Disclaimer: Don't own YuGiOu.
Skull Dice
Friday the Thirteenth, June, Two-Thousand Three
6:05 PM
"You guys…I don't think we should go out tonight…it's Friday the Thirteenth, after all."
"Don't be a chicken, Yug. It's just a stupid day."
"But Jou-kun…"
"Jounouchi, just quit it. We'll just stay the night at Yugi's until morning comes, alright?"
"Sure, fine with me."
Yugi sighed in relief, and sat back down on the sofa in the living room. He turned on the TV, hoping to not come across anything weird. But when he turned it on, there was just static.
On every channel.
"The antenna busted?" Honda asked.
"No. The weather's perfectly fine tonight," Ryou said, looking over the TV set. Yugi flipped the channel and stopped when it came to a certain channel. Channel thirteen. It was all black with light static waves running over it, bottom to top. Then red eyes snapped open through the darkness, and they could hear a horrifying scream before all the lights went out. Then the door flew open, letting wind blow in harshly.
"Don't be afraid…" a sharp and raspy whisper floated in. "I don't bite…I just kill…"
The door slammed itself shut, and the lights flashed back on, leaving them all with pounding hearts and shaking bodies.
"What was that?" Malik asked.
"No idea," Jou said, and turned his head back to the TV, seeing that it was fine. "Hey, guys. TV's back ta normal."
Yugi nodded and said he'd go get some blankets because it was starting to get cold. He walked into the hallway and opened a cabinet door, peering inside for any extra sheets, and pulled out the first snowy white one. He screamed at what he saw. The five boys rushed in and looked around, finding the white sheet spread out on the floor in front of Yugi. In blood red letters, a message could be seen.
Six more hours. Can you survive the Skull Dice?
Then the blood letters faded out into pitch black, along with the cotton of the blanket. Then something erupted from the fabric. A small, blood red cube. It was a six-sided die. Malik bent down and picked it up.
"What's this for?" he wondered aloud. "Let's see if I can land on a six."
He tossed it into the air and let it land on the floor. It landed a one.
"Looks like your roll ain't too good, eh, Malik?" Jou asked teasingly.
Yugi grabbed the sheets and they all returned to the living room to watch TV. Though they sat closer then usual, but no one bothered to mention it aloud. Just then, the lights went out again, and the TV flashed to channel thirteen again. Yugi whimpered, and inched closer to the group of the other boys. Those red eyes returned, this time with a pair of cold brown ones. A pair of lips formed under the brown eyes, fangs poking out from the upper lip. It began moving, but they vaguely heard it from the TV. They could hear the voice in their heads.
"Roll the dice, if you dare. Last one standing shouldn't really care. However the number, you will see, what it really means to we dark ones three."
The red eyes cackled harshly, and the images cleared into dark and murky shadows, then it blanked out again, the lights turning on and the TV returning to channel five. The die reappeared in front of them, and it glowed harshly, a lot like those red eyes. It was now 6:47. Thirteen minutes before the next hour.
"Well, since Malik already rolled, I might as well roll," Jou said, picking it up and rolling it along the floor. It landed four. They continued rolling, Malik got one again, Ryou ended up with two, Honda had three, Jou had four, Seto had five and Yugi got six. It was now 6:50.
"Wonder what that was all about," Honda said, sitting against the sofa on the floor. Yugi curled up in his blanket on the sofa near Ryou and Malik, allowing himself to try and receive comfort in their presence. The grandfather clock in the back of the room chimed.
Gong…
Gong…
Gong…
But it went on for thirteen times instead of only seven. The lights blinked out and the door burst open again, revealing an image of someone with dark lavender eyes. A gleaming object in his hand. It flew across the room and they heard an ear-piercing scream somewhere before the lights returned and the door closed, letting the figure disappear. Ryou and Yugi screamed, jumping over to Seto, Jou and Honda, holding the three of them for dear life.
Malik Ishtar, one of their best friends, had a dagger through his forehead. His eyes were dull and dead, and his skin was pale mocha.
They were traumatized, and the TV turned back on, heading straight for channel thirteen. All pairs of the eyes, red, brown and lavender were there, each one glimmering murderously. Lips formed under the red eyes.
"As you see, we darkness three, have no care for mortal welfare. Five hours left, can you survive? The Skull Dice is waiting, you'll be the first to see us all alive. HAHAHA!!!!!"
The screen blinked out again and all the electricity shut down, leaving them bathed in only moonlight from the window. Ryou looked at it and saw his reflection, but it was mutated to an evil look, but it disappeared just as quickly as it had come. He shook with fear.
