Luigi's Mansion

Chapter 14 - Twins

As if someone had flipped a switch the room suddenly filled with ghosts. The purplish grabbers with the intense stares - five of them surrounded Luigi from every side, their light, wispy shadows appearing in puffs of smoke against the white canvas of the projection screen.

Luigi turned in a circle, fear clutching him like a cold hand. This was exactly the situation he hadn't ever wanted to find himself in.

Grinning menacingly, the group slowly began to close in on him... and that's when he did something unexpected.

Just when they almost had him completely surrounded, Luigi suddenly dropped to the floor, ducked underneath their circle and rolled right out from under them. The ghosts, confused themselves for a moment, paused and looked around, until the human rose to his feet behind them, weapon in hand. He was visibly shaking a little, but that didn't seem to be stopping him. Determined never to let them get their cold hands on him again, he stared them down with an intensity that nearly rivaled their own.

The grabber in front slowly gave their young adversary a toothy smile. Then all five of them vanished into the air.

Holding his breath, Luigi slowly scooted into the middle of the floor. Staying by the humming projector's light, he kept his watch on the screen, so he would see right away when the ghosts' shadows appeared beside him. It was just like the mirror room: utterly creepy to see their hideous forms appear behind him, but reassuring to know at the same time.

Once he had adopted that strategy and kept his back to the projector, Luigi had squared himself off pretty well. The ghosts came at him but were overwhelmed by too much light and fell to his snare. It was a good thing too, because the projector in itself made so much noise that Luigi couldn't depend on his hearing at all.

After catching three considerably well, he was fighting with the last two, whom he had caught at the same time, when he noticed that one of them was struggling more desperately than the other to get free. Pulling back as hard as he could so that he almost knocked over the projector, Luigi thought he saw the ghost carrying something – something white.

His suspicion now aroused, Luigi fought to give one last tug before the two succumbed at the same moment, and he fell backwards onto the sound proof floor. With a grunt he sat up and widened his eyes as the lights came on, and he instantly saw laying there before him... a white glove.

What??

Heart skipping a beat, Luigi scrambled forward and snatched it up, clutching it close to his face as he stared. Mario's glove.

There could be no doubting this one. Mario and Luigi wore the exact same kind of gloves, and while Mario's tended to get more worn than his – Mario wasn't exactly gentle with his clothes - Luigi liked sharing something like that with his brother.

And the one he had found now was identical to his own.

Well... except for the stain Luigi's now boasted. Mario's glove wasn't perfect either: Luigi was a little grossed out to find that it was kind of sweaty still. He could almost pick up nervousness off it like a virus.

Clutching it in his hand, Luigi got to his feet and started to leave. An even closer possession of Mario's – surely this one would speak to Madame Clairvoya. Indeed, finding his sweat-drenched garments was getting pretty close to the source – how did the ghosts even manage to get it?

Suddenly, at that moment, Luigi jolted to a stop, a startling thought hitting him. The glove – Mario hadn't been missing a glove.

Only just then did he realize the impossibility of it all.