Harsh Reality
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By Zel the Stampede
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Disclaimer: …kills disclaimer I don't own Zelda, just change it to my liking!
Oh me. Figures that this chapter would be chapter 13. Eeep, please don't hurt me for this chapter, please!!! Anyway, on lighter notes, be happy. Chapter 14 is already plotted out and hopefully, hopefully I'm typing it out as you read this. (Just in case, if you want, feel free to IM me every time I get on and say, "WHERE'S CHAPTER 14? WHY ISN'T IT DONE YET?") (SailorZel118, knock yourselves out.) (zelthestampede@hotmail.com for the MSN-users.)
Kudos to: Maniac Mosli, Sci-fi-friend, LilFilipinoGurl, angeredfairy, Demon Wolf, Saridaru-chan, FieryOne, Pata25, LinkSage, and Dekustar the Mad Author. THANK YOU!
R&R!
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Chapter 13: Murder
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Zelda felt bad, no, terrible as she walked down the stained pavement to her block. A lonely car rumbled down the street and turned into a parking garage as she passed, a train roared off in the distance. A symphony of nighttime city sounds delighting the ears of those who took pleasure in listening.
'Please, just go away.'
She shouldn't have said those things to Anjel. After all, Anjel was only being a friend. She was only worried about Zelda, who knew she'd been anything but herself since the accident. Zelda sniffled, turning up to her apartment building, 'Why do I keep hurting people close to me? Why do terrible things keep happening? Why can't everything just…' Zelda shuddered, sinking down on her porch and having a good cry, a cry like she hadn't had since the night she'd spent in the lobby at the ER, thinking that Link had left her forever.
Footsteps sounded on the asphalt, disturbing a gutter pool. A man stood in a puddle of streetlight, tall and stately despite the graying black jacket and pants. Messy blond curls ringed his face and his eyes were red, deep, dark, empathetic red. Zelda felt like she could have fallen and peacefully drowned in those eyes. He wore a medallion suspended from a string, out of place against his attire, but it gleamed like a freshly minted golden dollar, beside it hung a dagger, small with a curved blade, twisted like a crescent moon.
Zelda knew this man, even without seeing him she'd know him, he blazed a familiarity like that of a beloved brother, respected friend, most secret lover. She trembled, the glimmer of streetlight caressing the sickle-blade.
"I'm sorry, this isn't your fault," the man said, his voice so unsettlingly, irkingly familiar that Zelda wanted to beat the insides of her memory until she remembered, "you did nothing but it must be so. For the good of the World it must be so." He freed the dagger from the lash and pressed the blade to the creamy skin of Zelda's throat.
"Forgive me, Zelda, forgive me," the man said again, "I don't want this." And he opened her, ruby cascades sputtering over the gash as Zelda gave a wet, gurgling sound and collapsed on the cement. Blood reddening her hair as vermilion seas lapped her still form. Tears broke on the crimson oceans as the man melted in a misting of late-evening rain.
* * *
(DON'T KILL THE AUTHOR!) (At least not yet…)
* * *
The night had passed quietly, Jean slept and Malon, with a mug of coffee and a novel Aydin had always wanted her to read, kept nocturnal vigil. The radio hummed pleasantly, set to Aydin's favorite station, a collection of mismatched CDs piled beside it, all Aydin's. Since he left, everything suddenly screamed Aydin.
Grayish morning light filled the apartment, it was still rainy, still cloudy and there were still leaves on the trees. What an odd December day or she thought it was December. Anyway, it seemed right that it should be December. December was gray, and until the Holiday season exploded into full swing, it was a sad month. But all and all, Time had a funny feeling of just going whenever it wanted lately.
Malon closed her book; it was good, just as Aydin said it would be and it was definitely his kind of book. Turmoil and fantasy wrapped in the shimmer of modern times. She wished he were here, so she could tell him all about it, what she thought of the hero, his princess, everything.
