Chapter 23 Mental Break

Ludwig blinked. At this point, Lemmy's breathing rate began to speed up. He took in one strained breath after another, placing his hand on his chest as his legs shook like jello. Ludwig's insides felt squirmy just looking at this. He had a feeling that things were about to go extremely wrong extremely fast.

As such, he decided that the best thing to do would be to act quickly. Pushing his worries to the side for a minute, he approached Lemmy and put his hand on his shoulder, petting it smoothly and gently. "Lemmy, it's okay." He used a calm voice when speaking, one that he hoped would help Lemmy's mood. "You probably just dropped the ring without realizing it."

Lemmy didn't look comforted by these words at all, which made Ludwig's heart pound. Lemmy turned and looked up at his brother, his eyes wide. But they weren't wide with fear. They were wide with a million emotions, but fear wasn't one of them.

"That's ludicrous! That would be a mistake, and the great Shellock Holmes doesn't make mistakes!"

Ludwig's heart skipped a beat. Oh no. No no no, please! Please don't let Lemmy go down this route again! Please don't let him lose his mind and become Shellock Holmes! He had been horrified by that thought when he first got the costume! And knowing how guilty he had felt after that first episode... no. No one, least of all him, could afford another one like this.

"Lemmy…" Ludwig's spoke with a slow and methodical tone. He patted Lemmy's shoulder, hopeful that action would help Lemmy feel better (it had in the past). "Lemmy, it's fine. It's all going to be fine. Just take deep breaths and…"

Much to Ludwig's shock, Lemmy batted Ludwig's hand away. He glared at him now, the expression as lethal as lava. Ludwig's heart pounded in his mouth, and he sweated as Lemmy glared at him with the angriest expression ever.

"No! Things are not fine, Ludwig! Saying that they are is nothing but a fallacy!" He seethed now, the heat in his eyes rivaling that of the sun. "I need to find that ring! I won't stop at anything until I find that ring!" He scowled. "That ring is a major part of the case, and if it is missing... I can't stop with my investigating. I can't!"

A lump formed in Ludwig's throat. "But Lemmy, you're not in any condition to look for the ring right now…"

"Codswallop! I've never felt better!" He glared at Ludwig, still seething. "I am operating at the best, most emotionally sound level!"

Could Lemmy speak words that were anymore false? "But Lemmy, you need to…"

"MY NAME IS SHELLOCK!" Lemmy's scream was so explosive that it caused Ludwig to shriek and jump back. "I am Shellock, the greatest detective there ever was! And I'm not gonna let anyone get in my way of solving this ever so important, critical case." He squinted his eyes at Ludwig. "Least of all you!" He made his way toward the door.

"LEMMY!" Completely on impulse, Ludwig activated his telekinesis to hold Lemmy in place. The pain when he did this was unbearable, especially as Lemmy kicked and struggled.

"LET ME GO! LET GO OF ME RIGHT THIS INSTANT!"

Biting his lip to keep himself from screaming, Ludwig walked up to Lemmy. "Lemmy, please stop! You need to listen to me; we need to take you to Kamek right away…"

"NO!" Lemmy's thrashing and kicking got even worse, which made Ludwig's pain surpass levels that it never had before. Tears streamed from the Koopaling's eyes as he recognized that doing this for any longer could result in horrific consequences. He let go of Lemmy and collapsed to the ground, cringing at the stringing sensations all over his body.

"I'M GOING TO FIND THE RING!" Lemmy ran out of the room. Even though Ludwig was hurting, however, he still wasn't going to let Lemmy go without a fight.

"L… Lemmy, wait…!"

It was too late. Lemmy was gone, leaving Ludwig alone in the room. He lay on the floor, focusing on both his breathing and his frustration.

"Damn it," he uttered. He slowly rose to his feet, his legs threatening to give out. He hurt too much to fly, so he made his way toward the door. It was probably the most difficult thing he'd ever had to do, as the residual pain from holding Lemmy in place made his very bones scream in agony. He put his hand on the doorframe, looking down the hallway. Lemmy was gone, nowhere to be seen.

"Shit," Ludwig said. He took deep breaths, hoping that the flow of oxygen would help. It kind of did; it didn't make the pain stop completely, but he at least didn't feel as though he had been put in a vat of boiling oil (not that that meant much). He locked his gaze on one door in particular. It was the door directly across from his and Lemmy's room; the door to Iggy's bedroom. Taking a deep breath, Ludwig walked over there. Every step felt like he was walking across broken glass, but he didn't care. This was serious. This needed to be dealt with as soon as possible.

Creak. The door opened without much difficulty, and Ludwig looked toward the middle of the green-walled room. Iggy laid in his bed, sound asleep with his glasses on the nightstand. A string of drool flowed from his mouth, something that Ludwig would probably tease him about under normal circumstances. But these weren't normal circumstances; he needed to leave the sibling banter for later.

