HEADS-UP
It's that time of year when tradition-wise, people dress up in various costumes, carve pumpkins, and even seek candy from their neighbors' homes: Halloween. And what better way to celebrate this holiday than to show how scary it can be in the Mushroom Kingdom on that very night. Without further ado, here is Spooks or Sweets.
...
It's October 31, 2002 at 8:01 PM, shortly after Peach's annual Halloween party wrapped up. Having doffed their costumes, Mario and his friends started taking down the Halloween decorations and stowing the party tables. The cleanup lasted about 15 minutes until the castle's foyer and second floor were nearly emptied out.
"That was a fun party," Mario remarked. "I really enjoyed it."
"So did I," Peach agreed.
"Well, good night, guys." Mario started to walk out of the castle back to his pad.
"Wait!" Peach called out.
Mario stopped and turned to Peach. "What is it?"
"Before you go home, I appreciate you helping us take down everything, but there's one more thing we'd like you to do."
"Okay. But it better be quick," Mario replied.
"Go ahead," Peach told Daisy, who approached Mario.
"You're gonna love this game we've set up for you. It's called 'Spooks or Sweets'." Daisy began. "Hidden somewhere outside the castle is a basket of chocolates. It's your mission to find the basket and bring it back to the castle." She handed Mario an orange piece of paper. "You'll find clues along the way including this one. It won't be easy, so look carefully."
Mario read the first clue, which had black writing on it, "MAIL CALL!'" He looked perplexed at what he read. "What does that mean?"
"You'll have to figure it out yourself," Daisy said. "Good luck."
"Uh... Thanks..." Mario walked out the castle's front door, officially beginning the treasure hunt.
...
It was partly cloudy outside with a first quarter Moon shining bright. Mario was relieved it wasn't pitch black, or else the game would've been a bit harder. He stopped at the blue gate leading to Toad Town to think of what the clue meant.
"That's Parakarry's catchphrase..." Mario wondered. Finally, he realized something. "The post office!"
Mario speed-walked to the post office, which had the next clue taped to the doorknob.
"Easy so far."
Mario proceeded to read the clue, "'ONE BLOCK NORTH OF THE BEST FORTUNE TELLER'S HOUSE.'"
Again, Mario got confused. "Why not at Merlon's house? What's at that intersection?"
Nonetheless, Mario walked one block south. There weren't that many buildings at the intersection except for the downtown Inn and a few two-story apartments. He decided to walk in a counterclockwise circle to find the third clue.
By the time Mario approached the Inn, he noticed the clue lying on the doormat. Suddenly, the door slowly creaked open after he received the clue. Mario froze with fear.
"I... I didn't touch the knob..."
"Come on in, sir..." a voice drawled from inside the Inn.
"No!" Mario ran away one block south and stopped at the news billboard, panting heavily. "Who was that?!"
Mario wanted to know who the voice inside the Inn was, but decided to worry about it later and move on with the treasure hunt.
After composing himself, Mario read the third clue, "'THE SHORTCUT PEOPLE TAKE TO GO TO FARAWAY PLACES.'"
Mario immediately knew the answer. "Kero Sewers."
Mario made his way to the Warp Pipe leading to Kero Sewers, expecting the fourth clue to be taped to the pipe. But the pipe had nothing on it.
"Do I have to go down the pipe?" Mario asked himself, knowing he can't see without a flashlight. He then went down the Warp Pipe into the dark sewers.
After exiting the Warp Pipe, Mario felt around the outside of the pipe. Seconds later, he heard the sound of crinkling tape and peeled off what he believed was another clue.
Mario immediately exited Kero Sewers and looked at what he discovered. It was the fourth clue. "Thank God."
Mario studied the clue. "'NOW THE SCARINESS BEGINS.'" He closed his eyes, reflecting on all the scary places he visited: the haunted mansion he was trapped in last fall, the Donut Ghost House, Forever Forest-
Hold on. Forever Forest? At this hour?
Mario looked down the path leading to Forever Forest. Last time he went through the forest two years ago, he wasn't fazed by the creepy flora that scared the daylights out of Luigi. But now...
"I don't know..." Mario was skeptical about whether to go into the forest or not. At the same time, he wanted the chocolate basket so badly. "All right-y..."
Mario reluctantly went straight ahead, passing under the familiar purple-leafed trees. But just before he could enter the forest, he found a flashlight laying to the left of the entrance.
"Perfect!"
Mario immediately picked up the flashlight and turned it on before proceeding into Forever Forest.
