Mario's cabin

Chap. 16

The clock had finally hit 8:30 pm. Peach took some breaths and went to the kitchen, where she had opened the window and went outside to look for Mario. She found him standing about thirty feet away from the front door. She approached him, hands trembling.

"You, uh, wanted to see me?" she asked.

"Yes, Peach, I did," Mario replied, not sounding too amused.

"Uh, why did you want to see me?" Peach asked, trying not to sound scared.

"Well, I noticed that Bowsie has bruises on his body," Mario explained. "He says he did it himself, but I just know he's invited someone to hurt him. You and I are gonna find out who this paramour or mistress is, and we will bring them to justice."

Peach was relieved, yet at the same time she was scared.

What if he somehow finds out that it's me? Oh, I'm screeeewed...

"Also, before we go to sleep, I wanna let you know that Luigi may be staying with us for a while," Mario said. "He will come over tomorrow if he is at all, as his house is being fumigated for ticks. You probably read the part about me needing to change your bedsheets. You need to be more careful about hunting. Those wild boars are nothing to play with. I also noticed that you needed to sew that dress up; those tusks can cut deep, you know. You're lucky you didn't get an infection. Now good night, Peach."

They both went inside and to their bedrooms. Peach didn't feel tired, yet it was about 9:51 pm.

Time sure does fly, Peach thought.

She didn't want to look out the window because she just didn't want to be reminded of the other night. She decided to sneak into bedroom 2 to see if Daisy and Bowser Jr. were asleep; Daisy was, but Bowser Jr. wasn't.
"What do ya want?" he whispered.

"I wanna talk to you," Peach whispered back.

"Oh, I get it," he said smugly. "You can't sleep because of the 'incident' the other night."

"No," Peach said quickly, and rather loudly.

Daisy sorta looked up, but she went back to sleep.

"I'm just not tired," Peach continued quietly. "So, how are you?"

"Uh, why are you asking me, 'How are you?'" Bowser Jr. asked. "Ask me something interesting."

"Ok, fine," Peach responded. "Did you hear that Mario wanted to talk to me outside?"

"Now I'm interested," Bowser Jr. replied. "Go on."

"Yeah, well," Peach started, "he thinks it's someone else entirely. He also said that Luigi may be coming here tomorrow, that he may stay for a while, and that my bedsheets are gonna get changed. Apparently, Mario thinks the blood was from a 'hunting accident'."

"No way, man!" Bowser Jr. exclaimed quietly. "You ain't kidding with me, are you?"

"No, I'm not kidding with you," Peach said.

"He seriously thinks someone from who-knows-where just came all this way, just to have their way with Bowser?" Bowser Jr. asked in shock.

"Yep, pretty much," Peach answered.

"Well, Peach, here's what I think," Bowser Jr. started. "I think you should throw Luigi under the bus."

"Uh, what?" Peach exclaimed.

Daisy looked up again, but she fell back asleep.

"What I mean is, find or make some fake evidence that points to Luigi somehow," Bowser Jr. explained.

"How am I supposed to do that?" Peach asked.

"You know," Bowser Jr. started, "take a picture or two, look for stains (if you know what I mean), make stains if you have to, just make evidence that throws Mario off your scent."

Peach started feeling naturally drowsy, so she thanked Bowser Jr. for the conversation and went back to bed, debating whether she wanted to use Luigi as a scapegoat.