Jean stirred, feeling noticeably better even if he could only recall bits and pieces of what he'd said the night before. Recollection came easier once Malon had relayed it all back to him. Jean said it was all wrong, and that it didn't make sense, this life they led, it seemed a dream. Malon wasn't sure if this was a symptom of his Schizophrenia or not but the lack of care he'd received plus being able to leave untouched with her, sane or not, disturbed her and made her wonder. How was Navi doing? Was she all right? Were they taking care of her?
"Jean, who's your doctor?" Malon asked, offering him a cup of hot chocolate. Jean frowned, feeling the warmth of the hot cup seep into his fingers. He was supposed to have a doctor, no one is institutionalized without the counsel of a doctor but Jean didn't have one. No doctor he could remember anyway, and nothing much else, it was as if he's woken up a week ago and merely started existing.
"You can't tell me? And there was no patient's number on your bracelet," Malon said, "Technically, you shouldn't be allowed in the asylum at all! Do you remember where you live? Your parents?" More blanks, more no's, Jean suddenly reminded Malon of an extra in a play, a lonely actor who was more the background than a character.
A mild amnesia, perhaps? But no one was ever committed just for amnesia. Jean told Malon about the last seven days of his life, which were all he could remember, nothing else.
"I'm not sure what's wrong with your memory, Jean, but to me, you seem altogether sane. Anyway, what you've told me of the Hospital is, well, more than slightly disturbing. I'm going back there and I'd like you to come, perhaps we can find your missing doctor."
* * *
The Temple of Time, where it all had began. 'Will it end there?' Navi thought. Meanwhile in dim backroom, Soara planned her last performance. She'd leave Gerudo Valley for good, and with a bang.
"A coffin?!" Navi shrieked, horrified, "You want to put him in a coffin?!"
"Yes," Soara answered, "I don't see what so terrible about that."
"B-b-but! He's not dead!" Navi protested, "What if he wakes up!"
"After Twinrova and Soara's spell, I think Link can sleep through a little bumping," Sheik said wryly.
"But you can't!" Navi cried.
"We'll put air-holes in it, just in case he wakes up," Trian helped, his arm aching in its sling, "You can go in too, keep him company." Navi blanched at first and sighed, "Okay, but if he goes mad from being trapped in that death box it's you all that I'm blaming!"
* * *
The Hospital server was surprisingly cooperative. Letting Malon call up patient files and doctor profiles without screaming and shutting down in horror. In fact, Jean's records came up with ease. Malon frowned, her eyes sliding down the columns of data; none of this made the slightest bit of sense.
Name: Shosha, Jean
Blood type: O
Room: 324
Schizophrenia
Date of commission: not found
Doctor: not found
Date of Birth: 11/24/02
Age: not found
Address: not found
Social Security Number: not found
Insurance: not found
Immediate family members: not found
Phone number: not found
There was an unsettling amount of empty spaces but that wasn't the worst of it. There was no way Jean could only be seven days old!
"Must be a virus," Malon murmured to no one in particular, as Jean, who'd been watching over her shoulder, nodded. The keys clicked as Navi Wicket's file came up.
Name: Wicket, Navi
Blood type: AB
Room: 145
Severe/violent hallucinations, possible Mild-Child Schizophrenia, not yet determined
Date of commission: not found
Doctor: Kit, Malon Ph.D.
Date of Birth: 11/24/02
Age: not found
Address: not found
Social Security Number: not found
Insurance: not found
Immediate family members: not found
Phone number: not found
'This is silly,' Malon searched her own memory, certainly if the computer couldn't, she could pinpoint the identities of Mr. and Mrs. Wicket! Maybe even remember their phone-number! But she couldn't. Blanks surfaced in her mind's eye, she couldn't register voice or face. She'd never met those people. According to her, they didn't exist. Malon swallowed, calling up her own personal file.
Name: Kit, Malon Ph.D.
