Rise of the Nightmares

Chapter 4

Despite having a nightmare, Kate managed to get through the rest of the night in a rather peaceful manner. She woke up feeling refreshed, for she strangely didn't have another nightmare or continue the one she was having that startled her previously. Though she did end up oversleeping, for once she woke up, the room was already pretty bright.

Kate looked down over at the makeshift bed on the floor, but to her surprise, both Mario and Sonic were gone. She didn't even see a note or anything that the two left, so she figured that they must've gotten up earlier to patrol the area or something. She reached out and grabbed her glasses and got up to start getting ready for the day. She planned to speak to Merlon about her nightmare, so the least she could do was get dressed and fix her hair before she left the castle.

Kate headed into the bathroom and turned on the sink. She splashed a little bit of water on her face, ignoring that she had her glasses on her face still. She turned off the faucet and grabbed her hand towel, gently patting both her face and her glasses until both were dry. She let out a sigh as she put the hand towel back on the sink counter, but that's when she noticed her right wrist.

The bug bite she got on the day that they left the villa was still there. She hadn't been scratching it since she spotted it, but something seemed a little different this time about it. It was still two little puncture dots, but they looked bigger than the last time Kate saw them. And now, Kate felt a bit of irritation on her wrist, and she couldn't help but scratch the bug bite with her left hand.

"I thought this would go away! It's so itchy!" she complained.

She let out a frustrated sigh as she grabbed a small lotion bottle and clicked open the cap. Kate squeezed out some lotion onto her left hand and set the bottle down, so she could rub the lotion onto her bite mark.

"Please go away this time!" she angrily muttered.

After that irritation was dealt with, she headed back to her room and got dressed. She rushed to put on her shirt so she could roll up her sleeves, hoping that by covering her wrist, she would hold back any urge to scratch it and make it worse than it already was. After getting dressed, Kate brushed her hair and headed out of her guest room.

Not wanting an escort to tail her and bother her on the way to Merlon's, Kate didn't let anyone know that she was heading out. Having an escort with her would only raise suspicion, but she figured that she should at the very least let someone know where she was going. So she spotted Toad and Toadette, who were having a nice conversation with Yoshi down the hallway.

"Kinda weird how it's cloudy today, am I right?" asked Yoshi.

"Yeah. I thought the newspaper's weather report said it would be a set of sunny days all week. Guess Mother Nature had other plans..." said Toad.

"Oh! Good morning Miss Kate!" said Toadette.

"Good morning guys," she greeted them.

"You alright today? You overslept by a bit. It's almost ten am already!" said Yoshi.

"I'm fine," said Kate, not wanting to tell them the truth. "Listen, I don't want an escort or anything, but I thought, to play it safe, I'd let you guys know that I'm going to see Merlon. I wanna ask him if he knows anything."

"Okay, but it might not do you any good. I don't think Merlon's in town today," said Toad.

"Wait, he's not?" asked Kate.

"No. I think he left a couple days ago and hasn't given a report on when he'll be back. Not sure why he left town though," said Toad.

"Must've been a family emergency or something, since he left without warning nor did he give an idea on when he'll return," said Toadette.