Hey everyone, Paradigm of Writing here with a new chapter of Pluto Vacation, #9: Roulette Wheel. So it seems... Freak has been doing his job way too well don't you suppose. He's killed off way too many people, left only a few alive... I think we're down to what... like four at least confirmed? *lists off fingers... Samus, Peach and Luigi, Sheik... anyone else* Hope you guys have been on the edge of your seat, we are almost done with this story! *victory dances* Deadline for the contest is like on the 25th, and I think I'll be able to make my deadline, but if not, I'll have to ask for an extension (which I really don't want to do of course, but if need be, I will). Thanks for all the support I've been getting so far, you guys are amazing, and I love you all so much. Enjoy!

2:02 AM, Husen Family Guest Lodge, Denver, Colorado, December 20th, 2015

Peach Tydal wiped the cold sweat from her brow, persistent in her mind to keep up so hypothermia didn't creep up on her in the middle of running away from some creepy psychotic killer. Her heart sank into dismay as she heard the footsteps above her increase into a panicked run back down to the ground floor, Luigi's also sweating form appearing at the head of the stairs. The two of them both had flashlights, the latter doused in emerald green having his face illuminated eerily by the pallid halo.

"She... she wasn't up there?" Peach licked her lips, almost not wanting to say the words.

He shook her head, snow falling from his shoulders in light piles. "No. I didn't see her."

"Where else could Samus have gone?" she barked, hands crossing over and hugging her sides tight. Peach was referring to their blonde friend who mysteriously went for a bath and never came back. No one lay in the bathtub, which still was filled to the brim with warm water, something that worried Luigi. He bit his tongue, knowing if he told Peach, there'd be a fit of hysteria and tears, something neither of them needed.

"I- I don't know. Her clothes were gone, just a brown old sock in their place," Luigi made a face. "Suitcase is nightly packed by the bathtub, but empty, as like I said she has no clothes. Samus wouldn't go out in the storm, especially in a towel. She'd be dead in two minutes out there, and we both know it. She's down here in the house somewhere. Has to be."

"I hope you're right." Peach said hollowly, fighting back tears.

The two made their way for the downstairs basement level, the only place they hadn't checked. He absentmindedly brushed over the back of his head and grimaced in pain, remembering the blunt pipe that had been slammed into his skull. She avoided eye contact with the floor, trying to not notice any idiosyncrasy cracks that'd steal her attention. Neither one of them ran into Red or Robin on the way to the lodge, which frightened them though they refused to speak it. Both were dead, no denying that.

The blonde of the two passed by a candle, which promptly ignited on its own without her doing anything to trigger it. She screeched, leaping into a column, color draining from her face fast. "Did that just happen?" Peach cried, pointing at the flame.

Luigi eyed the candle before blowing it out. "Freak incident..." he mumbled, trying to ease her mind off of the supernatural. "Air particles colliding hard enough to exert enough chemical energy to spark the candle. Simple chemistry."

"When did everything start getting so freaky around here?"

"A question I sort of do not want answered." he said honestly.

Peach lead the way first, noticing the overturned pictures, the piles of wax against the base of the stairs, and all these popped balloons. Streams of nylon rubber, crimson patches, amaranthine swabs, all burst and laid atop the stakes of the staircase. A musty smell, one of sweat and fear invaded her nostrils. The sound of cracking glass erupted underneath her feet, and she shrieked, looking down. A picture of Kuro Husen stared brokenly back at her. The vibrant boy smiling, dark hair wild, amber eyes bright and alive. "Not anymore... never will those eyes shine." Peach thought remorsefully.

Luigi stopped behind her. "What is it?"

She showed him the picture, causing the emerald clad boy to shake his head, as if he saw a ghost. His throat closed up, and his jaw locked. "Don't remind me about him, not now." Luigi snapped the picture from her, throwing it somewhere where he wouldn't see it land, where the glass shattering wouldn't bother him. Peach watched him stomp by, mind puzzled.

"I know you said you don't want to talk about it-"

"Peach, we are not having this discussion." His voice was steady and firm. Malicious.

