The appearance of one should not deem who one truly is. Sparkly eyes to a pretty smile, everything is false. A demon's true identity is always hidden behind a mask. But for the events that are about to unfold, identity is truly nowhere to be found. In this town, everything happens for a reason.
~ Behind A Mask ~
Season I, Salem:
Uncloaked
As the sky darkens and the grey clouds form, footsteps gently echo throughout the silent home.
The mayor steps into his kitchen, swiping up the sharp knife laid on the kitchen table and he firmly grasps it. He looks at it, worried about what he may have to do with it. Who he may have to injure with it.
The fears grow on his mind and he quickly slides it into the pocket on his coat before fixing his tophat. He takes one last look at the kitchen, then the living room, knowing that this could be the last time he ever sees his home again. He lets out a big breath, steps outside through his back door and locks it, leaving the house in complete peace.
"Tea is ready," calls out Peach, carrying the two cups out of the kitchen and into the living room. Two empty stools sit at her feet with a flickering fire burning in the darkness. She places the cups on either of the wooden stools and looks around. Four dark corners. One staircase leading to a small bedroom and a tiny doorway leading to the guest room.
"Link?" she calls outs, waiting for a response. Her words hang in the air, no other voice replying. "Doc? Where are you guys?"
She steps around the stools and towards the door leading to the guest room, placing her hand on the knob and twisting it gently. She opens it ajar and peeks through the crack, seeing nothing but an empty bed and a dusty window.
She quietly shuts it and turns to look at the staircase. She latches onto the railings and quietly walks up the stairs where she opens another door. She peeks through the crack, not getting a good view so she pushes it open fully.
It swings open with a creak and she slowly steps inside.
"Hello?" she whispers into the darkness, scanning the room to find anyone. Nothing. She looks forward at the closet door and begins to approach it, continuing to eye every spot of the room in front of her. She places her white gloved-hand on the door knob and slowly twists it. She pulls back and opens the door fully, staring inside.
"Oh my gosh.." she mutters, stepping backwards in horror, cupping her hand over her mouth. She stumbles backwards into the cloaked figure, but one swing of their thick tree branch to her temple and she's knocked out, her mind and vision plagued by black.
The sky turns completely black just as Mario passes through his garden, across the fence and into the grassy fields. The old well looms just meters away, covered in dust and cobwebs fit with a bucket full of water hanging from a hook inside it.
He reaches the well, glancing around quickly in all directions to catch a glimpse of anyone. No one to be found. He looks around the well, inspecting the hanging bucket, and that's when he hears a mumbling sound.
He looks down at the wooden flap covering the well, preventing anything to fall inside, and he hears a noise bouncing inside. He places his ear against the wood and listens to the muffled cries and shrieks.
Immediately, he flips open the lock and is about to open up the flap when words enter his mind.
Do it and welcome death.
A pain fills his head and he spins around where he comes face to face with a mysterious silhouette, fit with a black cloak in the darkness, turned around and staring in the other direction.
"I know who you are," begins Mario, his voice cracking in between words. "There's no more time for games. Just turn around and let me see your face..."
The figure holds out their arm, revealing a flaming tree branch set with a flickering flame on the tip in their black gloved-hands. They slowly walk backwards, spinning around on their feet, tilting their head up and they stop when Mario sees their face.
"Oh my god," he whispers. "You're..."
"Doctor Mario!" he yells. "Congratulations Mario, you've finally figured it out." The doctor pulls his hood down, showing off the rest of his face. "It took you so goddamn long. I swear all you idiots in this place don't even have half of a brain," he continues.
"But.. the check-in book and.." stutters Mario.
"Oh, don't be so silly! All it took was a minute or two to rip out and write a whole new page in that silly book, plant it in Link's home - and ta da - he's toast!" laughs Doctor Mario.
"But why? Why did you want to do this to us all?" asks Mario.
The doctor laughs. "Because I wanted to be the leader of this town, but of course you were the one voted to become the mayor!"
"Doctor Mario, don't say these things," continues Mario. "That's Palutena speaking; not you! Don't listen to her inside you!" The doctor slowly steps forward with his flaming stick sending tiny 'fireflies' of flames into the night sky as he lets a laugh out.
"Silly boy! You even think that your note for Peach beside the oak tree would save you?" he taunts. "If anything you only got her caught up in this mess..."
"What do you mean?" Mario asks.
"Take a look yourself."
