The Super Mario Saga
Chapter 2 - "The Unknown Past"
By Gregory Achen
They had waited there for hours that night, standing atop their two-story mansion and staring above towards the blank night sky. It was deep into the hours of darkness now and the normally active forest that surrounded the house was eerily silent and forbidding. What was normally a sky drenched in the soft light of the stars was now blacker than the blackest of ebony. It was growing cold and the sharp winds of a storm were picking up. Yet the human man and woman still stood there, on their balcony, gazing into the heavens and waiting for that which was to bring them one of the most beautiful gifts two creatures could receive.
Where was the stork? Where was the human man and woman's new child?
They had dreamt of the moment when they might look down upon their new child's face for months now, after losing not one, but two of their children. For you see, it was little less than a year ago that their lives were altered in the most magical of ways. Yet that very experience that was initially so inspiring, had left them in the wake of fate's cruel isolation.
Fortune itself had granted them two very special children whom both the man and woman would be their loving guardians. The couple knew exactly who and how special those twin beings would be to the world, as their birth alone was well known throughout the lands. But as to protect the newborns from the detection of a great evil, they agreed without so much as ever saying a word, never to utter the children's sacred importance in fear that the babies might be uncovered and destroyed.
Life seemed perfect, too perfect after their first born babies entered their lives. The twins had brought so much joy into the couple's souls during that short time they were together, that when they had to give them up after just one year of life, despair was wretched into their breaking hearts.
The twin babies lives had been in terrible danger. The Koopas had tracked them down. It was only a matter of time before their monstrous pursuers discovered their prey. Traveling weeks on foot to reach the holy Star Haven, they climbed atop the tower for many days until reaching the top and kneeling before the Star Rod. There, they had made the most unselfish and thoughtful wish any creature had ever conceived throughout the vast history of the Star Spirits blessing. They wished their children away to a world where the Koopas could never harm their babies. They wished the twins to a nurturing family with whom would show them unconditional love and support, and offer them the guidance they needed to shape into the extraordinary beings they were meant to become. With that wish alone, their first born children had vanished before their very eyes for only Fate knew how long. And with that wish also did part of a long foretold prophecy further come into play.
"Where are they?" asked the woman in a calm but distant tone.
"They will be here," replied the man. "Just give them time. We have waited months for our prayers to be answered. What more is a few minutes worth of waiting compared to the life time we will have with him?"
"I know, I know. I just… I just want this so bad," she sadly uttered.
The man looked into his wife's eyes as she looked to him for some sign of comfort. Knowing what she needed, the man grabbed his wife's hand and tenderly kissed it, silently letting her know that he too felt the same kind of pain they had been feeling for what seemed like forever. They lost their first born babies, they lost their family, they lost their friends, and they lost their lives. This new child was to be the start of a new life and a new beginning.
"Listen, darling. I love you. You and the twins," the man said sadly.
"Don't!" interrupted his wife from her husbands supportive words. "Don't mention them. I just… I just want to focus on the now. I don't want to look back, I don't ever want to look back."
With that the woman broke down into bleeding tears and fell into her husband's arms. The man for months now had tried to be strong and be the support his darling wife so desperately needed. But now, his strong front was starting to crumble after months of trying to keep his searing pain hidden. The anticipation for their new child seemed to be greater torture than anything he had ever experienced.
"One day, my beautiful wife," spoke the man as his voice trembled. He was on the brink of crying. Slowly he built up enough strength to continue. "One day the twins, our twins, will return to us. One day we will be reunited with our babies, but not as infants, but of as men, glorious men, who will have the power to change the world. We will be reunited with them. They will be reunited with us and they will be reunited with their new brother, who will arrive tonight."
And so there they stood, embracing in the bitterly cold night air. The wind whipping around them as they intimately comforted one another, waiting for their new child to arrive. Suddenly a large clap of lightening illuminated the entire island causing the cloudy heavens to glow a brilliant purple and gray. What ensued was a shriek of thunder followed by pouring rain that fell heavily from high above.
"My love, I think we better go inside," urged the man to his wife.
"No! We have to wait out here. I am not giving up!"
"I am not saying we should give up. All I am saying is that we should go inside to wait. It is raining, it is cold, and that lightening is dangerously close. If they come tonight…"
"If?" snapped his wife.
