The wind whipped through the naked oaks, every gust moaning in a language unknown to man. A frowning moon hung low in the cloudy night sky and shone in a milky light. No cars drove down the winding hillside road; the sparse estates and their dimmed lights blended into the darkness to discourage late-night trick-or-treaters. Stray grocery bags and a few dead leaves scattered through the air, lifted off the pavement by the merciless wind.
The weather came as no surprise to Luigi, even as the aged walls of his mansion creaked around him. In the center of the living room's moss-green carpet stood a taupe leather chair and a lamp sitting atop its engraved oak pedestal. Luigi reclined himself into it and buried himself in a thick book, until a dull knock from the heavy front door pulled him away.
"Hmm?" Luigi exhaled and shook his head. "What the heck? It's almost eleven o'clock."
He pulled himself out of his loveseat and shuffled across the floor. The grandfather clock chimed, announcing the rebirth of a new hour. "This had better be something important," Luigi yawned in annoyance as he opened the door.
Luigi glanced down both sides of the street as an icy blast of wind crossed his face. "I don't see what anyone gets out of ding-dong-ditching someone--wait a second. What's that noise?"
A metallic groan pierced the air--followed by a jarring crash. Luigi cried out in fright, as if a monster had leapt upon him. The noise of the crash felt like lightning coursing through him. He recovered and stood tall, grasping onto the doorjamb to balance himself despite his trembling knees.
Momma Mia! I must have forgotten to shut those gates when I got home! Wait a minute--I always remember to shut them. By the time I got home, I remember saying, "It's gonna be a bad night," because of all the wind. I said that as I shut the gates behind me.
"Hello?" he shouted. "Hello?!"
A faint shattering came from the side of the house.
"That's it! I'm calling the police!"
With a grunt, he slammed the weighty oak door and dashed to the telephone.
"Okay. Pull yourself together. The non-emergency number is--something's wrong. Where's the tone?"
He pressed every button on the telephone at least half a dozen times--but there was nothing.
"Why won't this phone work? Is there a--wait a minute. My cellphone. Good thing I actually wised up and--oh, great. No signal!" Luigi looked out the window. "It has to be the storm."
A high smash jolted him to his feet. With all his strength--and a panicked outcry--Luigi sped down the stairs and rounded a corner, his sight set on the door to the garage. Before he knew it, the door burst open and clobbered him in the face. He cried out in pain as he slammed into the floor.
"Stupid door!" he exclaimed, prying himself back onto his feet. Then, the door jerked back and bowled him over again like a domino. The wind outside reacted with a cruel laugh.
"Agh-h-h! What is going on?" he shouted, extending an arm out to break his fall. With a huff, he leapt to his feet and peered into the garage. Nothing was there--nothing but the room's musty odor and the smell of a moist wind leaking through the aged windows.
"How did that stupid door fly open? I don't see anything!" Luigi exclaimed to himself as he felt his way around the wall. "Where's that light switch? Ah, here we go--oh, no."
Luigi flicked the switch several times--but to no effect.
"Wait a minute," he sighed, staring out a window. "Why aren't the neighbors' lights out?" A sickening feeling bubbled in Luigi's stomach as he fingered his way toward the circuit breaker.
After inching his way to the breaker, he thrust open the tin door, which made a high squeak. Nothing had been tripped.
"Uh-h-h, it--it's okay," Luigi stammered in disbelief. "I-I mean, I could see a little light through the windows. They're not broken. Heh, heh, no reason to panic, Luigi. Just move back to your chair and relax. It's--it's gotta be a frayed wire or--or something. I hope."
He tiptoed back to his chair and resumed reading. After a few minutes, he noticed that the light was getting dimmer.
Luigi looked back at the fireplace in horror. The flames were extinguishing themselves.
"No," he mumbled. "No!"
As the embers from the fire died, the whole mansion fell into a cloak of darkness. The wind cried without end, sending chills slithering up and down Luigi's spine. In fright, he dug his fingers into the armrests of his chair and took in a deep breath. His wide eyes glanced about the mansion--but nothing was there.
"What in the world is that?"
Amid the creaking of his home, a faint song came from the den down the hall.
"Did the radio turn on? No. It couldn't turn on by itself."
A perplexed Luigi slid out of his chair and felt his way along the wall toward the den. An eerie blue light glowed from the grand piano and showed Luigi the rest of the way into the room. To his horror, the Yamaha was playing on its own.
"So, that's where the music's coming from! But--why would a grand piano sound like an orchestra? And where's that glow coming from?"
Luigi made his way to the piano and took a seat on the velvet bench. "I know this tune," he said to himself. After humming a few bars, he concluded, "If I can play along with--A-a-agh!"
The next thing he knew, he was thrown violently to the floor by an enormous blue spark and a deafening boom. Luigi looked like an X with his arms and legs stuck out along the floor.
"What the heck? I just touch the keyboard, and I get shocked!" He rose to his feet and, in a courageous move, bellowed, "Whoever you are, show yourself before I--!"
A brilliant white fire tore through the dismal night, illuminating every corner of the mansion in a light as bright as day.
"Whoa! What is--this--it's not summer at all!"
A sickening CRACK followed, shaking the windows and dissolving in rumbles that Luigi felt through his whole body. He felt his stomach rising in his throat and his hands quaking.
"Oh-h-h, boy," he said in a tremulous voice. "I like thunderstorms--but just not like this! Hey--wait! What is this?"
