A/N: Welcome to my promised Super Mario horror fanfic for the month of October. This is a pretty sharp departure from the tone of my other Mario stories, but I hope you still like it :) Just a note, I'm currently planning on posting one new, short-ish chapter a day throughout the month (probably in the evening, Eastern Time), but there may be a day here and there where I don't post anything - homework's a pain this semester and it's not showing any signs of letting up its chokehold on me anytime soon.

And with that out of the way, please read, review and enjoy!

I do not own Super Mario.

MARIO'S DINOSAUR LAND VACATION LOG!

Wednesday, May 9, 1990

Hey there, it's-a me, Mario Mario, handyman plumber and three-time savior of the Mushroom Kingdom from the clutches of that evil Koopa Bowser. This morning my brother Luigi and I were getting ready to go to work when there was a knock at the front door. I opened it to see Princess Peach's steward, Toadsworth, on the porch.

"Good morning, Mister Mario," he greeted. "I have come because the Princess requests your presence at her castle this morning. She has a matter she would like to discuss with you."

"Mario? Who's at the door?" Luigi called.

"It's Toadsworth," I replied. "He says the Princess has something to talk to us about."

"Really? I hope she isn't unhappy with the job we did last month when we fixed the castle's plumbing system."

"Oh no, nothing of the sort," Toadsworth assured us. "Ah, well, I'm not supposed to say anything else." He gestured to the road, where one of the Princess' carriages was waiting. "But if you would be so kind as to accompany me back to the castle, the Princess will be able to inform you of the matter that much sooner."

Luigi walked down the hall and stood next to me. "What do you say, Mario? We've got plenty of time before our first job of the day."

I shrugged. "Sure. Why not?" I nodded towards Toadsworth. "Alright, Toadsworth, lead the way."

About half an hour later, we were sitting on a fluffy, pink couch in the Princess' drawing room. The room's mushroom-shaped windows admitted early morning sunlight, which reflected off the golden table in front of us. We were only sitting there for a few minutes when the Princess entered and sat in a chair opposite us. "Morning, you two," she said. "It's nice to see you again."

"You too," Luigi said. "How's the new plumbing holding up?"

"Great," she replied. "I knew it would. You two always do a great job, whether it's fixing a few busted pipes or saving the kingdom from Bowser."

"Speaking of, have there been any signs of him since we defeated him two years ago?" I asked.

The Princess shook her head. "No. It seems like he's just…vanished. There haven't even been any border raids from his kingdom in months. Maybe he's finally given up trying to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom."

Maybe, but something about that still seemed…off to me. Then again, maybe I was just being paranoid.

"Anyway, as for why I called you here," Princess Peach said. She opened a drawer in the table next to her chair and pulled out a brochure. "This came in the mail yesterday." She extended it to us.

I took it and looked it over. The title read "VACATION IN DINOSAUR LAND!" Inside were pictures of various serene-looking environments – Donut Plains, the Forest of Illusion, Chocolate Island (which was supposedly entirely edible). There were swimming excursions in Soda Lake, spelunking trips inside a cave system called Vanilla Dome, and trips to ancient ruins around the large islands that comprised Dinosaur Land. The waters were a majestic turquoise, the sky bright blue, and the trees lush and green.

"This looks neat," I remarked. "I can't believe I've never heard of this Dinosaur Land before. I don't even remember seeing it on any maps." The map in the brochure showed that it was about 200 miles east of Sarasaland.

"I know, right?" the Princess agreed. "I didn't even know there was anything out there in the ocean."

"Me neither," Luigi said. "So what did you call us here for, Princess?"

"Well, the brochure wasn't all that came in the mail. I also got three tickets for a week-long stay at this resort in Dinosaur Land. Yoshi's Tropical Paradise, I think it's called. But they're only good through the end of the month. And, well, I was wondering if the two of you wanted to come with me. It's the least I can do after you've saved my life three times in the past five years," the Princess said with a laugh.

I sighed. "Princess, I'd love to, but we've, we've got our jobs to think about. This next week is really busy, and the ones after that probably will be too. We can't just leave." Especially not after all the other plumbing businesses in the kingdom folded because they couldn't compete with me and Luigi.