"When they come tonight, they won't turn back around just because we weren't waiting outside in the pouring rain."
"I don't want to take any chances," his wife firmly begged.
"I'll tell you what. We will wait inside our bedroom. The balcony doors are see-through. If we notice the slightest disturbance outside…"
"I said NO!" further debated the woman. "Look, you cannot change my mind. I am waiting out here rain or shine for our new child, end of story."
Just as the woman was about to even further detest her husband's decision, a lightening bolt struck the roof with a shower of sparks, causing the entire house to rumble and shake. The scream of the lightening almost demanded the woman to concede her irrational demand.
"You are coming inside," proclaimed the man.
Another hour had passed as the storm outside became more and more violent and the tension inside became more and more intense. The woman sat at the edge of the bed staring out the glass doors that led to the balcony, as her husband paced back and forth in a daze, thinking deeply. As each tick of the grandfather clock echoed throughout the room, new heights of anticipation were experienced between the couple, as feelings and thoughts alien to them crept into their minds. After coming inside neither spoke a word to each other, but not out of anger. They just simply did not know what to say. They didn't know what was taking so long. They didn't even really know what was going on.
The man and the woman's lives had been in great danger after they wished their baby twins to a new world. Upon returning to their small village, they were met by the gruesome sight of their quaint little cottage ablaze in a fury of fire. The Koopas were after them, and they knew of the noble act in which they had taken to protect their children. Enraged were they, the Koopas had vowed to make the man and woman the next victims of the powerful Koopaharian Curse that had already killed so many. So they fled to a remote island to forever live in constant fear from the rest of the world and that is exactly where they were now.
For months they lived in despair as they lived in the mansion whose owners had mysteriously vanished. The great depression of the human soul morphed the man and woman into beings they couldn't even recognize in the mirror. Things got more bitter and more sorrowful as the weeks rolled by until nine months ago that day, both the man and the woman had awakened from a deep slumber. They had divined of a new child who would fill the void in their hearts and who would come to them exactly nine months into the future.
After the whole experience of losing their first born babies and fleeing for the right to live, never before had two people felt closer to one another nor more distant. They loved each other, there was no doubt about that. But something changed between the man and woman, something that would never be the same again. With the insight of a new baby along the way, things were better between them for awhile. This night was supposed to have given them a new hope for the better. But so far, it had only caused even more heartache.
"Where could they be?" whimpered the woman, finally breaking the awkward silence. "Is it possible… is it possible, that we were wrong? What if this whole thing was but of an ordinary dream and we are only making ourselves even more the fool waiting for nothing?"
The man stopped pacing and turned to face his wife. Walking over to her and sitting on the bed, he hugged her and started gently rubbing her shoulder.
"That dream was more real than anything I have ever experienced in this lifetime," the man consoled. " It was not a dream… it was a reality, a truth of things to come. We just need to give them more time. They will be here, we will have our new son."
The wife smiled to herself as she closed her eyes.
"If it had been anyone else telling me these things, I would have thought them crazy. But not you. Somehow you always make the irrational, rational. The impossible, possible. I love you."
"I love you t--"
Just then, a loud crash was heard down stairs causing both the man and woman's stomach to turn. The intimate moment was broken by what could possibly be unknown horrors lurking in the house.
"What was that?" stuttered the woman with absolute fear.
A lightening bolt then flashed outside as the couple remained motionless, too scared to move.
"I don't know," the man genuinely replied.
"The Koopas… THE KOOPAS! They found us, I know it. We are dead!"
"Calm down, honey. It… it might just be the wind."
"No it wasn't the wind. It was Death… they have come for us."
"Don't say such things. We are safe. This island isn't like the rest of the word, remember? This island is untouched by magic, and like so, is untouched from divine detection."
"We don't know that! We don't know that for sure!"
The man thought to himself. What in the Star Road was he to do? If the Koopas really had found them and broken into the house, escape would be futile and in a matter of minutes they would be dead. Looking around the room, and studying the almost medieval decor, his sight locked onto his wife's eyes which showed a spine tingling terror. Just as he was about to say that it had to have been the storm, another loud crash downstairs was heard.
"Listen!" the man's wife shrieked. "Listen! They are here, I know it! I don't want to die! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"
"Just stay quiet!" hushed the husband. "Just… be… quiet," he suddenly spoke trying to calm her, "I will go down stairs. I will see what is causing the noise. It is probably just the wind."
