Chapter 13 - Cackletta's Invitation

"Thirty-five?" Wario asked. He was the man with the goatee. "This is me when I'm thirty five?"

"I'm thirty five?" Julie asked, seemingly overly happy. "REALLY? SWEET! I can drive!"

Cackletta frowned. "You like it?"

Julie dropped her shoulders.

"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore. Of course I like it!"

Cackletta frowned even deeper.

Rose was sitting next to her. Somehow, she had avoided the charmed light, and was looking cheerful as her 6-year-old self.

"You know, Luigi, you ought to take care of your kids better," she said as Rose bounded up to me.

"What?" I asked, a little offended. "She's not my daughter."

"Yes, I am," Rose said. "Myyyyyy birthday is in the year 2024. Mommy told me."

Everyone in our party had their jaws dropped by now. None of them were as wide open as I was, though. Though perhaps you couldn't tell... as both of my hands had clamped over my mouth.

"She's from the future." Cackletta said. "I brought her here, just like you got
to have a conversation with your future self."

I KNEW it!

"Holy CRAP!" Julie exclaimed again. "I could have predicted that!" She put her finger to her mouth. "Well... I suppose I did."

Rose hugged me around the waist again.

"You people are boring," Cackletta said, and disappeared in a puff of light.

"Seeeeeeee?" she said. "I really AM a princess."

Yes, she was...

"Wait a second," I said aloud. "You said that your Uncle Mario likes to read
your father's diary."

"Yep," Rose said. "He learns so much about my daddy from that!"

I glared at Mario. His face was beet red, and he was sweating.

"I... I don't know where she gets that idea," he said nervously. "I have better
things to do than find out that you're afraid of your own shadow..." His eyes
widened and hands clamped over his mouth in horror of what he just said.

"Ah-ha!" I said. "That's a secret!"

Julie, Lauren, Waluigi and Wario were laughing to tears. Julie and Waluigi were wiping their eyes.

"Well anyway," Ricky said irritably, let's find a way to get back to normal.

"No way," Julie said, getting ahold of herself. She was brushing her hands from the base of her neck to her waist. "This figure rocks." Lauren laughed.

I picked Rose up. Wow... my own daughter.

"Princesses never lie," she said.

"I should hope not," I said under my breath. "Say... what am I like when I'm
your dad?"

"What do you mean?" Rose asked, eyes widening.

"Well, what is your dad like?"

"Dead," Rose said quickly.

"Excuse me?" I asked, getting a little nervous. "Your father is dead?"

"Sure," Rose said. "I did it."

Her eyes flashed red, and her small hands attached themselves surprisingly
strong around my neck.

I gathered all of my strength and threw her off of me. She landed on the floor.

"What's going on!" I demanded.

Mario leaped in front of me, holding his left hand in front of him like a gun.

"Don't move," he snarled. Rose took a step forward

"I said... don't move!" he shrieked, and he snapped his hand back, releasing a huge fireball that rammed into Rose and slammed her into the wall on the other side of the room.

"Mario!" I wailed, not knowing whether to thank him or be angry with him. I
tried to take a step forward, but Mario held his arm out, blocking me.

"Woah," Waluigi said, leaning over Rose. He laughed. "She's a robot."

"She's a what?" I gasped, pushing Mario's arm out of the way. Everyone rushed to get a better look, and sure enough, what I had thought was a six-year-old girl had springs and gears sticking out of her back.

"Gee," Ricky said. "She'll do anything to make you guys miserable!" he had
remained quiet the whole time.

"Cackletta is a loser," Julie scoffed. "You guys can beat her again. She was
cake for you two." Julie pointed at me and Mario.

I smirked. Mario smiled and shook his head.

"You really do know every detail of any adventure we've been on?"

"Sure," Julie said proudly.

"Well, we'd better find that witch," Wario said. "She keeps disappearing on us."

"She's on the roof now," Lauren said calmly.

"How do you know that?" Ricky asked.

"I just do," Lauren said. "Trust me."

"Fine," Mario said. "I know where the staircase is."

