Author's Note: Are people reading this?

Luigi's Mansion Adventure

Chapter 3: The Parlor and Anteroom

Now back in the main room of Professor E. Gadd's ghost laboratory, the old dude brought his attention to the fox and plumber in a questionable manner.

"Where will you go, Luigi and sonny boy?" The professor wanted to know.

"The mansion!" Tails replied.

"Home!" Luigi answered.

Tails gave Luigi a look and Luigi sheepishly chuckled while rubbing the back of his head nervously.

"Careful now, sonny boy and Luigi!" Profesor E. Gadd warned them, sounding concerned for their wellbeing.

"It's Tails. Sheesh. It's not that hard to remember!" Tails complained.

Soon Luigi and Tails were out of the laboratory and so was the old guy. The professor waved the duo off as they approached the towering, haunted mansion. Lightning flashed across the sky and thunder sounded all around, frightening both the two individuals.

"Mama mia…" Luigi managed to say through his rapidly chattering teeth.

Once they got inside the horrifying mansion, the first thing they noticed that was different in the Foyer was the Toad sitting next to the staircase while crying his eyes out. Luigi and Tails were over there in a flash, their flashlights out.

"Oh no! What's wrong?" Tails questioned the little Toad in worriment.

"Boo hoo hoo! Where did you go, Mario? Waaaaaah! Wah!" The Toad bawled.

Luigi tried to console the little guy. "Hey, don't worry! Tails and I are here! We'll find Mario!" He told him seriously, sounding comforting.

"And Sonic!" Tails added.

"Huh? Luigi? Tails?" Toad finally ceased his sobs when he realized the familiar individuals. A giant smile spread across his face and he jumped up, bouncing in place gleefully. "Waa…Wow! It's Luigi and Tails! You finally made it! Oh, joy! Thank goodness!"

Luigi smiled a little at the Toad. "I know right! I mean, Tails and I just got here a little while ago, looking for Mario and Sonic, but they were nowhere to be found!" Luigi explained.

"Yeah," Tails nodded his head. "What about you, Toad? What are you doing here?"

Toad blinked a few times and pointed at himself. "Me?" He wondered out loud.

"Uh huh!" Tails replied.

"Well, Princess Peach asked me to come here to look for Mario," Toad responded, his smile fading. "He left when he heard that you'd won a mansion, and he never returned!"

"Sonic actually came here too when Mario told him about it!" Tails revealed with a shake of his head. "When I first arrived here I didn't see him anywhere and it was just dark and lifeless! I couldn't find Sonic anywhere and doors are just oddly locked!"

Toad gasped. "That's terrible!"

"I know!" Tails stated sadly, face becoming forlorn.

"Th…Then when I arrived here, the mansion was full of ghosts." Toad informed them, shaking a little due to his fear.

Luigi trembled. "We know that!"

"…and I didn't see Mario anywhere, and I kind of freaked out a little, and I didn't know what to do! It's been awful!" Little Toad yawped in despair.

Tails was about to throw in some words, but the Toad suddenly erupted into massive tears again, wailing loudly and collapsing to the ground while covering his face with his hands.

"Please, please, please, you HAVE to help me find Mario! If he doesn't get back, you have no idea how upset the princess will be!" Toad sobbed. "She'll flip!"

"Good-bye." Luigi turned to leave, but Tails stopped him by grabbing his arm and jerking him back, rolling his eyes.

"Leave it to us!" Tails answered the Toad.

Toad instantly cheered up at Tails' words and jumped to his feet, all sunshine and rainbows. "Yay!" he cheered in gleefulness. "Thanks, Tails, Luigi! You made my dark and stormy night!"

As if on cue, the lights in the Foyer came on and things were much calmer and peaceful in the Foyer now. Tails and Luigi both had their eyes dart around in astonishment, wondering how the lights just suddenly came to life.

"I wish I could do something to help you…Wait!" Toad exclaimed out of the blue, peering at Tails and Luigi fondly. "I've got it! At least let me do this…"

"Oooh, what is it?" Tails questioned.

"I'm curious to know too." Luigi added, feeling less scared now that the lights were on in the Foyer.

Then…something magical happened.

Tails' and Luigi's progress was saved!

"Talk to me for help anytime!" Toad cheerfully declared, all happy-go-lucky.

"What just happened?" Tails asked Luigi, turning around to face the plumber.

Luigi shrugged quizzically. "Who knows?"

