Luigi's Beta Mansion

Chapter 4 - A Melody of Fear

   Stepping around the shattered glass that littered the floor warningly of the gloomy entrance, Luigi was hit with a realization.

   He was part of a game.

   He didn't know why he'd never given it much thought before now; but suddenly it hit him like a ton of bricks. The letter - of course it was fake. This whole thing was a sick trap.

   Professor E. Gadd hadn't wasted much time questioning Luigi's presence - he was more than eager to suddenly have a pair of young and willing hands to help with ghost catching. For that was his whole business: catching, studying, and collecting ghosts in different environments. When the mansion had suddenly appeared out of thin air, it had been like a dream come true.

   But Luigi knew better than to think that the mansion was brand new. Every aspect showed signs of long years of use and abuse; the cracks in walls, the boarded-over doors... it was an endless enigma wrapped in doubt as far as he was concerned. This mansion was ancient - and it had once served as house and home to more than a few residents over the decades.

   Then why had it been given to him? Who could have sent such an awful note?

   Luigi had never been here or done anything in his life to deserve a dusty old mansion out in the middle of nowhere. He'd never entered any contest, never wronged anyone that he could remember... so why?

   Why had this all happened? Why him?

   ...Or was it fate?

   Shaking his head of the awful thoughts that only served to creep him out, Luigi tried to think on something else. For a time Luigi had been wondering where exactly the 'real mansion' was. The few upper rooms he had explored were small; surely they could only account for a fraction of the mansion's size. Where was the rest of the place?

   Upon returning back to the mansion and seeing his next destination, he soon had come to the logical conclusion. And he found himself dreadfully right: entering the pair of double doors across the main entrance on the ground floor, where his shadow was cast by lightning every time he opened the front doors, he came to a hallway. And not just any hallway like the west wing had been; this one was enormous, a maze of corners and long, trailing paths lined with boarded doors wherever he looked. Why were so many blocked off? What could they possibly hide...?

   Stepping inside with a dreadful shiver, Luigi rubbed his arms. No, it wasn't just his nerves - this place was cold. The air inside was so frigid and stagnant that he could actually see his breath forming in dust clouds on the air.

   Matches well with the whole feel of it, he thought gloomily. It almost seemed unnatural, as if in some way the spectral presence kept the area cool on purpose. Luigi could almost swear at that moment that he heard a low, ghostly hum; similar to whooshing air, but kind of different at the same time.

   The mansion was breathing.

   With a gasp, he jerked away from the doors and flashed his gaze back and forth, both ways down the hall;  but of course he saw nothing. Creepy noises weren't as fun if you could see who was making them.

   The emptiness of the hallways itself was intimidating; not just because they seemed to resonate with sound, but... Luigi hated to be alone.

   And now here he was.

   Taking a chattering breath, Luigi clutched his flashlight and started forward down the hall, not knowing where on earth he was headed. He only knew he must.