This is the end to part 1! Hope you guys enjoyed the amazingly morose chapters of intense angst and depressing anguish! Woohoo!

Don't worry, things look up starting in the next chapter! Part two is gonna be a doozie (yes, that is a word...one of the best ones ever), its when the plot really takes off. Keep in touch and PLEASE keep reviewing! Reviews are the most helpful and appreciatory things that readers can do!

FYI-I'll continue part two in THIS story. I will NOT be beginning a new story for the next chapters. Also, chapter 6 might be a long one, so it may take a bit more than a week to write. Just a heads up!

Chapter 5

"Fraternity dear will be threatened

to incite his ceaseless search"

Link flew past the high school; racing home, racing himself, racing the unknown. His neighborhood blurred past, morphing into his unpaved road. Dust kicked up by passing cars caught on his sweat soaked face, coating his cheeks. In his chest, Link's heart was beating louder than ever. He thought that he could hear it over the crunch of his tires pushing through the gravel. A low hanging tree branch swatted him in the face, making a long cut under his right eye, but he ignored it and sped on; he was out of time.

In the distance, Link could see his house. He had spent the last 3 years of his life living in that house, but strangely, it didn't seem like home. Now it was alien to him. The door's open, he realized as he drew closer. Sam never leaves the door open. Tears stimulated by the biting sting of the wind were making wet tracks through the heavy layer of dirt on Link's cheeks. His legs burned, but he was almost there. Almost—

Panting, Link jumped wildly off of his rolling bicycle as he reached the front lawn. "Sam!" he yelled as he sprinted through the front door. "Sam, where are you?!" He wasn't in the foyer; he wasn't in the living room. As Link turned toward Sam's bedroom however, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. "Sam!" he yelled as he jumped into the kitchen. His heart caught in his mouth.

There, lying on the tile floor in front of the refrigerator, was Sam. Out from his blood-soaked apron protruded the tip of a kitchen knife, and strewn about the floor around him were upended containers and broken jars from the fridge. Link couldn't believe his eyes. His breath caught violently in his throat and he sank to his knees in a daze. In those few moments, Link could see his life with Sam pass before his eyes; all the times that they had shared together, all the hardships, all the pain, all the accomplishments, all the joy.

"Sam!" Link screamed in anguish. "NO!" His brother, his role-model, his only real family left, was lying motionless in a pool of blood. How could this happen? How could the goddesses let this happen?

Sobbing in pain and gasping for breath, Link slowly crawled over to his brother's body. With a trembling hand, Link reached out and felt for the beating of Sam's heart. There was nothing, only the cold chill of death.

A miserable keening wail built up in Link's heart and escaped through his lips. Uncontrollable tremors ripped through his body, and he buried his face and hands in Sam's blood coated apron, plastering the warm residue of life across his cheek. No…Sam…No…he kept repeating to himself. He couldn't think straight, sorrow and pain overflowing his mind. It seemed like he lay there for an eternity, sobbing into his brother's chest. His heart ached, and Link knew that, in some ways, it would never stop aching. How could this happen? Suddenly, a light turned on inside of Link's mind. The knife. With a start, Link realized that his brother had been stabbed. Sam had been murdered. Anger now joined Link's lonely pain.

A shrill laugh pierced the air. The noise, so high-pitched that it couldn't have originated from any human mouth, caused Link to shiver and clutch even tighter to Sam's apron. Recovering, Link shot up and spun around to find the source of the foreign noise, sweat and tears flying away from his body to be caught in the sunlight. It was that same sunlight that made an eerie flickering outline around the imposter.

Link's eyes adjusted to the bright light slowly, and as he began to make out the figure before him, his breath caught. Mind reeling, Link backed against the cupboard, resisting the strong urge to retch upon the floor. How is this possible? Link asked himself. For there, standing before him, laughing harshly, mouth open and eyes wide in fervent ecstasy, was himself. Every curve, every hair, was disturbingly familiar. It was as if he wasn't in his body any more, as if it wasn't his own.

The thing's mirth seemed to die out as its laughter quieted to a chuckle, then ceased. "So…it's you. You're the one!" Link was speechless. His frantic brain was still trying to process this new phenomenon. What was this thing, this monster? He swept his gaze over himself. It looks exactly like me! Goddesses, what's going on?!

"You've caused us…quite some trouble," the copy continued. It's high-pitched voice matched it's shrill laugh, and it spoke in bursts, as if it had to force the words into existence. The chopped up method of speech made it seem that much more inhuman. "But it seems as if we've…already begun settling that…particular debt." The figure swept it's dull gaze over Sam's lifeless body. Link's eyes widened in tormented understanding; so this was his brother's killer.

"If only you could have seen…the look in his eyes…when he realized that he had been killed…by his own brother. It was…" the copy paused to tauntingly like his lips. "Delicious."

Deep inside of Link, something snapped. Within a moment, all of his grief and anguish was replaced with a infinite burning rage; he wanted to scream, he wanted to kill the monster in front of him, he wanted to tear it's flesh, his own flesh. Without thinking, Link sprang up and grabbed a knife out of the knife block on the counter behind him.

