Author's Note: This short, horrific writing is partly based on Edgar Allen Poe's "Tell Tale Heart". Kaiba has finally lost it, and in the depths of madness, he commits an unspeakable act; it is written from his point of view. Read onward, but be warned: this isn't for the faint of heart.
His Heart
He'd always spoken of the heart of the cards. I had never understood. He was always so, so, perfect, and near the brink of insanity; but who was I to speak of insanity? This disease had corrupted me, sharpened my senses, and dulled the beating of my own heart. I was intelligent, I was not mad. Why would they dare call me mad? I know all of heaven, earth, and yes, even hell. I can quite healthily retell the entire tale of the night I'd spent with my dear, dear friend!
It is impossible to say how the thought had first wriggled its way into my brain: that utterly delightful, reminiscent thought. I could look back over the past years and understand why I'd committed this act. It was only right, was it not? Surely a madman would not have the wisdom in his head to do what I have done! Surely a madman would not have been as careful as I! Surely a madman would've felt the ill burden of his sin!
I felt nothing, my friend. Yugi was mine for the taking. After each disgraceful defeat, the pain I'd felt had torn through my heart, or what had been left of it. I could no longer hear the beating of my own precious heart! It was dull, noiseless! I was in woe, I was in pain, and I could spend days dreaming of those defeats and only worsen it. There was only misery.
I burned the Blue-Eyes; it was only their eyes which could pierce my soul now. Without their assistance, Yugi would not be able to see into the clever crevices of my mind's eye, and my dream would be fulfilled. He would be weaponless, without a single way to fight back. Oh, but I was wrong. I was oh, so very wrong. His eyes! Yugi's own cursed eyes! They burned with the brightest energy, that very spirit of innocence that had won him his place in our world. It drove me to the edge, but alas, I didn't break! No, I maintained my sanity. And he, in fact, would be the one to lose everything.
I crept through the darkness, alone, unaccompanied; surely not even the ghosts of my past would follow me on my quest. I felt a flickering candle in my hand, trembling as I pushed the door to Yugi's room inward, and a single shade of light fell through the crack in the door. I undid it so that just a single thin ray could fall upon his dangerous eyes. Oh, I had done this before. Many a time, my friend. I had watched him slumber, plotted the moment I'd take what I so longed for. You've thought me to be a profound man, yes? To watch him sleep there, each and every night? But no! I must've known, and I would've known, the precious treasure which laid waiting for me, just beneath the treacherous eyes.
Hearkening death watched from the black walls. This would be the final night I would endure the eye which caused the only emotion I could feel, guilt, to arise in my chest. I pushed ever so gently on the door, creeping upon all-fours like a predator, an animal, waiting and watching for weakness in his prey. Oh yes, Seto, you'd certainly done it now. How clever was I! To evade that dreadful eye by crawling like a beast, the beast I'd become! But soon I'd claim my treasure, and be a beast no more; oh, the imagery was perfect.
But my lovely Yugi wouldn't have made things that simple for me, no, he was far beyond that. He turned away from me; oh, good Gods! What now, when I could not see that his eyes were firmly closed? If he was able to see, if his vision was clear, even in this darkness, my own life I must take! I clutched the blade beneath my shirt for all I was worth. The night was waning, and I remained still and silent, my gaze never wavering from the slumbering youth. I was still for an hour, an entire hour of this madness! Not to say that I was mad, no, I simply had a supreme over-acuteness of sensory perception, and was a bit disturbed by the fact that my chances to strike were wearing away.
I wished for nothing more than for Yugi to turn back to me, to confirm that his eyes were indeed clamped shut. Was it appropriate to call myself insecure? Of course not, after that last defeat, who was I to believe in the prophecies that so many had told me of? I was destined to duel with Yugi for the rest of my life, but after each humiliating defeat, I lost faith in those words. I wouldn't stand for this; I'd lost my own heart! I wept only in resolve.
My heart fluttered when the young male stirred once more: the first time it had felt anything in months. It was prepared for its reawakening, I was certain this was only right. A new anxiety seized me as I saw, to my horror, that his eyes, oh Gods his eyes, were open and staring in to my soul, as if the Blue-Eyes White Dragon himself! I might've screamed if it hadn't been for his scream first! Yes, I had provoked the fear I wanted to, but not in the manner which was meant to be so. With a loud yelp, I leapt forward and onto the bed. I held the blade high in my hand, and brought it down swiftly and precisely. It was over, and yet, his precious heart, his heart of the cards, beat on in his chest.
I removed the bloodied mattress and sheets, and disposed of them first. And then I proceeded with my real task. I would take what I knew to be mine. I took the blade, and sliced first through his neck, those terrifying eyes frozen in his now-dead state. I placed the youth's head beneath the first floorboard. His legs beneath the second. His arms beneath the third. And then I returned to the carcass, licking the droplets of blood off of the sharp knife in my hand. Now, the real prize.
I slipped the blade under his shirt, tearing away his remaining clothing. The silver edge silently cut through the fabric, exposing the pale, yet tainted flesh of Yugi's chest: all that remained of him. I pried the knife away, and made an imaginary line with my free hand, right across the middle of his chest. And then, I cut. Thick muscles gave way to the blade, coagulated blood spattering across my face as I cut arteries and veins embedded within him. I'd found my treasure, the still-beating heart of Yugi Moto.
I cut the surrounding blood vessels from the beautiful red organ. It pulsed in my hand, something only I would be able to feel. I grinned; no, once more, friend, I am not mad. He had deserved this, as had I known. And I had deserved this, as he had known. I took a glance at the clock hanging on the wall, only three o' clock! The prize was mine, as was the rest of the night, tempting a mistress it was. It was in the midst of my dreaming of night and Yugi's heart that I heard a curious sound. Footsteps, coming up the stairs. And a voice I placed as that of his… his grandfather! "Yugi?" he called out. Before I could further react, the door swung wide, revealing me with my bloody prize.
"Seto…Kaiba…what have you done?" he stammered, backing against the opposite wall. A large smile graced my maw.
"Look here, Solomon Moto! He has asked me to find it: the heart of the cards! And here it is, his own heart, still beating in my hand! Is this not what he wanted?"