Chapter 15 Case Closed

Lemmy's eyes were closed, his body felt like a ten tone weight. He heard an echoey, distant sound. It almost sounded like a voice, but Lemmy couldn't pick up on whose voice it was. It was surrounding him on all sides, like a street gang that had decided to ambush him. Eventually, the sound of the voice became clearer. It sounded gravelly and concerned, and it was calling his name.

"Lemmy? Lemmy, wake up!"

Lemmy slowly opened his eyes. His eyelids were weighing him down like lead, heavy and hard. Fortunately, Lemmy did manage to open them. He tried to smile at the sight of his brother.

"Ludwig..." he said. Lemmy's speech was slurred. It sounded as if he had swallowed a carton of cotton balls. Ludwig, however, didn't care. He just wrapped his brother in an embrace.

"Oh, Lems," he said. Lemmy did his best to sit up, but every muscle in his body screamed out as he did so. His legs were about to shatter, his arms about to burst. Lemmy had no choice but to lie back down.

"I hurt," Lemmy told Ludwig. Ludwig's eyes shined with concern.

"Try to stay in one position then." He pulled away from the bed. Lemmy noticed for the first time that he and Ludwig were in their room. It was no wonder Ludwig looked so concerned; he had a constant reminder of Lemmy's little escapade every time he went to go to sleep.

The escapade. Oh man, the escapade. The time that Lemmy had spent as Shellock landed on him like a twenty ton truck. Did he really act like that? Did he really go as far as he did? He couldn't believe it! Lemmy shouldn't have done half that stuff! Thanks to him, Ludwig had winded up in jail, Rosetta and Earl had practically had their home broken into, and worst of all, Lemmy had almost blown up a building! Lemmy felt tears start to flow. Why did he do this?

"Lemmy, are you okay?" Ludwig asked. Lemmy turned his hed toward his blue haired brother.

"How can I be okay?" he asked. "Ludwig, I almost..." Lemmy burst into sobs. He seriously couldn't believe that he had taken the act that far. No one should do what he did.

"Hey," Ludwig said. "Don't cry, Buddy. It's alright; you're home now."

That did absolutely nothing. Lemmy shouldn't be home; he should be somewhere else! He should be in jail after all the crap he pulled!

"I...I...Ludwig, I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay, Lemmy. Trust me, it's okay." He let out a hollow chuckle. "At least you didn't destroy a city."

Well, okay, there was that. But even still, if Kamek hadn't hit him with the purification spell, Lemmy wouldn't be surprised if he got to that point. For the first time in a long time, Lemmy felt a strong, wicked sense of shame take over him.

"I can't believe that I could get lost like that. It was almost as if...I wasn't myself."

Ludwig nodded slowly.

"Yes, it certainly seemed that way." He hesitated a little bit. "Do you remember why you acted that way?"

Lemmy thought about it before he groaned and grasped his forehead.

"Mr. Spiel."

Ludwig looked at Lemmy. He didn't look mad, much to Lemmy's surprise. He looked almost...sympathetic.

"That guy was not pleasant in the slightest, huh?"

"No," Lemmy said sullenly. "He was not." He whimpered and sat up. "Why did I allow him to get to me?"

"Because he was a jerk," said Ludwig. "But that doesn't mean you have to listen to him."

Lemmy felt tears start to flow.

"But Ludwig, he said my act was bad! If he didn't like it..." Before Lemmy could get any further, Ludwig cut him off by holding up his finger.

"Okay, stop. You're not doing yourself any favors right now." Ludwig lowered his finger and made direct eye contact with his little brother. "Lemmy, Mr. Spiel is a critic. It's his job to find something bad in a performance. It's how he makes money. I mean.." Ludwig snickered. "How do you think he got an expensive house in Berrybark? By selling toilet paper rolls?"

Lemmy, despite himself, laughed.

"But, Lemmy, look at me." Ludwig smiled a little bit. "Just because Mr. Spiel didn't like your performance doesn't mean that you have to get introspective or retrospective or whatever other type of spective you can think of. If he can't see the effort and love that you put into your clown act, then that's his loss."

Lemmy thought about this. It did sound like good advice. However, something about it rubbed Lemmy the wrong way.

"But aren't I supposed to listen to critics? I mean, everyone says that you need to listen to criticism so that you can improve from it!"

Ludwig adorned a contemplative expression.

"There is a big difference between learning from criticism and letting the criticism eat away at your self worth," he said. Lemmy nodded his head.

"I suppose that's true..."

"And Lemmy," Ludwig continued. "Look, I know, getting your work trashed sucks. Believe me. I've gotten my work trashed too."

Lemmy's eyes grew wide.

"Really?" he asked. "But everyone I talk to says that you're a musical prodigy!" Ludwig laughed.

"Even prodigies aren't exempted from scorn," he said. He snickered. "I remember one review that I got when I was around ten. The critic basically said, 'this is a pretentious insult to all that music stood for. Dying cats could produce a more moving symphony.' Lemmy nealry did a double take as Ludwig sat down on the side of his bed. "As you can imagine, that didn't have the best effect on my self esteem. There were times where I wanted to give up on music. If my audience didn't like what I had to offer, what was the point of offering anything?"

Lemmy leaned toward his brother in interest.

"What did you do?" he asked. Ludwig turned toward him with a smile.

"Well, I learned that my self worth didn't have to be tied entirely to what people said or thought about my work. I learned to take criticism in stride; like you said, I learned to use criticism as a learning experience." A sullenness entered his eyes. "But it didn't come easy. Choosing to look at criticism like that is a conscious effort. Especially if you're someone who dwells on the negative."

Lemmy nodded. This all was making sense to him. Criticism didn't have to be the end of the world. It was a learning experience, just like Ludwig said.

"You're right," Lemmy said. "You're absolutely right." His face fell. "But this shouldn't be that big a deal." Ludwig leaned closer toward him.

"It was a big deal to you. Lemmy, you shouldn't have to be afraid to come to us with stuff that is bothering you. We always say that we are there for you, and there is a reason for that. You can come to us with anything that is bothering you. Whether it be a big deal or a little deal."

A warm feeling sparked in Lemmy's heart. It spread throughout his body, causing him to smile.

"Thanks, Ludwig."

...

Lemmy held the Shellock costume in his hands as he and Ludwig stood in front of the kitchen sink. He stared down at it. It was fraying in a couple of areas, and had holes from when the purification spell had hit it. He cast Ludwig a smile before displaying the costume to him.

"Do your magic, Luddy," he said. Ludwig nodded and telekinetically picked up the costume. He stuffed it into the garbage disposal and turned it on. Lemmy smiled at the sound of the dreaded costume being shredded to ribbons.

"Goodbye, you devil costume," he said. Ludwig laughed.

"Yeah. And good riddance."

AN: Well, this is finished. I hope that you guys all enjoyed this story; it was certainly an interesting one to work on. Ultimately, i am really happy that it is finally finished. Thank you to everyone who favorited, followed, and reviewed this story. You all are awesome and I really appreciate the support that you guys have given. Stay safe and stay awesome :)