The Verdict

By KholdstareV

Luigi looked up at his glorious new mansion. The giant oak doors... the bright yellowish coloring... and the highlight of the whole thing - the giant green "L" embedded right in the top center of everything. It was truly a sight to behold.
Mario walked up behind him and put his arm around Luigi's shoulders.
They both looked up at the magnificent house before them.

Mario laughed. "Heh, who'd have thought? My little bro's a millionaire!"
Luigi smiled too. "Well hey, I never would've gotten all that money had it not been for Professor E Gadd."
"Yeah, I know," replied Mario," But hey, you still earned it, bro! Fightin' all them ghosts just to save me..."
Luigi shrugged. "Well, I only did all that for a possible reward from E Gadd. Saving you was just a bonus!"
They both laughed and walked together up to the big oak doors.

They opened up the doors at stepped into the huge, magnificent foyer. In fact, it looked just like the Foyer that Luigi remembered from the mansion from which he'd barely escaped alive...
Mario looked around in awe. But he then looked at Luigi. "Luigi... is everything alright?"
Luigi realized he'd been shaking a bit. "Umm... yeah, everything's great. It's beautiful, huh?"
But Mario still looked a bit concerned. "You sure?"
"Yeah... it's just... I didn't think E. Gadd had used the same layout as... that mansion to build this place..."
"Is that a problem?"
Luigi pretended to lighten up. "Of course not! I was just thinking that it would make it easier to find my way around."
Mario didn't look entirely convinced, but he smiled anyway. This was no time to recall frightening memories. "OK. Let's go to the kitchen and start makin' dinner. Luigi, you've GOTTA invite the gang over for a party tonight. This is just too awesome!"
With that, Mario ran through the double doors ahead into the hallway.
Luigi smiled and ran after him. He was right - this was no time to think bad thoughts...

Mario and Luigi busily set up for the big bash that night. Luigi was making a turkey for dinner, and Mario was calling up people to invite over.
"So Yoshi, can ya make it? Great! See you tonight!"
"Yo Wario! Party at Luigi's new mansion tonight! Bring the chips, alright? See ya soon!"
"Geno! Haven't seen you in a while! We're throwin' a party at Luigi's new mansion. Hope to see you there!"

As Luigi stuck the turkey in the oven, he was suddenly surprised to hear Mario having a rather silent phone conversation with someone. He slowly snuck over to the doorway and listened from around the corner.
"Hello...? Yeah, hi. Listen, Luigi just got a new mansion, and we're throwin' a huge party tonight to celebrate. Wanna come?... OK, yeah, the party starts at 8, but you come a bit early... alright, cool... What's that? Why am I speaking so softly?... Umm, no reason, just... tired is all... Oh, don't worry, I'll be all hyped up once the party starts!... OK... OK, cool. Let's give Luigi a big surprise, shall we...?"
The phone was then hung up.

It was clear - Mario was up to something. And who was on the other end? Luigi was curious, but also a little worried for some reason...

Eventually though, Luigi decided he'd best not ask who that was. He thought it'd be a bit funner if he beat Mario at his own game. Mario obviously didn't want Luigi to know who'd been calling, which means he probably wouldn't want Luigi to know they were arriving early. Luigi thought maybe he stand by the door and wait for the doorbell before opening the door and greeting the early guest himself! THAT would teach Mario not to keep secrets from him!
Luigi smiled to himself over his plan as he placed the big turkey in the oven.

Everything was soon ready for the big bash. Dinner was set up in the Dining Room and the Ball Room was decorated for a big dance - complete with Disco Ball! It was about 7:30 by this point. The party was going to start in about a half hour, meaning this mysterious "early guest" should be arriving rather soon...

Luigi get ready and stood next to the door, waiting for the doorbell. Mario happened to walk by holding a 24 pack of Dr Pepper. He looked at Luigi curiously.
"Hey Luigi, whaddya doing?"
Luigi flinched a little. "Umm... I'm standing by the door in case any guests come early..."
Mario raised an eyebrow and smiled a bit. "OK, do what you like."
With that, he disappeared back into the hallway.
Luigi was a little puzzled. Mario looked as though he would've liked to see Luigi answer the door for this guest. Wasn't it supposed to be a "surprise"...?

DING DONG!

Luigi jumped. He smiled mischievously as he threw open the door.
"HI Luigi!"

When Luigi saw who it was that was standing in the doorway, his heart suddenly stopped for a second.
"Daisy! Heh heh... hi!"
Daisy stood at the doorway in all her finery. She wore a lovely blue dress, which suited her flowery accessories quite well.
"My God, she looks beautiful..." Luigi thought to himself.

Daisy happily jumped up and hugged Luigi. "It's been such a long time! How ARE you?"
Luigi had to think a second before he realized he should hug her back. "I'm... I'm great! Just... great!"
Daisy let go and held Luigi's arms. "I can imagine! I can't believe you have your own mansion now!"
Luigi blushed a little. "Yeah, well... not as much as I can't believe it! Besides, it's nothing compared to your castle."
"Oh, don't kid yourself! This is WAY cooler than my castle!"
"...You think so?"
"Oh, of course!"
"Heh... thanks."

Feeling a tad nervous, Luigi took Daisy's hand and led her in. She looked around the Foyer and marveled at its elegance. "Wow... it's beautiful!" she said. "Can we have a grand tour?"
"Umm... well, actually, I was hoping to give everyone a grand tour sometime during the party."
"Oh, OK. I can wait 'til then."
"Alright. Umm... dinner's gonna be in the Dining Room, and the party'll be in the Ball Room. Why don't you go ahead on into the dining room and sit down? I have to umm... do something..." He motioned towards the double doors ahead.
"Oh, OK," Daisy said little unhappily.
"Oh, and try not to bother Mario. I think he's still setting up in the Ball Room."
"OK..." Daisy repeated one more time.
Luigi watched her walk through the double doors and walk into the hallway.

Once the doors closed, Luigi stamped his foot. "Dammit!" he yelled to himself. "Why do I always sound so stupid in front of her?! Oh... No wonder Mario didn't want me to know she was coming early. He didn't want me to make a total idiot of myself. Agh, serves me right for the eavesdropping. Sigh..."
Luigi placed a hand on the stair banister the other hand to his forehead. He closed his eyes, breathed deeply and just thought...

DING DONG!

Evidently, he'd been standing there for longer than he realized. The guests were beginning to arrive!
Luigi thought for a moment. He had to answer the door, but he thought about Daisy sitting all alone in the Dining Room. Luigi couldn't be left being the guest greeter while Daisy was in the Dining Room by herself. He decided to ask Mario to do it and tell him to motion everyone to go into the Ball Room first so that he and Daisy could have some time alone. Who knows? Tonight might be the night to let her know how he felt...

DING DONG! DING DONG!

The doorbell rang twice more. Luigi ran into the Ball Room, where Mario was just finishing up.
"Mario," asked Luigi, "Can you answer the door for everyone?"
"Sure," said Mario.
"Oh, and please motion everyone into the Ball Room first..."
Mario looked towards the Dining Room. He must've known Daisy was in there. He looked back at Luigi with a cocky raised eyebrow. "OK. I'll make sure you and Daisy have some private time."
Luigi laughed nervously. "Heh heh... thanks Mario."
"No problem. What are big brothers for?"
Luigi walked timidly towards the Dining Room door.
"And for God's sake, Luigi, just tell her already!"
"Umm... OK!" Luigi called back.
Luigi watched Mario run down the hall towards the front door. Luigi took a deep breath before opening the Dining Room door.

"Oh, hey Luigi!" Daisy said with a smile. She sat in the chair that Luigi remembered Mr. Luggs had sat in the haunted mansion. Seeing her sit there made him feel a little uncomfortable.
"Hey Daisy! Umm... don't you want to sit at the head of the table or something?"
"No, I'm OK here. C'mon, sit down with me!"
Luigi reluctantly walked over and sat in the chair beside her. She smiled at him, and he smiled back.

"I'm still just so happy for you Luigi! I can't believe you have your own mansion!"
"I know, it's great, isn't it?"
"Seriously! So where's everyone else? I heard the doorbell."
"Oh, Mario's leading everyone else into the Ball Room. The party'll be in there for the most part."
Daisy suddenly looked a little serious. "So... we're alone in here?"
Luigi felt his heart beat a little faster. "Uh, yeah. We are..."
He then scooted his chair just a wee bit closer, just so much that she didn't really notice. "Umm... Daisy. I have something I really need to tell y-"

But Daisy was sniffing the air. "Is something cooking?"

Luigi just remembered the turkey in the kitchen had been done for some time now. "Oh, yeah, dinner's in the Kitchen."
"AWESOME!" exclaimed Daisy. "Let's eat!"
"B-but, Daisy-!"
But she was already off.
Luigi sighed. Sometime tonight, he told himself, sometime tonight...

Within minutes, the party was in full swing. People were in and out of the Kitchen grabbing turkey and snacks, and the Ball Room was lively with dancing. Guests had migrated as far as the Billiard's Room, where they played pool. Everyone was having a great time. Yoshi and Toad arrived first. Wario and Waluigi bought the chips after that. DK came as well, followed by Geno and Mallow.

Peach arrived last, accompanied by Toadsworth. "Mario honey, I'm here!" she called as she entered.
Mario rushed up and took her hand. "How's my lovely wife doing this evening?"
"I'm sure I'll be perfect once I'm on the dance floor with my handsome husband!"
The two took hands and entered the Ball Room together.

Luigi was already in there, snacking away on Doritos. He wasn't much of a dancer, but all of the food had been moved into the Ball Room, so that's where he stayed. Daisy walked up to join him. She was gnawing on a turkey leg. "Yo Luigi! This turkey is the best! WAY better than the turkey the chefs make at my castle!"
Luigi blushed. "Thanks. Is it really that good?"
"Definitely!" She gulped down the rest. "So, you wanna dance?"

Luigi almost choked on the brownie he was eating. "Uh, umm... are you sure you don't just wanna stay here and eat?"
"Well, it doesn't matter to me... it's up to you. What do you wanna do?"
Luigi had to think about it a little bit, but finally found the courage to say, "Alright... Let's dance!"
Daisy smiled as Luigi lead her onto the dance floor. A lively dance mix of the Mario theme was playing, so they began dancing casually and having fun. Luigi, having had recent experience in Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix was busting out all kinds of wild moves. Daisy was quite impressed. "W00T! Go Luigi!"

But then, all of a sudden, the music stopped.
And on came a slow, steady version of the Underwater Theme.

Luigi reluctantly took Daisy's hands and the two began to slow dance. It was probably the scariest thing he'd ever done, but for some reason, he loved it.
"Oh boy..." he told himself. "I could really use some advice from Mario about now..."
Of course, he wasn't going to ask Mario for pointers while Daisy was in his arms, but he at least would've liked to now Mario was nearby for moral support. However, as he and Daisy did a slow circle, he did a sweep of the Ball Room, he didn't see Mario anywhere. It seemed strange to him. Didn't he want to dance with Peach to this song? It had always been their favorite...
Ah well, that was Mario's issue. All that mattered to Luigi right now was that the woman he loved was in his arms.

The two danced for a long time...
Long enough for Luigi to gather the courage to say what he'd been wanting to say for years now...
"Hey Daisy?" he said softly.
"Yes Luigi?" she answered.

"I... have something I want to, err... need to tell you..."
"What is it?" she asked.
Luigi took a deep breath. "I..."

But just as he was about to say it, he saw the door to the Storage Room slowly shut.

On its own...

Luigi suddenly became nervous. He felt he was being watched by unseen eyes... He hated to do it, but he released Daisy and ran for the Storage Room door.
Daisy was shocked. "Luigi? What are you doing? What's wrong?"
Luigi didn't look back. His eyes were on the door. Who had closed it?
As he held the door handle, he began to recall horrible memories. The haunted mansion's Storage Room was where all the Boos had been released, including the dreaded King Boo...

Images of King Boo then began to race through his head. Those red eyes. That wicked laugh...

Luigi closed his eyes as he threw open the door and looked into the Storage Room...
And screamed as a large white figure leaped out of the shadows towards him.
It was the last thing he saw before blacking out...

A short while later, Luigi's eyes finally fluttered open. Daisy was staring down at him, a look of concern on her face. Many of the guests had gathered around too, talking amongst themselves.
"Luigi! You're awake! Thank goodness!"
"Ugh... Daisy..." Luigi moaned. "Are we still dancing?"
Daisy looked sad. "I wish..."
Luigi sat up. He was still in the Ball Room, near the Storage Room door. He remembered dancing with Daisy, and then seeing the Storage Room door mysteriously close. He then opened the door... but he didn't remember what had happened after that.
"Daisy..." he asked, turning around.
But she was already gone.

"Dammit!" he muttered to himself. "I gotta talk to Mario. Where is he?" He looked around the Ball Room, but he was still nowhere to be found. He saw Peach though. "She'll know where he is," he thought. Easing passed the relieved crowd, he ran up to her. "Hey Peach, where's Mario?"
She looked upset. "I don't know," she said sadly. "I wanted to slow dance with him to the song you and Daisy were dancing to, but right after it started, he said he needed to do something and just ran off. He's been gone for almost twenty minutes now. I'm getting worried..."

Luigi tried to remember what had happened after he opened the Storage Room door, but he just couldn't. Could that have something to do with Mario's disappearance?
Disappearance?!
No, Mario hadn't disappeared! He was in the house somewhere! "C'mon Luigi," he told himself, "Get a grip!"

