Chapter 19: Familial Famine

Riba and Marie walked up the stairs, to the second floor. Spirits don't often wander too far from their corpses. And last Riba had checked, which was a few years ago, Leo's body was hidden away in a large toy box. "This should be the place," Riba said, as he opened the door to the playroom, which had the toy box.

"Riba, I really don't recommend looking in there," Marie warned. "It's a pretty gruesome sight."

"I've seen far worse," Riba said. Marie was acting odd. She knew he had been in this room and already seen Leo's body. When searching for a spirit, you always check where the body is first. That is where the spirit will most likely be.

"Riba, don't," Marie begged. "Please, no!"

"Sorry, Marie," Riba replied, turning away, starting to open the toy box. "It's our best bet." He looked back at the toybox and saw... toys. "What?" Riba asked. "Usually Leo's body is on top of all this stuff." After he brushed away toy soldiers, multi-colored miniature tires, a plush monkey, yarn and arts-and-crafts Yoshis... being slightly impressed by the craftsmanship of them all... he found... bones. He recoiled his hand out of basic instinct. They were picked clean.

Riba dug further. He threw toys, broken crayons, and stray puzzle pieces, the works, behind him and dug further. He found more human bones. Even a broken skull, and a ribcage stripped clean of anything. He never found any organs or flesh. Anything that may have been there at one point must have been eaten based on chew marks on the bones, or discarded. Eaten... His heart skipped not one, not two, but three beats. Then, it sped up as Marie sat down next to him on her knees.

"Riba..." Marie sighed. "You weren't supposed to see that."

"You..." Riba said, shakily turning around. "You ate him. Didn't you?"

Marie looked at the ground, and took a large exhale. Her breath came out fragmented near the end. "I didn't want to, but I--- I didn't have anything to eat. Eating is the only way to ease the pain. There, I admit it, I ate my own nephew's corpse!"

"What do you mean?" Riba asked. "Ghosts don't need to eat. I thought you did this for fun."

"Why would I do this for fun?" Marie asked. "Riba, most ghosts don't feel the need to eat, because they weren't starved to death."

Riba's judgement faltered a little. Marie opened her mouth to speak. "When Alice killed me, she didn't just do it right away. She kept me in a crate in the left wing while she killed the others. I was the first to suffer from you and Alice's ritual. I was kept in there for days. She had beaten me to the point of me not being able to vocalize, so I couldn't scream. I got hungrier... and hungrier... and hungrier... until I died of starvation. Since then, I've felt intense hunger pains every second I go on."

"I---" Riba started. "I don't know what to say."

"She killed me for being Evie Aduraice's favorite child," Marie wept. "I was Evie's eldest child with the first and only man she ever truly loved. So that's why she preferred me to Alice and Mercy. I didn't care for Evie. But I think part of Alice thought that I was the reason she was abused and neglected. So that's why she killed me first."

"I'm so sorry for being a part of this," Riba replied.

"This doesn't have anything to do with you, Riba," Marie whimpered. "Alice already hated me. I don't think it was your influence that drove her to do this."

"That may be true," Riba tried reassuring her. "I'm here if you need to talk to me."

Marie said nothing. "Let's keep going."

"If you say so..." Riba mumbled. He followed her out of the room. Leo had not been in there, but he couldn't be far.

Indeed, right when they opened the door, there was a boy outside, walking through the room. "Leo?" Riba asked.

Leo turned around. They could both see it in a blur as his stare pierced them with fury burning in his soul, and vengeance in his gaze. Riba and Marie stepped back. "You again?" Leo asked, pointing a finger at Riba. He then turned his head to Marie, then his finger. "And you... you deconstructed my body bit by bit while I was watching! Yeah, bet you didn't know I was even there. You even threw parts of it away because you couldn't stomach going through with it!"

"Leo, I'm so sorry, I---!" Marie cried.

"Shut it, you horrible tramp!" Leo shouted. "Because of you, I don't have a body to go back to. And I live every day in exhaustion. This is your fault, and now you're affiliating with the man who ordered for my death?" Leo pulled out a pocket knife from his pocket. "You both deserve this."

"Leo, wait!" A voice called out. No way. It was Rae! Rae appeared in between the two parties. "You can't do this to them! Riba and Marie are on a quest to save the family. Please, don't kill them."

