Chapter 8- Strange Ladies

As he enters the hallway he feels cold, as if the temperature in the house dropped fifteen degrees. "Brrr," he rubs his arms for warmth and inspects his surroundings. At the end of the hall, he sees the silhouette of a woman; her back to him, arms crossed. "Amelia?"

"What are you going to do? Call the police," she asks sharply.

"What? Okay, who am I this time," Luigi asks confused.

"I only did it because I love you Edward," she hisses, a hint of sadness in her voice.

"Ah okay, wait did what?"

"They were fawning over you, having scandalous and impure thoughts. You only fueled their bullish thoughts by interacting with them," she accuses. "You should have ignored them like you do with the butlers! Those cherries were going to steal you away from me and I had to stop them!"

"Stop them," Luigi pauses then puts it together. "They were talking about you; you killed the maids."

"I did not intend to kill them, but they started fighting and arguing with me and I lost my temper," she explains as she turns around. Tears stream down her face and she wipes one away, careful not to use her sleeve as she is wearing her wedding dress. The dress is all white and made with lace; the sleeves are long as well as the skirt that lightly brushes against the floor.

"That's no excuse to do that," the green clad Mario Brother notes.

"Do not yell at me Edward! I know I have messed up, but now that you know we can move on right? Let's not let something like this ruin our wedding night," she pleads. "They were not important anyway, just maids, indentured servants, practically nonexistent."

"Wow, that's sick, twisted, and creepy."

"No! No! Edward please! Please don't leave me," she begs, crying as she clutches a tissue in her hand and waves it frantically.

Luigi raises an eyebrow skeptically.

"You cannot leave me after all we have been through! After all I have sacrificed for you," her pleading starts to gain a harsh, accusatory tone. "How dare you just dismiss me like some maid!"

The plumber steps back, starting to feel real uneasy and uncomfortable.

"This relationship might not be of great consequence to you, but it is crucial to me and I will not let anyone else have you!" She reveals a knife in her hand and charges toward the green clad plumber. She slashes wildly at him; he is able to block most of the slashes, except one on his upper arm. As the cut begins to ooze blood, he steps back and clutches his arm to minimize the bleeding. Amelia stops her slashing rampage and freezes in place, with knife in hand. She looks at the knife, turning it sideways and tilting it so the light highlights different sections and the blood drips in different directions. Her nostrils flare, as she smells the air; the scent of iron is strong due to the presence of the blood. Cautiously she brings the knife closer to her mouth then gingerly licks the blade, careful not to catch the edge. The phantom moans in pleasure, as she tastes the blood causing Luigi to turn pale. She turns her attention back to the green clad Mario Brother, staring longingly at his arm then suddenly her eyes dart up to meet his. "Your life tastes so sweet, it's been a long time since I have tasted something like that," her voice is darker and full of hunger. "I have not seen a man since Edward either. Edward," she repeats and moves her arm revealing a large dark crimson spot on her white gown underneath her arm stretching to her stomach. "He informed me that I was a danger to society and did not deserve to live any longer. A monster is what he referred to me as," she continues. "He stabbed me with this very knife and watched as I bled to death on the hallway floor. All I longed for was to be married and maintain a family with him as the head, but no; instead he betrays me," she hisses sourly. "I refuse to let any man hurt me again," she vows and stares down Luigi. "Including you phantom hunter."

"Now wait, I haven't done anything to you," Luigi tries to reason. "What makes you think I'm here to harm you?"

"Everyone is out to harm me and I won't let you get away with it!" She lunges at him once more with the knife and cuts him on the shoulder before he is able to get away. "I will finally feast on the life that was so brutally taken away from me!" She charges again and manages to catch the plumber, wrapping her arms around him, pinning his arms down to his side. With him defenseless, she bites down onto his bleeding shoulder and sucks up the blood streaming from it.

Luigi hisses in pain as Amelia bites down and struggles against her with little avail. As he realizes what she is doing he starts to slam himself into the walls to shake her off. The force of slamming into the wall does not shake her, but jostles the knife from her hand. It clatters onto the wood floor causing both Amelia and Luigi's heads to snap to attention. While she is distracted, Luigi shakes harder, escaping Amelia's grasp, and then dives for the knife.

"No," she screams as she follows.

