Chapter 7 - Revealed

“What are you talking about,” I asked the women. “Lost my memory?” I chortled. “How is that even possible?”

“Come with me,” the green- haired woman said. “Call me Pyrope. No need to tell me your name, you probably can’t remember it.”

“Yes, I can!” I said, offended. “Its…” I thought a moment. What WAS my name?

“Don’t strain yourself, kid.” Pyrope said. “Come on, I’ll take you to an …er… parallel universe!” she added with wide eyes and a waving hand gesture. I quickly glanced at the wand in my hand. It was vibrating; the clock read “October1120046:23:12AM.” Why? I don’t think it was going to be 2004 until another few years.

“I’m not three years old,” I said, slightly offended. But she grabbed me by the arm with a very cold hand, bid farewell to the blue haired woman, and I gasped loudly as she formed a long scepter out of nowhere, tapped it on the ground four times, and then something weird was happening… like we were flying through outer space at a top speed. I had to keep pushing my bangs out of my face.

“There,” Pyrope said over the loud winds rushing through my ears, she was pointing straight ahead at a very bright light. “That’s the place I was talking about. It’s got creatures and kingdoms like you’ve never seen. A couple of my favorites are the Beanbean kingdom, the Mushroom Kingdom, and Sarasaland…”

The mushroom Kingdom… Sarasaland…?

And then I remembered. Everything that happened to me from the time I was 18 to the time I was 24. I could remember Daisy and her freakish obsession with plants… the time I dared to eat Julie’s homemade cheesecake and ended up in a coma for three weeks, the times when toad watched Mario take a shower and then later watched me do the same… it was all flooding back, I could remember…

I looked at the woman holding onto my arm. Pyrope… PYROPE!

I was about to let out a terrified scream, but there was a great burst of light and we both landed in the center of the Mushroom Kingdom, right by Peach’s castle.

“Have a nice life,” Pyrope said. She lifted her scepter. “You never knew me,” she said, and stuck the tip of her scepter right in the middle of my forehead. But before she could do anything more… I pressed the button on the wand in, I was going forward in a whirl of light…

My heart was racing furiously. Pyrope was the one who led both me and Mario to the Mushroom Kingdom?

The roaring stopped. I was back in the middle of the castle’s foyer. It was October 2004 again. I sighed in relief; the Benitoite was still wrapped around the wand. Only… the castle was much, MUCH darker than before… I noticed the only light was coming from a dim candle. I looked at the time wand. The time was 7:10. I had missed a few minutes of my life. I quickly put the chain around my neck. It was a little too small, I thought, as I stuck the wand in my pocket.

The castle was eerily quiet. I didn’t like this feeling… but my internal alert system wasn’t going bonkers, like it was back at Tibs’s place, I don’t think there are any ghosts here…

“Luigi?” came Waluigi’s voice from in front of me. “Is that you?”

“Waluigi!” I gasped. “Where are you- it’s took dark to see well-“

“I don’t know,” he replied lazily. I walked a few feet and stopped.

“You still there?” I asked him.

“Yeah, I’m not going anywhere.” The last candle had no wick left; it died, we were plunged into total and complete darkness- I charged a ball of electricity, which was much brighter than the candle, and looked around the room.

Waluigi was standing in the corner, looking very shaken. Julie and Lauren were right next to him. Both of them looked like they had seen a ghost. (I swallowed hard at this thought.) The room was a total wreck. It looked as though somebody had been murdered in here, there was nothing orderly in this room, furniture was thrown everywhere.

“W… what happened here?” I asked Waluigi. He was scowling.

“Well, after you disappeared for a few minutes,” Julie said, “It was like… “BOOM!”
-Julie waved her arms over her head in a dramatic way- “Everything was tossed around, like a sort of sudden hurricane in here. We escaped because Mario knew of an underground …like… rabbit hole, sort of.”

“Nice way to put it,” Waluigi droned sarcastically.

“What other way could I have put it?” Julie asked. “And then, it was so dark, we all tried to find a way out, but nobody really knows their way around the castle, except Mario…”

Some sort of cork was in my throat now, I couldn’t see Mario or Ricky in this room.

“What?” I managed to gasp. “Where’s Ricky and Mario?”

“Um… a little help, here?” Ricky said from below me. I looked down. Just in front of my feet, there he was, pinned under a table that had lost a few of its legs.

“Oh! Sorry…” I said, picking up the heavy table enough for him to scramble out from it. He brushed himself off and uttered a quick “thanks.”

“But what about-“

Mario burst in the door, panting. I could just see his silhouette in the light of the spark I had lit.

“Ah! Luigi! There you are. Did you get the gem?”

I pointed at my neck. Mario exhaled audibly.

