Chapter 8 - The… Truth?

The outdoors was a scene of total and complete destruction. Even the sky was a tint of red. I stepped outside. There was hardly a tree that wasn’t on fire, hardly a building that wasn’t completely downed, and absolutely nobody was in sight. A very slow wind blew a few pieces of rubble past my feet.

Everyone else looked as shocked as I did. Apparently, they had been inside while this was all taking place. I looked back at the castle. The outside was as ruined as the inside.

Julie looked close to tears. She and Mario had forgotten about whispering apparently bad things about Waluigi. “What happened…” Ricky whispered.

“Did you ever find Peach?” I asked Mario.

His eyes widened. “I… no…” he said, shaking his head slightly. Waluigi snorted. A quick, cold breeze ruffled my hair. With a thrill of horror, I noticed that nobody else in our group seemed affected by it. I decided to ignore that. A horrible, plunging sensation occurred in my stomach- I just thought of something-

“We need to go to Sarasaland. Now.” I said.

“No way,” Waluigi said. “I’m way tired. Let’s find someplace to stay.”

“It’s eight in the morning,” Ricky said, consulting his watch. But Waluigi yawned.

“I haven’t slept in ages, let’s take a nap. No… I like her idea.” He pointed at Lauren. “Let’s eat.”

“No!” I yelled. “What if this is happening to Sarasaland too- the castle- Daisy-“

But Waluigi grabbed my arm with such force that I lost the circulation in my fingers.

“We’re eating,” he said, his face inches from mine, so forcefully that even I couldn’t argue.

So we found ourselves back at the house of the British Koopa. Mario claimed that since the Koopa was an avid fan of his, he’d have no trouble feeding us. And lo-

“Of course!” he beamed, when Waluigi told him what he wanted. “Of course, no stress at all! Come in, now, please, absolutely!”

Julie sat in a squishy armchair by the window, glancing interestedly around at the house. It was, indeed, very unusual- funny trinkets were hanging around here and there, and each of them looked like it came from a distant country.

“Ha-ha, I remember this one,” Mario said feebly, pointing at what looked like a small doll made of stone.

“Oh, yes,” the Koopa said. “Still one of my favorites. All the way from Dry Dry ruins, eh? Wow, oh, wow… by the way,” he said, turning to me. “Have I introduced myself to the newcomers, yet? My name’s Kolorado. I’m an archaeologist.”

“I’ve heard all about you,” Julie said.

“I’m an interesting guy,” he said sheepishly. “Come, now, how about a spot of tea?”

“Sounds great,” Waluigi said lazily. “Do I pay you for it?”

Mario and Julie exchanged quick, sharp looks as Waluigi said this. I could understand… it was very, very weird for Waluigi to even mention paying somebody when he perhaps didn’t have to.

“How much you want?” Waluigi asked again.

“We’ll be right back. I think I dropped something on the way to the castle.” Mario said, grabbing Julie by the sleeve.

Then both of them left the house. The rest of the people in the house watched them for a split second, but then Lauren and Kolorado started talking about ancient artifacts, and Ricky pulled out his cellphone to play a game. Waluigi got up and I could hear him rummaging around in the kitchen.

I watched Julie and Mario go sit under a tree nearby. Me being the closest to the window, I watched them out of the corner of my eye, trying to pretend I couldn’t see what they obviously wanted to keep quiet. I could hear them, too, their voices were muffled, but I could just make out what they were saying.

“I can’t believe it,” Mario was saying. “I mean, how can they not know… d’you really think…? I mean, he couldn’t… he was able to answer that one question…”

“We can’t pretend it didn’t once happen,” Julie said, almost sternly. “You know what he’s capable of. You know what he can do. And I can recognize the symptoms as well as anyone can. He’s not stupid, you know. Everyone in the world knows the answer to the question you asked to test.”

What on earth were they talking about? I wondered. I saw Mario run his hand through his hair, trying hard to listen, when Kolorado was pointing to a small doll, telling Lauren about a funny-looking, three-eyed, greenish bloblike creature. He had just gotten done saying “This is an Aich, funny little thing I ran into. They live just about everywhere. They look sorta gross, but their slimy sweat-like excretions will heal virtually any wound immediately. Really came in handy that one time I broke my leg. Something in their excretions heals body cells in a snap. Useful, really, yes… and they’re always willing to help, because they love warm places, and body temperature is very pleasant to them. This is just a doll, the real thing weighs about three or so pounds and is about the size of your hand.”