"Luigi! I know it was hard for you, being put on the spot like that... I have to say, thank you though. For- for saving my life." she added the second part quietly to herself, but he still heard her.

His teeth were gritted, hair wild, cap abandoned back in the shed. He held out a gloved hand, pointer finger up in the air dramatically. "That had nothing to do with me wanting to save your life! That, was chance. I had a one in four chance of killing anyone, and it could've been you. Don't go and act like your all that, you're not."

She paused, biting down on her cheek so she couldn't scream. Where had this impulsiveness come from? "Are you mad at me?"

Diamond eyes softened, hands lax. "No. Just worried. Scared. Terrified. Saw what happened to Kuro out in the shed. How Lucas didn't make it," the jaw locked again and Luigi looked up at the ceiling. He couldn't handle this emotional distress. "I don't want my friends dying on me again. I can't have that happen, as long as I'm around to protect those who still can give a fighting chance. I'm damned to this, you know."

Peach nodded. She truly didn't understand, but to appease him, she had to make it work. "Yeah," she rubbed her shoulder. "I get it. Let's look for the greatest friend of all, right?"

The two stepped into the theater room, where Freak had locked Samus in not more than a few hours ago, visions of death befalling her friends. What they were about to walk into... they had no idea. Luigi used his flashlight to scan the roof, Peach taking the floor. He noticed the projector sitting in a light alcove, and although it was off, he noticed the low hum coming from the metallic piece. It had to have been used recently.

She frowned farther from him, seeing a shard of porcelain near the wall. "Hey, what do you think happened here? Looks like..." Peach picked up the fragment of china, showing it to Luigi. He scratched his head, lost for an answer. "It looks like it belonged to something. A vase perhaps? Maybe it had been thrown?"

"With all the shit that's happened tonight... it is hard to believe anything normal. So let's assume that. Hope for the worst." Luigi said dryly, voice cracking.

Peach glared lowly. "I'll do everything but the end. Nothing can get done if we're being so pessimistic about it the entire time." she chided.

The two carried on, stepping into the connector where Samus had run from Freak in their first encounter, she had gone straight. As the two stepped into the hall, the door leading to the hall slammed shut. Peach let out a cry in her throat, then closed her eyes, counting to ten. Breathe in. Breathe out. You're okay. Nothing bad is happening to you. Forget it all. She tried for the door in front of her, opting to move ahead then left further into the house. She tried for that lock, opening it barely to peer in when it closed violently as she pushed it far to open.

"This is so messed up..." he breathed, presence immediately hanging over his shoulder.

She nodded, knowing that when, if behind you lied closed, ahead of you marked no entry, then you had to go left or right. Right would send her out into a cobblestone wall, and the Colorado wilderness. Not ideal. Left it was then! Peach absentmindedly bit her lip, not caring if she drew blood, a hand slowly gravitating towards Luigi's. She gripped it, not caring if he protested. Now was not the time to question her every move. Now was the time to accept and move on.

Stepping into the next corridor, Peach Tydal nearly wanted to crawl into a hole and die. A shadowy figure, although clearly outlined by her navy hair tumbling down into a dress, walked by stealthily into the wall, vanishing from sight. She screamed, leaping into his arms.

"You didn't see that?" Peach yelped.

He dropped her. "See what?"

"That, Luigi. That!" she made incoherent babble, pointing furiously at the wall again.

"What that was that?" Luigi demanded, hands on his hips.

"The- the ghost." the blonde gasped out the words, heaving to place her hands on her knees for a breather.

He frowned. "A what?"

"Had you been paying attention, you would've seen it! There was a ghost walking by. Blue hair! Long dress! Don't you believe me?" Peach pouted, marching forward.

The boy in green followed, not having anything better to do. He hated to be the bad guy, but... "Peach, I don't even trust what I've been seeing. Houses falling on my best friends, other people I care about dropping through the floor, blood in the snowstorm... my mind is fried. You are freaking out from what happened back in the shed with Lucas and Kuro-"

"I said I saw a ghost! Doesn't my word have any merit?" she screeched.

He made a grim face. "Normally anywhere, yes. In these circumstances, no."

Peach's lower lip quivered. "Are- are we going crazy down here?"

