The peace only lasted for a few days. Only a few days did the most precious relief I had ever known thus far survive.
The man was gone. The man who had lured me into a trap and kept me there, sitting in a cage of a lie for 3 years, while too shrouded in oblivion to realize the truth until I was about to be violated and impregnated.
I remember the day that things changed again. The sun was setting as calmly as it ever could on a constantly beautiful horizon. Peach's room was extremely shaded, but with the remaining light, I could still see her face. We were like two BFFs for the time that we knew each other. It was different… but I liked it. I could express the sorrow that came out of my struggle of oblivion and ask whatever I wanted… and that's what I did on this perfectly shaded evening.
"Everything will be alright now, I assure you," she told me. "He's been tried in court for sexual assault, and I believe he's been thrown in jail by now."
"Great!" I smiled. "…Hey, Peach?"
"Yes?"
I was about to ask a question that had been bugging my curiosity for several days now. I was too caught up in my "love" for Mario to realize it was there, but… I found it. Otherwise, I would have asked much earlier. Such a deep question.
So I asked "Would you happen to know why I was brought here? To the Mushroom Kingdom?"
At this, Peach sighed.
"I know a few things," she tried to explain. "It was actually up in the air as to whether you were even going to arrive here. I figured you weren't… so that's why I couldn't give you a formal introduction."
"Why would you need to give me a formal introduction anyway?" I asked. "I'm just a girl!"
"Just a girl?" Peach reacted. "It may seem so. Juliet… You were brought here because there's more to you than what meets the eye. Earth was NOT treating you to the standards by which we needed them to, so you will no longer need their company. There's a whole other world that needs you. More importantly… a weary traveler… the savior of our very universe as we know it… needs you by his side more than anyone else ever will."
Then, the world rattled. Both within myself and all around me. Now I knew. Knowing was half the… excitement.
…But literally, it was like an earthquake had stricken the area. I could hear the shelves rattle, and the princess gasp worriedly as she ran to the window. As she stared intently at the outside world, she didn't move. She was almost like the subject of a picture.
Then, she spoke.
"…Go."
"W-Why?" I asked.
"GO! You're not safe here!"
"Why not?!"
"It's Bowser! I know those things on his ship! Leave! NOW!"
"Things on the ship" was probably what provoked me to get myself out of there. The room was surprisingly close to the front doors of the castle, which actually seemed more like a giant, artistic hole in the wall than anything.
I ran out to the bridge over the moat… then met the quite-near-deafening sound of chains, and then… the Earth-quaking impacts of what appeared to be metal tether-like things on the bottom of those chains. I just about fell over, but realized what was happening and dove for land, where hundreds of Toads were standing, panicking.
I turned around and joined them in their terror. The castle… literally being lifted from the ground.
"PRINCESS!" I called out almost instinctively.
Not a word to be said from anything or anyone from within. Had the poor thing… accepted her fate?
That would have been a matter if it weren't for the next Toad that tugged on my arm. I looked down… and saw that it was Dr. Toadley.
"You must leave the kingdom," he shuddered. "Before Bowser sees you!"
I felt bad, and he must have picked up on this.
"If he sees you, he will most definitely go for you instead!" he explained. "You are more powerful than you may feel, Juliet. Nobody knows the number of people who know this. That number can include a multitude of fiends. Head for the forest to the south of the kingdom!"
Feeling the reality of everything starting to close in on me, I fought my way through the crowd, then proceeded to do said running toward the huge trees of a forest that I knew would hide me… even from Bowser and his clown ship.
I eventually fell face-first on the ground. Mostly from tripping on a log, but partly from fatigue. I was under an opaque canopy of leaves.
Then, the voice. That was the hand that turned my book to the next chapter of my insane love story. The voice was sinister, and I knew that it was generically bad news.
"Oh, you poor thing," it chuckled from an angle that my eyes could not achieve. "Allow me to help you out."
