The Evils Within

Chapter 12

Luigi was sat at the u-shaped table of a conference room, Peach sitting on the interior side across from him and Mario next to him. The two tried to talk to him, but he didn't respond. He sat quietly, staring to the ground. His hat covering his eyes so neither Peach nor Mario could tell his expression.

"Luigi, listen. I understand that this might be overwhelming, if not, annoying, for us to be asking you about this so often, but... are you... doing okay?" Peach asked. She was just as concerned for him as Mario was. She expected more silence but was met with a very unusual response.

"Lay off," Luigi simply responded. His tone of voice was very different from the ones that are used to. It was almost as if... he was angry, an emotion neither she nor his brother were familiar with him having.

Mario, who had been leaning on his hand, sat up with a confused look. "Bro, we're just trying to help. You've been acting very different lately. Are you sure you don't want to tell us what's wrong?" he asked.

"Get off my back, okay?" Luigi finally looked up and turned to Mario for a moment before looking back down.

Mario unconsciously moved back in a seat a bit. The look in his brother's eyes was unsettling, to say the least. There have been moments where Luigi had been quite annoyed, but this anger he was showing off was a rare occurrence. Mario felt like if he asked any more questions, someone was going to get hurt.

"Luigi, I understand you're getting frustrated with us about us berating you with all these questions, but we're not going to stop asking until we know how to help you," Peach informed him. She was a tad afraid of Luigi's new attitude but did her best not to show it. "So, please answer us this. What's wrong?"

"What part of leave me alone do you not understand?" Luigi snapped. His new-found anger was building up and needed to be let out. He had no idea what he was doing or why, but he had the feeling to just... yell. "It's always the same thing with you guys. 'What's wrong?' 'Are you okay?' 'Do you need help?' All the damn time! I'm sick of it! I don't know what's wrong. I don't know if I need help. And I definitely am not okay! I need to figure this shit out by myself instead of relying on you guys like a kid. I am a grown-ass adult and I need to figure these things out on my own." He stands up from the table in a huff, the chair loudly scraping against the floor. "I'm going home. When you guys are done treating me like a child, you can meet me at home." He leaves.

Mario and Peach just sat there, mouth agape, absolutely speechless on what had just happened. Luigi has never 'snapped' before. The whole thing was just unexpected. They looked to each other for questions or answers, but neither of them could form the words.

Luigi angrily stormed out of the castle, making it just outside before finally processing the previous event. He just yelled at his friends. Just the thought of it hurt him, but actually doing it? It already broke his heart. He leaned against the castle wall, taking a deep breath before breaking out into tears. He had no idea why he was so angry, but now, because of it, he was just very upset.

He assumed whatever was going on was just Mr. L messing with his mind like he always does. He needed help. He didn't want to admit it, but he definitely wanted his friends to help, but he thought, by yelling at them, he wasn't going to get that help.

The more upset he got, the more anger he felt. His anger, mixed with his sorrow, was making it hard for him to think rationally. He was trying to calm down, but his anger told him things like, 'they hate you now' 'you can't go back to them' 'they won't help you' And that only made him even more upset.

He felt something building up inside of him, it wasn't an emotion, but whatever it was, it wasn't good.

~~~~~