Luigi decided to run an inquiry. There were a lot of people there. Surely at least one of them saw where Mario went. He walked into the hallway and saw Toad and Yoshi lounging around.
"Hey Luigi!" said Toad. "Remember the time we were a team in Double Dash, and you fell off the back of the cart and got run over, and I was so busy looking back and laughing that I drove into a wall and blew up? Oh, good times..."
"YOSHI!"
But Luigi couldn't worry about that. "Guys, have you seen Mario? No one knows where he is, and he's been gone for almost twenty minutes..."
"YOSHI!" Yoshi pointed towards the front door.
"Yeah," said Toad. "Once you and Daisy started gettin' all lovey on the dance floor, Mario just bust-a-moved out of here. He didn't even say anything..."
Luigi didn't quite understand, but he trusted them. Mario must have been outside somewhere. "OK, thanks guys!"
"No prob."
"YOSHI!"

Luigi darted towards the main doors, but just as he was about to grab the handle, the left door swung open into his face. "OWW!" he screamed, holding his aching nose.
"Oh! Sorry Luigi."
Luigi saw Mario standing in the doorway. He appeared to be quite tuckered out. "Mario?! Where the heck were you? You've been gone for nearly twenty minutes! Peach was worried about you!"
"Umm, I was... You see, Toadsworth told me the light in the Washroom blew out, so I ran around out back to see if I could flip the Washroom's breaker switch, but I couldn't find it..."
Luigi raised an eyebrow. "Uh, Mario? This house only has one breaker switch, and it's in the basement."

"Oh..." Mario said, sounding embarrassed.
Luigi shrugged. "Well, we can worry about that later. Right now, I seriously need to talk to you. Come on upstairs. There's a couch in Nana's Room..."
"Nana's Room? Who's Nana?"
Luigi closed his eyes and sighed. "Never mind. Just c'mon..."

The two walked up the stairs to the second floor. They entered a large room with a lot of sewing equipment, a couch, and a big rocking chair. Mario and Luigi sat down on the couch. They didn't bother turning on the light.

Once they were both settled down, Luigi looked at Mario with a serious expression.

"Mario, I need to know... how did you do it?"

Mario looked confused. "Do what?"
"How did you tell Peach how you felt?"
"Umm... well, we both just sort of knew it, that's all."

"That doesn't help me, Mario..."
"Well hey, that's honestly the best answer I can give. What you really need to worry about is wondering how you're gonna propose!"
"Oh, c'mon! Don't tell me it was hard for you to propose to Peach! She was practically begging you to!"
"Heh, yeah. I guess you're right. It was always 'Mario, when are we gonna get married??' and stuff. And when I finally did it... it was the happiest moment of my life."
"I can imagine... I so badly want to reach that point with Daisy, but... I don't even know if she feels the same way."
"Well, it's like I said. Once you both just sort of know it, then you'll immediately know the other one knows it, too. And that'll be the time to say what you want to say, because you know that's the one thing they want to hear..."
Luigi smiled. "Thanks Mario. You're the best."
"No problem. And really bro, don't worry so much. I know you've got the capacity for love. It's all about confidence, and I'll bet you have tons of it now, considering all that's happened."

"Yeah, saving my famous big brother from a bunch of evil ghosts... I guess it did do a lot of good for my self-image... But still, compared to all that YOU'VE done? For the entire Mushroom Kingdom? Like comparing a spark to the freakin' sun. I'll never have as much confidence as you. That's a fact."

"Hey, c'mon now. Sometimes too much confidence can be a bad thing. Overconfidence leads to pride, ya know, and not the good kind..."

"What do you mean? You're saying you have too much pride?"

"It gets to me sometimes, I admit."

"But I've never heard you never boast about your heroics..."

Mario shrugged. "Ehh, I try not to, but... I've done some stupid things that I've tried to undo with my good deeds. Things I regret. Things I probably WILL regret. Heh heh!..."

Mario's laugh sounded slightly uneasy. Luigi noticed, but chose to ignore it.

"So with that in mind," Mario continued, "Maybe me getting kidnaped by stupid ghosts might have done me some good. Maybe."

"Hmm..." Luigi thought aloud, "Yeah! You know what? I think by saving you, I just kinda... stole a chunk of your pride and gave it to myself! Ha!"

Mario's faint smile went flat.

"Not that I meant to, of course. We were all just victims of circumstance, right?" Luigi went on. "But, well... Considering my feelings for Daisy... You'd have given it to me anyway if you could, right?"

Mario's expression was blank for several seconds. Eventually though, his faint smile returned. "Yeah, totally. What are big brothers for?"

"For getting in trouble so the little brother can save him and get some confidence of his own, evidently!" Luigi joked.

Mario chuckled lowly and nodded.

"Really though," said Luigi sincerely. "I appreciate the advice a lot, bro. Thanks."

Mario didn't answer, and simply nodded again.

The two sat in silence in the dark for a long while.
Mario then perked up again. "So, you ready to go back down to the party? It's about 10 o'clock now, so things are just startin' to get crazy!"
But Luigi wasn't listening.
His eyes were wide with fright, staring into a dark corner.
"Luigi? What is it?" Mario asked, concerned.

Mario couldn't see what Luigi was looking at, but over the faint banter of the party downstairs, Mario could hear a noise...
squeaksqueak squeaksqueak squeaksqueak
The sound of an old spinning wheel turning on its axis... Without any aid.

And as Mario's eyes adjusted to the darkness, he began to see exactly what it was he was hearing.

"Mario..." said Luigi, clearly frightened. "What's going on?"
"I don't know..." said Mario.
They watched in horror as the spinning wheel began to rotate slowly faster... and faster... and faster and faster and faster...
Luigi appeared on the brink of insanity. He had to do something. Whoever - or whatever - was spinning that wheel wasn't going to stop. The two continued to stare as it continued to spin. Instinct would have perhaps told them to leave the room, or turn on a light, but both the light switch and door were right next to the phantom spinning wheel. Luigi and Mario felt safest on the couch, but they didn't exactly feel safe anyway.

Suddenly, without much thought, Luigi stood up and began to approach it slowly and carefully.

Mario became nervous. "Luigi! What are you doing?! Get away from it!"
But Luigi continued to advance. As in response to the ever-shortening distance between them, the spinning wheel began to spin even faster, creating the horrible sound of wood screeching on wood.
Luigi gulped as he was merely a foot away. The sharp needle jutting out at him seemed to glisten even in the darkness...
The wheel spun wildly now. It seemed that any second the entire thing would fall apart.
Luigi then reached out his hand. Why? To try and counter the wheel's spinning? He wasn't completely sure himself, but he reached out for it anyway...

FWIP!

Suddenly, the entire device leapt up into the air. It did half a flip, causing it to land right on the wheel. And as it hit the ground, the momentum of the wheel's spinning caused it to zoom forward like an out-of-control car. Luigi had no time to react. The spinning wheel shot forward directly into him. As it smashed and broke apart against his lower body, he stumbled backwards and landed with a thud.
"Luigi! Are you alright?!" Mario yelled, jumping down from the couch and ran up to his brother's side. Luigi's legs had been slammed pretty badly, but he was OK... Or at least he thought so.

Mario examined Luigi's legs. "Oh my God, Luigi..."
Luigi looked down too, and gasped.
The spinning wheel's needle had driven into his right leg, right below the knee. His blue pant leg was slowly turning a dark shade of crimson. He could feel the blood run down his calf.
He immediately felt it beginning to throb. "AAAGGGHHH!!" he cried in pain. "What the hell just happened?!"
"I'm not sure," said Mario, "But I think he should get that taken care of right away."

Mario helped Luigi over into 2nd floor Bathroom and cleaned up the mess. Removing the needle was a slow and painful process, but they eventually got it out. The wound wasn't too deep, but it was nasty to look at. They immediately applied some alcohol and bandaged it up. Luigi then got into a new pair of overalls once he was able to walk effectively again, though it still throbbed with each step, and he had to resort to limping.

Mario and Luigi stood silently on the staircase for a long time, listening to the party going on downstairs. Mario was quite shaken up, but not nearly as much as Luigi. He appeared on the verge of tears.
The two were silent for a while, until Luigi finally spoke a terrifying message...
"It's happening again..."

Mario looked up at him. "What?"
"It's happening. The ghosts... they're back. Back to take revenge upon me..."
"No Luigi, don't scare yourself like that..."
"Then how do you explain the spinning wheel, huh? How'd it spin on its own? How did it FLIP in the air and stab me in the leg, huh?!"
Mario couldn't think of anything to say. Could the ghosts really be back? But how? Luigi had captured them, and Professor E Gadd had turned them back into paintings. Even King Boo. They were all captured and couldn't do any more harm...
Right?

"Aw man... I wish E Gadd was here..." sighed Luigi. "You did invite him, right?"
"Of course," replied Mario, "But he didn't answer the phone."
"Oh..." said Luigi glumly.

Mario tried to change the subject. "Hey, how are we going to cover up that limp of yours?"
"Umm..." Luigi thought, "We could make up a story, I guess. But we have to think of something quick. I bet everyone's wondering where we are."
"Yeah, you're right, I'm trying to think..."

"Oh, I know! How about we say that I slipped on some spilt soda and landed on my knee?"
"Naw, that's dumb..."
"Uh, OK. How about... I was running upstairs to the bathroom and I fell on the stairs and hurt my leg?"
"No, that's stupid..."
"Sigh... I haven't heard any better ideas out of YOU!"
"Oh, I got it! We say that we were setting up a game of indoor mini-golf upstairs, and while I was taking a practice swing, you were too close, so I ended up cracking you in the shin with my club!"
"...Whatever, I don't care. Let's just go down."

The two descended the stairs back into the party area. "C'mon," said Luigi, "Let's get to the phone and try to call E. Gadd. If the ghosts are really back... he's the only one that can help me."
As they walked through the crowds, a few guests did seem to notice Luigi's limp. "Hey Luigi, how's your leg?" asked Geno, "Looks like your having some trouble walking straight."
Luigi was about to explain, but Mario broke in. "Mini-golf accident upstairs. We were setting up a course when I accidentally hit him with my club."
"Oh..." said Geno, looking a bit confused. "Well, then... I look forward to playing mini-golf upstairs later!"
"I bet you are." And with that, they continued into the Dining Room, where Mario had installed his telephone. There was currently no one in the room.

"OK, let's see if he's home..." said Luigi, picking up the receiver and dialing the number. The phone rang once... twice... three times... four times... answering machine.
"DAMMIT!" yelled Luigi. "It's just the answering machine. He's not there."
"Why not leave a message?" asked Mario.
"OK," said Luigi. He waited for the tone.
"Hi, you've reached Professor E Gadd's residence. I'm either not home, or I'm too busy studying ghosts to care to answer the phone. Leave a message if you like, but I likely won't get back to you. Especially you, mom. Leave me alone, for Christ's sake! I'm like, 79 years old! Ugh... I feel like a chimichanga..."
BEEP!!

Luigi began to leave his message. "Hello? Professor? It's me, Luigi! Listen, I'm... throwing a party in my new mansion tonight. You know, the one you built for me with all the money I found in the haunted mansion? Anyway, it's all thanks to you, so I was hoping if you might like to come. The party's just starting to get fun! OK, hope to see you soon. Bye."
Luigi hung up. "OK, I left the message. I hope he gets it..."
"Yeah, me too," said Mario. "But if anything, can't you just walk to his house? He didn't build your mansion to far from his place. It's probably like a 10-minute walk, right?"
"More like a 10-minute run..."
"Whatever. And isn't there anyone else you can ask for help?"
"No, no one else would understand. And I especially don't want Daisy to know. I don't wanna scare her..."
"Yeah, that's true. Well, I do hope we get a hold of E Gadd soon. I sure as hell wouldn't wanna throw a party in a haunted house!"

Luigi's eyes grew wide. "Oh my God... Mario! The guests! They're all in horrible danger! We have to get them all out of here befor-!"

DING DONG!

The ringing doorbell interrupted Luigi's sentence. He and Mario looked at one another, confused. In a huff, they bolted from the Dining Room, though the hallway, into the Foyer, and up to the main doors. They threw them open.
No one was there.
All that lay on the porch was a taped up cardboard box. It appeared as though whoever delivered it did so in quite a hurry.

What was it? A congratulatory gift? Luigi hoped so, but he couldn't help but shake the nervous vibe he got from whatever might be inside...
And stranger still, who had delivered it? Why did they throw the box on the porch, ring the doorbell, and run? If it truly was a gift, wouldn't they have wanted to stay for the party? Luigi wondered if perhaps the Professor had delivered it. Why would he do such a thing, though? The whole thing just made no sense...

Mario and Luigi looked at each other, then began to observe the odd package that lay on the porch of Luigi's mansion. Luigi stepped forward, drawn towards it yet repelled at the same time. Mario followed closely behind.
"What are we gonna do with it?" asked Mario.
"I don't know," said Luigi. "Do you think it's a gift? You know, as congratulations for my getting a mansion?"
"Hmm... maybe. Though it seems like whoever left it really wanted to get rid of it!"
"Mario, don't give me any scary ideas!"
"Oh, sorry..."

Luigi reluctantly picked the package up. It was quite heavy.

He shook it around a little bit. Something hard knocked against the sides of the box.
"Feels pretty big..." said Luigi.
"C'mon, it's gotta be a congratulation present! What else could it be?"
Luigi got a creepy vibe again. "...Is that a rhetorical question?"
Mario groaned. "Yes, Luigi!"
"Oh, OK..."
"Seriously man, ya gotta chill. I say it's a nice gift from someone who just couldn't stay for the party, and that we should open it in the Ball Room with everyone."
"...You sure?"
"Yes. Let's do it. It'll make you feel better."
Luigi looked down at his injured leg. "I hope so..."

Mario and Luigi walked into the Ball Room with the package. Everyone was either lounging around or dancing to the rock mix of the Super Mario Bros 3 theme. Mario took in a deep breath and announced, "Hey everyone! Luigi just got a present left at his doorstep! LET'S ALL SEE WHAT IT IS!!"

