CHAPTER-2: 64
Dear Mario,
Please come to the castle.
I have baked a cake for you
Yours truly, Princess Toadstool
Peach
The camera orbited the castle grounds like Big Boo's Merry-Go-Round. The haunt was on. Mario exited the pipe excitedly, shouting "YAHOO" as he bounded out like a chummy pasta boy. Mario looked around the space he had just entered. It was large, but only to the scale of the lower being. Any higher and he himself would become a god.
"Where is the princess?" asked the red plumber. He ran into the castle, his eyes fixated on his humble prize. Cake was so worth the trip regardless of what the princess had to request. Even if she had been captured by evil forces again... again... he would not let it get him down. Besides, what would the chance be of that ever happening out of the blue?
As the mustached man approached the bridge, the lofty cameraman swooped down and angled his lens straight forwards. "Hello Mario, we are the Lakitu Bros. Filming CompanyTM and we are here to capture your marvelous castle adventure for all the world to see."
It was indeed a marvelous day and now Mario felt like a superstar. Despite his ever-swelling ego at the moment, he could not help but wonder what would have brought the Lakitu Bros. all the way to Peach's castle. Had something gone amiss in the kitchen? Maybe the toilet was clogged with Scuttlebugs again...
Mario didn't care. Cake was on the line. He dove in through the castle doors and was met with an unexpected melancholy.
Complete silence, save for the faint echo of a gruff sinister laugh booming across the walls.
Mama mia... Mario thought to himself, adjusting his trusty cap.
He ran down to the basement, flipped between the cracks under the first-floor stairs and began jumping backwards with rapid succession. As THE Jumpman, he was able to pull off all kinds of neat moves that others could only dream of. Once his charge was satisfactory, he initiated the release and catapulted out towards the front door, exited for a slight second into a black void, and quickly changed direction in order to zip right into the hallway guarded by the 8-Star door.
Mario was now in the Dark World.