The door to the afterlife had been opened. The young boy who had created the rift gasped in wonder as he saw a young woman float down and become corporeal. How he had longed for this moment. He embraced her saying only one word, "Mother." The others of his once thriving village began to wander from the door, confused as to why they still lived. Tears of happiness. But no good thing can ever last.
The dreams… and then…
This… reality. Why was it so? Is the life we all live meant to be so cruel? The young boy reached his hand out for his mother. "Don't leave me! I just got you back, you can't go!" His panicked mind called to him, warned him not to touch her. It needn't have bothered, for at that moment the older women evaporated into nothing but remaining smoke. "MOTHER!"

Famous Last Words

Chapter 1

"I miss him," a platinum haired teen said. Another teen in the room looked up, wondering if he had been talking to him, or just thinking out loud. The first person looked up. "It's just so lonely with him gone, don't you think, Yuugi?"
The mentioned, Yuugi, smiled without enthusiasm. "I agree completely." And he did. Even if the one they missed was no more than a lost spirit, he was a person who both Yuugi and the other- Marik his name was- missed.
"I know it's pretty stupid, but I feel like I still need to tell him…" I love him. Yuugi finished mentally for him as he trailed off. This wasn't the first time this conversation had come about. The spirit, the Pharaoh, had been defeated by Yuugi in a duel, and after that he was sent to his afterlife. Even though it had happened almost a year ago, even though so many things had happened, if felt to them as though it was just the day previous that he was with them.
Yuugi knew that Marik was crushing on the Pharaoh. At first he was upset, seeing as he liked the Pharaoh as well. But, even still, he could sense that his other side held some affection for the other teen, and Yuugi eventually gave up. They did make each other very happy, and as long as the Pharaoh was happy, Yuugi could be happy. It seemed that the spiky haired midget wasn't to be alone forever, considering that shortly after he began to fall hard for his best friend Jonouchi. Of course, Jou didn't know yet…
"Maybe there's a way to contact him in the afterlife?" a third voice, half joking and half serious, broke apart the thoughts which the first two had delved into. Marik suddenly flew up and almost knocked himself over with the speed that he went up at.
"Ryou, that's the smartest thing I've ever heard!" After the Yamis left, the three Hikaris remaining shared an apartment, each paying for a portion. Ryou blushed, "It was kind of a joke, I mean how could we contact him… He's kind of dead…" Yuugi snapped his fingers, drawing all attention to himself.
"You know how we were able to get into the Pharaoh's memory through the Millennium Puzzle?" Ryou's face showed some of the disappointment he felt that day. "Well, what if it's still there, the door I mean. In my soul!" Marik gaped in shock at the simplistic answer to the question he himself had pondered many sleepless nights and the occasional day.
Ryou shrugged, "We really don't have much to lose, and that's the best idea I've heard since this topic first appeared." Ryou's face showed excitement, even if his words lacked that certain characteristic.
Suddenly, a thought dawned on Marik. "Um, Yuugi, can you even get into your own soul room?" Yuugi's eyes widened and he laughed.
"Well, we will have to see, now won't we?" he retorted.
Way to get my hopes up, Yuugi… Thanks. Marik thought sarcastically. Ryou took one look at the blonde's depressed expression before he tried to cheer him up. Ryou was an optimist… Somehow…. "Hey Marik! Don't look sad, if I've been able to access my soul room, then I bet Yuugi can too!"
Yuugi grinned at the backhanded praise and told everyone to stay quiet. A few moments later, his eyes closed. Ryou could see him fidgeting a few times. But then his meditation grew deeper, and it was obvious that Yuugi had reached his soul room. Looking around, the darkness of Shadows had begun to spread along the walls. Ryou started to edge away from the walls and more towards Marik. Marik was about to comment on that when the phone began to blare loudly at them. Ryou stood to get it, but Marik reached it first and held it up to his ear.
"Hel-" He wasn't even able to finish his greeting when he was rudely interrupted by the voice on the other end.
"RYOU, IF YOU DON'T GET DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT TO FIX THE CLOGGED TOILET, YOU'RE FIRED!" Marik almost chuckled at he realized that the yeller was none other than Ryou's boss, Seto Kaiba.
"Hey, sorry Kaiba, this is Marik. I'll get Ryou for you." He tossed the phone to Ryou who very nearly missed it.
"Hello?" By the way that Ryou cringed; Marik assumed that Kaiba had repeated the same dialogue to him. "Well, duty calls!" Ryou said, laughing awkwardly.
"Oh yes, I'm sure the shit calls," Marik replied, twisting Ryou's words for his own amusement.
"You can go straight to hell!" Ryou joked back. Ryou was the janitor at Kaiba Corp, and so he always got called in to fix the incredibly ridiculous problems that employees somehow managed to cause.
The door closed softly behind Ryou as he took off down the stairs.

