15Firstly… I'm so so so sorry guys. It has taken me an absurdly long time to update, and you all have my apologies. School is finally coming to a close, so I decided to update. I told one of my reviewers to expect an update to another story long before now, and I have yet to fulfill that promise, and I apologize to that person, you know who you are.
Enough chatter, enjoy the much-needed update.
The room was dark, and cold, and the lone occupant of the room shivered as she held herself.
Lucinda trembled, affected by both the chill in the air and the chill within her heart. She was afraid…and she felt shame when she realized how frightened she really was.
This lack of composure made her feel pathetic and weak, and Lucinda hated feeling this way. In the past, before all this had happened, she was confident in her abilities, but the Boo king had shown Lucinda her errors.
"You are weak child," He had chuckled as she had fallen on the ground before him, her magic exhausted, her breath coming out in ragged gasps.
She had looked up at him in horror as he had relayed his plan to her, how he would open the gate she had been guarding for years since her mother died, and how he would use this great dark, this blight of all that was good and holy, on the world.
Lucinda had pleaded with him to stop in his plans, to take heed of the perils that would befall this world if he dared mettle with these forces. The boo was arrogant and brushed her aside with his cold body, the chill of him had made her gasp.
After reminding her that nothing would change his mind, he had teleported her somehow to a dark room, with no windows…no light, and had left her here. Before leaving her, he had regarded the clock at the far wall with a boo-ish cackle, telling her that the show would begin soon and that she should keep an eye on what time she had left.
Lucinda cursed her weakness. She had taken up the mantle of her ancestors, the duty of watching the gate, and had failed them. The girl squeezed her eyes shut as tears threatened to spill down her cheeks.
The ticking of the clock seemed so far away, but every second she waited the ticking clicked louder in her head, making her ears buzz.
She was alone. No one knew what was going to soon occur, until it was too late. She was the only one who could have stopped him, but she could do nothing now. He had defeated her and sealed away her magic, with his own, and had left her to await the doom of the world.
Lucinda bowed her head, red strands of hair falling past her cheeks, a lone tear slipping gently down her nose.
She had never before felt so hopeless.
"Forgive me."
00oo00oo00oo00
Luigi sat at the counter, his head resting in his arms, groaning as Toad once again squeaked about something 'totally awesome' he had discovered.
They had been here too long in his opinion, Toad getting a bit too distracted by the fountain shop. He was currently wearing an excited expression, standing in front of an old jukebox.
"It takes only one coin Luigi, can you believe it?" Toad beamed as he admired the shiny service, "That's what I call the good old days."
Luigi sighed, slipping off the round stool and stepping over to where Toad was. He looked the old jukebox up and down. It was a machine that would automatically play any record with just one coin deposit. It was an aged gold color with a slot for coin entry and a clear box at top showing a stack of records, and the place below where the selected would be cached for play. He did think it was impressive, but not enough to warrant his attention for long when he thought of the dangers of this place.
He placed a white gloved hand on the toad's shoulder, "Come on buddy, we have to go find Ted, remember?"
Toad's face sunk in disappointment for one moment, before his cheeks lit up in shame, "Oh…yeah, of course!" He had forgotten about his little brother for a moment, caught up in the excitement of his discovery, "Let's get going."
He slid his hand down the machine's side one last time before turning to leave. Luigi watched him leave quickly, and the man turned to glance at the juke before moving towards the door.
He stopped when he heard a whirring noise. The man spun around, hand on his cap as he turned, eyes wide in surprise.
Luigi watched the records move, shifting positions, soon a record had slipped down into play mode, and an upbeat melody begin to play.
It was a happy sound, an old dancing jig, but to him it had an eerie under tone that gave him chills. Deciding that Toad must have slipped a coin in earlier and it just now started (not wanting to believe it was anything paranormal), he swiftly made his exit.
00oo00oo00oo00
Two koopas entered the post office, both Kady and Dan looking around carefully as they entered.
The room was a mess, packages and once white letters scattered about. Ripped up bits of paper crunched as they walked forward.
This was a small building, with only two rooms, including this one, so they concluded that it would be easy to glance in and leave quickly to continue searching for Ted.
Kady didn't feel anything ominous here, so she was pretty relaxed until something hit her in the face, "Ack!"
She heard Dan snort with laughter, and turned to glare at him, "Why did you throw that at me?"
The koopa grinned, "It was a present."
Kady rolled her eyes, and moved to pick up the small package he had thrown at her. It was a dusty looking orange paper, wrapped with a single red ribbon, the ribbon looking surprisingly new.
