Bring Me To Life

    Giving a glance over his shoulder, Link felt a sudden chill emanating from the building. Snowpeak Manor was a fairly archaic looking building for New Hyrule. The weathered, moss-covered stones crept down even through the stairs and onto the wide pillars out front. Above on the hill, the manor itself loomed over everything, as if it was daring people to try and enter.

Down by the gravel driveway, Midna and Zelda were busy setting up the control center in the van. Tangles of wires stretched out from the black vehicle to where he stood by the great wooden doors. Try as he might, Link just couldn’t bring himself to enter the manor. Something about its very presence unnerved him, but he pressed on.

Pushing through the great doors, he was hit with a blast of cold as he entered the foyer. The great hall was oppressively grim, even as the autumn sun cast grave shadows along the buttresses and beams. The cold was just as bad. Link carried on through, his footfalls each echoing on velvet carpet and dreary stone.

According to the files Zelda pulled up on the flight, Snowpeak Manor was built some 250 years ago by one Sir Link Morgan as a gift for his wife Tetra. Here, they had raised a prosperous family and a happy life (being the family behind the great railway systems that crisscrossed New Hyrule). Eventually Link and Tetra passed on, leaving the manor to their granddaughter, Zelda Morgan, and her husband, Link Aboda.

They had kept the prestige of the rails going until one day in late summer. The stories went that Zelda had hired a man named Cole as an advisor. Cole did a pretty upstanding job, all things considered: no strikes, no complaints, and no angry shareholders to hound everyone. Of course, that was all a deception. Cole was from a rival company and had wormed his way into Zelda’s good graces. No one complained because he has secretly bought them all off behind his bosses’ backs. He managed to succeed in bringing the company down, but it all went to his head and he decided that, instead of coercing Zelda to sell to the rival, Cole could run Zelda’s company better. One fateful august night, Cole snuck into the manor and murdered both Zelda and Link in their sleep.

From then on, so the story goes, Zelda’s spirit remained, angered at Cole’s betrayal. Reports told of poltergeist-like activity over the decades: loud, blood-curdling screams, things flying off of shelves and walls, and people having their hair pulled or feeling a pressing cold presence in certain rooms.

Some reported seeing a man fading in and out of the halls and rooms. Occasionally, many have woken to a shadowy figure simply watching them sleep. The descriptions matched Mr. Aboda quite closely.

Link found himself in one such room: the Master Bedroom. Where it all began. He got to work taking out and setting up the IR cameras, all the while speaking to Zelda and Midna on a Bluetooth earpiece.

“We got visual of the room. Can you set it on a higher vantage point? Say the dresser in front of the bed?”

“Got it. What other rooms did they say Mrs. Aboda liked to haunt? The Main Hall?”

“That and the Kitchen. She liked to snack. Get some in the basement and the attic too. Cover all the bases. Get the Main Hall on your way out.”

“Understood.”

Link placed the camera tripod on the top of the dresser and fixed his hair before heading back out. there was a thump behind him as he passed the threshold. A small pan flute had hit the wall by the door. The small stand for it was on the other side of the bed. Link put the flute back in place and scurried out the door, closing it behind him.

The Hyrule Ghost Society all stood in the Main Hall as Midna finished her grand speech to Link’s camcorder before pressing a finger on her earpiece.

“Alright, we all set up, Zel?”

A beep on the piece confirmed her question as the Main Hall Camera whirred quietly. It looked up at the Twili before looking her up and down and giving something of a nod. Midna cheekily closed her leather jacket and stuck her tongue out at the camera. A wolf whistle came over the earpiece.

Turning to Link, who was folding his camera and stashing it away, she jerked her head to the rest of the manor. The sun was setting, letting the shadows grow long over the manor as the duo made their way deeper.

Night had thrown everything into darkness by the time Midna clambered her way into the attic. It was a tight fit and she had to crouch. Link didn’t bend his knees as much. in the corner, the dim red light of the camera glared silently as they wave back to Zelda in the van. The Twili pulled a tape recorder and pressed play.

“Hello, Mrs. Aboda? Are you here? If you’re here with us, give us a sign, please.”

The attic was still as the boards creaked under their weight and the breeze tapped against the lone window to the back. Midna could hear the blood rush in her ears as she ushered Link back down the ladder. The ghost wasn’t here.