"Anyway, let's go!" Tails decided, spinning his tails rapidly and taking off into the air to get to the second floor instead of taking the stairs. Luigi said goodbye to the Toad and rushed up the stairs quickly, immediately finding some coins lying about. Tails also found some and they combined their coins together to have 8.

"Odd," Luigi commented. "I wonder where these coins came from…"

Tails shrugged. "Eh, does it matter?"

"Not really."

"Cool. Let's go!" Tails said, heading into the Parlor.

Luigi groaned, not wanting to go back into that dark place, but he followed anyway even though he was scared stiff. Once in, Luigi whipped out his flashlight and looked around wildly, his fear intensifying. Strangely, he began to hum an eerie tune through his chattering teeth.

"Hey, coins!" Tails exclaimed, flying around the room and collecting them with his Poltergust 3000. When he was finished collecting all of the coins, he found a bunch of dollars in one of the several furniture in the Parlor. Now they had 32 coins and 9 dollars.

"Gee, you found a lot of dough there!" Luigi pointed out, frowning and then beginning to hum that same eerie tune again. He was trying to force himself to stop trembling.

Tails nodded, zooming around the room in search of more money or possibly some ghosts. "Hey, there's nothing more in here," He remarked, inspecting a table with a cloth on it and some kitchen utensils. "Where are all the ghosts?"

"You want ghosts to attack us?!"

Tails landed on one of the tables in the room, shining his flashlight here and there. "Uh…I don't know how to answer that!" the fox replied.

Luigi sighed and then allowed his eyes to roam the dark room as he moved his flashlight around to see things better. His eyes came across a strange looking painting with three candles on either side of it. Altogether were six candles and they were all lit with purple colored flames.

Wanting to try something, Luigi lifted up his Poltergust 3000 and vacuumed away, blowing out the flames. Right after he did that, a horrifying laugh sounded throughout the Parlor and Luigi collapsed to the ground, screaming.

"Holy macaroni with extra cheese and bread on the side!" he wailed.

"Wh-What was that?!" Tails belted out, looking around uneasily.

Suddenly, the painting on the wall began to shake and jitter spookily.

"WHO put out my candles?!" a creepy voice came. "You, Mr. Lime-Green?"

"I hope this…this thing isn't talking about me!" Luigi squeaked, looking ready to faint.

"Who else is lime-green?" Tails shot back, giving him a look and trying to mask his trepidation.

"Well, dark rooms are dangerous around here…Yesss…" the voice blasted out again followed by a deranged cackle.

"We have to get out of here!" Luigi cried.

"Hush!" Tails yipped.

"THEY love the dark…and now THEY will get YOU! Bloo-heh!"

"Oh boy…" Luigi moaned in despair.

"Now you're in for it! Blugh-huh! Just like little Red-Cap and Blue-Rat before you…"

Tails seemed to ponder over the words for a moment, ignoring his own fear and pushing it away. "Just like little Red-Cap and Blue-Rat before you…" he murmured and then came to a realization. "Luigi! It's probably talking about Mario and Sonic!"

Luigi's face paled. "Oh no…"

"May you wander lost in the darkness…forever!"

"F-Forever?!" Luigi squawked, ready to bolt out of the room as fast as he could.

"This doesn't sound good!" Tails commented, shaking his head repeatedly.

"Are you AFRAID of the dark, little man? Are you? Huh? Blah-hah! Here THEY are now!"

Then, suddenly, the voice dispersed and an orange ghost appeared from behind Luigi, floating towards him rapidly and letting out bizarre noises.

"Luigi, behind you!" Tails shouted.

Frightened beyond belief, Luigi whipped around and shined his flashlight upon the orange ghost and saw its heart. Immediately, Luigi used his Poltergust 3000 to vacuum the ghost up. Once it was gone, Luigi breathed out a sigh of relief.

"That was scary!" Luigi said.

Tails was about to respond to that, but an orange ghost materialized behind himself and shrieked loudly. The fox turned around to do something about it, but was too slow to complete his action. The ghost whacked him with its hand hard and then started cackling madly as Tails fell off of the table and collapsed onto the ground hard.

"Oh no!" Luigi hurried over and wasted no time in shining his light at the ghoul that had hurt Tails. The heart was shown to him and he sucked the ghost up into his vacuum. Through with that, Luigi put all of his attention on Tails. "Tails! Are you alright?" he questioned him.

Tails groaned and sat up, rubbing his head. "Ooog…yeah, I guess so," he answered. "That ghost really hit me hard! I only have 95 HP left now!"