Just like before, the forest was completely dark all around; it was impossible for the Moon to shine through the dense canopies. Luckily, Mario used the flashlight to navigate himself with ease.
Mario decided to go straight to where he and Luigi saw the black-jacketed Toad directing them toward Boo's Mansion.
A minute and a half later, having arrived at that exact spot, Mario saw a faint orange glow to his left. He slowly walked toward the glow, worried something might jump out at him.
But nothing happened by the time Mario found the source of the glow: an orange glow stick attached to a tree. The fifth clue was taped next to the glow stick.
Mario laid his hand on his heart, which was beating very fast. "How much longer is this game?" He carefully pulled the clue off the tree and read it, "'IF A TREE FALLS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FOREST AND MAKES A SOUND, CLIMB UP TO NOT GET HURT.'"
"So, what? The rhetorical question is supposed to be real?" Mario chuckled. "Very-"
Just then, Mario heard a chainsaw starting up to his left. "HOLY CRAP!" He quickly clambered up the tree per the clue's instructions.
"DON'T CHOP ME DOWN! PLEASE!"
But whoever wielded the chainsaw started cutting down the tree. Mario couldn't get himself to jump off as he didn't want to get attacked.
Seconds later, an unseen voice shouted, "TIMBERRRR!"
The tree tipped forward, making Mario scream as he fell to the ground. Upon landing, the chainsaw shut down.
Mario was already shaking when he picked himself up. "Wh-where's the chocolate...?! I j-just wanna get it a-and go...!"
Again, Mario slowly walked straight, holding the flashlight forward. It wasn't long before he saw a trail of wrapped Rolos to his left.
"Th-this better be i-it..."
Mario followed the trail, picking up the Rolos along the way. The trail curved to the top-right and stopped at a circular open space.
To Mario's surprise, he found a wicker basket filled with an assortment of chocolates such as Hershey Bars, Almond Joys, and Twix bars, to name a few.
"Finally..." Mario sighed with relief as he dropped the Rolos into the basket. He took another minute to calm down before picking up the basket.
There was one more orange piece of paper attached to the basket handle: "CONGRATULATIONS! YOU FOUND THE BASKET OF CHOCOLATES! BUT YOU ARE AWARE THAT THIS IS CALLED 'FOREVER FOREST', RIGHT? YOU'D BEST FIND YOUR WAY OUT, AND QUICK."
"I guess I should-"
Suddenly, the basket and flashlight were snatched out of Mario's grasp; the flashlight hurtled towards another tree and shattered upon impact.
"NO! YOU THIEF!" Mario charged toward whoever stole his chocolate basket. "GET BACK HERE!" It was very hard to navigate through the forest now that his flashlight was broken.
To improvise his way through, Mario decided to follow the sound of crunching leaves the figure made as it ran.
As the crunching sound hung to the left, another voice oohed from behind, making Mario run faster and blindly miss his target.
Mario kept shouting "WHERE DO I GO?!" over and over, trying to find somewhere to hide. He noticed a garden shed to his top-left and ran toward it.
The shed's door was locked, but Mario was able to rip the door handle off and go inside, slamming the door shut. He sat himself against the door, panting more than when he got scared by the voice in the Inn.
"I c-can't be here f-forever...! I need to f-find the exit...!"
Suddenly, Mario heard a woman cry softly and immediately recognized her voice. "D-Daisy...?"
Mario got up and walked around, trying to find who he thought was Daisy. "Are y-you okay...? Wh-what's wrong...?"
But the shed was apparently empty, worrying Mario more. The crying subsided too.
"H-hello...?"
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
Daisy's agonized scream made Mario rush out of the shed and go back the way he came.
Mario passed through the open space, went past the fallen tree, and finally exited the forest. He was dead set on running back to his pad.
"Faster, Mario! Faster!" Mario told himself.
As soon as he reached the intersection, Mario stopped in his tracks and looked behind him. He heard the sound of someone running with high heels draw close.
Instead of going left, Mario burst through the blue gate and entered Peach's castle, locking the front door.
"What happened?"
Mario turned and saw Toadsworth standing in the middle of the foyer.
"LOCK THE DOORS AND WINDOWS! SOMEONE'S CHASING ME!" Mario shouted.
"Hey. Hey. Easy, Master Mario. No one's gonna hurt you," Toadsworth coaxed Mario.
"LIKE THAT'S GONNA MAKE THINGS-"
The foyer lights instantly turned off, freezing Mario in place. He couldn't see anything.
"Wh- What's-" Mario couldn't finish his sentence as he was very scared. "T-Toadsworth...?"
An evil chuckle echoed throughout the foyer.
