This update has been awhile coming, but I've had a slight change of heart in the meantime. Chapter 5 was originally intended to be the final chapter, but it was longer than I anticipated so I've split it. That means there are two updates left – Chapter 6, and the epilogue. In this chapter, all the secrets of the house is exposed, and we'll finally learn what exactly happened here, and why.
Chapter 5: House of LIES!
Redead collapsed and rolled down the steps like the perverted ragdolls that they are. A hail of gunfire, arrows and spells lit up the staircase but only managed to temporarily deter the rotten monstrosities – there were too many to count filing down those stairs and the few that had been taken down were now rising up from the carpet, their limbs and spines twisting in inhuman arcs before returning to a painfully slow shamble across the room, complete with creepy moans.
"This isn't working!" Zelda cried over the chaos. She closed her fist, igniting a fireball that sent one redead flying into the crowd, knocking them down like bowling pins.
"Everyone! Into the dining room!" Samus commanded. She did not have to say it twice.
Once everyone had entered, Link and Claude proceeded to barricade the double doors with chairs. Had the table not stretched the length of the room, they would have used that too.
"Stand back," the bounty huntress warned, her arm cannon covered in a thin frost. She aimed her weapon for the doors and unleashed the power of a fully charged Ice Beam Combo – the Ice Spreader. The cold blast connected and ensnared the door, barricade and all, in a thick layer of ice.
She turned her attention to the second entrance to the dining room. "Link, I want you to keep watch at that door. I don't think the redead are smart enough to look for another way in, but I don't want us getting stuck in here just in the case that they do."
"This is the worst Halloween ever!" Claude complained over the ruckus of the redead plowing headfirst into the barricade. "I don't know how I let you people talk me into this."
"You were looking forward to this just as much as the rest of us!" Yoshi retorted. "And Hyrule doesn't even HAVE Halloween! So technically, you're wrong!"
Captain Falcon found a corner and sat in a fetal position, wailing every time the redead smacked against the frosted door. He had no intention of getting stuck in here without any outside help, so he activated the comlink on the collar of his uniform. He didn't care that he had no idea who he was contacting and or that it hadn't worked before.
"Hello?" came the faint voice of Fox McCloud over static.
"Oh my god, Fox! Help me!"
Outside of the manor, Fox was visibly disgusted by Falcon's voice emitting from his own comlink. James became distraught upon the sight of his father's face contorting into a scowl, and Iris consoled the baby.
"What is it now?" Fox asked, instantly regretting it.
"There were ghosts and redeads a-a-and someone's inside of Marth AND OH MY GOD THEY'RE BREAKING IN! Wait, no they're not! But they're trying to break in AND WE CAN'T GET OUT OF THE HOUSE AND THEY'RE COMING TO GET MEEEEEEE AND-"
Fox drew a palm to his face. Falcon was hysterical and he didn't have the patience to decipher what any of that meant.
"You're a Space Pirate. Deal with it."
"But I-"
The connection quickly cut out, leaving Fox with a sigh of relief.
"What was that all about?" His mate asked.
"Falcon must be bored because he's screwing around on the comlinks. Either that or the people in scaaary costumes got to him."
Iris let out a soft giggle as James calmed down in her arms. "Maybe you should go in there and save him?"
"Let Samus do it," Fox replied bluntly.
"You're right. She's used to putting up with him." Iris could not help but glance back at the manor. It was still enshrouded in a dense fog. She didn't like that at all, but the alternative meant actually going up there to investigate. Her instincts told her better than that.
Back inside of the dining room, Captain Falcon whimpered in his corner. The power in the room died at the same time his connection did, and they were cast in darkness, save for the dim lights creeping through the windows. The moonlight fought desperately to reach through the fog, and it was not winning.
Zelda cast a spell that generated an orb of light in her palm. She aimed it like a flashlight, shining it on each person in the room. All were accounted for.
The spell soon became unnecessary when a greater light emerged atop of the dining room table. The light itself seemed to be coming down from the ceiling and not the chandelier, and was accompanied by a thin mist. From within, a woman rose into view, as if standing from a kneeling position.
Her dress was long and white and the shoulders were round puffs. It reminded them much of Peach's own dress, but silkier.
No one said a word as the woman glided across the table and towards the entrance Link had been guarding. He moved out of the way; he was mesmerized by her appearance, but wasn't taking the risk of letting her fly through him.
She turned around to face them. Her face bore an eternal sadness as she said, "I'm sorry for what my husband has done to your friend."
"You're the ghostly woman he was looking for, aren't you?" Kirby asked her. Though he was the first to speak, the fact that he concealed himself halfway behind the younger Link said otherwise of his bravery. It didn't help that Young Link himself was tucked firmly behind a chair.