Everyone immediately took notice and began to gather around Luigi and his mystery package. Luigi spotted Daisy in the crowd, a couple rows back. He was almost afraid to open it with her nearby, but everyone else was urging him to, so he had no choice. He ripped the tape off the box. He opened the top and peered inside.
Inside was something large, shiny, and red...
Luigi pulled it out with wide eyes...

"It's a vacuum cleaner!" someone shouted.

Luigi stared at the vacuum cleaner in his hands...
The Poltergust 3000.

As he held it, horrifying images flashed into his head. Images of that horrible night.
And King Boo... King Boo appeared in his visions too. His eyes red with hate and vengeance.
And Luigi heard that devilish cackle deep in the back of his head, growing louder... and louder... until it was an incessant ringing, racking his brain and penetrating the very depths of his sane mind...

At that moment, Luigi screamed, dropped the vacuum, and ran out of the Ball Room in a panic.
The guests were left standing around, perplexed, with this red vacuum cleaner resting right in the middle of their crowd. Normally, one might have laughed at Luigi's frightened reaction to the seemingly humorous gift.

But no one laughed.
By Luigi's reaction, they could tell that it wasn't just a little spook. This was definitely something much more serious...

But what could it be? After all, it was just a vacuum cleaner. Nothing to be afraid of...
Right?

Luigi had run into the Washroom and huddled up in the dark corner. He suddenly remembered when he had opened the door to the Storage Room earlier that same night. The white figure that had lunged at him. In his head, he could now make out the figure's features...
Glowing red eyes...
A large, blue tongue...
And a golden, jewelless crown...

King Boo.

King Boo had somehow escaped his painting and was hellbent on exacting his revenge. He had made the spinning wheel spin and drive its needle into Luigi's leg. Luigi knew it. King Boo was somewhere in the mansion, and he wasn't going to stop until Luigi was dead...
But then how had he escaped?
This was a question that only Professor E Gadd could answer...

Luigi then heard a voice calling his name. But it wasn't a ghost voice.
It was a concerned voice. A caring voice...

Daisy.
Luigi wanted nothing more than to talk to her right then, but he was worried about her. King Boo was likely watching Luigi that very second. If he found out that Luigi loved Daisy...

No. Luigi would never let King Boo touch her.
Never.
He needed to get her to safety, and if avoiding her now while he tried to solve this mystery was the only way it could be done, then so be it.

But still, he so longed to talk to her and explain everything... It made him nervous thinking about telling Daisy the truth. How he'd really earned the mansion, and that the enraged King of all Boos was in the mansion that very moment...
However, she really did deserve to know. She was likely in just as much danger as he was, and it scared him that she didn't know it. He listened to her concerned voice from behind the Washroom door...
"Luigi? Luigi, where are you? It's only a vacuum cleaner, Luigi. Everything's alright. Everything's gonna be OK..."

Everything's gonna be OK...

Luigi hoped those words could be true. In fact, he had so much hope that he slowly opened the Washroom door and peeked out. He saw Daisy nearby, looking around with a worried expression. Luigi tried to remain somewhat hidden behind the door, but when Daisy looked in his direction, she saw him. She appeared relieved, but still very concerned.

"Luigi?" She walked over carefully and stood out in the lit hallway. Luigi remained inside the dark Washroom behind the half-opened door. She could barely see him.
"Luigi?" she asked again. "What's going on? Please, tell me."

Luigi had a strong urge to tell her everything was alright, and that she had nothing to worry about...
But that would be a lie. He needed to be honest with her.
He sank back a little bit deeper into the darkness. "Daisy... I haven't been completely truthful with you concerning how I got this house..."
Daisy still appeared more worried than mad. "What do you mean?"

Luigi told her everything. How he had won a haunted mansion, how Mario had been captured by the Boos, about Professor E Gadd, his Portrait Ghosts, the Poltergust 3000, King Boo...
He then went on to explain how E Gadd had used the treasure Luigi found in that house to build Luigi a new mansion, how the mansion was built with exactly the same layout as the haunted one...
And then the frightening sight in the Storage Room, and the haunting incident with the spinning wheel, and how he had nearly gone mad with fright at the sight of the Poltergust 3000 left on his doorstep...

Daisy listened to the tale with wide eyes. It was probably the most unbelievable thing she'd ever heard. Normally, she'd have accused Luigi of just being funny, but his behavior clearly showed that he was dead serious.
Luigi finished off by lifting up his right pant leg and showing the bloody bandage under his knee where the spinning wheel's needle had impaled his leg.
"King Boo did this to me..." Luigi explained. "He's back... Back to kill me and everyone else in here. Please Daisy... keep all this a secret from everyone."

Daisy began to tear up. She then rushed into the Washroom and embraced Luigi. "Oh Luigi, I'm so sorry all that had to happen to you..."
Even after telling his horrifying tale and the ghostly incidents that had happened since, Luigi suddenly forgot everything once Daisy was again in his arms.
"Thanks Daisy..." he said.

Daisy then looked at him. "I don't understand. How did this 'King Boo' escape from his painting?"
"I don't know," Luigi replied.
"And who delivered the Poltergust 3000 to your doorstep. And why?"
"I don't know..." Luigi repeated.
"We've gotta get a hold of this Professor E Gadd guy. He should be able to help us solve at least some of this mystery," she said thoughtfully.
"That's exactly what I was thinking," said Luigi.
"Great. Let's go!" Daisy was about to walk out of the Washroom when she spotted the light switch. "Geez Luigi, if you're so scared of King Boo, why don't you turn on the light?"
"Umm... Mario said the light bulb burned out, so I didn't bother-"
But before he could finish, the light flickered on. Daisy, who had flipped the switch, looked at the light suspiciously. "Mario said it burned out?"
"He said Toadsworth said it burned out..."
"Oh. That's weird. It seems totally fine to me."
"Yeah..." thought Luigi, feeling rather suspicious himself.

"Well, anyway Luigi, should we try calling E Gadd?" Daisy asked.
"He's not answering his phone. I left a message, but he still hasn't called back. If anything, we could just walk to his house. It's not too far away."
"OK. And what about the Poltergust 3000? I think Mario took it to the Parlor to examine it. Should we investigate that, too?"

Luigi thought for a moment, and then made his decision. "Let's go to E Gadd's house first. He might be able to answer how King Boo may have escaped from his painting, plus I have to ask him why he built my mansion to the exact same layout as the haunted one."
Daisy looked a little worried. "But what about Mario? And the Poltergust 3000? Whoever left it here obviously didn't mean to give it to you as a present..."
"Mario can take care of himself until we get back. If we run the whole way, it'll only take about ten minutes."
"OK," said Daisy, "But let's be as quick as we can. I'm worried about Mario..."

Luigi and Daisy ran out the mansion's front door into the cold, dark night. Storm clouds shifted unnaturally in the sky, and the two could hear thunder rumbling overhead. They ran through the woods as quickly as they could in order to outrun the coming storm. Within ten minutes, they reached a small brown shack in front of a massive empty lot.
"The mansion..." said Luigi, pointing to the vacant lot, "...used to be right there."
"Where did it go?" asked Daisy.
"I don't know. Once I defeated King Boo, it just... disappeared."

Without another word, Luigi ran up to the shack and knocked on the door.
No one answered.

He peered through the shack's only window.

There was only darkness on the inside.
He then jerked the door handle.
Unlocked.

Luigi slowly opened it and crept inside. Daisy held onto his arm and followed him in. They first were in the Laboratory, but the room appeared empty. They crept over to the ladder that led underground to the rest of the establishment. Taking Daisy's hand, Luigi helped her get started down on the ladder, then proceeded to descend it himself. Once at the bottom, he found they were in the Training Room. As he and Daisy walked through, he half-expected a ghost to pop out of one of the many chambers. He tried to keep calm and continued on towards the next door. Upon opening it, he appeared in the machine room...
The Ghost Portificationizer.
Just looking at it gave Luigi horrifying memories.

Daisy could feel Luigi shaking. "Luigi? What's wrong?"
"...This is the machine I told you about that turns ghosts into paintings... and vice versa."

Oh..." said Daisy, not too sure what to say.
As they walked through the room, Luigi sniffed the air. He smelled smoke. Had the machine been used recently...?
But what Luigi really hoped to find, aside from Professor E Gadd, who was still unseen, was that King Boo's portrait was still hanging in the Gallery as he had last seen it. He needed to confirm that King Boo was still safely cooped up in that painting and that he and Daisy, and everyone at his mansion, had nothing to worry about...

Luigi carefully reached for the Gallery door...
But as he did, he heard a creaking noise behind him. Daisy heard it too, and let out a small gasp.
Luigi peered into the darkness...
Something was moving around. Behind the machine.
Luigi took a careful step forward...

And suddenly, a small, white object lunged at him!
Luigi screamed and toppled back, as did Daisy. The small white figure flew at them like a ghost...
LIKE A GHOST!?

The white object was rushing at them with great speed. It almost reminded Luigi of the white shape he had seen in the Storage Room...
But that had been King Boo... hadn't it?!
Daisy was behind Luigi, clearly frightened. Hearing her cries gave Luigi the courage to rear back his arm and give the white monster a wicked punch in the face!
"AAAGGGHHH!!" the creature screamed in pain. It stumbled back into the machine. It stood up on what appeared to be two small legs, scurried over to the light switch and turned on the lights.

Luigi gasped. "Professor?!"

Professor E Gadd stood there with an astonished look. His glasses were crooked and his nose was bright red, but he wasn't mad. In fact, he seemed quite startled. "Luigi? What in blazes are you doing here?! I thought you were a ghost, for goodness sake!"
Luigi's racing heart was still settling down. "What? Really? W-we thought you were the ghost!"
"Don't be ridiculous! I would neve-! Wait, 'we'...?"

Luigi turned around and looked at Daisy, who was still sitting down. Luigi took her hand and helped her up. "Oh, Professor, there's someone I'd like you to meet. Professor, this is Princess Daisy. Daisy, this is Professor E Gadd."
Daisy bent down a bit to shake E Gadd's hand. "It's nice to meet you Professor. I've heard a lot about you!"
"Well met, Miss Daisy. Heh, I'm surprised Luigi never mentioned you!"
"Oh really?" said Daisy, giving Luigi a playful look. Luigi chuckled a bit.

The Professor released Daisy's hand. He suddenly sounded serious. "So what are you two doing here scaring the daylights outta me?"
"Well," said Luigi, "I was throwing a party in the mansion you built for me, and I was wondering if you wanted to come..."
But the Professor suddenly seemed nervous. "Oh... a party, huh?"
"Yeah, that's what I said. I party."
"With lots of innocent people...?"
Luigi could sense E Gadd's anxiety. "Umm... yeah."
E Gadd then gave both Luigi and Daisy a very serious look. "Tell me you two... What's the real reason you're here?"

Luigi and Daisy looked at one another and exchanged glances. Luigi then looked back at the Professor and explained his frightening experiences in his new house.

How King Boo had attacked him in the Storage Room...
How the spinning wheel had impaled his leg...
How the Poltergust 3000 had been thrown on his doorstep by an unknown guest...
E Gadd listened intently to every detail. He nodded his head occasionally, as though he understood everything.

As Luigi told the tale, he tried to put the pieces together. Could E Gadd really be the one behind all this? He had built the house to the exact same layout as the haunted one... perhaps to help King Boo find his way around easier? And E Gadd was really the only one that knew exactly how the Ghost Portrificationizer worked. He could've easily freed King Boo from his painting.

And the Poltergust 3000... the Professor was the only one who could have logically delivered it! But why? Luigi really had no idea WHY the Professor would want to do any of these things, but at least Luigi thought he had a lead in this mystery...

Once Luigi had finished telling the tale, there was silence among the three. E Gadd continued to look down in deep thought. Daisy just looked as worried as ever. And Luigi just had so many questions he wanted to ask E Gadd.
Why hadn't he returned any of their calls?

Had he delivered the Poltergust 3000? Why?
Had he freed King Boo? Why?
But what Luigi wondered most of all... Why had E Gadd built Luigi's new mansion exactly the same as the haunted one?
Through all of his self-inquiry, Luigi suddenly doubled back to Mario's brief absence during the party...

After a while of silence, Luigi finally spoke. "Hey Professor, why are you being so... evasive?"
E Gadd looked surprised. "Hmm?"
"Well, you didn't answer any of our phone calls, you're hiding in your lab in the dark... what's going on? What are you hiding from? Heck, what are you hiding, period?!"

Luigi lunged forward a bit. E Gadd was taken aback by his anger. "Umm... You called me??"
"Yes! Twice! First Mario called you to ask if you wanted to come to the party, then I called you while the party was going on. I even left you a message!"
"Really??" E Gadd asked, clearly bewildered. He walked over to the nearby phone and checked. I showed that there was one message. He played it back. "Doh... I guess I didn't notice that."
"But you've been in your lab all night, haven't you?"
"Well, not ALL night..."

Luigi began to think. He couldn't explain why E Gadd would've missed Mario's earlier call, but... Luigi had called E Gadd and left his message, and about a minute later, the Poltergust 3000 had been delivered. Now either E Gadd had been home but just didn't hear the phone, or he'd been gone while Luigi had called. But gone doing what...?
Gone delivering the Poltergust 3000!

Luigi looked at E Gadd angrily. "Alright Professor, why'd you drop off the Poltergust 3000?!"
E Gadd struggled with his words, as thought trying to come up with an excuse. But then, he finally looked down and sighed. "Alright! I admit it. I did deliver the Poltergust 3000 to you..."
"I kinda figured that out," said Luigi. "But why?!"
Daisy finally spoke up after a long silence. "And why were you hiding in your lab with all the lights off?"
E Gadd looked up. "I can answer both those questions with one explanation..."
"What?" asked Luigi.
E Gadd looked down again. "Something... horrible... happened in my lab earlier tonight..."
Daisy got a little closer to Luigi. "W-what happened?"

E Gadd took a breath and began...

