I see that smile everywhere. It greets me in the darkness, around every corner, even in my dreams. Every time I close my eyes, I see that smile. I can't escape it, no matter how hard I try. 

Dreams come true, Mario. That's what people would tell me growing up. Keep on dreaming, because someday, they'll come true.

That's the problem though... 

Dreams DO come true. But so do nightmares. You can't have one and avoid the other.

It's been twenty minutes since the Count won, I believe. I wasn't quite sure. I didn't really have a sense of time. All I could remember was the world going dark. The void got bigger and bigger until there was nothing else left. Everything felt so loud and overwhelming.

Now? Everything felt so quiet and empty.

I was in a room. A black substance was steadily dripping from the ceiling and into a puddle on the ground. 

Count Bleck had won, right? So... why did everything look so weird? I didn't expect total destruction and ruin to look like THIS. I expected nothing but darkness and death. Did he mess something up in the prophecy? I would think he'd spend enough time planning the end of the world to get it right.

I took a deep breath, then looked around, bringing my hands to my mouth so I could try to amplify my voice. "PRINCESS? TIPPI? BOWSER? ANYONE?!" I cried out. "MERLON? NOW WOULD BE A GREAT TIME FOR YOU TO SHOW UP AND TELL ME WHAT TO DO!"

Unfortunately, Merlon didn't show up. My voice just echoed down the long hallways, seeming to bounce off the walls, almost unnaturally. Usually, when a voice echoes, it projects toward the walls in front of you, then bounces back, right? But in there, my voice seemed to come from behind me, as if it made a full lap around the world.

Plus, THESE walls looked wooden, so sounds shouldn't have been echoing off them at all! Right? Meh, I don't know much about sound waves and stuff. I should ask Luigi about this when I find him-

LUIGI! I had to find him!! Oh dear Grambi, I hope he's alright! I still hadn't seen him since this whole adventure began. For all I knew, he could be dead or injured.

No, no, NO. I couldn't lose hope like that. I knew my brother better than that. Luigi was strong. He may be cowardly at times, but my brother is a survivor. He was okay. I believe in him with all my heart and soul. Luigi is more than capable of taking care of himself, as he's proved time and time again.

Now usually, when it came to adventuring I would just dive in head first, but it was clear that this world was unlike anything else I'd ever seen. There was no clear, cut-out path that would lead me to the correct castle at the end of a journey, there was no obvious answer. So, I sat down to think of a plan.

When I suddenly heard loud footsteps and screaming.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" A voice cried out, seeming to come from all directions. I legitimately couldn't tell where the words were coming from. 

My heroic instincts kicked in and I immediately started sprinting down the hall, even though I couldn't tell where I was going. I had no idea if I was approaching the problem, or only getting further away from it. I was running to the right since usually that felt like the way forward, but I really had no way of telling until I skid into a large room and saw what was happening.

"MARIO!" Princess Peach cried out as soon as she spotted me. She was backed into a corner, holding her hands up as if she was trying to shield herself. Her parasol, which would have usually done the shielding, was nowhere to be found. She looked terrified of what was standing before her.

A large, dark, drippy beast, with a big, horrifying grin that I would not soon forget.

My eyes widened. What in Grambi's name was that?!

"I'LL SAVE YOU, PRINCESS!" I cried, running towards her as fast as I could, only for the large, dark beast to turn and thrust one of its long limbs at me. If I didn't duck to dodge at the last second, it would have most definitely hit me across the room like a baseball. 

Baseball... that's a fun game. I miss playing sports like tennis and baseball. There was one time when the princess made an island with these baseball stadiums dedicated to me and my friends, but then Bowser and Bowser Jr. decided it would be fun to try and take over, but I defeated them by striking them out and hitting home runs-

Sorry, getting sidetracked. Gotta focus on this first!

The monster began to reach out for the princess when I pulled out one of my spare wrenches. Without thinking, I threw it at the monstrous creature, hitting it in the arm. However, instead of bouncing off like I thought it would have, the wrench just slowly began to sink in, as if the creature's skin wasn't exactly solid.

"Gross..." I muttered.

"MARIO!" Peach cried out, still sounding terrified.

"Right, right!" I breathed, looking around to see if there was something else I could use when Peach either was struck with an idea, or she finally got fed up with waiting for me to save her. 

She reached down, taking off both her high heels, then threw them at the monster's face, spinning them as if they were throwing knives. The monster drew back slightly, not hurt, just surprised.

That's when I grabbed the princess's arm and started sprinting. I had no idea where I was going, but we just had to get as far away from that thing as possible.

"What IS that?!" I asked Peach while running. She was usually faster than me, but without shoes, it was easier for me to match her pace.

I never really understood how she could run usually so quickly in heels. I suppose it was just one of her many talents.

"I don't know!" She admitted. "One second we were in Castle Bleck, ready to save the world, the next thing I know, I'm in here with that thing chasing me, telling me I was an angel not yet fallen, whatever that means."

An angel not yet fallen? A weird, slimy monster?

Maybe we were in a coma or something. This felt weird compared to my normal adventures. 

The monster trailed close behind us. It was clear we couldn't lose it by outrunning it. 

