Chapter 3 - The Mark

A funny feeling of loathe nipped at my stomach when I saw Wario and Waluigi standing behind them. Only today, they weren’t wearing their usual clothes. Today they were dressed like gangsters.

I made my way down the marble stairs and over to the group. Daisy followed behind.

“What’s the problem?” I asked.

“It’s Yoshi,” Peach said. “He’s really, really sick.”

“Is it serious enough to come all the way to Sarasaland for?” Daisy asked. She seemed skeptical.

“Yes,” Mario said. “I have a suspicion, but I wanted to get your opinion on it.” He glanced at me.

“Yeah,” Peach said. “See, the doctors in the Mushroom Kingdom are toads… and well… honestly, they aren’t very good doctors.”

But after making eye contact with Mario, both of us burst into hysterical laughter.

“What?” Peach asked, obviously shocked, and maybe a little offended. “What’s funny about that?”

Mario got a hold of himself, but I was cracking up so hard that I could barely breathe.

“We know,” he said. “We know through experience.”

“And… they’re…” I choked, trying to contain myself, “Not just bad… they’re…” But I couldn’t do it. I accidentally made eye contact with Mario again, and burst into another hysterical fit. He simply chuckled.

“Anyway, once Luigi stops inhaling laughing gas, we can try to see what’s wrong with Yoshi.” Mario said, nudging me in the arm. I took a deep breath.

“Oh…” I said. “Uh… sure, where is he?”

Wario left the castle and returned a second later with a very limp, very pale Yoshi. He was conscious, but it looked like he was fighting to stay that way.

“Yoshi?” Daisy asked. He lifted his head a little and said “Hmm… beh.”

“I found him like this,“ Wario said, proudly. “The toad doctors said it was just the flu. They think they’re top-notch,” (that word started to make me laugh again,) “but I don’t think it’s the flu.”

“I think it’s a Belly Blech Worm,” Mario said. “What do you think?”

“Probably,” I said. “But how did he get it? They only live in the Beanbean kingdom.”

Mario pushed his lips together tightly. “You don’t think…” he began.

I started getting nervous. There’s no way that a Belly Blech worm could have traveled all the way to the Mushroom Kingdom on its own… and that could only mean that someone brought it here…

With a flash of light, my robes were back. But nobody seemed to notice.

“So what should we do?” Daisy asked. “There is a cure, right?”

“Oh, yes,” Mario said. “But I don’t know if anyone but the Beanbean kingdom would have it.”

“Chuckola Cola,” I said.

Mario squinted a little and frowned. “Do you feel that?” He asked.

“Feel what,” I said.

“That… that rumbling.”

“Are you trying to scare us or something?” Peach asked.

“No,” Wario said. “Now I feel it too.”

And the ground beneath my feet started to shake.

“What’s going on,” Waluigi, who had remained silent this whole time, said. “Don’t tell me you can’t feel that.”

Daisy looked confused. “I can’t feel a thing,” she said, obviously getting nervous. A funny pressure started pulling on my head.

“What’s wrong with you-“ Peach started, but her voice drained away. The room turned black. I knew I had my eyes open, though. And I could see Mario, Waluigi and Wario, but nobody else. They all looked panicky, and I became too when I realized that there was no gravity. I could feel my hair and the weight of my cape flowing around.

“What’s going on?” Wario asked.

“Nothing serious,” came a horribly familiar voice from under us. “Just wanted to say hi.”

All four of us looked down and made eye contact with the ghastly face of Cackletta. All four of us gasped, Mario in surprise, I in horror, and Wario in amazement and Waluigi in disgust.

“Yes, so nice to see you all again!” she said sarcastically.

“Hey,” Wario said. “What do you mean ‘us all?’ I don’t know who you are!” But Cackletta ignored him. She floated up to our level, and I got a good look at her. She looked awful. She was still a cloud-looking ghost with no legs and huge arms, and bloodshot, red eyes. The problem was, though, that she looked a whole lot stronger than she did when Mario and I battled her last. This time, she had fangs and everything.

“What are you do-“ I began, but she pressed her finger to my lips in order to shut me up. There were two things that surprised me, one that she was solid and didn’t go through me when she tried to touch me, but also the temperature of her finger. I suppose I should have thought a ghost would have a temperature of negative forty degrees, but just the touch of one sent a horrible chill down my back.