"You're Alana Worthington?" Zelda pressed for confirmation. The woman nodded.
"My husband, Niles...he has been consumed with rage ever since his death. Even in the afterlife, he seeks to utterly destroy me."
"I-I don't get it," Young Link spoke up, gripping the back of the chair tightly like a shield. His voice cracked with fright. "Why did he p-possess Marth?"
The woman turned her gaze upon the child. She smiled, but the deep sorrow from her eyes only made him shudder. "The ritual to destroy a wandering soul can only be performed by the living. There is a way to still save your friend, but I need your help."
She held out her transparent arm, beckoning Zelda to come forth. The princess was hesitant; she felt bad for the woman's situation, but she could not bring herself to completely trust her just yet.
"What is it I can do?" The wary princess inquired.
"Please...come here," Alana pleaded.
Zelda took a few steps forward. She had no intention of coming within reach of Alana's grip, but she did watch the spirit's face intently for any signs of a change in demeanor.
"Don't do it!" cried two childlike voices in unison.
Captain Falcon screamed when two children emerged from the frozen door, their bodies pale and transparent not unlike Alana's. It was obvious from a glance that the two were siblings; the brother stood a head taller than his younger sister. They were both wearing painfully formal clothing. The girl wear a skirt and stockings with her hair pulled into pigtails while the boy was wearing the child version of a tuxedo.
Alana's sadness disappeared, quickly replaced with subtle outrage. "Don't listen to them. These children are here to DECEIVE you! They have been playing tricks on you all night!"
"We were only having fun!" the young girl retorted. "But she's the real bad guy here!"
Zelda backed away from Alana. Whether the children were trustworthy or not, she was not going to put herself in jeopardy.
But she had no say in the matter.
Alana struck without warning, diving for the princess. She drove both arms into Zelda's chest and began to slowly recede into her being as if a vacuum was pulling her in. Zelda was instantly immobilized. Paralysis set in, yet she could feel the cold hands writhing within her. She did not have to see the sinister grin upon Alana's face to know her intent, as the spirit's very consciousness began to invade her mind, and even possibly threaten to eject it entirely.
The Master Sword was unsheathed and cut through Alana in one motion. It was no surprise to Link that the sword had no effect, but it was the first move he could think to make. She was not like the Poes.
"You will remove your foul hands from Princess Zelda!"
Marth had appeared from nowhere, reaching for Zelda. He passed through the princess, but he gripped Alana and brought her crashing to the floor with him.
Thwarted, the woman gave the prince a scornful look before bolting through the ceiling. The power returned just as her body slipped through to the next floor. With the lights back on, they could see Marth clearly now. It was the prince just as he had been when they entered the manor, except his body was becoming increasingly transparent from his head, which looked nearly solid, to his feet, which were hardly visible at all.
"Marth...is that really you?"
"Yes, princess. There is no need to be alarmed. I am still here...albeit in a much lighter form." His humor did nothing to alleviate the mood.
Yoshi was on the verge of pelting the ghost children with eggs. "How can we trust them if they were behind all of this?"
"I can vouch for them," Marth stated. His footsteps made no sound as he approached the dino. "Go ahead...explain yourselves. They will understand," he coaxed the children with a softer tone.
The boy spoke up first. "Well, we're used to people stumbling into our house, so we have a little fun with them and scare them away."
"But you guys aren't like the others!" the girl, Julia, intervened. "You weren't really scared or anything. Except for that guy," she said, pointing at Captain Falcon.
Realizing that he was still huddled in the corner, Captain Falcon quickly rose to his feet and cleared his throat, unconvincingly. It didn't help that he was still wearing the shoddy Space Pirate costume.
"You have to understand, our father is innocent!" Dale pleaded with the Smashers. "It's strange realizing how you've died after it's all said and done, but it was our stepmother. She did it while we were sleeping...our father found out, but it was too late. She killed him too and staged it to look like he had killed himself."
Zelda covered her mouth, muffling the horrified gasp. "I understand now. Your father...when we first saw him in Marth's body...it makes sense the way he reacted when I recited the legend. I basically accused an innocent man of murdering his own family!"
Marth nodded solemnly. "Yes, their spirits have been trapped in this house for nearly fifty years. Their father has been consumed with rage, wanting nothing more than to destroy the very existence of his wife. He often does not realize that his children also walk these halls."
"We're tired. All we want is to move on...with daddy." Julia clasped her hands against her dress and gave forlorn look to everyone in the room. Her eyes were welling up, if it were even possible for a ghost to cry.
