and clutched the coat closer to his freezing body.
"Let's go, Marth." Roy said, standing up. "Let's go back home and clean you up."
"Yes..." Marth tiredly replied. He tiredly smiled and tried to walk after the two redheads, only to collapsed onto his knees and winced in pain. His muscles were cramped with aches, feeling like multiple knives sticking into his sensitive flesh.
"Oh, you're tired..." Eliwood spoke in concern as he carefully helped Marth up. "Lean on my body. I'll help you walk."
Marth flushed slightly. "I... Well... I was—"
Eliwood instantly cut Marth's sentence off. "Not now, Marth. We'll ask you what happened later. For now, save your energy."
Marth nodded and grabbed ahold of Eliwood's shoulder. Although this method helped him walk for a few moments, when the three arrived at a flight of stairs leading towards the sidewalks, he began to feel a bit sick and lightheaded. The dizziness threatened to make him faint. His grip slowly began to loosen on Eliwood's shoulder.
Eliwood noticed that something was not right when he heard Marth groan feebly. "Roy, can you help Marth?"
"Yes." Roy said as he allowed Marth to grab ahold of his shoulder. With that, the two redheads helped the bluenet unsteadily walk up the stairs.
"Are you still there, Marth?" Eliwood asked Marth when they finally reached the top of the stairs and began to head towards the car, which was parked close by.
"Yes..." Marth dimly mumbled. Eliwood's eyes narrowed in nervousness. Marth sounded so weak. He probably would not be able to walk back to their car. "Don't worry, I can make it..." he tried to reassure.
"If you say so..." Eliwood responded, still doubtful.
As the three approached the car, Marth suddenly felt dizzier than before. He tried to ignore the nauseous feeling at first. The car was a few steps away! He could make it!
However, as he walked closer to the vehicle, he began to feel a sharp, stinging ache jabbing in the soft regions of his head. Marth groaned and halted wobbly in his path.
"Marth, what's wrong?" Roy questioned.
"Head...ache..." Marth only mumbled before tumbling onto the concrete ground, dragging both Roy and Eliwood with him. He lost his consciousness before impacting the ground.
"Marth?!" Roy cried out in panic, trying to shake the bluenet awake. "Marth! Dad, call the ambulance!"
Eliwood quickly took his phone out and was about to dial 911, when he noticed something odd about Marth's clothes. He just realized that he was not wearing his dress shirt for work; he was wearing fluorescent blue clothing that gave a bad vibe. That color... Did he escape from...?
"Dad, what are you waiting for?!" Roy asked, clutching Marth protectively.
"We can't take him to the hospital." Eliwood bluntly said.
"What...?" Roy was confused.
"We need to take Marth home." Eliwood continued. "He's helpless if he's out in public like this."
"Four murders last night?!" Liza gasped, covering her mouth lightly with her hand.
"Yes, four murders." Cornelius bluntly confirmed, looking up from his newspaper. He tightly clutched the feeble paper in shock, though his expression attempted to hide it. "Apparently, Cia was one of the victims."
"What?! Why?!" Liza tried to bottle in her tears. Her efforts were futile, though. Tears struggled to come out of her eyes. "Was the killer caught?"
"No." Cornelius did not bother to look up from his paper. "There was no evidence found at the crime scenes. The police are baffled."
"Whyy..." Liza began to weep. She took a small handkerchief from her robe's pocket and frantically wiped the tears from her eyes. "Cia, why...?"
Unlike the majority of the Lowell family, who were bewildered, disgusted, and anguished by the devastating, tragic murder, Marth simply minded his own business and continued to eat his cereal. His sneaky cerulean eyes darted to Elice, who reassumed texting to her boyfriend. Darn it, did she need to spend every waking minute with her boyfriend? He then glanced at Liza, who continued to weep hysterically. Why did she care about that witch Cia so much? The only reason why she met her was to make him take those dreaded, torturous classes! Trying not to make eye contact, Marth glowered at Cornelius. Why was he not comforting his own wife? What kind of a husband was he?
"Better not say anything, so they won't suspect me." Marth thought to himself as he finished his breakfast. He was about to exit the kitchen unnoticed when he heard his father call his name.
"Marth." Keeping a deadpan expression, Marth turned to face Cornelius.
"Yes, Father?" Marth asked calmly.
Cornelius stood from his seat and motioned to his son to follow him. "I need to talk to you. Come with me."
"Yes, Father." Marth replied in a monotone voice.
Marth followed Cornelius out of the kitchen. There, in the living room, Cornelius said, "Had you heard what happened last night?"
Marth dimly nodded and tried to stiff a yawn. "Yes, there were four murders." he answered. "Cia is among the victims."
"Correct. Since your tutor is gone, I..." Cornelius paused. How should he explain this?
