WARNING:A "T" rating is on this chapter for violence and disturbing themes (heck, the amount of violence is going to be pushing the T rating). Just putting this out there for any kids (or adults) who might be reading this and really hate violence or don't think they can handle torture parts in stories (In which I respect you for, which is why I'm making this warning in the first place). If you want to skip this chapter, you can PM me and I'll personally tell you what you missed. After this chapter, the rating will return to normal.
Norman Whitesmith here and back from Easter. I almost lost a few limbs to the Easter Bunny's egg-splosives, but I managed to make it through alive and only with a few scratches. I'll explain again that the T rating only applies to this chapter because as I explained before, the rest of the story has minor violence and is clear of vulgar language, so I felt that it would be appropriate that I only put a T warning on this chapter instead of changing the rest of the story to T. This chapter is going to be way darker than previous chapters due to torture, but I feel that it's a part of the story that needs to be done. Also, this is probably the darkest the story will get in its run and the story is going to lighten up a lot after this. Please keep reviewing, as it really helps a lot to know that other people think I'm doing alright in writing this. Also, there was a slight complaint about how I was explaining a lot last chapter and how it could be hard to understand. I'd like to apologize and say that I tried my best to make it clear and interesting. I'll try to curtail the explanations a bit next time. One thing I do value in making this is the comedy. I'm trying to keep it light-hearted and make it something nice to read as well as fairly easy to read. The type of humor I try to use is stuff that kind of seems out of place (e.g. the "We Are Number One" doorbell), yet isn't entirely out of mood and can be funny. I'm trying to make the humor somewhat smart and self-aware, kind of like how the Animaniacs were (If you don't know what that cartoon is, you're way too young! Get your butt on a new tab on the internet and look it up now!), yet I'm not trying to copy anything either and am trying to keep this story fairly original (though as you who have read past chapters know, this story got its concept from a different story in a way) and enjoyable. I have nothing else to say, so without further ado, here's Chapter 10.
Chapter 10: Blood Is Thicker Than Water
Mist swirled through a dense wood that spread hundreds of miles from the east to the west, the tiny droplets of water suspended in weightlessness becoming the toy to the winds, borrowing movement from anything living near by that dared to come outside in such a dense early morning fog. A large whoosh caused the mist nearby to do the electric slide and create hypnotic swirls in the dense air. Two figures were making their way through the fog, hoping to find an exit from the swirling majesty. The two were a mismatched pair of a small fox kit that had worry plastered all over his face and a chubby 24 year old man with a very sour and grumpy look that seemed to penetrate the soul of whoever looked at him.
The man, who is the legendary hero of the Mushroom Kingdom named Mario, set the fox kit down on a nearby rock. The anxiety showing in the fox kit's face increased ten fold as he was set down.
"Luigi," Mario said, "If I should even call you that, that is. You aren't my brother. My brother would never do any of this to me, and I was stupid to hope that Luigi was still in there. I decided to do what Toadsworth suggested and let you go free. That way you can bite down on whatever you want and get prey yourself. It's better this way for both of us."
A single tear streaked Mario's face as he removed the collar from Luigi's neck and turned away and began to walk.
"You're free just as a wild animal should be," Mario said, not even trying to disguise his voice starting to crack with emotion, "If you follow me home, I will have no choice but to call animal control."
And with that, the mist swallowed Mario up, leaving Luigi alone on the rock with the forest of noises surrounding him. Luigi lay down on the rock, contemplating and lamenting about where he went wrong. Luigi sat up suddenly as a noise of something large echoed through the forest. He had to get out of there and fast before the thing caught up to him. Luigi was up on his paws and dashing through the woods as fast as he could, his sheer smallness actually assisting in helping him identify tree roots so he couldn't trip. Luigi's lungs started to burn as he continued to run at his death march pace, but he knew that he wasn't too far from Toad Town and had to keep running to reach safety.
