Hello everyone, and welcome to my third ever published fanfiction! :) This one is different than what I usually write for many reasons: it's going to be longer than a couple of chapters, and it's SCARY STUFF!!!11!!1!
Bakura: Whatever, Shem. You just wish you could write scary stuff.
Shem: *tears up* B-but Bakura...this story is scary...*has idea* It has you in it, therefore it's scary.
Yami: I don't think that's going to work, Shem. He's read ahead. He knows he hasn't actually shown up yet in anything you have written.
Shem: Oh...so he knows about...
Yami: Yep.
Shem: ...*runs away*
Yugi: Enjoy the fic!
Chapter One - I Am So Much Older Than I Can Take
After hanging up the phone, Ryou stood there for a few moments in his kitchen, staring at the plastic machine without really seeing it. The lights in the house blazed, illuminating every corner. He never turned them off anymore. Things had seemed great, last year. The spirits in the Millennium Items had been freed, and it had seemed that events would go back to normal, the way things were supposed to be. And they had.
Yet, Ryou knew that things would never be normal. He knew things now, things that could not be erased from his mind. Now he knew what truly horrible things waited in shadows. Darkness cloaked minds and hands that wanted nothing more than to make humanity suffer, even if just a little bit, even if just one young man alone in his house at night.
And now, this. Ryou slumped to the kitchen floor and wrapped his shaking arms around his legs. His father had been at an archeological dig along the Euphrates river and had suffered sunstroke. He was in the hospital now, and it seemed the heat affected his mind. He didn't seem to be in the least bit coherent, rambling on about "The Pharaoh" and blood in the sky. The man on the phone had relayed all this information to Ryou in a sickeningly sympathetic voice that made Ryou want to scream.
He swallowed, letting his head rest against his forearms. The loneliness made his stomach and arms ache. Dad...
The shrill ring of the telephone started Ryou from the daze he had slipped into. He stood and reached out to answer it, but stopped, frozen. Enough time had passed that he could see the rapidly setting sun out the kitchen window.
Terror ripped though Ryou's body as he dashed around the house, closing all the blinds and thick curtains. I can't let the dark get in. I can't let the dark get in. I can't let the dark get in. I can't let the dark get in. I can't let the dark get in. I can't let...
The phone stopped ringing.
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Anzu hung up the phone and shook her head. "No answer at Ryou's house," she said sadly.
"Guess it's just the three of us, then," said Honda brightly. "What movie do we want to watch?" He looked through their movie selection as Anzu joined him.
"Something exciting!" Yugi called from the kitchen where he was popping popcorn.
It was the friends' first get-together of the summer, and Yugi couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed. Joey was off visiting Mai, Otogi was on vacation in Hawaii, Kaiba tried his best to avoid them, and now even Ryou wasn't bothering to answer his phone. The house felt strange and empty with only the three of them, Grandpa having gone to bed already. The movie started, and they munched their way through popcorn and candy. Honda had picked Star Wars Episode IV to watch, and while they enjoyed watching the show, it was really just so that they could hang out together, enjoying each other's company, the comfort of being surrounded by friends.
Honda and Anzu left. Friendship is wonderful, but everyone has their own lives, their own homes and families.
Their own fears.
A year ago things were hard and frightening. Friends became enemies and acquaintances became unspeakable terrors. There was joy laced through the fear, however. Every moment was sharp, cutting into hearts with emotions that could bite and soothe. The days revolved between laughter and screams and smiles and freezing.
Those days were gone, now. The happiness he felt was soft, no longer sharp and desperate, stronger for the contrast of the danger they were always in. Yugi climbed upstairs in the dark, his hands feeling and habit guiding him to his room, where he changed into his pajamas but didn't yet climb in bed. He stood in the middle of the shadowed room, his eyes half closed so he could pretend to almost see a shape in the darkness that his mind knew wasn't there. Yami...
A whole year, and Yugi's chest still ached whenever he thought about his other self being gone. Yami no longer watched through his eyes as he went to school and played with friends. There was no one helping him Duel; he was standing on his own, strong, but terribly alone.
Night was the worst. Night was when everyone left. Friends have their own lives, their own homes and families, and Yugi could feel them slipping between the cracks in the sidewalk as he desperately snatched at them. Friends left, and it took everything in Yugi's power not to grab them, hold them close to him, force them to stay, because being alone was terrifying.
That's why, every night, in his room, Yugi could only keep breathing if he convinced himself that someone was there with him, just like before. Just like they had always been together.
"Mou hitori no boku?" Yugi whispered toward the shadow he willed to listen to him, to be there, to be his other self. "Yami, I hope you're doing okay. I'm still in that growth spurt; I'm almost as tall as Anzu, now. I'm taller than you." He smiled as he imagined Yami's expression on the shadow. "I know. Strange, isn't it? Jounochi is dating Mai, now. He really likes her alot, and it's funny to see him get so flustered and protective around her. Honda's not dating anyone right now. Anzu..." Yugi hesitated, his face growing slightly warmer. "Well, you know what I think abuot her. She really is amazing. Now I just have to work up the courage to tell her. What should I say to her, Yami?"
The sudden silence took Yugi by surprise, the breath catching in his throat. He'd really convinced himself he was talking to Yami, that time. He opened his eyes and looked into the shadows, seeing nothing that wasn't there yesterday, and the day before, and the day before...
Yugi reached up and covered his face with his hands, trying to hide the tears now streaming down his face from the laughing darkness that surrounded him. Knowing it was no use, he crawled into his bed and buried his face in his pillow, letting the tears overwhelm him, his sobs shaking his bed as he cried himself to sleep.
Alone.
Huzzah! Thank you tons, Neonn, for beta-ing even when your brain has been turned to mush by reading My Immortal.
Yami: *shudders* Worst...writing...ever known to mankind.
Shem: Good thing I have you as my muse on this story, right Yami?
Yami:...
Shem:...Right?
Yami: Sure.
Shem: Yay! *snuggles Yugi*
Yami: Um, I guess that means I'm safe for now. Dear readers, please review so Shem will stop smothering my Abiou. Thank you.
