20
Mario spotted Luigi trapped in the corner of a room at the end of the hall that had natural, unscathed sandstone walls and a plethora of ancient sculptures depicting gods. Mario knew that he was now in the worshipping room. The five remaining Boos that scared Luigi off were hovering above him, feeding off of his own fear.
"MARIO! HELP!" Luigi shouted across the room as he spotted Mario standing in the entrance.
Mario could see the expression on his brother's face. It was one of complete disturbance and terror that could only otherwise be expressed either by the sudden witnessing of a violent crime, or by a sudden loss. It was an expression that has not been expressed by his brother ever since the gruesome murder of their foster parents over ten years ago.
"Here, brother! Catch this!" Mario shouted, throwing the torch to his brother. "They're afraid of the flame!"
As the torch fell to the ground, Luigi suddenly became brave and dived for the flame and pointed it in the direction of the Boo ghosts with a shaky arm. His phobia of ghosts made it feel as though it were a matter of life and death, even though he was now safe from them.
"GO AWAY! LEAVE ME ALONE!" Luigi shouted. "I DON'T WANT YOU ANYWHERE NEAR ME!"
As he swung the fire stick at the ghosts, they immediately hid their faces and gave a shrill shriek as they flew out of the room. Mario ran up to Luigi and helped him back on his feet. He had a very hard time keeping his body still.
"Are you alright, Luigi?" Mario asked. "Did they hurt you?"
"No..." Luigi replied, still frightened by his ghostly encounter. "I'm so scared, Mario..."
Luigi began to weep and embrace his brother.
"Everything's alright now." Mario said, ushering Luigi to calm down. "It's over."
"They're still here!" Luigi said. "They'll come after us again!"
"Not if I can help it!" Mario said. "If they wanted to hurt you, they'd have to get through me first!"
Luigi stopped crying and gave a slight smile to his brother.
"Thank you for saving me, brother." Luigi said. "I don't know what I would've done without your help!"
"I really do think that you should at least try to get over your fear of ghosts." Mario said. "You can't live with those kinds of fears forever."
"I know." Luigi said. "But I just can't help myself. My bad experiences with ghosts seemed to leave a permanent scare in my brain..."
"Don't think like that." Mario said. "I'm sure you'll get over your fear eventually. Now come on, let's get out of this room and continue down the right tunnel."
Suddenly, Luigi was quick to notice a large wound on Mario's leg.
"What happened to your leg?" Luigi asked. "It's all bloody."
"I was clumsy when I was running from those other ghosts." Mario replied.
"Will you be alright?" Luigi asked.
"Yeah, I think I manage without a green mushroom."
Mario paused.
"We should probably get out of here. Let's find a way out of here."
"Wait!" Luigi said. "Let's look around for a moment. I have a feeling that there is something in here that might help us."
"Like what?" Mario asked. "I don't see anything that could possibly help us."
"There's something about the arrangement of the statues that seems weird." Luigi said. "There all arranged in a circular pattern. I wonder if that had any significance."
"I don't know, Luigi." Mario said. "They all seem like normal statues to me."
Mario walked slowly around the room and tried to make sense of what Luigi was trying to suggest, but was unable to until he came across something unusual on the floor in the center of the room. He looked down and saw a reddish glint in the dying light of the torch in Luigi's hand. He became intrigued.
"Luigi, bring the torch over here." Mario said, kneeling on the floor. "I think I found something."
"What is it?" Luigi asked.
"Come over here and tell me, because I have no clue!" Mario said.
"Pull out the book, it might be something important!" Luigi said.
Mario pulled out the book and Luigi kneeled down on the floor next to his brother and examined the strange shiny red floor tile, which was in the shape of a star.
"Hmm..." Luigi said. "There's very fine writing around it, and it's written in the same dead language as the riddle inside the pyramid."
"Can you decipher it?" Mario asked.
"No." Luigi said. "Not easily. There should be a page with character translations in it that can help us with this puzzle."
Mario flipped through the pages until he was barely able to find the table of translations. The light from the torch was now becoming very dim and the brothers were almost plunged into darkness.
"We might have to go back to using fire flowers again." Mario said, as he retrieved a couple of the flowers from the rucksack. "This torch isn't lasting very long."
Mario rubbed the flower in his hand and formed a fireball to see what he was looking at. He took a look at the strange characters on the floor and slowly translated the message.
"You're gonna like what this says." Mario said. "If I'm reading this right, the message on the floor says: When the eyes of the gods are facing each other, their energies will combine and reveal an invaluable clue."
"That's weird." Luigi said. "The only way they can face each other is if they are in a circle...wait a minute..."
Luigi looked around the room at the eight statues that circled the center of the room and saw that none of them were facing the red floor tile. Of course! Luigi thought. We have to rotate the statues!
"What is it, Luigi?" Mario asked.
"I think I know the answer to that riddle!" Luigi said. "If you look at all the statues, you can see that none of them are facing the center of the room."
"So what you're saying is that we have to move the statues so that they are facing the center of the room?" Mario asked.
"I believe so." Luigi said.
Mario smiled.
"Should we try it?" Mario asked.
"I suppose." Luigi said. "I'm still wondering what the invaluable clue is referring to. Could it be referring to something important?"
"Well, there's only one way to find out!" Mario said. "Come help me rotate these heavy suckers!"
The statues themselves were already resting on pivoting platforms, which made them much easier to move, hence confirming Mario and Luigi's interpretation of the ancient text. They went around the room until all eight statues were facing the center of the room. Suddenly, the red star tile in middle began to glow bright as beams of magic red light were shot into it from the statues, creating a profound spectacle before the brothers' eyes. Then, the ground began to rumble slightly.
"What's going on?" Luigi asked.
Almost at the same moment the mini earthquake intensified, the red star exploded in a flash of blinding white light, only to be replaced by what looked like a large golden key. The red beams of light suddenly disappeared and the ground quit shaking, leaving Mario and Luigi in the dark once again. With his fireball still in hand, Mario reached down and grabbed the large key.
"It looks about the same size as the four keyholes inside the pyramid!" Mario said. "I think we found one of the keys, Luigi! Way to go, brother!"
The brothers high-fived as the fire started to fizzle out. A few seconds later, Mario and Luigi were once again in pitch-blackness.
"We need more light!" Luigi said.
"Hold on, Luigi. I have another fire flower." Mario replied. "We need to find a way out of this underground temple."
Mario was about the use the next flower, when something from the room entrance caught both of the brothers' attention. They turned and saw the mysterious orange glow once again. They watched as it seemed to move down the hall from where they entered.
"Should we follow it?" Luigi asked.
"It may not be a bad idea." Mario replied. "Come on. Let's go."
Mario put the key inside the rucksack and both he and Luigi started nervously making their way back down the hall. As they reached the intersection, they saw the orange light making its way down the other hall, where the brothers have yet to explore...
One key found, three more to go!
The brothers are now wandering through the dark tunnels in search of another way out. The nature of the orange light is still in question, but the brothers are very sure that it is paranormal, especially after being attacked by ten Boos! Everything that is happening at this point is bleak and mysterious for the brothers, but will they solve these mysteries as their journey continues? If so, how long before it happens? For now, I will leave these questions open for you to answer! See ya in the next chapter! :)
saturn95