Chapter 18 Late Night Screams

Hours later, Ludwig sat in front of Aida's door, staring at the doorknob like he could will it to open with his mind (on a side note, man did he miss having telekinesis). He heard no other sound; in fact, the world itself faded away as he kept his eyes on the blasted doorknob that he had no hope of reaching in his current condition. He took a step closer, scratching the base of the door with his claws in a similar way to how he had seen real cats do. He regretted doing so almost immediately.

What am I doing? He thought. I must look incredibly stupid. He shook his head, pulling away from the door. He realized, as he resumed with staring at the doorknob, that he had no real plan nor course of action he could execute. What was he thinking; that the scratching he did against Aida's door would cause the lady to get up and open the door? That was ridiculous; Ludwig hadn't even seen her get out of bed once while she was here! Man, usually Ludwig was better at formulating plans, as well as carrying them out. But now? Now, the thing in his brain that so very loosely resembled a plan was full of holes.

His ears drooped. "Man," he told himself. He scratched the rug underfoot, stewing over the fact that he was up schitt's creek without a paddle. "This is going oh so well." He looked back up at the doorknob, letting out a sigh as he did. "How am I supposed to get in?" He consider jumping up in order to turn the knob, but he realized immediately that task would be much easier said than done.

Maybe he should just give up. Even if he could get into the room, there was no guarantee that he would find what he was looking for. After all, it wasn't like Aida was going to give him the information. As much as he hated to admit it, he needed to return to the dining room. He was tired after all, and realized that sleeping would be a much better way to spend his time than waiting all night for a door that wasn't going to open to open.

"God dammit," he cursed. He rose to his feet, ready to leave the door behind.

"Lovebug?" Ludwig turned and saw Magnus approaching with a furrowed brow. "Are you okay, sweetie? Do you need anything?"

Now, normally Ludwig would feel disgust and anger toward this magikoopa. And, admittedly, those emotions were still present looking into Magnus' colored eyes. But now, those emotions were accompanied by some other, more positive ones; excitement and hope.

"Oh, Magnus!" Ludwig said, even though he was fully aware of the fact that he couldn't understand him. He smiled and turned back toward the door. "Can you let me in?"

Magnus still looked confused, so Ludwig decided to do something else to get the message across. He scratched the door, turning his head between the psychotic magikoopa and the entrance to the locked room. Eventually (and thankfully), Magnus seemed to get the message.

"Do you want to go see Aida, Lovebug?"

Ludwig nodded and grinned. "Wow look at that; you're good for something other than ruining someone's life!" He looked back at the door and scratched it some more. "But yes, I would appreciate being let in."

Magnus chuckled and patted Ludwig on the head. "Well, Lovebug, tonight was going to be Stella's night to spend time with Aida." Ludwig sent Magnus a dirty look, which thankfully was all the persuasion that he needed. "But I suppose that I can let you take on that duty." He giggled. "It sure is nice to see you easing yourself into your new role so quickly."

Ludwig cringed. "I would kill you and throw your body in the dumpster if I could."

Magnus, none the wiser to Ludwig's murderous threats, unlocked the door. Ludwig smiled and ran in, jumping onto the bed with an enthusiasm he had picked up from his very much missed younger brother Lemmy.

"Oh, Aida!" Magnus said. "You have a visiter this evening!"

Aida blinked as she looked at Ludwig. "I do?"

"Yep! Lovebug has been really excited to see you."

Aida stared at Ludwig with a far off gaze, as if she wasn't fully comprehending what the creature who was on her bed was (which, in some ways, was true). "Lovebug?"

Magnus chuckled, although his happy expression appeared to break a little bit. "Yes, Lovebug. You met him a couple of mornings ago."

"I did?"

"Yeah. Don't you remember?"

Aida looked back at Ludwig, her confusion from before so much more prevalent. It occurred to Ludwig that Magnus must be a really terrible caretaker for her. People with dementia were supposed to be handled with care, and that care involved not making their confusion worse. Of course, Ludwig wasn't an expert on that, since he never really cared for someone with the disease. But still, even he knew that making an elderly dementia patient more confused by pointing out that they should remember things they didn't was not a good thing to do.

"O…okay," Aida said eventually. She reached out and pet Ludwig's head. "He is soft," she said with a smile.

"Yes he is," Magnus said. He approached the bed and pulled Aida's covers up over her body. "Well, I'm going to leave you two to get some rest. With how excited Lovebug was to see you tonight, I have a feeling he is going to make some really good company tonight." He went back toward the door, pausing in the doorway and sending a smile back toward the two of them. "Good night Aida. Good night Lovebug."

