Chapter 8: 20-8-18-5-5
I wasn't willing to do this. I did not want to splat Marie whom I also now think of as Emily, since her voice was sometimes projected through the Squid Sister several times before it came down to this. I already splatted Callie whom I thought was a fun and enjoyable character because of my character, and I especially did not want to see my character splat Emily's favorite character.
My inkling held his roller out, and I could hear quiet whimpering coming inside of the darkened and somewhat empty apartment complex I moved my inkling toward. Even Denver, whom wasn't afraid before, was somewhat confused and scared from what I could tell from his expression as the whimpering of Marie got louder inside of the building.
Soon, I could hear a voice come from my character which seemed to make Denver shake even more as he began breathing heavily.
"She's around here somewhere..." My character said in a distorted version of Callie's voice, while I just continued forward inside of the apartment complex. My inkling soon turned back, and closed the door behind him, bearing a grin on his face as he locks the doors.
I didn't even touch any of the buttons on my Gamepad, and saw that my character was moving on his own.
"Denver, do you see this?" I nudged him to look down, and he saw that I wasn't even touching any of the buttons and joysticks while my character kept on walking through the empty building.
"You weren't shitting me, Sam." He bluntly says, both of us just watching as my character inched closer to the noise, until he stands in front of a busted down door that has been haphazardly put back together.
"Marie, are you in here?" My character says with Callie's voice, only to be met with silence as he stepped inside of the room, holding his roller as his eyes began to glow white.
"Come on out, Marie. It's me... your cousin, Callie..." He giggled in the Squid Sister's voice, and we suddenly heard something shuffling where the living room is. He steps toward the sofa, his grin showed razor sharp inkling teeth as he just stood above the furniture.
"PEEK-A-BOO!" He flips the sofa, and Marie soon steps backward toward the window, looking afraid as she lets out a short scream and gets up to her feet.
"NO! GET AWAY FROM ME! WHOEVER YOU ARE, YOU AREN'T THE SAM I KNEW!" She screams at my character in Emily's voice, sweat falling down her forehead as my character lets out a disturbingly high-pitched laugh that progressively turns low-pitched.
"Of course I'm not Sam... heh, did you really think, the Sam that you loved and cared about would be like this!?" He proceeds to swing his roller at Marie, but she turns into a squid and manages to avoid being splatted as she is cornered by my character after trying to escape.
"You can't hide, Emily... even if you die, I will always be there to haunt you..." He grins again, and readies his roller to splat Marie. The Squid Sister soon lets out a scream as he swings his roller at her while laughing maniacally, and the game freezes like usual.
I screamed out Emily's name, only for the game to suddenly stop being freezing as both me and Denver were surprised upon what we saw after the game unfroze.
In front of Marie, stood an octoling. A male octoling with purple tentacles, his hair looking almost exactly like an inkling boy's hair, except that it had octoling pods on them. He was holding what seems to be a grappling hook as he drops it on the ground, and lets out a wheezing noise after taking the blow from my character for Marie.
"What's the meaning of this!?" My character shouted at the octoling in my voice, the purple-tentacled octoling chuckling quietly as he proceeds to kick my character toward a wall with great force, shattering the wall into pieces as he looks at the Squid Sister. A cutscene began to play out.
"W-wha... who are you...?" The Squid Sister asks, to which the octoling grins at her, and takes out his Dynamo Roller, facing it toward where my character he kicked toward.
"N-names... Epsilon. Don't worry... I-I've had worse than t-this..." A large gash has appeared on the octoling's chest as he starts bleeding out dark, purple ink from his wound that he clutches with his other hand. Me and Denver just watched the cutscene continue playing out, intrigued by this new character.
"Epsilon, do you need help!? I-" Marie kneels down to the dying octoling, to which he only responds with a laugh.
"Marie, listen to me... take my grappling hook, AND GET OUT OF HERE AS FAST AS YOU CAN! I'll take care of this little bastard myself!" He shouts at Marie, taking out his Dynamo Roller, while Marie takes his grappling hook he dropped on the ground and activates her bubbler.
