Day IX

I love you.

"Do you really think your master can save you?"

'Kaysho…?' Ganondorf asked himself, and he started to hear his heartbeat. It beat slowly. "…Kaysho?" He turned around, and looked where Kaysho used to lay, on the carpet. Gone. He stared at the blood red carpet, and in his mind, he saw it as blood itself. A piercing scream ran through his head. "Ah!" It screamed and screamed and ordered his hands to his ears. Blood trickled from his ears, before his hands could reach them. "Kaysho!" Ganondorf shouted in alarm, let his arms fall, then started to bolt up the stairs. The scream became louder, closer, deeper, and droned away his beating footsteps, as he threw himself up stairwells and slammed into walls while wandering through the endless corridors. It might of hurt, but he didn't care. Because every time he saw that flashing image of blood…the pile of blood…the ghastly pain from his own mind was even worse. 'Kaysho laying in that pile of blood…'

"The person from the mirror…" Kaysho murmured to himself. But he said no more, for then, it attacked.

Ganondorf stumbled, then fell into the huge, cold room in which Kaysho and the pillar lay. He looked up, and then shakily got to his feet. The mist parted before him, and slowly the dark room became clear. "Oh my God…" he whispered, couldn't help but make his hands into fists and shout at the top of his lungs. He shouted at loud as he could, because it seemed this might be the last time he would ever be able to call out this word. "KAYSHO!"

From within that pillar, came the same spirit that lurked within the mirror that was, like the pillar, a secret buried deep within the Spirit Temple. All at once a thick mist came out of the pillar, then dove into the waters of the tiled stream that ran through the room. As if it had possessed those waters and breathed life into them, the stream rose from it's resting sport, and together, with the spirit and the fog, formed and strange, delusional figure. It's eyes were hollow, soulless, and were a color that blended well with the rest of it's misty body. It held out his hands in a position, as if it were holding something larger and round in it's hands, then looked down at Kaysho.

Are you the one who I'll paint in blood, little Keaton?

Kaysho shuddered as it spoke, and took a step back from the icy voice. He dared not look at the creature, and hung his head, "…Who…w-who are you?"
The creature merely drew closer to Kaysho, grabbed hold of him, and ran his hands, if you could call them hands, across Kaysho's back. It whispered gleefully,

I am what you see. Look at me.

"Oh great spirit, I dare not!" Kaysho whimpered as loud as he could, as if he were an imperial guard being ordered by an Emperor. Kaysho, along with all keatons, were whimsical creatures of sorts, and instinctively know the consequences of offending spirits. When the form touched him, he shuddered and wept out of disgust, and out of fear. It and drew closer to him, and smiled gleefully. Upon glance one would think that it was the smile of a playful child, but upon second look, a sadistic grin hid within the glee.

Look at me. Look at me!

Kaysho yipped and pulled away from him, "Oh spirit, I dare not!!" Kaysho repeated. The spirit kept smiling, but seemed to grow delusional. It drew away from Kaysho, then raised it's hand a bit. In time with the spirit's hand, the little trembling keaton rose from the ground. "Ahh…AH!" Kaysho cried out in fear, "No, please, let go!! Let go of me!"

"Leave him be!" Ganondorf spoke up, suddenly. He seemed surprised at himself first, but slowly felt the fear draining from him, so took a cautious two steps forward. "Let him go…Kaysho's…never done anything wrong!"

The spirit paused, then turned to face Ganondorf. Kaysho instantly dropped to the ground, and made a thud when he hit the rigid tile. The spirit instead raised it's other hand, and this time Ganondorf rose from the ground. He trembled at first, then wobbled around in the air, trying to break free. The spirit's grin faded a little.

…A Gerudo boy. What a misfit.

Ganondorf paused, "…I…" He trembled again, and looked down. He realized that his resistance only made the spirit raise him higher. Ganondorf's face slowly twisted into anger, such anger Kaysho had never seen. The Gerudo boy looked up at the spirit , and snarled, "Go back to hell and leave us alone!"

"Of hell and earth there is no dividing wall."

The spirit said that, then seemed to be laughing at Ganondorf. But no sound came from his mouth. Just the image of laughter. All at once, light vanished from the room. The spirit's laughter started to become audible, then turned into an enraged screeching. All at once Ganondorf was slammed into a wall, and broken chips of tile spread about him, cutting his flesh and clanging against the floor. Kaysho shrieked and yelped as he was lifted off the ground, and brought all the way up to the ceiling. Only then to be dropped to the ground and to land with a sickening thud and crack. The spirit laughed, in an innocent tone, then stood tall. Ganondorf lost consciousness, but Kaysho remained just barely awake, shivering, lost in the darkness.

For hours alone, lost in the darkness.

"Master….!" Kaysho finally tried to call out, into the darkness of the room. The only light that shone was not a pleasant one. He slowly looked up to it, the light of that dark spirit, that one who was of the beyond.

Foolish keaton…

Kaysho quieted, and started into the full, empty eyes of the light of hell.

Do you really think your master can save you?

Kaysho shivered in fright, but answered without any hesitation. "Yes."

Stupid keaton.

Do you really think your master can save you…

From himself?