"What do we do?!" I breathed, looking around at my surroundings.

"In there!" Peach cried out, pointing to a room with a closed door.

I wasn't too fond of the idea. I didn't want to just hide in a room. Then we'd be cornered. However, outrunning it wasn't an option either. This thing didn't seem to tire, and we could only sprint for so long.

"Alright," I breathed, pulling her into the room and shutting the door. I could feel my heartbeat in my throat as I pressed my back to the door.

I could feel a chilling presence as the thing passed by the room we were hiding in. I could tell it was passing right by us because black liquid seeped under the door and the entire room seemed to darken for a second. Then, the ink and darkness faded away, as if the monster was taking it with them.

I let out a shaky breath, then turned to Peach and pulled her into a tight hug.

"Oh thank Grambi you're here!" I exclaimed. "I was so worried something had happened to you."

She smiled her usual sweet smile and hugged back. Her voice was gentle and comforting, like always. "It's okay. I'm here..."

Before anyone asks, no, we are NOT a couple. I know it may seem like we are because I've rescued her like, eighty times, but that doesn't automatically mean we're dating. We're just... two friends who help each other out. That's all. I help her by saving her whenever she gets kidnapped, and she helps me by making me a hero. If you think about it, without her, nobody would even know who I was. She made me who I am today. Plus she's an incredible friend who has a sweet, kind, caring personality. And she's good at sports. And she's-

I'm getting distracted again. Sorry.

"So... what do you think that was?" I breathed.

"I don't know. But did you see its smile?! It's exactly like the smile on these!" Peach breathed, pulling out a poster and handing it to me.

The poster was labeled "Inky, the Devilish Troublemaker."

Why had I seen that smile before...

"Wait... I know this!" I exclaimed, taking a closer look at the poster. "Count Bleck showed me this little guy before everything went down. He asked me what I saw in it."

"Really?" Peach asked me, looking over my shoulder and down at the poster. "Interesting... I thought it was just a poster from his favorite cartoon or something..."

"No. It's something Luigi drew. I can tell by the art style. I just... don't get what it has to do with anything..."

Oh great, this wasn't going to be a mystery-solving adventure, was it? Those ones were THE WORST. I hate to admit it, but Luigi was WAY better at solving mysteries than I was. 

"Okay... so Luigi's drawing has come to life looking MUCH LESS cute than its initial design. What does that have to do with the Count destroying the world?" I asked.

Peach shrugged, then took the poster, rolled it up, and handed it back to me. "Hold onto this. Just in case. We can try to figure things out once we get more familiar with our surroundings."

Right. We needed to assess the situation first using the information we already knew. The void clearly ate away at most of the world, so the probability of there actually being an escape was close to zero, so we shouldn't focus on trying to find an exit. What we SHOULD focus on was trying to figure out what exactly happened, THEN to see if there was a way to undo it and save everyone. 

To do that, we were going to have to leave our safe little room.

I took a deep breath, then held a hand out to the princess.

She nodded at me, then took my hand. Her hands were always so small and dainty-looking, and her grip was soft and gentle. 

I led her out into the hall, and together we started exploring. We had no idea where we were going on what we were looking for, so we just checked everything. We looked at every poster on the wall and were able to identify three different characters. Inky, the demon. Angel, who looked like a demon/angel hybrid, and Brooks the wolf. The three characters each appeared to have somewhat of a personality, according to the posters. Inky, a troublemaker. Angel, a sweet, beautiful, kind soul who was slightly vain. Then Brooks, a shy fellow who tries his best to help, but usually ends up as comedic relief.

"Hey, Mario! Check this out!" Peach exclaimed while I was looking over a Brooks poster. I turned to look at her while she held up a small device. 

I frowned slightly. It looked like an old-fashioned tape recorder. It seemed rather... out of place compared to everything else.

She walked over to me and pressed play. Together, we both leaned over the device while voices played from it. 

"I let my hand move on its own and I let my mind finally wander away from the complete mess my day had become. I was the type of person who needed to constantly be doing something in order to keep my thoughts at bay. When I wasn't out and about, I was working on a machine. When I wasn't working on a machine, I was designing blueprints for a machine. And when I wasn't doing that, I was just drawing. I loved drawing. I never really was one for words, so in a way, drawing felt like a form of expression. Where I lacked connections in the real world, I made up for it in art. Drawing was one of the only effective ways for me to reduce stress."

- Luigi

Odd... did Luigi keep an audio journal now? I remember that he used to keep a secret diary in a room he remodeled under our house, but why switch to audio? And why just leave it lying around like this? With his diary, he was always extra secretive about it. No way he'd leave this out in the open.

"Funny... I didn't know Luigi designed machines..." Peach quietly admitted.

"Oh, right..." I trailed off. "Before we became plumbers, he was studying to be an engineer while I was studying to be a doctor. It didn't really work out since we didn't have the money to stay in school, so we switched to plumbing. But he still loves working with machines and stuff. I have always felt really bad about him not being able to further pursue that... but I suppose life just happens..." 

Peach nodded, then set the tape recorder down. She placed her hands on her hips and looked around.  "Hmm... I THINK I have a guess as to what happened."