"Who's h-here...?" Mario stuttered.
"It's me..."
A Dry Bones version of Bowser roared and jumped in front of Mario, making the latter cower against the wall. Mario had never seen such an enemy like that in his entire life, and it sure as heck creeped him out.
"G-get away...!" Mario started to cry, not wanting to play this game anymore.
"Say it..." Dry Bowser said. "You know you want to..."
"I-I... I..."
"What is it...?"
"I WANT MY BROTHER!" Mario screamed.
"Not your mommy...? Oh, poor plumber..." Dry Bowser said with fake sympathy. He cackled and started to walk toward Mario, who covered his face.
Then, the heavy footsteps stopped after only three thuds and the foyer lights turned back on.
Mario slowly lowered his hands; his vision was blurry with tears.
Mario blinked his eyes to see Toad standing within a Dry Bowser animatronic suit.
"Happy Halloween!" Toad exclaimed with joy.
"You son of a Power Shroom..." Mario murmured while glaring at Toad.
Toad grew concerned upon seeing Mario's angry face. "It was just a prank, Mario. I thought wearing a Bowser skeleton would be a good finale."
But Mario didn't respond as he stood back up.
"Who else set me up?" Mario asked with tranquil fury.
Toad climbed out of the Dry Bowser suit and approached Mario. "Calm down, dude. Just hear me out."
"Okay..."
"Here's who all took part in the prank," Toad explained. "Yoshi was the creepy guy in the Inn, Wario chopped down the tree you probably climbed up, Princess Peach stole the chocolate basket and your flashlight, and you heard Daisy cry in the shed."
Mario let out a sigh of disgust.
"I'm sorry it may have gone too far," Toad apologized. "I would have Princess Peach and Daisy apologize too, but no one is here, so..."
Again, Mario didn't speak and started to walk out the castle with his head hung to the ground.
"No 'good night'?" Toad questioned as Mario shut the front door after going back outside.
...
It's 8:45 PM. Back at his pad, Mario sat against his bedroom's door frame, trying to take in what went down.
I can't freaking believe them... My chocolate basket is gone, Princess Peach broke my flashlight...
Mario took his cap off and stared at it for a second. He was tempted to rip it apart as he was still frustrated, but threw it away to his left.
What a great Halloween that was... Just great...
Mario took off his shoes, gloves, and socks before getting settled in his bed. He didn't bother changing into his night clothes.
...
It's the next day at 7:30 AM. Over the last several hours, it was difficult for Mario to sleep since he tossed and turned; on top of having a few nightmares about the prank.
Mario headed into the kitchen to make himself breakfast, starting with a cup of coffee. While the coffee was brewing, he saw a piece of white paper barely sticking out the bottom of his front door.
Mario received the paper, which turned out to be an apology letter written by Daisy: "Dear Mario; first off, me and Peach are extremely sorry about the Halloween prank. We were told by Toad after you stormed back home and realized we must've taken it too far. For one, Peach came up with the plot twist near the end. She was like, 'What if I fake Mario out after he gets the chocolate basket? Maybe he'll laugh at that.' But I guess that wasn't funny for you. Plus, you could've gotten really hurt when Wario cut down the tree. Luigi even called me and Peach out because he was totally against the prank to begin with. He didn't want to scare the nightlights out of you- Okay. That was a lame joke I made. Why did I bother including this?"
Sadly, Mario didn't laugh at the joke Daisy made.
"Look, the point is we wanted to finish the Halloween party off with a bang, so what better way than to have you do a haunted treasure hunt?" Mario continued reading the letter. "I know you must be fuming right now and are probably considering getting back at us. Please don't do that. It'll only add fuel to the fire. How about this? To make up for stealing the chocolate basket, I left it on your doorstep while you were asleep. Don't worry. No one ate out of it. Everything's still inside."
Mario opened his front door, and found the chocolate basket at his feet. He sifted through the chocolates, making sure nothing was missing. A small smile formed on his face after examining the basket.
Mario proceeded to finish reading the letter, "Again, we're very sorry for scaring you last night. I promise there won't be any more haunted games. Happy Halloween, Daisy."
Before taking the chocolate basket inside, Mario laid the apology letter on top and stared at Daisy's signature at the bottom. There were a few yellow smiley faces surrounding the signature.
"Thank you, Daisy."
...
AUTHOR'S NOTE
And that's a wrap for this Halloween oneshot. Get it? Wrapping up a fanfic? Treat it like it's a large Reese's Cup pack ready to be given out to a lucky kid, but don't trick him/her. Anyway, have a spooky Halloween, everyone.