Chapter 8 Take Two

Morton stirred and opened his eyes. The room around him was eerily quiet. Topaz cleaned her feathers near the window while Toasty and Wiggles slept like they had died in the middle of the night. Morton rose to a sitting position and saw that the clock read 7:56 am.

He let out a breath. It was the start of a new day. This was a day where he could live down the events of the day prior, a day where he could just relax with no expectations placed on his shoulders. He was ready to conquer this day. He was ready to bring his A-game to the table.

But then, he noticed something odd.

"That's strange," he muttered to himself. "I could have sworn that I went to bed in the reindeer pajamas."

In fact, he was one hundred percent certain that he had worn that ridiculous onesie to bed. But now, as he stood up, he could see that he was wearing nothing.

How strange. Did he perhaps take the onesie off in the middle of the night? Maybe he had gone to the bathroom and had completely forgotten about taking off his pajamas. That was surely the case. Right?

Well, no. When Morton entered the bathroom, the reindeer costume wasn't there. Toasty's litter box and Wiggles' puppy pads were there, but his pjs weren't. As a result, Morton assumed that he had to have taken them off outside the bathroom.

But...no, that wasn't the case either. Upon inspection of his room (or at least the places where his pjs were most likely to be), he found that they were not there. Morton checked by Topaz's cage, near his closet, and underneath his beanbag chair. After he checked under his bed, he stood up and scratched his head.

"Where are those pjs?"

Unfortunately, he didn't have much time to think about that question. Right at that moment, Iggy came into the room. He wore a grin that seemed to stretch on for miles and miles.

"Merry Koopsmas, Morton!" he exclaimed. "The family is just about to start breakfast, and we would be ever so grateful if you could join us."

Morton stared at Iggy. Confusion grasped him like a claw grasps a toy in a crane game. "Uhh…is this a joke?"

Iggy chuckled. "A joke? Why would you make such an assumption?"

Morton's heart beat seemed to slow down. He looked at the clock, which he noticed read 8:00 am now. He looked at Topaz, who was flapping her wings and squawking. He looked back at Iggy who, while he had a glint of confusion in his eyes, still maintained the same grin as before.

"That...that's what you said yesterday. Word for word."

Iggy burst into laughter, hugging his sides as he did so. "Oh, Morty," he wiped a tear from his eye. "You and I barely interacted at all yesterday!" His grin grew bigger, if that was even possible. "But don't you worry! Today is bound to be different, for today is Koopsmas!"

"Koopsmas?" Morton shook his head. "No, but yesterday…"

"Was the day before Koopsmas," Iggy stated. "Now, come with me. We don't want to keep our siblings waiting!"

With that, Iggy grabbed hold of Morton's hand. Morton, still confused as ever, had no choice but to follow his brother. He looked back at Topaz, who he noticed was laughing. He looked at the clock, which read 8:05 now.

What the World Eight is going on here? Morton asked himself.

With that, Iggy dragged Morton down the corridor. He noticed the Koopa Troopa servants. Most of them had ecstatic smiles as they wore either reindeer antlers, jingle bells, or some combination of the two as they made their way too and fro. This only confused Morton even further.

"Oh, look Morty!" Iggy exclaimed as he pointed up at the Koopsmas lights, still glittering and producing a strobe effect. "You cannot tell me that you do not experience joy from the sights of these lights!"

Another huge case of deja vu hit Morton like a freight train. Iggy said...the exact same thing yesterday. Seriously, it was pretty much word for word. Surely, this was some type of joke, right?

Well, Iggy had said that it wasn't a joke in the bedroom. So, in order to test him, Morton decided to play along. How did he respond when Iggy had said that yesterday? Oh, yes, he remembered now.

He looked up at the seizure inducing lights. "Ugh," he said, albeit with slightly less enthusiasm that he had yesterday. "My eyes hurt."

Iggy raised an eyebrow. "Huh," he said. "You must be experiencing a case of pinkeye." He leaned in extra close. "Your eyes do appear to be extra grotesque right now."

