Playing God
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh, it's characters, themes, or any of it's songs. I was given the idea for this story by the movie, "Stranger Than Fiction", which I also do not own. If I owned the Internet router, Safari, I wouldn't be writing this stuff, I would be rich enough to buy . Not recommended for those under 13.
Now for some Ryo fan service. :3
Ryo stared at the blank word document on his laptop, perplexed. Questions were swirling around in his head like the spin cycle in the dryer.
What should he write? When did he need to finish it? Would people like, or actually read it? Or would it suck? What if he didn't finish it in time? Worse, what if he finished it in time, but no one read it? What if he made a mistake? What if it wasn't grammatically correct? What if someone noticed? What if they laughed? What if they brought it to other peoples attention and they laughed, too? Would he be able to show his face to the world of fan fiction and creative writing ever again? Would he be able to remain President of the Creative Writing Club? What if nothing went wrong and someone didn't get that it was supposed to be scary?
A sharp, high-pitched beep came from his laptop and started showing different types of pictures from his photo album. Ryo's heart jumped and he looked at the shelf of books and DVDs beside him. One title jumped out at him glaringly. He reread it.
"Stranger than Fiction," he mused, puzzled by what had possessed him to even buy the movie less than one week ago. It was a boring movie that Ryo had watched only once and already his writer side of him was analyzing the story.
Title: Stranger than Fiction
Genre: Romance/Life Lessons/Comedy/Thriller?
Summary: Idiot lawyer(?) who leads boring life starts hearing a female voice that is describing and possibly influencing life. Meets girl in cafe who refuses to pay taxes and starts having lustful thoughts, again described by female voice. Tries to ignore voice. Goes to psychiatrist. Weird things begin to happen. Guy starts to loosen up. Starts falling in love with girl at cafe. Girl at cafe falls in love with Idiot Lawyer. Idiot Lawyer finds out that voice who seems to have taken over his life is female writer who only writes tragedies. Goes and tells writer that he is a real person. She gets scared about how many people she might have killed. Idiot Lawyer reads story and then tells her to finish it. Goes through last day of life like it is his last day. Has sex with Girl from cafe. Gets hit by bus on way to work. Whole thing described by female writer. Idiot Lawyer doesn't die, but is saved by chip of wristwatch that embeds self in right wrist. Idiot Lawyer lives happily ever after with Girl from cafe. The end, end of story, he should have died.
Annoyed by the fact that he was doubting his skill, and angry from summarizing the stupid movie, Ryo closed the laptop and went to bed. Maybe he would be able to write a good story tomorrow.
"Hey, Ryo! Wait up!" called Sahara, vice president of the creative writing club. "How's your story?"
"Not so hot, right now," Ryo said with a mask of lightheartedness that couldn't be penetrated. "But, I will get it done!"
Sahara smiled at him and proceeded to go to her first period class. Ryo did likewise, but not before he was bombarded by Anzu in the hallway.
"Ryo! How's the Halloween story coming?" she said with the bubbly cheerfulness that only she had. Ryo had been shocked when he found out that she could write, and surprisingly well, too. She had been one of the first people to show up for the club, along with Honda, Jounouchi, and Yugi, who mostly just sat listened to the stories. If Ryo could have his way, he would have made a rule that unless you actually wrote stuff, you couldn't be in the room, but since they had payed for membership and were donating money to have the best story by each active member published in a bound book, he didn't have a choice.
Ryo forced a smile. "Okay, and yours?"
"Fine"
Was it Ryo's imagination, or was Anzu trying to avoid looking him in the eye? What did she have to worry about? When Anzu had arrived at the first meeting, she gave him a story that she had written for a fanfic that had been really good. Was she now doubting herself? And, if so, why? What change had come over Anzu that she now feared what she was writing?
Ryo shook his head. He had had the same doubts last night and still hadn't written anything. Maybe Anzu was just dealing with Writer's Block, like him. Or maybe Ryo had an overactive imagination and what stressing about unnecessary stuff.
"Well, see you later, Anzu," he said as he continued to first period.
With a loud beep the computer in the library sprung to life and began to load in a painfully slow, snail-like manner. Ryo hadn't had time that morning to check his email and make sure that everything was in order for the meeting on October 29th after school.
The computer beeped again, showing that it was now ready for the process of logging in. Unlike starting up, logging in was quite quick and simple, but when Ryo went to open Safari, the screen flickered and the computer shut down.
"Obaka!" Ryo glared at the computer in disgust. He heard several more curses, some quite more severe from behind him.
"That's the third time this week!" said a familiar voice. "These computers are nothing but sh*t."
Ryo kept his head down, silently praying that they wouldn't see him, but, as per usual, Ryo's luck decided to run downhill at a breakneck speed, like a runner in a race who knows that they will win, no matter what.
"Hey Ryo! Didn't know you were in here! Wassup?"
Ryo cringed at the sound of his name. "Hi, Jounouchi, how are you?" Ryo put on another fake smile and turned around to face his 'friend'.
"Well, other than these stupid-*ss computers, everything is fine!" Jounouchi said with a hint of anger.
Ryo nodded in sympathetic agreement but inside he was worrying about whether Jounouchi would ask how his writing was coming. 'Please don't ask' Ryo pleaded fervently. 'Pleasedontask, pleasedontask, pleasedontask pleasedontask!'
"So, how's your story coming for the Halloween party?"
'IDIOT!'
Ryo almost gave up right then. "Fine," he lied, once more. "In fact, I'm almost done with the first chapter."
"A'right!" Jounouchi grinned. "'that whachya were doing on the computer?"
"No, I was checking my email" Ryo replied, angry at the opacity of a certain afore-mentioned idiot's brain. Couldn't he tell that Ryo didn't like him, or that he wanted to be left alone? The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. "If you don't mind my asking, what were you doing on the computer?"
Jounouchi looked around, nervously. "I was... uh... looking at porn"
Ryo stared at Jounouchi's retreating figure as he got ready to leave.
The moon shone on his raven black hair as he returned home, making it shine silver. Nervously, Kenji looked over his shoulder. He sighed with relief that no one was there.
The last five nights had been some of Kenji's worst, and now he lived in fear of being found.
Five nights ago, Kenji had started receiving notes that were written in a deep, red ink. Only last night had he found that they had been written in blood. The first hadn't been that bad, but it had sent chills up his spine:
The moon and the sun came down to him
Still he wouldn't wake
They left him to his forever sleep
And shone on earth no more.
He had pondered over its meaning and then realized that it was a line from his poem, Cold World. It was a poem about how when life ended, it couldn't be returned, no matter what people did, the world wouldn't relinquish it's icy hold on the dead.
The next note had been worse. Maybe if he had figured out it's meaning, none of this would have happened.
Tick-tock!
Moon through window,
Ain't she pretty?
Knife across her throat.
Hurry hurry!
Life does scurry.
None shall save the light.
That night, Kenji had discovered, his girlfriend dead, her throat slit while she slept. He had cried and cried, but still she was dead and he had returned home to continue with his life. That was when he found the third note, stuck on his door:
Poor little child
Now all alone
No one to cuddle,
No one is home.
Quickly now,
Don't you cry
Momma is going to say goodbye!
Kenji had opened the door and entered, fear refusing to let him go. There wasn't anything amiss in the hall, but in the kitchen, his mother lay dead, her blood on the wall. That was the fourth note.
Hush now, mocking bird
Don't make a fuss
Or your father will be hit by my buss!
Don't tattle tale,
Little bitty snail
Or your father's heart might fail!
Try and find me
That you must
You don't want your father to die, I trust?
See you at midnight.
Kenji looked at the clock: 3:05. He had until midnight that night to figure out who had killed his mother and his girlfriend and save his father.
Shakily, Ryo stopped typing. After school he had run into Kenji, a member of the Creative Writing Club, if he could use Kenji's name in his story. Kenji had said yes and Ryo had continued home to begin. Taking a breath, he continued writing.
Kenji ran down the hall to his father's office in the Domino News the next morning. Hurriedly, he showed his father the first three notes and a picture of the fourth one while he explained what had happened. His father listened patiently and he agreed to allow Kenji to stay home from school that day and keep an eye out for the killer.
Soon, under tension from the mysterious killings from the night before, Kenji began a search on the Internet for serial killers that wrote notes in the victims blood. Nothing came up. After an hour of searching for any clue that might lead to The Riddler, as Kenji decided to call it, Kenji was about to give up. Then he noticed an ad for demonic myths lying on his father's desk, Kenji wondered if maybe the killer was something supernatural. Revived, Kenji began his search.
The list was long. After five hours of narrowing down the search, Kenji had begun to feel tired. It was 11 A.M., and Kenji had missed breakfast. Kenji's father was sitting at the desk eating a slice of pizza that his secretary had brought in.
"Hey, Dad?" Kenji asked.
"Hmm?" his father replied with a mouth full of pizza.
"Can I have some pizza?"
"Sure you can, how's your search coming?"
Kenji paused to think about it. "It's coming. I've narrowed the list down by about 3,000, but there's still a lot to go."
"Well, keep working on it."
"Hey, Dad?"
"Yes, Kenji?"
"Thanks for believing me."
Kenji finished eating and continued the search.
Ryo stopped typing, closed his laptop, and went to bed. His dreams were troubled by notes written in blood and laughing demons that seemed to be asking him who was next.
In the morning, Ryo called in sick. He hadn't slept well and when he had slept, the demons in his dreams called out to him to let them loose and kill who they wanted to. Groaning, Ryo crawled back into bed after calling the office to tell them that he wouldn't be there that day.
Ryo woke at midnight that night, drenched in sweat. He looked over to the phone next to his bed and saw that there were fifteen different messages on there. He could have been worrying about how he had slept through all of those calls, but all thoughts in his head scurried away like cockroaches when a light turns on, because next to the phone, was the Millennium Ring.
A/N: Hey, thanks for reading! Let me know what you thought of it. I can assure you that this ain't the end of it. Please comment. Will see you Thanksgiving!