“You all are surprisingly smart,” she said, eyeing Mario. “I never thought you’d figure out about the Belly Blech Worm. Well, yes, it’s true. But I’ll only tell you because, hey, what’s the problem? I’ll only end up killing you all anyway.”

I inhaled sharply. Mario scoffed.

“Yeah,” he said. “You mean like you got rid of us last time?”

Cackletta glared at him.

“Beginner’s luck,” she said. “I’ve got new weapons now, such as your precious Beanstar. Anyway, once my worm kills off your dino friend, I’ll take care of you all. Ta-ta,” she said, and disappeared with a puff of smoke.

“What was that all about?” Waluigi asked nobody in particular. “And who was that?”

But I didn’t have time to respond. A horrible pain shot through the base of my neck like an arrow, and everything went blacker than before.

“What do you think happened to them?
“I don’t know.”
“Are they all even alive?”
“Of course they are, don’t be stupid.”
“Well something happened. People don’t just faint because they can.”
“Actually, ma’am, they do. When you faint, it’s because you’re sick or something.”
“Quiet, Weston. I’m really worried.”

I heard a lot of voices, but didn’t bother to try and find out whom they were from. It took me a second to realize that I was lying on the cold marble floor of my foyer. I was freezing all over, and too tired to open my eyes. The only thing I could muster to say was “Ugh.”

Someone seemed to realize that I was regaining consciousness. I felt someone grasp my shoulders and give me a quick shake. It was probably Daisy who did this. I forced my eyes open and Daisy’s face swam into view. I was right; it was Daisy trying to wake me up.

“What happened?” she whispered to me. I slowly pushed myself up.

“I have no idea,” I said. “One minute I was here and…” I looked around the room, and apparently I wasn’t the only one who had lost consciousness. Waluigi, Wario and Mario all were groggy looking.

I put my hand to my forehead. What had happened to us?

“I remember seeing Cackletta,” Mario said, face as white as chalk. He was standing with his arm around Peach’s shoulder; her arm was around his waist, holding him up. “Cackletta told us what happened to Yoshi.”

“We were like…” Waluigi said, thinking, “In another dimension or something!”

“You guys were right here,” Peach said slowly. “You sort of… paused after you said that you felt an earthquake. Then after about fifteen seconds, you all collapsed.”

“Poor thing,” Daisy said, putting her hand on my forehead. “You look really sick.”

“I feel really sick,“ I mumbled, as Daisy gently put her arms around my back. My stomach gave a funny churn. Yoshi was sitting in a chair, burping occasionally. If I didn’t feel like throwing up, myself, I probably would have laughed at his awful gas.

“Anyway,” Mario said, now looking much better, “It’s true what we thought. Yoshi’s got a Belly Blech Worm.”

“So what do we have to do to get a cure?” Peach asked.

“Go to the Beanbean kingdom,” I mumbled, as Daisy let me go, and I pushed myself into a standing position. “Like Mario said earlier, nobody but they would have it.”

“So we get to go there?” Waluigi asked, excitedly. “Sweet!”

Mario and I exchanged looks.

“Not sweet,” he said. “The Beanbean kingdom isn’t exactly my idea of a vacation.”

“Yes, it is.” Peach said, her voice an octave higher than usual. “I’ve been there before, and know exactly what it’s like.”

Mario and I exchanged looks again. My mouth broke out into a smirk. I had to force myself to keep from snickering by biting my lower lip.

“Well,” Peach said. “I suppose it’s no Yoshi’s island.” (Yoshi raised his head at this sentence.) “But, you two probably didn’t enjoy it because you spent the whole time battling and getting sick.”

Mario’s face went red. I knew that he hated having that Bean Fever ordeal mentioned. But Peach had a point. Mario and I probably didn’t like the other kingdom too much because we spent all of our time solving other people’s mysteries. I spent a lot of the time getting hit on. Mario (after laughing his head off at me for being poked in the rear end by Prince Peasley,) said that it was because I reminded them of themselves; I was tall, (ish) slender, but probably the fact that turned them on the most was that I dressed in green all the time. Still, it wasn’t all pleasant to have the prince tell you that flowers go well with your shirt, or to be poked in the butt on numerous occasions.

“Do we have to g-“ I began, but Daisy squeezed my arm really hard in order to get me to shut up. And it worked, that hurt.

“Of course we’ll go!” she squealed happily. “Let’s go book your plane, Peach, tonight!”