“Great,” he said. “If only that woman didn’t leave…”

“What woman?” I asked, pulling the time wand out of my pocket and stringing it onto the chain with the Benitoite so I wouldn’t lose it.

“Just some lady who knows about this ordeal…” he waved his hand out to the room. I heard rustling on the other side of the room.

“Look at this!” Lauren said, pointing to a tunnel leading down that was only just visible in the low light. “What’s that?”

Mario walked past me. I didn’t move, but watched the both of them examining a short opening in the wall.

“Think we ought to see what’s down there?” Julie asked.

“Why not,” Mario said eagerly. “To tell the truth, I didn’t know this was here.”

And both of them disappeared down the tunnel.

“I don’t like the sound of this,” I mumbled, as Waluigi walked past me. I followed him down, it was a steep, damp tunnel that had to be leading underground. It was also very short, it only took a few seconds to get to the end, which was lit by two single candles. A large door was the dead end.

Ricky squinted at a little message written on the door. It was very hard to read, but it looked like a little poem, perhaps how to get past the door? He read aloud:

“Those who wish to enter must heed this warning note;
Danger lies before you, terrors you must tote;
But if you would go forward, the door will sense the gleam-
One must use the water source of yours that has saline.”

“Water source of yours that has saline?” Lauren repeated. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“That rhymed,” I laughed.

“I have an idea…” Ricky said. He cupped his hands together and, being careful not to extinguish any of the candles, and as though trying to brush away a fly that was buzzing around him, shot a thick stream of water at the door. It didn’t budge.

He shrugged. “Worth a try…”

“Tears,” Julie said. “Tears contain saline, and they’re a water source… kinda…”

“I get it,” Ricky said. “What, do we all have to cry?”

“One of us does,” Mario said. Lauren grinned. “I can make myself cry!” she said. She stuck out her bottom lip and screwed up her face. It turned red, and her eyes turned wet. Julie chuckled.

“That’s not enough,” Mario said. “You have to basically… bawl.” Julie chuckled again. “I don’t know why,” she said, “But everything you guys do makes me laugh.” Mario and I exchanged looks.

Waluigi pondered this statement of Julie’s, he seemed to be very deeply in thought. He was looking at me in a way I didn’t like too much.

“What,” I asked him.

“I wonder…” he mumbled, staring intently at me. “Everything we do makes her laugh…” he tapped his chin.

And without warning- I never could have prepared for this- Waluigi swiftly kicked me in the stomach so hard I thought I was going to throw up.

Everyone except me burst into laughter. I was bent over in pain, but managed to look up at Julie. Tears were rolling down her face, she was bent over at the same angle I was, and her face resembled the color of her hair. The door creaked open.

“It worked!” Waluigi said. “I knew it would!”

I drew a sharp breath as I stood up again.

“Why you-“ I growled at Waluigi. Julie laughed again as I leapt on him and engaged in a fight identical to the one we had performed in front of Tibs’ castle.

Someone grabbed the back of my shirt collar and pulled me away from Waluigi. Mario was holding me by my shirt collar at arm’s length.

“Not again,” he said.

“Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!” Lauren chanted.

“Besides,” Ricky said to Waluigi, suppressing a snicker, “You only did that to get the door open, right?”

Waluigi took a moment to answer, then said “Um… yes! Sure, of… course that’s why I did that. I…uh… never wanted to kick you there, neeeever…”

Julie started laughing again, Ricky rolled his eyes and beckoned for the rest of us to follow him.

The next room was one in Peach’s castle that I’d never seen before. It looked almost like an astronomy tower. It was huge, probably the largest room in the castle, and was lit by only a few candles. It was very creepy in here. And apparently, Mario had no idea this room existed, as well. He was looking around, open-mouthed, at the place.

“Sweet,” Julie’s distant voice said. She had made her way to the opposite side of the room. “I didn’t know Peach’s castle had this room.”

“Neither did I,” Mario said slowly.

But I was interested in a door that was almost invisible, and it was on the other side of a large, gaping hole that didn’t seem to end. The only way to reach that door was to jump across the gap…

“Hey, guys, check that out,” I said, pointing at it.

“I bet you can make it to that side,” Mario said, clapping a hand on my shoulder. “It’s not too far for you…”

I studied the gap size. No, it didn’t look all that far. And jumping is my talent…

“Here goes,” I said, backing up in order to get a running start. I ran as fast as I could toward the gap, and leaped swiftly across the gap. I landed in the middle of the platform on the other side. Julie was clapping and hooting.

“I bet I can do it too,” Waluigi said. He, too, tried. He managed to just barely hit the platform I was on, after sprawling to the ground mere atoms from the edge. He got up. “Told you,” He said.

“We’ll be back soon,” I called after the other four, and creaked open the door. It felt as though it had only rarely been used.

It was very dusty in the next corridor. I waved it out of my face and coughed.

