PROLOGUE
There was a sunny spot on the carpet where the littlest girl liked to lay. The white-hot beams of light danced atop her tiny blonde head. She felt safe and warm and lazy like a cat.
She was perfectly content until the other girl came bounding in. She rabbled down the corridor with all the serenity of a stampede, a thick mane of brown hair trailing behind her. Her knees were badly scuffed and threatening to drip angry red blood all over the floor.
The little one rose dramatically, as though she had been sunbathing, and gave her boisterous friend a stern look. "Daisy! Can't you ever be quiet?!"
Daisy tossed her head back with laughter. "Oh Peachy, you're such a drag! Are you really going to just lie there all day?"
Peach rolled her eyes. "Some people LIKE to be alone with their thoughts." She remarked.
Daisy snorted and collapsed onto the floor. "BORING people." she said.
"I am NOT boring!" Peach replied in defiance. To mask a twinge of hurt, she added "You're just loud and annoying!"
"Nah-uh! I'm fun! You're a lame-o and you'll never have friends!"
"Shut up!"
"Lame-o! Lame-o!" Daisy taunted, hopping circles around Peach.
The two girls often argued like this. At times they were the best of friends, but their differences were monumental. They were close in age and status, but their temperaments clashed.
Peach was very small for her age, and also delicate. She didn't enjoy rough-housing with the other children and usually wasn't invited anyway. She had a calmness that was uncharacteristic for someone so young and quite preferred a lot of time to herself. When other people were around making noise, it was impossible to daydream.
This way of life was completely lost on Daisy. She was everything a child is expected to be - energetic, restless to a fault, and adventurous. Daisy was always surrounded by playmates and bubbling over with laughter. She was a necessary dose of chaos for Peach, who otherwise might have been too busy pondering to ever be a child.
No matter how viciously they squabbled, Daisy would continue to amble in with dirt caked under her fingernails and some big scheme in her head. And Peach could only hold out for so long.
Daisy continued to berate Peach through sing-song, and Peach fought back the only way she knew how- muttering that Daisy was just a stupid little kid. It was at this moment that some other discussion somewhere else in the castle reached a fever pitch. Suddenly, a door uttered a thunderous slam. The girls' schoolyard bullying shattered like panes of glass and they looked at each other with wide eyes.
"Where are all the grown ups?" Daisy asked after moments of stunned silence.
"They must be here, of course." Peach replied, stifling a quiver.
Daisy didn't seem convinced, and although she were taller and stronger, she curled against Peach for protection.
At times like this, Peach acted as a pillar of strength. She clasped her friend's hand tightly. "There's nothing to be scared of. I'll prove it to ya!"
The two girls walked hand in hand through the long corridors of the castle. It had been a marvelous place to grow up. Every surface was hand crafted and finely detailed. The halls were so spacious that the girls could run and skip freely. There were entire rooms that seemed to have been undiscovered and made for perfect hiding places.
But in this instant, the castle was nothing less than a prison. It was a massive, winding labryinth with too many doors. Marble statues and decorative fixtures that normally appeared very grand suddenly looked like hideous, shadow-casting beasts.
At times, Daisy clutched Peach's hand so tight it ached. In irritation, Peach snapped "Your hand is so sweaty!" and jerked away from her grip.
They wandered the entire castle with no sign of trouble until they approached a door that was stifling a heated argument. Satisfied with their discovery, Peach turned in the other direction. "See? They're probably just talking about some really important stuff! Now quit being nosy!"
Daisy's fear had subsided and she lingered near the door as though by magnetic force. "I wonder what they're talking about..." she ventured.
"Daisy, it's rude to eavesdrop! Come on! Let's play a game. You can teach me how to play ball or dissect snails or something."
"Where's your sense of adventure Peachy? There's some real action on the other side of this door! No pretend stuff!"
Peach did not want to get caught spying on the grown ups. She knew they were always discussing top secret matters and they always got really quiet when she was around.
She tugged on Daisy's arm, begging her to go. "Please Daisy, they'll never trust us again!" she pleaded to no avail. Daisy had slowly crept so close to the door that her ear was pressed against it, and she wasn't budging.
"...if word gets out, it will cause wide-spread panic...must be careful...terrible thing..." a man mumbled from the other side.
There was more mumbling and Peach was beginning to get nervous. She continued to beg "Daisy, I don't want to know anything. Let's leave before we get caught!"
"SHHH! I can't hear what they're saying!" Daisy scolded.
There was more garbled discussion from behind the door, "...it can't be...I won't believe it...Are you certain?"
Peach suddenly felt a pang of anxiousness in her stomach that had nothing to do with getting punished. She was afraid of where this conversation was going. She wanted to run far away from this door and fast, before she heard something bad. She wanted to protect herself from bad news as long as possible.
In an instant, the words popped out as if fired from a gun.
"The Chancellor is dead."
Far away, in another world, a little boy in striped green pajamas awoke with a start. Pools of sweat had gathered on his bedding. He peered through the darkness for his big brother, but couldn't see him.
Luigi knew that he needed his big brother. His big brother HAD to wake up and tell him that everything was okay or he wouldn't sleep for the rest of the night.
He swung himself over the edge of his bed and frantically felt around beneath it until he touched a small shoebox. He discarded the top of the box and brandished a tiny flashlight keychain like a sword.
The tiny light led him through the darkness to his big brother's bed. "Mario, I'm scared!" he said in a whisper.
He was met with a snore and became more frantic. He shined the light directly in Mario's face and raised his voice. "Mario! I'm scared!"
Mario groaned and made room in his bed. "Climb in!"
Luigi often struggled to sleep through the night. He had been dependent on Mario to console him back into slumber every evening. Mario would never let him sense that his patience was wearing thin. Having a little brother was a big responsibility.
Mario glanced down the line of beds to be sure that no one had woken up and allowed his little brother to get nestled in. He swung an arm around him and clasped the flashlight, quickly switching it off. "Everything's okay now. Get some rest."
They had been living in the orphanage since Mom and Dad died. It had been a few years. Luigi couldn't possibly remember very much about Mom and Dad, could he?
Whether he remembered or not, living in a temporary shelter made Luigi nervous and sick. He could never articulate what made him uneasy, but Mario knew all to well. He knew because it haunted him too.
He wanted to go home. He just didn't know where that was.
Mario could hear the staggered, rhythmic breathing of his brother, soundly sleeping once again. "I will make a home for us Weegie. Things will be different someday. Someday soon."