It seemed like a normal day. It seemed like just another game of tennis. It didn't seem like the kind of day I should be worried for my life and the lives of everyone around me, but it was. I never thought I'd be in this position, having to make a decision that could save the world or destroy it. I never thought that my own father could do this to someone.
It was a seemingly normal day in the Mushroom Kingdom. I was sitting on the bench, watching Waluigi and Rosalina play a one-on-one game of tennis. I miss the normal days. Just playing tennis or golf or whatever with my friends, never having to worry about anything. That's why I never went off on any adventures with Mario and Luigi, even though Luigi had wanted me to join almost every time since he met me. I guess he never realized how dangerous it really was, or maybe I was overthinking the danger. People always think I'm this "cool girl" who "can't be afraid of anything", but that's far from true. It made me laugh how people thought of Luigi as being such a coward, when he's probably braver than I ever thought I could be. Before the "incident" I always thought that even going INSIDE a haunted mansion would likely mean my untimely demise, but Luigi's done it twice.
"Hey, Daisy! It's your turn!" Rosalina called, interrupting my thoughts. "I can't wait to beat you like I did Waluigi here!"
"Hey! You cheated! That's why I lost, CHEATER!" Waluigi yelled at Rosalina. I knew it wasn't true, since Waluigi always accused his opponent of cheating if he lost. He is SUCH a sore loser.
"OK, Rosie! If you think you can beat me then-" I stopped. I had an uneasy feeling. Something was wrong. I looked around and didn't see anything that seemed out of place. "Then you better watch out." I smirked, as Rosalina threw the ball up in the air and hit it with her racket. We kept playing until I finally beat her.
Rosalina sighed. "Oh well. You win this time. But next time you won't be so lucky," she said with a smirk. Rosalina and I had had a friendly rivalry going ever since we met each other, always trying to beat each other at everything from a simple kart race to a swimming race at the olympics, we just could never do anything without turning it into fierce competition of some sort.
"Hey, Luigi! Ready for the next match?" I called out.
No response.
I looked around the tennis courts. I had guessed he was distracted or something, but he wasn't there. I ran inside the castle, assuming he was in there, but he was nowhere to be found. I asked Mario and Princess Peach if they knew where he was, but neither of them had any clue. I began to worry. What if something happened to him? I shook it off as nonsense. What could happen to him during a tennis game? I ran outside and called his name, still getting no response. Peach and Mario had followed me outside, clearly concerned.
"Daisy, he's still by the tennis courts! Why are you so scared? Are you feeling OK?" Peach asked. I was shocked. It seemed like she was trying to say I was crazy or something.
"Peach, he's not there! Go look for yourself!" I snapped back, then stopped. I thought was going crazy. I sighed. Calm down I thought. No need to worry, everything's going to be fine.
Peach had ran off to prove that Luigi was still there, but all of a sudden, I heard her scream. Mario and I ran off to find her kneeling down, shaking an unconscious Luigi. Mario and I gasped. I pushed back tears as I watched her shake him, but to no avail.
After a little bit more of Peach trying to wake him up (and a lot more of me crying) he finally got up. I was about to run over and hug him, but before I even started, Peach had run off screaming. Luigi turned to face us, and in an instant I knew that that wasn't Luigi. His eyes, usually a sparkling sky blue, where instead a bright red. His eyebrows were lowered as if he was angry, but below his mustache wasn't a frown, but a smile. A slasher smile.
"L-Luigi!?"
He didn't respond, but just stared at me, before fading away.
"What was that?" I asked, even though I knew exactly what the answer would be.
"I don't know." Mario responded. "All I know is that that wasn't my brother."
Little did we know what that cold stare really was.
We ran off to find Peach, who was inside the castle, sitting holding her knees, clearly traumatized by something. She looked up at us. "H-how did you-"
"That was a fake." Mario said. I swear this is the most I've ever heard him talk. He's always so quiet.
"A fake? A trick? SOME KIND OF SICK JOKE?" She yelled, grabbing onto Mario's shoulders and shaking him. Something about her wasn't right. Why was she this freaked out?
