Chapter Text
"Link. Link! Wake up, Link."
The man on the table groans, head twitching as a voice pulls him from his sleep.
"Please, Link, you need to wake up!"
A whimper is pulled from his throat.
" Link !"
He topples off the table with a shout, landing hard on his side, and lays stunned as he regains his sense of self.
"Help me, Link. Please ."
He pulls himself up, wraps his arms around himself as he looks around. Blue lights fills the operating room, and he flees to the hallway before he thinks why it distresses him so.
It isn't any better outside, and he shivers as he walks through an almost impossibly long corridor, clad in only his boxers. The tile beneath his feet is filthy and cracked, and he flinches as he steps on something sharp.
"Who are you?" he tries to call. "Where are you?" All he does is gasp.
Blue lights turns red.
He stops walking, starts running.
Something is beeping, but ahead, a woman sits. He knows this is the woman who spoke to him, who woke him up. He just needs to reach her, before—
"You're late," someone says from behind him, and he jumps. "You've taken too long, it's too late now." He can't turn around to see who it us, so he focuses on the woman in front of him instead.
"You abandoned her. You left her to turn into this ," the person continues, bitter, barely audible above the beeping.
His fingers touch the woman's shoulder, and she…
The woman twitches abnormally, arms and head twisting, contorting as her flesh seems to melt from her bones. The other person screams for him to help her, to do something, to stop her pain, please—
Link woke with a jolt, heart pounding, a scream dead in his throat. It wasn't the first time he'd had the nightmare, far from it, but never had he lasted long enough to see who was calling for him.
Link wished he hadn't been so curious.
Just thinking about the dream made his stomach roll, so he clambered out of bed before last night's supper made a guest appearance on his sheets.
One shower and hasty breakfast later, Link collapsed back onto his couch and pulled his phone out. The websites he'd bookmarked about dream meanings didn't help any, they didn't have an option for "woman melting horrifically while you're being chastised", after all, so he went for his next best option.
→ Paya, I'm dreaming about… I don't know what I'm dreaming about, but I think it has to do with where you and your family found me.
Link sent the text off, getting a reply almost immediately.
grandmother thinks you should visit ←
Link raised an eyebrow.
→ Impa always wants me to visit.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ←
→ Guess it can't hurt . See you later, Paya .
(^w^) ←
As a freelancer with a ghost kitchen, the only thing Link had to do before leaving was close his restaurant on the many food delivery apps and clean out his fridge.
Something told him that he wasn't going to be back home for a while, and the last thing he wanted was to come back to a stinking fridge.
Once he had everything packed and ready, his last stop was the garage where he kept his bike, a dirt-bike he heavily modified to make road legal that he called Epona.
"Going on a trip?" Padok, one of the security guards asked, and Link shrugged.
" More like a doctor's appointment," he replied, turning his tablet so the other man could see.
"Oof. Well, drive safe," Padok said as Link pulled out of his parking spot. "It'd be a shame to scrape you off the road and leave your bike to Malanya's tender mercies."
Link snorted, waving goodbye as he pulled out onto the street. The mechanic would have his head if he dared even scratch Epona's paint after all the work they'd put into the bike.
He'd been so busy the last few weeks with multiple catering jobs that he hadn't the time to take Epona out, but he settled comfortably as he pulled out onto the highway. Riding had always brought him comfort, the hum of the engine relaxed him and the road took all of his attention, and drove all other distractions from his mind.
It wasn't that he disliked the people who lived there, it was just that Impa was so…pushy. She was always trying to have him move back into the compound, and when he said he wouldn't, insisted on weekly visits. Link usually managed to put them off until it was monthly at best, and when he did visit he often avoided speaking to Impa at all.
He couldn't explain why, but something about the elderly woman bothered him, and prolonged time spent with her made his skin crawl.
It didn't help that she claimed that they were friends before whatever happened that cost him his memory, despite not knowing him very well at all.
Pumpkin soup was her favourite food, not his, and he'd never made fruit cake before.
When he pulled into the compound, Link found himself already disappointed. Not only was Paya not there at the gate waiting for him like he'd hoped, but neither was Dorian.
He still greeted Cado politely, and brightened when Koko, one of Dorian's daughters, ran up to him.
" Paya isn't here?" He asked once Epona was parked, and Koko shook her head.
"No, no, she went to town with papa," she said, drumming her heels on the concrete of a low wall she perched on. "Dunno why, Koko didn't ask. Sorry Link. Will you still cook with me today?"
"Maybe," he replied, crouching so he was more or less level with the young girl. "I have to speak to Impa first, and you know how much she likes to talk ."
Koko giggled, likely remembering one of the last times Link and Impa spoke, the elder spending so long lecturing Link for avoiding her that even Dorian was long asleep when he managed to escape. "Koko will come rescue you so that doesn't happen again!"
"My hero." Link reached out and ruffled her hair, before standing again. " Why don't you play with your sister until I get back?"
"Fiiiiiine," Koko drew the word out into a whine, and he huffed out a laugh.
Leaving Koko and Cottla behind him, Link took a bracing breath and climbed the steps to Impa's residence.
"Now, you say you've been having this dream for several months?" Impa asked, her tone reproachful. "Why didn't you mention this sooner?"
" They're just dreams, Impa," Link replied, gaze wandering the room as he spoke. " I just thought maybe they had something to do with my missing memories, that's all."
"Hm…perhaps. Describe the setting for me again."
Link was halfway through describing the dream again when a photograph on the wall caught his eye, and his hands stilled.
"Link?"
" Who…who's that picture of?" He asked standing to look for himself.
A young woman stood next to a slightly younger Impa, both if them smiling as the woman held up a frog for the photographer to see.
" Who is she?" Link demanded, motioning to the framed photo.
"Link—"
" That's who was in my dream, I keep dreaming about her! Who is she?"
Impa stared at him for a moment, then sighed. "Shut the door, and I'll tell you about Zelda."
"It's been five years since we found you wandering the road south of Silent Hill," Impa started, and Link nodded, impatient. He already knew that, he lived it. What was the point? "And it's been five years since we were driven out of Silent Hill by the Yiga."
That…was new information. " The Yiga? "
"A cult, dedicated to reviving their God. We believe that they're the reason you lost your memories. They targeted both you and Zelda for your connections to the Church of Hylia."
A church Link had no intent to rejoin. In the beginning he had attended sermons, but once he moved away, his attendance petered off.
"Zelda would play Hylia reborn, and you her knight," Impa continued, "so we believe that was why you were attacked."
" So I'm subconsciously remembering what happened, then?" Link asked.
"Perhaps. Or perhaps you feel guilty. You were supposed to protect Zelda . And, instead, she's…only Hylia knows if she still lives." The elder closed her eyes, tears trickling down her face. Link gave her an incredulous look— he didn't even know what happened , how was it his fault that this Zelda didn't escape as well?
" How do I stop the dreams?" Link asked finally, tapping Impa's leg so she'd open her eyes and look at his unimpressed face.
"I don't know." Link continued to stare, and Impa shot him her own unimpressed look. "Do you think I can control dreams? I'm not magic, Link."
" So what should I do, then?"
"You think it has something to do with Silent Hill? Then face that fear, return to the city, and find Zelda."