"Go on." Marth urged. "I am listening."
"I will teach you in her place." Cornelius finished with a sigh. Teaching the smaller, younger bluenet ought to be frustrating, judging from his past lessons with Cia.
Marth felt his heart flip-flop. "Oh." he quickly said, hiding his shock.
"'Oh?' What did you mean by that?" Cornelius asked, sensing his son's protest.
"It's just that..." Marth tried to think of an excuse. "Cia was a...g-great tutor!" he finished, trying to fake his tears and sorrowful expression. "I didn't expect her to die! I should've done better in her lessons!"
"Marth, don't give me that teary look." Cornelius bluntly ordered.
"...Huh?" Marth responded with large, sad puppy eyes.
"The sons of the Lowell family never cry. We hide our sorrow. That's how we become much stronger." Cornelius bluntly stated before walking away, back into the kitchen. "I will begin our lessons today." he added.
Marth pretended to sniff and shakily wipe his tears away as he began to head up the stairs. With every step, his somber, sorrowful expression slowly turned into a bitter look, medicine mixed with lemons and limes.
"Hmmph. Don't cry." Marth sourly said to himself. "I wasn't crying. I was just pretending! At least my father thought I was crying. He could've given me a hug."
A few hours later, Marth found himself in the living room, standing directly in front of his own intimidating father. He tried to make eye contact with Cornelius and not cower so he could not show any weakness. This was it! He could not mess up! He needed to put that mask on!
"I am ready, Father." he spoke, trying to sound brave.
"Very well." Cornelius replied.
"So, what is our lesson going to be on today?" Marth asked.
"Pretending to hit someone." Cornelius answered. "I would like you to attempt to indirectly hit me." he ordered.
With a small, understanding nod, Marth took a bold step back. His hands shaking slightly, he attempted to swing his fist at his father, only to stop at the last minute. He did not daringly want to hit his own father, who was a lion in comparison to the mouse known as Marth.
"Too slow." Cornelius criticized. "It needs to be swifter."
"How?" Marth asked himself as he pulled his right fist back. "I shouldn't ask him, though."
As hard and quick as he could be, Marth took another aim at Cornelius. It would have been perfect if he successfully stopped in front of his target.
"Ahh!" Cornelius exclaimed, only clutching his stomach in attempt to show no weakness.
Marth gasped, he really did it now! "Father! F-Forgive me!" he nervously stuttered as his mask slowly shattered into pieces.
Cornelius shot a spiteful, angry glare at Marth. "My son, do you know what I meant by, 'indirect contact'?"
"I think I know." Marth answered, preparing for the worst.
"It means that you don't actually hit the person like this!" Without warning, Cornelius slammed his fist into Marth's stomach, sending him tumbling onto the ground with a cry.
"Do you understand now, Marth?" Cornelius asked, glowering down at Marth.
Marth fearfully looked up at his heartless, bitter father with large eyes. He wanted to cry. He wanted to run upstairs and lock himself in his room. But, he was so close? Maybe he could fix things by gluing his mask back into one piece!
With a weak smile, Marth unsteadily stood up. "Yes, I understand Father."
Eliwood gently brushed Marth's azure bangs off his boiling, red forehead before placing a cold cloth on it. From the moment he and Roy finally arrived home from the beach, Marth suddenly struck with an awful fever. At a dangerous 102.8 degrees, it was a magical, dark spell that cursed the young man with burning pulses cycling throughout his body, a stinging, sore throat, dizziness, and thrashing in sleep. Though, Marth appeared to be sleeping much peacefully at the moment. He softly bit the thermometer wedged in between his lips and shifted in his sleep.
"How is Marth?" Roy asked.
Eliwood carefully took the thermometer out of Marth's mouth and read it. "Not well." he answered, raising a brow in concern. "His temperature is at 102.8 degrees."
"Then make him see a doctor!" Roy responded. "Look, I don't want Marth to boil himself to death!"
"We can't!" Eliwood protested. He roughly threw the covers off Marth's body, revealing Marth's fluorescent blue clothes. Marth only twitched and stirred.
"Why?!" Roy asked again, getting impatient.
"Marth escaped from the insane asylum!" Eliwood answered, his navy blue eyes wide as saucers.
Roy was bewildered. "What...? How do you know?"
"In the facility, every patient wears these clothes." Eliwood explained, trying to calm down. "So if one were to escape, people can easily identify him and bring him back to the asylum. Also, every police station and hospital is alerted of such escapes."
"...Whoa..." Roy could only say.
"To be honest, I'm not surprised that Marth has a fever." Eliwood added. "The sanitation in the asylum is poor." He felt Marth's forehead again and sighed in worry.
"What's wrong, Dad?" Roy asked.
