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Chapter 18: Falling Under Fate

Goombella looked at Death, and Drew looked at Death. Death looked at the both of them. They were all as silent as a predator feasting its eyes on its next prey, until Drew, for no particular reason shattered the stillness which seemed to had wrapped the entire hotel.

"Heh, it's you," he blurted out. The figure nodded as Goombella stepped back. Drew tried again.

"Why are you suddenly visible before our own eyes?" asked Drew. The dark figure only nodded, slowly.

"Can't you speak, you ominous pile of shit?"

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!" bellowed Death from beneath his red-glowing eyes. "I have no intention of making you live! I am here to finish you off!" Goombella and Drew saw his glowing eyes looking far behind them, staring at the dead body of Ludwig, who was impaled through the three spikes. Death let out a menacing laugh.

"I caused that chain to let go," said Death, then raised his hand at Goombella and pointed to her. "And you, you cheated me again. You just had to get out of my way."

"That was me," pointed out Drew. Death turned to look at him in confusion.

"What I'm saying is," explained Drew. "I was the one who intervened for her. So I beat you." He grinned, as Goombella knew that Drew was playing along with him. Death looked at him in mere silence.

"True," he said. "But intervening isn't part of my style. I like the whole 'jumping down the list' technique. Now, any last words before I finish you off?"

Goombella's heart sank. She felt as if she had come all this way for nothing, only to fail at finding the answer to cheat Death. There she was, with Death facing her in front of her, and with no clue at the life-saving solution.

"We'll beat you," said Drew. "We'll find a way to cheat you." Goombella looked at Drew, and saw him taking out the white crystal from the back of his jeans. Her hopes were lightened up; the crystal had the answer.

"Any more last words, besides your idiotic ramblings of a lunatic?" Death questioned in his lowest, thundering voice. The two victims just stood there, not knowing what to say.

"Please spare us," thought Goombella, but she was too frightened to say it, and she knew he would never spare their lives.

"Don't give me a painful death" thought Drew, but he knew that Death would give him the complete opposite if he had said it out loud.

"Good," said Death. "I'm off to get Lahla now." He suddenly enlarged, and in a quick second, he vanished past them.

"Wait, no!" cried Goombella, suddenly remembering that her best friend was the next target. "Don't kill her! Don't!" She took a couple of steps down the hall before stopping in a feeling of bleakness and fright.

"We need to solve this now," said Drew. "Death is after Lahla. Come on, hurry!" They hurried off down the hall, looking at the dead body of Ludwig which had covered the entire area around him with pools of blood. They ran to the right and were going to go further downward the hall, but a falling torch had suddenly dropped from the upper floor. The two of them jumped back as the flames engulfed the entire carpet.

"This door!" Goombella cried, trying to bang open a wooden door besides them. Drew kicked the door with full force, and it fell forwards like an attacking Whomp, loud and heavy. A wooden staircase was revealed, leading all the way up to what they believed was the top floor. They took no hesitation when they heard the scream of a familiar person high above them.

"Lahla's up there," shouted Goombella. "Let's go!"

They ran up the stairs like mad, chasing up towards the top floor on the flight of spiraling stairs. Then there was the sudden sound of a loud snap from behind Goombella, and she looked behind her to see the fire, climbing up a pole supporting the long staircase. The entire staircase shifted down, causing Drew and Goombella to scream in surprise and grab onto the railing besides them. Debris toppled to the ground below.

"Is anybody here?" A worried voice from above at the exit of the stairs appeared. It was Lahla, stepping down the first few steps.

"Lahla!" shouted Drew. "Watch out!" But his warning came too late, as the entire wooden staircase shifted down again at an angle, sending Lahla toppling over the rail with an echoing shriek. After falling just a few feet in complete air, she managed to grab onto the long, large flag pole in the middle of the spiral staircase, just a few feet above where Drew and Goombella were standing. She clung her feet around the pole as well as she dangled helplessly.

"Help!" she screamed, grabbing onto the flagpole in panic as the entire staircase around her shifted down more at another angle, making Goombella and Drew lose their balance as pounds of debris fell from above them.