“I think it’s sorta cute,” Lauren said.

I silently pressed my ear to the window and caught Mario’s next sentence.

“You’re right, you’re right… it was a dumb question.” he said. “And I can’t deny. But, I mean, what can we do? I mean… I… well, literally had to… you know, beat myself up. And we need to find the real…” his voice trailed away.

“I understand it’s not easy to relive this, Mario, but you know who we have to find.” Julie said. She seemed, surprisingly, like a very mature kid when she needed to. “Let’s do it tomorrow. I’m certain we both know what’s going on, and we may be the only ones who do know. You never told your brother, did you?”

Mario chortled. “Nah,” he said. “Couldn’t bring myself to do it.”

“I wouldn’t’ve either. But… well… in case we, well… DO have it all wrong…” Julie said, sounding uncharacteristically nervous-like.

“We’ll find out.” Mario said sternly. “Just think of ways to do so.”

“Got it,” Julie said. “Let’s not talk about this here anymore.”

And I turned my head as I noticed them both get up to approach the house again.

“Oh well,” Julie said, as they re entered, and sat back down in her armchair. Ricky pocketed his phone and clapped his hands together, saying “Okay, then… well…”

Kolorado left the shelf with the Aich doll on it, and absentmindedly clicked on the TV. There was a weather report, telling us that the Konga Jungle was going to be very dry for the next few days. “So!” Kolorado said pleasantly. “What are you all interested in eating? Why don’t I call out for something… how about Chinese?”

“Sure,” Lauren said. “But I don’t know how to use chopsticks anyway.” I chortled and said smartly, “You know, how come chopsticks are some of the hardest utensils to use, yet it’s one of the easiest songs to play on the piano?”

The room was so quiet, I heard a cricket chirp. Not even Julie chuckled, which was saying something, as I noticed she had a nasty habit of finding everything I say cute.

“Come on, not even a snicker?” I asked sheepishly.

“Sorry, bro,” Mario said. “Try the one about the super calloused fragile mystic hexed with halitosis next time.”

Kolorado re-entered the room. “Sorry, guys,” he said. “The stores are all closed…”

“Figures,” Ricky said, “As the entire main part of the kingdom is in flames…”

Kolorado bit his lip and said “I did hear about that…I’ll make that tea now… ” he left the room again.

“Poor kid,” Lauren said, looking sadly in Kolorado’s direction. He returned a few minutes later. Waluigi was going on about the little machines he had made with his fortune.

“Yeah,” he was saying. “I and my cousin Wario always build aircrafts. That’s the best ones we can do. And they always work,” he was informing Ricky, who was leaning on the wall with one eyebrow raised. This skeptical look was nothing like the one Julie and Mario had, however. They were both looking very angry.

“Guys…” I asked them quietly. “Is there something wrong with him building machines?”

“No,” Julie said. “But Wario’s not his cousin.”

“Oh, yeah…” I said, thinking about that a little.

“Thanks for the tea,” Lauren said. “Why doesn’t one of us cook?”

“Well… I’m sort of a hopeless cook.” Kolorado admitted. “And my wife isn’t in… she’s the one who does all the cooking.”

“Oh.” Waluigi said. “Well… uh… hmm…” he pointed at Julie.

“You. You look like a good cook. Make us all something, won’t you?”

Any other hopeless cook in the world would take this as a compliment, but not Julie, who leapt out of her seat and put her face very close to Waluigi’s.

“You don’t fool me for a second,” she said fiercely, in a voice and tone she didn’t often use. Waluigi seemed very nervous at this un-Julie like behavior. “We can’t put up with this. Let’s go.”

And she and Mario ran violently out of the house.

“Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay,” Ricky said. “What was that about?”

Lauren and I shrugged, but then my attention was directed suddenly to the TV.

“It’s complete confusion in the large kingdom of Sarasaland,” a reporter was saying. “A bright light was reported bursting from the castle area earlier. No buildings are destroyed nor possessions, but the kingdom is now a complete ghost town…”

I accidentally let go of my teacup. It crashed to the ground and into quite a few pieces. But I didn’t care. Because not only did my teacup sink; so did my stomach.