Young Link looked away from the girl, and decided to let his morbid curiosity get the best of him. "Wait, so who killed Alana?"
"Raymour. He was our butler," Julia replied with a sniffle.
"It's always the butler," Samus muttered, then leaned forward, casting her shadow onto the deceased kids. "Okay, look here kids. What happened to your family is tragic, but our top priority here is to get Marth back into his body. We'll try to help your father but I'm not entirely sure what you're expecting us to do."
"Just convince him to come with us," Dale answered. "We kept you locked in here when we were having fun at first, but now our father is using his power to keep you inside, so you'll have to stop him if you want to get out. And no one else can get in."
"So Fox wouldn't be able to do anything..." Captain Falcon whispered to himself.
"Not to alarm you, my friends," Marth spoke up again. "But the souls of the living cannot exist outside of their bodies for too long. This transparency you see is not just the effect of being removed from my body, but also the evidence that I may no longer exist before dawn." Despite this massive reveal, the prince's mood was actually quite light.
Claude folded his arms and looked down at the children in discontent. "Maybe you shoulda confessed all of this a little sooner?"
"It was Dale's idea to get you to help us," Julia added on, as if suddenly shifting the blame to her older brother.
Dale didn't seem bothered by that. In fact, they all sensed a bit of cockiness in him. "We tried to guide you in order for you to help us. We had to show you what happened here without giving ourselves away."
Kirby was confused. "What are you talking about? We were wandering around the house aimlessly until recently!"
The siblings traded glances. "Maybe you'll understand after this," Julia said. Her appearance changed. Her face, her clothing, her existence, all slowly faded away, leaving only her silhouette, which became malleable and shaped itself into a loose circle. A pink coloration faded into the new silhouette, and Kirby realized that he was looking at a double of himself.
"You were the fake Kirby?" Yoshi bellowed in outrage. "I bet you electrocuted me too!"
"No, that was me," Dale admitted with a smirk, a spark fizzling on his fingertips. "You were kicking my sister around so I had to teach you a lesson."
"Why you little...!"
Claude grabbed Yoshi before he could pounce. "What're you gonna do to him? He's a ghost, remember?"
Yoshi calmed down but still had to ask, "Why didn't you just tell us this from the start?"
"The ghost of a girl walks up to you and asks you to save the soul of her dead father," Samus answered. "How would you react?"
The dino shrugged. "I don't know! I've never been in a situation like that!"
"Exactly. They didn't want to scare us off so they slowly guided us to the revelation of their situation."
Over the course of the conversation, Claude swore that Marth was becoming more transparent than before. He brought the topic back on track when he thought aloud, "I've heard of possessions but I didn't know you could get pushed out of your own body."
"Do you think you can reclaim your body?" Zelda asked. She reached out for the prince's hand. It was a fruitless effort when her hand clasped air, but just the notion behind the gesture was enough to bring their eyes to lock, warranting a smile from Marth.
Link snorted but otherwise said nothing. Julia longed for her human body after that display and returned to her original form.
"I believe so," Marth replied. "If we can subdue Mr. Worthington, the next task will be up to me. He may be more familiar with the privileges and boundaries of a wandering spirit, but I do not give up so easily. This is of course if he doesn't willingly surrender in the unlikely chance that we are able to persuade him to rejoin with his children."
Kirby's face lit up with an idea. "He was looking for Alana, right? If we catch her, we can lure him to us!"
"We don't know where she is, and how do you 'catch' a ghost anyway?" Young Link pondered. He wasn't really looking for an answer; chasing ghosts was not his idea of a good time.
"We don't need her. I have a better idea," Samus announced, and then turned her gaze back upon the Worthington children. "We'll need access to some of Alana's clothing...but we haven't seen much in the way of personal possessions since we got here."
"Oh, that's our fault," Dale said, twiddling his thumbs. "We can make things disappear and reappear. You're not the first ones to go snooping through our home. Can't let just anybody walk away with our things, right?"
Samus understood and nodded. "Which explains why some of the rooms were barren and yet that diary was sitting in plain sight."
"We can take you to the master bedroom upstairs," Julia told them with a genuine smile plastered on her face. For the first time, it seemed like her father would be getting the help he really needed.
"There's still the little redead problem we have out there," Kirby noted.
"Leave it to me!" Dale proclaimed confidently. Like his sister did before him, he too displayed the ability to abandon his original appearance and turned himself into a clone of Captain Falcon, Space Pirate costume intact. He glanced back to the occupants in the room one last time and leapt through the frozen door, in plain site of his new audience.
The fake Falcon let out a bloodcurdling scream before breaking into an exaggerated run on the tips of his toes down one of the hallways. New, possibly even excited moans escaped the rotted maws of the redead as they slowly turned and went in pursuit.