With that, he closed the door. Ludwig turned toward Aida and gave her a smile. He realized that she might have trouble seeing it in the dark, so to compensate, he went up and patted her hand with his paw.

"Well Aida, it's just you and me." The old lady pet him on the head, which prompted him to curl up in a little ball on her stomach. "You have some very important things in that brain of yours. You might not remember them now, but I'm certain I'll find out what they are eventually."

Aida chuckled. "You have such a cute meow, Lovebug."

Ludwig sniffed. "I do, don't I?" He sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "Well, here's hoping that this visit won't be a total waste."

…

Hours passed, and Ludwig's boredom grew with each one that did. As he rested beside Aida (who by now was fast asleep and snoring away), he couldn't help but think about his earlier words. "Here's hoping that this visit won't be a total waste…" yeah, Ludwig really needed to learn to keep his mouth shut so that he didn't jinx things.

After Aida had gone to sleep, Ludwig had searched her room, hoping he could find the letters that Aurelia had mentioned. He had checked under her bed, in the closet, in the dresser drawers that he could reach. He had checked those areas three times, hoping he could happen across a secret compartment he might have missed. He had no such luck. The letters, no matter how real they seemed to Aida, seemed to Ludwig that they didn't exist at all.

Ludwig shook his head thinking about this. Seriously, it just didn't make sense. How could there not be any letters? Before, he had been thoroughly convinced that Aida couldn't have made them up. And yet, he found no evidence of them. How could this be?

Well, even if there were no letters, there was still a way that he could get any information; through Aida. When he wasn't searching, he kept his eyes glued to her and his ears opened at all times. When she was awake, she hadn't said anything peculiar (at least, anything peculiar that sated Ludwig's curiosity). And right now, while she was sleeping, was even worse. Every once in a while she muttered something in her sleep, but those words were just as unsatisfactory as the ones she said while she was up and about.

And honestly, Ludwig couldn't help but feel disappointed and frustrated because of it. He thought about what Aurelia and Logan told him beforehand. In some ways…actually, in most ways they were right. There really was no way of confirming anyone's suspicions about the mint haired lady. And to think that there was only showed how stupid the oldest Koopaling was. Yes, one of the two Koopalings who prided himself for his intellect was now ready to admit that he had been stupid. When the morning came, he was going to go up to Logan and Aurelia with his ears drooping and his tail between his legs. He was going to admit he was wrong, and just go back to this so called "life" that he had within the walls of this house.

Fun. Oh, so fun.

Ludwig shook his head. He was now extremely tired, both because it was the middle of the night and because he had spent most of the time in Aida's room scrounging for the letters. He laid his head down on the bed, intentionally scooting in close to Aida so he could feel her warmth. He closed his eyes, ready to drop from the real world into the dream world. At least there, there weren't as many disappointments.

"Aino…don't…leave me…"

Ludwig lifted his head and looked at Aida. She was now squirming in her sleep, wrestling about in a way that told anyone with eyes that her sleep wasn't a pleasant one. Ludwig turned toward her, worried about what she might be experiencing in the dreamscape. He placed his paw on her chest, hoping that he could aid and comfort her in someway,

Unfortunately, Aida bolted upright, with terror in her eyes and her body doused in freezing sweat. "AINO!"

Ludwig jumped back, frightened by this display. Aida's appearance caught him off guard in all the wrong ways. She shook like a leaf in a hurricane, tears streamed from her eyes at such a frequent and consistent rate that one could easily worry about her body losing all water in its system. Whimpers escaped from her mouth, as well as the frequent uttering of her son's name.

"Aino…Aino…"

Ludwig patted her stomach. What had she dreamed about? What was it that caused her to wake up in the middle of the night screaming? Obviously, it involved her son. But in what way did it involve him?

Right as Ludwig was wondering about these things, Magnus burst into the room with his wand in hand. "Aida!" He rushed over to the bed, worrying and concern shining through on his face. "Aida, what's wrong?"

Aida held herself as she curled up into a little ball. "Aino…Aino is…"

Magnus came up and wrapped his arms around her. "Shhh…" he patted her shell. "It's going to be alright."

"No," Aida said. "No it's not."

Ludwig watched, feeling like a true outsider in this situation. He continued wondering about the nightmare, and what exactly had caused Aida to wake up in a cold sweat. Just as he was about to curl up into a ball of his own and leave his questions for another day, Aida said something that made Ludwig's blood freeze over.

"Aino…is in Frostwall."