Chapter 1
Traveling wasn't abnormal for the Mario Brothers, one of the most well-known, yet small plumbing businesses in the town of Brooklyn, New York. People have plumbing problems nearly every day, there is no such thing as a shortage of calls. Sometimes it gets to the point both Mario and Luigi are on the phone lines, versus just Luigi himself. Fridays were almost always the busiest, as everyone try to get time for the weekend. However, this Friday was particularly quiet. There were maybe four calls from nine to twelve, and one of them was just some credit card scam. The office was quiet, minus the bustling New York noise. Mario continued to mindlessly stare out the massive studio apartment window, while Luigi tossed his pencil in the air. The pencil flipped and fluttered before smacking Luigi right in the forehead. A quick, "Ow!" came out of his mouth, causing Mario to turn around. The older brother locked immediately on the charcoal mark on Luigi's forehead, and a snicker escaped his lips.
"Haha, very funny," Luigi sneered, picking up the 6B and haphazardly tossing it onto the coffee table. The two of them watched the 6B roll-off, causing Luigi to roll his eyes.
"Whatever, I'll grab it in a minute."
Luigi pushed himself off the couch and walked to the bathroom, closing the door behind him. The door bumped into the wall, cracking open slightly. A mumbled, "Great…" came through the door, and the water began to come out from the sink. At that exact moment, the landline began to ring.
"Are you serious!?" Luigi shouted from the bathroom, which only made Mario crack up more.
"I got it, I got it," Mario assured, reaching his arm to the landline. His other arm went to grabbing his little cheat sheet on the English language.
"Hello, Mario Brothers plumbing, Mario speaking, how may I-"
Without a second to spare, the woman on the other line began to shriek.
"You need to get over here now!"
Mario was taken aback and moved the phone away from his ear a little. He inched it closer, his eyes burning into the page to find the right words.
"Sorry, I do not understand."
"You need to come over here right now," she demanded. Luigi poked his head out the door. Mario glanced at him.
Who's that? Luigi mouthed.
I don't know, Mario whispered. He went back to the phone.
"We… uh, we… we do appointments. Appointments only-"
"Does it look like I care?"
Luigi's eyes widened following the noise. Sheesh that woman was loud!
"My apartment bathroom is flooding,"
"Oh, yikes, okay…" Mario sighed, trying to hide his stuttering. His hand was practically ripping the page.
"Okay. Location?"
"17 Bay Street, the yellow one! NOT the gray one!"
Mario searched the page for the word gray. Then yellow. He just decided he would ask Luigi.
"Okay, okay. Be there in ten."
"You will be there in five."
The brothers looked at the phone with wide eyes, eventually landing on one another. Mario gingerly locked the phone in its charging dock and leaned back on the couch.
"Sheesh, rude," Luigi piped up, rubbing his face with a hand towel. The only thing that remained was a red mark on his forehead.
"Tell me about it," Mario sighed, finally happy he can return to his native tongue. "But hey, we don't get paid for how nice they are. We get paid on how good of a job we do."
Mario hoisted himself off the couch and started to gather his tools. His toolbox was barely holding on. The latch of the maroon box was crooked, being held on with whatever tape and pins Mario found around his clients' house. Luigi on the other hand always had his toolbox ready, the forest green box polished every Friday (at six PM exactly!). His tools are organized by size and functionality, and the lock is in pristine condition. There's also a nicely printed L on the front of his box, matching the L used on his handmade hat. Mario was never one for fashion, but he would adorn anything his little brother made for him, even if it's just some red hat with an M stitched on it. That's the one thing Mario keeps in pristine condition; his hat. His overalls could be burned and muddy and cut and destroyed, but if anything happens to his hat, well that's just too far. Luigi approached Mario, stuffing his sketchbook and a random HB-grade pencil off the table into his backpack.
"And how long we take to do our job," Luigi smirked. Mario punched him in the shoulder and laughed.
"Yeah, well, don't let her know that."
—
Traffic was obnoxious, to say the least. What was supposed to be a five or so-minute ride turned into a fifteen-minute ride. The screaming lady at the end of it all was not a pleasant sight to be seen. Mario and Luigi climbed out of their van, Luigi tripped on himself and fell to his knees. He pushed himself up, only to be greeted by the brow of an angry blonde woman.
"Where the hell have you been!?"
Luigi's eyes widened as he tried to take a couple of steps back. The woman matched every step he took until they were nose-to-nose with one another.
"There was an accident on Main Street," Luigi stammered. "We couldn't help it."
That answer didn't satisfy the woman. She looked like she was going to grab Luigi by his neck and swing him around like a doll. Mario noticed the commotion and narrowed his eyes, pushing himself up. He made his way to the two of them and silently pushed his way through between this behemoth woman and his baby brother. She glared at him and then snorted.
