A broken heart

The green-sweater wearing man let himself fall on the old couch of his brother with a big sigh. The last week was a disaster. He felt like he was unwanted, awkward to suddenly move in with his brother in a city he knew nothing about. 'Welcome to Starfall City!' The welcome sign had said. He had to admit, it was a pretty peaceful town. His brother worked at the local pizza place, often used as some sort of café since you could also order bakery stuff and coffee. Luigi himself however, couldn't find a job in this new environment. He just couldn't find his place, to fit in somehow.

After her girlfriend kicked him out, he had nowhere to go and so his brother was the only solution for now. Starfall City, far away from the village they grew up at. What was he supposed to do?! Become a plumber? No way, no way he was going to dive into the smell of the sewers. Cleaning the toilet was already horrible enough.

The twenty years old man sat right up and rubbed his tired face. As Mario had described, nothing really happened in this town which was probably also why everyone was so happy here. Ah, happy.. Three weeks ago he was still happy with her.. Going on picnics, cinema, romantic dinners. She thought he had cheated on her and kicked him out, deleted him from her phone and blocked all available contact options.

A failure, is what she had called him. A second place. Apparently she had crushed on Mario since their childhood and used him to get closer to his big brother. He could see her mood worsened when Mario moved out at the age of seventeen, to go to Starfall City, the place where HIS crush lived. A beautiful girl, blonde hair and eyes made of diamonds, as Mario had described her.

"You still didn't talk to her..?" Luigi asked when his brother returned from work after 7 PM. Mario laughed it off. "No, of course not! Why would I? He snickered and dropped next to Luigi on the couch with a cup of coffee in his hands. "You still didn't find work?"

"No, of course not." Luigi smiled slightly. "It.. is difficult to find a job in a city like this.. Everyone knows each other and then you have me, an outsider trying to interact with everyone." He looked at the window. His brother had a nice apartment. The highest in the building with a view on the main park in town. Kids would go and play there after school. People would go there to catch a break during work. Elders would go there to walk and get their daily exercise. "Ah, don't worry Weeg, you'll be fine! You could always ask the mayor if you're really desperate. Believe me, he is a good guy." Mario said and took a sip of his coffee. "Now his son.. He is an absolute brat. Kinda reminds me of myself when I was ten." He chuckled and gave his coffee to his brother. "You know, pulling pranks on everyone. Especially in the forest. He likes to scare people. Watch out if you buy a car though.." He stood up and pulled off his jacket, throwing it on one of the empty chairs. "He doesn't admit it, but I'm sure he's the one spreading graffiti everywhere. Kind of funny, since his father is searching for the one who's responsible."

Luigi snickered and finished the coffee, following his brother to the bedroom. "It's just a kid.. Trying to have some fun." Mario immediately shook his head. "No, he wants negative attention. Which I get, his father is busy all the time, I don't blame him. He should get some help though."

The bed room was kind of improvised. Mario's bed was of course a regular bed. Luigi's bed however was just a mattress for now. He couldn't take his bed with him of course.

After dressing and brushing their teeth, both brothers went to bed at 10. Mario had to work at 9 AM and Luigi had to continue searching for a job.. it was a horrible task but it had to be done. Working at the pizza place wasn't an option, they already had too much staff anyway.

•

The next morning Mario had left early and Luigi had followed him until they came across the park. Luigi waved his brother goodbye and went into the park. It was a quite nice one. Trees, a lake with ducks, playing kids and the border of forest. He had heard about the stories people told you about. People had apparently disappeared in there and if they came back they had started to act weird. But if he had to be honest, this whole city was weird.

He shrugged, decided to ignore those thoughts and began to walk around. A day off, he had decided. Enjoy the city for once instead of actively searching for a job. He sat down on a bench close to one of the playgrounds and opened the newspaper he had carried underneath his arm.

It was quiet, for a while..

"HELP, PLEASE!!" A mother was yelling at the border of the forest, desperately trying to get help. "My son ran into the forest half an hour ago and he hasn't returned yet!" She had started to cry. "P-Please..! Help..!" Her eyes crossed Luigi's. 'Oh no..' he couldn't look away. What was he supposed to do?! Just ignore her? He wasn't the kind of person to go on an epic adventure with danger and everything, that was Mario's thing! 'Come on, put yourself together. It's just stories..'