"Luigi, after King Boo's mansion disappeared, I went on studying ghosts as usual. In fact, the mansion incident had actually gotten me more interested in studying Boos and what makes them different from normal ghosts, as well as what makes King Boo different from normal Boos. The results of these studies have been absolutely astounding, but that's a tale for another time...

Anyway it was about 9:30, and I was getting ready to go to bed when I heard a noise in the machine room. It sounded like someone was fumbling with the controls. Naturally, I armed myself with the Poltergust 3000 and crept over there. Once there, I saw a dark figure placing a large painting on in the Ghost Portificationizer, as though ready to put it in reverse. I hoped whoever it was wouldn't be able to figure out how to set the machine in reverse, but my hope was shattered when I heard the roar of the engine and watched as the painting began to go backwards through the machine. In my despair, I let out a cry, and the figure heard me. With great speed, it sped forward and knocked me down before I could even fire up the Poltergust 3000. Whoever - or whatever - it was, they were soon gone. Once I got up, I remembered that a painting was going backwards through the machine! I tried to stop it, but I was too late. The sum of all my greatest nightmares came out of the slot - King Boo!

I tried to suck him up with the Poltergust 3000, but his eyes seemed to glow redder than I'd ever seen before. He used his darkling magic to lift me up and fling me against the wall. My back was injured, I couldn't move, and the Poltergust 3000 had landed several feet from me where I couldn't reach it. I could only watch as King Boo used his powers to make each portrait from my gallery, one by one, float onto the Ghost Portrificationizer. He stacked them all up so that when he flipped the switch, all the portraits would go through one by one and turn back into ghosts. Once they were all in position, King Boo turned the machine on, laughed in my face, and flew away.

By then I had recovered my strength, but it was too late to stop the machine. Thankfully, I was able to take the next best action. I grabbed the Poltergust 3000, and before any ghosts could escape, I pressed the vacuum nozzle against the slot and turned the suction on, forcing the escaped spirits directly into the mouth of the vacuum. I held it in position until all twenty-two of my Portrait Ghosts were trapped within. I don't know if King Boo would have tried to stop if he had been there. Perhaps he had anticipated my actions... Nevertheless, I was left standing there with a Poltergust 3000 filled with vengeful spirits. I knew I couldn't keep it long, so..."
"...So you came to me so I could get rid of it," Luigi reasoned.
"Precisely," said E Gadd.

"But I'm confused," Luigi said. "Why can't you just put the ghosts back through the machine and turn them back into paintings?"
"I tried," E Gadd moaned, "But whoever set King Boo free short-circuited the machine. It now only can function in reverse... I wanted to deliver the Poltergust 3000 to you in secret and tell you everything. However, once I rang the doorbell, King Boo appeared out of nowhere and attacked me. I merely screamed, dropped the box, ran back home, and found a place to hide. I didn't get a chance to tell you why I'd sent it. I just prayed you'd figure it out on your own, though I never would've even risked it if I'd known there was a party going on..."

Luigi was about to say something in reply, but he suddenly remembered Mario, who was supposedly examining the Poltergust 3000 back at the mansion. The unbearable thought that his brother and everyone at the party could be in danger was too much for him. King Boo was already roaming around in there. More angry Portrait Ghosts would make things disastrous.
"We have to go back," said Luigi. "We can figure this all out later, but right now... we have to go back."

Daisy and E Gadd looked at one another. It was hard to argue with him.

"Alright," said E Gadd, "Though I must tell you, a recent discovery I made concerning the Ghost Portrificationizer... Ghosts that become trapped within paintings tend to build up huge amounts of rage over time. If they happen to be released once, they likely suppress that rage and continue to haunt like normal. However, if they get cooped up in a painting twice... that rage is reborn with more reproducing at an astonishing rate. And if these Portrait Ghosts manage to escape a second time, they will let their anger be known, and the consequences can be devastating. You'd be surprised what power rage can give to a ghost..."

Luigi shuddered at the thought. All these Portrait Ghosts, with the exception of King Boo, had all been trapped in paintings two times in the past, and were now filled to the brim with vengeance. Perhaps King Boo knew this... had he freed them deliberately to harness this power of rage?

Luigi had no time think. "We'll take our chances. C'mon!"
Daisy looked scared, but ready. "OK, but please be careful, Luigi..."
With that, the three of them ran out into the woods and began to 10-minute run back towards Luigi's Mansion...

Mario had placed the Poltergust 3000 on the Parlor table and was examining it thoroughly. He had remembered Luigi using this vacuum to beat King Boo and his legion of Boos, as well as E Gadd's Portrait Ghosts. Maybe looking at it had given Luigi horrible memories? Mario still didn't quite understand why Luigi had seemed so scared upon seeing it.

A moment later, Peach walked into the room and saw Mario. She sat down beside him and looked at him. "Mario... you've been acting so strange all night. You were gone for nearly twenty minutes at one point, then when you came back, you went straight upstairs to talk to Luigi. And now, you're in here looking at a vacuum cleaner like some crazy detective. What's going on?"
"I can't talk right now Peach. I'm busy," Mario said, not even looking up.
Peach stamped her foot. "Mario, if this is about our marriage, then please tell me!"
"It has nothing to do with that. Why would it?"
"Well, I don't know! You ran off right when my favorite romantic song came on, and since then all you've been doing is worrying about Luigi. I understand why you would worry about him, consider what he's going through right now with Daisy and all, but still... I'm here too!"
Mario looked up at her. "Who told you Luigi was in love with Daisy?"

"Luigi told me. A long time ago."
Mario chuckled. "So he's told everybody but her, eh?"
Peach laughed too. "Seems that way, but I do think she suspects it. She might not want to believe it, though, since people are sometimes scared to hear the things that they want to hear the most..."

But Mario wasn't listening. He found a small twist cap on top of the vacuum and was busy twisting if off. Once he removed it, he peered inside with one eye. All he saw was darkness. That was odd, since he suspected to see the color of the bag texture inside...
Suddenly, out of the darkness opened an angry red eye that glared back at him.
Mario jumped back in surprise, but didn't put the cap back on.

"What is it?" asked Peach, startled by Mario's action.
"Nothing..." said Mario. "Umm... listen, I really should work in private, so if you don't mind, I'm gonna walk on over to the Study and continue in there. Bye."
With that Mario got up and walked towards the door. Peach stood up. She was absolutely furious. "So you'd rather look at some stupid vacuum than spend some time with me?! Some husband you are!!"
But he was already gone.
Peach sat back down and began to tear up. Who was that man and what had he done with her darling husband...?

Luigi, Daisy and E Gadd arrived at the mansion's front door. Luigi was about to ring the doorbell when Daisy stopped him. "Wait Luigi, are you sure you don't want to go in sorta unnoticed? After all, Professor E. Gadd isn't here for the party..."
E Gadd laughed. "Pssh! Of course I am! I still gotta a few good moves I remember from the 40's!"
Luigi, though, decided Daisy was right. "Sorry Professor, but the more keep you're being here a secret, the more likely we'll be able to stay on the job."
"Well fine," said E Gadd sarcastically, "I can see you're too COOL to be seen with an old kook like me!"
Daisy laughed. "Yeah, it's too bad really. You'd be the life of the party!"

The three of them circled the mansion, checking to see if there were any windows they could enter through. They searched every window that they could on the bottom floor, but none were unlocked. Without losing hope, they soon spotted one second story window that looked to be slightly open. They could reach it by climbing the sill of the window directly beneath it. It was risky, but Luigi decided to try anyway. After a few moments of shaky climbing, Luigi finally managed to grab the desired windowsill, slid the window open, and hoisted himself up onto the sill. He peeked into the room, but it was too dark to see exactly what room it was. "Come on up, guys!" Luigi called. He then carefully dropped into the room, then turned around and looked down at the two below. Daisy was already making her way up, but E Gadd was staring up at the sky. Storm clouds were swirling overhead. Their movement was so unnatural.
"Somethin' bad's a-brewin' here..." said E Gadd. "I can sense it..."
"Well worse things will start to happen if we don't hurry!" Luigi shouted down. E Gadd nodded and hopped his tiny frame onto the window sill below. Now that Daisy had reached the window and was in the room with Luigi, they both aided E Gadd in his ascent until all three of them had made it inside.

The three were left standing in a dark, silent room. Luigi squinted to see in the darkness. He felt around until his gloves touched something big. It felt sort of like a cage, but it was open on the top. "Sort of like a crib..." he thought. A crib...

"We're in the Nursery guys," he said at last.
"The same nursery where you fought the baby ghost, Chauncey?" asked E Gadd. Daisy nudged him, urging him to be quiet.
Luigi used the crib as a guide to find the door, or at least the light switch. But as he stood over the crib, he felt a cool chill. It made him shiver, but only partly because of the cold...
"So," thought E Gadd, "If we're in the Nursery, then the Parlor where Mario is should be just outside this hallway."
"Yeah," said Luigi. "And speaking of which, I've been meaning to ask you - why on earth did you build my new mansion to the exact same layout as the King Boo's old one?"
E Gadd was silent for a long time, until Luigi finally heard him sigh. "Luigi, I... I have a confession to make..."

Luigi stopped snooping around for the light switch and simply stood and listened. He fully expected E Gadd to say that he did it to make King Boo and the Portrait Ghosts feel more comfortable while they took revenge upon Luigi. It was the only explanation Luigi could think of...

"Luigi, I didn't build this mansion."

"WHAT?!" Luigi and Daisy asked in unison. With that statement, Luigi's entire hypothesis immediately went down the drain. "What do you mean? Who built-?"
"Allow me to explain," pleaded E Gadd. He quickly cleared his throat and began...

"This mansion... has been standing for nearly 70 years. It was originally owned by a cruel, greedy man named Voltaire Mortegarth. He was so rich he had an entourage of royal servants do almost everything for him. However, they all hated him with a passion, so much so that one of them, an Italian immigrant named Leonard Rioma, revolted against him. Voltaire was so vain he hardly believed a lowlife like Leonard could do any damage, but his ignorance soon got the best of him. Leonard managed to seize all of Voltaire's wealth, including his pride and joy - his mansion. The very one we stand in. It left Voltaire so enraged that he vowed to get back at Leonard at all costs before promptly committing suicide on the mansion's porch. Out of respect for his old boss, Leonard buried the body within the depths of this mansion. He then continued to live there for several months afterwards, until unknown circumstances caused him to go insane. No one knows what happened - some say it was something to do with the mansion itself. Either way, Leonard ran away from here. Far away. Where he went and how he continued his living remains a mystery, but legend has it that Leonard returned to this place as an old man and died inside. Neither his body nor Voltaire's has ever been found. All I know is that this mansion has been empty ever since..."

Luigi and Daisy stood silently and listened to the tale all the way to the end. Luigi couldn't believe it. "So... if that's true, then King Boo..."
"Yup," said E Gadd, "I didn't build this house based on the haunted mansion. King Boo built his haunted mansion to the layout of this one..."
"But why THIS house? What's his connection to this mansion?"
"I've never found out..." said E Gadd.
"And speaking of which, how do YOU know about this mansion?"
"...When you plan on capturing a ghost, its best to learn as much about the haunting ground's past as possible..."
"Wait... you captured a ghost here? Which one?"
"Boolossus..."

Luigi closed his eyes and shook his head. "No no no... none of this adds up! None of this makes any SENSE!!"

"Wait, wait a minute!" Daisy cried. "Who is Boolossus?"

"He's an enormous Boo, the product of fifteen smaller ones combined," E Gadd explained softly.

Luigi wouldn't let the subject be changed. "Professor, you told me you BUILT this house! Why?!"
"Well, I was afraid if I told you how old this house was, then I'd have to tell you its history. And if I told you its history... Luigi, I fear the ghosts of Leonard and Voltaire may still haunt this place. I knew you couldn't stand living in a potentially haunted house, so I tried to cover up the story by saying the house was brand new. I only used your treasure to completely refurbish it inside and out to make it appear so. Building a house from scratch is too hard of work for an old man like me. You know, lower back pain. Heh heh..."
Luigi slapped his hand over his face and sighed. It seemed that with every question that was answered, another popped up. He soon decided it was far too much to think about. He merely continued forward through the door out into the hallway. "C'mon guys, let's go make sure Mario's OK."

No one said a word while the three walked towards the Parlor. However, upon opening the door, they found it to be empty. Luigi couldn't help the wave of anxiety that swept over him.
"He must be downstairs at the party," Daisy deduced.
"Now hold it," said E Gadd. "Luigi, you kept the GameBoy Horror I gave to you, right?"
"Yeah," Luigi replied, "But I think I left it in the Billiard's Room somewhere."
"Well it has a function that can locate the Poltergust 3000 anywhere, anytime! If Mario still has it, then we can use that feature to find him. Fancy going to get it?"

"Hmmm..." said Luigi. "I dunno. Maybe we should just check the party and-"
"Oh, c'mon! Let's get the GameBoy Horror!" exclaimed E Gadd, excitedly running down the Foyer stairs. Luigi and Daisy looked at one another and shrugged. They followed him down.

The three walked through the hallway past the Ball Room door where the party was supposed to be taking place. As they passed, Daisy kept her ears open for sounds of the party, but she didn't hear anything. Maybe the party had finally settled down?
And why were all the lights off? She had just realized that the every room they'd walked into since they returned was off. She didn't even see any light seeping out from under the Ball Room door as they passed by. Just... darkness. Evidently, Luigi had noticed it too. He looked around in the dark nervously.

E Gadd eventually led them to the Billiard's Room. The three walked in, and found that this room, too, was dark and empty. Luigi felt around for the light switch, but he couldn't seem to find it.

E Gadd had barely begun searching for the GameBoy Horror when he saw something sitting at the chess table in the southeast corner of the room. He immediately froze. "Nobody move..." he warned. Luigi and Daisy obeyed. E Gadd moved closer to the stranger sitting at the chess table. Whoever it was, they were sitting with their back facing them.

