Thank you very much for last chapter's reviews and the people who submitted them! They were great and wonderful!

This chapter is a bit long, but maybe it isn't...please enjoy and read! Someone dies!

Chapter 12: Drag Jagged and Slice

"You're saying that your father was skipped?" said Peach, fixing the garage of Mush's house. It was approaching 5 o'clock, and Mush felt that he had to talk with Peach alone. They were the only living ones who knew the most about Death and his bizarre acts, and were the only two people in the world to receive premonitions.

"Maybe he found new love," pointed out Mush. "He called me last night to say that he felt responsible about me and our family, and all those other stuff."

"Did he mention Jolene?"

"I think so," said Mush. "But then why did he almost die?"

"Because he had to find new love, and then intervene," explained Peach. "He's off the list now." She then thought of something, and smiled.

"How do you feel about Jill? Is she your type?" Peach asked slyly.

"No!" said Mush. "I mean, she's not like love or anything. She's just an acquaintance who's a victim to this list. So am I, and Frank, but not you. And I'm next."

Peach finished putting on the last part of the garage monitor, and they both stepped back to admire the fixed and well-remodeled garage.

"Okay, so if you're next," said Peach, adjusting the lever of the garage, "I think you should just watch out for things."

"How could you say that casually?" said Mush.

"I've seen enough horrible deaths to last a lifetime."

"Death is stronger than all of us."

"Not if we ruin his design and get us off his list," Peach pointed out. "We have no control over what he does, and he has no control in what we do. Right now, we need the other two to be with us.

Using Mush's brand new car, they drove over to Frank and picked him up, knowing that the safest thing to do was to stay together. Frank seemed too horrified from the events from last night, and kept his pipe in his hand to calm him down, smoking from time to time.

"Man, two people dead last night, an explosion and a metal pipe? Death is so fucking weird!" said Frank, as they were driving down the streets to find Jill.

"Calm down Frank," Mush said, remembering to fasten his seatbelt, but was afraid it might choke him somehow, and he decided to unbuckle it at the confused point of hesitation. "You're not the next to die." He then remembered what he wanted to know; how Frank had been involved the past deaths with Peach's friends.

"Frank, remember that you were working in the mall last year?" said Mush. "Did you accidentally break something or not do something properly?"

"Like what?" asked Frank. "Does it matter?"

"It matters a lot," said Mush. "I'll be thrilled, Frank, if you remember at least one thing. Just one thing."

"I remember something," said Frank. "I was supposed to repair a damaged elevator in the mall, but I just left it and went outside. The next day I heard on the news that someone died when the elevator bar sliced someone in half? I mean, it's crazy. " He dropped his pipe on the car flooring, causing a small fire to occur. Peach stopped the car to a halt as Frank hurriedly swapped the flames away with his hat.

"Damn it Frank, why do you always have to hold that pipe wherever you go?" demanded Peach in an upset and rough voice. Frank gave Peach a "You can't control me!" stare as they continued driving

"You were involved…the one who was killed by the elevator bar, that was Mario," Mush whispered to himself. "Now I know all of it, although it doesn't matter."

"All of what?" asked Frank. Mush ignored him and kept on thinking.

The car continued down the road, and the three of them just sat where they were. After a few dull minutes, Peach pushed on the car radio, looking for news on Jill's destroyed laboratory. A certain song had come up instead.

Did you ever sit straight up in your bed with somethin' circlin' around your head

And you swot at it as it whizzes by it's just one pesky little fly

You shake your head and you twitch your nose and settle down to sweet repose

"Change this fucking song!" complained Frank in the back. "It sucks!"

"Something's broken," Peach said back, trying to press all the buttons, and even tried turning it off. Nothing would stop the song as it continued.

"Don't say this is a sign or something," mumbled Frank. "I won't buy it."

"A sign," realized Mush. "It's a sign!"

"About what?" asked Peach, looking at the channel. It was 13.6.

"It's not a fucking sign, for Pete's sake!" shouted Frank. "All you guys talk about is death, and death, and-"

"Shut your mouth, Frank!" demanded Peach. "We're trying to listen!" Frank suddenly stopped talking.

"What's the name of the song?" said Peach. They listened more, straining their ears closer to the speakers of the car.

Buzz buzz buzz goes that busy little thing
Buzz buzz buzz you swot and lose the ring
You fan the air as he goes by and stick your finger right in your eye
You hit every thing except that fly buzz buzz buzz.

Mush and Peach listened carefully for the end.

"Thank you everyone, this is channel 13.6. You have just heard the song played by Hank Williams Jr., Fly Trouble."

"Hank Williams Junior?" asked Mush, thinking quickly. "Or is it Fly Trouble?"

"Fly Trouble," whispered Peach, and then screamed. "Mush, get down!" A huge piece of plywood flew into the front window out of nowhere, and Peach pulled down Mush in the passenger seat, just as the plywood board crashed into the glass and right into the chair headrest, nearly killing Mush. The car swerved and busted a tire, nearly flipping over as it stopped in the middle of the street. They were all a bit stunned and dizzy, as Peach got up from the floor and found the engine fuel dead. Frank broke the silence.

"What in hell just happened!" shouted Frank, getting out of his car. Mush and Peach got out of the car as well, seeing the brand new car with shattered glass and a broken front, ruined and black. Mush sighed, not knowing if their insurance would pay for the damage.

