Chapter Text
Under the full moon and neon signs decorating the various store fronts and tall buildings, the rain-soaked pavement glittered beneath Link’s brisk walking work boots.
He knew by this point in the evening, his sister Aryll’s dance class had been finished for well over thirty minutes, and she was likely the only kid left standing in the giant window waiting to get picked up. He was doing his best to hold their dinner still in the bag as he moved. Work had kept him late despite his best efforts to leave.
All of the lights inside the dance studio could still be seen illuminating the corner he rounded. Link began to pick up his speed when he saw her small figure pressed dramatically against the glass. Her teacher, a Rito woman named Melanie, could be seen sitting on a stool beside the wall length mirror from the street outside, waiting right along with the young girl.
When Aryll spotted her brother, she ran through the double glass doors, out into the drizzle to hug him around his uniform tight. “Sorry,” Link said simply.
“It’s okay,” Aryll replied, then tightened the strap of her dance bag on her shoulder. His job paid well enough, and it was the only reason they had the money to send her to these lessons. She never complained when he was late. After Link thanked her instructor, the two made their way back in the direction he came.
Even this late at night and with the workout she just had, Aryll was a wellspring of energy. She skipped around him with her shoulder bag swinging and he sighed. He knew she was just eager to return home. If their neighborhood wasn’t so close, he would have never agreed to these lessons at all.
“Aryll, stop. I’m not in the mood to run anymore,” He called before she got too far.
She quickly made her way back to his side and opted to hold his hand for protection instead.
“How was school today, brat.” He smiled at her.
Aryll smiled back hugely at him and the affectionate term he always used to address her.
“Mutah is my boyfriend now,” She replied.
“Oh, that’s great, grandma will be thrilled,” He replied with an eye roll. Link could remember hearing about the zoran boy last week after he’d gifted her some sour candy.
“How was work today, dummy,” Aryll mirrored his question with a grin.
“Fine,” He lied.
“Were you bored?”
“Always,” He chuckled.
Aryll shivered and pinched the edges of her thick coat around her torso and white tutu.
The alleyways they passed were dark and frightening, but Aryll felt safe with her brother. She'd never seen him throw a punch, though she'd heard enough arguments between him and their grandmother to know he got into fights. It angered their grandmother endlessly when he was still in high school, coming home with fresh bruises on his body and face. He still made an occasional habit of it on the days he didn’t need to pick her up from practice.
“They were ganging up on someone,” He’d always say in his quick defense.
Home was minutes away to her relief. The drizzle was lifting just a bit as the chilled night air brushed their cheeks. It gave her a clear view of the strange reddish orange hue the moon was tinted.
“What’dyja make for dinner,” She asked.
“Take a guess. Bet you’ll figure it out.” Link handed the plastic sack over and she let go of his hand to peek inside.
“It’s fried rice. You spilled all the soy sauce when you ran here…” She muttered unhappily.
“We might have some at home. I can run back out if not.”
“No,” Aryll said quickly. “Please don’t. The walk is too far, and it’s dark out.”
He chuckled again and took her hand. “I’ll get the car fixed soon.”
She knew the likeliness of that was pretty low. They really couldn’t afford the repairs.
A shrill cry from the street adjacent made both of their heads whip around.
A teenaged sheikan boy wearing a kimono was running from two snarling, sprinting figures. The pursuers were two enormous shark Zora adorning dark clothing and faded tattoos. The smallest one caught up first and grabbed the boy roughly.
Sharp fangs sank into his forearm. The Zora wrenched its head back, tearing through flesh before releasing him. A second later, the larger one crashed over him, knocking him to the pavement. The boy kicked frantically at their shoulder, barely managing to keep the snapping jaws away from his face.
The struggling boy and Aryll both let out identical piercing shrieks.
Everything snapped clearly into focus.
“Against the wall! GO!” He yelled at his sister, pushing her hard in that direction. She did exactly as he said with wide terrified eyes. The injured boy’s blood was spilling all over the wet pavement and mixing with the pooling rain.
“Unhand me!” The boy screamed again, and yanked something from his hip with the uninjured arm to stab whatever he could reach. Links' running kick came into forceful contact with the largest one’s head, and it knocked him back hard, but the recovery was immediate-the thug sat right back up. That was when Link saw the glowing yellow irises, and every single hair on his neck stood.
Link yanked the skinnier attacker by the collar, off and away from the screaming kid before delivering another face kick and knocking him back into his lunging accomplice. The kid jumped to his feet despite the downpour of blood and screamed, “They’re trying to eat me!”
Link saw the kid had his injured arm tucked in tight to his body, and the weapon he’d been trying to fight them off with, a long thin sword, was grasped tight in the other hand and pointing at the two.
He didn’t have any time to focus on the strangeness of the attire or the kid’s choice of weapon.
They were nearly up again, and the unblinking stare that never left either of them filled Link with a sense of terror he’d never experienced. His eyes were darting around for anything nearby to protect himself with, and he settled on cylindrical metal scrap he saw sticking out from behind a wooden pallet.
