Chapter 2 – …Or is this Just Fantasy?
Peach could see the back of Bowser's racer in the distance in front of her. She hated the Wario's Goldmine track because she was so bad at it. She was currently in last place and becoming more discouraged the further she went. She could even pass Bowser for crying out loud!
Peach had already resigned herself to the fact that she wouldn't be winning this race. She decided she would just hang out at the back of the group and go at her own pace. She could already feel the invisible, though oppressive, weight of the "unpleasant thoughts" coming on.
These thoughts accompany Peach's bad days. The bad days are always filled with paranoia. Peach wonders if anyone else notices the things she notices, like how sometimes it feels as if her racer is being controlled by someone else or how, when she falls of the course on Maple Treeway, she sees a white light and then is suddenly back in the race. There's also the fact that no one has aged. Of course everone has changed, (Peach remembers when she couldn't see Mario's eyes and when her hair was more brown) but essentially, they are all still the same age as they were… how many decades ago has it been now? Time seems to pass in a strange fashion sometimes.
Finally nearing the finish line, Peach tries to quash the worry that has filled her. She needs to focus on something else, anything else, to pull her out of this dark place in her mind.
Peach concentrates on an excellent book series she had started reading back at the castle about a boy wizard. She begins contemplating what might happen in the next book. But even still, there are those occasional thoughts in which Peach wonders If she and her friends are trapped in a giant game and being controlled by someone else.