The Luigi Story

Chapter 2: The Tunnels part 1

I woke up with a bad headache. It felt like I had been drinking all night long and my vision was still blurry, which made me feel nauseous. I decided to sit upright to help with the blur and then I felt the pain on the left side of my forehead. I touched it with my hand and pain shot all over my body. I could feel a big lump on my forehead where I hit my head and there was a bandage over my head. I could also feel bruises on my back, which I imagined I got from falling down on to the floor.

It took me a couple of minutes to gain my vision back, but I still felt terrible. I looked around to see where I was and it turned out I was still in the sewer system. I was not under the pipe anymore, but to the side of the tunnel. I also noticed that there were some jackets laying on me, most likely to prevent me from being cold while I was out.

'I must thank whomever helped me', I thought.

I started looking around to see if I could ask somebody for help or for some information, but most people here were scared. They were locked in their own minds, clutching their legs and crying softly to themselves. Others were asleep or holding each other in silence. I stood up to stretch my legs and to quietly walk around the tunnel. I still felt a little weak to walk, but I managed to get around. To the people I met eyes with I said a friendly 'hey' and most responded with a 'hey' back. Others were too shocked to respond.

I saw the old Koopa, the young woman and the child that I helped get down and they smiled at me in a more genuine way. When I reached the end of this section of the tunnel, I looked back at the crowd and it was not a lot of people. At most it was 40-50 people.

'I should have saved them', I thought. 'If I ran faster or was more like my brother they would have listened to me. I could have saved more.' A tear ran across my cheek as I thought about all those people just outside the tunnels that couldn't get in.

As I was standing there, lost in my own thoughts, a little Koopa boy walked up to me. He said something to me, but I couldn't focus on him.

'Sorry, what did you say?', I asked him.

'Where did Mario go, Luigi?', the little boy said.

'Where did Mario go?', I wondered to myself. 'I have no clue where he went or how he is doing. Is Mario dead? Has Bowser won the war? Or is it even Bowser? What can I tell this kid is going on?' Then I felt something. As if the mood of the room changed or as if a bright shining light was on my face and I was on a stage performing in front of an audience.

Toads, Koopa's and other creatures from the kingdom all together and all frightened, crying, angry, but also with a stare in their eyes. A stare of despair, that was looking right into my heart. I felt the pressure being put on me without any word being said. As the brother of Mario and semi-hero of the kingdom, I now had the responsibility of helping these lost souls and plan the next step.

I lowered myself onto one knee and put my hand on the shoulder of the little boy. I still didn't know what to say, but I had to say something.

'Mario is still outside', I said with a lump in my throat. 'He is fighting the good fight and is battling Bowser right now. The ship will be gone soon and we can go back up then.'

'Nonsense!', an old Toad screamed madly behind me. 'I saw Mario running into the mist with only one star. There is no way he could have even reached the end of the street without it depleting'.

'Shut up!', a mother yelled back. 'You're scaring the children.'

'I'm sorry, miss', the old Toad replied while in tears. 'It's just that I lost my wife and grandchildren in that mist and I don't know if the are alive or not.'