"Iggy?" he whispered. He pushed the door open a little bit more and dragged himself over to his brother's bed. He whimpered with every step; if he didn't know better, he would assume that his feet were bleeding. And since he was currently too bent out of shape to fly, that meant he had to deal with this. That… that was one of the worst parts of being a special. He had heard that being burned alive was the worst type of pain a person could ever experience. Well, as someone who had been dunked in lava in the past, he could say that the hurt he felt after using telekinesis wrong was worse.

"Iggy!" He didn't even bother to whisper anymore. He just about got to Iggy's bed before dropping to his knees. The edges of his vision grew dark and his breathing rate became nearly impossible to control, Ludwig lifted his hand and shook his brother. "Iggy, wake up!"

Iggy groaned. He slowly opened his eyes, blinking when he saw his brother. "Ludwig?" He sat up, annoyance making itself known on his face. "What are you doing here? Do I need to remind of the conversation we had earlier about sleep deprivation? Because I would gladly do so!"

Ludwig couldn't even muster the strength to be irritated by that question. "Iggy…" He started to shake. He rubbed his arms, hoping that the pins and needles would go away, but they didn't. And when Iggy put on his glasses, getting the opportunity to get a better idea of what exactly Ludwig was dealing with, his whole demeanor changed completely.

"Ludwig? What ails you at this time?"

Ludwig swallowed a lump. "Lemmy… Lemmy needs our help."

Iggy shot out of bed. "Lemmy? What happened to Lemmy? Is he okay? Is he hurt? WHAT HAPPENED TO LEMMY?"

Ludwig let out a breath and launched into the explanation. Iggy looked more and more horrified the further into the explanation he got, which just served to make Ludwig feel even worse. By the time he finished, there was an overwhelming and unbearable atmosphere in the room. Iggy, much like Ludwig before him, began to shake.

"Oh dear." His teeth chattered as he shook like some sort of plant-haired maraca. "Oh dear, this is not good."

"Yeah." Much to Ludwig's relief, his pain was starting to clear up. Grasping hold of Iggy's bedpost, he pulled himself into a standing position. He grunted as he did so, which made Iggy wear a furrowed brow.

"Are you alright? I don't want you to force yourself; that pain you experience is…"

"Nearly impossible to deal with, I know." Ludwig put on a smile, hoping to disquiet the stressful mood. "It's fine, Iggy. I've gotten used to it over the years." He chuckled. "It's less painful than I make it out to be; I can assure you that."

Iggy raised an eyebrow. He clearly didn't buy that, and honestly, Ludwig wasn't even sure if he himself bought it. But that didn't matter at the moment. He was starting to feel better. He could now stand without the risk of toppling like a domino. He could now focus on other issues that weren't related to his pain whatsoever.

"O… Okay," Iggy said. He looked away from Ludwig, frowning as he did. When Ludwig looked at him, he could see the gears turning in his head, like he was some sort of mechanical wonder. "So… Lemmy has become Shellock Holmes again."

Ludwig let out a breath. "He… he has." Saying those words brought Ludwig more pain than the after-effects of his telekinesis. And, as a consequence, he actually sniffled. "And I… I don't…" he hung his head. "I feel like I could have prevented this. I feel like I should've stayed closer to him. I should've paid more attention, I… I…"

"Ludwig, stop, you're not doing yourself any favors." Iggy came up and put his hand on Ludwig's shoulder, similar to how Ludwig had done for Lemmy earlier. "Look, I am of the opinion that Lemmy's 'fall to the dark side' has something to do with stress-related issues." Ludwig raised an eyebrow. "Obviously, the hunt for who was responsible for the attack and the phantoms would be a grueling endeavor for pretty much anyone. But I think something else happened to Lemmy. Something specific, something that would prompt him to delve back into his head again." He looked at Ludwig. "That was what caused his first episode, was it not?"

As Ludwig took the time to think about these words, the more things made sense. "You're right. That is what caused the first mental break." He looked into Iggy's eyes. "Just… what could be giving Lemmy trouble this time around?"

"That, I don't know." Iggy bit his lip. "But, whatever it is, we probably need to figure it out. Giving Lemmy help in that area could help alleviate his worry and potentially prevent something like this in the future."

"True. And Lord knows that we would love to keep this from happening again." Ludwig frowned. "But here's the thing; I don't think Lemmy is going to listen to reason in his current state, let alone open up about what is going on in his head."

"Oh, I concur with that assessment." Iggy paused. "So… we should go to Kamek, right?"

Ludwig snickered. "Do you even have to ask that?" Now, with the pain completely gone, he turned toward the door. "Let's go find him, and then we can locate Lemmy."

"Right behind you."