Luigi kept running and eventually burst out of the woods like a bullet shot from a musket with too much gun powder. He was safe, but the entire area seemed to be deserted and devoid of life, the fog closing in on everything and seemingly trapping every toad in their home to enjoy time with their families. Luigi let out a mournful howl and started to walk towards the castle, in hopes that perhaps the princess could help him. Suddenly, pain shot up Luigi's spine as he was lifted into the air by his tail. An ugly face marred with claw mark scars entered Luigi's view and he cringed as he heard the familiar voice.
"Hello, fox boy," Waluigi snarled as he let out a sneeze, "You didn't think I would forget what you did to me, did you? I just thought I could take us over to my house and we could have us a little chat."
XxX
Mario rushed away through the fog away from the tiny fox kit that was supposed to be his brother, tears streaming down Mario's face and blurring his vision. Mario couldn't hold it in anymore and began to sob as he was running, tears mixing in with the mist. He was angry and feeling sour only minutes ago, but when he tried to release Luigi, all that disappeared and he only felt pain. Why, though? The fox made it clear that it was feral when it attacked him twice. Luigi would never do that and if it was questionable whether or not Luigi still had control over himself, this proved that Luigi was not still there, right? It was the good thing to do to let the fox live its life, right? Right?
Mario didn't even realize he had reached his home until he came to the front door, the family name "Mario" painted in large capital letters over the door and shining red through the fog. Mario emptily entered the front door and stood in the darkness of the small foyer of his house. Mario almost expected Luigi to run down the stairs excitedly and hug him tightly and ask how his adventures went. But Luigi was gone. If the fox was only a wild fox, then why did Mario feel so horrible about leaving it? Mario couldn't answer this for himself and trudged up the stairs, not realizing his legs were taking him to Luigi's room.
Mario stared at the green room that was devoid of life, and more importantly devoid of his little brother that he cherished, though Mario rarely told him that. Heck, he wasn't just his little brother, he was his twin brother. The one that was always with him and supporting him, from birth to adulthood. Mario flopped down on Luigi's bed dejectedly and noticed a small puff of Luigi's downy fur going into the air. A small puff that was halfway blonde halfway ebony brown landed on Mario's nose and he couldn't help but stare at it. The transformation must have started at home and have been a semi-slow process and this must have been a small tuft of hair that fell off Luigi's head before it completed its changes. What type of terror was Luigi going through when he must have inexplicably started changing?
Mario picked up the ruined clothing that got ripped while Luigi transformed from the floor and pulled out Luigi's hat from his overalls pocket and hugged it all close and let his tears flow freely. He shouldn't have let that fox kit go, regardless of whether it was Luigi or not. If the roles were switched and it was Mario this happened to, Luigi would have never let him go! Unfortunately the forest was too big and the fox kit had probably moved by now, so Mario knew there was no real hope of finding him anymore. A sudden ring of the telephone downstairs startled Mario from his thoughts. Regardless of how depressed he felt, Mario was still the Kingdom's hero and the phone call might be important, so he had to answer it. Mario folded Luigi's clothing quickly and precisely, leaving the hat on top of the stack like an emblem on a shrine, and rushed down the stairs.
Mario picked up the old landline phone.
"Hello?" Mario asked, forcing his voice to sound normal and without any previous emotion he was feeling
"Hello," E. Gadd's grainy voice came from the telephone, "I have something very important to tell you regarding Luigi!"
"First off, how did you get this number, and second, I released the fox into the wild. It's better that way."
"Well I got this number by dialing all numbers sequentially until I got… WAIT, YOU WHAT?!"
"I released it. A wild animal should be living in the wild."
"Oh geez, I don't know how to tell you this, but the fox was still Luigi and I've got proof. I still haven't fixed the wave machine to give you definite solid results on a graph or something, but I have something else. The entire spilling water situation rubbed me the wrong way and I felt as if something was extremely wrong, so I examined the water and you'd never believe what I found. I found a chemical substance similar to the one found in Luigi's blood stream in your water, though this one seemed a bit more artificial. Luigi must have seen something and acted in the best way he could with his inability to talk. I don't know what the bite in the mansion was about, but I have a feeling it was similar circumstances. I guess what I mean to say is that Luigi just freaking saved you from sharing his fate. I don't think a wild animal would have taken the actions Luigi did, so thus I think that it's pretty clear at this point that Luigi did retain his mind in the transformation."