Luigi gulped. "That's not too bad."

"No. No, I guess not."

The sound of another ghost appearing caught their attention and ceased their conversation. Luigi quickly took care of that one and, to their surprise, the lights in the Parlor came on and all was well. Plus, a very cool looking chest box thingamajig appeared in the center of the room on the floor. It sparkled and whatnot majestically.

"Look at that!" Tails yelled, pointing at the box with his index finger.

Now feeling relaxed and a bit at ease, Luigi started whistling as he made his way over to the box. He opened it and retrieved a key. It looked similar to the other one from in the Foyer. Now having the key, Luigi let out a laugh and held up a peace sign, nodding his head in approval.

"That key must open the other door in this room." Tails observed thoughtfully.

"Yeah, sure." Luigi caterwauled.

"Oh wait. Before we go into the next room, let me look around for more dough first!" Tails said, searching the room some more now that it was much brighter. The fox managed to find some more coins and a couple of more dollars. Now they had 42 coins and 19 dollars, which was great.

While Tails had been doing that, Luigi was busy ruminating on things. He really wanted to know where Mario and Sonic could possibly be. This mansion was big, but it wasn't that big. Luigi had a very bad feeling that ghosts had something to do with their disappearance. It made obvious sense!

"Okay, Luigi!" Tails' voice broke him out of his contemplations. "Let's get that door open and advance to the next room! We still got a lot of searching to do!"

Scared, Luigi hesitantly nodded and pulled out the key that they had obtained. He put it into the lock on the new door and unlocked it. Afterwards, he placed his hand onto the doorknob shakily and pulled it open slowly. Tails hurried on in before Luigi and the green plumber reluctantly followed.

He screamed when the door slammed shut behind him and thorny vines crossed in front of it, sealing them in the dark room. Luigi almost had a heart attack!

"Holy pancakes covered with peanut butter and jelly!" Luigi gasped out, placing a gloved hand over his chest.

Tails looked at him, putting the bright light of his flashlight on the older male. "Pancakes covered with peanut butter and jelly? That's just…weird!" he remarked, face morphing into a look of disgust.

"It's actually pretty good!"

"Eh…"

"For real!"

Tails shrugged. "If you say so, Luigi," he said while looking around in the darkness. "Looks like we're in the Anteroom now!"

Suddenly, an orange ghost decided to show its ugly face and came at them from within the darkness. Tails shocked it with his light and then got the thing into his vacuum. Right after that, a different sound pierced their ears and a tall pink ghost showed up, floating after the duo.

"Look out!" Tails yelped.

"I got this!" Luigi tried to be brave as he put his light on the ghoul. The pink ghost was surprised and it displayed 20 HP, higher than the orange ghost's HP!

"Whoa, a different type of ghost!" Tails gaped.

It took a little longer to get the pink ghost into his Poltergust 3000, but Luigi managed it. While he had been doing that, Tails had taken care of another orange ghost. After that, the intelligent fox found more coins, making them have 47. Another orange ghost decided to join the party and Tails introduced it to his yellow Poltergust 3000.

"How many are there?!" Tails exclaimed as an orange ghost and another pink ghost materialized out of thin air, heading towards him and Luigi at a quick pace while they shrieked and made other strange noises.

"Who knows?" Luigi shot back, terrified.

Luigi decided to take on the pink ghost while he let Tails have the orange ghost. Tails was smacked in the head again and his HP had reduced to 90. Eventually, he managed to annihilate the orange ghost completely. Luigi took care of the pink ghost with no problem.

"Ooooh, these ghosts are really violent, aren't they?" Tails muttered as the lights came on in the Anteroom.

"They sure are! Are you okay?" Luigi questioned him.

"Fine." Tails huffed, flying around and looking for more dough and stuff.

To his great fortune, the fox ended up finding a large piece of gold in one of the vases in the room! Tails whistled in admiration and quickly pocketed it the nice find. "Wow! There are a lot of good things here in this creepy mansion!" he exclaimed.

"That's funny and ironic because this place is crawling with ghouls and other scary things!" Luigi shook while gulping hard. "Remember that scary voice in the Parlor? What was that?"

"I don't know, but I have a feeling we'll find out in the near future," Tails answered the plumber. "Come on. There's another door over here." Tails said as he walked down the narrow room, heading towards the door at the end of it.

Sighing heavily, Luigi followed the boy, wondering what else was in store for them…