"I-I'm so sorry for this, Epsilon..." She mutters with tears forming in her eyes, before jumping out of the window the octoling crashed through and out of the apartment complex while this "Epsilon" character stands up, looking at the wall he's shattered as I spot half of my character's face having been torn off, revealing the shadowy inkling underneath as it shows a white smile on it with one of its eyes completely white. The creature that I met before Callie was splatted by it.
"So... you're... the creature who nearly w-wiped my race off of this planet, huh?" He looks at him, growling at my inkling while a purple aura began to form around the octoling. And soon enough, there was music. A music in the form of a choir playing in the background along with distant drums being heard as I saw his wound slowly regenerate.
The two characters looked at each other while me and Denver just watched the cutscene play out, excited and nervous about what was going to happen soon. The octoling had hints of tears coming down his face, and his face was filled with the expression of hate as he gritted his teeth at the creature.
"You... you aren't an inkling, are you?" He asks, his body starting to take on something new that me and Denver couldn't explain at first on his feet.
"You're something much, much worse than an inkling. A creature who finds fun in killing others, don't you? You hit me pretty damn hard, and I was about to be splatted like every victim of yours..." I saw something that caught my interest for the octoling. His feet have gained the Power Boots that you usually get from completing the Squid amiibo challenges, except these boots seemed to emit a faint glow to them as Epsilon continues his speech to my character.
"But... there's something deep in my soul that just screamed out that I can't give up. I can't give up on Callie, Octavio and EVERYONE YOU TOOK FROM ME!" He screams at my character, his legs starting to form a piece of the power armor, sporting purple tubes on them. At this point, I knew, that this was going to be a boss battle against this Epsilon character. But I didn't want to fight him, and instead fight against my character whom I hated at this point for nearly killing Marie, and probably even Emily if it really was her.
"I won't let you torture any more inklings or octarians that you come across. Especially the one whom was supposed to control you when you were first created. Right, S-Sam...?" He looked at the camera, at me and Denver as I began talking to the Gamepad, curious if this Epsilon character would respond to me.
"Y-you... you can hear me?" I utter quietly to the microphone, as I saw the octoling slightly nod a bit before speaking up.
"I c-can... Please, Sam, if you're listening..." His voice began to have a metallic echo to it as the Power Mask began to form around his head, his eyes barely being visible through the glowing visor as he finished his sentence.
"Join me... join me, and let's both take this little bastard down together for my last stand..." He smirks, as two choices began to appear on the screen. Immediately as it appeared, I heard my character scream at me through the camera.
"IF YOU SO MUCH AS JOIN HIM, THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES BOTH OF YOU!" His high-pitched voice screams through the camera as I ignore him, and choose the octoling over my character as the camera pans behind Epsilon. I hear the octoling chuckle through his mask, as I see my character's head twitch, his shadowy half grinning psychotically
"...So... you would rather turn your back on your own creation, don't you, Sam?" He pauses for a moment, before starting to chuckle quietly, bearing razor-sharp teeth inside of his mouth. "Even if you have Sam by your side, little octoling..." He swings his roller at the air in front of him, transforming it into a hellish variant bearing various ink-colored sawblades while his tentacles began to show spikes similar to a vampire squid as he begins laughing uncontrollably. Epsilon's transformation has finished as well, the octoling now wearing a full set of Power Gear covering his entire body as I heard his metallic breathing through the mask.
"Heh, you're going to have to WAY harder than that in order to splat me, fiend!" Epsilon chuckles in his suit, as my character looked at me and Epsilon as his model twitches and bends for a moment before pointing his roller at us both.
"YoU StIlL WoN't sTaNd a cHaNcE AgAiNsT Me wItH SaM HeLpInG YoU! I WiLl rEaP YoUr sOuL, JuSt lIkE I DiD WiTh cAlLiE AnD CuTtLeFiSh!" My character screams at Epsilon in a glitched voice, fierce and fast-paced drums begin to play in the background as he charges at my new character I was controlling for this fight, his Saw-Blade Roller that I'd like to call it ready to splat Epsilon.
