Painting the Town Red

Realization 9: The Final Adieu

Innocents: Peach

Victims: 4 Toads, Bowser, Daisy, Rosalina, Mario, Wario, Waluigi, Birdo and Yoshi

Murderer: Luigi

Luigi:

Exhilaration pulsed through his very being, the cat's mind next to him almost overwhelming. He wanted her neck, posed so openly and as pale as the snow he had watched falling all winter whilst formulating the plan. Formulating the rise to power. Creating the theatre.

He wanted her.

And she was all his.

The thinner, more sensitive whiskers of his catlike being twitched with anxious impatience, telling him to continue, to call the curtain on the prey. To finish.

To silence.

But she was right here, even now, clinging to every word, every move, every breath he took. Completely and utterly at his disposal.

Whatever he wanted.

And he wanted to make it last.

Another thought came to him. A second test of competence. A commitment.

A spice of life and a will to survive.

After the end game.

"What do you think?" He whispered, looking towards the ceiling.

The voices began to chant, agreeing with him. Praising him for a thought that surely would appease both parties.

Luigi now looked back to the princess, pressed and frightened against the door to freedom. The door which he had so quickly and swiftly locked.

He watched the little blue vein in her neck pulse, pumping frightened blood through his petrified victim. He watched the ragged rise and fall of Peach's chest, listened to the frantic drum of her heart, observed the miniscule movements of her fingers as they twitched against the doorframe. Searching for an exit in the cracks, seeking out a way to freedom.

A path they would never find

What a lovely plan it was.

Making of a good bonus round.

"Well, we reached a total consensus, I think, so I'll explain what the heck is going on. You're obviously impatient and dying  for me to continue, so I'll make it snappy."

Luigi clicked his fingers, his tail and oversensitive ears twitching at the sudden noise. What a bad joke that was. Perhaps he did have the makings of one of the once obnoxious brothers.

"It's evident that you lost. I will always accept that. However, I still am not satisfied with this... quick chance to finish. I love games. Something I've never been able to shake away. So, this is what I'm challenging you. There are two doors in this hallway that are still unlocked. The way out is sealed, and the way in is where I stand. I'll deactivate this powerup and hang out in the doorway of the courtroom, using nothing but my own, un-catlike senses to listen, smell or feel. Meanwhile, you pick door A or B."

Luigi twitched his ears in the two directions the doors were.

"Your goal is to A, pick a room which I won't, or B, be so quiet in picking a room that I don't hear you enter or leave. If I catch any sign that maybe you are in a room, my eyes will open. Then I pick a room, reactivating the powerup of my choice. I will stay to my assigned room for the remaining time unless you try to escape. If I choose the right room, I hunt until I catch. If I choose the wrong room, the authorities will arrive, you live, I still testify in court, blah blah blah. In essence, the same terms."