"We have to get out of here," the albino said, striving to keep his voice steady. "Before something else happens…"
"Wait…" Seto said, looking up, with actual fear in his blue eyes for the first time to be revealed. "Malik rolled a one on that die…"
"And he was the first to die," Honda said, catching on to Seto's logic. "Meaning that…"
They all looked at Ryou and the white haired boy paled.
"Meaning that…Ryou might be next," Jou said.
They sat on the floor, Yugi in Seto's lap, Ryou between Honda and Jounouchi, all huddled closely on the floor, wrapped in the white cotton sheets. They remained like that until it was 7:30. The TV turned on again and it, once again, now to their most feared channel, it flashed to channel thirteen.
It suddenly became wild with static and those three eyes of darkness, shining with hunger again. "You won't win. The Skull Dice is Sin. To beat such force, you must run down the course. A course of corruption, darkness and pain where only the sinners, such as us, can reign."
Then everything was swept into darkness and the red die appeared before them, glowing with the number two. The window that Ryou had looked into shattered with piercing glass and Ryou felt nothing. However, the glass reformed into the pane, glass with cracks as if it had been glued together by a child. In the glass, Ryou could see his reflection…and he backed away from it in terror toward Seto and Yugi.
The cracks in the glass were bleeding.
He gasped as he felt something warm and sticky roll down his cheek and found that he was bleeding quickly, all over his body. He stood up and looked at himself turning to look at the glass of the grandfather clock. It began chiming.
Gong…
Gong…
Gong…
It rang thirteen times again, and Ryou clasped his hands over his chest as blood just burst forth, spilling from him. He saw it in his reflection. Behind him, the evil reflection he had seen in the window was holding a knife and stabbing it through his heart, smiling evilly as he did so. His heart came out of his body, but in the reflection, it was stuck on the knife as the hand of the mutated reflection inched into his body, pushing and forcing the heart out. It fell to the floor with a splash of blood, but Ryou saw the reflection drop the knife before disappearing, cackling evilly. Ryou fell forward, eyes shining momentarily before hitting the floor in a dead and bloody heap.
Yugi screamed, and clung onto Seto's body tightly, crying loudly into the brunette's shirt. It was now 8:00.
Yugi remained crying, sitting on Seto's lap, and just shaking horribly. The TV flashed on three times, every ten minutes, until it was 8:30. Honda just sat still, frozen in thought, thinking about his life before he would think about his death. Jou was so traumatized, he just seemed to be in a paralyzed state.
"Seto…we're all gonna die, aren't we?" Jou asked suddenly, looking up with sad, caramel eyes. "We're all just gonna get murdered by those weird TV freaks, aren't we?"
"Jou…don't…" Seto started, motioning at Yugi who was listening and crying even more, scared out of his mind. The door blew open with a large cackle and slash of wind, lightning flashed outside and thunder roared overhead as rain fell. The ruby eyed person from the TV stood there, cloaked completely in darkness, his image wavering as if he was a hologram or a ghost affected by the wind and rain. He allowed enough light around his mouth to reveal an insane smirk, pointing at the grandfather clock, showing that it was one minute to 9:00. He cackled once more, using the same finger to point at Honda. The other boys screamed as Honda was suddenly shattered horribly into chunks of flesh and bone, swimming in pools of his blood. His skull was batched open, his brain turned to mush, and amongst that, the small red die lay there, covered in brain juice and blood. It rolled from three to four, glowing. They all looked at the door, finding it open, but it no one was there.
Jou didn't seem to care if he was touching Honda's smashed brain, and picked up the die, rolling it again, and seeing it land on four once more. It flashed angrily and wisped into thick smoke before evaporating completely. He looked back at Seto and Yugi. "We're all gonna die anyway…" he murmured, pulling out the dagger from Malik's forehead and wiping off the blood with his blanket. He looked back at Seto and Yugi with an insane look in his eyes.
"Jou…?" Yugi asked fearfully.
"See ya soon, Yug," was all he said before driving the dagger through his own forehead, jamming it through his skull, allowing it to pierce his brain, and let it kill him. The purple eyed figure appeared in the TV screen, holding the red die in his hand. He showed them the glowing floor, and they could vaguely see his fingers moving, as if controlling a marionette puppy. The image cleared his fingers, showing the sticks with strings. The image scrolled down, revealing a wooden puppet of Jounouchi holding a dagger to his forehead. The puppet controller laughed horribly and the screen turned to gray and silver static, leaving the remaining two alone in the darkness of the living room.
