Chapter Text
The buzz of a digital alarm clock tore Luigi from his sleep. It was a far cry from the way he normally spent his mornings – roused by the scent of food and the clinking of cutlery as Mario prepared breakfast in the kitchen.
Rolling over, still not quite awake yet, he groped across the bedside cabinet until he found the offending clock, pressing the big round button that would stop it from buzzing. After that, he just lay motionless with his hand resting on the clock, breathing slowly as he tried to puzzle out why he had been so rudely awoken.
I didn't set the alarm clock. Why would I? There isn't a tournament today... there's no reason to be up this early...
At this point, it occurred to him that he didn't actually know what the time was. Only the heavy feeling hanging over him indicated that it was too early to be up. He located his phone from the cabinet and tugged it onto the bed with him.
'What's the time?' he asked – in a voice too hoarse to pick up. He cleared his throat and tried again.
'The current time is 6:34AM.'
Luigi groaned and resisted the sudden urge to toss it on the floor. 6AM? Why am I up this early? Is this Mario's idea of a practical joke?
But there was no sound emanating from the kitchen. No sizzle of bacon on the stove or gentle clinking of cutlery. No out-of-tune humming along to the low murmur of a radio. In short, no sound that might have indicated his brother was up and about. And why would he be, at this ungodly hour?
He checked his phone in the hope that Mario might have left him a text or voicemail to explain what in the world was going on, but didn't find anything. The most recent message was from Daisy, almost a week ago, asking him if he wanted to hang out by the river.
Giving up solving the mystery from the comfort of his bed as a lost cause, he clambered to his feet and reached automatically for the cane that he always kept nearby. He didn't really need it to walk around his own house, but he felt comfortable with it in his hands, the texture of the handle somehow reassuring – perhaps, he reflected, because the cane had given him such a feeling of security when he first lost his sight, and still did.
'This is stupid,' he muttered, making his way into the kitchen. A blanket of silence lay over the entire house, chilling him more than he'd like to admit. It only got worse when he reached the kitchen and discovered it to be similarly deserted. No noise, no smells of breakfast, no cheery voice wishing him a good morning.
For almost anyone, this kind of unexpected solitude would be unnerving, but for Luigi – who paid a lot more attention to sound than most people – it was downright disturbing.
There HAS to be a perfectly rational explanation for this, he thought. But right now, he was standing in the middle of an empty room with no idea where Mario was.
Luigi was not as dependent on his older brother as he used to be. Funny, that. Everyone sort of assumed that after he went blind, he would be relying even more on his friends and family to help him cope, but among the unfamiliarity he'd found a new kind of strength. No-one could help him deal with his condition. No-one else could even understand what it was like to be in his shoes. And since he hadn't been able to rely on other people, he had been forced to cope on his own.
Somehow, this newfound fortitude had made him stronger in other ways, too.
He decisively strode to the front door and grabbed the handle, intending to see if Mario had gone outside for some reason. Paper crinkled beneath his fingers as he touched it, making him jerk back as if bitten.
Grimacing, he reached out again, more gingerly, and found a strip of sellotape adhering a rectangular piece of paper to the door handle. Deciding that it really was nothing more dangerous than paper, Luigi ripped it free and ran his fingers across it. Then he groaned with frustration. He was so accustomed to reading this way thanks to his growing collection of Braille books and documents, it sometimes came as a surprise when he found something that actually required vision to read.
Normally it wasn't a problem. He'd just ask the nearest person to read the note for him. But obviously, right now, he was alone.
The mystery of 'Why Did My Alarm Wake Me Up This Morning' was rapidly turning into a collection of mysteries – none of which he had the energy to solve. Judging by the fact that this piece of paper had been taped to the front door, he could deduce that, if he read it, it might give him the answers.
Mario, who had been with Luigi almost every moment since The Accident, clinging to his brother's side like a dog with separation anxiety, knew perfectly well that Luigi could not read this note.