E Gadd stopped for a second - then leapt forward!

"WHOAREYOUANDWHATAREYOUDOINGHERE?!" he yelled.

The seated person screamed and nearly fell out of their chair. It was most definitely a woman's scream.

"Peach?!" cried Daisy. She ran over to the table, and Luigi followed. Peach turned around and stared at E Gadd, who looked quite embarrassed. She then looked at Luigi and Daisy, as though wondering for a second why the three of them were together. She finally spoke. "Who the heck is this nutcase?"
Luigi cleared his throat. "Umm... Peach, this is Professor E Gadd. He's, err... an old friend of mine."
"Nice to meet you Peach," he said, shaking her hand. "Sorry about that. For a second there I thought you were a gho-"
Luigi punched E Gadd in the arm, promptly shutting him up.
"Oh, well... nice to meet you too, Mr. E Gadd," Peach replied somewhat nervously. "You have, umm, quite a way of greeting people..."
E Gadd laughed. "Well hey! Luigi never told me he was acquainted with such beautiful ladies!"
Both Peach and Daisy giggled and looked up at Luigi. He looked at E Gadd, a little annoyed.

Daisy hadn't lost her nerve, though. "Peach, have you seen Mario? He has something that we really need to get our hands on..."
"Yeah," said Peach. "He was examining that stupid vacuum cleaner like a total fool. I tried to talk to him, but he seemed so intent on looking that thing that he walked out on me. He went to the Study, so I followed him, but once I was outside the door, I stopped. It just didn't seem worth it. So that's when I decided to just come into the Billiard's Room and sit here by myself..."

"So he's in the Study?" asked E Gadd.
"Well, he was, but that man's been all over the place tonight. Who knows?"

"Hey Peach, did you happen to notice anything strange about that vacuum?" asked Luigi.
"What's everyone's deal with this stupid vacuum?!" Peach asked, exasperrated. "...But, come to think of it, I do seem to remember Mario taking off some twist cap, looking inside of it, and then jumping back like something inside tried to bite him. And then when I was outside the Study, I heard some weird noises coming from behind the door... but, I don't think any of those things are real important..."

E Gadd looked up at the dark ceiling lamp. "Say, Peach? Do you know who turned off all the lights?"
"Why, no. A little after I walked in here and sat down, the lights just went off. Why? What does that mean?"
E Gadd suddenly seemed nervous. "C'mon guys, we have to find that GameBoy Horror quick. Everyone look around!"

Everyone immediately began to search for the GameBoy Horror. Even Peach, even though she didn't exactly know what she was looking for. They searched for no more than a minute when Daisy called out, "I found it!"
It was in one of the small brown drawers on the left-hand wall, which was beside some pool sticks propped up against the wall and beneath a dartboard. Daisy held the little device up triumphantly. Luigi smiled.
But he suddenly froze when he heard a loud clunk. It sounded like something small and hard had just been dropped onto the floor. Luigi listened. It sounded as if something was rolling along the wooden floorboards. It seemed that he was the only one that heard whatever it was he was hearing.
Luigi dropped onto the ground and looked beneath the pool table...

The 8 ball.
It was rolling on its own...
Right towards Daisy!

Luigi wasn't sure what this 8 ball was planning to do to her, but it couldn't be good. And he couldn't let it happen.
But what should he do?! Luigi would've tried to stop the 8 ball, but it was moving faster than he could craw under the table after it. Besides, even if he could somehow catch, he'd be afraid to. What was moving that ball?
Luigi did the only thing he could think of. "Daisy! MOVE!!"

A look of alarm struck Daisy's face. "W-What? What is it, Luigi?!"

Luigi pointed with a shaky hand at the floor. Daisy looked down at where he pointed.

And when she saw the 8 Ball rolling slowly towards her feet, she began to cower and back up away from it. She then bumped into the wall, and the 8 Ball proceeded to advance. "What's it doing?!" she asked fearfully.

E Gadd took notice and made a mad dash for the 8 Ball in attempt to stop it, but as he got close, an invisible barrier knocked him back, causing him to tumble backwards.

The 8 Ball wasn't stopping, and Daisy didn't do anything except stare as it rolled closer...

"DAISY! MOVE!!" Luigi screamed once again.

Luigi's command seemed to knock her out of a trance. Just as she did, she saw the 8 Ball begin to roll slightly off to the left, right into a pair of pool sticks leaning against the wall. When the 8 Ball struck them, they began to topple over in Daisy's direction...

Taking Luigi's advice, Daisy leapt to her side. Upon landing on the floor a few feet away, she looked back and watched as the pool sticks fell over. They struck the dartboard on the wall, causing six sharp darts to become knocked loose and fall. They fell like a rain of spikes. Daisy let out a shriek as each and every one landed on the wooden floor on the sharp end, mere inches from where she sat. They all stuck into the wooden ground and stood upright. Had Daisy stayed where she was, they would have easily pierced her skull.

Nobody moved for a long time. Daisy was especially still. She continued to stare at the darts that had nearly rained upon her. The needles on them were so long, so sharp. Not like normal darts at all. She couldn't hardly bear thinking about what might have happened...

Peach at last jogged over to help her up. "My goodness! Are you alright, Daisy??"

As Daisy was helped up, she merely nodded, still looking at the darts stuck into the floor.

E Gadd then slowly walked over. "So Daisy... You got the GameBoy Horror, did ya?"

Daisy looked at him, then handed the GameBoy Horror to him without a word.

"Thank you," E Gadd said quietly. "Now then, let's see here..." He turned on the device and switched the Poltergust 3000 Radar on. After looking at the screen for a few seconds, he nodded slowly. "Yup. The Poltergust 3000's in the Study. Guess Mario's still there with it. Come on gang, let's go catch up with him before he leaves..."

E Gadd then looked at Peach and Daisy, who still looked very upset. "Ladies first," he said, motioning towards the door.

Peach nodded and led Daisy towards the door. As they walked, they passed Luigi. Luigi looked at Daisy sorrowfully. He couldn't find the words to say. "Daisy, I..."

Daisy just looked up at him with sad eyes, which even looked somewhat angry...

Seeing Daisy look at him that way was like a stab to his chest. He didn't say any more as the two girls left the room.

E Gadd walked up to Luigi. "Hey Luigi, you uhh... Gonna come with us?"

Luigi sighed. "I'll catch up in a sec. You go ahead with them..."

"Sure thing."

E Gadd walked through the door, and gently closed it. Luigi was left in the dark Billiard's Room to his lonesome.

Almost immediately, he threw his hand over his face and cursed to himself. How could he have not done anything?! Why did he do nothing more than just tell her to move?! Hell, even E Gadd had made more of an effort to help her than he had! Luigi was so frustrated with himself he slammed his fist down on the pool table.

His first opportunity to save his princess, and he blew it... If only he'd have tried harder to stop that 8 Ball, Daisy at the very least might have thanked him for trying.

Then, as he began to think about it... What the hell was it that made the 8 Ball roll on its own?

Luigi suddenly began to feel cold. Ice cold. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end...

He had a feeling he was being watched.

Forcing the feeling away, Luigi began to walk quickly towards the door to catch up with the other three. The very least he could do was apologize to Daisy for being such a coward. Then maybe she'd at least forgive him...

Luigi reached for the doorknob... And then stopped.

In the reflection in the big mirror on the north wall, something strange caught his eye...

In the middle of the room, near the pool table, there floated a tall, faint bluish haze that held something long in its... hand?

It reminded Luigi of Slim Bankshot holding his pool stick...

Luigi shook his head. No. Slim Bankshot wasn't free. He hadn't tried to kill Daisy. It was all just a trick his troubled mind was playing on him. The Portrait Ghosts were still trapped inside the Poltergust 3000...

Luigi looked away from the mirror and into the room.

He saw nothing.
Luigi breathed deeply and opened the door, walking back out into the hallway. There was no way the ghosts had been freed already. No way...

Luigi soon met up with E Gadd in the hall.

"Luigi..." E Gadd asked, "Should we head for the Study now?"
"Yeah," said Luigi, "But where are Peach and Daisy?"
"They said they wanted to go into the Conservatory to have some girl talk or somethin'..."
Luigi suddenly remembered Melody, the ghost of the Conservatory, and felt a tinge of fear.
"Luigi, maybe you should talk to her..." E Gadd advised out of the blue.
Luigi wasn't sure what to do. Despite how much he desperately wanted to talk to Daisy and apologize to her, the apparition he'd seen in the Billiard's Room really had him worried. He needed to make sure the ghosts were still within the Poltergust 3000 and that Mario and everyone else was safe. He could talk to Daisy immediately afterward, but the Poltergust 3000 couldn't wait any longer.
"I will, Professor," said Luigi. "We have to go see Mario as soon as possible. I need to make sure everything's OK."
E Gadd looked up at him. "Alrighty, but let's be quick."

The duo ran up the Foyer steps, through the door, into the hallway, and stopped outside the Study. E Gadd checked his GameBoy Horror radar. Indeed, the Poltergust 3000 was beyond that door. Hopefully, Mario was too.
Luigi carefully gripped the handle, twisted it, and threw open the door.

Luigi and E Gadd stared in the room in fear.

It was empty.

The two slowly walked in. "M-Mario?" Luigi asked nervously. "Are you in here? Oh God, please tell me you're in here..."

They began to look around. Luigi was confused. He didn't see Mario anywhere... Was he hiding? Why would he be?

E Gadd was still looking at his GameBoy Horror. "I don't understand... This thing says my Poltergust 3000 is in here! But where it is? And where's Mario?"

"I don't know..." Luigi answered, suddenly starting to feel very nervous.

A sudden cry from E Gadd made Luigi jump. "LUIGI!! Come over here!"

Luigi heard E Gadd's voice from behind the desk in the rear corner of the room. He quickly ran over to see what the deal was. Once he saw what E Gadd was pointing at, his eyes went wide with fear.

There lay the Poltergust 3000... Broken in two.

E Gadd dropped two his knees and picked up the two pieces. He then stood up and examined them. It looked as though someone with monstrously strong hands had just pulled it apart. E Gadd dropped the two halves on the table. "It's hopeless..."

Luigi grew frantic at that moment as he grabbed the pieces of the Poltergust 3000. "No... No no no NO!!" he screamed, trying desperately to shove the two halves together again.

E Gadd stopped him. "We're too late, Luigi! The ghosts... they've already been freed. There's nothing we can do now..."

Luigi knew what E Gadd was saying was true, but he just couldn't bring himself to believe it. All this time, he'd had himself convinced that the Poltergust 3000 had no chance of faltering and that the ghosts would be trapped in there no matter what. But at that moment, the truth had come like a fist that socked him in the gut.

All of E Gadd's Portrait Ghosts were free. And filled with unspeakable rage, just as E Gadd had warned. Rage that granted them new and terrifying powers...

And Mario was nowhere to be found. Perhaps the ghosts had ravaged him horribly upon being set free, leaving not even a single drop of his blood. The thought terrified Luigi...

He knew now that the apparition he'd seen in the Billiard's Room had been real. Slim Bankshot really had tried to kill Daisy...

And where were Luigi and E Gadd? The Study... Where Neville was!

With wide eyes, Luigi slowly turned around and looked towards Neville's rocking chair...

And his gaze was met by a pair of blood-red eyes. Eyes that belonged to none other than Neville, the bookish father!

"AAAUUUGHHH!!" Luigi screamed, dropping the Poltergust 3000's pieces on the ground.

"What? What is it, Luigi?!" E Gadd asked.

Luigi pointed a shaky finger. "N-N-NEVILLE!!"

Luigi and E Gadd cowered in the corner as Neville rose from his rocking chair and floated towards them menacingly. He held his book high up in the air, as though hoping to use it as a weapon. But... what damage could a book do? Well, considering what the spinning wheel and 8 ball had done, Luigi and E Gadd weren't sure they wanted to know.

Neville's eyes flashed red with anger as he opened up the book in his hand and ripped out a few pages. What was he planning to do? He held up the pages and threw them like ninja stars. Luigi and E Gadd jumped back out of their way, and watch as they shredded through the chair behind the desk and sliced it into several pieces.
"Dang," said E Gadd, "That's a hell of a paper cut..."
"Professor!" Luigi pleaded, "What are we gonna do?! Without the Poltergust 3000, we can't do anything to-!"
That was the last he could say before ducking down and dodging another set of ultra-sharp pages which shaved off the corner of the desk.
From his position, Luigi spotted the cover of the book Neville was reading...
"Johnny Tremain"

"Ugh," said Luigi. "No wonder Neville has no problem ripping out the pages and risking getting blood all over them. This guy's gotta get a better book to read..."
E Gadd snapped his fingers. "That's IT! Luigi, you're a genius!"
"I am?!"
"Yes! You see, no matter how vengeful a ghost becomes, that rage can never overpower the reason why a ghost stays on Earth even after death!"
"I'm sorry, I didn't quite get that..."
"His unfinished BUSINESS! Don't you see? All ghosts have unfinished business! That's why they don't cross over!"
"Oh... so?"
"SO... Neville's reason for remaining on earth was to finish all the good books in his library! If we can just find him a better book, he'll likely revert back to his usual reading state!"
"Oh..." said Luigi.
"OK, so let's just mozey on over to the bookshelves and have a look..."
"Umm... E Gadd?"

"Yeah?"
"Neville is, like, two inches in front of your face."

E Gadd looked away from Luigi and at the snarling ghost face in front of him. Neville raised the book, which was partway open with razor sharp pages sticking out, and swung across. Luigi pulled E Gadd backwards at the last second. The pages sticking out of the book would have easily slashed through E Gadd's throat. "C'mon! Let's hurry!"
Luigi and E Gadd bolted towards the bookshelf and began the mad hunt for a good book. Luigi was having some difficulty. "Little Women? No... Scarlet Letter? No good... Biography of Whoopi Goldberg? Where the hell does he find these..."
Luigi ducked down to avoid a mad swipe from Neville. It slashed the spines of all the books Luigi had been looking through. He proceeded to search through the books on the bottom shelf.

