One soldier looks over at me and yelps. "Oh, er, hey, Sergeant. How are things on your neck of the woods?" "…quit trying to act coy, soldier. Why is that thing on the ship?', I respond. "Give me a break." he says. "I found it in one of the buildings underground." I looked over at Boswer, to see if he approved of this, but he seemed deep in thought. One of them turned the knob on the radio all the way to the right, and an announcer's voice came on.
"…welcome back to MKES, where we have just spoken to a Royalty official. Our Lady, Princess Peach, who was last seen running off from a safe zone, has been deemed a missing person. During a mood swing at 4:50 AM last morning, she had stormed out of the safe zone, and is nowhere to be found. Survivors of the calamity at Rougeport yesterday stated seeing a woman in a pink dress several minutes before Bowser's ship crash-landed on the coast. Mario was unavailable for comment. We will continue to stay on air for as long as possible…"
No one in the room so much as breathed after the announcement. Bowser's jaw had partially dropped, and he shuffled out of the room like a zombie. No one said anything, but I could feel a sense of paranoia in the room. We had, after all, been big enemies of the Kingdom, but if Boswer hadn't done anything, who did? This had gone from bad to worse since I woke up this morning. If suspicions ran high enough, these people could tear each other apart and destroy my beloved castle from the inside out. I had to talk with Peach before it was too late.
"You want me to do what now!" she said, nearly dropping her food. "Peach, work with me here. But yes, that what I want you to do." We were having a conference in my room, and I had just bought her spare eggs, still hot. "Let me get this straight. Yesterday, you said you weren't taking me to Boswer. Why are you changing your mind now?" I looked down on the floor. I had no choice. Once I turned her to him, she would have to say that she got lost and scared and tried to hide in here. It was the only way to divert attention away from me.
"No.", she said simply. I looked over at her, and she continued, "I may not know much, but I know that I'm not turning myself in. When you captured me, you didn't consider any of this happening. And now I'm just expected to sit here and let you walk off scot-free? Nun-uh. I'm going to make you suffer for a little while." I grabbed her hand and tried to drag her to Boswer, but as soon as I got her to the door, she said, "If you take me to him, I'll simply tell him what you did, and then your precious castle is forever out of your reach."
I sat her back down on the bed, and then back away softly. Then I say, "How dare you! Do you realize that I could've done anything to you in this room?" She said nothing, so I said, "I'll play along. You've got the upper hand. We'll keep this up and I'll enjoy it. I will enjoy keeping you here and I won't let you leave. Now, go downstairs and take a shower. The next time I come back up here, you better be clean, or I won't feed you."