"I can't say. Perhaps if we can find anyone else they can help soothe your anxiety." Luigi offered weakly.

"I want to go find everybody else. Samus can handle herself on her own, and-"

He cut her off with a swift glare. "Are you crazy? Peach... there's a maniac out here who's been hunting us down and killing us all. If Samus is somewhere down here alone with this maniac, and we leave...? We're killing her ourselves," Luigi made his way to the basement door, opening it. He gave an inviting glance back in the other direction. "Come on. We've got a friend to save."

Peach looked slowly back at the wall, moving her hands to let it know she was watching it. No funny business while I'm gone, asshole wall and ghosts. She jogged down the stairs after him, skipping two steps at a time. Oddly enough, had she looked harder, she would have noticed that the fifth step from the floor, the one with the jagged mess up, had been cleaned. The grime coating the concrete slab had been wiped away, solid and squeaky clean.

"Just imagine we're going on an adventure hunt..." she whispered to herself over and over again, following Luigi's lead.

The two stepped into the main section of the basement, a ghostly halcyon light swinging above, one that hadn't been on beforehand. As she strode up to Luigi's side, a low growl came from one of the corners, and a golf ball of all items whizzed by her head, cracking against the wall. The words she was about to speak died in her throat, and he noticed, catching the next flying golf ball in his hands. "Did it hurt you?" he asked.

"N- no. Just startled me, that's all."

"Someone's deciding to up their game of golf." Luigi joked.

"Yeah," Peach agreed. "Maybe take my head along with your fucking hole in one, too."

"Let's split up... and maybe we'll find something."

She nodded, taking the right pathway into the basement while Luigi went left. Peach shone her light beam anywhere the darting brightness would go to, and she came to a locked door. The blonde frowned, noticing the shattered wine rack next to her. All of the bottles were empty, corks in a pile on the ground. Looking back at the door, she tried pushing it open, heaving it somehow, except nothing worked. Too heavy for her. "No handle." Peach observed quietly, finding that rather peculiar. She honestly wanted to see what else lied inside the basement on the other side of the doors.

Luigi had taken the time to observe where the golf balls had been flying at his crush from the other side of the room. A small container filled with golf balls attached to a pulley system, stuck in a box. A motor ran the pulley, a satchel grabbing the golf ball, and momentum chucking it across the room. Someone had recently turned it on, and he gleefully smashed it with his fist.

Meanwhile, Peach had moved back over to his side, noticing something more... interesting, to say the least. "Hey... Luigi, come here and look at this."

"Huh?"

"How did we not notice it before when we walked in?" she said, regarding her object.

He took a step back. "Wow. Are you sure-"

Peach nodded, crouching down to the floor to get a better look at the dollhouse she had spotted from the wine cellar side of the basement. Full sized replica, at least four feet tall, three stories. Ornate square windows with a glossy sunburst and fluorescent pink coating of paint, a chimney, and even a granite sidewalk and asphalt driveway. She leaned down, looking in the windows. "Hey, you can see inside."

"Anything you can make out?" Luigi asked, leaning over her shoulder precariously.

She shook her head in dissent. "No. It's too dark."

He spotted a small keyhole above the third floor, unlocked and everything. "I guess we'll need a key if we want to play around in there, I suppose. Want to try and find the key?"

"Um... sure." Peach hated when she agreed with him.

The stood up, and no later had she had her eyes glance over the hall down past the boiler, did the same ghost she saw back up on the main floor that had walked into the wall. What the fuck...? Luigi missed it, glancing down at his phone for something quick. She gasped again. The ghost seemed to be pointing, vibrant bluenette hair cascading down in bloody locks. Peach stared in terrified stupor at the ghost of Lucina Husen. "Did you see it now? The ghost!" Peach yelled.

Luigi looked up from his phone. "Huh?"

She let out an angry, exasperated sigh, shoving him in the shoulder. "You were looking at your phone, you fucker! What are you doing? Tweeting, #AFuckingGhostIsAfterUs?"

He made a grim smile, showing her the cellular device. "The time and temperature, sweetheart," he growled. "And what ghost? The same one you're stuck up on about from the main floor."

"The ghost just walked down the hall, pointing at something I can't see. It looked like Lucina! It's Lucina, Luigi! She's haunting us."

"Do you believe what you just said? Honestly..." Luigi shook his head.

"Why can't you believe me for once?"

"What did Lucina do, Peach? She followed us down here from the fucking séance? Newsflash, she can't do that! Ghosts don't exist, okay?"

"Then give me something to believe in, then," she growled. "If it's not a ghost, then what the fuck is it?" Peach had about to her wits end of people not believing her for the shit she saw. She wasn't crazy!

The boy in green pinched his nose, blinking. "I don't know. Your mind still has to be playing tricks-"

Luigi never got to finish his statement as a picture, which had to be from down the hall where the ghost had vanished into, flew off the wall to the floor. As soon as the wooden frame clattered with tile, a piercing, feminine scream resembling Lucina Husen rippled through the basement. One of anger, one of anguish, one out of pain. Whomever truly did yell... they sounded as if they were in trouble.

They looked at each other in speechlessness, Peach breaking the gaze solemnly first, stalking down to the painting. "All this time..." she grumbled.

He followed her, much more hesitant. "How does a picture just fall off the wall like that?"

Peach had rounded the corner, seeing that the picture that had flung off strangely represented the dollhouse back against the wall in the main room of the basement. Looking at where the picture sat, a single key stood in its place, hung on a rusty nail sticking out from a board. "A key..." she whispered.

"What did you find?"

"The key. To the dollhouse."

She turned, and this time the ghost had relocated itself back to the main foyer, head down, hand outstretched and pointing at something beyond their reach. Luigi had turned at the right moment and caught the specter, before it vanished into thin air right in front of their eyes. He let out a soft yell. "There... Peach, did you-"

Peach couldn't help, but gloat. "See! You do fucking see it! I told you!"

Luigi broke into a run, grabbing her hand and dragging her along with it. "This- this is just fucking crazy."

The two skidded to a stop in front of the dollhouse, which had remained untouched. She looked at the key, then back at the keyhole, then at the key again, piercing two and two together. The blonde swallowed her fear, putting the key into the keyhole, hearing a satisfying unlatch when she turned the key to the right. She swung the front side of the dollhouse open, before stepping back to observe the terrified beauty.

"Oh my god..." she felt vomit threaten to appear in her throat.

Luigi crouched down next to her, looking in terror at the scenes splayed before them in the house. Figurines, or dolls mainly, stared back at them, only a few though were truly facing them. The three floors were modeled to show the three floors of the Husen Family Lodge. Lucina's doll, evident by the bluenette hair down in a ponytail, stood in the kitchen, washing dishes.

A doll representing Lucas lay asleep in a bed on the top floor, two dolls, being Samus and Luigi broken into a run on the bottom floor, looking for Midna, who was the fiery headed doll standing alone in a cluster on the top floor, Kuro down drunk and knocked out in the kitchen.

"Whoa... this is-"

Peach lowered the hand from her mouth. "I- what in the fuck? It's like..."

"That's not like anything," Luigi stuttered, although his voice stayed firm. "That's all of us, the entire evening, last year, planned out for us. You guys pulling the prank on Midna... Samus and I searching for her while Kuro and Lucina sat in oblivion."

"It's so accurate..." she tried to stop crying. "Robin and Red situated themselves on the top of the bookshelf... Sheik and Zelda hid under the bed while I took the closet."

"This had to have been set up by someone. Who was there?"

"No, the ghost is telling us a sign. The maniac killed Lucina and Midna!"

"Peach, he told us that back in the shed. They both died by that fucker's hand, don't remind me." Luigi hissed.

"Why would he set this all up then?"

"I don't know. It's a warning, definitely. He wanted to make sure we knew... he wasn't done and over with. He was ready to come after all of us, too." Luigi said slowly, each word, each syllable pronouncing a death sentence.

"How right you are!" a third voice boomed, bringing Luigi and Peach to their feet, backing away from the dollhouse in terror.