Mario quickly dashes diagonally past the doctor and over his fence, unlocking the entrance to his home and he sprints inside. He passes through the kitchen and the living room, pulling open the front door and staring at Peach, tied with rope to the oak tree in the middle of the town.
"Mario! Help me!" she squeals.
"Don't you want to go help her?" Doctor Mario asks, appearing behind the mayor in the dark doorway. "Do it before she pays for your actions." Immediately, Mario leaps out the doorway and onto the fresh grass, running towards the tree to untie her.
"Quickly!" she squeals just as he reaches her, beginning to untie the knots.
"It's not going to be that easy!" Doctor Mario's voice yells, Mario quickly spinning around to see where he is. Nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, his burning branch is rested on the grass beside his feet, the bark of the tree going up in flames.
"Hurry!" shrieks Peach as Mario takes down his first knot. Two more to go. The flames lick like a flaming tongue up the back of the tree, sending it to blaze up and create smoke.
Second knot down. The ropes begin to loosen as the fire starts to wrap itself around the base of the tree below Peach's feet. She lets out a horrific scream and wriggles in the ropes just as Mario unties the third and final knot.
She leaps forward into his arms and he pulls her back away from the tree as the entire base ignites with flames. The scurry backwards across the grass as the bark melts, the tree beginning to wobble.
"Into my house!" orders Mario, dragging her along with him and up the steps to his home. They both fall in the doorway and he shuts the door behind them both, locking it with his key as his tophat topples off his head and onto the ground.
Suddenly, they hear three knocks at the door in front of them.
"I just want you to let me in..." whispers the doctor's voice.
Mario immediately begins pulling Peach through the kitchen and out the unlocked door at the back of the house, out into the small garden. They climb over the fence and begin to sprint across the grass towards the well and away from the house.
"He killed them both! He killed Pacman and Toon Link! They were covered in blood with their throats slit in my closet at home!" squeals Peach, tears streaming down her face.
"He what?!" shrieks Mario. "That means that the person in the well must be..." They reach the old well and Mario flips the flap open, revealing the same person he thought he would see.
"Link!" he yells, staring at the Hylian soldier tied together and gagged with rope, his head barely floating above the deep pool of water.
"I'm sorry ladies and gentlemen, but it's time for the next magic act in this show: escape the box filled with water!" roars Doctor Mario behind them both. He raises his hand and flicks around his fingers, the bucket of water hanging from the hook over the well dropping from its hook and pouring the liquid deep into the well, just about covering Link's head and the bucket follows after it.
"No!" shrieks Peach. "He's going to drown!"
"And so are you..." the doctor's voice whispers into her ear, but she's not quick enough to escape. His hands shove her forward and she tumbles over the cemented brick wall deep down into the dark well, screaming as loud as she can.
Mario leaps backwards, frightened. He pulls out the knife from his jacket pocket and holds it forward towards Doctor Mario, his handings trembling as he starts to walk backwards.
"Is this a threat?" the doctor asks.
"Please, just please stop this! Palutena is in you, Doc. This is not who you are! Fight back against her!" exclaims Mario. Doctor Mario chuckles.
"It's too late for that now," he says. "I wanted to be the leader of this town, so now the consequences of me not getting what I want is for there to be no town!"
"You abused Peach, you psychotic bastard!"
"No I didn't!" Doctor Mario yells back.
"Doc, you did! But Palutena, you didn't! You did it before Palutena got you!" shouts Mario. "Doc, just please fight back against her deep inside your heart! You can fully control yourself again! She's using you like a puppet!"
Deep within the well, Peach unties Link's hands and takes the rope from out of his mouth, freeing him and letting him move. They both push their palms against the slimey walls, desperately trying to climb back up with the bucket now full of water in one of Link's hands.
Doctor Mario pushes his hand through the air which knocks Mario back by an invisible force, sending him slamming into the ground a few feet away.
"If you destroy everything, you'll only destroy yourself!" exclaims Mario, crawling backwards as the doctor approaches him. "You will have nowhere else to go or live if everything is gone!"
An evil grin fills Doctor Mario's face. "If only you knew that there was more beyond those mountains and hills, especially the small little town filled with Villagers of all shapes and sizes.. I'll be the one who steps out of the Salem bloodbath as the lone survivor, the demons dead, and they'll just have to let me stay with them.."
Mario looks in horror at him, struggling to believe what he's hearing.