"HEY!" he heard E Gadd call. "Is Antigone a good book!?"
"Too old!" Luigi answered.
"How about Moby Dick?"
"Too long!"
"How about this, ummm... 'On the Flipside' by KholdstareV?"
"Who the hell is that?!"
"I don't know!"
"Then it probably sucks! Keep looking!"

Luigi finally came across one that looked interesting. It had a picture of a boy and a dog on the front. It was called "The Phantom Tollbooth". Without much thought, Luigi whipped around with the book in his hand. E Gadd was busily searching when Neville was sneaking up behind him, holding a paper airplane that looked sharp enough to pierce through bone. He raised his arm, ready to throw it at the back of E Gadd's head.
"NEVILLE!" Luigi cried just in time.

Neville turned and looked at Luigi, his eyes flashing red.
"Umm... might I recommend this book?" asked Luigi, shutting his eyes.
Neville floated up to him and took the book in his hand. He looked at the cover, then read the back.
He then looked at the ruined"Johnny Tremain"book in his other hand...

And dropped it.

"Thank you," Neville replied graciously. "That Johnny Tremain book was boring me to tears! But this one seems interesting enough..." With that, he floated back to his rocking chair and began to read. As he did, the evil glow in his eyes slowly faded.

After a few moments of awkward, yet relieving silence, E Gadd walked up to Luigi, the remains of the Poltergust 3000 in his hands. "It's totaled," he said. "She'll never work again..."
"So... it's unfixable?" Luigi asked, even though he pretty much already knew the answer.
"C'mon. Neville seems pretty interested in his book, so let's just leave quietly..."
The two walked out of the Study, leaving Neville behind with his good book.

The two returned to the Foyer and stood on the steps. And it was because they were safe that they now suddenly realized the situation they were in...
They were too late. The Portrait Ghosts were freed. King Boo was now completely running the place. Luigi's Mansion was now filled with blood-thirsty spirits. All their friends and loved ones were lost somewhere within the walls, and God knew whether or not they were alive or dead...

Luigi then remembered what E Gadd had said about ghosts and their unfinished business. What would happen if this business was finished? Would they cross over and live in peace...?
With the Poltergust 3000 utterly destroyed, Luigi began to think hard about this. Perhaps helping these vengeful spirits reach their goals and cross over may be their only offense against them. Maybe they could help all of the Portrait Ghosts finally find peace in Heaven or Hell...
Maybe even King Boo...?

But as Luigi stood, thinking, he suddenly remembered Daisy and Peach. They were in the Conservatory, where the ghost pianist Melody Pianissima had resided in King Boo's ghost mansion. It made him worry that they could be in danger even at that very moment. He wanted to ask E Gadd about possibly helping the ghosts cross over, but thinking of Daisy and Peach made him very nervous. Besides, E Gadd probably didn't care much about helping the ghosts cross over anyway, seeing as he felt the need to imprison them inside paintings for their entire afterlives in the first place...
"C'mon Professor," said Luigi, running down the steps. "Daisy and Peach might be in trouble! You did say they were in the Conservatory, right?"
E Gadd began to run down the stairs after him. "Oh yeah, the Conservatory where you captured Melody!"
"Yeah, that one," said Luigi glumly.
"But all she does is play the piano. What can she possibly do?"
"Well, considering how much Neville can do with just a book, I really don't wanna find out."

Luigi and E Gadd ran through the dark hallway towards the Conservatory. As they ran by the door to the Ball Room, Luigi took another glance to see if there was any light coming from underneath the door.
He saw none. The Ball Room was pitch dark.
Now that he knew the Portrait Ghosts had been freed, he shuddered to think about what may have happened to all the guests...

Eventually, the duo burst through the door to the Conservatory. This room, too, was void of any light. The whole house seemed to be. Perhaps the release of the ghosts had caused a blackout? Luigi felt around the wall for a light switch. He found none. It also seemed that every light switch in the house had simply disappeared...

They saw Daisy and Peach had each taken a seat on top of one of the three drums on the northern side of the room. Daisy was looking down, almost as though she were in tears. Peach looked as if she was trying to console her. When they saw Luigi and E Gadd enter, they both looked up at them. Daisy, however, looked right back down again. Peach hopped off the drum and walked over to them.
"Luigi!" said Peach sternly, "What is going on here?!"
"I don't have time to explain now..." he said, taking a nervous glance at Melody's piano chair. "This room isn't safe. We have to get out of here." He called over to Daisy. "Daisy! We have to get out of this room! Please, listen to me!"
Daisy looked up at him, her expression sad and angry at the same time. It broke Luigi's heart to see her look at him like that. She then looked back down again.
Luigi understood how she felt. Most people didn't handle near-death experiences too well. But the fact that he could have helped her... it made him feel terrible. "Listen Daisy, I'm so sorry I didn't-"

But before he could finish, he heard the door slam shut. He, E Gadd, and Peach all whipped around and looked. Even Daisy looked up, her eyes now wide with terror.
And then they heard a single piano key.
A soft, high-pitched piano key.
At any other time, it would have sounded beautiful, but now, it struck fear in all their hearts...

They heard another note...
And another...
Until they heard the slow paced piano notes start to string together into a song. A horrible song. A song that brought thoughts of death to all their minds...

The song then began to play faster, and louder. As it continued to grow in intensity, Luigi felt a throbbing pain in his head. He looked over at E Gadd and Peach, who were right next to him. They too were succumbing to the horrible effects of the mysterious song.
Luigi then looked over at Daisy. She appeared ready to pass out from the extreme pain in her head. At that moment, Luigi forgot all about his own pain and approached her. As he did, he looked at the piano chair...
And saw Melody, pounding on the keys like a madwoman, her eyes glowing red like fire. She looked at Luigi and gave him a wicked smile.

At that moment, Luigi looked back at Daisy. Her pain must have been unbearable. When Luigi was only a few feet from her, he reached out his hand, hoping to help her, somehow. But he, too, soon felt on the verge of faint. The evil melody pounded in the back of his skull with such intensity. He finally lost it and toppled forward. His outstretched hand missed Daisy and instead landed hard on the drum next to the one she sat on...
BUUUMMM!

In an instant, the evil song stopped. Sweat on his face, Luigi looked back at Melody. The red glow in her eyes had dimmed, and she stared into space as though the drum beat had awakened something within her.
Luigi then remembered how when Neville started reading the Phantom Tollbooth, the glow in his eyes had receded as well...
Could the drum beat have been the key to Melody's crossing over...?

Feeling hopeful, Luigi looked around the room. There were three drums, a xylophone, a harp, a cello, and a saxophone. Daisy, Peach and E Gadd seemed to have recovered as well. Maybe they could put on a performance? It seemed as though that's what Melody was waiting for...

Luigi could see Melody's angry eyes suddenly begin to glow red again. He knew he had to organize this symphony quick. He ran over to the saxophone and picked it up. He then jumped on top of the drums and began to dance upon them. He wasn't sure he was making a great sound, but at least he had rhythm. Melody seemed to have picked up on this rhythm and began to play the "Super Mario Theme", just as she had done before.
"E Gadd, go grab the cello," Luigi ordered.

E Gadd obeyed and ran over to it.

"Peach, try the xylophone."

Peach reluctantly picked up the sticks and began to play.

"Daisy... wanna play the harp?"

Daisy merely nodded and walked over.

Within minutes, the orchestra was in full swing. Luigi danced atop the drums, trying to keep a steady beat, while tooting on the sax. E Gadd was playing the cello surprisingly well, and while he may not have hit every right note, he was on tempo the whole time. Peach seemed absolutely clueless with her xylophone, but thankfully, the other instruments drowned out her spastic performance. But Daisy... she was playing the harp like an angel. Luigi felt his heart go all aflutter with each harp string he heard her run her fingers across. All this was topped off by Melody's fine piano sonata.
But something wasn't right. Luigi had done this back at the haunted mansion, he remembered. Nothing had happened then, and nothing was happening now.
Something was missing...

From the top of the drums, Luigi looked around the room for an instrument they perhaps missed...
And he spotted a triangle on the ground, right next to Peach.
"Peach!" he cried between sax notes, "Grab that triangle by your foot!"

Peach looked down and saw it. She dropped one of her xylophone sticks and picked the triangle up.
"Peach, right at the song's climax, hit it!"
"OK!" she called back, continuing to play the xylophone with one stick.

The song's climax was coming soon. Luigi was ready to call out...
DOO Doo doo doo, Doo, doo Doo DOO, doo Doo DOO, DOO Doo...
"Now!" he yelled.
At that moment, Peach used the stick in her hand to strike the triangle.
DOO!

TING!

At that moment, Melody rose from her chair. The evil red glow in her eyes had all but vanished. She held out her arms and looked towards the Heavens.

She then closed her eyes... and within a blink's moment, she disappeared into the sky with a flash of light.
Luigi knew it. She had crossed over. She was on her way to the Great Beyond...

The four stopped playing their instruments and walked together into the middle of the room.

"What just happened?" asked Peach.
Luigi was about to answer, but E Gadd beat him to it. "She has finished her unfinished business - playing a perfect performance of the Mario theme - and has now peacefully ascended to Heaven..."
Daisy then looked at Luigi and E Gadd, a look of fear on her face. "But... if she was here, then that means... Mario..."
"He couldn't contain the ghosts. They escaped..." said Luigi glumly. "And I think that... the incident in the Billiard's Room was a result as well..."
She gasped. "And what about all the party guests?"
"They're gone..."

"And Mario?" Peach asked, worried.
E Gadd and Luigi looked at each other. Peach had a feeling she knew what they were thinking - Mario was missing too.

Peach then grunted in frustration."I still have no idea WHAT is going on here! Daisy, you obviously do! Why haven't you told me!"
"Well, I figured there was no need to so long as the ghosts weren't freed..."
"GHOSTS?! What ghosts?!"
Knowing there was no point in keeping it a secret anymore, Daisy, Luigi, and E Gadd told Peach the entire tale. Every single detail.

When it was finished, Peach was stunned. "My God... We're trapped in a mansion full of evil spirits!? And all the guests are missing? And my Mario... Where is he?!"
"We don't know," said Luigi. "We just have to stick together and find everyone."
"But what about the ghosts?! How do we know they haven't just killed everyone yet?"
"We just have to pray..."
"And what do we do after we escape? Just leave the ghosts here? They'll probably just follow us wherever we go until we're all dead!!"

Luigi suddenly realized that Peach might've been right. No matter where they went, the ghosts would follow. King Boo... he would never cease his hunt for Luigi until he was dead. Luigi knew it...
But Luigi then cracked a grin. "Not if we help them all cross over..."
"You mean... like Melody did?" asked Peach.
"Yeah, just like her."
"So... we just need to learn every ghosts unfinished business and help them finish it!"
"Exactly!"

Daisy had been thinking. "Hmm... I wonder what King Boo's unfinished business could be...?"
Luigi thought about that too. What might be the unfinished business of the King of all Boos? He stole a quick glance at E Gadd, who looked as though he knew the answer, and it wasn't good.

E Gadd finally spoke. "OK team, let's split up. It will increase our chances of finding any missing guests!"
"And any ghosts that need help crossing over!" Luigi finished.
"Yeah, that too..." said E Gadd, though there was a certain sorrow in his voice when he said it.
"Alrighty then. How should we split up?"

Luigi looked over at Daisy, who still looked rather upset. He really needed to talk to her. "Daisy and I can go together."
"OK," said E Gadd. "So I guess Peach and I will be a team. How's about we check the second floor and you two check the first?"
"Sure thing," said Luigi.

E Gadd walked towards the Conservatory door, with Peach behind him. "Wait," said Peach. "If we do happen to find someone, we should all meet somewhere."
"Good thinkin," said E Gadd, "Let's see. I say in precisely one hour, we all meet in the..."

"Foyer," said Luigi. "It's the only safe room in the mansion."
"Yeah, the Foyer," E Gadd agreed. "OK, c'mon miss Peach, let's get going!"
"OK..." said Peach, who looked absolutely frightened. Within a few seconds, the two were out the door, leaving Luigi and Daisy alone in the Conservatory.

"I hope everyone's alright," Luigi moaned.
"Me too..." said Daisy.
Luigi looked at her with a faint smile. "You, um... you play the harp really good."
Daisy smiled a little back. "Thanks. It's my favorite instrument. It just sounds so beautiful, doesn't it?"
"Yeah..." said Luigi under his breath. "...just like you."
"Hmm?" Daisy asked.
"Wha-? I didn't say anything," Luigi stuttered.
"Oh..." said Daisy, though she gave a suspicious glance.
A serious look came across Luigi's face. "Listen Daisy, about what happened in the Billiard's Room, I-"
But Daisy stopped him. "It's OK, Luigi. I was just... a little shaken. That's all..."

After a few seconds of silence, Daisy stepped close to Luigi, and put her arms around him. She then whispered the most poignant of words...

"Luigi, I'm scared..."

Luigi put his arms around her in return. "Me too," he replied. "Me too... We all are. But we have to be brave. Our friends are more scared than we are, because they don't have any idea what's happening..."
"But neither do we," Daisy said, releasing him. "There's still so much we don't know..."
"That's true," said Luigi. "But answering every little question isn't important right now. We just need to get everyone out of here..."
"No, Luigi..." said Daisy seriously. She then put her face in close to his and smiled slyly. "Let's leave the rescuing to E Gadd and Peach. WE... are gonna solve this mystery!"