…

It had been almost an hour, and Marik was beginning to worry about Yuugi. He had begun to grow fond of the tiny Hikari, but he would never admit that to anyone. The Shadows that were there at the beginning had grown considerably in size, and if anything, that frightened Marik the most. What if something had gone wrong? Marik fretted. He took a step towards Yuugi. And another. He reached out to touch Yuugi to see if he could snap him out of it at least, but what he least expected was that just that gesture would pull him in to Yuugi's soul room as well.
Yuugi was cornered by some sort of shadow beast, with glinting white fangs and a long sinewy body. The creature looked as if it was about to devour Yuugi. Marik lunged forwards, taking advantage of the fact that the beast hadn't noticed him as of yet. He crashed his hands together over the head of the beast, and it fell limp and disappeared. The sadistic side of his mind was upset, hoping for more of a fight. Sometime during this little episode Yuugi had become paralyzed in shock, and so Marik walked over and shook him. His glazed eyes immediately brightened when he saw who it was.
"Marik! I found the door," Yuugi exclaimed.
"Ah, really? Is it open?" The multicolour-haired teen looked at him with an expression of fear mixed with joy.
"I saw him Marik, he was there, but then the beast attacked me…"
"So we can talk to him?" Yuugi nodded.
"I haven't tried it myself, but that should be the case." Marik grinned and tried to telepathically connect to the spirit.
"Pharaoh, guess who!" Marik could feel the Pharaoh's amusement.
"Hello, Marik, I would recognize your voice anywhere." Marik's smile grew in size.
Marik turned to Yuugi. "Can I see him?" Yuugi turned and started walking towards a door, it didn't look particularly special, but that seemed to be the case with most. Once reached, Yuugi pointed into the picture. As he peered in, the first thing he saw was the Pharaoh. The jolt in his heart almost caused him to cry out. Cautiously, he pushed a hand against the door. As he expected, it went straight through. He pushed his other hand into the mirror and turned to face Yuugi. "Look, Yuugi! No hands," Marik cackled. Yuugi laughed as well. Marik reached a hand back through to their side and pushed Yuugi through the portal. "Tag, you're it!" Marik followed suit.
Marik's first impression of the afterlife was that it appeared to be a giant mosh pit. "Hey, Atem, you having a huge party or something? Marik asked walking up behind the Pharaoh. He jumped and swiveled around.
"M-Marik?" he stuttered.
"Don't forget me!" Yuugi had managed to fall somewhere in the middle of the mosh pit and being so short could find anything, so just ended up wandering through people until he found Marik and the Pharaoh.
"Yuugi? How on earth did you two get here?" The Pharaoh looked at them, incredulously.
"Through the portal in Yuugi's mind. No big deal," Marik said nonchalantly. Yuugi rolled his eyes.
The Pharaoh looked a little taken aback. "Well, it's nice to see you again. I must say that I missed you." Even though it was just a comment, Marik felt himself be swept up by emotions.
Yuugi noticed the reddish tinge to his cheeks and pushed him forwards. Damn that kid was strong… "Marik has something to tell you, Pharaoh!" Marik gave him a panicked glance clearly stating 'I can't do this Yuugi!' Yuugi grinned wolfishly. "Okay, since Marik seems unable to tell you at the moment, I shall speak in his place." Did Marik mention how much he hates that little munchkin? "Well, Atem, you know how you feel about Marik?" The Pharaoh floundered.
"Wha- no no, I don't know what you're talking about!" Yuugi chuckled evilly. Where in the seven hells did he pick that up? Never mind… Marik didn't even want to know.
"Well, Marik here thinks the same of you?" Marik's face was now the colour of a tomato, and he prayed that a hole in the ground would swallow him up whole, so he wouldn't have to face the Pharaoh any longer.
"Why do you hate me, Yuugi?" Marik muttered. At that same moment, he was pushed forwards, tripping over Yuugi's foot, "conveniently" placed in front of him. He stumbled into Atem, and they would've both fallen if Atem hadn't grabbed onto the edge of his throne. Marik tried to leap off, face so red it now appeared to be glowing, but the Pharaoh seemed to have other ideas.
"Is that true, Marik?"

CZR: I decided to get off my butt and type something up. If anyone was wondering, my other stories are on a kind of hiatus. I seem to have lost my motivation for the minute on Tombkeeper, my co writer on Things that go Bump in the Night has been going through some tough things lately, and… Quite frankly I'm just being lazy with Life Starts Now. Sorry to anyone who liked those, but I'll get my motivation back soon, I swear!
Marik: Wait, why do I have to be in love with the Pharaoh?
CZR: Because you two make a cute couple…
Marik: NO!
Bakura: Yea, he should've been paired with me!
CZR: *Holds up story line to Tombkeeper*
Bakura: *Smirks* I think I like that story.

Extra
The fate of the toilet

Seto Kaiba pressed his hand to his temples in an attempt to block the coming migraine. He had just had had another failed job interview and he was getting fed up with it. If someone was going to try for a job in an office, they should've at least been able to type… At least!

Ooh that rich bastard. I've been holding in the largest crap of my life, in case I wasn't hired. And now I was rather glad for that. I snuck up the stairs to Kaiba's office, and once his private bathroom was in sight, I made a beeline for it. And crapped my behind off… It didn't stay down…

Kaiba walked up the stairs to his bathroom. The one containing the women's magazines that all his customers seemed to love… He didn't even know why they ended up with him.
As he opened the door, his senses were immediately berated by a horrible stench that could only be one thing… His theory was proven by the water covering the tile.
He stomped to the nearest phone and punched in his janitor's number.