A/N: Thanks to everyone who read the first chapter of this thing! I'm still debating on whether to actually continue this or not, but here's the next chapter for those who are interested.

Also, this is off-topic, but if anyone knows of a way to fix the glitch where FanFiction keeps eating my reviews, please PM me. I've already emailed the site support and haven't heard anything back, should I try again in a few days? Though I can still see all your reviews in my email notifications, they're not visible here on the site at all. At least not from my point of view.

Anyway, enough of me talking. Enjoy!


FORLORN CHAPTER 2: Together

Where am I...?

Everything that happened back there... was it real? Was it a dream?

'Luigi! Get up!'

I was jolted out of a fitful sleep in which I was plagued with memories of the mansion by a firm hand shaking my shoulder. Normally this wouldn't have given me cause for alarm, but my recent experiences had left me paranoid and fearful – more so than usual. At the unexpected touch I immediately jerked upright with a yelp, swinging one arm out frantically in an attempt to hit whoever it was, not even stopping for a moment to determine whether or not they were an enemy.

'Luigi!' the voice cried out a second time. Warm fingers, utterly different from anything I'd felt since I set foot inside the haunted mansion, curled around my wrist. I struggled for another moment before letting my body go lax, motionless aside from the shivering that racked my frame. Somehow I still didn't know who was talking to me, even though, in retrospect, I was stupid not to have realised it sooner; there was only one person who could be here right now.

'Luigi.' Once again the strangely familiar voice caught my attention. I suddenly became aware that my eyes were tightly shut, as if I'd been trying to block out the unknown terrors I was sure awaited me. I knew I'd have to open them if I wanted to find out where I was. Slowly, preparing for the worst, I raised my head and looked directly into the face of the person who had just shaken me awake. I half-expected to see that hideous green ghost again, or maybe even King Boo himself looming over me with a satisfied grin on his face as he beheld his helpless prisoner. What I should have expected, but somehow didn't, was a short man in blue overalls with a red cap pulled down low over his eyes, wearing a troubled expression as he cautiously stretched out a hand to touch my shoulder.

Even after I saw him, it seemed to take an age for my mind to put two and two together. 'M-Mario?' I gasped, my voice barely more than a whisper.

He nodded tensely, reaching up to adjust the brim of his cap so that I could see his face better. He looked... very similar to how he'd appeared inside the painting, which I guessed made sense, though it was still a slight shock to see my very real, three-dimensional brother looking this way. He was haggard and grim, his mustache grown wildly out of control and his eyes sunken with exhaustion. But everything else was the same – even the grin he threw at me when he saw that I'd recognised him. It was tired, his face drawn, but it was the same familiar grin I remembered. That was when I instantly knew for certain.

'Bro!' I yelped, trying to scramble to my feet despite my own poor condition. My muscles ached horribly and the bruises on my back from falling over in the corridor felt even worse. I realised that I was kneeling on a pure-white surface, completely smooth beneath my cautious touch as I trailed a gloved finger along it. It was neither floorboards nor tiles, nor did it feel or look like any other surface I could think of. But there were more important things to worry about than the floor.

'Mario, what's going on?' I asked, scared to hear the answer.

He sighed. 'Well, it's a long story,' he said. 'As soon as I heard you won a mansion in a contest, I decided to go check it out – I thought it might be some sort of trap, and I wanted to make sure it was safe for you.'

I froze. 'You came here to check it out for me? Mario, you could've died!' He averted his gaze uncomfortably and I reached out myself this time, locking my fingers around his forearm. 'I'm not worth you putting yourself in danger like that!'

'You are worth it, Bro!' he shot back, looking startled that I'd even say something like that. 'I didn't want you to go to the mansion alone... I had to investigate first. But then everything kinda went wrong.' A smile twitched for a moment beneath his bushy mustache, but faded almost too quickly to be sure it was there.

I sat up straighter, trying not to look around too carefully. Once I'd finished talking to Mario, I'd have time to survey our surroundings... for now, I didn't want to look. I could see just out of my peripheral vision that there was very, very little in this place that seemed to be our prison. 'So what happened then?'

'Well... I remember walking into the mansion. There were a lot of Boos there, and King Boo. I'm not sure what happened afterwards. I guess they must have trapped me somehow in the painting, but I don't know how they did it.' He rubbed the back of his neck with a gloved hand, looking a bit sheepish. I had no idea how my brother could appear so calm, when I was already screaming quietly on the inside.