Normally, Luigi would've objected, but something about the way Daisy said it was so convincing.
"Umm... OK, let's do it!" Luigi exclaimed.
The two smiled and walked out of the Conservatory into the hallway...

Luigi and Daisy soon reached the Foyer, for as they had said earlier, it was the only safe abode in the mansion.

"OK," said Daisy. "Let's first jot down a list of questions that still need to be answered."
"Sure," Luigi replied, pulling a crumpled napkin out of his pocket. "Got a pencil?"
"Got a pen," she announced with a smile. She pulled a blue pen out of her pocket and handed it to him. The two began to discuss the events of the past and present. Of the people, places and things involved. Of virtually everything that could've possibly shared a connection to what was going on...

...And in a matter of minutes, Luigi had written down a list of questions that needed to be answered at all costs...

--

1. Who freed King Boo from his painting, and why?
2. How did the ghosts escape from the Poltergust 3000? Did they break free, or did an external force help them escape?
3. What is King Boo's connection to this mansion? Boolossus' connection to this mansion? King Boo's connection to Boolossus?
4. Why did King Boo build a replica of this mansion in front of E Gadd's laboratory and capture all of his Portrait Ghosts?
5. King Boo had tried to lead Mario and I into a trap in his ghost mansion, and he now plans to kill us here, despite the fact that we've never met him. Why? What is his grudge against us?
6. Why has Mario been acting so strange all night? Where did he go after the Poltergust 3000 broke?
7. Does the story of Leonard Rioma and Voltaire Mortegarth have any significance?

--

Luigi and Daisy studied the list intently. They pondered over what sources they could use to answer these questions.
"Well," said Luigi, "If we happen to find Mario, I'm sure he could help us answer question 6."
"And considering these Leonard and Voltaire guys both lived and died in this house," reasoned Daisy, "There has to be some sort of record they left behind to help us answer number 7."
"As for all the other questions..." began Luigi.
Daisy looked a little hopeless. "...Hopefully some answers will lead to others."
"Or, if we could somehow have a chat with King Boo..." Luigi thought.
Daisy thought a bit. "If we did somehow get that opportunity, we'd best take advantage of it."
"Alright then Daisy, I say we search the mansion for either Mario or a record of Leonard or Voltaire. Whichever we find first, it doesn't matter."
"OK, let's go!" Daisy exclaimed. "But first, I kinda wanna check the Ball Room to see if anyone is still there. Don't you?"

Luigi nodded in agreement.

With that, the two headed towards the Ball Room, their minds reeling with possibilities of what may have happened in the mansion's mysterious past, as well as what may have been happening within at that very moment...

Toad rubbed his head. How he had ended up in this room full of gym equipment was anyone's guess. He remembered that two floating figures had caused an uproar in the Ball Room back at the party, and that a chandelier had fallen and killed someone. And now... he was here. He had been hanging out with Yoshi at the time, but Yoshi was nowhere to be found...

Toad got up and felt an ache in his left foot. He found an exercise bike had been overturned and fallen onto it. After pushing it off, he fought the pain and tried to walk towards the door. "Some party..." he told himself. "What the hell kinda practical joke is Luigi pulling here?" He didn't know why, but something was telling him that this was far more than a prank...

"Y-Yoshi..."

Toad jumped. Was that Yoshi?! No, it couldn't be. Yoshi always sounded so happy, but that sounded... scared.
"Y-Yoshi...!"
Toad looked in the corner where he heard the voice. Yoshi sat there, staring at the center of the room at the huge barbell.

"Yoshi! Are you OK!?" Toad asked, running over to him.
Yoshi knew Toad was there, but he didn't look up at him. His eyes were fixed on the barbell. "Yoooshi..."
"Wha- what is it? What's wrong?" Toad asked, getting more scared by the second.

He then slowly looked over at the spot where Yoshi was looking...
"YOSHI!!" Yoshi screamed. He grabbed Toad and hurled them out of the way of the huge barbell that came sailing at them. It narrowly missed, smashing against the wall with a huge CRASH!!
"What the hell was THAT?!" Toad screamed. He looked in the center of the room, and saw the biggest, buffest man he'd ever seen.
And he was floating two feet off the ground.
"Oh my God..." cried Toad. "It's a freakin' ghost!!"

"YOSHI!" Yoshi ran towards the ghost and lashed his tongue out. It went right through him, but Yoshi didn't give up. He dodged a mighty punch from the ghost and proceeded to try and kick him from behind. No luck.
"Yoshi, get out of there! It's no use! You're just going right through- YAAAGGHHH!!"
The ghost was coming right at Toad, his muscles bulging and his eyes red like fire. He picked up two dumbbells and chucked them in his direction. Toad closed his eyes, but just as the dumbbells were about to smash his face in, Yoshi's long red tongue lashed onto them and flung them back in the ghost's face. The ghost staggered back in pain. The dumbbells appeared to have hurt him.

"Yeah! Nice one Yoshi!" Toad yelled, but not before screaming again, for the ghost was going for him once more! The ghost reared his fist back for a punch, but at that moment, Toad felt a long, wet tongue wrap around his body. He was then flung up into the air - onto Yoshi's back!
"YOSHI!" Yoshi cried.
"Awesome, Yoshi! You're the coolest!"

And so, Yoshi ran around the room, dodging the blows of the crazed ghost. Toad would pick up dumbbells and weights and every piece of equipment he could find to chuck at the ghost and make him hold back, but nothing did.
However, Toad then noticed something - the only objects the ghost could involuntarily make contact with was the gym equipment. Maybe they could use this to their advantage...
"Yoshi, can you grab that huge barbell over there?"
"YOSHI!"

Yoshi lashed out his tongue and wrapped it around the huge barbell that the ghost had thrown earlier. He was waiting for Toad's signal to throw it on top of the ghost. As the ghost drew closer, he stared at Toad through fiery red eyes...
"Hey sucker!" Toad cried, "Suck on THIS!!"
With that, he did a stylish jump off of Yoshi's back and kicked a nearby punching bag into the ghost's face! The blow threw the ghost back and onto the floor. "NOW" cried Toad.
"YOSHI!" With that, Yoshi used every last muscle in his body to fling the barbell up with his tongue and bring it down hard on the ghost's chest. "OOOGGGFFF!!" the ghost exclaimed.
"C'mon Yoshi!" Toad cried. "Let's put an IMPOSSIBLE amount of weight on this thing to hold him down!"
"YOSHI!"
The two ran back and forth, grabbing weights from every corner of the Rec Room and putting them on each side of the barbell. Pretty soon, it was loaded to its fullest, and looked as heavy as a frickin' boulder. The ghost struggled to lift it off of his chest, but it didn't even budge.
"Nice work, man!" said Toad, giving Yoshi a high-five.
"Yoshi!" Yoshi said, returning the high-five.
But they then looked back at the ghost, and to their surprise - and horror - he was using all of his ghostly strength to actually LIFT the crazy amount of weight off of himself!
Toad and Yoshi were so shocked they couldn't say a word. They only watched as the burly spirit lifted the weight off of himself inch by inch...

The ghost would definitely be able to lift the weight off of him enough to escape in a matter of seconds. Yoshi and Toad didn't have time to rummage around for more weight. Without a second thought, Toad leapt up, grabbed one side of the barbell, and struggled to pull it back down. "Grrrrggghhhh!! I won't let you... lift this thing!" he shouted. "Yoshi! Grab the other side and hold him down!!"

Yoshi narrowed his eyes and lashed his tongue out at the other end of the barbell, wrapping it around several times. He then stood at a low angle and tried to pull it down as well. However, their efforts were in vain. Despite how exhausted he looked, the burly phantom continued to push the insane weight load off of his chest. Toad began to feel his feet being lifting off the ground, and Yoshi felt his tongue stretching upward.

"NO WAY!!" Toad screamed. "No WAY this is possible!!"

With a strength unbeknownst to either of the two heroes, the musclebound beast finally lifted the barbell as high as his arms would allow. Goddamn, that must've been over 1000 pounds! Toad and Yoshi knew it - it was hopeless now. They couldn't beat this guy...

Suddenly, the ghost vanished! The barbell fell down with a THUD!!,causing Toad to tumble backwards. Yoshi did too, and considering where he'd been standing, it was a miracle he hadn't been crushed underneath the weight. Toad and Yoshi ran up to each other, confused. Where had that scary ghost gone...?

Their question was soon answered when the terrible phantom reappeared right in front of them. They saw his glowing red eyes slowly recede to a soft yellow. Was that a bad thing, Toad wondered? Well, he wasn't taking any chances! "Back off, you demon!" he warned. He held up his index fingers, which were in the shape of a cross. "The power of Christ compels you, bitch!"

"YOSHI!!"

But the bodybuilding spirit merely laughed. "Naw... don't worry about a thing, fellas," he said in a casual tone. "Heck, I oughtta be thanking you for what you did for me!"

Toad dropped his hands. "Guh-wha...?"

"You see, my unfinished business in this world was to bench press 1,000 pounds. Once I did that, I'd have gained enough confidence in my spirit to allow me to reach Heaven. Problem is, this gym I ended up getting stuck in only had 900 pounds of weight to put on the barbell! Thanks to you two, you guys managed to bump the total weight up to even MORE than 1,000 pounds! And now, because of that, I can complete the crossing into Heaven. Thanks, you two! Maybe I'll see you up there one day... Good-bye!"

A mystical white light began to surround the ghost's body. He looked up at the ceiling, as though staring straight through into the sky...

And then, in a flash of blinding light, he vanished just as quickly as he'd come.

Toad and Yoshi stood there for a while.

"What the hell just happened?" asked Toad.

Yoshi shrugged. "Yoshi...?"

Suddenly, the door from the hallway burst open. Toad, thinking it was more ghosts, made a cross with his fingers again. "THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU, BITCH!!"

However, when he saw Princess Peach and a funny-looking old man run in, he suddenly stammered with his words. "Uh, umm... I mean... BITCHES!!"

Peach rolled her eyes, though with a smile on her face. As stupid as Toad's welcome was, she was still overjoyed to find he and Yoshi were safe. "Toad! Yoshi! I'm so glad we found you!"

"YOSHI!!" Yoshi exclaimed joyfully.

The old man with Peach stepped forward. "Ah, so you're Toad and Yoshi? It's a pleasure to finally meet you two. Luigi talks about you all the time. Says you're are quite the kart drivers!"

"Heh, thanks old dude," Toad responded. "You know Luigi? How?"

"I'll explain later," the old man assured, "Now I gotta ask - Peach and I heard quite a ruckus going on in here a moment ago. What in blazes were you two doing?"

Toad's eyes lit up. "Oh man, it was the COOLEST thing! Yoshi and I woke up in this gym, right? We had no idea how we even got here from Luigi's party... But yeah, so anyway, this buff-as-hell ghost comes out and start tryin' to beat us up! But he wasn't no match for me and Yoshi! And that right, buddy?"

"Yoshi!" Yoshi shouted, giving Toad another high-five.

The old man raised an eyebrow. "...You two beat up Biff Atlas? Balderdash!"
"Hellz yeah we did! We was all like... Whoa, wait! Biff Atlas?? That's his name? How do you know that? Who ARE you?!"
"Not important right now. Listen, did Biff Atlas cross over?"
"Did he what?!"

"Did he... disappear in a flash of white light?"

"YOSHI!!"
"Umm... I think he means 'yes'," Toad reasoned.
When the old man heard this, he closed his eyes and looked down sadly.

Ignoring the old man, Toad and Yoshi went up to Peach. "Yo Peach," Toad asked, "Why are you roaming around with this wackjob?"
"That's Professor E Gadd. He's a ghost researcher. Didn't Luigi tell you?"

"No... but how does he know that Biff guy? Does he have something to do with him coming in here and trying to kill us?!"

Peach explained the entire situation as best she could. She tried to recall everything she remembered from when Luigi, Daisy, and E Gadd told her the tale. Yoshi and Toad listened the whole way through.
"Yoshi..." Yoshi replied when Peach was finished.
"Damn, that's one tripped out story," said Toad.
"Tell me about it," Peach groaned. "Right now, we're only worried about saving everyone. Do you know where any of the other guests are?"
"Your guesses are as good as ours, Princess. Sorry..."
"YOSHI!!"
"Hmmm? Oh, hey! Yeah! Yoshi's a great scouter! He can help us find everyone, no prob!"
"Oh, wonderful!" exclaimed Peach. She was so delighted that she might now be able to find Mario, wherever he had gone...

"Say, Peach," Toad continued, "You said Luigi and Daisy went off on their own, yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Heh, well, let's hope Luigi finally works up the guts to tell Daisy how he feels, eh? EH?"

Toad, Yoshi and Peach then went up to E Gadd. "Sorry for being rude," Toad apologized. "We were just kinda freaked out. That's all. Yoshi and I will be happy to help any way we can."
"YOSHI!!"
"I'm delighted to hear that," E Gadd said with a grin. "Heck, I should be the one apologizing. I haven't even formally introduced myself! My name is Professor E Gadd. It's a pleasure to meet you, Toad and Yoshi." He shook hands with both of them as he introduced himself.

"Well met, Mr Gadd," Toad said. "So, about this whole 'crossing over' business... can you explain it to us? You know, so we can help all the evil ghosts in the mansion pass on?"
E Gadd was hesitant, but agreed. "...OK, we'll talk on the way. We need to get going and get everyone out of here ASAP. As for Luigi and Daisy, I hope they're safe..."

Luigi and Daisy wondered where they might be able to find Mario, or a record left behind by either Leonard Rioma or Voltaire Mortegarth.

"Well, you explored King Boo's ghost mansion," Daisy said to Luigi. "Any ideas?"
Luigi thought a bit. Where had he first met King Boo...?
The Storage Room!
"Yeah. I remember in King Boo's mansion, I first let the Boos free from the Storage Room. King Boo, too. That's where I first saw him."
"OK, let's check it out!" said Daisy.
"Oh, and as I think you know already, it's connected to the Ball Room, so we can check and see if anyone's left there on the way."
"OK..."