"No kidding?" I joked. "Come on."

As we walked through the long, winding hallways to get to the staircase, I was beginning to get a little annoyed with our teenage party members. Julie was finding huge fun in begging Waluigi to let her electrocute him with
Thunderbrand, and anything that Lauren touched caught flame. (I stayed away from her.)

"Puh-leeeeze?" Julie begged. "I want to see if I still have my ability when I'm
35!"

"No!" Waluigi spat. "Use it on Luigi."

"But he's immune to it!" Julie wailed as I turned around and shot a funny glare at Waluigi.

"Then use it on Mario." I heard Waluigi whisper. "No... I've got a better idea."
He grasped Julie's shoulder and whispered something in her ear.

"Ooooooooh!" she said, eyes widening. "That is a good idea!"

"What is?" Wario asked.

"We'll be right back," Waluigi said. "I'm going to show Julie something." Julie
was snickering uncontrollably.

"Should we wait for them?" Ricky asked me.

"I guess," I said. "I wonder what they're doing."

"Probably beating her up," Lauren laughed.

There was a funny rushing sound behind me.

"What's that noise?" Mario asked.

I turned around. Two grim reapers were standing behind me, holding scepters that were taller than me and covered in blood.

"AUUUUGHHHHH!!" I screamed.

Flash.

"Woooooah," Julie said, pulling the cloak off of her head. Waluigi did the same. "That IS fun!"

"You-" I sputtered and took off my wristband.

Waluigi laughed and put a hand on Julie's shoulder.

"I like this kid," he laughed. "Good sense of humor!"

"Woohoo!" Julie said. I grumbled under my breath. Great... was Waluigi going to turn Julie into a Waluigi-ite? No... Julie's too madly obsessed with me.

Mario seemed to be fighting laughter. "Let's just keep going." he said quickly.

"Woah..." Wario said, and bent down. He picked up a gameboy off the floor.

"Sweet!" Julie said. "A gameboy Advance! I wonder what game's in here..." she flipped the switch on. It started rumbling and flashing like crazy.

"Is this a game?" Julie asked stupidly. But Mario and I recognized it
immediately; it was a hologram messenger that Cackletta had used last year. And this is exactly what it was doing; sending us a message.

Julie dropped it, and Cackletta's silhouette appeared out of the gameboy.

"Haha, I was hoping you'd find this," she said in a snickering voice. "Anyway,
if you do, then I want you to come visit me on the seventh floor!" (Everyone
glanced at Lauren for predicting this.) "I've got something for you two-" She
pointed at me and Mario... "To die for." she paused and put her finger to her
mouth.

"Oh, haha, by the way, I want you all to look nice when you come visit. You
can... haha, be kids again." She lifted her hand.

A cloud appeared at my feet, and with a blink of an eye, was gone. I stared at myself in the reflection of the window at the other side of the room. I was 24 again, only, I was dressed in a silk white tuxedo and my hair was slicked back neatly. I realized in horror that my wristband was gone.

Mario had a tux identical to mine, only it had an orange tint to it. Julie was
14 again and in a very long, emerald dress with elbow-length gloves. Her added sparkly jewelry that was stuck in her hair and around her neck made her look like she was about to go to a prom. Lauren was in black shorts with boots that came up to her knees, and a deep red shirt. She wore earrings that hung nearly as long as her hair.

Waluigi, Ricky and Wario looked surprisingly charming. They were in triplet
suits, Wario's was yellow, Ricky's was navy blue, and Waluigi's was a dark
purple. They all looked like they were about to meet the president.

"Haha, you all still look like clowns, but at least you're dressed nicely. Be
seeing you." Cackletta said. She then vanished into thin air.

I felt all the blood drain from my face. She had something for us to die for?

"Woah," Waluigi said, studying my face. "How do you DO that?"

"How do I do what," I asked.

"Just make your face... white." He spread his hands in front of his face as if
swimming. "Is there a flusher on the side of your head?"

I scoffed. "No, it's not a special ability."

Julie laughed. Her necklaces clinked together.