Epsilon was an interesting character to control during the fight against my own character, despite being somewhat difficult to figure out his moves and weapons at first that he could use against the inkling.
The first thing that I noticed, was that I could switch between three weapons instead of using one weapon for the entire battle. A Soda Slosher, a Dynamo Roller, and a Heavy Splatling. But that wasn't the only thing that impressed me with Epsilon's character. He also had the ability to hover in the air, thanks to a built-in jetpack on his back that he sported that could be activated with the ZL or the ZR buttons. But this led to one weakness, and that was he couldn't turn into a squid, and the fact that he was somewhat slow while on the ground and not hovering due to the sheer weight of the Power Armor he was wearing. Another interesting thing that I noticed, was that whenever I activated the jetpack, a heroic choir would start playing until Epsilon landed on the ground below him, to which the fast paced and loud drums of death would return.
This was still an incredibly close fight between Epsilon and my character whom I'll refer to as "Genocide 3" from this point onward, since it fit that bastard's personality for having committed genocide against the octarians during the Great Zapfish campaign and feeling no remorse or regret whatsoever, as well as having killed Callie, Cuttlefish and many other inklings he had splatted during the Turf War missions.
Focusing back on the battle between Genocide 3 and Epsilon, the first thing I did was use the Soda Slosher on the inkling, constantly using it on Genocide 3 again, and again until Epsilon would run out of ink. But thanks to the power armor and other gear the octoling wore that would slowly restore his ink container, I could just switch to the roller and use it on Genocide 3 while it recharged.
I used all of my brutal and furious skills on taking Genocide 3 down, attempting to smack him with Epsilon's Dynamo Roller to which Genocide 3 would only defend himself with his own, hellish roller that barely managed to leave a scratch on Epsilon's Dynamo Roller with minor dents on it.
The two-faced inkling immediately leapt at Epsilon, his roller ready to slice my octoling in two as I attempted to avoid his attack, but failed as Epsilon let out a small cry of pain from within his suit after the saws left a gash on his arm. However, this left Genocide 3 open to an attack as his sawblade got stuck on a nearby wall that he attempted to get out of. Seeing that Epsilon's ink container was back to full, I immediately switched to the Soda Slosher and began constantly splashing ink on Genocide 3, screaming at the Gamepad at him: "DIE, BURN IN HELL!" while Denver began cheering me on during the fight.
But Genocide 3 soon let out a high-pitched roar after getting his roller unstuck, and to my shock and horror, he didn't seem to be affected by the Soda Slosher attacks whatsoever that I used on him. I soon pressed the ZL button, and activated Epsilon's jetpack as he began flying out of the window, shattering it in the process. Around Epsilon, I saw the dark and abandoned city of the Calamari City, no street lights having been turned on while some buildings even saw somewhat deteriorated and broken-down. I soon saw Genocide 3 leap onto Epsilon, roller in hand as we both began hovering downward. I quickly switched to the Dynamo Roller again, and actually managed smacked Genocide 3 across the face with it to me and Denver's surprise.
I saw that even more of his face has been melted off by Epsilon's roller, as he begins defying the laws of the game and takes out a new weapon: A realistic-looking sniper rifle as he begins to take aim at Epsilon. I barely managed to move Epsilon out of the way with his jetpack before both me and Genocide 3 land on the ground, a splatter of ink quickly flying past the octoling as Genocide 3 prepares another shot. Before now, Epsilon had the upper hand. But as soon as Genocide 3 shot the second splatter of ink at Epsilon, the tides began to change.