Mario was speechless. All the puzzle pieces in his mind were falling into place, everything from Luigi's attempt to say his catch-phrase right after transforming, to Luigi seemingly responding appropriately to his talking and orders, to Luigi's weird behavior in the bunker to where it seemed like he was staring off into space, but reality was that he was probably staring at something unseen that he was somehow able to sense. All this pointed to one thing: Mario was the true animal and monster. Mario needed to find Luigi again and apologize, if nothing else. Since it was clear that this was Luigi, it would be logical that he would head into Toad Town, which luckily narrowed down his searching a bit from the gigantic forest. Mario slammed the phone down on the hook and ran out the door, determined to find his brother and try to make things right.
XxX
The sound of a whip cracking filled the air in a small broken down house that was crowded with garbage and on the outskirts of Toad Town where nobody dared to live due to the inhabitant of this house. A yowl of pain was heard soon after. Inside this Godforsaken house lived Waluigi the psychotic outcast who was never put in jail or prison due to a lack of evidence for his supposed crimes that everyone tried to accuse him of. It doesn't take much imagination to know who was on the receiving end of this pain. Luigi howled with pain, wishing so hard that he could put up some kind of fight, but he knew deep inside that any attempts to bite or as much as anything would probably result in the death of him. Waluigi had a malicious grin on his face from watching the fox's pain and seeing the bright red welts and blood seeping through and soiling his fur. Waluigi felt that this was more than fitting for his rival for disrespecting him, but suddenly Waluigi remembered something else he had.
Waluigi took out a rope and tied it around Luigi's neck a bit too tight to where it left him gasping desperately for enough air to stay awake. Waluigi tied him up to the leg of a chair in his living room and left to the crowded garage to grab something else. Waluigi grabbed what looked like a decaying corpse of a small animal and removed something from around the body's neck. And quickly went back into the living room where Luigi's vision had already went black due to lack of air and he was trying so hard to hold onto the remaining threads of consciousness. Waluigi roughly untied the ropes from Luigi's neck, finally allowing the precious air to once again reach Luigi's lungs, but that lasted only about a second as Waluigi picked up Luigi by his neck and quickly snapped around Luigi's neck what came off the rotting corpse just seconds ago.
"It's a shock collar," Waluigi spat, sending spit flecks flying into Luigi's face, but Luigi didn't care, he was already convulsing wildly in fear, "If you as much make a sound, you're going to get a good healthy shock. It used to belong to my dear puppy Buttercup, but she just wasn't good enough, so she didn't make it. But don't worry! As long as you are a good doggie, you'll be an even greater pet to me than Buttercup was!"
Luigi didn't want to be anybody's pet, but unfortunately, there was nothing that could be done to save himself. Luigi knew it was helpless as Waluigi let him down from the wall, but picked him up by the tail again and swung him by his side as he walked. Luigi let out a small yip in pain, but immediately regretted doing so as a painful shock wracked his small body and turned his vision black and white with pain. Waluigi continued on to the bathroom and slammed Luigi down on the counter, which unfortunately registered as a bark to the shock collar and it shocked Luigi again, this time leaving Luigi twitching uncontrollably after the electrical current shocked. Waluigi only laughed at this and pulled out some scissors from a drawer.
"We're going to make you a vewy pwetty doggie," Waluigi said with a maniacal laugh as he began to cut away at Luigi's fur, leaving uneven lengths and patches and some of the bare skin around the welts exposed, "Oh no, I think I see a flea crawling around your pelt! Don't worry, I'll get it."
Waluigi brought the sharp scissors above his head and brought the blades down hard on Luigi's back, right into the bleeding area where the welt is. Luigi let out a very loud howl of pain, to which the shock collar retaliated with a proportionally larger shock which made Luigi feel like it had almost fried him alive from the scent of burnt skin and fur from around his neck and his vision blurring and refusing to return back to normal.
