Flipped (Super Paper Mario SWAP AU)

Hope (26)

Unlike before, instead of finding herself someplace far too bright to handle, she was surrounded by darkness. 

In a way, this felt nicer. It was less overwhelming, less difficult to adjust to. Usually, people were far more afraid of the dark because of the light because there was no way of seeing what was hiding in it, but her eyes would take too much darkness over too much brightness any day.

The girl in orange slowly sat up, rubbing her head as she blinked a few times. Her eyes took a few moments to adjust to... where even was she? The last place she remembered being was in that bright castle, held down by boos while a creepy clown was stepping toward her. After that, there was a large gap in her memory.

What happened to them? The boos...

And what happened to her...?

"Prince Luigi..." she trailed off.

She shook her head. No, Prince Luigi wasn't there. He was safe at home in Sarasaland like he always was. This was one of the only things she knew for certain.

She stood up and started turning around herself. Dark walls, a dark purple river nearby, dark sky, had she been trapped in some kind of dream?

Or nightmare?

"Daisy?" a distant yet strong voice called out. 

The girl in orange quickly whirled around. Surely enough, her eyes met those of the girl in pink. 

"Peach!" Daisy cried, sprinting toward her friend and practically tacking her in a hug.

She wasn't sure why, but it felt like they were being reunited after years of being apart.

"Daisy!" Peach responded, her voice heavy yet relieved. "I've been so worried! Where have you been?!"

"Uhh," Daisy trailed off, giggling slightly. "The Twilight Zone? Heh..."

"Sure, sure," Peach laughed, pulling back and taking a good look at her friend to make sure she wasn't hurt.

The blonde plumber let out a sigh of relief upon seeing that Daisy appeared to be fine.

"So, where are we?" the girl in orange asked, looking around at the dark world that surrounded them. In a way, the way the sky faded from a deep blue color to a lighter one the closer her eyes came to the horizon almost made her feel like the sun was rising, but the world never got brighter.

Maybe this place was trapped just moments after the sunset.

"It's called the Underwhere," Peach explained, her voice dropping just slightly, though she still sounded determined and strong as always. "It's for people who've died. Some person who works here explained it to me. But come with me, we've gotta get out of here!"

Peach held her arm out to Daisy and quickly pulled her away, heading for some specific place with a fierce determination. She looked like a woman on a mission, as always.

"Wait, wait, wait, so I'm dead?" Daisy asked.

Peach kept onward, her eyes and attention forward. "Looks like it," she replied. "How did it happen to you? With us, the weird clown boy and an emo prince showed up and exploded everything. It.... hurt. I've been looking for Mario and King Boo ever since."

"A weird clown boy killed all of you?" Daisy asked, trying to search through her memories of any strange clown boys. There was the guy from the wedding, the one who messed with the boos... could that be who Peach was talking about? He looked creepy, but he didn't seem like a cold-blooded murderer.

Although, no one ever truly seemed like a cold-blooded murderer. 

"Even King Boo?" Daisy asked. "But isn't he a ghost? And why was he with you?!"