Chapter 53 Haunted House, Haunted Figure

There was a very nasty gash in the middle of Celia's forehead. Blood flowed from the opening, staining her skin crimson. Roy slid down the sides of the ditch and placed his hand on her heart. There was a soft pulse, present and flowing into his palm. He sighed in relief. However, his relief was very...well, it wasn't as strong as it could be. Especially when he kept his eyes glued to her bleeding head.

"Don't worry, Cee." He hoisted her into his arms, positioning her head so that it was elevated. "I'm going to find help for you." He didn't know if it was just his imagination, but he thought he saw her smile. This made him put on a smile of his own. "You're gonna get through this. You already got through everything else, after all."

With that, he climbed out of the ditch. It was difficult to do with her in his arms, downright impossible. If it wasn't for some conveniently placed rocks, serving as ledges in the wall, both she and him would have toppled over backwards.

Once out of the ditch, he broke into a sprint. The trees moved around him, determined to block his path. Roy huffed; nature could be really heartless sometimes. Nevertheless, he managed to weave around them. He didn't know exactly where he was heading. Preferably, the place where he ultimately ended up had some medicine. A first aid kit. Some bandages...anything that would prevent Celia's cut from becoming infected.

He picked up the pace.

"Come on, come on, come on," Roy muttered. He huffed as another tree moved right into his path. He stepped around it, only for another tree to take its brethren's place. He growled, ready to bash himself in the head. "Oh, come on, Forest!" He directed his head up toward the canopy, where light filtered in through the endless sea of leaves. "I have a friend who's in danger! Can't you cut me a little slack just this once?"

Silence. Roy shook his head; he didn't know what he was expecting. This forest was dumb. Sure, it was enchanted, but it was still dumb. It didn't care about him and his hurt friend. All it cared about was playing tricks on the poor souls that happened to stumble into it.

So, he started walking again. "Stupid, heartless collection of trees," he uttered. Right as he did was when he just so happened to run into a tree branch. He growled, looked up at the branch that had so rudely batted him in the head, grabbed hold of it, and shoved it out of the way. "Stop it! You know as well as I do that is very well deserved!"

Wind rustled the leaves, making it sound like the trees were crying. Roy closed his eyes and took a deep breath. How could he explain his predicament to these puny brained woods?

"Look." He pointed toward the gash in Celia's head, which had only gotten dirtier the more that he had walked. "She's hurt. She's unconscious. If I don't help her, she could die out here." Tears welled in his eyes. "I know that you aren't too keen on the people who wander into you, but please? Can you help us? Can you direct us to someone; ANYONE who can give Celia the help she needs?"

There was another pause, the forest as silent as a morgue. Roy was about to let out a groan and yell at the top of his lungs when he noticed something. The trees were shifting again. The forest cleared up, moving around so that they were far away from the burly Koopaling. Perplexed, Roy watched them do their thing. Once they had completely halted with shifting, he blinked. They hadn't just shifted willy nilly. They had actually cleared a way for him. And where did that way lead to?

Well, there was only one way to find out.

Roy smiled. "Thanks, forest!" He bolted forward, dashing across the path like a rabbit. With a straight way open to him, it did not feel like he was going around in circles, which very much helped to relax his brain. He dashed until he saw, down at the bottom of a little hill, was a house. It was old and rickety and probably seconds away from collapsing in on itself. But at least it was a building; something that indicated civilization was in reach. He sprinted toward it.

When he got to the door, he stopped. He decided that, just in case someone happened to live here, he had better make it clear that he was present. He knocked on the door. "Hello!"

"Who are you?"

Roy blinked. He turned around and saw a figure standing behind him. What species it was, Roy hadn't the slightest clue. This was due to the fact that they were wearing a long, draping cloak, one that wrapped around their body and concealed its face in darkness. Literally; the shadows were so thick around its face that Roy couldn't even say for certain whether it had a face. He screamed.

"Don't scream!" The figure said as it moved closer. "Not if you want to attract some spirits."

Roy gulped. "Sp..spirits?"

"Yeah. This forest is full of them. They're not happy ones either." They looked down at the unconscious girl in Roy's arms, and when they did, they gasped. "What happened?"

Completely forgetting about his fear as his objective returned to him, he spoke up. "My friend is hurt. She fell in a ditch." He showed the person, who based on their vocal tone seemed to be a guy, the unconscious Celia.

The person stared at her for a minute or two before he sucked some air through his teeth. "Yeesh. She really took a beating." He lifted his head. Roy could just barely see his eyes underneath the shadows created by the hood. "I have a room upstairs, I think you had better put her in the bed."

Roy breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks, man. I really appreciate it."

With that, they stepped into the house. The figure led Roy up a staircase, one so rickety and weak that he expected it to cave out from under him. Surprisingly, it actually managed to hold. This brought immense to relief to Roy, as it allowed him to enter the bedroom. He placed Celia into the dusty bed, all while the figure watched in the doorway. He stayed silent the whole time, which honestly creeped Roy out a little bit. He stood up and stared at the figure. The shadows surrounding his face were...uncanny.

"Are you...are you a ghost?"

"No. I'm alive, if only barely." He turned and walked down the stairs. "You're lucky you found me. No one has been to this part of the forest in...well, years."

"Years?" Roy asked. "So...are you alone?"

"Yep. All alone." He looked behind a dusty table, checked behind a chair, and moved a dresser near the window, seemingly looking for something.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm looking for the first aid kit. We need to work fast if we want to patch up your friend's head."

Roy nodded as his eyes scanned the room. He smiled; the first aid kit was right beside a piano. He walked over to it. "Found it."

"You did? Where?"

"Near the piano," Roy said. He reached out for the kit, resting snuggly in between the wall and the instrument's leg.

The figure gasped. "WAIT! NO, DON'T…"

Just as Roy brushed up against the piano, he was pulled away from it by the figure. A good thing too; the thing had sharp, pointy teeth resting under its lid. It chomped madly, moving closer to the Koopa like he was a delicious snack. Roy stared at the piano, shocked. However, he was more shocked when he saw the figure pushing it back with a stick.

"Back! Back, beast!"

Roy stared at the figure. In the kerfuffle, the hood had fallen off his head. Roy stared, completely flabbergasted. This...this...he…

"Back!" The piano was finally pacified, causing the figure...or rather, the koopa...to turn around with a sigh. "It'll be silent for at least the next few hours."

Roy rose to his feet, staring at the koopa. After all this time, after all this searching. After all this fuss. "You...you're…"

The koopa met him with confusion and fear. "What? Is something wrong?"

Roy shook his head, finally smiling. "Nothing's wrong. You're exactly who we were looking for." He stepped forward and shook the Koopa's mechanical right arm. "It's very nice to meet you, Singe Marksmite."