"Oh, we got a midget round these parts, too, huh?" she barked, getting nose-to-nose with Mario now. Mario stared her on. The two of them could have stood there forever had a young woman not come out of the apartment.
"Jesus H Linda, leave them alone."
Linda practically peeled herself off Mario, glancing at the other woman. She sighed bitterly, folding her arms. Mario and Luigi glanced at the woman who shook her head sadly.
"And you wonder why the other plumbers blacklisted you."
Before Linda could retort, she put her hand in front of her face, not looking at her once. That hand then extended to Mario.
"Sorry about her. That's Linda. My name is Jess."
"Hello," Luigi greeted, as Mario shook her hand. "I'm Luigi and this is my brother Mario.
"I can see who won the naming match."
Jess chuckled to herself before shaking her head again.
"Thanks for coming on such short notice. Genuinely."
"It's what we do," Luigi nodded. "That's our job."
"Mind if I walk you to the bathroom?" Jess offered. "Hope your boots are waterproof."
Jess chuckled and opened the door, beckoning for the brothers to follow. Luigi leaned into Mario's ear, muttering, "What plumber doesn't have waterproof boots?", which only made Mario chuckle more.
—
The bathroom was a disaster. Thank God it was the first floor, otherwise, any apartments underneath may be completely destroyed. The bathtub was somehow clogged and spewing water at the same time. The toilet seat was down but couldn't hide the fact it too was overflowing. Luigi tried to hide his shock from the girls (especially because Linda wouldn't stop staring at him with that same, evil glare). Jess glanced up, her brown eyes piercing the brothers.
"You think you can fix this?"
Mario glanced at Jess and nodded.
"There hasn't been a single project the Mario Brothers couldn't fix," Luigi reiterated.
Jess smiled at the response, but Mario knew deep down this wasn't like any ordinary plumbing issue. Minus the fact everything was overflowing, it also just, well, it felt weird. Mario wasn't superstitious or anything, but it was hard to deny there was some kind of weight weighing on his shoulder. Was it the angry glare from Linda? Surely not, he's had mean customers in the past. Maybe it's the literal weight of water accumulating on his shoulders. Maybe it's because he can feel his brother's tension radiating off of him like a hot lamp. Who knows, maybe Mario finally caught that flu that's been going around Luigi's night classes.
"Then I will leave you two to it. The basement is unlocked if you need to get down there."
"Thank you."
Jess began to leave and escorted Linda with her. When the two were out of sight, Luigi put his head in his hands.
"Mario, this is a nightmare," Luigi whined. "How are we supposed to deal with this monstrosity?"
"I wouldn't sweat it," Mario tried to soothe. "Remember, we have defeated every plumbing block in our way!"
"But I really, really don't want to do this," Luigi cried. Mario couldn't help but crack a little.
"Hey, hey I know, and I'm sorry."
"No, no, it's okay. I'm just impatient."
Luigi looked up and inhaled sharply.
"Welp, when the plumbing gets tough…"
"The tough get plumbing!"
The two of them had a simple laugh before unraveling their toolboxes. Half of Mario's tools fell into the water, while Luigi picked out a very specific wrench and a very specific screwdriver.
"You know Mario, you would be able to find your plumber's helper if you would just organize your toolbox."
Mario shook his head.
"No, that was on me. I have butter fingers."
"No, I think you have butter everything."
"What's that even supposed to mean?" Mario laughed, retrieving his wrench from the pool. Luigi stiffened up.
"I.. Uh, I… I don't know."
Fiddling with his screwdriver, he eventually lost the grip and it plopped into the stream. Luigi let out a shocked gasp, but Mario snickered.
"Butter fingers," he mumbled. Luigi glared at him, but Mario couldn't stop laughing to himself.
"Relax, relax. Let's unclog this drain, yeah?"
"Yeah…" Luigi mumbled bitterly.
"I'll tackle the sink, hows about you try to unclog that bathtub?"
Luigi shuddered.
"Course you leave me with the ugly job."
"I feel like no matter what I told you to do, it would be an 'ugly job'." Mario rolled his eyes and Luigi stiffened up again.
"I guess, yeah."
"Then tackle that drain, will ya?"
Mario tossed Luigi a plunger, which bounced off his chest. He swung his arms and barely caught it, hugging the tool close to him. Mario narrowed his eyes on the sink, debating which tool he should get for the occasion. Luigi's eyes trailed to the drain, barely visible with the murky water. The bubbling water freaked him out, but he couldn't quite tell why. The bubbles were rapid, much like an angry current. But it was just a bathtub. The rapid tides were probably due to the head of the shower spewing the same, disgusting, murky water that waits below him. If the drain was large enough, Luigi would just reach his hand in the drain and pull it out. Well, would he? What if there was some angry beast waiting for him? He stuck his hand in and some angry creature would bite it clean off. More realistically, what if he stepped in this bathtub and the current swept him off his feet? He doesn't want to crack his skull open on the job, that would look unprofessional! (And also be very expensive). Why were his eyes so locked on this drain? It's clogged with something, and Luigi has the tool to unclog that something. So why won't he go unclog it? Is he scared? Scared of water? What if when he-
"Luigi," Mario hummed. Luigi snapped out of his daydream and spun around.