"Peach… Are you OK?" I asked, concerned for her. I heard footsteps running down the hallway. I turned to see Rosalina, Waluigi, and Pauline standing there shocked.
"What's going on in here?" Pauline asked. "It sounds dreadful!"
"Yeah, is everything alright?" Rosalina asked. They all seemed concerned, pretty shocking for Waluigi.
"Y-yeah." I assured. Whatever was going on, I didn't want them to get caught up in it. I couldn't even imagine seeing them all the way Peach was right then.
"OK…" Rosalina said. "But if something's wrong then don't hesitate to tell us. We're your friends. We don't want to be sitting around doing nothing if you're in any trouble."
"Trust me, everything is fine." I assured. "There's nothing wrong." They walked off, clearly unsure of whether or not I was telling the truth, which I wasn't. I was terrified.
Mario looked at me, confused. "Why did you just lie to them like that?" he asked. I didn't know what to tell him. I knew if I told him I was concerned for them he'd think I was crazy, since we both knew that extra help would be great, but if I told him anything else, he'd still think I was crazy.
"I-I… I was... I was scared. OK? I'm worried. I don't want anything to happen to anyone! I just want to find Luigi and get back to playing tennis! I've never had to experience this kind of thing! I just want to figure out what just happened!" I yelled, as I fell down to the floor crying. How has Mario not shown any signs of fear yet? Why were Peach and I the only ones affected by this? Was that even really Mario? Am I going crazy? Am I still sane? "AAARRRGGGHHH!" I yelled out.
Mario just stared at me, looking concerned. "Daisy, I didn't realize-"
"What? That I was crazy?" I yelled, as I began choking him. Peach yelled at me to stop, but by the time I did, he had passed out. "Oh god… What have I done?"
Peach shook him awake, and I let out a sigh of relief. I really am going crazy I thought.
Mario looked up at me. "What were you thinking? You almost killed me!" He yelled, rubbing his neck.
"I-I… I wasn't…" I said. "I wasn't thinking…" It was then I heard a laugh. An insane laugh.
"BWAHAHAHAHAHA! I didn't realize you were so WEAK! I drove you crazy enough to choke him with one trick!" A voice called. "I thought it would take more than that to break you."
We all turned to see a woman standing in behind us. She was tall, probably close to Rosalina's height, and had long, rasberry-red hair that covered one eye. She was wearing a dark green dress with a purple diamond motif similar to one of my own, as opposed to the smooth white curves on mine. Her dress was sleeveless, and she had a bright green-yellow brooch on the front. She also had purple fingerless gloves that matched her dress, but her most notable feature was her eyes. Her eyes were a bright red, matching those of the fake Luigi we'd seen earlier. She also shared the same slasher smile and angry-looking eyes as the fake Luigi.
"YOU!" I screamed "YOU WERE THE ONE I SAW EARLIER! YOU WERE THE FAKE LUIGI!"
"Right you are, flower girl." she snickered. "I guess I made myself a bit too obvious."
"Who are you?" Peach yelled. "What are you doing?"
"I, am Queen Darcena. And I have your precious plumber." She laughed, then turned around. "If you three ever want to see him alive again, you'd better not interfere with my plans." Then she showed us a brief video on a screen created with her magic.
In the video, Luigi was in a cell of some sort, banging his fist on the force field in front of him. He seemed to be trying to tell us something, but we couldn't hear anything. Then, after this went on for a while, and cloud of what seemed to be Darcena's magic enveloped him. The last thing we could see was Luigi's hand sticking out of the cloud, as if he was trying to reach out to us. The screen went black, and I thought it was over, but then two white eyes opened and a small grin appeared underneath.
I was terrified. What had I just seen? Peach and I looked at each other, and then at Mario, who, still, showed no signs of fear. Just anger. I was confused. How could he be so brave?
Little did I know what had happened before to make him this way.
I was about to speak, but I couldn't. Darcena was gone.
And so was my normal life.