Epsilon's attacks were doing very little to harm Genocide 3, and even though with the Heavy Splatling and Soda Slosher weapons, the genocidal inkling would just walk through them as if nothing was wrong to him. I began to hear Genocide 3 chant something that caused me and Denver to suspect that he was charging up an attack. I constantly heard him mutter "Bloodshed" until it became loud enough to the point of filling the room we both were in. I had to cover my ears for a moment, but as soon as I did that, Genocide 3 ran toward Epsilon and bashed him across the Power Mask with his Sawblade Roller, staining them with purple ink as Epsilon let out a scream of pain. The Power Mask Epsilon wore soon shattered into pieces, leaving his head vulnerable as Genocide 3 grabbed him by the neck and began slamming Epsilon on the ground. I could see the joy in the sadistic inkling as he took his time, and eventually threw Epsilon onto a nearby building that collapsed on the ground from the octoling's impact.
"You are weak, Sam. You are weak, Epsilon. You both will die like the pathetic weaklings you are..." Genocide 3's grin formed on his lips again, and he quickly rushed to the building, about to splat Epsilon like he did with Callie and Cuttlefish. But Epsilon wasn't done yet.
Even though Epsilon was leaking ink out of his Power Suit, he and I still didn't give up so easily as he stood up and I managed to land another fatal blow to Genocide 3's head with his roller, the inkling letting out a weak laugh as he looked up at both of us, only a quarter of his face remaining as his razor-sharp teeth and white glowing eyes were completely shown at this point.
"We're... not done yet, you monster..." Epsilon muttered, bleeding out ink from his forehead and multiple areas of his face while Genocide 3 just chuckled demonically.
"How cute... you're still alive even after that attack? Don't worry..." He readied his Sawblade Roller, ready to charge at Epsilon. "I'll make this quick." He lets out a roar while Epsilon just stands there, smirking at him.
And that's when the screen cut to black, followed by something that sounded as though something was cut off along with the sound of liquid hitting the floor. And soon after, the screen faded back into view, and I saw that Epsilon has cut off one of Genocide 3's legs! The inkling let out a painful scream as the leg just disappeared and didn't even melt into ink, leaving Genocide 3 with only one leg to stand on.
"Time to finish this!" Epsilon readies his roller one last time, letting out a battle cry as he swings his roller onto Genocide 3, about to finish this battle. I was excited to see that genocidal monster die, only for my eyes to widen in fear as I saw Genocide 3 fire a splat of ink through Epsilon's chest with his sniper rifle, having the same grin on him as if nothing was wrong while Epsilon just stands there with a hole in his chest, roller in the air.
Tears began to stream down the octoling's face as he soon falls to his knees in defeat and drops his roller, wheezing as he looks at the hole in his chest.
"I told you. You're weak, Epsilon. 'Hero' of the Octarians..." He readies his Sawblade Roller, before Epsilon says one more as he grins in happiness.
"Heh... at least me and Sam... hurt you pretty damn good. I'll... s-see you soon, S-Sam..." He chuckles and smiles proudly before Genocide 3 swings his spiked, and ink-stained roller at Epsilon as the game freezes after the roller hits the octoling.
I was in shock, hearing Genocide 3's quiet laughter come from the television as white, glowing and smiling faces filled the screen's error message, followed by the console soon shutting itself off.
Me and Denver looked at each other, not saying a word as my friend got up from his seat and began to say something that confused me.
"What... the hell just happened?" He said in disbelief, not seeming to have understood what was going on for the whole fight. I was in disbelief myself, but not out of confusion. I was in disbelief how Genocide 3 managed to defeat Epsilon who nearly managed to kill him and end this nightmare once and for all. And now I know, that Marie is now back to being hunted by that demonic inkling again.
Deciding to end the game here, I got up, and didn't even turn on the television as I proceeded to make dinner for myself and Denver. Yet, while making some curry balls and sauce along with rice, I couldn't help but feel worried about Marie. If Marie really is Emily, then it gives me another reason to hate Genocide 3 for almost murdering my girlfriend.
After dinner, Denver told me, that he would come back to visit me and see the rest of the singleplayer campaign for himself tomorrow during the evening. We said goodbye to each other, and he soon walked back home as I just went to my room to get some sleep for myself.
I've stated before, that I didn't get to finish the rest of the story between me and Emily, so now I will finish the rest of the story before I get some sleep after having brushed my teeth and having had a rough day today.
