I still remember the first day I came to the castle, if only vaguely. I saw the endless stairs and the Paratroopas whizzing about overhead. I remember being taken in by the glory and splendor. I remember seeing Bowser on his great black throne. I remember his words exactly.
"You are one of the most promising scientists I have ever seen. I now want you to do something others would say is impossible. I want you to raise the dead."
I remember protesting angrily, but being quieted by his mighty roar.
"Remember your place fool! You will do what I command! As head of regenerative research I cannot kill you, but I can confine you for the rest of your miserable days! Now get on it you worthless cur!"
I remember being shuttled into a lab where I worked, day in and day out. My scales grew ragged and my shell grew brittle as I spent years working in that rotten lab. I ate only once a day and hardly slept. Conditions were awful but somehow I pulled it off. I had unlocked the secrets of life after death. And the master was pleased.
He entered my lab for that first demonstraition, he wanted to see the fruits of my efforts. I remember his dissapointment as I revealed that pile of bones, and his shock as specteral fire filled it with ghostly flesh. Blue embers looked into our souls from their houses in that empty skull. The creature opened its mouth, as if to speak. Eagerly we all leaned close only to recoil as ghostly screams washed over us.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHH!! It huuuuuuuuuuuuurts! It huuuuuuuuuuuuuurts! Let me go! If you have any soul at all you will let me go! I can see death calling me! Why do you confine me so! I shall never reach heaven if I do not go now! Please let me go!
Bowser was the first to recover. "No. I will only let you go if you kill Mario for me. A life for a life."
At those words the spirit snapped its head towards the Koopa King.
Yoooooooooooooooooooooou!I know you! You kept me in life! You locked me away in that cold prison for something I never did! A life for a life eh? Well, I can agree to that but I won't cull the innocent. However I think your soul is tainted enough.
As the creature hovered closer to my Lord he issued to me what I thought was my last command. "Protect me you old fool!"
I remember jumping forward and sheilding him from the dead man's etheral fire. The creature had put all of it's power into that attack and it crumbled to the floor with a happy sigh. And as I lay broken on the floor the last thing I heard was my Master's voice.
"Find the old fool's notes and make another. Only this time make it less powerful and silent. I never want to hear another word spoken from those ghastly things. Oh, and keep the man's body, I feel that it may be of...use."
Only a little while later I felt my soul being torn from the cosmos and forced into a tiny container. My bones. They had forced me back into my living bones. And now I know what that poor soul felt. Yet unlike him I cannot speak my pain. I can only rattle my dead dry bones to express my pain.
Mario looked up from the letter to the diminutive Dry Bones standing before him. "Is this story true?"
The creature inclined it's head a little forward in a nod, it's yellow eyes smouldering.
"Then I will give you safety within my kingdom as well as a chalkboard so you can speak. In addition I will extend an invitation to all Dry Bones that I encounter. We will also try to find a way to release you. Is that okay?"
Another nod. Mario watched the wretched creature walk out, it's head bobbing and rattling on it's shoulders as it walked.
"What an awful story...I never really thought that they were in pain...And all they can do to scream is rattle their dusty dry bones...And he was the first..."
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So yeah. That's the story of the Dry Bones. Written in 40 minutes or less or your money back! And I'm sorry it's so short. And lame. But I'm not really a horror writer.
All characters (technically) belong to nintendo.
