Part I: 2001

The day my life took on a new and surprising course began like any other. I woke up, rolled out of bed, fixed myself something to eat and then burned off the calories by dancing to my favorite tunes. Then, I threw on some clothes and headed out the door.

The day I first broke through my fears and found my courage continued like any other. I was hard at work, fixing faulty toilets and sinks and plugging leaks. Also, I was on the lookout for any threats to the MK, although those threats were likely to occur on Tuesdays, Fridays or both. Still, I wasn't about to take any chances. At noon, I took my lunch break, spending the majority of it relaxing in the park. Then, it was back to work, earning my daily bread, bettering the Toads' lives one sink or toilet at a time.

The day my life reached a turning point ended like any other. At 4:56p.m., I helped the day's last customer, headed home and took a nice, refreshing shower. Then, I pulled on some fresh clothes and fixed myself some dinner.

I was watching the evening news when it happened.

"Mail call!" I heard Parakarry exclaim. "Mail call!"

I stood, stretched and headed over to my mailbox, where I scooped out the stack of envelopes and carried them back to the living room to sift through them. Okay, bill, bill, junk mail, bill—wait a minute, what in the Inferno was this?

A light frown crossed my features as I turned the strange envelope over in my hands. There was no return address—only my name, scrawled in big, block letters. Curious, I opened the envelope and took out the letter enclosed within.

Dear Luigi,

Congratulations! You've been selected as the lucky winner of our mansion giveaway contest! Enclosed is a map with directions to your new property. But you have to hurry—you only have 60 days to claim your prize!

K.B.

"Contest?" I murmured to myself. "I never entered a contest."

It had to be a scam, I thought. But then, I thought, Maybe I did enter this contest, and I just forgot about it. Stress could do that to you. Protecting a kingdom full of talking toadstools with next to no credit to your name is a stressful business.

Ah, [bleep] it, my internal monologue continued. You only live once.

Muting my TV, I walked over to the phone to call the one person who deserved to share in my sudden good fortune. The one person who's consistently been there for me. The one person whose well-being I'd always put before my own. The one person whose blood flowed through my veins. The one person who'd always hold half of my heart.

My rock.

My hero.

My big bro—Mario.

What to say about Mario? He was—and still is—the best brother anyone could have. We developed in the womb together. We snuggled together when we were babies. We shared the same bedroom until we were five years old. When we started school, bullies would pick on us, and on me the most, but Mario always had my back, and I had his back in turn. I'd rather have those bullies focus their ire on me, rather than on my bro. When we were in fourth grade, one such bully tossed an ethnic slur Mario's way, but what the little monster failed to realize was that I was within earshot. I was upon the bully in an instant, pinning him despite being smaller, pounding on him and demanding that he apologize. In short, I wound up in detention and grounded at home, but it was worth it, and you'd bet your [bleep] that I'd do it again.

That afternoon at school, Mario and I made a vow—that we'd always be there for each other, no matter what. Rain, snow, sleet or a heatwave wouldn't stop us from coming to the other's aid. And as we went from schoolchildren to high-schoolers to college students to ordinary adults to protectors of a faraway land, we kept to that vow.

Little did I know, tonight was the night our vow would become firmly cemented.

When Mario's chipper voice greeted me on the other end of the phone line, I wasted no time telling him the good news.

"You won't believe what just happened—I won myself a big mansion in a contest!"

"Really?"

"Yeah!"

"Dio, that's wonderful! Wait—when did you enter this contest?"

"That's the catch—I really don't think I entered it. But it would be nuts to pass up something like this, don't you think?"

"Definitely."

"I'm on my way to see my my new mansion," I said. "Meet me there, and we'll celebrate—what do you say?"

"Sounds like a plan—see ya in a jiff."

"Likewise."

It was just after sunset. I made sure my flashlight had fresh batteries, grabbed up the map and set out.

I was glad I brought my flashlight along. The sky had begun to darken fairly quickly during my journey, and as I followed the map's directions, I soon saw why. I was being taken straight into the heart of Boo Woods.

Boo Woods—that wasn't right, was it? The place was eerie, cold and barren—not to mention haunted. Wind moaned through the gnarled branches of dead trees and seeped under my clothes. Fog descended, my flashlight becoming the sole light source. Who in their right mind would put a mansion here? Once the entire ordeal was over, I'd have my answer, of course, but at the time, it seemed bizarre.

According to the map, I was headed in the right direction, and my new mansion was just—about—here!

I'll never forget that mansion as long as I live. Three stories high, gloomy and gray, the arches on its greenish roof looking so much like devil horns. The eerie glow from the mansion's two front windows made it look like it was glaring at me. The property was far different from the map's depiction.

Something was definitely up.

"Hello?" I cautiously uttered as I eased open the front door.

No answer.

The cavernous foyer was completely dark, save for my flashlight's beam. I ascended one of the twin staircases and tried to open the double doors, but they were locked. Then, I tried the set of double doors downstairs, with the same result.

"Hello? Mario?"

Still no answer.

Alarms started going off in my brain as I grabbed my cell phone and called Mario, leaving him a voicemail saying that I'd arrived at my "mansion" and was waiting for him. Just as I hung up, I jumped at the sound of giggling.

There was an orange—thing—floating above me, and within it was a key. Holding the key tantalizingly in front of my face, the orange thing circled me before casually dropping the key to the ground, giving one last giggle before departing.

"Thanks, I guess," I muttered, pocketing the key.

I tried the key on the first set of double doors, with no success. But when I headed upstairs and tried the key on the second set of double doors—lo and behold—they opened. Shakily, I twisted the doorknob and let myself in.

"Hello? Anyone home?" I called.

At that moment, the orange thing I saw earlier lunged in my face.

It was a ghost!

I f—ing hated ghosts!

A scream ripped from my lungs, and I leaped at least several feet into the air. I scooted away from the ghost until my back bumped up against the door, the ghost laughing and reaching their arms out toward me.

"No!" I hollered. "Get away from me!"

Oh, [bleep], I remember thinking. Oh, [bleep], oh, [bleep], oh, [bleep]. I don't wanna die. I don't wanna die.

I don't wanna die!

Please R&R.