"Yeah?"
"What are you waiting for?"
Luigi glanced around the room. Snapped out his daydream, the drain didn't seem quite as scary anymore.
"I... Well, to be honest, I don't know."
"I know you want to kill time for that hourly pay but jeez. Be more subtle."
Mario once again chuckled at his own joke, and Luigi had to force a giggle out. His eyes wandered to the drain again, and he quietly sighed. A panic attack over a drain. His dad would be so disappointed in him.
"I honestly think the plumbings backed up with all that Persian cat hair," Mario hissed. "I mean, aren't cats banned in this apartment anyways?"
"I think, I don't know."
Luigi rammed his plunger into the drain, trying to get a good grip on it. After the suction cup grasped to the tub, he pulled up, and the rhythm repeated for roughly half a minute. Mario was busy manuerving his fingers around the drain of the sink, making sure no external blockage was there. It was at this moment Luigi wished he listened to Mario's suggestion- goggles. The water spewed in his face, making him blind 80% of the time. Luigi didn't even want to consider where or what this water might be. He likes to imagine maybe the water comes from a far away land, a land where animals and humans live in harmony. A place where the water is not only drinkable, but can cure disease. A place where big scary looking monsters are actually good people who everyone knows is good, but they just look scary.
"I can't wait to graduate school," Luigi sighed. Mario poked up for a second.
"I'm just glad one of us can go to school."
Mario narrowed his eyes.
"But you better not leave me stranded in Brooklyn."
Luigi chuckled.
"Why would I ever leave you behind?"
The brothers shared a quick smile before Luigi ripped his plunger off the drain, stuttering backwards and hitting his head on the side of the wall before toppling down. Mario spun around quickly and asked a quick, "Are you okay?" as Luigi rubbed his injury site.
"I think I got the drain," Luigi sighed, making sure to shield his mouth from any oncoming water. Mario peeked over and saw the whirlpool draining and smirked.
"Yeah, you did. Good job."
"Thank you," Luigi smiled. He used whatever dry piece of clothing he had to wipe the accumulated water out of his eyes. His vision was blurry, but he could kind of see the water disappearing down below. Mario admired his brother's work before returning to his own, hammering away at the porcelain sink. Luigi attempted to pull himself up, but he couldn't quite get a grip. Barely being able to see, Luigi extended his arms outwards, trying to hug the side of the bath so he could crawl out. He plopped his arms over the bath and soon realized, he was still moving. Moving? In a bathtub? There was some kind of weight around his ankle, and it was only getting tighter. He kicked his left leg forward and tried to swat whatever was there. The noise attracted Mario's attention.
"Hey bro, I think its time to get out of the tub."
"I'm trying."
"You're trying? It looks like you're trying to swim."
"I literally can't get up."
Mario cocked his brow.
"What are you talking about?"
Luigi felt the anxiety start to climb his stomach.
"I can't get up and I can't see!"
"Hey, hey, hold on," Mario tossed his tools aside. "Let me help you."
Mario swung around and grabbed Luigi's wrists, trying to pull him up. Mario had a good grip but felt like he was getting nowhere. He felt his brother clammer onto him, wrapping his arms around his neck. Mario tossed Luigi more over his back, and reached his arm into the drain where his foot was.
"How'd you get your foot stuck in the drain?" Mario shouted over the gushing water.
"I don't know!" Luigi shrieked. "Please just get it out!"
Mario yanked Luigi as hard as he could until something came out with him- some kind of pitch black hand. His eyes widened, especially when the hand ripped away, retreating back to where it came. Luigi started going with it, and in the blink of an eye his ankle was underneath the drain. Luigi shrieked louder, and Mario grabbed onto his brother, locking him in a hug. Mario fought as hard as he could, but whatever was in that drain was stronger. With one hand around Luigi, and one hand around the shower frame, Mario held on for as long as he could. His fingers barely held on. The current, the tides, whatever you want to call it, they were stronger, and like that, he too was trapped underneath the drain. It felt like trying to fit into a soaked turtleneck shirt that was too small for you three years ago. He couldn't remember too well, if he could breathe or not. It was too dark. If Luigi was making noise, Mario couldn't hear. The walls felt like they were expanding to fit him. Eventually there was a massive sharp pain in his back and the walls that choked him turned into slightly tight walls. But whatever happened after that was a blur, a blur followed by the darkness and deafening silence.