"Oh no, I think I missed! Don't worry, I'll take care of it."
Waluigi kept stabbing and stabbing, Luigi in too much pain to make a noise as his blood splattered everything in sight and ran down his back, tinting his once luxurious and glossy fur a dark shade of scarlet. One stab in particular ignited Luigi's entire backside in pain and when it subsided, Luigi realized that he couldn't feel or move anything from just behind his front paws and back. Luigi could do nothing except watch as the scissors came down and brought a new geyser of blood with each stab. Luigi couldn't stop himself when he felt bile rise in his throat and he threw up all over the bathroom counter which got a very evil looking frown from Waluigi.
"Awww, the poor little doggie got throw up all over its muzzle. I'll fix that."
Waluigi luckily stopped stabbing with the scissors, but he moved his attention to Luigi's face and head. He started shaving off some of the fur on Luigi's face, not being careful and causing tiny pinpricks of blood to well up all over. Waluigi suddenly took a swipe with the scissors and Luigi barely had enough time to close his eyes before the sharp scissors slashed across his face and almost cut open his eye lids. Another swipe split open Luigi's nose and filled it with blood to where Luigi had to breathe by panting in order to avoid choking on his own blood.
Waluigi suddenly froze after sneezing fit and perked up "Supper time!" he cried out with sadistic glee and he picked up Luigi who was bleeding violently and was dead to the world from pain and blood loss. Waluigi didn't care and slapped Luigi down on the table with a dull thud, spraying a bit of blood all over the countertop.
Waluigi set down a bowl of liquid in front of Luigi and forced him to drink it down. It was clearly alcoholic and within minutes Luigi felt woozy and at least felt some relief from his pain. Unfortunately, Luigi was a bit too relaxed and couldn't control his muscles in his back area because he couldn't even feel them. Soon Luigi was lying in a large yellow puddle on the table to which Waluigi screamed at him for.
"You stupid dog!" Waluigi screeched, "You'll pay for that!"
Waluigi picked Luigi up by the tail, which he noticed was a lot more limp than it was before the bathroom, and he took Luigi to the door that lead to his basement and opened the door and flung Luigi down the stairs to the dark basement and closed it without a second thought. Luigi was barely conscious at this point and had a strong feeling he wasn't much longer for this world. A single weak beam of light poured out from a dusty window and Luigi got up on his front paws and dragged his body to it. He at least wanted to die in the light.
XxX- Three day time skip
Mario panted as he continued his run through Toad Town, looking for his lost little brother for the third consecutive day, not even really stopping except for a few bites to eat at home just so he had enough energy to continue the desperate search. It was beginning to take its toll on Mario as he had heavy dark bags under his eyes and he had been suffering heavy inexplicable headaches that rattled his skull. The few times Mario had looked in the mirror in between searching, he had notices that seemingly small stripes of his hair began to turn black, like his moustache was. Mario, however, had no time to think because he needed to find Luigi while there at least was hope of some degree for finding him. Right now there was only one area left where he didn't explore yet, which was the secluded area where Waluigi, the madman, lived.
Although Luigi would never go there in his right mind, Mario knew he at least needed to look, as unlikely as it seemed that he would be there. Mario took off sprinting towards the area and reached it in record time. There was not even a sign of life except for the lights on in Waluigi's home. There was no way that Waluigi would help, even if Mario asked, so Mario turned away, dejected that he could possibly never find his brother and the fact that Luigi may just plain be gone. Mario looped around behind Waluigi's house, deciding to perhaps search the small open field that lay behind his home, not realizing he was passing a small dusty window to the basement.
X
Luigi knew his end was near. He had survived nearly three days with way too much blood loss, no food, and no water. There was no way he was going to survive much longer and Luigi didn't even know why he was still alive. It would have been much kinder for him to have just died in the mansion. Luigi's vision was still blurry and he refused to leave his precious spot of light on the floor, as Waluigi seemingly forgot about him and left him alone. Luigi was ready to die and wanted to get it over with. He had no family as of late, everyone seemingly wanted him gone, and quite frankly, Luigi was just plain tired. Darkness started closing in on Luigi's vision, indicating that his time had come, but suddenly something stood out to him. Ever since Waluigi slashed open his nose, Luigi had problems smelling anything, but something stood out upon the air. It was the scent of Mario's cologne, faint, but it had to be him. Luigi pushed away the darkness from his vision. He couldn't die yet, he had one last chance at survival.
