FANART!! I have an illustration of this fanfic at www.mediaminer.org, so if you like what you read, check it out. Its title is the same as the fanfic, ditto for my pen name.

Please review!!

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Inevitably, my magnum opus fanfic 'Mystery YuGiOh Theater' has been permanently removed from FF.net, due to an unspecified violation of the guidelines. I suspect it must be from copyright problems, however; and I'm obliged to respect FF.net's terms of service (even though the admins don't tell you what rule you broke...). Therefore, MYT has been relocated to a different host at www.mediaminer.org. If you have problems with the new location, please e-mail me at animagess@hotmail.com.

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All The Little Voices

~~~

This curse is dedicated to my former partner. He knows who he is, and he knows who I am/was, even if I don't anymore.

~~~

All the disposessed are lying

Lying on their faces while I

Sat and chained our souls

I should have looked before you leapt

~~~

The first mind-shuffle that I was aware of was exhilarating... You were unlike me in so many ways, it became a sort of thrill ride. Sometimes we'd switch control of my body just to get that rushing feeling of trading spots.

~~~

Adding one to one, making

A single into duel

Double dueling chained and bound

I can't recall my lonliness

Cuz I never had it

When you were at my back

~~~

You were so proud, so courageous, so arrogant. You were, after all, a ruler of cities and a Watchman of the Dark. Powerful, vengeful and brutally intelligent. How could I ever have compared to you? Mind- shuffling was the greatest form of escapism I could ever hope for. I became addicted to it.

~~~

If you're always at my back

No wonder I never see you

~~~

I never knew- of course, you probably knew all along- that everytime we shuffled, our minds and souls would momentarily open to eachother as they passed... And some of your darkness would flow into me.

~~~

All the little voices in my head

If you kill someone, it means they're dead

And humour is funny

Like blood is red

And pain it hurts real bad

~~~

I was totally unaware that this subtle infilteration was going on. It was in such tiny increments, and I was going though a number of awkward hormonal changes anyway; so how was I supposed to know?

What really gets me is that you never bothered to warn me.

~~~

If convergence is a lie

Than why

Are worlds colliding

When two minds fly

And one soul cries

It's just as painful as it is

Intimidating

~~~

I never realized it until you started getting a bit careless. Sometimes, I could feel you pushing slightly, when my soul was at its most vulnerable. But still, I never guessed what you were up to. And how could I? It was a one-sided Duel of manipulations, and you were the King of Games. I never stood a chance.

~~~

Eyes like puzzles that hang

Like tauks, like scales

Are sharp as knives that

Cut deep as your eyes

~~~

Sometimes you looked genuinely sorry for me. That put my fears at ease.

How ironic.

~~~

All the little voices in my head

When you kill someone, it means they're dead

And pain isn't funny

Until blood runs red

And pain still hurts real bad

~~~

So day by day, I became more and more like you. Prouder, stronger, tougher. Sometimes I wonder why I never aquired any of your wisdom... And then I wonder if you really had any at all in the first place, to be able do this to me.

~~~

And every slice you made

When you stuck a spear through your heart, it'd

Come out your back and into mine

Double sorrow time

~~~

My former compassion was driven out; replaced by your cold, calculating judgement. My friends grew afraid, grew apart from me. Soon I was past caring... All thanks to you.

~~~

Why don't you free me of your chains

It's killing me

From the inside

Your dark justice is poison

And your games corrode my mind

~~~

Even my facial expressions seemed to change. Whenever I smiled, it would come out as your impassive glare. I knew something was up, but your implanted darkness prevented me from questioning it. I would have trouble remembering my grandpa's name, or what street I lived on; these memories soon being replaced with visions and sudden nightmares of an ancient civilization, crumbling to dust, fading away, and me with it.

I was nearly put in an institution, because of your meddling.

~~~

Shadows vs shadows

Don't leave any room for light

So free me

Keep your fights

~~~

I implored you to leave me be, once I somehow managed to work up enough willpower. But you refused to listen.

Typical.

~~~

I'd rather find myself

Walking empty halls than your

Ever-present corridors

Blocking out the light

You have too many doors

And your windows

Cast darkness over mine

~~~

Your Soul Room became noticibly larger than mine. Pretty soon yours began overcrowding it, pushing it and squeezing it until nothing was left but a tiny, blank corner. It was into this closet of a prison that you forced my remaining soul; the little bit of what was still my own. And still you wanted it.

~~~

All the pretty little voices

Echo through my pain

All the voices in my mind are dimming

And when it pours it rains

My voice where did it go

Lost in the flow

~~~

I had to fight to protect what was left of my own thoughts and emotions, and the prevailing darkness turned it into quite a struggle. But I was never a match for you. I don't yet know who is.

~~~

Absorbing light into your black hole of a soul

I won't survive the dive

Through your memories

I'll be a part of them

A part of the puzzle

While you assimilate my last trace of identity

~~~

I still remember the last battle... Stuck in that hopelessly claustrophobic Soul Room you had me imprisoned in... I couldn't move an inch. And still the walls kept closing in around me, until it felt as if you were squeezing out the faintest vestiges of my humanity through my lungs, which was more or less what you were doing.

I fought... to no avail.

~~~

And identity was all I had

To offer you

So you're taking your due

As you kill me

And I hope you're happy with it,

Pharaoh

~~~

And so you watched me struggle into my last few seconds, casually leaning against the shrunken doorframe, watched as your virus drained the very last drop of my existance as a 15-year old schoolboy, and turned me into a Pharaoh's broken plaything, another dusty exhibit to lie forever in the shadowed corridors of your mind.

~~~

And now seperation would be a blessing

But it's too late for me, you took your dues

Left me an empty shell

Listen

You can hear the ocean when you

Put it to your ear

Hear all the little voices

The little voices in my head

~~~

Well, now I'm you, and you are still you, and what I used to be is nowhere to be found; and if any of that other me is still alive, it must be a bitter, hard little thing by now. I hope you're happy.

~~~

All the voices in my head

You overstayed your welcome

And now the voices are all dead

~~~

Sometimes I wonder why you did it. You always loved a challenge... Is this what you did to all your partnerships? Dissolved them, broke them by the private rules of your own sick little games? I always thought- But, it doesn't matter anymore, of course.

I'm dead anyway.

~~~

I hope your next partner knows

How you repay your hosts

~~~

For all your honour, you were a lousy cheat in the end. Worse than Bakura turned out, even.

~~~

All the voices in my head

It doesn't matter cuz I'm dead

And pain still hurts real bad...

~~~

I do have one consolation, however...

~~~

All those innocent little voices

~~~

Now that I've become a part of your little gallery of identities, whom you absorbed hundreds, thousands, millions of years ago, now that I'm a part of you...

...I'll have the opportunity to be the voices in your guilty mind, the ghost wandering your blackened soul. You really can't escape from the past. And I'll be here forever, as long as you're here. We're inseperable, thanks to you.

~~~

All those innocent little voices

Broken on the way down

Penalty game

For hearts that outweigh

For lost lights will make them pay

~~~

I'll whisper your cruel deeds incessently in your ear, having looked at and memorized every single shameful act you ever commited, lying in wait. I'll croon your misgivings, your weaknesses, and every hesitation that lost you a point. I'll crow your failures; I'll sing your flaws. And I'll not heed your pleads for mercy, because you yourself have none.

You brought this upon yourself, Pharaoh.

~~~

Thus the last shuffle ended

Dancing slower

The final turn was played...

~~~

I win.

~~~

Game over.

~~~

~END~