Luigi's Mansion

Chapter 15 - Hunter and Hunted

"Oh, Luigi, what's that?" Freddy asked as their friend once again descended the staircase into the foyer. Luigi, still in somewhat high spirits on his way to Madame Clairvoya, stopped this time to show the toadstools the object he was now carrying.

Jonathan gasped. "It's... Mario's shoe!"

"Where'd you get it?" Toad demanded, pushing through his comrades.

Luigi nodded towards the door on the balcony. "One of the bedrooms. I've got stuff to do now, if you don't mind," he said hastily, continuing on to the hallway doors.

"But -

"Stay safe!" Luigi closed the door behind him and was gone.

Toad sighed and once again took up his seat on the floor. "I don't understand."

"Don't understand what?" asked Jonathan, sitting beside him.

"Luigi is so strange sometimes. He doesn't want to talk, always seems in such a hurry..."

"Well he is under a lot of stress," his friend replied. "I have no idea what it must be like for him, trying to save Mario! You and I can't even imagine what he's up to."

Benji, who had been sitting by quietly listening, spoke up. "He's terrified."

The other three turned to look at the yellow toadstool.

Benji continued. "It's because he knows. I know you guys weren't there, but we saw him. Mario is trapped in that painting, and Luigi isn't going to rest until the very end... whatever it is."

The three friends were silent in agreement.

~

"Another item already?" Madame Clairvoya asked in mild surprise.

"I suspect the twins might have been playing with my brother earlier," Luigi remarked, handing her the shoe. "Don't know how this happened."

   A short minute later, he was back in the fortuneteller's room once again. It was time for Madame Clairvoya to do what she claimed to be her final deed.

"Mario's shoe!" she exclaimed, as if it was some kind of treasure. However, she seemed more interested in the story it told, examining it closely as she turned it over in her hands. "Why, the sole is so worn, as if he's walked a thousand miles!"

Luigi didn't doubt that one bit. "Make it a thousand and then some," he said matter-of-factly. "He's walked much more than that, I promise you."

   That was Mario, ever the fireball; bouncing off walls as a kid, and then bouncing between countries as an adult. Sometimes it seemed like he couldn't keep still.

   Which was why him being in that painting for all this time made Luigi nervous.

"Well, he must be full energy, I'll give him that," Clairvoya said, holding the shoe in both hands and closing her eyes. She seemed to be focusing hard, almost as if it was more labor for her than before. It didn't get past Luigi's noticing eye, but he was soon distracted by the crystal ball reacting to her magic once more.

"Oh-hh! They come!" she exclaimed, as if something had shocked her alive. "Now the spirits come! Come, spirits of power, come spirits of sight! Show to me the awful things occurring here tonight!"

Here she adjusted her seat and hovered over the crystal ball, as if she needed to speak directly into its glistening surface. "Crystal orb, symbol of my clan, use your darkling power to show us all you can! Show us this... Mario!"