"You were almost supposed to die," Peach finally said. "I knew there was something with the title of the song. It was lucky that I saw that piece of plywood coming off from the jeep besides us!" She kicked the broken splinters of wood on the concrete in frustration.

A tow truck was forced to arrive and bring the car away, and Peach called Jill to meet them on the street they were on. Jill arrived an hour later, walking back from a school.

"Where were you?" asked Peach. "We thought you would be in danger."

"I got a new job as a science teacher," she said, keeping her eyes away from Mush. "In that way, it still might be possible to get my past job back."

The tow truck magikoopa approached them with a piece of paper, which contained prices for the different types of damage, plus the price for the towing. "The cost would be around 300 coins," he estimated. "Wait, make it 450." Mush paid him the money.

"Jill, I'm sorry about your laboratory," he said sincerely. "I know you think it's my fault, but I'll try-"

"I was trying to drop the subject, and you have to be such an ass and bring it up!" she snapped almost instantly. "Why did I even board the blimp in the first place?"

"I was trying to help you!" Mush said, trying to find a way to stop her anger. "We can find the design if we wait long enough to solve it."

"He's right," said Peach. "Forget about everything minor right now, we're talking about life."

"This was my life," Jill said in an angry and exhausted tone. "Did I force myself to get onto the blimp? A newspaper flew into my face the week before the takeoff, with the advertisement for the Job Meeting at Glitzville. If I wasn't meant to be on Death's list, I wouldn't be here." She sighed and started to walk away from them, just as the magikoopa tow man hopped into his truck. Peach had told him to not carry the car away on the hook.

Mush saw a reflection from the tow truck window which reflected onto the street, and saw two cars drag racing, the parachutes attached behind them, slowing them down. Mush glanced at the empty street, but to his shock, there was nothing on the road.

"Jill, get back here! I forgot that you were next on the list," Mush called, running towards Jill. She turned around, causing a braid in her hair to attach to the hook off the tow truck. The tow truck took off, and Jill was startled as she was dragged with it, her whole body but her arms and head being dragged against the dirt roughly.

"Stop the truck!" yelled Peach, and the three of them broke into a run and tried to catch onto the speeding truck, which showed no sign of stopping. Jill was screaming out as she continued being dragged, and the truck driver was unaware of what was happening behind him.

"Help!" cried out Jill, as she was dragged brutally against a hard surface of concrete. The driver suddenly turned back onto the regular dirt ground and kept driving, as Mush managed to reach Jill's hands.

He frantically tried to pull the braid off of Jill's hair, at the same time of running at his full speed. A wine bottle from beneath caused him to trip and fall onto the ground.

"The truck's headed for Jagged Road!" cried Peach in panic, and they saw that she was right. The truck was making its way to the most dangerous road in the Kingdom, filled with shards of broken glass and razor-sharp rocks, as Jill cried out in terror. Mush got a piece of a sharp blade from the ground, and aimed at the hooked string which was dragging Jill, who was just about to be dragged across the deadly path ahead. In one perfect throw, the metal blade broke the hook and cut her loose from the truck, as Jill fell to the ground in a heap of dust, her third time of cheating death. She had landed only a foot away from Jagged Road,and a few inches away from where she landed, there was an incredibly sharp blade of glass sticking out of the ground, which was meant to kill her gruesomely. The truck suddenly stopped moving.

"Jill, are you all right?" asked Peach, helping her to her feet. Her clothes were full of mud and dirt, and her body had bruises and cuts all over. But she was still able to get to her feet.

"I'm okay," said Jill, her eyes full of relief. Wiping the dust off her clothes, she looked over at Mush. But as she looked at Mush, he had a look of shock in his face, and Jill saw what the problem was.

When he had thrown the slate of metal to save Jill, he had also thrown it into the back window of the driver's chair, and into the head of the magikoopa, with the slate of metal sliced into his head. Blood dripped down the face of the driver.

Peach went up to the dead driver, and looked at the metal piece sticking out of him. She could clearly see the dust of Mush's fingerprints.

"Shit, this is not good," said Peach, to the other scared survivors behind her. "The police will start looking for Mush when they see this."

"How would they know it's me?" asked Mush, looking at the man he had killed in horror. "Why did this person die? He was never on the blimp."

"The piece of metal has your fingerprints on it," explained Peach. "I'm sure this person was simply killed, but not in any type of design that's related to us. He was killed to make the police more suspicious of you."

"Is that guy dead?" asked Frank, keeping a distance away from it.

"Well, Mush saved me," said Jill, gaining her strength and getting off from the ground. "The thing is he killed someone else. What do we do now, now that the police will be positive about Mush being a psycho killer, killing people who escaped the blimp accident in planned ways?"

"We run away," said Peach firmly.

"Run away?" repeated Mush. "But we can't just leave this dead man in the middle of this road." The magikoopa suddenly slumped forwards, and Mush backed away from it in disgust.

The four of them had no choice but run away from the scene and further into the woods, until Frank decided to hide Mush in his own house. Peach protested that the idea was going to be futile, but Mush insisted that it was the only safe choice they could make. The night ended with Mush looking out from under the stale garage cabinet of Frank's home, as he looked out of the small window, staring at the trees blowing with the wind. He shivered, wondering if Death was weakening that very moment. He remembered that Frank was next, but he knew Death wouldn't strike too soon. Mush was mistaken.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please don't forget a review, suggestions, comments, about the story, anything almost. I will update the next chapter ASAP.