Zelda had gone home. Link, afraid of what might happen if he tried walking
through the door, sat glumly on the steps outside.
"You there," came a voice. "Shouldn't you be inside?"
Link looked up. A strange man was walking towards him. "Go on boy, get on back inside."
"Who are you?" Link asked. "And what--wait, you can see me?!"
"Yup," the man answered, sitting down next to Link. "I'm dead too, you know. Ghosts can talk to each other."
"T-then I really am a ghost," Link whispered.
"Yes, sorry to say. So what happened to you? How'd you die? You don't look very old to me, sport."
"It was a burglar," Link said, choking back tears of hatred. "He pointed a gun at me, and then I started fighting him. Then he got my wallet and ran down the street. I followed him, but then lost him. I ran back to the alley where my wife was, and I saw her holding me in her arms!"
"That's the toughest part of being dead," the man sighed. "Seeing your actual dead body in someone's grasp. Yeah, this whole city is full of ghosts and spirits. 'Course you don't know it until you're dead."
"Great," Link said.
"Ah, don't feel too bad, boy," comforted the man. "Some things just. . .they don't turn out the way you'd like them to." He paused to look at Link, then stared at the house behind them. "You're nervous about doors, aren't you?"
"Kind of."
"Well, they're a cinch once you get used to them," the man said. "Here, let me show ya." He stood up, and (to Link's amazement--he still wasn't quite used to the whole ghost thing) walked right through the door. He came back out, laughing. "The first time is always a little hard. But go on, you try it out, buddy."
"Um. . .are you sure?"
"'Course I'm sure! Besides, you can't go on for the rest of your dead life not knowin' how to walk through doors!" He pulled Link to his feet, and without warning, shoved him through the door.
"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" Link yelled.
"You had to do it some time," the man answered simply. "But you might as well try getting back through, now. You don't hurt at all, do you?"
"No," Link admitted. "But that felt really weird."
"Like I said, you'll get used to walking through stuff as you do it more and more often. Now come on back out."
"Okay," Link sighed, feeling a little nervous. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and flew through the door. He burst through the other side, right through the stranger helping him, and landed on the sidewalk.
"You don't have to try so hard," the man laughed. "Just act like you're walking through a door as if you were alive! Go on, try again!"
"I hope you're not doing this just for your own sick amusement," Link muttered, getting to his feet and stepping up to the door."
"Of course not. I'm just trying to lend you a hand, boy. Go on through the door!"
Link, more determined than ever, went straight through the door. And-- Voila! He was on the other side! "Hey, I did it!" he called out to the man. He got no response. "Yo, are you still there?" Still no answer. Grinning, Link stuck his head through the door. Well, the man had left.
He heard a hissing sound. Link turned around and saw Terri. Wondering what she was hissing at, he looked around him. No one was there. Then he realized that his cat was looking straight at him.
"You can see me?" he asked. She hissed again. "Can you see me?" He took a few steps to the left, and Terri's eyes followed him. "Woah, this is freaky."
"Terri? Where are you? Oh there you are. What're you hissing at?"
Zelda walked up to the door and picked up Terri. She looked around. "Mice," she muttered to herself. "C'mon, you'd better eat something." Yawning a bit, Zelda filled Terri's bowl with MeowMix.
Sniffing the food doubtfully, Terri looked up at Zelda. She pranced over to the refrigerator, clawing at the door and hissing. "What is it?" Zelda asked walking over. She opened the fridge, and Terri leapt at the mustard inside. "He spoiled you," Zelda whispered to herself, smiling a bit and taking out the mustard. "Here, have it Terri."
Sighing, Zelda sat down at the counter and watched Terri proceed to lick up the mustard she'd just squirted into her cat's food dish. She glanced at a picture she had put on the refrigerator. It was one of her favorite snapshots.
In the picture, Marth had just accidentally spilled his cream of mushroom soup all over Link's shirt. Link was in mid-jump (leaping out of his seat), and Zelda was laughing hysterically on the side.