I groaned quietly.

“Oh, yes, I can get my plane booked! We will leave tomorrow morning. Everybody, pack your bags!”

Mario was frowning. He seemed to be dreading this trip as much as I was. And I’ll assure you that he wasn’t looking forward to eating anything there.

“Fine,” he sighed. “We can look for Cackletta while we’re there. After all, seeing her in some kind of impossible vision must mean something. Huh…”

Yoshi grumbled something that I couldn’t understand.

We were leaving for that kingdom tomorrow… tomorrow morning… I really wasn’t looking forward to this. While everyone else, except Mario, was ecstatic, I slowly walked up the long, winding staircase to the fourth floor to get my suitcase packed.

Once I made my way to the third floor, something on my chest started itching. It was really irritating, to the point where I unbuttoned my collar to see what it was.

Probably a mosquito bite, I said to myself. I looked in the small hall mirror, and was horrified at what I saw. If this was a mosquito bite, it was one talented bug.

Etched into the spot where my collarbones met was a purple mark the size of a dime. What terrified me the most was that it had the shape of Cackletta’s head. I ran my index finger over the outline of the mark. This hadn’t been there this morning, and that was the exact spot that had hurt so much just before I just fainted.

I buttoned my collar back up and ran to the foyer. Mario was standing with Peach, talking about something that I didn’t care about. I ran down to him, breathless.

“What do you need?” he asked.

“Come here-“ I said, and pulled him under the staircase.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, eyes narrowing. “Did you see a ghost?” he chuckled slightly.

“No, no ghosts,” I said, trying to remain calm. “Before Cackletta knocked you out, did she hurt you at all?”

“Yeah,” Mario said, breaking eye contact with me and looking down to the side. “She gave me a really bad, really quick headache.” Mario scratched the left side of his forehead. “Why, did she do that to you?”

“Sort of,” I said. “Take your hat off.”

“Why?” Mario asked, raising an eyebrow and looking at me like I was insane.

“Just do it,” I said. “I want to see something.”

He shrugged slightly and took his hat off. His messy hair fell into place; he had the same unruly hair that I did. He scratched the left side of his forehead again.

“Anything out of the ordinary?” He asked me sarcastically. Nothing seemed to be.

“Well…” I said, but then when he scratched his forehead for the third time, I got the hint.

“Lift up your bangs, right here,” I said.

“Is this some sort of test?” Mario asked, seemingly getting a little annoyed with me.

“No, I just-I just want to see something.”

“We’ve been twins for twenty-four years, almost, and now you want to see what my forehead looks like?”

“Just do it!”

Mario sighed, turned around and faced the mirror behind him. He lifted up the hair on the left side of his forehead, and just like I suspected, etched into his hairline was a dime-sized drawing of Cackletta’s head.

Mario’s mouth dropped open.

“Hey,” he said breathlessly, “That wasn’t there before. What is tha-“

“I have no idea,” I interrupted. “I’ve got the same thing.”

Mario didn’t look surprised anymore. Nothing scared him. “Do you think Wario and Waluigi have got it, too?” he asked.

“I don’t know…” I said. “I just discovered this.”

I had a hard time sleeping that night. It was a chilly night, so tonight I was happy to be surrounded by way too many pillows. (Daisy likes having forty pillows.) It was about two o’clock AM, but I lay awake, not sleepy at all. Daisy was sleeping peacefully, I could tell by her breath on my shoulder. Every night, she seemed to use my chest as a pillow. I think my heartbeat is a lullaby to her.

I sighed. I was really frightened by the vision of Cackletta I had seen earlier. Why did Wario and Waluigi see it too? They had never seen Cackletta before! If Daisy, Peach, Yoshi and Weston hadn’t seen it, and claimed that we were still in the foyer, didn’t that really mean something…?

And what about that awful mark? What was it really?

“What’s bothering you, Luigi?”

I was startled by Daisy’s voice. I could have sworn she was asleep!

“Oh… well, I’m still a little freaked out about what happened this afternoon.” I replied. That was the only way I could say it… but to my surprise, Daisy chuckled.

“You’re scared of everything,” she said.

“I know,” I said quickly, “But I just can’t get over how you said we were in the foyer at the same time.”

“Never mind. Please don’t worry about it. We’ll go to Beanbean tomorrow and get this all sorted out.”

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