So who, in the name of the Stars, had done it?
He sighed and pulled his phone out of his pocket. Using the voice commands and text-to-speech that had become so familiar to him over the years, he navigated to his contacts menu and dialled Daisy's number. He lifted the phone to his ear and held his breath, listening to the tiny ringing down the line, knowing that Daisy would be asleep at this time and probably wouldn't be best pleased that he woke her up.
Then again, maybe once he explained the situation, she'd be more intrigued than annoyed. Yes, that sounded like Daisy; always raring for adventure...
The phone stopped ringing. 'Luigi?'
That definitely, absolutely was not Daisy's voice. It was deep, gruff, and eerily familiar. An involuntary shudder ran down his spine as he continued to listen, worry rapidly turning into a panicked dread.
'Oh, it is you! How lovely! I was just about to call you myself and gloat. Huh, you're up early. Did you find the note telling you about what I've done?'
A thousand scenarios crashed through his head, making his pulse quicken and his fingers almost drop the phone. That voice... it was unmistakably Bowser, the tyrant king who constantly terrorised the Mushroom Kingdom. But what was going on? Why did he have Daisy's phone, and where was Daisy?
'Who – what – why are you here?' he stammered.
Bowser paused. 'Huh? You didn't see the note? Oh well, I'll just explain then... So, Luigi, this is all part of my latest cunning plan to take over the world! I've kidnapped Peach, Mario, and your girlfriend Daisy. And while they lie in my dungeons, I'm free to take control of both the Mushroom Kingdom and Sarasaland!'
Bowser's ego-laced tones and stereotypical villain speech did not lessen Luigi's terror.
'Y-you have Daisy? A-and Mario?'
'That's what I said, pipsqueak! But here's the deal. I want to make things interesting.'
Luigi was silent.
'I'm gonna give you a chance. If you wanna save your little friends, come to my castle in the Badlands. Sneak into my dungeons and rescue them – if you dare. I'll be waiting, pipsqueak.'
An impossibly deep chuckle came down the line – and then all was silent.
The phone slipped from Luigi's numb fingers. It clattered onto the tiled kitchen floor and he was pretty sure the screen cracked, but right now, he couldn't have cared less.
Bowser. The word alone was enough to send a block of fear plummeting into his stomach. The evil Koopa King had hurt so many people, but this might be the worst thing he'd ever done. And the worst part was that, with Mario out of the picture, Luigi was the only person who might be able to save the kingdoms – there was certainly no chance of the local Toads being bold enough to do anything.
But how? Strangely enough, the first obstacle that came to mind was not the most obvious one, but rather, his cowardice. Luigi was not a courageous person. He was pretty sure of that. He was scared of ghosts, and heights, and spiders... not to mention he was claustrophobic and had a terrible, overwhelming fear of reanimated corpses. The faintest rattle of a Dry Bones was enough to send him running.
How was he supposed to get into Bowser's Castle and save everyone? Him, Luigi, the man everyone liked to forget? He wasn't strong like Mario, or optimistic like Peach, or adventurous like Daisy.
Then he remembered his blindness, and suddenly the thing that hadn't frightened him for years was the most terrifying concept of all.
Even if he managed to access Bowser's Castle, he could easily fall into a lava pool, or a bottomless pit, or a spike trap without even knowing they were there.
He shifted his foot and, by chance, felt the shape of his phone lying silent on the kitchen floor. The phone that he should have been talking to Daisy on right now. Inexplicably, a wave of courage came to push back the terror.
His friends were relying on him. They were trapped, their kingdoms and subjects at Bowser's dubious mercy. They were probably ten times more frightened than Luigi was right now, standing alone in his kitchen.
He gritted his teeth, walked to the front door, and tugged his shoes on. With his cane gripped firmly in his left hand, he flung the door open and stepped outside into the warm, deceptively peaceful summer morning.
I'm going to find them. Somehow.