"It was Nina's don't tell." He laughed when she picked at the ribbon.
Kady gently used her claws to pry out the item inside and blinked as she held it up to her face, "Why?"
"Because you're a special girl." Dan said, "And I want to make you feel better. I was kind of an ass earlier."
Kady smiled softly, "Yes, you were." She slipped the necklace around her neck, the rose quartz shaped like a flower shining in the dim light from the window.
"You're welcome." He said cheerfully as he moved ahead to check the other room. She smiled, looking down at his gift, stroking it gently with the claw of her thumb.
"AYEYEYEYE!"
"EEH!"
His sudden scream had her heart quaking, and the koopa raced ahead into the next room, "Dan?!"
She moaned when she saw what awaited her.
Ted was standing in Dan's shadow, in a mess of letters, the koopa giving him the stink eye.
Dan scowled, glaring down at a shame faced little toad child, "That wasn't funny, little dude"
"Ted." Kady sighed, "Why did you run off?"
The child scooted bits of paper around with his shoe, not meeting her hard gaze, "I wanted to explore."
"You shouldn't have run off." Dan chided, "We were all worried about you, your brother is probably tearing his hair out."
Ted looked up, "But he doesn't have hair." Kady laughed out loud, and she and Dan shared an amused glance.
"You know what I mean."
The toad boy shrugged his shoulders, "Okay, I'm sorry." He took Kady's hand.
Kady smiled at Dan, and they turned to leave. It wasn't too hard to forgive a child, especially one as cute as this one.
Outside they immediately met with Luigi and Toad, the latter yelling out Ted's name when he saw him.
"You scoundrel!" Toad yelled, "Where the heck did you go?"
Ted perked up, "The post office, I wanted to see if there were any toys." The toad frowned, "but there wasn't nothing but dirt, and sticky tape." Kady snorted in laughter when she noticed the packing tape sticking haphazardly on the toad's small cap.
Toad wasn't amused, grabbing up the boy in his arms, "Hey, put me down!" Ted whined.
"No." Toad said sharply, "If you're going to act like a baby, then I'll treat you like one."
"I'm telling mama when we get home!" Ted cried, "You're mean!"
"Boo hoo."
At that, there was a sudden cold wave in the air, and everyone gasped, Toad dropping Ted roughly onto the ground, the little toad making a startled noise.
"It's so cold." Kady shivered, "But it's sunny out."
"Not for long." Toad said, dread in his voice.
They looked to where Toad was staring. To everyone's shock dark clouds were building in the sky, moving slowly to block out the sun.
"It's going to storm." Dan said, "We should find the others."
"Where is Nina?" Luigi asked," Wasn't she supposed to be with you?"
Dan shook his head, "Nah, we asked her to go check up on Bombette and Goombella."
Luigi took his cap off to scratch is head, "Well, I guess we better find the girls and try and figure out a way out of here.
00oo00oo00oo00
"Stop kicking me, it hurts!"
"Then get your foot out of my face."
"Bombette tried to wiggle sideways to try and give Goombella some space, but only managed to make the goomba cry out in pain and frustration.
The boos had delightfully dropped them into a small box together, per their King's orders to 'tuck them away out of sight' and it was a very uncomfortable situation.
"This blows!" Bombette whined.
" You're sitting on me." Goombella grumbled, "I think I should be allowed to complain more than you. You haven't shut up since we've been here."
"Well, do you have any brilliant ideas to get us out of this box?" Bombette asked angrily, wishing her fuse would spark. Unfortunately that stupid giant boo had done something funny with it and now it wouldn't even smoke.
Goombella sighed, scrunching up her face and getting into her 'brain-storming mode', "Give me a sec."
The two girls waited in silence. A few minutes passed and Bombette spoke, "You went on an adventure with Mario way back, right?"
"Yeah why?"
"Erm, well since I can't use my bombastic power…what was your special ability besides being a 'know it all'?"
Goombella huffed but replied, "Well, I head bonked mostly. Goombas have pretty hard heads, so it was pretty effective."
"Oh." Bombette could not conceal the disappointment in her voice, and she felt the goomba shift beneath her a bit.
"What? You don't think I can help us? I haven't even tried yet."
"You can't head bonk a box, especially when we can't hardly even move." Bombette complained, "How do you expect that to work?"
"I think we can rock this thing."
Bombette blinked in the darkness, "Wait what?"
Goombella sighed below her, "Let's try and knock this box over."
Bombette perked up, and the goomba flinched when she pushed her foot into her cheek again, "Oh, sorry!" The bomb girl apologized, "Well, let's try it then!"