"Marth's fever isn't going down..." Eliwood said. "I'm going to get some medicine for him." he added before walking out of Roy's room.
Eliwood went into the bathroom, where he opened the cabinet and took a small bottle of medicine. As he closed it, he suddenly thought of something.
"Marth shouldn't take this medicine on an empty stomach." he said to himself as he left the bathroom and went downstairs to the kitchen.
Lyn walked pass Eliwood when she entered Roy's room. "Roy, how's Marth doing?" she asked.
"Not good." Roy sighed sadly. "His fever is pretty high."
Lyn gave her stepson a small hug. "It's ok, Marth is back with us at least."
"Yeah... I'm just wondering why the asylum would take Marth." Roy responded.
"...The asylum?!" Lyn asked doubtfully. That was shot out of the air abruptly.
"I know!" Roy yelled boisterously. "I don't get it either! Did the asylum just picked Marth off the street for no reason?!"
Roy regretted shouting at the top of his voice. As soon as he finished his sentence, Marth began to fiercely toss and turn in Roy's bed. He whimpered agonizingly as his faces twisted into different shapes, reflecting his fear and discomfort.
"Mom, what's happening?" Roy asked.
"It's just a fever dream Marth is having." Lyn tried to reassure. To be honest, Lyn did not know what was actually happening to Marth. She was just assuming. "Let me try to drop his fever." she said as she swiftly took the now-warm cloth off Marth's head and hurried into the bathroom.
As soon as Lyn left the room, Marth suddenly rolled off Roy's bed, the sheets tumbling after him. Despite the painful this, Marth continued to struggle in his dream. He eventually curled into a defensive ball and clutched his covers tightly.
"Marth! Marth!" Roy was beginning to panic. "Marth! Are you ok?! Wake up!"
Calmly coming up the stairs holding a tray with the bottle of medicine and a bowl full of macaroni and cheese, Eliwood heard Roy screaming Marth's name, which set off an alarm and hundreds of red lights. This could not be good! What happened to Marth?! Not wasting any time, Eliwood dropped the tray and hurried up the stairs. He heard the clattering sounds and a shatter, but he did not care. The sickly Marth was on his top priority.
"What happened?!" Eliwood asked worriedly, hurrying into Roy's room. Lyn followed him with the freshly-damp cloth in her hand.
"I don't know! Marth just fell of his bed!" Roy answered as he moved aside to let his father through.
Eliwood kneeled down next to Marth. "Marth, it's me." he calmly said, trying to soothe the bluenet by stroking his bangs. "It's me, don't be scared."
With a lax, puny sound, Marth cautiously opened his cerulean eyes and looked around his blurry soundings. Where was he? He repeatedly blinked, clearing his vision.
"Everything is ok." Eliwood said tenderly, so he would not excite Marth again. He sensibly took Marth into his arms and hugged him gently.
Once when he realized where he was and who was embracing him, Marth abruptly hugged Eliwood back, squeezing the poor older redhead. He did not know why, but he awfully wanted a hug specifically from Eliwood. Roy was about to pry Marth off his father, when Lyn set a small hand on his shoulder, stopping him in his path.
"Urk, Marth... N-Not so hard...!" Eliwood barely managed to say.
"...Sorry." Marth inaudibly replied as he released him from his tight, constricting grip. "Were you worried about me, Mr. Eliwood?"
Eliwood was taken aback by the sudden question. "Er, yes. Of course I was worried! You fell off your bed and Roy was shouting your name!"
Marth just smiled and return, confusing Eliwood.
"Well, I'll make a small dinner for you, Marth." Eliwood spoke awkwardly as he remembered the mess he made at the stairs and left the room.
Marth attempted to follow Eliwood, only to be stopped Lyn. "Marth, let's get you cleaned up now." she said as she began to wipe Marth's sweltering forehead with the cloth.
"Y-Yes..." Marth replied.
As Lyn and Roy painstakingly lead the weary, frail Marth to the bathroom, Marth began to question his dream. He knew the characters' faces at some part of his life, but how were they connected to him? Yet, it was least of his wonders. What interested Marth the most was the appearance of the little azure-haired boy who looked identical to him.
Author's Notes: Totally worth staying up and finishing this chapter.
I decided to try to finish as much chapters as I can, so here's chapter 26! So far, this is my longest fanfic. Yep, no gore and violence in this chapter, I couldn't squeeze it into this chapter for a strange reason. Speaking of violence, judging by some reviews, I think it's safe to leave this story rated T. I think this story is about 75% finished; I'm not really sure to be honest.
Story Questions:
Any suggestions on how the Masked Slasher (Aka Marth) should be caught by police?
Why did Marth want to embrace Eliwood?
Who do you think is the best father in this story? The worst?