Link walked up to the refrigerator and stared at the picture. He heard loud sobs coming from behind him, and turned to see Zelda with her head down on the counter in tears.
"Why'd you have to go, Link?" she sobbed. "Why did this have to happen to us? Why were you forced to leave me? I need you, Link!"
The sight was definately enough to make Link's eyes water up. "I wish it didn't have to be this way," he said to her, even though she couldn't hear him. "Believe me, Zelda, I want to do nothing more right now than to. . .I wish I could kiss you, Zel."
And, of course, Zelda hadn't heard a word of it. She walked right through him, up to the refrigerator. Looking at the picture closer, she only cried even harder (if that was at all possible). "I miss you, Link," she sniffed. "And I love you so much!"
"Ditto," Link whispered. He tried to embrace her, but his arms went right through her solid body.
Zelda ran up her stairs to change. Terri slinked up the stairs after her. Link was going to follow, when he heard the click of a lock. . .well, unlocking. He ran out of the kitchen, and saw the front door opening.
"GET OUT!" Link shouted, once he saw who had opened the door (and was now closing it). "GET OUT OF THIS HOUSE!!"
It was the red-headed man who had killed Link only last night. But of course, Link's arms which were trying desperately to beat the man up went right through him. Looking around cautiously, the man started to head for the stairs.
"GET AWAY!" Link yelled. "ZELDA, LOCK YOUR DOOR!!" He said this, even though he knew it made no difference. Terri, sitting on a cabinet at the top of the stairs, glanced wearily at the red-head and then yawned.
The man fingered something in his jacket. Then he saw Zelda in her room, changing out of her shirt. Grinning, he took a half-step towards the room.
"Terri!" Link cried desperately. The cat's eyes looked directly at him. Link stared back at her, waiting for her to crack. Suddenly--
"ARGH!"
Sensing danger from Link's expression, Terri leapt off of the cabinet. Since she couldn't touch Link, she landed on the red-headed man's face.
"Terri? What's wrong?" Zelda asked from inside her bedroom.
Panicking, the man finally managed to pull Terri off his face. Like lightning, he bolted down the stairs and back out the front door before Zelda could see him. Link, determined not to let the man get away again, followed him.
Once outside, the man started sprinting down the street. Link drew level, hoping that wherever they were headed, he'd be able to find his way back home. The man stopped suddenly outside a small apartment. He buzzed the intercom, and the name under it red, "Roy Altan."
"Roy, hm?" Link growled, as Roy ran quickly through his door. He collapsed onto his bed, heaving deep breaths. Then there was a loud knock on the door.
"Who is it?!" he shouted.
"Me," came the answer.
'That helps,' Link thought, rolling his eyes. "Come in," said Roy.
The door opened, and Link almost fell over in shock--Marth was the one who came into the room. "Did you get it?"
"No," Roy answered, annoyed. "She almost caught me, so I had to run."
"Where's the wallet?" Marth asked.
"Here." Link watched Roy take HIS wallet out of his pocket and give it to Marth. Seeming frantic, Marth tore through it.
"WHY ISN'T IT HERE?!" Marth shouted, throwing the wallet against the wall (going through Link's body on the way). "Why couldn't he just have told me where the dumb thing was?!"
"I'd love to tell you wherever the thing you're looking for is," Link said with sarcasm, "but this guy over here bumped me off."
"He put up a fight," Roy said.
"You were only supposed to get his wallet!" Marth shouted. "You weren't supposed to kill him!"
"Hey, I'm sorry!" Roy yelled, standing up. "It was just a dumb miskate!"
Link's mouth dropped. He had been killed by ACCIDENT?! And Marth, his best friend and Best Man had been behind it all?! It didn't make sense!
"Look, I don't think you understand my problem here," Marth said. "I have four million dollars stashed on a stupid computer. And Link had that freaking card number that will let us have access to the account it's in!"
