Mario's hunt

Chap. 14: Mario's POV

Oh, here comes the pain!

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND?!?!" He had grabbed me by neck and threw me against a wall. He approached me, and I could hear the mercilessness in his footsteps. He stood over me and picked me up by the back of my neck.

"Do you like the pain?" he taunted. "Does it feel good to hurt? I know you used to love pain. Made you feel good..." He licked my face, making me cry a little on the inside.
"I can feel your heartbeat, oh it feels good when you're afraid," he kept taunting. "It feels almost as good as the taste of your...tears."

I didn't notice I was actually crying until he pointed it out. He licked my tears off my face and dropped me. He took the knife and dropped it at my hands.

"You know what must be done," he whispered to me. "If you're not back in five minutes with that monster's head, I'll find you and make you hurt in all three ways."

I trembled as I grabbed the knife and got up. "Yes, sir."

I ran outside and, making sure I wasn't followed by him, I cut Peach loose. She seemed a bit surprised by this, so I explained everything.

"Uh, I'm sorry," she said, but she seemed a bit confused.

She wouldn't be confused if she was getting abused, I thought.

"I, uh, also wanted to apologize for, uh, what we did when you were gone," she apologized.

Bowser elbowed her, and then she said, "Okay, I'm sorry for having my way with him"

"And I'm sorry for doing what I did behind your back," Bowser apologized.

I felt warmth in my heart as I accepted their apology, and they seemed very happy and very relieved.

"And no, you don't have to kill this thing," I added as I pinched the child's face gently. "But we have to go now. He isn't very happy with me for my decision to spare, what's this little guy's name?"

"Basilisk," Peach answered. "And who's 'he'?"

"There's no time to explain," I whispered sharply so they would listen. "We have to go! Basilisk isn't safe here, and we aren't either. We have to go."

"Wait, why should we trust you?" Peach asked suspiciously.

"She's got a point, Mario," Bowser agreed. "You've been hunting us down ever since you found out about Basilisk. Why should we trust you?"

"Look, I...haven't really been making my own decisions," I explained, not believing that I was about to talk about this. "You see—"

"Mario! What are you doing?"

"Guys, please, we have to go now!" I said urgently.

"Look, let's just take him with us until we figure out what's going on," Peach said and Luigi summoned his pipe.

"Thank you so much," I said, relieved.

"Just get in before I change my mind," Peach responded sharply.

I hopped in without any more hesitation, and they followed.