Office: Nurse station A2
Date of Birth: 11/24/02
Ph.D.: Neuropsychiatry
Age: not found
Address: not found
Phone number: not found
Patients: not found
Curiosity struck like a small bolt of lightening, Malon's fingers moving as if by their own will, punching in the following words: RILES, LINK.
Name: Riles, Link
Blood type: A-
Room: 231
Disruption of neurons, severe hallucinations
Date of commission: 11/24/02
Doctor: Dragmire, Ganondorf Ph.D.
Date of Birth: 12th Moon of Blue in the year of Gemini
Age: 17
Address: The tree house with the dragon picture
Social Security Number: Not valid
Insurance: Not valid
Immediate family members: Celia, mother (deceased), Accalon, father (deceased) Helori, sister (living)
Family's Current Residence: Kakariko Village, Hyrule-FATAL ERROR-FATAL ERROR
"Oh no! Come back!" Malon cursed, "Stupid machine!"
'You've got mail!' Malon brightened at the voice, accessing the smiling mailbox, its red flag flying proudly.
Nimbus2000@angelnetwork.net - IMPORTANT PLEASE READ
The mouse flittered across the screen, clicking on the new mail.
THIS INFORMATION IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN, MRS. KIT. PLEASE DO NOT PRY WHERE YOU DON'T BELONG. YOURS AND THE PRESENCE OF OTHERS ARE ALL READY STIRRING UP ENOUGH INCONVENIENCE. PLEASE DESIST FROM FURTHER INQUISITION OR I WILL BE COMPELLED TO PERMANENTLY REMOVE YOU.
"What the hell…?" Malon scrolled further down the letter, "What is this?"
"You've got mail!"
Malon glanced up nonchalantly, a nurse sauntering by, then trying to be casual, opened the new message.
'get out of there now'
Dr. Kit frowned, trying to calm the rising swell of alarm as she closed the screen. She sighed, looking at Jean and handed him her keys, "Jean, Navi's room is 145 on the second floor, please go upstairs and get her. I'll be waiting in the parking lot for you but…" Malon smiled, "if I'm late, please leave without me." Jean nodded, stashing the keys in the pocket of Aydin's jacket, the dusty leather fit to frame, before leaving the room. Silence fell apart form a rustling of papers as Malon shifted manually through folds, accidentally knocking her wedding portrait on the floor. The frame clattered loudly on the floor, a thread-line crack streaking through Aydin's handsome face.
"Mrs. Malon Kit?"
Malon jumped, whirling around. A man stood in the doorway of the office, very prim and clean-cut in a dark, expensive suit. His blond hair was slicked back and curling about his ears in shiny, plastic twists; he wore shades.
"Yes. That's me," Malon said.
"Mrs. Kit, my name is Mr. Wood," the suit said, "I was wondering if you wouldn't mind having a chat with me over coffee?"
Malon's stomach faulted, sinking as a prickly dread sprung up inside it. 'This is about Aydin, it must be,' she told herself, 'I'll only be gone a bit. Besides Jean has the keys.'
"All right," Malon said gently as Mr. Wood nodded.
* * *
Navi was in her room. Sitting cross-legged on the bed, paper and pencils discarded on the floor. Colorless eyes of a half-finished portrait gazing at the ceiling, salt-streaks distorted the charcoal lines of the face, trailing long dark stains.
'…Link said he was my friend…I trusted him…he was my friend…but he won't come and see me…why?' Navi teared up again, biting down on her finger, the skin raw and red under her teeth. 'Why? Why wouldn't he come to see me?' More tears, brimming over, painting silver misery on his dismal face. 'I don't understand…Link, you're my friend…I…I want to help you. More than anything, since the day I met you, I've wanted to help you…because…' Navi reached out tentatively, pressing her fingers to the wall, seven rooms down from her very cell was Link's room. Their beds were even in the same place, tucked up in the corner of the west and south walls. '…Because…I'm the Only One…the Only One who can really protect you…that is my…you're my…trust. I feel something…something's wrong.' Navi got up unsteadily, looking for her shoes, if Link wasn't going to come to her, she'd go to him! Navi stepped into her slip-ons and tossed on a robe, whipping the door out and stopping cold dead.