"So this Link guy was a millionaire?!" Roy asked.
"No," Roy answered. "I think he said it was a client's account. But Altan, do you know how much money that is? FOUR MILLION DOLLARS. We need to find out that number, or else we are BOTH dead meat. Okay?"
Roy tried to speak, but no words came out. He nodded fearfully. "Good," Marth whispered. He turned around and left the room. Link chased after him.
"WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME?!" Link shouted, trying fiercely to beat up Marth as he unlocked his car door. "I TRUSTED YOU!! YOU WERE MY FRIEND! WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME AND ZELDA?!?!"
Link cursed after Marth as he drove away. Feeling pure anger and hatred, Link ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction of home. After running for about twenty minutes, he stopped at a train station.
A steam engine pulled up, and people began boarding. Link looked at the train, then hopped on. So what if he was leaving home? He had an eternity to try and find his way back. Slowly, the train pulled out of the station. Sighing, Link tried to find a seat. Most were occupied. And if he found an empty one, somebody would probably sit on him anyway.
After about a half an hour of easy riding, Link heard stomping footsteps. He turned around and saw the man that had taught him how to walk through doors earlier that morning.
"What're you doing here?!" the man asked.
"Nothin', I'm just--"
"Get off my train!" he shouted, his face turning redder. To Link's amazement, his fellow ghost kicked one of the passenger's bags right towards him.
"Wait, how're you--"
"GET OFF!" Angrily, the man picked up Link and through him out of the train (it was still moving, by the way. "And stay out!!" For emphasis, the man smashed some of the glass with his hand.
Link stared in shock. That man, that ghost, had just touched solid objects with his hands. . .but how was that even remotely possible?! He was a ghost!
But Link didn' t have much time to worry about that. He was way to tired. He'd barely gotten any sleep. But where to go? Feeling hurt and dejected, Link started walking down the street and then turned the corner.
He was a little surprised at what he saw before him--his own house. Apparently, the train he'd ridden had brought him right home. Link walked up the steps and into his room. He couldn't find Zelda. Then he heard a faint whirring sound coming from downstairs. Curiously, he went down the stairs that led to the basement.
Zelda sat on a stool at her pottery machine. However, she didn't seem focused, and her hands were barely aware of how they were shaping the wet clay. Tears were silently falling out of her eyes.
"I went to the grocery store today," she said, glancing over at Terri, sitting lazily in the corner. "And I m-met Mr. Goldstone there." Her eyes left Terri's lethargic gaze, and small sobs were slightly audible. "H- He asked me how I was doing, and then he told me to say hello to you!"
Link deduced that Zelda was acting like she was talking to him. He walked in front of her, but she stared right through him. It hurt him to know that she couldn't see him at all.
"And I broke into tears right there in his store," Zelda continued, her eyes getting wetter and wetter. "I wasn't embarressed, Link, but I kept thinking you'd come up behind me and hug me a-and say everything would be all right!" Her hands collapsed, and her mis-shaped clay drooped to the ground.
Wishing that he really could take up Zelda in an embrace, Link walked over to Terri. He made her look into his eyes, and she stared at him, seemingly able to tell that he was extremely depressed. He slowly started walking to Zelda's chair, and she followed him with her eyes.
"C'mon, get up," Link muttered.
Finally, Terri leapt off of her chair. She climbed up Zelda's leg and made her way into her lap. Link smiled weakly, as Terri reached up and licked Zelda's chin affectionately. Smiling throug her tears, Zelda pet her cat, getting clay all over her fur, but Terri sensed that she was carrying out a duty that must be fulfilled.
A few moments later, Terri slowly crawled off her owner's lap. Zelda headed towards the light switch, unsuccessfully stifling a yawn. "C'mon Terri, let's go."
Link stared wistfully after Zelda. He knew that if he followed them, he would go completely insane.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
dont 4get that I LOVE REVIEWS!!! ............not to seem conceited or anything.