Along the carpet, glowing blue footprints pointed down the hall. The footprints looked like gigantic, distorted police fingerprints--right down to the swirls and whorls. Luigi uncovered his right foot and rest it on the right footprint before him.
"It can't be," he breathed. "These--are these my footprints?"
Without a moment of hesitation, Luigi followed the patterns down the hall and up the creaking stairs. He didn't dare lift his head up. The rest of the footprints led Luigi upstairs and stopped in the middle of a short hallway.
"Wait! This makes sense--sort of! I came down this way when I heard the shattering glass!" Luigi's smile fell as he said, "But, these footprints lead me upstairs--and I ran downstairs. Wait! Mario is--no. He's not even here, and I doubt he has the same feet as mine. At the least, they smell a whole lot worse!"
Luigi looked over his shoulder and then back to the floor. "So, this is where they stop. They go right into the mirror."
He placed a hand on the mirror and felt its chill running through him. Beneath his hand lay a shining handprint. It stayed after he let his arm sink to his side. He stared at the image in dread silence; it followed him as he shuffled from one angle to another.
Another lightning flash tore through the sky; after a few blinding flickers, the reflection in the mirror looked different. Luigi's image disappeared from view. He saw a menacing apparition dressed in overalls and a red shirt and hat--opposed to Luigi's robe and reading glasses.
"Mario?"
At once, the figure in the mirror lunged at Luigi, leaping out of the mirror and pinning him by the neck. "Mario--what--are--you--doing?!" gasped Luigi, trying to wriggle out of the ghost's grasp.
Somehow, amid his haste, he remembered an effective move. He grabbed the ghost by its meaty arms and flipped forward. The ghost lost his grip and plummeted to the floor.
With a triumphant "A-ha!" and a leap back, Luigi made a fighting pose and shouted, "Don't come any closer!"
The glowing phantom stepped forward, clamping his mouth shut.
"Look! Who are you, really? What do you think you're doing--?" In a wink, Luigi's eyes widened. "And why isn't there an M on your hat?"
Mario dashed back into the mirror, losing his shoes as he fled. Luigi cried out and followed Mario--and crashed head-first into the mirror, which shattered into a thousand pieces.
Yet another lightning flash illuminated the whole mansion. Luigi jerked out of a daze and leapt to his feet.
"Whoa! The mirror's back! I knew you couldn't get away from me that easily!"
He dashed into the mirror, plowing through it as if it were thin air. Before he knew it, he found himself outside, standing on the wooden veranda. A bitter wind crossed his face and sent shudders down his body.
"What's going on here? You know what? Never mind! I don't care, and I don't want to know! I'm heading back inside. It's starting to rain."
He uncrossed his shivering arms and darted toward the front door of the mansion--but there was no door. It was gone. In its place stood solid oak beams running into the ground.
"No!" he screamed over the storm. "No!!" He kept crying out as he rapped his fists against the wooden beams. No matter how hard or how long he persisted, the barrier stood impenetrable.
"A-a-agh!" he screamed, falling to his knees and collapsing at the foot of what used to be the doorway. "Why am I losing my mind?! Why isn't there a good reason for this?"
A tremendous light flickered across the whole sky. Luigi looked up just as a half-dozen veins of brilliant white fire coursed through the clouds.
"Wait a minute. Every time the lightning flashes, something changes. What's changed now?"
Just as Luigi rose to his feet, two hands from out of nowhere clasped his mouth shut. Once again, he struggled to break free, but after fetching a glance at his captor, a burst of strength surged through his body. He leapt from the porch and gave his captor a swift kick in the stomach.
Luigi managed to swing around and see his captor fall to the ground. Right as he tried to run away, Luigi grabbed him by the shirt and tore a jagged hole in its side as a stunned look spread across his face.
Beneath the red shirt and overalls lay a blue-robed Koopa with a large bill and a pair of Coke-bottle glasses.
"Kamek!"
"Luigi, you little cur!" gasped the Koopa, holding his stomach. "You snapped my wand!"
"How did you do this?"
"It's not hard with someone gullible like you. I make you think lightning changes everything! Then, I change myself and turn into your brother. A little good magic helped to make the fire extinguish itself and make your grand piano sound like the Boston Pops."
Before Luigi replied, a loud roaring from on high cut him off. An electric green light poured down from above, enveloping Kamek and Luigi. A Koopa Cruiser hovered in the air with Bowser at the helm.
"Darn it, Kamek!" he snarled into the ship's megaphones. "Get Luigi out of the way and give him that card! I don't wanna get him beamed up!"
Kamek looped back to Luigi and uncloaked a piece of orange paper. "You know what really gets me?" Kamek spat. "Sometimes, you can be so dense! Don't you have a sense of humor or something?"
"Save me the explanation and get out of here! You and your pilot and his big mouth are about to wake up the whole neighborhood!"
"Fine! And keep this note, why don't you? Maybe you'll have half a brain to cherish it someday."
As Kamek beamed up into the Cruiser, Luigi sighed and shook his head. "I should have figured. I really can't believe I forgot to look at the calendar!"
One glance at the note in its cruel irony was enough.
"Happy Halloween."
With a light laugh, he shook his head and shrugged his shoulder, returned inside his dimly lit home, sank into his loveseat, and resumed reading.
Until an airy titter snapped him to attention...