"He's right…we're gonna die…" Yugi whispered into Seto's chest as he held on, crying into it, shaking all over.
"Hush. That may be so, but we've still got two hours before midnight, meaning before the fourteenth. I've seen that every hour, one of us dies. I'll be next Yugi."
Yugi stopped crying, but remained shaking, seeing that it was still only 9:51. Jou died early. He still had an hour left with the brunette before he would die too.
"I don't want to die…" Yugi said shakily, looking up at Seto with amethyst orbs, full of innocent fear.
"Shh…it'll only be a while before we see each other again. I have an hour before 11:00. Let's try and make the best of it."
Yugi nodded and allowed Seto to pull him up into a standing position. They walked into the kitchen to find something to eat, only to find those haunting ruby eyes staring at them through the darkness from the window. They could barely see his pale skin, but he seemed very pale. He smirked and disappeared, running his nails along the glass, leaving a trail of blood, promising death for the brunette. The younger one began shaking, but was calmed by the hands on his shoulder.
"Calm down, Yugi. We've still got about 56 minutes before I go. Then an hour before you."
Yugi nodded and they walked upstairs to find the bathroom light on. Seto held onto Yugi's upper arms tightly, but softly enough it wouldn't hurt. They both looked inside, and Yugi jumped back when he saw his own reflection. It had become more sinister and evil. Those eyes…they matched the ones in the TV. Ruby red eyes…and an evil sinister laugh. Yugi backed away when only he could see his mirror image crawl out of the mirror, holding a glass figurine of Seto. He dropped it on the floor, and it shattered. Seto pulled Yugi away from the shattering glass that appeared out of nowhere. Yugi looked back at the mirror to find himself. Then the glass seemed to become a TV screen, channel thirteen. The brown eyes were back.
Those brown eyes were slowly forming out with a body, and they both gasped at the image. It was of Ryou…only evil. His eyes were cold and more slanted; hair more flared and punky; and those fangs that poked out from his lip. He waved his hands behind him, revealing the grandfather clock from downstairs. It was only five to 11:00. Time had just passed, all too quickly for the two boys.
They both heard footsteps coming up the staircase, and Seto and Yugi rushed into the bathroom, and the older teen slammed the door shut, locking it. He sat down in the tub, and pulled Yugi to him, closing the curtains around the tub, huddled in fear.
"Seto…I'm scared…" Yugi whispered.
"Shhh…it'll be alright…"
The door burst open with a gust of wind, and they say the Ryou reflection. He pointed at Seto, and Yugi was forced away from the brunette.
"Seto!"
Then Seto's entire form shattered into several pieces like fragile, glass, turning into a stony skin and bone, blood pooling around the stone flesh. Yugi shook and looked back at the Ryou reflection, only to see his own darker reflection looking at him with a blank expression. The image blinked when Yugi did, and stepped back as well. Then it wavered and it finally moved, a quirk of his lips to form a demonic and insane smile. He held the die in his hands, a miniature grandfather clock in the other. Yugi watched as it sped up to 11:59. Ten seconds…
"Sayonara, Yugi-kun. You're all alone now," the reflection whispered. The clocks in the house all chimed midnight, but Yugi wasn't dead. It was Saturday the Fourteenth. He survived.
The next day, police arrived to find a boy that went by the name Yugi Muto huddled over Seto Kaiba's body in the bathroom. Four other bodies were in the living room, also identified as Malik Ishtar, Ryou Bakura, Honda Hiroto and Jounouchi Katsuya. Family members were informed about their deaths. The police asked Yugi how they died, and how he was the only one alive.
"Find the Skull Dice," he said, looking at them with an insane look in his eyes. "And go to channel thirteen."
They never bothered listening to him.
They died the next day, Sunday the Fifteenth.
A year passed, and it was Friday the Thirteenth again, though it was in February 2004. Yugi entered the classroom, holding the Sennen Puzzle he had received from his grandfather. Thinking about that word made him shake however, for that grandfather clock reminded him of his time last year in June. He looked into the classroom to find no one there. But he dropped his Puzzle, hearing it clatter to the floor as it shook about on its chain.
No one was there except one boy.
A boy who looked like him.
A boy who was mysteriously pale and evil.
The reflection with red eyes.
And he held the Skull Dice.
"Want to play again, Yugi?"
Author Notes: How'd ya like it? If it was freakish, tell me. I really don't care for flames. And I really hope this thing never comes true to any one of the people who know about this story.
Ja ne!
(And yes, the next Friday the 13th I know of is February 2004.)