"You there," came a voice. "Shouldn't you be inside?"
Link looked up. A strange man was walking towards him. "Go on boy, get on back inside."
"Who are you?" Link asked. "And what--wait, you can see me?!"
"Yup," the man answered, sitting down next to Link. "I'm dead too, you know. Ghosts can talk to each other."
"T-then I really am a ghost," Link whispered.
"Yes, sorry to say. So what happened to you? How'd you die? You don't look very old to me, sport."
"It was a burglar," Link said, choking back tears of hatred. "He pointed a gun at me, and then I started fighting him. Then he got my wallet and ran down the street. I followed him, but then lost him. I ran back to the alley where my wife was, and I saw her holding me in her arms!"
"That's the toughest part of being dead," the man sighed. "Seeing your actual dead body in someone's grasp. Yeah, this whole city is full of ghosts and spirits. 'Course you don't know it until you're dead."
"Great," Link said.
"Ah, don't feel too bad, boy," comforted the man. "Some things just. . .they don't turn out the way you'd like them to." He paused to look at Link, then stared at the house behind them. "You're nervous about doors, aren't you?"
"Kind of."
"Well, they're a cinch once you get used to them," the man said. "Here, let me show ya." He stood up, and (to Link's amazement--he still wasn't quite used to the whole ghost thing) walked right through the door. He came back out, laughing. "The first time is always a little hard. But go on, you try it out, buddy."
"Um. . .are you sure?"
"'Course I'm sure! Besides, you can't go on for the rest of your dead life not knowin' how to walk through doors!" He pulled Link to his feet, and without warning, shoved him through the door.
"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" Link yelled.
"You had to do it some time," the man answered simply. "But you might as well try getting back through, now. You don't hurt at all, do you?"
"No," Link admitted. "But that felt really weird."
"Like I said, you'll get used to walking through stuff as you do it more and more often. Now come on back out."
"Okay," Link sighed, feeling a little nervous. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and flew through the door. He burst through the other side, right through the stranger helping him, and landed on the sidewalk.
"You don't have to try so hard," the man laughed. "Just act like you're walking through a door as if you were alive! Go on, try again!"
"I hope you're not doing this just for your own sick amusement," Link muttered, getting to his feet and stepping up to the door."
"Of course not. I'm just trying to lend you a hand, boy. Go on through the door!"
Link, more determined than ever, went straight through the door. And-- Voila! He was on the other side! "Hey, I did it!" he called out to the man. He got no response. "Yo, are you still there?" Still no answer. Grinning, Link stuck his head through the door. Well, the man had left.
He heard a hissing sound. Link turned around and saw Terri. Wondering what she was hissing at, he looked around him. No one was there. Then he realized that his cat was looking straight at him.
"You can see me?" he asked. She hissed again. "Can you see me?" He took a few steps to the left, and Terri's eyes followed him. "Woah, this is freaky."
"Terri? Where are you? Oh there you are. What're you hissing at?"
Zelda walked up to the door and picked up Terri. She looked around. "Mice," she muttered to herself. "C'mon, you'd better eat something." Yawning a bit, Zelda filled Terri's bowl with MeowMix.
Sniffing the food doubtfully, Terri looked up at Zelda. She pranced over to the refrigerator, clawing at the door and hissing. "What is it?" Zelda asked walking over. She opened the fridge, and Terri leapt at the mustard inside. "He spoiled you," Zelda whispered to herself, smiling a bit and taking out the mustard. "Here, have it Terri."
Sighing, Zelda sat down at the counter and watched Terri proceed to lick up the mustard she'd just squirted into her cat's food dish. She glanced at a picture she had put on the refrigerator. It was one of her favorite snapshots.
In the picture, Marth had just accidentally spilled his cream of mushroom soup all over Link's shirt. Link was in mid-jump (leaping out of his seat), and Zelda was laughing hysterically on the side.