The basement stunk of damp wetness by the time the duo entered the room. Condensation dripped from the pipes as moonlight streamed in through the small slit window above them. Midna repeated her call for Mrs. Aboda on the recorder. Still, the ghost did not answer. A knock came from the left, sending both ghost hunters jumping. The boiler was just kicking in.

“Fuck.” Midna exclaimed quietly. “Stupid heater. Well, we covered the requisite ‘scary rooms’ of this place. Let’s expl–”

A loud rolling knock came from above, as if someone had tumbled onto the ground from above. They scrambled back upstairs to the stairwell.

“Zelda, you got eyes on the stairs?” Midna called as they reached the stairway camera.

“Yes. Um….oh! there’s an orb. It was floating around before you guys came up. I think Mrs. Aboda is around.”

“Great! Thanks, babe.”

Midna calmed herself, sweeping a hand through her hair as she addressed the spirit.

“Mrs. Aboda, we know you’re here. Could you let us know if you can understand us?”

Another knock sounded from the stairs, much louder this time. Midna repeated her question. She shrieked as a vase whizzed past, nearly hitting her. Link pulled her away as a voice cried out:

“GET OUT! TRAITORS! TRAITORS, ALL OF YOU!”

More things began to fly off the walls and shelves: books, trinkets, even a painting nearly hit Link in the head. The pair stood their ground, even as Zelda screamed over the earpieces to get the hell out of the building. Midna blocked against the sudden whirlwind. She shouted at the spirit, trying to convince it that they weren’t a threat.

Her words were drowned out by an ear-piercing shriek. The duo were forced out of the manor and back to the van as a chair crashed into the doors.

#  #  #

“Damn it! as soon as we get undeniably, factual proof of the lingering dead, it tries to kill us!”

Midna pouted from the floor as Link and Zelda poured over the footage from the now-snowy cameras and Link’s camcorder. Before the footage had been cut out, both the Main Hall camera and the camcorder had recorded the paranormal phenomena and more importantly, they had captured a (admittedly grainy) picture of Mrs. Aboda herself.

She was crying burning tears.

Midna had joined them from the floor. She strummed her nails along the backrest, thinking about what their next move should be. Whenever she faltered on what to do, she always turned to Zelda for an answer.

The brunette tapped the keyboard lightly as she studied the footage back to back to back. there was something missing from all this. something they hadn’t found or even considered.

“Link, disconnect the cameras for now. Midna, help me take the computer down. We’re going to the library.”

 #  #  #

A huge stack of books and periodicals hit the table with a thump, waking the others from their trance. Zelda began organizing the print one by one: books on her left and newspapers on the right. Link pulled out an article from the rightmost pile. It was dated around the time of Mrs. Aboda’s murder.

“TRAGEDY AT MORGAN MANOR!

Earlier this morning, police were alerted to Morgan Manor by one of the staff and rushed to the homestead. There, they came across a grisly scene straight out of a Traysi Clover novel! The Lady Zelda and her husband were found murdered in cold blood. Authorities have issued a manhunt for possible suspects. The Rito Flight and our reporters are currently keeping a close eye on the case. (See more on page 25)”

He kept pulling articles from the pile, searching and pulling out the sections that pertained to anything relating to Mrs. Aboda. Perhaps there was something about Cole, something that could put the poltergeist’s rage at ease.

Most spoke of the murder, the eventual abandonment of the manor, and its renaming to “Snowpeak” following a particularly harsh winter that ruined the building’s infrastructure. Zelda skimmed through the books–which focused on far more detail than the periodicals (although many were cited as primary sources)–also searching for any mention of Cole or his later whereabouts following the Abodas’ deaths.

Most of the material was focused on the Abodas, their history and the fate of the manor, and the supposed hauntings of the place. There were a few that posited about the murderer, who had seemingly gone with the wind. Cole’s name was brought up as a major suspect due to his history and enmity toward the Abodas. In fact, he was public enemy number one for the manhunt. Despite no concrete evidence for his involvement, this lone fact didn’t stop the stories from pinning him as the one to do the deed that fateful night.

He seemingly vanished from the history records–much to the frustration of the team.