“There is no sign of life at all in any of the subcons, or the main center, as well. Our major concern is locating Princess Daisy, who was reported mysteriously vanishing immediately following the strange burst of light. More news on this when we return.”

“No!” I gasped, standing up, my worst fears confirmed. “I… I need to go!”

Kolorado considered me for a moment, then said “here, take this. I use it whenever I get lost. It’s a lot like those funny little wands you’ve got- it’s a transporter.” He thrust a third wand into my hand, identical to the two time wands, only, it was bronze, and instead of the clock in the middle, had a small map.

“Just point on the map where you want to go and press this button in. Should take two seconds. I understand you’re worried. You’re dating the princess, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said quickly, and jammed my pointer finger in the corner of the map, making it scroll up. I saw the minute subcons of Chai, and the castle was right near its edge.

“Good luck,” Lauren told me, looking concerned. I pressed the button in.

I blinked, immediately I was right behind the castle.

“Wow,” I said. “Two seconds, my eye…” and then took off running, dropping the bronze wand, but I didn’t care-

“My wristband!” I shrieked involuntarily, remembering I wasn’t wearing it. I snatched it out of the little key box outside. Why had I been so stupid as not to wear it? I put it on; immediately my clothes changed, and then I violently ripped the doors open.

There wasn’t a sound in here. It was as quiet as Peach’s castle had been. The only noise I could hear besides my own panting was the low rumble of the air conditioner.

“DAISY?” I roared, hearing my voice echo across the empty walls as though six of me were talking. “DAISY?”

No response. I bolted down the halls, my steel-plated shoes clacking loudly on the marble floors and echoing like crazy. I slammed open the door to the kitchen.

“Hello?” I panted, hoping-praying- that I’d run into somebody… somebody… because what that reporter had said couldn’t honestly be true, right…?

I ran up the stairs and burst through the door to the master bedroom. I didn’t like the feeling of this normally bustling castle being so empty. Hot and out of breath from running, I looked around my room. Nothing was missing from here as far as inanimate objects went. I caught my breath and flopped down on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

What was going on? I thought to myself. What was happening? Everything was just far too weird now.

“Tired?”

I nearly jumped out of my skin hearing this strangely familiar yet still unknown voice. I whipped around, and nearly jumped out of my skin again.

It was that woman- that blue-haired woman who looked like a fairy, the one who was with Pyrope just before she left, the one that explained my memory problems to me. She was sitting on my green blanket folded neatly on the corner of the bed.

“Why do you look so surprised?” she asked me, jumping off the bed to stand next to me, and chuckled. “With your life… well, nothing should surprise you anymore.”

“I-guh-ba-you-“ I stammered. “You- you-“

Her face fell. “You recognize me, don’t you?”

I nodded, that was the only thing I could do. She looked appalled.

“Did Pyrope’s charm not-why did you- I can’t…” she made a waving gesture. “That doesn’t matter.“ I exhaled audibly, but she must not have noticed, she was deep in thought.

“Look,” she finally said to me, grasping my shoulders. “Pyrope… I don’t know what’s wrong with her.” She sighed. “She sometimes knows what she is doing wrong and stops, but sometimes, she’s just so power hungry…she can’t stand people with more power than she has, that means politically and physically…”

I froze.

“Funny thing is, she’s very smart. She’d make a great scientist… always messing with chemicals. She can do just about anything with her potion-making techniques…”

This is why she trapped us in a laboratory, I thought.

“Pyrope also just loves fashion. Always dresses up people, even those she intends to harm. And it’s always fancy-ish clothes, for some reason...” Apatite sighed again, and then got my attention even more my prodding her finger in the middle of my chest. Her hand was cold.

“Listen, this is very important,” she said, as though in a huge hurry, her pointer finger still uncomfortably pressing into one of my ribs, “don’t forget this- my name is Apatite. I’ve already spoken with your brother; he knows what the Yoshi’s Benitoite is. We need to find it s-“

“You mean this?” I asked absentmindedly, holding up the gem on the short gold chain. Apatite stared at it for a second, then gasped sharply and snatched it from me.

“YOU have this?” she asked, mouth open with shock. “How long- where did you get it?”