He grabs the knife handle and flips over to see her charging at him and ready to pounce. She leaps and instinctively he thrusts out his arm. The blade plunges into the dark red spot on her dress, reopening the wound. She gasps as the blade pierces through then stumbles back, looking at the knife sticking out of her.

"Why Edward? Why?" She falls to the floor, sprawled out like a rag doll thrown to the ground. Her heart appears faintly in her chest. At the sight of this, Luigi quickly gets to his feet and starts up the Poltergust. Amelia is caught and contained without further struggle. After she is contained, Luigi sits back down on the floor and leans his back against the wall.

"Phew, what a screwed up lady," he mumbles to himself. "I've never heard or seen a ghost act like that before." He pulls out the Dual Scream and contacts Gadd.

"Yes lad, what is going on? Whoa sonny," Gadd gasps; "what happened to you?"

"Amelia," the plumber simply replies.

"Amelia?"

"Yeah she's a ghost I kept running into in here," Luigi explains.

"I hope you caught her," E. Gadd notes.

Luigi chuckles then let's out a deep breath, "Yeah I did, and it was interesting."

"How so?"

"Every time I ran into her it seemed like she was in her own world. She would call me by different names; guys she knew in life or just ignored me. This encounter was especially strange as she tried to kill me; well she tried to kill Edward, which I gather was he fiancée, but anyway, she had a knife and she cut me. After I started bleeding, she snapped out of her world and actually acknowledged who I was, not one of the other guys. Then she attacked me again and tried to suck out my blood until I stabbed her with the knife she had. I think she was killed with that knife as she slipped back into her world when I stabbed her," Luigi concludes.

"Hmm, I have never seen if myself, but there are accounts of ghosts like this. These ghosts are what I call Backharkers because they are stuck replaying their life in pieces, usually the end of their life is what they re-enact generally because it usually is very traumatic. It sounds like Amelia was stuck replaying a rather large chunk of her life however," Gadd observes. "A traumatic life perchance?"

"Well, she was a jealous woman and she killed three people," Luigi informs.

"Tragic indeed," Gadd asserts. "Well lad, how about coming back to the lab so I can look at that shoulder and you can get some rest?"

"Yeah that sounds…" the plumber trails off as he looks down the hall and notices a soft, flickering glow of light coming from a room at the end of the hall.

"Luigi? Luigi? Lad what is it," Gadd asks concerned.

"Going to check something out, hold on a minute," the plumber shuts the communicator despite the professor's strong objections. As he approaches the door, he notices that it is slightly ajar and pushes it open. The door opens with a slight squeak and Luigi steps inside. The room is vast and open; large windows on the opposite wall adjoining the hallway are covered with thick light blocking curtains. A few pieces of furniture line the wall next to the door, each one covered with a white sheet, dusted with age. On the other two sides of the room, stacks of mirrors lay against the walls. On the far side of the room, a woman stands holding a candle. Luigi can only make out her silhouette from behind, but when he looks past her into the mirrors he can see much more. He cannot see her face, but the candle and mirrors illuminate her front. The sight causes the plumber to gasp and gulp. The woman is wearing the same wedding dress Amelia had on, but there are large splotches of crimson spotting the dress; blood. It is one the skirt, bodice, and even on the gloves clutching the candlestick. "Amelia? It's not possible," he stammers.

The woman shakes her head back and forth, signifying that she is not Amelia.

"Who are you then," Luigi asks confused. The woman turns around and faces him; the candlelight illuminates her face. The plumber staggers back as he recognizes her immediately; "Daisy?"

She smiles, her eyes bright and sincere then they turn yellow and her smile turns into an evil smirk. "Yes Darling, come, come embrace your bride," she replies with malice as she opens and outstretches her arms.

Black tendrils wrap around the plumber and jerk him backwards sending him crashing into the mirrors behind him. The shriek of the breaking mirrors is ear piercing. The green clad man is knocked out instantly; his head bows down as his body settles and glass fragments reign down upon his hat. The tendrils retreat and Daisy approaches the fallen plumber, glaring.

She crouches down and cocks her head to see Luigi's face. "Seven years bad luck," she mocks as she brushes some of the debris off his hat. "I told you that you would suffer. Temptation suggests that I extinguish you now whilst you are vulnerable; however, I will leave that honor to my cohort. He so disparately wants to repay you for denying his revenge the last time." She stands and exits quickly, abandoning the plumber in the room by the balcony. The Dual Scream vibrates in his pocket and rings, but he cannot answer.