"Who are you?"
Jean stiffened, doors really didn't usually do that, rip open from under your fingertips and suddenly reveal little girls in pin-stripe pale blue robes.
"Are you Navi?" he asked uncertainly, the child nodded. Big blue eyes looking searchingly into the crimson that gazed back, "And who are you?"
"I'm Jean."
"Jean?"
"Dr. Kit sent me to get you."
Distress flickered across Navi's face, "Where am I going?"
Jean fumbled with his words, Malon hadn't filled in this part of the job; "Dr. Kit's taking you to another facility."
"Dr. Kit's back from her vacation all ready?" Navi asked, "but I can't go yet!"
"Well, we have to go now-Dr. Kit-"
"Ms. Malon doesn't understand then! I have to see Link! See him now!" Navi said strongly, ducking under Jean's arm and dashing down the hall. Jean spun around; chills trickling down his spine, 'No-'
"Navi! Wait!" he shouted, sprinting after her. Navi hardened and opened the door to Link's room, smiling brightly and "Link! Link, I came to see you!-" She fell quiet as a sword slid out of the door frame with sinister, metallic slither.
"What are you doing here?" a voice grated, the edge of the sword gliding up Navi's throat and over her lips to rest on the tip of her nose. Jean froze behind Navi, a dark-clad swordsman standing in the doorway. The black of his clothes shimmered and rippled, up and down his figure, almost breathing as if it were as alive as he was. He was frigidly pale, with bloody-ice eyes, sloppily cut gold bangs and a bright gold crescent gleamed among the night-colors. Jean felt his eyes grow wide, the new-star gold of the curve-knife dark and tarnished with rusty-brown.
"You-you killed Nimbus!" the words shot from his mouth unbidden and the man crushed them with his stillness.
"Yes, he said at last, "I killed the shell Nimbus was hiding in," a pause, "but-" he glanced to Link, sleeping innocently and wrapped in robin's-egg blue blankets, "he still won't wake up." The young man looked to Jean despairingly as Jean grew silent in his confusion. Nimbus? Who was Nimbus? Navi, who had been quiet at his side, spoke up.
"Sinner," she seethed, "Sinner! You killed the Brilliant Lord Nimbus! SINNER! YOU MUST DIE!" Jean looked at the girl by his side in surprise, somehow this seemed very out of character for her. The dark man whirled back as Navi flew at him, teeth and nails bared, seeming fully intent on ripping his throat out with her bare hands.
"Navi!-" Jean grabbed her round the waist as the girl clawed at his jacket, "Navi?! What's wrong with you?!"
"He has to die!" Navi growled, "The Sinner must die! By Order of the Great Light, Nimbus, the Sinner MUST DIE!" The stranger grimaced, pulling off one of his gloves Jean hadn't noticed them before. Until the fine black leather was sliding free of his fingers silkily. Then with the bared hand he touched her, wrapped his fingers around Navi's wrist and she cried. Hot tears suddenly spilling down her cheeks, "It burns! Stop it, please! You're hurting me!"
Jean leapt forward, tearing them apart, his skin searing as it touched the man's naked arm. 'What-what the hell is he?' Navi cried, kissing her wounded forearm, "Ow, what? Why? What happened?"
Jean hissed in realization of his own pain, swallowing the discomfort as Navi fell against him. The man put his glove back on, "You'll be all right now. Both of you, because soon, you'll realize that this is just a dream."
"W-who are you?!" Jean barked; Navi's face lifting from his shoulder and she sighed.
"He's Link, of course, and this world is all a dream…"
- Fin
Whoa, that was weird. O_O But I kinda like it! ^_^ Please, please, please leave a review!
- Zel
