Chapter 11.5: yikes.

  “When it's time… You won't ever matter.”

  August 28th, 1990.

  Link II woke up with a gasp.

  Quickly rushing upwards onto the floor, patting his body yet again.

  His arms rushing onto himself like a race car derby.

  Sighing after securing himself.

  Looking around in the empty void, uncomfortable with the silence of it.

  The silence reminding him of the sounds of metal against skin.

  Link II couldn't understand the feeling he felt at that moment.

  But to himself, it felt like detachment from his own morals.

  Feeling only the bleakness of the void.

  Slowly stepping forwards into nothingness.

  His steps echoing in the flat-like floor below him.

  Yet not seeing anything but black underneath him.

  Feeling like he was walking on water.

  Steps increasing in paranoia.

  Silence that felt like ashes to a flame.

  Feeling a pain in his stomach again.

  His ears heard what sounded like…

  The cries of abuse.

  Right next to him, breathing right in his ear.

  Seeing a light in the distance.

  Two silhouettes illuminated from it.

  One looking much older and throwing his arm like he was aiming towards something.

  Looking just like a belt.

  The same belt Samuel used against him.

  While the other silhouette was tiny, younger looking.

  A child.

  Piecing it together, he rushed towards the light.

  Knowing a child like him was abused.

  Stomping in the void.

  Again.

  Again.

  Like a heartbeat on fire.

  Till his stomach growled.

  His arms going over it.

  Feeling a mix of pain and heat in his stomach, growling at him like a bear.

  All the way from his right hypochodriac down to his left iliac like a box containing candy surrounding his stomach.

  Making Link II puke onto the floor.

  Revealing the void's floor to be just like a pot drainer.

  Holding solid matter like him rather than liquids like his own fluids.

  Crumbling to his knees.

  Hands shaking like an epileptic seizure.

  Hatred boiling into his mind during the sounds of wall pounding and the muffled cries of the boy.

  Gritting his teeth as he sluggishly moved towards the light.

  His eyes locked on the single dimmed light of whatever it came from.

  Each step felt like gunshots against his body.

  Leading to him collapsing back onto the floor.

  The light fading faster.

  And faster.

  Like that of a guitar riff.

  Finally leaving him in pitch black.

  Only being able to hear the wall thumping and dim cries.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  His own tears flooding the floor, highlighting where he sat.

  Just as he heard the door break with a loud

  Snapping back to reality within seconds, so fast that he had no time to process the transition.

  Hearing yelling and flashing lights from the window.

  The puddle around his curled body filled with tears and puke.

  Immediately getting up, disgusted from the puke and tears puddle feeling slimy and acidic.

  Rushing out faster than a dog for a bone.

  Already knowing what he would hear soon enough.

  And he was right.

  Hearing the deafening shots ring in his ears.

  The cries of men and women combined into death incarnate.

  His figure crouched and hands covering the ears.

  Trying to stop the already painful ringing.

  Ringing out like a doorbell repeated over again and again.

  Eventually looking up to see officers looking at him suspiciously.

  Their faces quenched in confusion.

  Whispering to each other.

  “Should we kill him? I mean, we saw one of the kids already dead, so why not finish the-”

  Before being interrupted by their faces immediately freezing.

  Their bodies slowly falling apart, sliced like apples or onions.

  Falling to the floor while Link II stood behind them.

  Nose bleeding as his body showed off wings with blades and knuckles with claws.

  Looking just like a demonistic angel.

  Eventually drawing back his wings and claws back into his skin without any trouble.

  His left earlobe slightly bleeding from the use.

  Standing still for a few moments.

  Watching the carcasses like a hawk.

  His eyes staring them down like they were worms to a eltridge being.

  Puking onto the sidewalk on his right.

  Hating the acidic taste in his throat, feeling worse than before.

  Sluggishly moving towards the neighbors home, each step feeling like he was fighting the feeling of needles and sleep.

  Entering the house, the door broken from its hinges and lied on the floor like a victim of its own kind.

  Glancing around the living room, he saw the older adults.

  One with a shocked expression on his face filled with horror.

  The other looked drunk in death.

  While he limped over, standing over them.

  Silently judging them.

  His hands turning to fists as he saw their faces.

  But reminiscing on how he felt towards Samuel.

  Reminding him on how there was always two sides to anybody's life, not to a story.

  Sluggishly moving towards the hallway, limping upwards towards the top roof.

  Seeing the blood leaking from a room.

  Smelling like stinky cheese rather than metallic from before.

  Barely having the strength to turn the doorknob to find…

  Two children.

  Dead on the floor like ants.

  One covering the other with its back.

  Like in its last moments, it always had love towards their sibling.