"I'll work my way up to the top, and if it doesn't go to plan like this nasty town, I'll destroy them too and move onto the next one!"
"You're insane," whispers Mario. "Making people go crazy doesn't make you become a leader of anything!"
"Oh, but it will," says Doctor Mario. "They'll all be so precious and so innocent. Scaring the living daylights out of them with my identity was the one behind it all hidden will make them crawl for my leadership once I prove my worth.. But I can't have any interferences that will stop my plans, so I'm sorry Mario, but you have to go..."
He raises his hand and Mario shoots up into the air, an invisible force hanging him by his neck. His latches onto his throat in pain, desperately trying to pull whatever is there away, by he can't get rid of the force.
"It's been fun, but it is time for me to go now," says Doctor Mario, staring up at Mario groaning in agony.
"You're right. It is time for you to go!" Peach shrieks, pouring a bucket of water over his head and tackling him to the ground. Mario immediately drops onto the grass, gasping and twitching while Peach and Link pin the doctor down, his face bubbling and covering in blisters.
"What did you do?!" he yells. "No water, you evil pigs!"
His face begins to crispen, going from red to brown, chunks of his skin shredding and falling to the ground like dust.
"P-please..." he begs. "I- I didn't... mean it.."
His face grows purple, his skin swelling in gigantic bubbles just as his eyelids shut. Peach and Link both slowly rise to their feet and rush over to Mario.
"Mario! Are you okay?" Peach asks, pulling his hair out of his eyes.
"Yeah.. I- I'm fine..." he groans after letting out a heavy cough. "At least we're safe now..."
Suddenly, Doctor Mario jumps up on his face, his purple face oozing out a slimey green substance from the gigantic spots and he roars, sprinting towards the three of them.
Mario quickly flings his knife in his hand straight towards him and it enters his chest, blood leaking out and he collapses to the ground. Dead, finally. Link, Peach and Mario all stare at each other, Mario letting out a quick sentence.
"They always come back."
"Father!"
All three of their heads spin around instantly, trying to find who screamed out the word.
"Father! I'm here!"
Then they spot Pacman and Toon Link, dashing across the grass as fast as they can.
"Father, the tree is on fire!" Toon Link squeals.
"Oh my god! You're alive!" Link yells, grabbing onto him and giving him a huge hug. "I thought you were dead!"
"Doc had us tied up inside Peach's closet!" Pacman shrieks. "He kidnapped us from my home and I saw him use some sort of magic on Peach before knocking her out! We just freed ourselves moments ago.."
"Oh my gosh, he changed my vision.." whispers Peach. "He made me see.. your dead bodies."
Suddenly, a huge creaking sound fills the air and they watch as the oak tree at the center of the town collapses on top of Mario's house, exploding in flames and igniting the houses neighbouring his.
"What do we do now?" asks Toon Link as they all stare at the growing fire. Mario watches in horror.
"We find that town that Doc was talking about.. He said there's more to this world other than just us.." he says. They all turn and look at each other, eventually nodding.
"There's a new town?" asks Toon Link.
"That's what Doc said before he.." begins Peach. "Uh. Let's just go. We need to get somewhere safe for tonight."
They all rise to their feet, hand in hand and begin to march across the grassy fields towards the valley through the tall mountains. Finally Mario got his wish, but not the way he wanted it. He always wanted more. More to this world. A place where everything could be calm and peaceful.
Maybe he will get that. Maybe he won't. But at least he got his first wish.
All he wanted was to get away from Salem.
END OF SEASON I, SALEM
Author's Note:
Wow! It's over! SEASON I HAS BEEN COMPLETED!
Well hello everyone... Woah, what an intense finale. I hope you all enjoyed this seventh and final chapter of Behind A Mask, Salem: Uncloaked! And boy, did we have some uncloakings.. So of course, it was revealed that Doctor Mario was the one behind it all! Isn't that crazy?! As always, whether you liked or disliked this chapter, please leave a review if you have time! I would love to hear your thoughts about this chapter and the reveal, because it was quite... intense to say the least!
So... that's it for Season I! But don't worry, Season II is coming soon with a whole new mystery, and it's going to be very different ;)
That's it for today.. If you liked Season I, stay tuned for Season II!
I'd like to say thank you to everyone who continued to read and review this story for start to finish and I hope you read more entries in Behind A Mask!
Thank you all so much for reading, byeeeee! :D