“I got it… uh… well, to be honest, I got it 23 years ago, it’s sort of complicated, though…” I stammered as I tied the time wand around my neck again.

Apatite looked as though she could have kissed me. “Oh, this is wonderful, I don’t believe it, I SAW that you had it eight years ago, how stupid of me to think it was just a family heirloom- it’s not lost, I thought it had been destroyed… I told your brother so, but apparently, he knew what to do..”

“Where is my brother?” I asked her. “He just ran off, I don’t know where he went…” She looked solemn all of a sudden, giving me a feeling that I really, really didn’t like. I looked down at my feet, there was a little Aich that was sliming around on the floor, making a little “weef” noise. I stared at it, sort of surprised to see it here (I remembered what Kolorado had said… they really do live everywhere…) but ignored it after a while and looked back up at Apatite.

“To be perfectly honest, Luigi, I don’t know.” She said, then smiled a little. “You’re twins, aren’t you? You’d know if something bad happened to him.”

“I would,” I admitted. Apatite was looking at me kindly.

“You seem very upset about something,” she said.

“Yeah, well…” I began, but Apatite approached me. “Sit down,” she said, ushering me back into an armchair by gently pushing my shoulders. I took a quiet but sharp breath, something was wrong with her; she was as cold as a ghost. We sat there in a minute of silence before Apatite suddenly looked horrified. “Do you hear something?” she asked.

“Hear what,” I asked back, sitting on the edge of the seat.

But she didn’t have time to answer; Pyrope burst into the room. Both Apatite and I yelled.

“Apatite!” she gasped, staring at the dangling Benitoite in her hand. “YOU’VE had it… how dare you betray-“

“It’s not her!” I stood up and interjected, having a very bad feeling about this. “I had it- I found it-“ Apatite quickly looked at me thankfully.

“Silence, idiot!” Pyrope shrieked, pointing her long scepter at me. With a quick flash of light, I felt weird, my throat hurt horribly, I opened my mouth to yell- but no sound came out.

I tried to make some noise, a strangled scream or something- but nothing happened.

“That’s better,” Pyrope snarled at me, as I grasped my neck with my hand and coughed, but again, made no sound.

“Pyrope!” Apatite screamed. “What do you think you’re… NO!”

Pyrope smashed her scepter into the middle of the room. Apatite screamed in pain, then her entire body crumbled to dust.

I screamed, too, but I couldn’t hear it. The Benitoite clanked on the floor, rolled over a few times, and then lay still. Pyrope picked it up, lying her sharp scepter on the floor, and chuckled.

“I just don’t believe it. I always knew she’d be a traitor. Yes, this was best for her.” She smudged some of the ashes on the floor around with her foot.

I was horrified beyond belief, no longer caring that for some reason I couldn’t use my voice, I had backed into the bed.

Pyrope was tapping her fingers together in a way that strongly reminded me of Mr. Burns, from the Simpsons.

“What to do with you…” she mumbled. I looked at her scepter. I watched the Aich I had seen earlier climb onto the sword-like part of the scepter and curl up, dropping an abnormal amount of slime all over it. Kolorado had said they like warmth; apparently the scepter was hot from having just murdered someone…

Pyrope picked up her weapon and shook the odd little creature off with a disgusted “yuck.” The Aich splattered to the floor and crawled up my leg. I didn’t try and stop it. I couldn’t, even if I had wanted to, because I was still in shock of seeing what had just happened. The Aich came to rest on my collarbone, dripping slime all down my front. I didn’t try to wipe it away, even though it felt nasty; like dropping warm jell-o all over yourself.

“I have to get out of here,” I told myself. “Get out of here. Use thunderbrand. Something.” But then I had a thought, one I didn’t like at all…

“Who else have you done that to!?” I yelled.

Both Pyrope and I were startled, since now my voice was as strong as it always was.

“You’re a hardy one, yes,” Pyrope snarled. She aimed the lethal scepter at me. I leaned back a little bit.

“You know,” she threatened sweetly, “Destroying the Mushroom Kingdom wasn’t hard at all. Sarasaland’s only a little bit bigger, how much harder could it be?

Feeling a surge of anger and shock hit me in the head, I grabbed the metal part of her scepter, jerked it away and stood up.

“You destroyed the Mushroom Kingdom?” I spat, still clenching the scepter in my left hand. It hurt a little to touch it.