The two walked to the Ball Room door and opened it. They peered inside.
The room was empty.
The two large circular pads on the ground where spinning slowly, and an ethereal green cloud was floating around the room.
"The Floating Whirlindas..." Luigi said.
"Oh, yeah, you told me about them. The dancing couple?"
"Yeah. Looks like they scared everyone out..."
"Wait, Luigi, what happened over there?!"

In the middle of one of the spinning tiles, there lay the remains of a fallen chandelier. Luigi had a bad feeling that the Floating Whirlindas had made sure someone was crushed beneath it...
Ignoring the green mist that floated nearby, Luigi ran up to the chandelier's remains. Daisy followed behind closely. He inspected it, praying that no one was underneath...
Until he saw a small, pudgy white hand outstretched from beneath the rubble.
"Mallow..." Luigi said sadly. "I hardly knew you, man..."

Daisy then spotted someone huddled in the corner. It looked like a little wooden man dressed in a blue wizard suit. He stared through wide, teary eyes at the hand reaching out from under the smashed chandelier. "Hello," Daisy said, approaching slowly. "Don't worry, everything's gonna be OK..."
The man said nothing, his eyes still wide, and shook his head slowly.
Luigi walked up. "Geno! Are you OK? What happened here?!"
Geno trembled a bit, but managed to speak. "That... cloud. Those two dancers... They... killed Mallow."
Luigi looked at the floating cloud caused by the dancing couple, still shifting around gracefully. He didn't have time to explain the entire story. "Geno, listen to me. I need for you to go to the Foyer and stay there. Princess Peach and my friend Professor E Gadd will eventually meet up with you. Can you do that for me?"

Geno seemed as though he heard what Luigi said, but was still in shock over the sight before him. "Mallow..."
"Mallow's gone. There's nothing we can do for him now. I'm sorry. We need you to get to the Foyer as fast as possible so nothing like this will happen again."
Geno looked at him in disbelief, but realized Luigi obviously knew what was going on more than he did. Without another word, he ran out the door towards the Foyer.
"I hope he's OK..." said Daisy.
"Me too," said Luigi, "But let's hurry over to the Storage Room before the Whirlindas do anything rash."

And with that, the two got up and quickly ran through the Storage Room door.

Once inside, Luigi instinctively felt around for the light switch, but stopped when he couldn't find it. It was official, he realized - King Boo had made all the light switches in the whole mansion vanish. "Crap," he muttered.
"Luigi, what's that?" Daisy pointed to a button on the wall. Luigi recalled a similar scene from King Boo's fake mansion. Without any hesitation, he pressed the button. The west wall suddenly jerked, shook, and slowly moved all the way back, revealing the hidden second half of the room. Luigi saw the grate on the floor and the 'Danger' poster that he remembered. He ripped the poster off the wall. Beneath, as he suspected, was another button. He pressed it, and the grate flew open. Luigi half expected a mob of angry Boos to fly out like he remembered, but nothing did. In fact, he began to wonder if anything was down there...

Daisy was curious too. She stepped close, and peered into the blackness. "I can't see anything, but I feel a draft. There's definitely a room down there..."
Luigi began to feel scared. "Daisy, be careful."
But Daisy kneeled down and stepped in closer.
"Daisy, no!"
But at that moment, an invisible hand grabbed Daisy's dress and pulled her headfirst into the hole!
"LUIGIIII...!!"

"DAISY!!" Luigi screamed. Without any thoughts, Luigi leapt into the hole, unknowing how far into the dark he would fall...

To Luigi's surprise, he found he only fell about twenty feet or so before landing on what felt like an old mattress. Daisy was there too, but he couldn't see her. "Daisy, where are you?"
"I'm right here."
"Where?"
"I think I'm right next to you."
Luigi felt around. "But it's so dark. I can't see yo-"
But he stopped when he felt his hand touch Daisy's cheek. It made his heart skip. "Oh, heh. There you are."

"Luigi... where are we? You've been in here before, right? I mean, in the ghost mansion?"
"No, I have no clue what this place is. It's too dark. I think we should wait for our eyes to adjust before exploring..."
"OK. And umm... Luigi, you can take your hand off my cheek now."
Luigi pulled his hand off, embarrassed. "Oh, sorry!"

The two sat in silence until they were soon able to make out each other's faces in the dark. "Ready to carry on?" Luigi asked.
"After you!" Daisy answered.
They got off the old mattress and began to look around. It appeared to be a secret room of some sort. All Luigi could really discern in the dark was a table with two books on it.
Daisy had no idea where they were either. She looked around the room in wonder and fear. She wandered off in a different direction than Luigi, wondering what she might find. However, she didn't seem to be heading anywhere special. Even in the dark, she could see she was just heading towards a dead end...

Daisy was about to turn around when something caught her eye on the wall next to her. She turned her head slowly, and saw something strange...

On the wall was what appeared to be a shadow of some sort. A shadow that existed even in this darkness. Daisy examined it with a fearful expression, and found it to be in the shape of a man...

And where the eyes of this 'man' should've been, she saw two faint dots. They seemed to beckon her, and sink into her mind...

Daisy was just about to call out to Luigi, but nearly screamed when she saw the shadow suddenly flit along the wall at great speed. She followed it with her eyes as it flew towards the dead end, but was confused when she saw it simply disappear into the wall at the end of it.

Was... something over there? Had the shadowy apparition wanted her to follow...?

Hesitantly, Daisy walked towards the wall that the shadow had sunk into. Upon close inspection, it was clearly different from the rest of the room. Most of the walls were made of grey stone, but this wall was made of small, dry, cracked bricks.

Daisy reached out to touch with it with a shaky hand...

And when she did, she gave a light push.

The wall seemed to crumble a slight amount.

Filed to the brim with anticipation and dread, Daisy called out. "Luigi!! Come quick!!"

Luigi came running at top speed around the corner, stumbling a bit in the dark. He found Daisy alone in this little dead end and ran to her. "Daisy! What's wrong? Are you OK?!"

"I'm fine," she assured him, "But look at this. I think I found something..." She pointed at the brick wall before them. Luigi looked at it, confused. '"Yeah? What about it?"

Daisy didn't want to tell Luigi about the shadowy figure she had seen, lest it might scare him off. "It feels weak. Maybe there's something behind it?"

Luigi scratched his hat. "Maybe, but what could be back there?"

"Treasure?" Daisy asked with a shrug.

Luigi shrugged too, and decided it may be worth it to find out. He felt the wall and gave it a few little shoves. It did seem to crackle and crumble a lot. He reached up for a brick that stuck out a bit and pulled it right out. Several bricks broke loose as well, creating a good-sized hole. Using this hole, Luigi grabbed the edges of it with both hands and tugged hard. This caused practically the entire brick wall to come crashing down.

And when it did, Luigi and Daisy found themselves looking upon a sickening sight.

Two skeletons lay cramped together in this tiny inlet. Their bones were old, crusty, and covered in dust. However, the positions these two skeletons rested in was hauntingly intriguing...

The first skeleton sat upright against the wall. It wore a nice suit and a top hat. The bones were littered with rusting jewelry.
The other was on its knees with its hands on the floor, as though bowing down to the other in respect. It wore rather shabby clothes, though it's body, too, was littered with jewelry...
Luigi shuttered at the sight. He didn't do so well looking at fake skeletons, let alone real ones.
Daisy was more intrigued than nervous. The positions these people had died in... what on earth was their story? She took a step into the dusty space to take a closer look at the mysterious scene before them. Luigi gathered his courage and stepped in too.

Upon closer inspection, the gold necklace of the upright skeleton had something written on it. Luigi and Daisy walked around the bowing skeleton and put their heads in close to see what it said...

V.M.

Estates

"V.M.?" Daisy asked.
"Voltaire Mortegarth..." Luigi said quietly.

Daisy gasped. "Do you really think-?!" She then looked down at the bowing skeleton. "So then, this must be..."
"Leonard Rioma," Luigi said. "Voltaire's not-so-loyal servant."
"Sure looks loyal to me..." said Daisy, observing the scene.

Luigi noticed a trowel in Leonard's hand, and a bucket of long-since dried cement next to Leonard's bones, along with a few spare bricks.
"Leonard walled himself in here with Voltaire's dead body..."
Daisy recalled the story E Gadd had told them about Voltaire and Leonard. It didn't seem to fit with the scene before them, but then again...
Where could they get answers?
They had a feeling that all the answers lay within the pages of the books on the table...

Leaving the two skeletons at peace for the time being, Luigi and Daisy walked out of the dead end back into the main room. There they saw the two books lying on the old table in the center of the room. Upon reaching the table, they split and walked around the table in opposite directions, each moving towards a different book.

Daisy picked up the hard, black book in front of her and read the title...

Diary of Voltaire Mortegarth

Luigi then picked up his brown, leather-bound book and blew the dust off the cover...

Leonard Rioma's Journal

Luigi and Daisy looked at one another, the diaries of two tortured souls in their hands. They knew that by reading these diaries, they could hopefully solve this mystery altogether.
They only hoped the two undoubtedly restless spirits would permit this...
After some slight hesitation, Luigi and Daisy each opened their respective journals and began to read...

Peach, Toad and Yoshi followed E Gadd into the Foyer, where E Gadd began his lecture on ghosts and crossing over without delay...

"First, in order to explain the rules of death, I must explain the cycle of life. Everyone essentially has a ghost inside them. It's your very soul. However, when a person dies, their spirit leaves their now useless body and is judged based on their last life whether to go to Heaven or Hell, in which case they are sent to their destination for a predetermined amount of time, usually a period of several hundred years, until their spirit is permitted to enter a newborn body and start over. It's an endless cycle. It's believed this cycle is God's attempt to make a perfect world of peace and harmony without his direct aid. Not even I know exactly what will happen when this goal is reached, but my guess is it won't happen for a very long time, if it ever happens at all... In any case, sometimes a spirit has some very important unfinished business from their life that could ultimately help change their destination. If it may help the spirit avoid the depths of Hell and reach Heaven, then the so-named 'Great Arbiter' may agree to allow the spirit to remain on earth as long as they need to finish this business. These spirits without bodies are what we call ghosts. If by chance this business if finished, the ghost will immediately pass on to Heaven..."

Peach chimed in. "But Professor, Luigi said that he was troubled by the fact that there were some ghosts that looked like humans, yet there were also Boos... You know, that don't look human at all..."

"Ah yes," reasoned E Gadd, "The differences between ghosts and Boos. A ghost is, well, I already explained that! But Boos... Boos are those rare spirits that have no significant amount of good or bad records from the life they just finished. They're essentially ghosts, but with no unfinished business, and with no 'tilt' as to whether or not to go to Heaven or Hell. The Arbiter may then decide to let these spirits remain on earth so that they may voluntarily tilt their judgment by doing either good or bad deeds. However, as a sort of punishment for having such an uneventful life, their physical appearance is morphed into the hideous white balls we all know and fear. The only way a Boo can cross over is to do enough good or bad deeds to determine whether to go up or down, and they must visit a holy site of any sort, where they will be judged yet again... However, since Boos are the spirits of truly lazy people, they often feel as though they don't deserve such punishment because they never really did anything bad. Therefore, most of them take advantage of their horrible appearance and merely use it to do evil and mischievous things to let out their anger. So you see, the expression 'Boo!', normally used to startle people, is actually derived from the name for these unique spirits, not the other way around. Haha! Just a little fun fact there. Anyways, all they have to do is avoid getting near any holy sites and they can continue their devilish acts forever..."

"So... is that King Boo's story?" Toad asked.
"No..." said E Gadd. "King Boo has a FAR more intriguing story..."

E Gadd cleared his throat and continued. "...Now then, I'm not sure what his name was when he was alive, so I'll simply refer to him as 'X'. So, you see, when X died, the Great Arbiter's judgment was to immediately send him to Hell, because he had been an evil man. However, when Satan came to claim his soul, X fooled Satan by luring him to the sight of a Crucifix, for as you may know, Satan is powerless in the presence of the Crucifix. X's spirit wandered on earth for several more years, each time fooling Satan in order to avoid going to Hell. The Arbiter finally caught on, and angry with X, he decided to have him judged by St Peter and Satan themselves - the guardians of their own afterworld. St Peter couldn't let X into Heaven, of course, because X had been an evil man. But Satan was so angry at X for having fooled him so many times that he wanted nothing to do with him. X was a lost soul, rejected from both Heaven and Hell... Even the Great Arbiter wasn't sure what to do with him. And so, he transformed X into a Boo... an especially hideous Boo with red eyes and a blue tongue. This Boo's especially frightful appearance gained him the respect of Boos elsewhere - so much so that he eventually realized his recognition and crowned himself as King among Boos. So, as you can probably tell, King Boo isn't really a king. In fact, one might argue that he isn't even really a Boo, but..."
E Gadd stopped. He couldn't anymore.

"But Professor," said Peach. "If you know all this, then why did you trap all the ghosts inside paintings and display them in a gallery?! You of all people should be the one helping them cross over!!"
"Now you listen here, miss!" E Gadd shot back angrily, "You don't understand how difficult it is to have two such different passions. Painting and studying ghosts... Neither one on their own could get me any money. The only way was to combine them somehow..."
"That's weak!" Toad yelled. "You tampered with the laws of crossing over just for MONEY?!"
"YOSHI!!" Yoshi sounded angry too.

E Gadd couldn't argue back. His desire for money when he was young was ultimately the reason why everyone was in danger at that very moment.
"I didn't want them to cross over..." he said at last, looking down. "But now I know that they have to..."
He looked up. "C'mon guys! Let's help these spirits find peace!"

After a small celebration, they noticed a wooden man wearing a blue wizard suit stalk in slowly...