Just when everyone was on the verge of calling it quits and leaving another disappointed page in the manor’s ghostly reputation, Zelda came across an odd piece in the last article. It was a small section buried near the bottom of the Front Page:

“MERGER LEADS TO GREATEST LAYOFF IN INDUSTRY HISTORY

On Monday morning, the heads of Malladus Rail and Morgan Transit finalized a year-long agreement as the two companies merged into NuTrak under the direct supervision of Mr. Tingle. This led to the biggest layoff in the country’s history as Tingle hired several Twili and Gorons from Old Hyrule to man the trains and stations.

Many have criticized the merger, namely several ex-white collar employees who felt they had been cheated out of the greatest deal of the century. The New Hyrule Gazette has been set to  interview one of these fat cats, one Sir Cole Hatter, but the Gazette had been informed that he had passed away last afternoon, the possible victim of a murder. While the Gazette has no information at the time of publication as to the nature of Mr. Hatter’s demise (See more on page 31)”

The rest of the article mentioned that, while the paper had no new information, they would send a reporter named Wyrm to investigate for the next month’s publication.

After reading this, the team scrambled to find publications set a month after. There were none in the pile, so down they went into the basement to scour. After an hour of searching, Midna came across an article dated a month and a week after the one mentioning Cole. Skimming through it for the Wyrm article, Midna struck gold.

The paper had the full Wyrm report on Cole Hatter. As it turned out, Cole had been axed by his bosses just before the merger for what the author called “insider conspiracy”, and had all of his assets liquidated, forcing him into a hovel on the edge of town. While it seemed on the surface like a simple case of corporate “You’ve done what I need, now get out” backstabbing, the reports the author found told of a deeper connection of sabotage of Morgan Transit, though the details were fuzzy. The murder had led to the investigation and subsequent arrest of one Malladus, Esq and the total freezing of his stock.

“Jackpot.”

 #  #  #

The gravel crunched beneath the tires as the van slowed to a stop. Link jumped out to reconnect the cameras and reset their positions to the main haunting sights. Zelda activated some sort of program to let the computer sort the data out automatically. She wanted to see Mrs. Aboda for herself.

Night fell upon the manor once more as the whole crew crept through the building, searching for any sign of Mrs. Aboda. Zelda was given the tape recorder as Midna pulled the paper from her jacket. The Twili waved it in the air as she called out for the ghost.

“MRS. ABODA! WE’RE HERE TO HELP YOU MO–”

A vase slammed into the wall next to her. A voice shrieked out, shaking the walls.

“GET OUT! OUT OF MY HOME! GET. OUT!”

Midna stood her ground. The greatest find of the century would not cow her into a retreat. She held the paper aloft once more, raising her voice against the sudden whirlwind that had whipped up.

“Mrs. Aboda! We have proof that the murder of you and your husband was avenged! Cole Hatter was murdered in his shack a year after your company was bought out! His own bosses killed him for his crimes!”

The winds stopped with objects clattering to the floor and breaking on impact. A bright light streaked across the sky, hitting Zelda. The Hylian convulsed on the floor as her eyes rolled into the back of her head. For a moment, she was still, worrying her companions, before starting up with a loud gasp.

The voice that came from her was a harmonious blend of her own and that of Mrs. Aboda.

“Show me this proof, child.”

Handing over the paper, Midna watched as the puppetered Zelda scowled as she read the paper. The expression on her fair face shifted to surprise and, finally, tears. Both ghost hunters held Puppet Zelda as Mrs. Aboda’s spirit sobbed and thanked them in shaky, blubbering words.

She could finally rest with her beloved.

Zelda’s head jerked up as the spirit left in a blaze of white, causing the woman to faint. Link and Midna gently placed her down as above them, Mrs. Aboda’s spirit was joined by a second specter.

“It’s about time you’ve come to your senses.” A male voice sounded from the specter. “Come now, let’s leave for the other side. Oh, and thank you all. Hopefully, the world learns of what happened here tonight.”

The lights slowly dissipated from the air, leaving the ghost hunters in total darkness. Zelda coughed and sputtered as she came to in her partners’ arms. A consummate professional as always,, she was far more outraged at having missed the ghosts than having been possessed.

The others chuckled at the indignation and helped her to her feet. The Hyrule Ghost Society made their way out into the pale dawn.