"Rae..." Leo muttered. He flipped up a blade from the pocket knife. "Get. Out. Of. My. Way."

"No, I refuse to!" Rae shouted. "If you want to hurt them, you'll have to get through me!" Leo looked to the ground. In anger, he threw the pocket knife to the floor. He then slapped Rae across the face, so hard it almost made it look like Rae's neck had twisted in an unnatural direction. It then returned to normal.

"You're so stupid, Rae," Leo insulted. "Riba is a bad person. So is Marie. Once killers, always killers. I'm the older brother. I know better."

"But..." Rae whined.

"No buts!" Leo shouted. "You need to stay away from them, or else they WILL manipulate and kill you! Do you understand me?!" Leo paused. "If you're going to put your life on the line for those that will betray you, you're beyond my help. Goodbye, sister. Don't say I didn't warn you."

Riba watched as Leo disappeared, in a flash of black. Riba reached out to him, but it was too late. He was already gone. Where? He didn't know. He had already failed his mission. To set all these souls he had tormented to rest. All of them. He didn't bet on being able to find Leo again. But he also wouldn't just give up. There were still souls to save. And he would save them.

Marie was crying her eyes out, and Rae had left again while everyone had their minds on something else. Riba knelt down and put a hand on Marie's shoulder. "Are you---?" He asked. Marie cried louder. Riba frowned. "Here, it'll be okay. Do you want to talk about it?"

"I--- he'll--- never forgive---!" Marie screamed in agony. "All I care about is eating, and because of it... I ruined my afterlife!"

"Whoa, whoa," Riba replied. He took a seat next to her on the floor, leaning against the wall. "Your afterlife isn't ruined. Not to... undermine what you're feeling. I know it's very hard losing the trust of someone you were close to. When you lose someone, it does feel like your life--- or whatever existence you're in--- is ending. But that changes with time."

Marie looked up at him, Riba felt almost guilty. He himself wasn't sure of that. He had just lost the two most important people to him. And Luigi had just bailed on him. Not that Riba held it against him. He had a very good reason. He felt like he was speaking nonsense right then. After all, what's advice to someone else worth if you can't take it yourself? Riba thought.

But then, Marie hugged him. He felt her tears run down his sleeve. He felt her warm arms tight around him. He embraced her back. He didn't know quite know what to feel about her yet. Without that much time together, they already felt like they were understanding of the other. At least, as understanding as you can get with someone you just met.

Riba managed to develop this understanding quickly. He'd had feelings for Mario ever since Mario gave him the apple that changed his life. From the huge tree in Evangeline District 2. But he only developed it for truly important and good people. He supposed, Marie must have been one of those people.

"When I was very little, I was terrorized by mostly other children, sometimes even adults, because they had heard the rumors of my mother, how she was dating other men," Marie stated, as they walked through the house, on their way to find Mercy. "I loved my mother when I was young, before I truly understood what she was doing to the family." Marie paused, and started playing with her hair out of nervousness.

"That's not right," Riba replied. "You shouldn't have to suffer for what other people do. You're your own person. Who cares what your parents did? Just because your family is bad doesn't mean you are." Marie looked at him with those blue eyes that were as deep as the ocean, or maybe even the sky itself.

"Riba..." Marie whimpered. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for someone to say that!"

"Eh?" Riba asked.

"This whole time, I've felt horrible for everything my family has done!" Marie shouted. "Now I finally feel like someone gets me! I'm not a monster, I'm not a tramp, I didn't want to be a cannibal! I'm just a very scared woman!" Marie's voice broke under the tears, but she laughed too. She was in pure joy that finally, someone understood her.

Riba wouldn't have come up with that by himself. He had never really dealt with bad parents himself. But Mario would sometimes talk about his father and how much he hated the man. He never really went into much detail, but from what Riba could gather, Mario's father abused animals joyfully, and Mario felt his influence is why he ended up hurting people throughout his life, eventually leading to the murder of Princess Peach and the (fake) Luigi.

Mario always blamed himself. For being the child of a madman. While what he did was bad, Riba had to disagree with him. Because Mario had grown up to be someone great, even if he stumbled on the way.

"I'm glad you realize," Riba told Marie. "I think so too." Marie looked at him, and smiled wide. Riba felt like he had already made a friend.