“Let go-“ Pyrope snarled, violently jerking it out of my hand, throwing me to the ground. I had enough time to turn over on my back and look up at Pyrope, holding her sharp weapon directly over my chest in a very threatening, scary way.

“This is sharper than a knife,” she told me casually. “It would be boringly easy to get rid of you, right in your own castle.”

I was too frightened to determine if “Boringly” was a word.

And in the next instant, an incredibly intense pain hit me squarely in the chest- I knew Pyrope had just attacked me- there was a loud whistling in my ears-

“You’re dead,” I told myself, closing my eyes tightly.

But almost instantly, the terrible pain had turned into a simple, barely-there throb- not knowing what to think, I opened my eyes. I was still in my room, still on the ground. Pyrope was standing over me, holding the scepter that was fresh with blood- my blood- apparently she had stabbed me, but it hadn’t succeeded in killing me.

I shakily stood up as the whistling got louder, ignoring the revolted look on Pyrope’s face, I looked at my feet. The time wand was on the floor, it was cracked and broken, parts of the silver wings were chipped off, it had taken part of the hit, and it was whistling and shaking madly.

“What’s going on,” Pyrope demanded, obviously shocked that I wasn’t dead.

But I had no time to answer. In that second the both of us were engulfed in white light, through closed eyes I could only see quick flashes of green light and Pyrope yelling madly-

Then everything was eerily quiet. I was afraid to open my eyes, afraid to move at all-my chest was still throbbing just a tiny bit-

But I slowly opened my eyes.

I sat up and looked around vigorously. This was my bedroom, only it was night time. Daisy moaned and turned over in her sleep next to me. Breathing very quickly, I ripped the covers off of myself and ran to the balcony door. I pulled it open and stood outside.

Everything seemed quite normal. It was very cold for an October night; as I adjusted my nightshirt, I could see my breath rising in clouds in front of me; but the sky was clear, in fact, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen so many stars. I looked down. A thin layer of snow had formed on the ground, and my pet Chain Chomp, Chompy, was rolling around, making boulder-sized tracks in the snow. Funny… it didn’t normally snow in October.

No, I thought, watching Chompy pee in the snow and turn it sharp yellow, that all couldn’t have been a dream. I got hurt a few times, and you can’t feel pain in dreams. In fact, I’m still feeling a little pain now.

I put my hand on the spot where I had been stabbed. It stung just a tiny bit. This was so weird-

I re-entered the room, closed the sliding door, and saw in the very dim light that it was just before five in the morning.

“I don’t get it,” I whispered to myself. I saw the phone. Without thinking, I picked it up and dialed the number to the Mushroom Kingdom’s castle.

After a few rings, a very groggy voice answered. “Good morning,” he said, suppressing a yawn.

“Mario?” I breathed into the phone, feeling more relieved than I think I ever have. “Mario, you wouldn’t believe it, I don’t know what’s going on, I just had the craziest dream, only I don’t see how it COULD have been a dre-“

“Bro,” he said angrily, “You couldn’t tell me about this in about… say, nine hours? Remember-“ he yawned,- “We’re two hours behind you guys.”

He was right. It wasn’t even three in the morning there yet.

“I’m sorry,” I said quickly, “But I’m really confused-“

“Get some sleep, Luigi,” he said, “I know it’s…today and all, we’ll come to your place later.” and hung up. I slowly set the phone down on the receiver.

I took a deep breath and ran my hand through my hair. Daisy turned over again, yawned, and sat up. I saw her silhouetted face turn in my direction.

“My, you’re getting business done early this morning,” she chuckled. “What’s wrong? Remember what I told you- no work today, at all. Why are you awake so early? This is early, even for you.”

“I- I don’t know…”

“Bad dream?” she asked, stretching.

“Well, yeah, but I don’t see HOW it could have been a dream, but then again, I don’t see how it couldn’t have been, what day is it?” I asked, sitting down on the bed.

Daisy prodded her finger in the middle of my chest (I cringed slightly) and pushed me back onto the pillows. I heard her get up and rustle something on the opposite side of the room. She then lit up a tall Christmas tree, one that was decorated in nothing but white and light blue. I stared at it, mouth agape.

“Christmas morning,” she chortled.

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