Link walked up to the refrigerator and stared at the picture. He heard loud sobs coming from behind him, and turned to see Zelda with her head down on the counter in tears.
"Why'd you have to go, Link?" she sobbed. "Why did this have to happen to us? Why were you forced to leave me? I need you, Link!"
The sight was definately enough to make Link's eyes water up. "I wish it didn't have to be this way," he said to her, even though she couldn't hear him. "Believe me, Zelda, I want to do nothing more right now than to. . .I wish I could kiss you, Zel."
And, of course, Zelda hadn't heard a word of it. She walked right through him, up to the refrigerator. Looking at the picture closer, she only cried even harder (if that was at all possible). "I miss you, Link," she sniffed. "And I love you so much!"
"Ditto," Link whispered. He tried to embrace her, but his arms went right through her solid body.
Zelda ran up her stairs to change. Terri slinked up the stairs after her. Link was going to follow, when he heard the click of a lock. . .well, unlocking. He ran out of the kitchen, and saw the front door opening.
"GET OUT!" Link shouted, once he saw who had opened the door (and was now closing it). "GET OUT OF THIS HOUSE!!"
It was the red-headed man who had killed Link only last night. But of course, Link's arms which were trying desperately to beat the man up went right through him. Looking around cautiously, the man started to head for the stairs.
"GET AWAY!" Link yelled. "ZELDA, LOCK YOUR DOOR!!" He said this, even though he knew it made no difference. Terri, sitting on a cabinet at the top of the stairs, glanced wearily at the red-head and then yawned.
The man fingered something in his jacket. Then he saw Zelda in her room, changing out of her shirt. Grinning, he took a half-step towards the room.
"Terri!" Link cried desperately. The cat's eyes looked directly at him. Link stared back at her, waiting for her to crack. Suddenly--
"ARGH!"
Sensing danger from Link's expression, Terri leapt off of the cabinet. Since she couldn't touch Link, she landed on the red-headed man's face.
"Terri? What's wrong?" Zelda asked from inside her bedroom.
Panicking, the man finally managed to pull Terri off his face. Like lightning, he bolted down the stairs and back out the front door before Zelda could see him. Link, determined not to let the man get away again, followed him.
Once outside, the man started sprinting down the street. Link drew level, hoping that wherever they were headed, he'd be able to find his way back home. The man stopped suddenly outside a small apartment. He buzzed the intercom, and the name under it red, "Roy Altan."
"Roy, hm?" Link growled, as Roy ran quickly through his door. He collapsed onto his bed, heaving deep breaths. Then there was a loud knock on the door.
"Who is it?!" he shouted.
"Me," came the answer.
'That helps,' Link thought, rolling his eyes. "Come in," said Roy.
The door opened, and Link almost fell over in shock--Marth was the one who came into the room. "Did you get it?"
"No," Roy answered, annoyed. "She almost caught me, so I had to run."
"Where's the wallet?" Marth asked.
"Here." Link watched Roy take HIS wallet out of his pocket and give it to Marth. Seeming frantic, Marth tore through it.
"WHY ISN'T IT HERE?!" Marth shouted, throwing the wallet against the wall (going through Link's body on the way). "Why couldn't he just have told me where the dumb thing was?!"
"I'd love to tell you wherever the thing you're looking for is," Link said with sarcasm, "but this guy over here bumped me off."
"He put up a fight," Roy said.
"You were only supposed to get his wallet!" Marth shouted. "You weren't supposed to kill him!"
"Hey, I'm sorry!" Roy yelled, standing up. "It was just a dumb miskate!"
Link's mouth dropped. He had been killed by ACCIDENT?! And Marth, his best friend and Best Man had been behind it all?! It didn't make sense!
"Look, I don't think you understand my problem here," Marth said. "I have four million dollars stashed on a stupid computer. And Link had that freaking card number that will let us have access to the account it's in!"