The window darkened as someone passed by at a slow pace. This was Luigi's chance, although he was severely weakened by the past days, but he had to take it. Luigi, with the last of his strength and putting his all into it, let out the loudest bark he could muster. The collar had kicked in as it was supposed to and gave Luigi the shocking of a life time, but Luigi was already unconscious to where it didn't matter anymore. Penetrating the dark folds of his sleep, Luigi could make out a faint sound of yelling and scuffling
X
Mario stood over Waluigi's unconscious and bleeding body. He did what he had to in order to save his brother. It was clear that Luigi had to be here, as there were tufts of his fur everywhere, but they were soaked in blood which alarmed Mario the most. Mario had heard the weak but loud bark that he recognized as Luigi's. He didn't hesitate to beat up Waluigi who was clearly the culprit and demand where Luigi was. Waluigi didn't comply and Mario gave him one final kick to knock him out before searching on his own. Everything around Mario smelled like a corpse and horrified him. Mario walked around the house and small things like the bloodied and rusting scissors to the ropes and everything helped Mario piece together what happened. Mario felt sick that he even let any of this happen to Luigi. Finally the whole house was searched (Mario was especially alarmed when he found a corpse of a small animal, but he realized it was way to old and too big to be Luigi, which somewhat relieved him) and only one place was left: the basement.
Mario opened the door and a rotten scent hit him like a slap in the face. Luigi had to be down there. Mario went down the creaking and splintered steps slowly and was horrified what he found at the bottom. He found Luigi all right. Or at least he found his body. Mario stared at the broken body sitting in the light streaming from the window. As Mario got closer, the gravity of the situation seemed to increase as he saw just how bad Luigi looked. Luigi was covered in blood and his own waste, patches of fur missing from his body revealing wounds that looked infected and painful. Upon closer inspection, it seemed as if his hind legs and tail were detached from his spine and what haunted Mario most of all was Luigi's face. A large scar covered it and Luigi's eyes were half open, showing dull grey eyes that were seemingly devoid of life. Mario could remember only one other time when he had seen that before.
XxX
The family was visiting a farm and spending a little bit of time there to relax and unplug from their stress filled life in Brooklyn a bit. Mario, being the five year old daredevil that he was, climbed on top of the silo. Mario was busy feeling proud of himself and looking at the view, that he barely noticed the hand tugging at the back of his shirt. There was only one person who was too short to reach his shoulder to tap without having to stand on his tippytoes and that was Luigi.
"Mario, we need to get down now before we get hurt," Luigi said with urgency in his voice, "If Mom or Dad sees up here, we're screwed!"
"Luigi, we're fine," Mario said nonchalantly, continuing to admire the hills upon hills of crops.
"No, we're not fine. We need to get down now!" Luigi said insistently.
"Why, shrimp? Is it because you're scared?" Mario asked tauntingly as he turned around gave a little shove to Luigi.
"Mario, stop!" Luigi said boldly.
"Why must you ruin all the fun, shrimp?" Mario asked as he gave Luigi another shove, this time a little bit too hard.
Luigi fell backwards and off the roof of the silo, his screams imprinting themselves in the memory of Mario forever. A few snaps and a sickening thud indicated that Luigi had finished falling. Mario looked carefully over the roof the silo and got a good look at Luigi's twisted body on the ground. Mario didn't hesitate to get down to the ground. Mario looked at his little brother's body and looked on in shock. Luigi's head was tilted at an unnatural angle and his eyes were half open, showing a sickly dull grey instead of a lively blue. Mario didn't hesitate to call out his parents, who quickly cut short the vacation to bring Luigi to the ER. Luigi's small body looked even smaller while hooked up to all the machines that were keeping him alive. Luigi got lucky because he hit a few tree branches on the way down, which helped decelerate him enough to where he only broke his neck on the ground instead of shattering his spine like he could have. He was very close to death. What hurt most was that Luigi didn't even blame Mario for any of it and when he finally woke up, he smiled and gave Mario a big hug, happy to be alive and to see his older brother.