"They bought it," Samus uttered in mild disbelief, watching the scene from her X-Ray Visor. She was still getting some interference with her visor modes, but it was clear enough for her to see the living dead shambling to another part of the manor.
The red glow of the Plasma Beam was accompanied by a hum as Samus melted the ice off the door. In the meantime, Young Link couldn't shake his lingering morbid curiosity. There was one thing still on his mind since they first stepped foot on Worthington property.
"What exactly was that thing that chased us in here?"
Julia smiled at the younger Link and begun to gently sway her body left and right, letting the dress mimic her movement.
Young Link felt uncomfortable with her sudden attention. "Uh...hello?"
"Oooohhh...that's our dog, Petri," the girl finally replied, still smiling. "Don't be mad at him. He just wanted to play."
"Riiight..."
"It's no big deal. I bet he likes you. I know I do," Julia whispered, inching ever closer to Young Link. He gulped and backed into a wall, but was saved when the last chunk of ice cracked and fell to the floor under the intensity of the Plasma Beam.
Samus opened the door, satisfied with her work. "Okay Julia, lead the way."
Captain Falcon's shaky hand fiddled through his bag of candy and retrieved a piece of bubble gum. He was never actually that fond of gum, but chewing anything right about now would help to calm his nerves. Ever since the ghosts decided to show themselves, he had been thoroughly freaked out.
"Arrrgh," he whispered to no one in particular before depositing the pink chewing gum within his maw.
Kirby rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the others. He, both Links, Falcon and Claude had been put on guard duty outside of the bedroom. The actual trip had been the most uneventful thing to happen in the house that night. With the redead off in some other part of the house, the children no longer playing pranks, and the Marth-disguised Niles Worthington most likely engaged in ways to destroy his wife's soul, there was simply no one left to harass them at the moment. And he found himself surprisingly bored because of it.
"I was expecting a little more commotion than this," the puffball admitted.
"I know, right?" Claude agreed. "You get mentally prepared for somethin' and then nothing happens. It's almost a letdown."
"You guys are crazy," Captain Falcon said through chewed gum. "I'll take all the peace we can get."
"Well it's not like it's over. We've still got to confront that Niles guy," Young Link mentioned with more nonchalance than Falcon cared for.
"Alright, this is gettin' boooring," Claude said after a few more minutes of mundanity. "I'm gonna see what they're doin' in there." He entered the master bedroom only to stifle a laugh.
"I don't understand why I have to be the one to do this!" Yoshi whined as Samus and Zelda pulled a white dress over him. "I don't look anything like a human female!"
"You're the only one that can pull this off," Zelda told him, forcing his arm through one of the dress's frilly white sleeves. He fought her, but he wasn't winning.
"What about you two?"
"He'd expect that," she replied flatly, adjusting the sleeves.
"Then what about Captain Falcon?"
"He's too tall."
"Claude?"
"His complexion is darker than Alana's."
"But I'm green!"
"We know, and we won't hold that against you," Samus tacked on casually.
Yoshi ignored her and continued his pleading. "Link?"
Zelda almost laughed. "You try getting a dress on him."
"But he's already wearing one!" Yoshi threw his head back with a haughty laugh. The girls ducked when a boomerang slammed into Yoshi's face, bounced through the air and returned to its owner.
"Hmph," Link muttered, leaving the room in content.
"I wish we could do something about this stomach," Zelda said, poking Yoshi in the gut. He would have complained if he wasn't still reeling from the boomerang.
"What about this?" Claude asked, holding up a garment with a devious smile.
Yoshi instantly snapped out of his daze. "No! NO! I am NOT wearing a corset!"
"Like we'd subject ourselves to such visual torture," Samus said, trying very hard to burn the image out of her mind. She gave Claude a sharp look and he tossed the corset back into the trunk of clothes he found it in, holding his arms out in a amused, carefree pose.
Zelda was too busy mulling over her own thoughts to give the prior scene much thought. "What I don't understand is why Alana tried to steal my body. What will that accomplish?"
"Niles Worthington wants to completely destroy her," Marth spoke suddenly after stepping through a wall. He startled Yoshi so badly that the dinosaur would have leapt a mile had Samus and Zelda not been holding him down by the dress. "My apologies, Yoshi. As I was saying, I have no recollection of a method for one spirit to 'kill' another. There has to be a task that she can only perform with a human body."
"She's probably tryin' to find a way not to get exorcised," Claude mentioned in indifference, rummaging through the trunk for more embarrassing clothes for Yoshi.