"We're going to have to work together, but first get your foot out of my face." Goombella said.
After finally wiggling into a better position, which relieved the goomba who was pretty sure there was a giant footprint imprinted into her face, they put their plan into motion.
"Okay, go!"
Bombette sharply pushed herself against the wood she was against, and felt Gombella push towards her. Both girls gasped when the box creaked, tilting slightly to the edge.
"Again!" Goombella cried.
They once again, moved, Goombella straining to push herself forward with Bombette, even though she was still trapped under her.
A few minutes later, they rested, both gasping for air.
"A-ah." Bombette inhaled, "That was painful."
"Let's just rock as hard as we can!" Goombella said suddenly and Bombette squeaked as the goomba suddenly pushed towards her and back again, "Hurry, fast and strong!"
Bombette quickly pressed herself back and forth, strong and fast, and soon they felt the box tip.
"Yes!" Goombella cheered as they toppled forward.
There was a shared 'oof!', as both girls tumbled free from the crate.
Bombette immediately hopped to her feet, wiggling her fuse back and forth, "Sweet freedom!"
Goombella got up slowly, tossing her ponytail behind her with a flick of her head, "Okay, now lets see where we are."
They appeared to be in an attic of some sort. There was a small window to their right but it was boarded up, tattered remnants of curtains hanging off to the side. A few dusty shelves lined the wall behind them, full of small and large boxes, some of which had dumped onto the floor, leaving a mess of different objects.
Bombette carefully stepped over some fallen tarnished silverware, moving to where the stairwell was, "Let's get out of here, the sooner we get to the others, the better."
She moved down the short line of stairs to the door that stood stoically. Bombette stared at it for a long moment before stomping her foot angrily, sending a light scattering of dust into the air, "that just burns me up!"
Goombella stood by her, "Don't be so loud, what's wrong?"
Bombette glared up at the door, "This isn't a bomb friendly door, there's not switch."
"Move aside." Goombella sighed, and stepped up to the door.
Bombette watched as the goomba launched herself upwards, and grabbed the knob in her mouth, with a quick turn of her head, the door turned and she landed gracefully by the bomb.
"Eww." Bombette commented, "I could never do that."
Goombella merely rolled her eyes, "Come on, let's go."
The two girls disappeared down the dark staircase, careful not to make any noise as they descended.
The sooner they reached the others, the better, as Bombette had said. For soon the sun would set and it would not soon rise again.
00oo00oo00oo00
A small bell rang as Nina entered the building, and she tensed at its silver sound. She had sworn she had saw a shadow in the window, probably Goombette and Bombella, or whatever their names were. Dan had asked her to check up on them, and now she sorely regretted that decision.
The koopa swallowed when she realized where she was. The old toy shop had shelves everywhere, stocked full of dusty old wood toys, and stuffed animals. She started down a row, glancing at the toy vehicles on the shelves, animal figurines sitting on the shelf next to it.
Nina came to the end of the room and found another door. She entered and when she had taken only two steps into the room, she had froze.
"It had to be dolls." She took in a shuddering breath, a chill racing up her spine.
She was in a rectangular room with long shelves on the walls at both sides, and on these shelves were dolls.
Human dolls, toad dolls, koopa dolls, even a few latiku with button eyes…she hated dolls.
Nina remembered when she was a child and her best friend Margo had left one of her dolls from when she had slept over one night. She had discovered it in the morning, after breakfast when Margo had already gone home. Not sure what to do with it, Nina had decided it would be safe on her shelf.
That night she had gone to bed tired, but when the lights were out, she had glanced out across her room at the far shelf above her dresser and had caught eyes with that doll. That expressionless face had given her the chills, and Nina had gotten no sleep that night, curled up under her covers sweaty and uncomfortable until her mother had awoken her for school.
Even now, Nina felt that age-ago fear take hold, and turned to leave the room.
The door promptly slammed shut, and what dim light it offered was gone, casting her into darkness.
The koopa girl gasped, taking a step back. She heard a knocking noise, and the swish of fabric. She imagined every doll coming alive and falling down upon her, and Nina screamed falling to the ground.
She frantically clawed her way to the door, reaching up for the doorknob to try and open it. Nina shrieked when she felt the knob hold firm.
She was locked in!
She felt something touch her leg and dug her claws into the wood door just as something gripped her hard. Nina screamed as she was pulled away from the door.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'll be working on another of my stories later, so if you follow other works, look for an update on one of them. Hope you all are having a lovely December so far! Review and let me know if you liked this chappie. :3