"So this Link guy was a millionaire?!" Roy asked.
"No," Roy answered. "I think he said it was a client's account. But Altan, do you know how much money that is? FOUR MILLION DOLLARS. We need to find out that number, or else we are BOTH dead meat. Okay?"
Roy tried to speak, but no words came out. He nodded fearfully. "Good," Marth whispered. He turned around and left the room. Link chased after him.
"WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME?!" Link shouted, trying fiercely to beat up Marth as he unlocked his car door. "I TRUSTED YOU!! YOU WERE MY FRIEND! WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME AND ZELDA?!?!"
Link cursed after Marth as he drove away. Feeling pure anger and hatred, Link ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction of home. After running for about twenty minutes, he stopped at a train station.
A steam engine pulled up, and people began boarding. Link looked at the train, then hopped on. So what if he was leaving home? He had an eternity to try and find his way back. Slowly, the train pulled out of the station. Sighing, Link tried to find a seat. Most were occupied. And if he found an empty one, somebody would probably sit on him anyway.
After about a half an hour of easy riding, Link heard stomping footsteps. He turned around and saw the man that had taught him how to walk through doors earlier that morning.
"What're you doing here?!" the man asked.
"Nothin', I'm just--"
"Get off my train!" he shouted, his face turning redder. To Link's amazement, his fellow ghost kicked one of the passenger's bags right towards him.
"Wait, how're you--"
"GET OFF!" Angrily, the man picked up Link and through him out of the train (it was still moving, by the way. "And stay out!!" For emphasis, the man smashed some of the glass with his hand.
Link stared in shock. That man, that ghost, had just touched solid objects with his hands. . .but how was that even remotely possible?! He was a ghost!
But Link didn' t have much time to worry about that. He was way to tired. He'd barely gotten any sleep. But where to go? Feeling hurt and dejected, Link started walking down the street and then turned the corner.
He was a little surprised at what he saw before him--his own house. Apparently, the train he'd ridden had brought him right home. Link walked up the steps and into his room. He couldn't find Zelda. Then he heard a faint whirring sound coming from downstairs. Curiously, he went down the stairs that led to the basement.
Zelda sat on a stool at her pottery machine. However, she didn't seem focused, and her hands were barely aware of how they were shaping the wet clay. Tears were silently falling out of her eyes.
"I went to the grocery store today," she said, glancing over at Terri, sitting lazily in the corner. "And I m-met Mr. Goldstone there." Her eyes left Terri's lethargic gaze, and small sobs were slightly audible. "H- He asked me how I was doing, and then he told me to say hello to you!"
Link deduced that Zelda was acting like she was talking to him. He walked in front of her, but she stared right through him. It hurt him to know that she couldn't see him at all.
"And I broke into tears right there in his store," Zelda continued, her eyes getting wetter and wetter. "I wasn't embarressed, Link, but I kept thinking you'd come up behind me and hug me a-and say everything would be all right!" Her hands collapsed, and her mis-shaped clay drooped to the ground.
Wishing that he really could take up Zelda in an embrace, Link walked over to Terri. He made her look into his eyes, and she stared at him, seemingly able to tell that he was extremely depressed. He slowly started walking to Zelda's chair, and she followed him with her eyes.
"C'mon, get up," Link muttered.
Finally, Terri leapt off of her chair. She climbed up Zelda's leg and made her way into her lap. Link smiled weakly, as Terri reached up and licked Zelda's chin affectionately. Smiling throug her tears, Zelda pet her cat, getting clay all over her fur, but Terri sensed that she was carrying out a duty that must be fulfilled.
A few moments later, Terri slowly crawled off her owner's lap. Zelda headed towards the light switch, unsuccessfully stifling a yawn. "C'mon Terri, let's go."
Link stared wistfully after Zelda. He knew that if he followed them, he would go completely insane.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
dont 4get that I LOVE REVIEWS!!! ............not to seem conceited or anything.
