Mass Hysteria

      The Waterwraith’s carcass hadn’t resembled meat so much as plain water, but Louie didn’t let that stop him from getting a hearty sample of it while Olimar wasn’t looking. The captain had found Louie’s logs- that, or the treacherous ship had tattled on him- and Louie wasn’t looking for another lecture about the dangers of eating unknown creatures. Louie had eaten far stranger things with his grandmother back on Hocotate than some lumpy water afterall, so he wasn’t worried. And if Louie wasn’t worried, then there was no need for Olimar to be, either.       Still, Louie did his best to hide from the captain as he snuck into the kitchen later that night when the ship was back in orbit, clutching the bottle that held the remains in his hands. There was still the matter of how to prepare it to consider. He couldn’t exactly cook the liquid, and Louie was hesitant to go straight to boiling it. So Louie settled on drinking it raw, at least at first. Louie pulled out his notes, ready to jot down his first impressions and uncapped the bottle. Inside, the liquid shimmered, and for a second Louie just stared at it, transfixed as the light played a trick and the liquid inside seemed to move ever so slightly on its own. Before Louie could think too much about it, though, he brought the bottle to his lips and took a swig.        The moment the liquid got down Louie’s throat it was making its way back up again, and even in the cramped kitchen he barely got to the sink before he was retching it back up. Louie gripped the edge of the counter with one hand to hold himself up, while the other hand desperately clutched at his stomach. This was bad, he realized, as he studied the spit up liquid. Even among the rest of the vomit the shimmering liquid stood out, yet that couldn’t be all of it. Something was still inside of him, burrowing deeper and deeper into his stomach. Louie could feeit moving inside of him, and a panic worse than anything he could remember took hold of Louie. He had to get it out and he had to do it now.       “Louie, do you require medical assistance?” The ship asked, its voice causing Louie to jump so hard he almost fell to the floor.       Louie ignored it in favor of reaching for the drawers beside the sink, mind racing to remember which one had the knives in it. He had to hurry, he had to hurry, he had to- Finally he opened the right drawer and saw the familiar shine of metal. Distantly, Louie heard the ship’s mechanical voice from somewhere else in the ship, sounding nearly as panicked as Louie felt, but Louie couldn't afford to pay any attention to that now. He had to focus on where to cut, on where the liquid could be inside of him now. His stomach was still clenching and unclenching itself, but there was also a sharper pain further back, closer to his spine, and Louie resolved to cut there first.        He brought the knife up, only to almost drop the thing in shock as painfully cold water sprayed down on him from the ship’s sprinkler system. Louie’s shaking legs gave out under the downpour, and Louie fell back as he squinted up at the sprinklers. His breathing was only getting more and more shallow. Was there a fire somewhere on board, too, now?        “Louie! What are you doing?” Olimar called and within seconds he was in the kitchen, too. The water had stopped at least, but before Louies could make heads or tails of that, Olimar was beside him trying to wrench the knife out of Louie’s hand.       “No!” Louie yelled, finally letting go of his stomach in order to desperately shove away at Olimar. The lack of pressure only made the pain worse, but Louie was more focused on the man in front of him. He’d been hiding from Olimar, Louie remembered, but in his panic he couldn’t remember why. Was he in trouble? In danger?        “Give me it!” Olimar yelled. Louie held on for dear life, but Olimar had the better leverage and managed to get both of his hands on the handle, finally snatching it away from Louie. Louie felt even worse when he realized that Olimar was now standing over him with a knife.        “What is going on?” Olimar asked, quieter this time, but that did little to make Louie feel any better. “What did you-”        Before Olimar could finish, Louie was running, his shaking legs barely able to hold him as he dashed past Olimar and into the ship’s hallway and toward the ship’s hatch, his mind struggling to keep up with what was happening as he did his best to ignore the only worsening pain in his stomach. What had he done? Olimar seemed really upset for some reason, but Louie couldn’t remember why.  Louie reached the hatch and slammed his hand against the button to open it, but nothing happened, even as he hit it again and again. Louie tried to think back to what had happened that day. They had- They had fought the Waterwraith, Louie remembered. It hadn’t gone great, but that was hardly Louie’s fault. Besides, he’d messed up a lot things worse than that, and Olimar had never acted like this then.        “He’s trying to open the hatch,” the ship said, somewhere far off but too close. Louie clenched his fist in frustration as he tried to think.       “Well don’t let him!” Olimar said, his voice getting closer.        “Wh- Oh, really?” The ship hissed back sarcastically. “Captain, are you sure?”       “Just be quiet!” Olimar ordered from behind Louie. Louie had to grip onto the wall to not fall back down as he turned to face the captain, his legs were shaking so bad.        “O- Olimar,” Louie greeted nervously. “I-,” Louie began, but let himself trail off, unsure of what else to say.       “Louie, the ship told me what happened,” Olimar said, his voice slow and steady. With deliberate movements, Olimar began to cross the room to get closer to Louie.       Louie’s back hit the door, but it remained firmly closed. There was nowhere else for him to go. Which was really, really bad, because Louie could only think of one thing that the ship could have told Olimar to get him so upset.        “I didn’t mean to!” Louie blurted out, knowing fully well that it wasn’t nearly enough but unsure of what else to say.       Olimar nodded. “Of course you didn’t mean for this to happen, but you need to-”        “No, I really didn’t mean to,” Louie whined. “I- I was- I just wanted to know what they’d taste like. Then I couldn’t- I was just really hungry, but I really didn’t mean to eat them all!” Louie said. His whole body was shaking now, and it was hard to keep a tremor from his voice.       Olimar had been nodding along, but he stopped. “Them?”       “But, but, I didn’t mean to get your ship sold off or for you to get stuck coming back here!” Louie continued, trying to will himself to keep talking until he could think of the right combination of words to get Olimar to understand. “I’m really sorry, though! For everything!”        “Louie, you’re not making sense,” Olimar said. “You ate the Waterwraith. That’s what you’re talking about, right? You didn’t- You wouldn’t have-”        “Sorry,” Louie said, repeating the word over and over again as his legs finally gave out to the shaking and he fell to the floor. Instinctively, Louie curled in on himself, clutching at his aching stomach.       For a long moment Olimar didn’t do anything. Or, at least, Louie couldn’t hear him say anything or move. He was hurting too much and way too nervous to actually look up and check. Finally, though, Louie heard steps getting closer to him.        “It’s okay,” Olimar said softly. “But you can’t just stay out here lying on the ground, alright? Can you try and get back up?”       Louie didn’t answer. Instead he curled tighter around himself, hugging his stomach.       Above him, Olimar sighed. Louie jumped when he felt hands trying to pull him up, but he was too tired to try and fight them. He let Olimar pull him into an upright sitting position, then clumsily up to standing by leaning on Olimar. The jerky actions made Louie worried he was going to get sick again.       “Let’s get you to bed,” Olimar said. Louie didn’t say anything back, but he let Olimar half-drag, half-guide him out of the room and back down the hallway.        To Louie’s surprise, Olimar hadn’t been lying. He really did bring Louie to his bed. He even helped Louie get into it when his shaking was too bad to even do that. Louie, still panicked even under the exhaustion and resignation, tried to force himself to stay awake, but by the time Olimar came back with a second blanket to put over him, Louie could barely keep his eyes open. Olimar left again, and Louie was asleep soon after.        Louie didn’t sleep well, though. Besides having to get up multiple times to run to the bathroom, he found his dreams were not at all pleasant. Some were regular nightmares, like the ones he used to get back on Hocotate, and others were the new ones full of dead pikmin and ravenous insects. The worst ones, though, were new. In them there was living water and molten gold and something else so terrible that Louie couldn't put a name to it but put a fear in him worse than anything else he’d felt that night. By the time morning came around, it was a relief to force himself to get up.        The pain was still there, but it had gotten better, and Louie had mostly calmed down, at least from the irrational panic. He couldn’t help but hurry, though, as he went to go find Olimar.       “You look better,” Olimar said as way of greeting when Louie finally found him in the kitchen. Louie, with a little guilt, noticed that he’d cleaned up the mess Louie had made.       Louie nodded, trying to gather his thoughts. Without the blinding fear, it was hard to talk again, to think of the right things to say. “I’m sorry,” he finally settled on.       Olimar laughed sympathetically. “I did warn you about what would happen if you kept eating whatever we came across. I’m just glad it wasn’t worse!”       Louie swallowed, debating whether or not to mention the carrots again if Olimar didn’t mention them. Maybe he’d forgotten or misunderstood?        “You can take the day off if you need to, if you’re still feeling sick,” Olimar continued.       “I think I said some stupid things,” Louie said finally. “Things that were wrong.”       “Oh?” Olimar said, and for a second Louie thought he could see a flicker of something else behind the man’s concerned expression.       “I was confused,” Louie said, wanting nothing more than to go back to not talking and to pretend that none of this had happened. “Sorry.”       “Okay,” Olimar said. “I think I know what you’re getting at. Which is- I get it. But, you know, if you wanted to actually talk about it, I don’t bite.”        Louie shook his head. “There’s nothing to talk about. I was confused,” he repeated.        Olimar frowned, but nodded. “If you say so.”        Awkwardly, Louie stood there, before finally adding, “And thanks. For helping.”       Olimar smiled again. “I’m always happy to.”