"No, Mario, you should go with the Princess." Luigi turned to me. "I can take care of the business here while you're away. It's only a week. I've held down the fort for a lot longer while you've been off stopping Bowser."

"Luigi, are you sure?" I asked.

"Totally. Besides, I could use some time away from you every now and then." He chuckled and elbowed me.

"Um, okay, then," I said. "I guess I'm in, Princess." A vacation would be nice. And some time with the Princess. Maybe I'd finally be able to tell her how I felt. But not until the end of the vacation. If I took that chance at the beginning and she didn't feel the same way, that was gonna be a long, awkward week.

"Great!" the Princess said. "I'm sorry you won't be coming too, Luigi. Maybe I'll ask Toadsworth if he wants to come along, then. He hasn't left the Mushroom Kingdom in so long."

After that we stayed and chatted a little while longer. We planned that we would leave for Dinosaur Land on Monday morning, so we'd probably get there sometime that evening. Before long, we said goodbye to the Princess and went on about our plumbing business for the day. Not too much to report, it was pretty standard fare – busted faucet here, uncooperative toilet there stuff like that. On the way home I stopped at the general store and bought this journal so I can keep a log of me and the Princess' vacation next week.

Me and the Princess' vacation. It feels so nice to write that.

But then after that, the day took a turn for the…stranger.

This evening, after Luigi and I had some spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, I pulled out our atlas of the Mushroom Planet to see if I could find Dinosaur Land. I flipped to the section of oceanic maps and located the area where Dinosaur Land was….

…and it wasn't there.

I checked my calculations again, but this was the right map. And where the brochure had shown Dinosaur Land, the atlas showed an endless blue expanse. And the atlas wasn't outdated either, it just came out last year.

A chill crept up my spine.

Then I decided to go online to see if I could learn anything else about Dinosaur Land. Maybe there was a reason it wasn't in the atlas, right? I typed in "Dinosaur Land Vacation" and searched.

The first three pages of results were almost all dedicated to an amusement park called Dinosaur Funland that was apparently located in the western Mushroom Kingdom. But then, nestled in between pictures of kids riding carousels with seats shaped like dinosaur eggs, and prehistoric-themed roller coasters, another result caught my eye.

"DINOSAUR LAND," it read, "THE CURSED WILDERNESS YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF!"

I clicked on it.

And the computer shut off.

"What the heck?" I shouted. I tried restarting it, but nothing worked. It was dead.

Dead, I thought.

Luigi must have heard me shout, because next thing I knew he was running into the room. "Mario, is everything okay?" he asked.

I gestured to the computer. "It won't work. I was trying to find out more information about Dinosaur Land, and it…it crashed on me."

Luigi walked over. "Huh." After trying to restart the computer a few times like I had, he sighed and crossed his arms. "Well, I guess we're gonna have to buy a new one, then. What were you looking up Dinosaur Land for anyway? We read about it earlier in the brochure at the Princess' castle."

"Because something just seems off about it," I said. "I don't remember ever seeing it on a map before, and then…look at this." I opened the atlas and flipped through it. "I looked for it in the atlas, and it's not there. It's just water." I found the right page and held the atlas up for Luigi to see. "See? There's nothing there."

Luigi pointed at the page. "What do you mean? It's right there."

I turned the atlas back around. "No it's-"

And there it was. Smack dab in the center of the map, the ring-shaped collection of islands forming Dinosaur Land.

I knew, I just knew it hadn't been there before, but how could I argue that without sounding completely crazy? I just shook my head. "Huh, I must've missed it." Even though it took up, like, 10% of that particular map. "I don't know, it's been a long day," I said. "I think I'm gonna turn in for the night."

"Okay," Luigi said, a note of uncertainty in his voice. "Night, bro."

"Good night," I replied as I headed upstairs.

I still can't make heads or tails of that map. I know Dinosaur Land hadn't been on there the first time I looked at it. But when Luigi showed it to me, it was. And the computer dying, there was just something off about that. About all of it.

Who knows, maybe things'll make more sense in the morning.