"See, I must be some kind of a psychic," Lauren laughed. I completely believed her.

I tugged at the bowtie around my neck. I didn't often wear ties and wasn't used to it at all.

"Well," Mario said, obviously liking his new duds, "Let's move on, I suppose."

It didn't take long to get to the staircase, but before I knew it, Lauren and
Julie were going on talking about Harry Potter characters.

"I think Rupert's the oldest."
"Well, he actually portrays someone two years younger than him."
"No kidding?"
"Yeah. He's actually 15."

"Okay," Mario said, as if he was a tour guide on a roller coaster. "Follow me. I know which way to go."

"So do I," I said, knitting my eyebrows.

"Me too!" Julie said.

"You do?" Wario asked.

"Sure," Julie said. "I wrote this story."

"Well, don't give away the ending." Wario said sarcastically.

After a quick glance back at her, I cautiously grabbed the handrail to the
staircase. It was the opposite of what I had expected; it was colder than ice.

"Cackletta's been here," I said.

"How do you know?" Ricky asked with interest.

"Believe me," I said, with a funny glance at him. "I know ghosts." Julie
laughed, but Mario frowned.

We made our way to the second floor easily. By now, Julie was walking next to me. She seemed to walk faster than the rest of us. Her high heeled shoes made loud "clack" noises on the floor. It was funny; our entire party all looked like we were going to a wedding or very fancy party.

Wario kept turning around and looking behind him. Disappointed, he'd turn
around, only to whip back around and find nothing. After a little while, it
wasn't only me who noticed this.

"What are you doing?" Mario asked.

"I can't help but think there's something following us." he said slowly.

"You aren't trying to scare me?" I asked, exasperated.

"No, I'm serious." he said. Wario was in the back of our crowd, so nobody else
could see if there was something behind him.

"I've got a good idea," Julie said. She pulled a mirror out of nowhere.

"Where'd you get that?" I asked, amazed.

"With Julie, all is possible," She said with a smile. "Let's keep going."

She held the mirror up slightly above her eye level and watched Wario through it. After a second, she gasped loudly.

"Wario, MOVE!" she shrieked.

Wario dove to the right, getting dust all over his bright yellow suit. I was
standing behind Julie, and could see what was in her mirror. Wario turned
around, still on the floor, and made eye contact with a small orange ghost.

"Get away from it, Wario!" I screamed. Small as they were, those ghosts were very dangerous. I shot a few sparks out of my hand, stunning the ghost. It stared, heart pounding, at my lighted hand, then disappeared.

"Great," Mario mumbled. "This place is haunted?"

"Cackletta must have some contacts," Waluigi said.

"With Vincent Van Gore?" I asked, as a drop of sweat made its way down my face. "But I imprisoned him years ago."

Mario's face went white. He didn't like to hear me talk about ghost paintings.
Of course, I knew why.

Julie was a little pale, too. She knew, with GREAT detail, my haunted mansion ordeal, and how horrible it had been.

Wario was very quiet as Mario led us down all of the familiar hallways and
staircases to the seventh floor. It consisted of a single room, one that was
dimly lighted. Mario cracked the door open, and gasped sharply. He slammed the door shut, and leaning on it, panted heavily. On closer inspection, I realized that his eyes were now a bright gray.

"Mario, what's in there?" I asked.

He was panting heavily, shaking his head.

"Luigi, don't look... please, don't look..." he panted in an almost sad, scared
way.

"What's in there?" I asked again. Mario slowly moved away from the door,
shaking madly.

I grabbed the doorknob, but didn't turn it.

"Luigi, don't..." Mario gasped.

"But what is in there?" Ricky asked.

"Horrible, horrible..." Mario panted, his hand moving slowly to cover his mouth. It was scary to see the drastic change in the color of his eyes. He was standing on the stair behind me, but directly in front of Waluigi. Everyone was as confused as I was. Something in that room was obviously terrible to Mario, and I wanted to fix it...

I cracked open the door, just like Mario had, and gasped loudly. It felt as if
someone had taken an ice pick and stabbed it through my chest.

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