Zelda let go of the dress's collar. "Yes! The exorcism spell is specifically for dealing with lingering spirits! It would not be very effective against her if she were to take refuge in a living body."
Samus eyed Zelda from behind the visor. The stunned look on Zelda' s face told her that there was much more to it than that. "So what else is there?"
"The spell is so powerful that it would impact the entire house! Not only would Alana be affected...but so would the kids! And Marth!" She quickly buttoned the top of the dress and backed away from Yoshi. "This is all we can do. We have to make this work, and not just for Marth's sake!"
"What about his gigantic nose?" Claude asked, still highly entertained by the situation.
"I've got a solution for that," Samus said, retrieving a white lace bonnet from the trunk. Yoshi bore an unending scowl as the bounty huntress fastened it to his head. "Stop that. The sooner you go through with this, the sooner we can get out of here."
He folded his arms as Samus corralled him out into the hallway. Captain Falcon looked slightly more disturbed by this turn of events, and Young Link keeled over laughing.
"Is this what it was all about?" he could barely utter through hysterical laughter.
Yoshi's scowl deepened. "Shut it, pipsqueak!"
"I think it's great that Yoshi would go this far to help Marth and the kids out," Kirby commended his friend. Yoshi's attitude didn't change.
"Don't patronize me!" he shouted back at the puffball.
"But...I'm not."
Zelda approached Yoshi and laid her hands upon his shoulders. "We're counting on you for this. We'll hide in the bedroom and you'll call for Niles, but we'll still be right here. Don't worry."
Yoshi looked into the princess's eyes and realized that the gentleness and concern in her voice was very much genuine. It softened his mood, if only just a bit. "What happens when he shows up?"
"You'll have to keep him convinced that you're his wife and try to get him to take you back to wherever he's hiding out. We'll follow you." Zelda let go of Yoshi and addressed everyone in the hallway as she continued, "hopefully we can persuade him to stop what he's doing. But if that doesn't happen...well...we'll just have to put good use to all of that experience saving the world and training for tournaments."
She didn't want to think of the outcome of that scenario and could only imagine the rage that consumed Niles Worthington's soul for fifty years. She truly pitied the man. They all did.
The hallway emptied out as everyone filed into the master bedroom, leaving Yoshi and his white dress as the only living soul there.
"Go ahead," Zelda urged him, peering through the keyhole. "Call for him."
Yoshi sighed, feeling even more ridiculous with everyone waiting on him to go through with it. "Niles. Niles, come out wherever you are."
"He can't hear you like that," Young Link said from behind the door. "We can barely even hear you in here!"
Yoshi muttered something nasty under his breath before shouting, "Niles! Niles, come on out!"
"You have to say it like you're his longing wife," Zelda suggested with a whisper.
"Aaaaargh!" Yoshi moaned, pulling down on the bonnet in frustration.
"Hey, that's my line!" Captain Falcon whined, looking around to see if anyone else was as upset about it as he was. Predictably, they weren't.
"Oh Niles! I missed you...honey." Yoshi was flustered to say the least.
"Hahaha!"
"Shhhh!"
They waited, but the call went unanswered.
"They were married, so play the part," Claude told him. "Act like he did something wrong."
Yoshi grinned. He wanted to rip into this Niles guy ever since he first heard about him, and now was the perfect opportunity. It didn't matter that he was alone in the halls of a haunted manor, or that he was wearing the dress of a dead woman. "Niles Worthington, YOU GET YOUR STUPID, CHEATING ASS OUT HERE RIGHT NOW OR WE'RE GETTING A DIVORCE!"
A harsh wind whipped against his back. He turned around, nearly tripping on the dress, but found no source of the phenomenon. When he turned back around, Marth was staring down at him with the burning eyes of a scorned father.
"Um...hi honey."
"You brazen wench!" Niles hissed with more vitriol than Marth ever displayed. "You dare show yourself before me after what you did to my family?"
"I'm sorry," Yoshi said, fidgeting. He had to make something up on the spot. "I wanted to make it up to you."
The stolen face of Marth contorted from disgust to slight confusion. "What kind of trick is this? Why do you look like that?"
"I...needed a body! So I took this one."
"Terrible choice."
Yoshi kept his display of displeasure as a low grumble, which turned into a gasp when Niles suddenly closed the distance between them and lifted him by the neck.
"So, you claim to be my wife," he stated with subtle fury, ripping the bonnet off of Yoshi. "Whether it's true or not, it was a stupid stunt for you to pull. We'll find out the truth soon enough."
Niles bore an ill intent smile as he lifted off of the ground by a good two feet. Yoshi's cries of help were drowned out when they rocketed through the air and down the hallway.
One chapter and an epilogue to go!