“Wow,” Waluigi hissed sarcastically. “How fun.”

It was actually a lot lighter here than the rest of the castle. Apparently, the electrical lines to this room hadn’t been damaged. I had no need to light any sparks on the tip of my index finger.

“Gross,” I mumbled, kicking up dust as I walked. I doubt even Peach knew this room was here.

Somebody besides our group did, however. Sitting in a cozy armchair was a ghost wearing a sheet over its head… or at least I think it was a ghost, but it looked solid… either way, it looked surprised to see us.

“Who are you?” it asked in a male voice. He pointed at me. “You look familiar.”

“Uh…” I said, feeling the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

“You’re Mario, aren’t you?” the ghost said, leaping out of the chair to stand in front of me. It was half the size I was. “Boy, I remember that fun time we had! Let’s do it again, I really enjoyed that.”

I felt very stupid, what “fun” time could he possibly be talking about?

“I’m not Mario,” I said slowly.

Waluigi kicked at the funny-looking ghost. It was obviously solid, because his kick sprawled the creature to the other side of the room. I knew what sort of creature this was, this was a Duplighost. Not exactly a ghost, but it had the ability to make copies of anything and everything. Mario also said they had another scary power, but never really went into detail on it. Anytime I tried to ask, he would become deaf, look at something that was to his right, and hum the theme song to the movie Shrek 2 until the subject changed.

“Beat it, punk,” he said. “We’re exploring.”

“Why you- you want to fight me, or something, pal?”

“No,” I said standing between the Duplighost and Waluigi, “we don’t want to fight you,”

But it suddenly felt like someone had tossed a very heavy suitcase at my stomach. Bent over slightly, I saw the Duplighost had somehow gone right through me and was now fighting with Waluigi in a similar way I had recently done.

I took a deep breath and yelled “STOP!” as loud as I could.

The Duplighost did not seem happy with me at all for interrupting his fight; he grabbed my collar and yanked me down so we were making eye contact.

“Listen, bub, NOBODY insults me. Got that?” he violently let go of my shirt. I stood up, rubbing my neck.

“And as for you-“ he said, pointing threateningly at Waluigi, who suddenly stood stiff as a board. I shielded my eyes against a sharp, quick burst of light, but when it didn’t hurt to keep my eyes open again, there were two Waluigis- one was milky white and transparent, and then there was the normal one. Both of them looked terrified.

“You LOSER!” Waluigi shouted, pointing at the ghost-looking copy. “You- you made a copy of me!”

The ghost just stared.

“Let’s get out of here,” Waluigi said, grabbing my sleeve. “I don’t want to be in a room with that stupid Duplighost anymore.” And we left the room, and Waluigi angrily slammed the door, muttering something about how uncreative some creatures were.

“What did you guys find in there?” Julie hollered as I leapt across the gap.

“Just some Duplighost,” I said. Waluigi nervously followed me across the gap.

“Some loser who tried to make a copy of me.” He chuckled. “Didn’t really work, though. The copy looked like a ghost and then didn’t move.”

“I didn’t know Duplighosts shined a really bright light whenever they try to mimic you, though. I thought it was just a simple little puff of smoke, but I don’t really know…” I said.

Ricky and Lauren raised their eyebrows, but Julie looked shocked as though she had just been told she had to repeat the 6th grade. Mario was making a similar face, he looked as though he’d just been given indisputable proof that Peach was pregnant with Bowser’s 9th, 10th, and 11th children.

“WHAT?” Julie demanded.

“What did he look like? What did he say?” Mario asked, shaking a little bit.

“Um… he said that nobody barges in on him, and admitted it was he who cut the electricity…” I said, trying to recall. Waluigi was looking nervous at the look on both Julie and Mario’s faces, which had both become fury. Mario lashed out and grabbed Waluigi by the shoulders violently.

“WHO DO YOU HATE?” he yelled.

Waluigi looked very startled, but pointed at me.

“I think he’s okay,” I said. “It was just a basic move of the Duplighosts.”

“Let’s hope,” Ricky said with a laugh. “We’re wasting time, anyway. What are we even doing down here?”

“Exploring,” Lauren said with a shrug. “Yeah, let’s get out of here.”

On the way out of the tunnel, I couldn’t help but notice that Mario and Julie were acting strangely. Both of them were whispering to each other maliciously, and glancing at Waluigi. Were they going to play a joke on him? By the time we reached the room that opened to the tunnel, which seemed creepier than ever, both of them were looking at Waluigi as though he had gravely insulted the both of them.

“What are you guys talking about?” I asked them, as we entered the dark and quiet foyer of the castle.

“Nothing,” Mario said quickly.

“I’m hungry,” Lauren said. “Are there any good restaurants around here?” She pushed the door open. My entire body went numb.

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment