Okay so I started this fic many years ago and gave up on editing it hard core so I'm publishing it now. If anyone has any questions feel free to PM me!

Oh and these chapters will get longer. Just so you know.

Chapter 1

"Yeah!" Joey said as they walked the dense forest path. "This is gonna be awesome! Just the five of us, in the woods without anyone to tell us what to do!"

The other four who walked beside him, and Yugi saw Tea smile at his enthusiasm. Tristan was the first to speak after Joey.

"Yeah, it was pretty cool of your Grandpa to let us stay here Yugi."

Yugi nodded shifting his backpack to the other side of his shoulder. "He hasn't been there in a long time so who knows what condition the house is in. I guess that's why he wanted us to check it out for him."

"It's kinda weird that he didn't tell us why he wanted us to look at it…"

"Hopefully it's still in good shape," Yami said next to Yugi. He was looking at the map with intent interest, and if it wasn't for Yugi walking next to him, he would have hit about twelve trees already. "I would hate to have to stay someplace…collapsible…"

"It shouldn't be that bad." Tea said. She was carrying more bags than anyone else, yet no one was quite sure what she brought. She almost tripped over an exposed root once or twice. "Even if it was, there's that Ranger's station supposedly. Didn't Grandpa say that the Ranger takes care of the place?"

"Yeah," Yugi said. "He said he knew the Ranger for a long time…"

"Speaking of which, isn't that the Ranger's station up there?" Tristan pointed up the path, and sure enough there was a small log cabin type house about a half mile up the trail. From where they were, they could see a blue pickup truck parked next to it.

"Yep! That's gotta be it, Right Yami?" Joey said falling in stride next to the ex-pharaoh and looking at the map as well.

"Well that's what the map says." he said finally looking up from the paper. His eyes narrowed upon looking at it but Yugi figured that it was just because he was staring closely at a map for the past hour and a half.

When they got up the station, they noticed about ten horses standing out on the other side of the house opposite of the truck. The strange thing about them, was that there was nothing containing them: no fence or rope securing them in place. It seemed as if the horses were waiting for something, and they weren't going to leave until they got what they came for. All ten of them stared as the gang walked inside.

The inside looked like a gift shop for hunters. A various assortment of animal skins were draped over the walls and were on the floor. Stuffed bear heads and deer antlers were on display all over the room, and photos of people with their kill would be tacked on the wall next to it. The small table next to the doorway was littered with pamphlets about the surrounding area and "Things to Do" brochures for tourists. Yugi saw Tea shudder as she looked around.

Upon fully entering, the bell chimed and a gruff looking old man walked in from another room on the right. He looked like your typical cowboy complete with spurs on his boots. His white hair looked like it was in the wind for too long. Chewing on what looked suspiciously like tobacco, he looked at everyone with a raised eyebrow as they entered.

"Can I help ya'll?" he said. Tristan chuckled at his accent but Tea was the first to speak.

"Uh, yes. We were wondering if you could tell us where the Moto place is please? It's a house deeper in the woods."

The man stared at them as if they all just grew tentacles from their faces.

"Ye don' wanna be goin' in there! There's something wrong with that place! Sumthin' evil."

Joey looked at him nervously. "What do you mean?"

"Horrible place. Horrible! I'm not goin' there, you can't make me!"

"Please sir," Tea said obviously not fazed by what the Ranger was saying. "We're just looking for directions. You don't have to come with us."

"The Veil is thinnin' I'll have ya know…Activity is pickin' up."

"That's nice." Tristan cut in looking nervous. "Can we just get directions?"

The Ranger looked at them, obviously trying to be angry but it seemed as if the fight drained from him. He sighed and walked up to them, picking up what looked like a trail guide from a nearby table.

"Alright," he said avoiding their gazes and handing them the map. "I'll let ye pass. But take the horses. They can make a quick escape if need be."

They all looked at each other in shock. Let them borrow horses? It seemed mad, Yugi thought, but nobody was complaining. That meant that they didn't have to walk the entire way there, and that they could actually reach the house before the sun set.

"Uh…thank you?" Yugi said. Everyone voiced their gratitude and the man showed them outside to the horses that they noticed earlier. There were quite a few of them, but the Ranger picked out seemingly specific horses for them and handed them the reins to their individual steed.

As the Ranger handed Joey his chestnut colored horse, Joey asked, "Now what where you saying about the house being evil?"

The man just gave him a "I feel sorry for you for having to go there but don't ask me to talk about it" look. That really didn't quell the uneasy feeling in everyone's stomachs. After he got everyone settled on their horses, the Ranger gave them all solemn looks, pointed them in the right direction and walked back towards the house. Before he walked inside, he looked back.

"Don' let the demons get ya," he said ominously. "The thinning veil will make it easy."

Yugi noticed that the Ranger seemed to stare at everyone for a second in turn but when the Ranger's eyes rested on him, the man's glare intensified. The man held his glare for a good ten seconds before heading back inside the cabin.

After he went inside, Joey looked at everyone. "What did he mean by that? Tell me one of you knows…"

"Just ignore him Joey," Tea said. "He's just trying to scare us."

"Yeah, plus if there was anything wrong with the house, Grandpa would have let us know…" Yugi said, but even as he said that, an uncertainty came into his mind. His grandfather was extremely vague about the piece of property and wondered what would have caused him to ask them to check it out in the first place.

Everyone was glad to be back on the trail after that. However, the air seemed to become colder, and the trail started to get darker. Yugi noticed Joey jumping a lot on the back of his horse and couldn't blame him. Even the horses had noticed the change in the atmosphere and every fifteen minutes or so they would all stop at the same time, and try to back up. Luckily, even though the Ranger didn't give them any sort of tutorial on riding horses, Yami was able to give them a quick go over on how to handle them. So even if the horses didn't want to continue on the set path, everyone was able to get them back on course fairly easily.

After about a half hour of silent walking, Yugi was sure he heard rustling in the bushes nearby, and he was positive that he didn't imagine it because his horse would react to it as well. Sometimes everyone else would hear it, but dismiss it as an animal or something else. Joey however was completely freaked out and every five minutes or so, he would say, "So…. does anyone else think that was weird?" or "I think we should turn back…. Anyone? Hello?"

After the fifth time Joey said, "Did you guys hear that?!" Tristan stopped his horse.

"Alright dude, you need to chill."

"I can't! This place is freakin' me out!" Joey stopped his horse, as did everyone else. "Does nobody else notice how creepy this forest is?"

"You're just being weird because of the way the Ranger was acting earlier." Tea said. Out of everyone, Yugi noticed that she alone seemed unafraid of the forest around them. He couldn't tell if it was ignorance, or denial. "There's nothing to be worried about Joey."

"I for one, don't blame Joey for being afraid of the forest," Yami said. Everyone looked at him is surprise. Tea glared at him as if to say, "Not helping!"

When Joey urged Yami to continue, he said, "There's something definitely weird about this place, so I don't think we should take the Ranger's warnings lightly."

"See?" Joey said frantically pointing at Yami. "If he's worried, I think we should be too!"

"No…Joey, I didn't mean-" Yami started to say but was cut off by his horse backing up suddenly. And it wasn't just his horse, but everyone's horses started to do the same thing. They all tried to urge them forward but the animals seemed adamant on not going any farther up the path.

"Something's wrong…" Tristan said, now sharing in Joey's fear. "Why aren't they moving?"

"Maybe we should go where they want," Joey said and he started to turn his horse around. "Maybe they're trying to lead us away from danger or-"

Whatever Joey said next was lost to Yugi, as he looked to his left in the bushes. He didn't know what made him look, but something drew his attention to that particular spot. Yugi saw what looked like a pair of red eyes, staring at him through the frost bitten bushes and when he saw them, the whole world seemed to stop. Suddenly, he couldn't move no matter how much he tried, nor could he speak. All he could do was look at the eyes in those bushes. They had a certain look to them as if he could look in deeper and find worlds at the edge of the earth. Suddenly, the eyes widened ever so slightly, and it was as if something was being awoken from inside of him. It was almost as if something was forced upon him at blinding speed. The force was so blinding and forceful that if he could move, Yugi was sure it would have knocked him off of his horse. It wasn't until the eyes disappeared that Yugi could finally move again. He looked around, finally aware that all of the horses, including his own, were getting more freaked out by the second.

"I told you Joey, no!" Tristan yelled as he tried to gain better control over his horse. "We can't go back because you're too chicken to move forward."

"Look, I'm just saying," Joey took the slightest glance in Yami's direction. "If the horses are freaking out like this, it's not for no reason."

"Maybe it's just because the horses never went out this far in the woods before," Téa suggested. "They might not be used to going this far."

"Yeah, that must be it." Tristan slapped Joey in the back, as if telling him to relax. "See Joey? That's all it is."

"Don't be so sure." Yami spoke up. He was looking ahead of them, as if trying to see something that would not show its face to him. The Millennium Puzzle was glowing ever so slightly. "I think there's something in front of us."

Yugi looked at where Yami was looking and almost really did fall off of his horse. To his shock, Yugi saw five translucent figures standing in their path. They looked to be simple people at first, but then he noticed that some of them had injuries that most people would not still be standing if they had them. One of the girls on the side looked like her skull had been bashed in. A young male next to her had a knife sticking from his throat. All of them seemed to have injuries like that. To add to it all, Yugi noticed that he could see right through them. They stood stock still and their clothing did not even rustle to the slight chilly breeze that managed to find its way through the canopy.

"Where did they come from?" he thought, aghast. It wasn't until Yugi looked closer that he noticed that their eyes were the same as he saw, not one minute ago. It was like looking into a deep, void, and if you looked for too long, you would lose yourself in them.

With a gasp, Yugi realized that they were they eyes of the dead.