I ran as fast as I could through the pitch darkness surrounding me, my feet pounding against the invisible ground. My breath came in frantic pants. The creatures chasing me growled and yowled thrilled to be hunting. I stumbled through the darkness desperate and near tears. I couldn't see anything, not even my pursuers! I had nowhere to run, no one to protect me; not anymore at least. Part of me wanted to give up, but I didn't want to die the tortuous death I knew the shadows had planned
There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, no escape; not even death.
What was that sound, that rhythmic thumping sound? It was too slow and heavy for footsteps, too even. It was a heartbeat, Yami's heartbeat! I had only heard it once in that split-second before we became two entities for the final duel, but I'd memorized it. Warmth embraced me and I relaxed. I was safe in Yami's arms. He wouldn't let the shadow creatures hurt me.
"Arigato, mou hitori no boku, aishiteru."
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
The warmth and the heartbeat vanished as I jolted upright in my bed. One hand reached over to turn my alarm clock off while the other wiped the tears silently streaming down my face. A year had passed since the pharaoh had gone to the afterlife. I was older and wiser…and still hurting.
You know that saying, "You don't know what you have until it's gone?" I didn't realize exactly how true that was until my friends, Jii-chan and I had gotten home from Egypt. I knew going into the duel that I could, and hopefully – probably – would, lose my closest friend, my guardian, my teacher my darkness, my other half. At the time I didn't realize that "other half" was synonymous with "soul mate".
I sighed heavily.
Oh, what a naïve idiot I was – I am. A part of me still thinks I'll wake up and feel the pharaoh's presence in my mind; that I'll see him when I look at my reflection; that he'll materialize beside me when I'm sad and comfort me; that he'll be there to encourage me when I have a relapse. Needless to say, that never happens. He's long gone and so is the puzzle. I have nothing left but memories. I am left with the wretched thing that took him away from me as my only link to him.
Oh, the irony.
I walk to school with my friends wearing a fake smile that is way too perfect; that has been practiced way too much. And the memory of my yami's heartbeat haunts me with every step and breath I take because it beats in sync with my own.