"Now what…are you planning to do with that?" The monster taunted him, mocking his pain.

Screaming, Link lunged forward, knife searching for the heart of his brother's killer, his heart. The copy didn't even try to avoid Link's thrust as the blade drew nearer and nearer to its heart. Link cringed as the knife buried itself in the thing's chest. It looked just like his own chest, like he was attacking himself.

Something was wrong, the figure's face was contorted in silent laughter. In confusion Link looked down, and gasped. The knife hadn't pierced the monster's chest at all; it had gone right through it. The copy's body swirled sickeningly around the knife like a dark fog, unscathed by the knife's sharp edge.

It began to laugh wildly, slowly bringing its too familiar face even closer to Link's. "Fool! You cannot pierce the shadow!" Without any warning, it brought its fist into Link's stomach, inhuman strength sending him flying across the room and into an oak cupboard. For a moment, Link just lay where he had fallen, trying to catch his breath through the pain. Suddenly a hand harshly snagged a chunk of his hair and lifted Link's entire body off of the floor, feet dangling a foot above the tile.

"So…weak," the shadow muttered to itself, as if it had completely forgotten of Link. "How can something this weak…be such a threat?"

"Shut up!" Link yelled furiously. His hands desperately trying to clasp the smoky hand tangled in his hair. The copy just stared at him, hungrily.

"Such a shame…that I'm not allowed…to kill you…yet. Your screams…would make me feel so…alive." It's eyes rolled into the back of its head at the thought, tongue darting out to lick its all too familiar lips. "Just like…your brother's."

"What the hell are you?!" Link spat, his blood boiling. A toothy smile bloomed on the monster's face, but the smirk never touched its eyes.

"Fool!" it screamed loudly, then lowered its voice to almost a whisper. "I'm you." Chills ran down Link's spine, making him shiver violently.

What is this thing? With a laugh the copy drove its knee into Link's groin and dropped him onto the floor. Spots swam in front of Link's vision, but he forced his arms underneath himself. Just as he began to push himself back up though, somebody knocked on the front door.

"Link?" Malon's voice rang hesitantly through the house. "Link are you here? You rushed off and I got worried—"

"Malon, run!" Link screamed. "Get out of here!" She can't be here! Link thought frantically. Why is she here?

"Link?" Malon yelled worriedly, taking a few nervous steps into the house. "Are you alright?" The pained undertone to Link's voice made her hesitate.

The hysterical, shrill laughter began again. "Well…who's this?" is asked mockingly.

"You stay away from her!" Link shouted, swinging a fist at the thing's legs. Just as before, his arm passed right through, causing Link to fall back onto the ground.

"Stay away?" It laughed. "No…she'll make a fine prize…for my master."

Link's heart skipped a beat. "Malon, run! Get out of here—" Suddenly, a foot connected with the side of Link's face, sending him through the kitchen door and into the foyer where Malon was still uneasily lingering.

"Goddesses! Link!" Malon screamed, running over to him.

"Malon…" Link breathed. His mind was hazy. "Run…" Malon screamed as a hand grasped her hair and pulled her up from where she had been crouched near Link's collapsed body.

"Hey baby," the figure said shrilly as he turned Malon's head toward his own. Malon gasped, stifling her scream. "No? Oh well…playtime's over." Laughing that horrible manic laugh, the figure seemed to blur, growing darker and darker around the edges. It grew darker and darker and darker. So dark, that Link felt as if it were absorbing the light around it, soaking in all the warmth in the room. Finally, laughing shrilly all the while, it formed itself into the shape of a man, but it was so black that it engaged the mind as nothing more than a deep, solid shadow. It wore a midnight black tunic, and upon its head was a matching hat that trailed down past his shoulders.

And its eyes—oh its eyes. They shone out clear, vivid blood red, staring out from the shadow's face. The eyes provoked paralyzing fear into any who looked upon them, for they were not merely red eyes, but deep, deep pools of morbid agony and depression that seemed to reach into the depths of hell itself.

Turning on its heel, the shadow fiend began striding toward the open door, Malon's squirming body still in tow; her eyes were wide, but she was still in too much shock to scream.

"Stop…" Link panted, eyes going in and out of focus. "Leave her alone…" In desperation, Link began to work his unresponsive body across the floor toward Malon. He was on the verge of losing consciousness, and his legs seemed to have already slipped into the void.

"You just don't know when to quit…do you?" The shadow laughed again as its boot drove into Link's struggling body, sending him tumbling violently along the floor and into the far wall. With a crack, his head connected with unrepentant wood.

"Link!" he could hear Malon scream, her voice returned, as his mind darkened. Grief relentlessly pursued him into unconsciousness, tearing at his heart and grinding at his soul even inside the void. I have lost them. It was less than a thought, it was less than an idea; it was a feeling. A feeling of deep, unfathomable regret and loss. A feeling of something Link had only felt once before, when he had last lost two of his loved ones. I have lost them.