When me and Emily fell asleep on our beds, I soon woke up minutes later to her whimpering and moving her legs in bed as if she was running away from something. I went over to her, and attempted to shove her in an attempt to wake her up as I heard her start to call for help in her sleep. She soon woke up with a terrified scream after I shouted her name, and I soon held around her as she began to cry and sob uncontrollably.
"Emily, don't worry! I'm here, it was just a nightmare!" I remembered saying to her, as she tried saying something. Something along the lines of: "S-Sam... this nightmare... I can't..." Before she burst into more tears, holding me closer to herself while I tried comforting her. Eventually, she managed to calm down after minutes have passed as I asked her if I should sleep next to her for the night. Her cheeks were red from having cried so much, but I could tell she nodded at me as laid down on her bed while Emily held around me.
"Emily, as long as I am here, nothing's going to hurt you. Alright?" I still remembered smiling at her while she barely smiled back at me, having completely calmed down as she slowly closed her eyes and fell asleep soon after. Throughout the whole night, she didn't even have a single nightmare while I was sleeping with her, holding around her as if I were a guardian angel to her.
I woke up the morning after, and saw that Emily was still sleeping soundly next to me as I gently proceeded to wake her up as well. Before starting our Sunday and finishing the rest of the Splatoon singleplayer mode along with preparing ourselves for another week at our high school tomorrow, we went to get something to eat downstairs together.
While eating our breakfast, I asked Emily what her nightmare she suffered was about, only for her to look down in a depressed manner, not wanting to answer my question. I was concerned for her health and wellbeing, considering the fact that she had suffered nightmares for over 5 months now and couldn't get any sleep whatsoever, along with her having been tired and depressed through the second half of the school year. She's even skipped some days over due to the state she's in, even after having been to the hospital a few times to be checked out and studied about the nightmares she has.
No one could understand why and how she's been suffering these nightmares, and she's refused to speak to anyone about it, including myself. But from what I've noticed, whenever she held around me when we slept together, her nightmares just stop all of a sudden as if they didn't even exist.
After finishing eating, we decided to play some Splatoon together, and actually had a bit of trouble fighting against DJ Octavio together when we reached him after defeating the Octowhirl and Octomaw bosses and playing through the last levels. Despite being somewhat difficult, we both still managed to defeat him, and I allowed Emily to deal the final blow to the boss after taking care of the last phase of the battle myself. We both were satisfied after finishing the campaign together, and we just sat back and watched the ending and credits. I attempted, and failed horribly at trying to read out Callie's quote in the most "girly" voice possible, to which Emily just chuckled at me while she was reading Marie's quotes out loud.
Her voice honestly fit Marie quite well, and we both had talked about becoming voice actors together once we finished our first year at our high school. Sometimes during school, she would do Marie impressions with some of the girls and boys who occasionally came to visit us both, like doing the Squid Sisters' intro and outro. Even though she sometimes tried to do a Callie voice, I just found her Marie voice to be better, as Marie and Emily seemed to have relatable personalities with each other.
Just a week before her death and the summer vacation staring, she wasn't even sleeping at all whenever we both went to bed together. I tried telling her to get some sleep sometimes, but she would just say in a monotone voice that she can't, saying that: "He doesn't want me to sleep..."
I was confused as to "He" Emily mentioned, and attempted to ask her to tell me who this "He" guy is, only for her to just tell me to go to sleep in an annoyed tone, ignoring my question completely as I just stare at her for a while.
"Emily, please, just tell me who this guy is, for god's sake!" I said to her with concern, only for her to respond in anger, telling me to go to sleep before "he" begins affecting me as well.
I did as she said soon afterward, and went to bed while holding her close to me. I could hear her just remain in silence, and not even sleeping, judging from the lack of breathing coming and movement from her. I soon woke up to her screaming loudly, jumping out of her bed and pointing at where the door is as she began to repeatedly say the words: "He's here." Over and over again until she just suddenly stopped.
