The Evils Within

Chapter 17

Luigi approached the entrance to the town. The usually bustling town was very quiet. Even for this part of the day. The moonlight illuminated the streets. Not a single toad to be seen. Starting to become a little worried, he slowly walked through the streets, hoping to find someone who could explain.

Continuing his way to the castle, a figure could be seen in the distance. It was a toad. Maybe they knew what was going on. It was holding something. It was long, sharp, and the tip glistened in the moonlight. It was a spear. Noticing Luigi, it turned, pointing its weapon in his direction with a short whistle. From the bushes behind the toad, a couple other toads, carrying similar weapons, crawled out.

Now terrified out of his mind, Luigi froze in place. His mind was screaming at him to go. To move. To run, but his legs wouldn't budge an inch. He thought to explain himself, but his mouth wouldn't move.

The toads drew closer. Luigi managed to take a step back, and another, before breaking out in a sprint towards the castle, the toads following close behind. He needed to find a way to lose them

Coming up before them, was a split in the path they ran on and a sign between the two new paths. The path that continued ahead that led towards the forest that surrounded the castle and the path that turned led to the castle's courtyard. Luigi continued forward, noting the dirt path faded into grass, making it harder for him to be followed.

Upon entering the forest, Luigi took a sharp left into a clearing of trees before jumping up into one. The Toads pressed onward, not noticing Luigi in the tree. After they passed, Luigi let out a sigh of relief. He carefully climbed out of the tree, back out the forest, and walked along the side of the path.

He went down the other path, the one that led to the courtyard. A stone brick wall separated the castle from the rest of the town. Luigi jumped up, grabbing the edge of the wall and pulling himself over it. He slipped and landed in a bed of flowers. He stood up and quickly dusted himself off before making his way to the pink gate that separated the castle and the courtyard.

After opening the gate carefully and closing it quietly behind him, Luigi walked through the long hallway in hopes to find Peach. He heard a commotion coming from a room near the end of the hall. Hearing Peach's voice, his pace quickened. He needed to talk to her as soon as he could. Then, he stopped dead in his tracks, right outside the door, at the sound of... his own voice. He poked his head into the room. It was the Infirmary. His brother lied on the cot in the corner, still unconscious, while Peach and his dopplegänger talked next to him. Luigi gasped. He needed to get to get to his brother before anything worse could happen to him.

While the two were distracted, Luigi snuck past the door into the item storage room down the hall from the infirmary. In the room, he searches for a super mushroom for his brother. In doing so, he finds and pockets himself a mini-mushroom and a super leaf as well. Turning around, he noticed alone on a shelf there was a 1-Up mushroom with a little note attached to it. He picked it up and removed the note. 'Last 1-Up for a while. Emergency use only,' The note read. Luigi knew he was going to need it, so he pocketed that too.

Luigi then froze at the sound of footsteps approaching.

"Luigi?" he heard his own name being called. It was Peach.

Luigi was about to turn to explain himself but remembered a small detail about the Luigi she had just been speaking with. 'Luigi', or rather Mr. L. held a hand over the right side of his face, presumably to hid the injury Luigi gave him. Raising his right hand over the right side of his face, Luigi turned to Peach, a nervous look in his eye.

"Sorry for starting you. What are you doing?" The princess asked.

"I- I was just looking for a mushroom for Mario," he explained.

"I thought you were going to look after Mario while I got one for him," Peach replied.

"Oh! I, um... changed my mind..." Luigi knew he was drawing suspicion towards him. He needed a way to get himself out of the situation he trapped himself in. "I just checked in here and there were none," he lied, "Maybe there's some upstairs..?

Peach knew something was wrong, but she didn't think too much about the situation. "Alright, I guess. I'll check upstairs," she said as she walked out of the room, a hint of suspicion in her voice.

Luigi hurried back to the infirmary, peeking through the door frame to see Mr. L pacing around Mario with a mischievous smile on his face. Luigi pulled the mini-mushroom out from his pocket and threw it down the hall. The mushroom bounced through the hall, catching Mr. L's attention. Luigi hid in an adjacent room. Mr. L peeked down the hall before going to investigate the sudden bouncing sound.

Now that Peach and Mr. L were distracted, Luigi had this small window of time to convince Mario he wasn't Mr. L. He knew that if Peach spotted two Luigi's, she wouldn't hesitate to call the guards on both of them.

Luigi ran over to the cot his brother lied on. Pulling the super mushroom out from his overall pocket, he fed it to Mario, who, in no time, sat up. He held his hand to his head as a piercing pain slowly faded away. Looking up, he spotted his younger brother. Seeing him prompted a question in his head.

"What happened to Mr. L? Did you get him?" Mario asked.

Before Luigi could answer, Mr. L walked back into the room, holding the mini-mushroom in his hand. Mario blinked twice. He swore he was seeing double. Mr. L and Luigi looked to each other with an angry glare.

"What are you doing here?" Mr. L asked his dopplegänger.

"Trying to help my brother and put a stop to you," Luigi responded. "I could ask you the same thing."

"I'm trying to put a stop to you," Mr. L took a step forward to Luigi.

Just then, Peach walked into the room, holding a super mushroom in her hand. Both Luigis turned to her. She dropped the mushroom in her hand as her glance shifted between Luigi and Mr. L.

Peach put her fingers together in front of her mouth and whistled loudly to alert the guards.

Luigi knew there was no way he could explain himself now. Not under this sort of pressure, so Luigi ran out the room, unintentionally pushing Peach to the side.