Welcome Home (Ch 1)

1

Peach’s voice started to ring in his ears.

“Mario, do you truly think that this is a good idea?”

Luigi’s voice interrupted.

“I don’t know how long this thing will stay up. We have to decide now.”

The two voices played back-to-back in his head, on a constant, never ending loop. First he remembered the voices, then he remembered the names of people who owned them. Princess Peach and Luigi.

(Now, who were they?)

Princess Peach was the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. Yes, that’s who she was. And Luigi was his brother. His younger brother. Right. Now he remembered.

To figure out where he was, however, was a more difficult and tiring task. The harder he tried to focus and force his eyes open the more his head hurt. Instead of making himself feel weaker than he was already, he tried to remember more from that day.

“We have to decide now.”

Luigi had said this. He said this while standing next to a green pipe at the top of a hill that overlooked Mushroom Castle. The pipe was chipped on the brim of one side and it was covered in dry and flaking dirt. The pipe looked familiar when Mario approached it. It didn’t take long for him to realize why it looked so familiar. The pipe was the same chipped pipe that had brought them to the Mushroom Kingdom. The pipe was the same pipe that had abandoned them in the Mushroom Kingdom those many years ago. The pipe was the same pipe that had brought them there, and now it was back, to bring them home.

Then, as if on cue, Princess Peach’s voice sounded in Mario head again.

“Are you going to leave us?”

That was all he could remember before his head ached once again. He stopped trying to remember and he lay there in the darkness hoping that something would bring him back to the light – if there was any more light for him to behold. Death was probably the next thing the big guy had in store for him. Going home was probably never an option after being left to thrive in the –

(The Mushroom Kingdom)

unbelievable and dream-like world that Mario and Luigi had lived in for years. Sure, they had adapted and made some friends along the way, but there was no place quite like home, now was there?

Mario started to feel his limbs. Something was pushing against them. He realized that he was lying on his side, but where? Where was he? He felt no concrete under him. Was this truly New York? Bogus. The darn place was called the concrete jungle for a reason. There was an overwhelming smell of smoke in the air. Something was on fire nearby, but what? What? Where the heck was he?

“Wake up, bro.”

Ah, this was a familiar voice. Luigi’s. Luigi had been trying to wake Mario up. Mario tried to give a sign that he was awake and well. He turned to the other side, towards his brother. He heard Luigi sit down beside him.

“Are you okay? You took a bad fall.”

No wonder Mario felt extreme pain. Something must have broken. Something must have happened to him while he took that bad fall.

Mario’s eyes opened slowly. His eyes adjusted to the dark light of the outside world. He looked around. The sky was covered in black clouds that hurled lightning bolts and cracked thunder, but lacked any sign of rain. The area that Mario and Luigi sat in resembled a large field, but there were only a few patches of grass that remained untouched by fire. Mario sat up and rubbed his head. The pain had gradually mellowed down to nothing but a slight throbbing sensation in the back of his cranium.

Mario began, “This isn’t . . .”

“I know,” Luigi said quickly. “But that isn’t the worst part.” He lifted a finger and pointed it in the direction of a great fire.

Mario looked towards the glow. Mushroom Castle was set ablaze.