Their new voice had come from behind them, but by then it was too late. Freak, who had snuck up behind the duo the entire time to administer and observe their mulling over the dollhouse, wanted their fun little excursion to be brought to an end. He had a rag of chloroform, slamming the rag over Luigi's mouth. The boy let out a cry, struggling to throw off his attacker. Peach screamed, getting pushed to the floor, losing the light. Freak grabbed Luigi by the head, slamming it full force into the dollhouse. He groaned, the blow seeping consciousness away with the snap of a finger.

"Luigi!" Peach yelled in terror, grabbing the light, swinging up to face Freak. She screamed again.

"My little pretty..." the serial killer cooed.

"Get back! Stay the hell away from me!" the blonde shrieked, lunging forward and clawing at his mask. Her nails latched onto Freak's mask and ripped it off, nails clawing and scratching at his eyes, drawing blood.

Freak let out a painful cry, shoving Peach off of him. "You bitch!" he howled.

She tightened her knuckles into fists, ready to go swinging. "Get back!"

"Live and learn." the killer made a tight smile.

That confused Peach. "What?"

By that point, Freak had aimed a blow straight for the underside of her jaw with the right fist, the left fist colliding with her eye. "Live and learn, bitch."

Both fists collided with the blonde and she fell down to the ground, out for the count.

2:45 AM, Husen Family Resort, Location Unknown, Denver, Colorado, December 20th, 2015

Luigi Russo thought he knew pain, but not until Freak had raised his head above a dollhouse and crashed it right into the wooden structure, did he know pain. He had felt himself getting dragged, the consciousness ebbing away and slowly returning in pulsating waves. Peach had been attacked too, right after the serial killer did away with him. "I hope she's not too severely injured."

The sound of a mechanical whirring snapped the boy's eyes awake, his body flinging forward as far as it could go before something he couldn't quite make out forced him back. He blinked, seeing that there was two shackles chained to his body keeping him stationary. One wrapped around his right leg, another at his left arm, keeping him forced from being unable to move truly anywhere. The chains had him stuck up against a rigid piece of board, a musty wooden plank bolted into the floor of some room.

Another board roughly three or so yards from him sat, although his vision was only starting to come back to him. His heart jammed itself into his own throat, seeing that the body now starting to move, chained in the opposite way of him... was Peach. "Hey... you awake?" he hissed at her.

The blonde snapped awake, head whirling around, diamond eyes dancing in a frantic gaze. "L- Luigi? Where are we?"

"I don't know... somewhere else in his lair. God, Peach... what did he do to you?" he said, whispering, taking in his crush for the first time in who knows how long.

Peach had two sickly bruises plastering the underside of her chin, and one encircling the right side of her face from when the two fists hit the jaw and eye. "He- I think he hit me."

A burning rage replaced the worry in Luigi's stomach. "I'm going to murder his fucking face off."

A voice popped out on a loudspeaker above them, startling the two to death. "Why... don't you wish you could do that to me, Mr. Luigi Russo? I bet you'd feel so much better after that, wouldn't you?"

"This is the same guy who killed Kuro and Lucas. Fuck!"

Peach screamed. "You sick son a bitch! Luigi, I don't want to die..."

"No one's dying." Luigi said hurriedly.

Freak made a disproving sound in his throat. "Aww... I believe our green capped hero said that last time we were all caught in a sticky situation, no? My dear Mr. Russo, how I wish that was the case."

"You're a monster!"

"How couth of you." the serial killer hissed.

"Let us go... please." Peach whined.

"For someone who has insulted me to my face, that will never happen, at least until you are all dead." Freak mused.

"You touch Peach, I swear-" Luigi started.

"You'll what? Mr. Russo, need I remind you, where are you currently? Chained up against a board. Last I checked, those chains don't break off from pure strength. My dear boy, you will not be moving a fucking muscle. I can do whatever I want, and there's nothing you can do to stop me. Think again like that, or I'll cut your tongue out for imprudence."