XxX
Mario noticed the shock collar on Luigi's neck and took it offand gently picked up Luigi's frail and somewhat stiff body. He took off his gloves and held him close, noticing that the fur that refused to lose its softness felt brittle and scruffy. Mario sobbed, his tears falling freely on top of Luigi's twisted body in his arms, unable to believe that this wreck was moving and breathing and had its own personality and name not too long ago. Mario had failed as a big brother. He was busy stroking Luigi's chest, which had sustained the least damage when he felt the most wonderful thing in the world. A single heart beat. Luigi was still alive, but barely and Mario needed to act fast. Suddenly, Mario remembered that he never unloaded his pockets from the trip to the bunker. Mario emptied out his pockets onto the soiled floor and found just what he was looking for: a single one up mushroom. Mario picked up the savior mushroom and put it in his mouth and mashed it up with his teeth, careful not to swallow any of the precious life-giving fluids, and spit it out on his hand. Mario then carefully pried open Luigi's jaw and emptied the mashed up contents of his hand into Luigi's mouth. Mario gently closed it and stroked Luigi's through to force him to swallow it down.
Mario watched for a few minutes, hoping and praying that it would work and at least revive Luigi. A small cough rang out and Luigi began to stir slightly. Luigi closed his eyes the rest of the way and weakly snuggled further into Mario's arms. Mario watched in amazement and horror; horror because he noticed that Luigi's hind legs and tail were still unnaturally limp and didn't move. Something must have happened that dislocated them or worse. He hoped that Waluigi didn't pith Luigi and cause permanent damage. But it didn't matter at the moment. All that mattered was that Luigi was still alive and breathing. Mario pulled Luigi closer in a hug that he wasn't going to let go of anytime soon.
And that was probably the worse ending for a chapter that I have put out yet, but I needed to end it here. This chapter was originally going to have more content, but as I kept writing I realized that if I was going to keep writing that this chapter would probably have been about twenty pages long, when the last few chapters are about ten pages long. I realize that the torture depicted in this is really pushing the T rating, so sorry and I don't blame you if you had to skip that. Just realize that I had to write that. I paused so many times while typing that out and wondered to myself "What's wrong with me?" Anyways, I hope you enjoyed, and I don't know how a shock collar works, so I was just guessing here. I managed to type this one out fast! It took about 4 hours to write this all. This chapter is a prime example of the darker parts of my mind. No wonder people won't let me near their children. But then again, I'm that weird person threatening people with staplers with a sadistic expression on my face. I have to say I questioned my sanity a lot while writing this. But I hope you enjoyed, and the story should lighten up significantly from here. Also, sorry to Rockster if I came out a bit harsh while explaining my reasoning for this not taking place before dark moon and the DNA thing. I just feel that books are a union between the author and the reader and I feel that the logic behind certain things are important to know. I'm one of those "the destination doesn't matter, but the journey" people and I kind of want to let you all have a look into my mind. It's hard to make up fake scientific reasoning! I'm also a debater and one thing you learn in debate is to impact things and the better understanding you have of an argument, the better you could show the importance of the argument to the topic. I probably lost 90% of you back there. Either way, that's the most violent chapter in this story (for at least what I have planned so far) and I hope you enjoyed. Please continue to criticize my work in reviews. And as one final thought, originally Dark Moon had happened when I started writing this, but then I realized that Luigi wouldn't be caught dead in a mansion again, so the story was E. Gadd lost the wave machine in the mansion because the Dark Moon broke and everyone went nuts, but I found that just focusing on the original mansion just plain worked better. So that's all folks and until next time, Norm out.
Don't forget that if Internet Explorer has enough courage to ask you to be your default browser, then you have enough courage to ask that girl out!