MaRIo II

''Don't read this until you read the other story, MaRIo. It's a sequel, and you might be a little lost without reading it first. Highly recommended.''

Sadly, about a week ago, my younger brother took his own life. Our father had died about a month before, and I had believed that my brother was depressed without him. They were quite attached to one another, after all.

The day before he killed himself, he came to my house and gave me our father's handed-down games and consoles. We were all such gaming nerds. I loved the 3 original Mario Bros. games.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find the first one in the giant stack of NES cartridges. However, I did come across Super Mario Bros. 2.

I could tell my funny-man father had printed off a label he must have made somewhere, because there were a few things different about it.

For one, the title was spelled as "Super MaRIo Bros. 2", and the picture of Mario on the cover Mario had a Toad's head and was carrying Birdo's head by the bow instead of a turnip....yeah, my father had a rather dark sense of humor.

I popped the game into the NES. For nostalgia, I decided to let the game tell me the story about Mario's dream. Only...it read something else.

''After MaRIo suffered a terrible fate, he decided to get revenge. He has become insane with rage, and is going to take the life of every mortal who crosses his path.''

That was rather disturbing. I had guessed my brother had hacked it somehow. He knew how, he was a huge computer nerd.

I went on. The game did not give me the choice of my character. It simply threw me into the game as Mario, who just like on the cover of the cartidge, had a Toad's head instead of his own!

There was no music, and I didn't jump from the sky. I was at the beginning of World 1-1. Only...things were a little different. The background sky was black, and all of the enemies were replaced with angry-looking Toads.

This was weird. Each Toad angrily charged at Mario. I didn't even have to do anything, though. When the Toads touched Mario, they turned into skeletons and crumbled to the ground.

I was uneased by this. My favorite game was this... unsettling game. I guessed my brother must have been very bored. I decided to see how the rest of the game was going to turn out.

I reached the end of the level, where you fight Birdo. She looked as if... someone had gotten to her before me. She was bruised and bloody, and had some flesh and bones showing. I was....horrified, to say the least.

A text pox popped up. "Please..." Mario stepped a little closer, on his own. "No... I don't... I'm not..." He made another step. "Why... am I... here?" Another small step. "I'm not... who you think... I..."

Mario pounced her. He began to ruthlessly beat her while she scream...realisticly. Sounds that can't be made on an 8-bit console. Blood spewed and showered with each his Mario made. The last time he hit her, which he charged up for, her head rolled off.

Mario threw off his Toad head... and replaced it with Birdo's. Another text box appeared. "But... you were one of us... you've angered us... you will rue this, MaRIo..."

The sky turned red. I heard what sounded like distant crying of a woman in the background, accompanied by...what sounded like multiple evil laughs, play backwards all at once. A demonic, deep voice was heard behind it all.

Chills weren't just at my spine, there were everywhere. I whole room got colder, it seemed. I had goosebumps all over. The sounds where growing louder, before suddenly stopping.

Mario's Birdo head flew off. He still lived, headless. He turned to the screen... and began to softly sob. I wanted to turn off the NES so badly, but something compelled me to leave it on.

His cried grew louder. As he cried, an army of Toads began to march in from the left of the screen.

The noises from earlier resumed. This time, they were loud and the woman was screaming instead of crying. I was sure my TV speakers were about to bust.

Only... it sounded almost like... the sounds weren't coming from the speakers. It's like... they were coming from all around me.

The laughter and deep voice stopped. However, the woman's screams began to strobe. It was almost like she was being violently tortured. It strobed more and more, and went on for a good minute and a half, before suddenly stopping.

The deep voice came back. I listened slowly to hear what it was saying. "Th....e......Em...pi...r..e.....wi..l...l.....ri..s..e...." The empire will rise?

The picture blacked out. It was replaced with an artist-like picure of a headless Mario. His clothers were bloody and some parts were torn off.

The picture stayed on the screen for about 30 seconds before the screen began to blink white repeatedly. The woman's scream cam back along with the laughter. The laughter was mixed with people chanting "The empire! The empire!" I fainted from fear.

I then had a very strange dream. I was laying on the ground, in a puddle of my own blood. I saw Mario coming. He was walking toward me, with an angry looking Toad head, like before.

I kept trying to tell him that I wasn't his enemy.... but I was too weak to talk. I told his he wasn't who he thought I was. Then, I realized... I was Birdo!

He jumped on me, just like in the game. I woke up before he started to attack. 'MaRIo." was carved on my arm.

I ejected the game from the NES, grabbed it, and threw it in the street. I ran it over with my car, multiple times, until it was nothing but little pieces of plastic. I now understand why my brother killed himself.... unless HE didn't do it.

Whatever was in that game... but have done it itself. I hope that I'll be alright... although, I think I messed up, running over that game.

SupremeKai4