'Bro... are we inside the painting now?' I asked.

Immediately Mario's expression changed. 'I... I think so? Like I said, it's all a bit fuzzy. But how did you end up here? You didn't get captured, did you?'

I thought back to the last few moments I could remember before I fell unconscious; finding Mario's portrait, the green ghost pursuing me, the strange pulling sensation as the magic in the painting dragged me inside... My breath suddenly hitched and Mario must have heard it, because he put a steady hand on my shoulder as if to support me.

'What is it? What happened?' he asked urgently.

I... I think a ghost caught me,' I replied shakily, feeling panic rising like an unstoppable tide in my chest. 'I was forced into the painting, just like you were.' I hadn't expected Mario to be overjoyed upon hearing this, but even so, I was shocked to see the wave of darkness that passed behind his eyes as I spoke. It was gone in a heartbeat, but in that heartbeat I'd caught a momentarily glimpse of everything Mario had been holding back, all the fear and anger that I now realised he had only been concealing to avoid worrying me more. At the same time, his already bruising grip on my shoulder increased to a level that was borderline painful.

'Bro,' he said seriously, locking his gaze with mine so I couldn't look away, 'we need to come up with an escape plan.'

'Um... that's what I thought we were going to do anyway.'

'While I was stuck here,' said Mario, 'the Boos sometimes came in to talk to me. They kept mentioning your name, and told me how you were fighting your way through the mansion to find me... I always thought...' He hesitated, and a moment later I understood why. 'I always kinda thought you'd save me. So I was never really worried about being stuck here for long.'

My heart, which had been pounding uncomfortably fast, seemed to stop altogether as a crushing weight struck me in the chest. I couldn't breathe properly as it settled over my lungs, stilling even the tremors racing through my body. I couldn't do anything besides stare into Mario's eyes, seeing the sudden guilt there, followed by veiled panic when I didn't respond.

Before he could open his mouth and attempt to rectify his mistake, I let my head fall forwards in defeat and mumbled, 'I know. I'm sorry, Bro.'

He shook me, hard enough to make me raise my head and look at him again. There were self-loathing written all over his face now, but the knowledge that he regretted what he'd said didn't make me feel any better. Because I knew it was true anyway. Just like the ghost had said, I was a failure. A useless, pathetic good-for-nothing wimp who couldn't even rescue his own brother. My vision of a perfect story had revolved around me finding Mario and striding out of the mansion in triumph, taking him back to Toad Town and drinking in the praise from all the citizens who'd never even noticed my existence before. But I hadn't considered my own lack of ability, and now I'd completely ruined the story. There was no heroic ending here for me; I'd never get an ounce of the recognition I longed for, and more to the point, I'd condemned my brother to suffer because I wasn't good enough to save him.

Suddenly, as if hearing the thoughts circling around in my head, Mario let out a growl of frustration and tried to catch my gaze. I didn't want to look, knowing what a miserable failure I'd been to him, but I couldn't seem to evade those piercing blue eyes. 'Listen, Luigi,' he said. 'We've all made mistakes. I was stupid for even coming here in the first place, and anything that's happened to me is my own fault. You don't deserve to be trapped here! I didn't ask you to risk your life trying to rescue me! What is you'd died?'

I knew he was trying his best to make me feel better, but my heart wasn't quite up to believing him yet, so I steered the subject onto something more immediate and practical. 'How are we going to get out of here? You said you've been here for a while, and you haven't found a way out yet...'

Mario paused. I wasn't sure whether he looked more relieved that I was talking properly, or worried because he clearly didn't have an answer to my question. But, as always, he recovered rapidly and came up with something. 'I don't know yet, but we're gonna work on it. Together, OK?' He eyed me carefully, looking as if he wanted to launch himself into a brotherly embrace but didn't know how I'd react if he did. I drew in a breath, held it for a moment, then tried to smile. It probably wasn't very convincing, but I gave it my best shot.

'Together,' I agreed, and to save him to trouble of deciding what to do next I leaned forwards and drew him into a tight one-armed hug. Then, in a soft voice that would have likely gone unheard at a distance, I added, 'Sono contento che sia qui.'

He was silent for a few seconds, his head against my shoulder, then he replied gruffly, 'Anche tu, fratello.'

And I knew that somehow, despite how badly I'd screwed everything up, we were going to escape. The alternatives were too horrible to think about.


Google translate used for Italian phrases as always.