"No, don't, I need you here, my love. If we are to really die right now, I want us to be together."
"Don't talk like that, no one is going to die tonight. I promise I will be right back."
"No darling, DON'T!"
But it was too late. He was already out the bedroom door to face whatever might have broken into his new home.
Walking down the stairway, the man's heart was rapidly trying to escape from his chest. Just as he had never known more anticipation than that night, so now to did he never know such immense fear. Each step he took, the floorboards of the stairs screeched as if to warn whatever being that maybe down there of his presence. This night had been anything but the hope he had envisioned it to be. It was nothing at all like the birth of the twins, when he and his wife had awakened early in the hours of the morning to behold the sight of two adorable babies smiling and cooing at them.
As he walked down the stairs in his black and white robe, a soft wind blew around him giving him goosebumps. Something was going to happen at any second. What, he did not know. Was he to fear this what or was he to welcome it? The man then glanced outside the expansive checkered windows that separated him from the forest through the wall of the stairway. The forest outside was going crazy from the winds and the rain was coming down like shooting stars.
Suddenly, the familiar freakish noise was heard again but this time much louder. He was close. Slowly walking down the last step, the man peered around the corner spotting the empty dining room. The stillness of the room was creepy in stark contrast to the activity outside. Although it was quite cold, the man was gravely hot and sweating. With a hard swallow hurting his dry throat, the man continued on.
He looked all around the dining room and the living room that laid in conjunction. Something was off. Something was terribly wrong. Walking through the dining room and about to push open the twin doors that led to the kitchen, without warning the horrid noise was heard again as he spun around to face its source.
"OH!" yelped the man as he spotted what it was. Breathing heavily and almost collapsing to his knees from the sight, the man soon found himself laughing. It was just the front door opening and banging shut from the wind. The man and woman had been merely overreacting, "making a mountain out of a Monty Molehill".
Walking light heartedly to the front door, the man then slowly shut and latched it up tight. This might just have been the thing to lighten up the whole ordeal once the man's wife learned what they were so afraid of. Nothing. Just as his tense muscles had relaxed a bit, a blood-curdling scream echoed throughout the house.
His wife... She was in trouble...
The man as fast as he could rushed up the stairs and moved for their bedroom door, only it was locked up tight.
"Honey! Open the door! Are you okay! OPEN THE DOOR!" the man frantically yelled.
What responded to his plea was a soft moaning causing the man to panic. Shaking the door violently, he knew that a life could end in a matter of seconds if he did not act fast and that is why he had to get in that room now. With one hard kick of his foot, the door broke open where he was met with a most vulgar sight. A large red and orange feathered bird was cowering over his wife who laid lifeless on the bed.
Staring wide-eyed at the most confusing and sickening scene, the large bird turned it's head ever so slightly to stare at it's intruder as if to warn him not to come any closer. The bird's blood red eyes pierced into the man's soul and it was then that he saw evil in all its purity. The bird was not that of the Stork they had been expecting, but that of the fiery Phoenix! Beside his wife whom laid motionless on the bed, he could see what looked liked blood. Threat or no threat he had to help his true love.
Charging at the bird, the animal became alarmed and exposed it's massive wing span to intimidate the man. It was literally gigantic. Suddenly the bird shrieked its disturbing cry causing the man to stop in his tracks and cover his ears in pain. Knocking over furniture and trashing the room, the Phoenix walked on its sharp and powerful claws over to the balcony where it jumped on the stone ledge and then swooped off, flying into the mean night sky from whence it came.
Aghast and taken back by what had happened, the man jumped onto the bed to examine his wife. She wasn't dead, but she was cut up pretty severely by what must have been wounds from the bird's sharp beak. The man then started crying. Why must he and his wife forever be tortured? When were they finally going to be at peace?
Suddenly an eerie giggle tickled his eardrums startling him. It's source originating from under the very torn and tattered sheets. Cautious was the man and not knowing what to expect, he slowly lifted the bloody mess of cloth from his ruined bed to behold the disturbing image of a tiny human infant who stared maliciously at the man and seemed to be relishing in the mysterious chaos.
Covering his hands over his mouth, the man shook his head in utter disbelief and horror.
This infant was the new son they had prayed for.
This new child was now his third son.