Your Pursuit of Perfection

Your Guilt Still Lies Within You

It was a beautiful day at Peach's castle as Four was busy at his computer, making some videos. He was humming that catchy Mario theme song till he heard a knock at the door. "Coming!" He was going to answer it until he realized he was stuck at his chair. "That's...odd..." The knocking at the door turned into pounding as voices could be heard outside. "Four are you okay?" Another voice piped up "Get out of your room dude! Your friends are worried about you!" Four gasped as he knew those voices belonged to Meggy and Three.

The thumping of the door echoed through his hears as he struggled to get out of his seat. Why was did this feel.........so familiar...? Four was really starting to freak out now as he pulled all of his strength to get out of chair, but something wouldn't let him. Then he saw it. From the reflection of his computer screen he could see the insane man who had shut everyone out for weeks. He was back living that same traumatic experience from March 10. That very same scene.

He looked up to see the very sus website that displayed that hellhole keyboard. The tv icon popped up and said "Hey! It looks like you need a bit of editing help!" Four was shaking, terrified, struck with fear. "N-N-No...not again."

"Can I interest you in a magical keyboard? It's guaranteed to make your work PERFECT!" The moment that word was spoken, the room melted into black goop. Four collapsed on the ground as tentacles reached out to grab his arms. He pulled himself up as a dark substance flooded out of the computer and was heading straight towards him. He started running as fast as he could, but the darkness was hot on his trail. "Stop!" Four called out, but it didn't listen. The walls and ceilings of the environment was crumbling around him. "Why won't you just leave me and my friends alone!?"

He started to grow tired as the black fog was surrounding him. He looked up to see a wave of mist crashing down on him. "NOOOO!" He could feel his body being cracked, split, pulled apart. His skin fell like it was on fire and he began lurching, hunched over. A glowing pink substance was dripping from his mouth and tears began streaming from his eyes. It seemed as if someone was controlling him as the last thing heard was "STAY AWAY!" It all faded into black and Four had lost control. He had returned to his-

*Gasp* Four woke up in a cold sweat. Observing his surroundings, he noticed he was back in his castle at the Showgrounds. "Just a dream..." Four breathed a sigh of relief. "It felt so real." He reached over for his phone to check the time: 8:09 AM. Admiring defeat, he sighed and slowly trudged out from bed to go check himself in the bathroom. He made his way through all those toilets and went up to the mirror. "Not that bad." It wasn't exactly what he expected as his hair was a bit of a mess and his eyes had dark bags. Other than that he was fine. Then that image from the computer screen of his dream flashed in his mind. Breathing heavily, he looked down at his hands to see that they were...shaking?

"God what's wrong with me?" He pulled out a brush to fix his hair and went back to his room to get dressed. "Maybe some fresh air would do me some good." That seemed like a good idea considering he didn't even want to try to make videos right now. Lucky for him it was a bright and sunny day. He managed to walk out of the door for like 5 seconds until he crashed right into someone. Adjusting his eyes from the sunlight, he saw it was..."Three?"

Three picked himself up and began brushing off the dirt that managed to cling to his clothes. "Watch where you're going idiot!" Ignoring that last part, Four steadily got up and rubbed his head. "Sorry. I just haven't been sleeping that well. I've been having these awful nightmares ever since the heist." Before Three was able to make a remark, Meggy and Mario came up to greet them. "Hey you two! What do you mean by nightmares Four?" He began twirling his index fingers nervously. "Well I-"

"Hold on! What is up with your eyes! It looks more like you haven't even been sleeping for a week!" Meggy and Mario took notice of his dark circles as well. "Ooooo are you going coo coo crazy again SMG4?" 

"That's exactly it Mario! All these nightmares have been centered around the "perfect video" incident." It looked incredibly painful for him to say that. "Hmmmm...do you know what could be causing it?" If anything would be causing it, it would be the guilt that Four felt when casting aside his friends like that, but he could feel that there was something else that was plaguing him with these bad dreams. "I'm not entirely sure Meggy." Mario suddenly got an idea. "Mario knows!  We should have a hangout!" They all looked back at him with perplexed looks.

"And how is that exactly supposed to help with Four's nightmares?" Three questioned. "SMG4 will feel a lot better if he's having fun with his friends!" Mario then went off to go invite all of his friends. "Actually I'd think that would really help." Meggy reassured Three. He rolled his eyes and headed back to his cafe. "Fine. But I'm bringing Eggdog." Four still felt some unsettlement in him, but Meggy placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry Four. A fun night with friends will cheer you up in no time!" Four agreed and said goodbye to Meggy so he could get the castle ready. "I really hope this works."

You can't escape your fear SMG4...