This went on until the day when the summer vacation would start for all of us. Me and Emily were in our classroom together, and she just stared at me with fear and paranoia in her eyes, having dark bags under her eyes from the lack of sleep.
"Sam... I'm scared..." She muttered, whimpering quietly as I held her hand, telling her that we both would go to the hospital together after this is over to check up on her. She slowly nods, until the teacher walks in, only for her to start screaming, backing away toward the door leading to the balcony as my teacher looked at me in confusion.
"Emily! What's wrong!?" The teacher shouted at her, walking toward her as she stood at the edge of the balcony. I got up from my chair, and immediately ran toward her as I heard her seem to beg for her life.
"Emily, Calm down! It's me, your teacher! There's no need to-"
My heart dropped right there and then, as I screamed for Emily's name when she suddenly jumped off the balcony in fear. She fell to her death seconds later after I heard a gruesome splat on the ground, seeing her body having covered the ground below her with blood and brains.
I immediately ran downstairs to where her body was, and looked at her corpse in the eyes after crying over her as I soon heard the ambulance car arrive moments later. Her eyes were wide open with fear, and her face was barely recognizable to the point that it was just a mangled mess.
I was about to go to sleep soon after having written my experience with Emily with you all, but as soon as I laid on my bed, I heard my television suddenly turn on with a burst of static. I looked at it in confusion, and was about to turn the screen off until I saw something that made me freeze like a statue. I saw what seemed to be a low-quality recording from a camera, and I saw, that it was recorded in my former high school, right outside of where the special classroom me and Emily shared together before her death.
Soon, I saw what seemed to be a shadowy hand with claws open the door, and the exact same thing happened as I witnessed my past being relived in front of me. I began to hear what seemed to be Genocide 3's voice as Emily on the screen began to scream like she did before her death.
"Emily..." It said in a perverted, and demonic voice as it slowly began to walk toward her while she backed away to the balcony door with me following her like I did while trying to save her 8 months ago.
"Kill yourself..." I saw it take out its spiked roller it used on Epsilon, and he began to utter the word: "Kill" and "Yourself" over and over again as he slowly walked toward Emily, until he suddenly charged straight at her after what seemed to be 10 seconds of walking toward her, letting out a loud, echoing and demonic roar that made me jump from my bed and let out a scream of horror as the video suddenly cut to loud static afterward just seconds before my girlfriend jumped off the balcony.
I quickly shut the television off after finding the remote, shock and horror having overwhelmed my feelings as I just stared at the screen, dumbstruck at what I've seen while my entire body was shaking in fear and my heart was beating quickly.
I now understood at this point. Understood what has been plaguing Emily's nightmares before she died. Now I understood, why she couldn't get any sleep whatsoever, and what made her jump from the balcony to her window.
I felt a new type of hatred slowly churn up inside of me after witnessing what made my girlfriend kill herself almost a year ago, and I frowned in anger as I said one thing before I went to bed, my hand curling up into a fist.
"You're going to pay for this, you bastard..."
Author's Note: Well, time for my small hiatus to begin! I'll be going away for 4 days now for the Iceland competition, and my team will crush the Icelandic team together!
Oh, and just to make you all jealous, I will also be going to the Blue Lagoon as well and have an awesome time there with my friends, father and swimming teacher as well! So for now, I guess I will take a small break from writing as a whole.
Also, I think it's time for me to man up and grow a damn spine, because I'm too much of a soft person that just went mad and psycho over one review that criticized the story. JUST ONE REVIEW! For god's sake, what was I even thinking while writing to Ultrapyre? Ultrapyre, if you're reading this, I was just completely bitter after having woken up, and I didn't really think straight while writing my private message to you. I should've just asked: "What can I do to make this better?"
From now on, I'll try to use subtlety and maybe rename this fan fiction, because "Genocide Version" doesn't really fit. Maybe I could rename it to: "Splatoon Creepypasta: New Update" instead, since this isn't Undertale.
Anyways, I'll go back to working on The Rainstorm now after this chapter! It's time to work on Part 1 for the finale! See you all after my small Iceland vacation!