The green donned boy felt his heart hammer in his chest. The seriousness of the situation hit him full force, plaguing sickness crippling in his stomach, washing bitter acid waves over and over again to cause a churning hurt. Blasted anxiety. He licked his lips, starting to sweat. "Um... okay. We'll do whatever it is-"

"Wow, so quick to drop ship. Peach Tydal, how can you love a man like that? Must be hard," Freak taunted. "So, Mr. Russo, since you are so eager to agree, we need to establish a few ground rules."

Peach frowned. "Don't you fucking assume anything!"

Freak ignored her, yelling over the loudspeaker. "Do you understand me Luigi!"

The boy jumped, or somewhat did given his restraints. "Ye- yes."

"Do you see the gun on the table?"

Wait. Gun? Freak wasn't lying. Luigi didn't know how he missed it earlier, but his caring side for Peach overshadowed everything else. In arm's reach, which dawned on the boy why his right arm was free and not his left, was a simple pistol, locked and loaded on a black table, midnight tapestry underneath the weapon.

"I- I can see the gun." Luigi said bravely.

"Pick it up."

Peach blinked. "Wait... what?"

"I'm not following-" the boy said weakly.

"Pick up the fucking gun!" Freak screamed.

Luigi squeezed his eyes shut, right hand outstretching as far as he could reach to weakly wrap his fingers around the butt of the gun. If it fell to the floor, the two were fucked. He griped it firmly, retracting, now having a lethal weapon in his hand to do whatever he wanted. Thinking fast, Luigi aimed the barrel of the pistol at the ceiling and fired two shots. Banging echoes rang throughout the hall, a low, guttural, evil laugh coming from the loudspeaker.

Peach winced. "Worth a shot..." she whispered, not seeing the irony behind her words.

"Don't be so silly, Mr. Russo. Or should I call you Luigi? I seem to jump between the two," Freak drawled. "Close range, those bullets will hurt. Far enough, where you can't touch me? Just wish. Now, you have the gun. Correct?"

"C- co- correct..." Luigi stuttered.

"Okay, simple. Shoot yourself either in the neck, or you shoot Peach. You have a single minute, one minute to decide before I come in and shoot you both. Choice is yours, Mr. Russo. If I shoot, I aim to kill, I'm drawing for blood, drawing for keeps." Freak explained, the overhead canceling out in static, being replaced by the sound of a monotonous voice counting down from sixty.

Luigi looked at the gun, then back at Peach, then back at the gun in shock. He couldn't move, couldn't feel his fingers. Peach couldn't look him in the eye, her words from before flying back into his head, his words echoing after that. "I can't have that happen, as long as I'm around to protect those who still can give a fighting chance. I'm damned to this, you know."

He couldn't shoot her. Not in a million years. He wouldn't be able to live with himself.

"Peach... please look at me." Luigi said. She didn't move.

She shifted her head instead, refusing to open her eyes. "Yes..."

"I love you." he whispered, tears falling from his eyes.

Luigi placed the barrel of the pistol into the crook of his neck, finger tightening around the trigger. He kept his eyes trained on Peach, to stay focused on the beautiful girl in front of him. Halcyon locks of hair blowing in the wind, sandy waves at a beach, Kuro's radiating smile and amber eyes... the memories he loved would disappear.

He had a smile on his face when he pulled the trigger.

Luigi Russo waited for the pain.

There we are guys! Chapter 9, Roulette Wheel. I know in this one there truly wasn't any wheel to go off of, but I saw it in my head, alright? But, damn... eventful chapters, huh? So, clearly everyone knows what parallel this chapter has to the source material, and how much I had to cut, which was an insane amount unless I wanted to choose to be here till the cows sang and called me home, which I believe none of us had time for. So, now counting on our fingers the number of people left alive, we have Samus, Sheik, and Peach for certain, all ladies of the house. *raises roof* I also had a Link and Zelda scene, but I decided to cut it for sanity purposes and I want your mind to make up the bits and details of the puzzle for yourself. Are they alive? Is anyone going to live? Who in the fuck is this Freak person? Many questions! Thanks again, like I said, for the support. You all have been amazing readers and I can't thank you enough. Have an amazing day! Please review! I'll be seeing you all shortly with Chapter #10: Apple of His Eye. Bonus points to hose who know what that statement means. Bye! Love you all!

~ Paradigm