The thugs were on their feet and lunging mindlessly once again. Link and the kid both swung their weapons and struck hard. Link’s metal bar had made contact with the larger one’s shoulder, but it only redirected his movement. There was no reaction to pain or aggressive words, only animalist snarling, and the glowing stare of death when the man’s crumpled form looked back up at him.
Link saw the kid was holding his sword horizontally against the zora’s neck in the desperate attempt to avoid being bitten again. He’d managed to slice his attacker’s arm clean off but it still made no difference. Link realized they needed to cause much worse damage than this if they wanted to survive.
Aryll had been trying so hard not to scream, but when the severed zora arm began to drag its way towards her, the one she let out was bloodcurdling.
Link’s head shot around in her direction, and he screamed at her, “RUN HOME RIGHT NOW!”
Aryll’s face was soaked with tears as she screeched back, “I’M CALLING FOR HELP!”
Link didn’t have time to watch her disappear; he had seconds to react when another lunge came his direction. His makeshift bat whipped so hard it whistled, and broke in half against the shark’s skull. The now collapsed body indicated to Link that they were now either unconscious or dead.
His heart was exploding in his chest and the adrenaline had him visibly shaking. He couldn’t believe what he’d just done. He abandoned the halved pieces of his weapon, and ran towards the screaming teenager’s pinned down body to swing his foot into his attacker’s temple. He managed to knock him to the side a few feet.
The thug snarled and bared his fangs upon his immediate recovery, but the snow-haired kid sat up and pierced his weapon straight through their neck. They were both completely wide eyed and shaking when at last, the attacker fell back.
The boy quickly crawled over to retrieve and sheath his weapon from the gurgling, twitching man, but Link was grabbing his shoulder hard and yelling, “It’s time to run!”
They were both on their feet and sprinting at full speed in the direction of Link’s neighborhood.
“Hi, I’m Jory!” The sheikan boy yelled at Link.
“What the HELL even was all of that!?” He yelled back.
“I’ll tell you what I know, let’s get away first,” Jory replied with a laugh. The kid was unusually upbeat for someone with a giant bleeding gash in their arm. He was wrapping it tight with the band from his kimono as they ran.
When the orangish white glow of the streetlamps decorating Link’s neighborhood finally illuminated the way before them, they both slowed their running.
Jory was panting a lot harder than Link when he said, “I was downtown…looking for criminals…when they came…from literally NOWHERE…and tried to rip me apart… they chased me…across seven blocks…I have no idea why this is happening.”
Jory stopped entirely, and threw his hands down to his knees, still trying to catch his breath. Link’s house was only a few away at this point. He stopped as well, and said, “Why would you go downtown alone and without something more realistic to protect yourself with?”
Jory let out an indignant scoff and said, “Nothing beats a sword…it’s the ultimate form of protection.” They began a slow walk down the street once more.
“That’s…ridiculous,” Link muttered. A sword wasn’t going to stop a criminal’s bullet.
“I’m not sure if you noticed, but this city literally sucks. There are gangs everywhere. My dad got mugged last month and the police did nothing, so I decided they were unreliable jerks and I’ve been taking matters into my own hands!” Jory declared.
“After I clean this wound, I’m going back out to investigate what that was. You saw they were dead, right?”
“Uh, yes, we literally just–”
“What I mean is, they were already dead before we took them down. There were gunshot wounds in both of their heads.” Jory said seriously.
Link didn’t want to believe it. The kid was clearly insane.
He had finally made it home and had stopped a few feet up his driveway to look back at the intense boy.
“I need backup, I've never met anyone else brave enough to fight back! Find a better weapon and meet with me in an hour,” Jory begged.
“Hard pass…I’m gonna go check to see if my sister’s alright, and uh, call the police. You should probably get to a hospital.”
“Nah I’m good. Please think about it!” Jory said before darting back out into the night.
Link sighed and shook his head. He needed to prepare another dinner for everyone since he’d abandoned the last one. He’d definitely be going back out to investigate later, just not with the clumsy kid.
. . . . . . . . . .
Rise.
The crumpled bleeding forms of the beaten down thugs began to tremble and jerk.
A curious resident of a nearby apartment complex had just made her way down the stairs to check things out after the horrific noises outside her window had died down.
She was a few feet away from the rows of parked cars when something enormous charged at her, and ripped into her neck with sharp, fanged teeth.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I have a debilitating, irrational fear of zombies in real life. Not a joke. I’ve had zombie related nightmares since childhood. Imo they are the only monster with a realistic chance to exist and destroy society. I’m going to do my best to invoke that same level of fear in all of you when reading this.
I'd like to thank Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island for scaring the living hell out of four-year-old me. I don't CARE that the zombies were the good guys OK f*** that movie (NOT THE MUSIC THO) The chili pepper scene where the zombie's began rising out of the lake is literally the root cause of this psychological affliction of mine.
If you found this idea interesting and are curious to know the direction I take things, please consider leaving a kudos and/or bookmark!