  Reminding himself of the innocence he once had, now gone to give unfair judgments towards mother's, father's, and lovers intertwined.

  Walking towards the children, and holding back tears once he saw their faces.

  Ones, a boy, had a face of horror in his final moments, his arms covering his younger sister.

  Yet, they both had an expression he couldn't understand.

  A smile.

  The smile that promised everything of love and life.

  The same smile just like a responsible adult with millions had, maybe his name was Gatsby…

  He didn't know.

  But for now, he called it, a Gatsby smile.

  A smile that gave mercy towards the sinners and the ungrateful.

  And with wet eyes, he lifted the both of them, power restored.

  Walking down with the barely heavy children in his arms.

  Each step feeling quiet in peace.

  Moving towards the backyard.

  His shoes muddy in the rain.

  Walking towards a corner behind the home, setting the children straight on the grass.

  Their blood staining the green color, turning it into blood grass.

  Peering around the home, looking for something.

  Clattering metal filled the home with an unpleasant noise.

  It ringing in Link II's head like gunshots.

  Leading him to summon him a shovel.

  The exact thing he was looking for.

  Quickly grabbing it and rushing towards the backyard, but before taking one more step…

  He looked at the clock.

  Reading 11:22 PM.

  Digressing and moving back towards the backyard, steps slippery in the mud.

  As he took a breath.

  Focusing his mind on one thing.

  His arms sped like car wheels.

  Quickly digging into the ground and providing enough room for the bodies.

  Urgently grabbing the children's bodies and gently dumping them into the holes.

  Their bodies making an ugly plop against the mud.

  While Link II pushed back the heavy mud, within seconds, filling it perfectly back to the top.

  Grabbing back the shovel and flattening the dirt to match the level of the rest of the ground.

  Eventually leading it to match the level.

  Link II began to look back at them.

  Two dirt shaped rectangular holes next to glass.

  While Link II peered.

  Not saying anything.

  Staring as if he saw his son or daughter get shot.

  Eventually taking a shaky breath and speaking.

  “I'd… love to meet you in another life, little ones. Rest today, you deserve the world. You've suffered long enough.

  I'd still love you like family, unknown children… don't forget I'll always be with you, everyone will cheer for you and won't forget your names…

  …young ones.”

  Thrusting his arms to grow gravestones for the unknown children.

  Naming them.

  “Jane & John Doe: children who never got a perfect chance at life, but enjoyed who they were before death.”

  Leading him to walk back with watery eyes.

  Glancing back to the parents' corpses.

  Seeing their gleefully shocked yet calmed faces during death.

  Hating the idea that they get a more pleasant death from poison or bullets while the children suffered like umbrellas in the rain.

  Angrily walking towards the garage.

  Steps stomping towards the gas container and eventually finding some gasoline nearby.

  Putting the pieces together, he knew what to do, smirking to himself.

  Spreading gasoline like a water hose.

  As he did, he found some envelopes near a wooden countertop.

  Quickly grabbing them before he spread the gasoline across the entire home.

  After a few moments, he glanced back at the clock.

  Reading 12:01 PM.

  Urgently rushing out of the house, dropping the gasoline at the concrete driveway.

  Leaving a gas puddle drift towards him.

  And with a heavy emotional turmoil filled face, he pulled out his hand.

  It turned to flames, emerging like glass to a hammer.

  Quickly aiming his hand towards the puddle, and letting the flame flow like a bullet.

  Pulling back from the puddle and his own hand dimming the flames.

  Walking back onto the house across from him and sitting on the sidewalk as he watched it slowly burn towards the home.

  Pulling out the envelopes and opening them with relative ease.

  Reading to himself the angry words of grandmothers and uncles.

  Saying, lecturing them on how abusively they raised their children and their lack of loyalty.

  While the parents fired back with negative words that reminded Link II of pride, regurgitated.

  Words like.

  “You're still the same bitch”

  “You can't even afford your own home when it's $600?!”

  Hating reading each sentence, putting an awful taste in his mouth.

  Then, the house blew up.

  Moving the cars around like soccer balls.

  Splashing bodies and blood like balloons.

  Some getting on his face, and yet…

  He had no reaction besides bitterness and pain.

  Pain for watching a family destroy itself selfishly.

  Pain for watching the party die.

  While the remainder of the house burned like the devils grin.

  As he heard a radio sing a classic song.

  Hearing what felt like women and men uniting under a dead legacy.

  Hearing this classic line, memories flashing in Link II's head over.

  Again.

  And again like a smoking cigarette of trauma.

  Almost seeing the ghosts of dead women and soldiers near him sing the song proudly.

  “We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when… but I'll know we'll meet again some sunny day…"