Luigi sighed and stood up, running towards the desperate mother. "I.. I will look around for a bit." He said with a kind smile. "I think you have to call the police instead though.." The lady nodded immediately and grabbed her phone. "Y-Yes, yes of course.. I am sorry, I-I just don't want to lose him.." She whispered and dialed the local emergency number.

Luigi swallowed at the look of the forest and carefully went in.

So far it looked like a normal forest, except for the fact of how dark it actually got after just a few steps of getting in. It was awfully silent. The man could barely see where he was going and decided to use his phone as a flashlight. "..No connection…" he whimpered silently. How was he going to call for help if he couldn't even call for someone?! Of course people would get lost here!

He shook his head and continued. He just realized he should've asked for the kid's name, but the woman was in such a distress, he wanted to get in and out as soon as possible. "H-Hello..?!" he called out. "Kid!? Your mother i-is looking for you!!" he yelled with a trembling voice as he continued walking. After twenty minutes he hadn't found anything yet and if it couldn't get worse.. It had started to rain and it almost looked like it had become night already. As if the stories weren't bad enough, it looked like there was a full moon above him as well. Oh, how his brother had taunted him with stories about vampires, werewolves, ghost and other supernatural creatures. How anyone could be one in disguise, werewolves at full moon, shapeshifters in plain sight, creatures from other dimensions. He was an adult now, but was still scared by almost every story based on reality. It wouldn't be so bad if.. fairies were real, they were cute and small! On the other hand, movies also showed evil fairies so maybe the first theory wasn't true at all.

Luigi decided to search for shelter, his clothes were soaked and the rain worsened every second. He gave up on searching the child. They probably already found him and now, he was lost instead. He couldn't imagine how worried Mario would be if he discovered his brother went into the woods, he would probably follow him as well! Maybe not after one night.. He wasn't helpless, could take care of himself, especially now that Luigi had come across a decayed house. Oh how he loved haunted houses.

He walked through the overgrown front yard up to the front door. He slowly opened it shining his flashlight in first before peeking in. "H-Hello..?" he whimpered and stepped inside. He hoped there was no one in the house, it would be unhealthy and dangerous in a house as damaged as this one was.

It was a pretty small house and mostly empty, furniture covered with white sheets and covered with dust and spiderwebs. Luigi sneezed and rubbed his nose with sweater. He didn't want to spend the night here.. but it was better than freezing to death in the rain. So he collected all the courage he had and continued into the house, hoping he would come across a bedroom with a proper bed. He went upstairs, through the creepy hallway. The floor was covered with cracking planks and a damaged rug. He could see the water damage all across the place, ceiling, walls and floor. It was clear this place got abandoned..

He had come across two kid rooms and eventually a master bedroom. He sighed in relief when he peeked inside. It seemed to be in a proper condition except for the broken window but it could be covered by the old fashioned curtains. Luigi moved towards the bed and inspected the sheets, covered in dust. Gross.. he would just sleep without them he guessed. Out of curiosity he went to inspect the room a little more. An empty dresser, a broken mirror and damaged paintings.

There was one thing that caught his eye even more. A jewelry case with a music box. He walked to it and opened the box. A tune began to play. It was definitely old and broken, it didn't sound quite well and it creeped Luigi out. Definitely something you would find in a haunted house.

He definitely shouldn't.. but he carefully took out some jewelry. He wondered why anyone would leave these behind, they were shiny and looked pretty well contained and taken care off. Necklaces, bracelets, rings.. Rings. He sighed and took the two rings in his hand. It reminded him of Her. He bought a ring for Her, was about to ask her to marry him. But apparently it wasn't supposed to be that way.

It probably wasn't a well thought plan, no one was going to miss them if they were left behind, maybe he could take them for Mario and his mysterious crush?.. maybe if he found a girlfriend himself again. It would definitely save money. But he didn't want to look egoistic either. Maybe the owners had died and these were the last things they had..

Luigi chose to keep them. No one was going to use them, he could sell them and maybe he could get enough to pay the rent for his brother for a few months if he could get enough. Sadly, he didn't have a bag or pockets so he slipped one onto his ring finger and one on his middle finger. They were quite pretty.. one with a red stone and the other had a purple stone. They fit perfectly, if he had to say so himself.

Suddenly, he felt exhausted. A cold breeze blew into his face. He felt dizzy, like the whole world started to spin around him. This wasn't natural, absolutely not. Before he made it to the bed with his sloppy steps, he fell to the ground and blacked out on the dirty wooden floor..

Welcome to Starfall City.