Morton gawked. Once again, that was exactly how Iggy had responded yesterday. Not only was it word for word, but his inflection was also exactly the same. It was as if he wasn't talking to the actual Iggy, but rather, a recording.

"Okay, seriously!" Morton said. "You keep repeating the same things you did yesterday! What is going on?"

Iggy raised an eyebrow, the grin falling from his face. "Morton, are you alright?"

"Are you alright? You're stuck on repeat!"

Iggy's expression grew more confused. "I have not the slightest inkling regarding what you are saying." He grabbed hold of his brother's hand again. "Perhaps some food will set you straight."

With that, they continued on with their trek down the hallway. Morton noticed Junior, who had his arms outstretched like an airplane. Again.

"Junior!" Iggy exclaimed. "Knock off that discord at once!" Junior zoomed around the two of them, causing Iggy's glare to become more heated. "Junior, I recommended that you halt! Why haven't you executed my command yet?"

The rest of the dialogue fell into the ether with Morton. His breathing became labored, his hands began to shake. What was going on? All of this happened yesterday! How could Iggy and Junior be repeating the same things they said yesterday, yet at the same time, be completely lacking in self awareness? It was almost as if yesterday never happened.

Anyway, the two of them continued down on their way to the dining hall. When they got there, Morton found that all of the Kooaings were in the same positions they were in yesterday morning. Wendy even wore the same red bow with green polka dots.

"I love this time of year so much!" Wendy exclaimed. "I hope I get everything on my list!"

"You wrote a list?" asked Ludwig.

"Mmhm." Just like yesterday, Wendy pulled out her list and began to read off of it. "A new pair of slippers, a box of soothing bath salts, marker, peanut butter crackers…"

Iggy grinned and took his seat as Wendy recited the list. Morton meanwhile, just continued standing in one place. This was weird. Actually, it was worse than weird; it was downright creepy. Just as Iggy was completely situated, Lemmy seemed to notice his confusion.

"Morty, are you okay?"

"Are...are you guys okay?" Morton asked, his face growing pale.

"Uh, yeah, of course we're okay," said Larry. He giggled. "Well, with the slight exception of Roy. He's never right in the head."

"Hey!" Roy exclaimed as he glared at the youngest. "I'm sitting right here you know!"

Larry giggled. "If I cared about where you were sitting, I'd be a restaurant host."

Morton slowly took a seat. Was it at all possible that he was just going crazy? After all, everyone else seemed to be treating today like it was normal. Perhaps, then, Morton was the crazy one. Or, perhaps this was all a dream? Yeah, that was probably the case. Granted, it was very lucid and realistic for a dream, but still.

"Gingerbread!" Lemmy squealed. "Awesome."

Just like yesterday, the waiters waltzed out of the kitchen with their pancakes. They set them down in front of the Koopalings, all while their heads were held high. Morton swallowed a lump as he looked at his stack.

"Wow. The cooks have truly outdone themselves this year," said Iggy. "Morty, you need to try these!"

Morton shook his head and looked over at Iggy. "I'm not doing that."

"Why not?" asked Lemmy with a giggle. "If you don't eat your gingerbread…"

"...then the gingerbread man will come and get me in my sleep, I know. We went through this yesterday."

Each of the Koopalings gave Morton weird looks.

"Morton, what are you talking about?" asked Ludwig.

"I'm talking about the fact that we did this song and dance before, and it was boring the first time." He got up from the table, pushing the pancake plate to the side in the process. "I'm going to go talk to Kamek about this."

With that, he started making his way toward the door. Before he could exit, however, the door went flying open, hitting him square in the face. Morton groaned as he laid on the floor.

"Merry Koopsmas everyone!" exclaimed Bowser. "It's time for…" he noticed Morton on the floor and instantly looked concerned. "Woah, Morty, your face is swelling up!"

Morton felt his lips. Sure enough, Bowser was right. He groaned as both Iggy and Bowser helped him to his feet.

"Why don't you go to the infirmary?" Iggy suggested. "That way, you can get proper treatment."

Morton nodded. "Okay." As he made his way out into the hallway, he muttered "at least I didn't do that yesterday."