"Jump, Lahla!" cried Goombella. "Hurry up! You're next on the list!" Before Lahla could do anything further in saving her life, Drew acted quicker. He picked up a piece of wood from the debris, a long and delicate one. He examined it quickly, and raised his arm, and threw the piece of wood at Lahla's body. Lahla, clinging onto the flagpole, let go at the sudden hit at her, and with a shriek and a look of terror, she plummeted down to the ground fifty feet below them. The entire staircase was soon to plummet after as a fire was started below, and before Goombella could show her horrified feelings on Drew's action, the staircase began to fall apart starting at the bottom, and they both ran to the top. The amount of smoke rising into the air from below was enormous as Drew reached the exit at the top, then Goombella a few seconds after, then Drew shut the door behind them, only to hear the thundering crashes of the falling staircase, and the blazing sound of spreading fire.

Goombella stood there, looking at Drew, stunned. "What did you do..." she stuttered, scarcely able to speak. "Lahla…what did---"

"Trust me Goombella," demanded Drew in a serious voice. He pointed against the wall. "Stand over there, now."

"Dry Bones, what are you doing?" Goombella asked. But she did anyway, scared and panicked. Drew stood in front of her, in front of an open window with the entire remains of the Masquerade Ball Room behind him.

"Are the balloons in the air?" he asked. "Do you see them?"

"The machine hot air balloons are. Drew, you're scaring me---"

"Goombella, run to the roof after this," he said. "Right now, just stare at me. Whatever happens, do not take your eyes of me until I fall to the floor." She saw tears forming at the edge of his eyes, for some reason unknown to Goombella. Goombella stared directly at him as he had directed, scared and frightened.

Suddenly from behind, he pulled out the white crystal from his jeans pocket. Grabbing the crystal with both hands, he pushed it down edge first…into his chest. With a deafening groan of pain and struggling, Drew pressed the crystal into him further, as Goombella stood petrified, screaming out into the air as blood spurted everywhere from Dry Bones, as she backed away, screaming against the plastic wall. After a few disturbing and painful seconds of screaming and confusion, Drew fell to his knees, then fell forwards onto the ground with a lifeless face of shock. The blood-drenched crystal rolled away from his hand and in front of Goombella, as she gasped and stared at Drew. He had just killed himself. She couldn't help shrieking once more as she inadvertently stepped onto the crystal, crushing it with her foot into pieces.

"The…roof," Goombella said in chokes of horror. She couldn't move her legs from the ground to bring herself away. First, Drew kills Lahla, then himself. Her mind was spinning. With a shriek of despair, she ran up the flight of stairs behind her. There was a door at the top, with the word EXIT written in large red letters. Bringing herself back, she recollected her mind and pushed open the door.

The air was cold as winds shivered up Goombella's spine. She walked slowly around and found the edge of the building in front of her. As she looked down, the ground stared back at her a few hundred feet away. The lights from the windows lightened up the sky, and below, she could still see people far away on the ground. From where she was, she could see other buildings not too far away. She saw the Gameworks Arcade below with the giant statue of Coke, flooding the streets with light. She saw an airplane in the sky, flying over to the Las Vegas Strip airport which was visible in the horizon. Far away she spotted the Madame Tuassaud's Wax Museum full of cars and limousines, and farther besides it, a giant pyramid with a streaming light emitting from the tip was glowing against the blue glass; the Luxor Hotel.

Far away, past everything she had spotted familiar as memories was the Stratosphere Tower.

"We were all meant to die that day," she said to herself, as the lights of the tall hotel all flickered on at the same time in an eerie fashion. It stood over one thousand feet, and as she looked at it, she remembered what she felt on that fateful day.

"That vision of falling," Goombella said to herself. "It's now."

With the feeling of hope, fear, and determination, she stepped onto the raised edge of the building and jumped off from the structure, looking at the sparkling city below. Her memories flashed before her eyes, as she closed them tight and plunged down.


A very confusing and mysterious ending to this chapter. Wow, I updated quicker than usual. For some reason I will take time to reply to reviewers:

FireKai Thank you for reviews! The thing about the coffins is simply that none of the dead bodies reached the final destination of Mushroom Kingdom. And that thing about Peach is another thing to be discovered.

LittleDude Great work with the list! Apparently it's now different.

Snowboarder9 Thank you, great to know!

GreatYoshiRider Don't worry, you're not next don't panic! Thanks!

Llppoo33 Lol also, I tried to make it more mild and less scary, oh well, I fail too much.

Someone! Wow, thank you! That made my day.

My other previous fic with that obnoxious Lakister who got his head sliced with a manhole cover is being reviewed (poked fun at) by Mystery Science Theater 5000 by Hobbedluigi82. Can't wait!