Hello one and all! Thank you for all the early responses, I honestly wasn't expecting such a quick reaction. XD
Anyway, it looks like you guys want to see more so I'll continue and see where it leads. =D
Okay, review response time!
Guest: Thank you for reviewing! You know, I had actually originally wanted to do that, but I think that might be hard given the role that Yugi plays in this. XD
Although, I'll if I can add some puzzleshipping fluffiness among all the chaos as I would like to see that myself. I might add some other shippings like puppyshipping in as well if I can. =3
Rainbowc: Thank you for reviewing the fan fic! Like I said, horror isn't my favourite kind of genre and I haven't done one before now either, but it will be more psychological horror than physical horror. So hopefully this fan fic will still stay rated T. =3
Chapter 1: You're Hired
Of all the possible jobs he could have been hired successfully for, it had to be a security night guard for Kaibaland. Not Yami Sennen's most ideal job, but it sure beats his even more boring one like his last job that he had before he got fired for reasons that weren't even his fault!
Strangely though, Yami had been the only one who applied for that security guard job, his employer, Seto Kaiba, informed him that everyone had been scared off because of the past history of the location where Burger World once stood. It was twelve years ago that the Kaiba Corporation bought the old Burger/Pizzeria and renovated it to modern day standards. They even changed the old name to 'Kaibaland' to mirror the new owners.
One thing they did keep from the old Burger World was the out-dated animatronics that were based on Duel Monsters, a world-wide popular card-game that was owned by Industrial Illusions, who were also the original owners of Burger World as well before they sold it away to Kaiba Corporation. That game card continues to be taking the world by storm even after all these years.
Thus a strange yet perfect relationship between the two giant companies was born, Industrial Illusions would allow them the rights to the Duel Monster animatronics from the old establishment as long as Kaiba's company sells their card game to the whole world. Needless to say, the deal worked perfectly for both sides.
The corporation remodelled the old animatronics, turning them into new-age marvels. The favourite of Kaibaland's animatronics was the Dark Magician, there was just something about that mascot that awed the youngsters.
He had just finished breaking the news to his friends whom at met up, ironically, in the same place that Yami will be working once midnight tonight strikes, Kaibaland. Oh yeah, it was also official that he already hated his new boss, Seto Kaiba, who literally hired him and forced him to start his work right away tonight. He had been warned by his friend, Joey, that Seto was a cold-hearted calculating jerk, it was just a shame that Yami didn't actually believe that until he met the guy himself.
Joey Wheeler, one of his oldest friends, actually also worked Kaibaland too, but he was a chef so their timetables were clearly far apart from each other. Thankfully, it was Joey's day off today, and their small band of friends were going to have a horror movie marathon tonight, until Yami had to drop the bombshell on everyone that he would have to work right away tonight. Their other friends was Tea, Bakura, Malik, Tristan and Duke.
"Seriously?! I can't believe that guy! Putting you right away on night shift on the same day you got hired!" Joey cried out.
"Yeah...As much as I would love to tell my new boss to screw that. I have a feeling I would lose my job faster than an amateur being beaten in a children's card game." Yami sighed, holding his head with one arm while the other was held around the cola drink he ordered.
"Even so, I can't believe he did that to you. I don't care if he is the CEO of Kaiba Corporation, he's abusing his authority over you." Tea agreed with Joey.
"So...how much are you getting paid for doing night shifts?"
"I think it was around 664 Yen per hour." Yami recalled.
"Wow, personally I think he's ripping you off, big time." Duke shook his head.
"He probably is, but I'm not really in a position to do anything about that. Plus, it's the only job available right now that will take me." Yami shrugged.
"I bet you wished that you studied harder now instead of slacking off in High School." Tea teased playfully.
"Alright, I know. No need to add salt to the wound." Yami muttered. It was true, Yami didn't really take his schooling as serious as he should of, but he was certainly regretting it now, he had no idea how hard it was to get a good job without the qualifications to go with it.
"Didn't you say that you were working here at night time?" Bakura repeated.
"Yeah, why?" Yami raised an eyebrow.
Bakura and Malik both looked at each other, then both of them smirked maliciously, as if they had the same idea form in their minds.
"Then you haven't heard of the famous urban myth of Kaibaland?" Malik grinned toothly.
"This place has an Urban Myth? Kaibaland has only been around for twelve years." Yami scoffed.
"Actually, this myth goes almost three decades back, in 1987." Bakura countered.
"What? That's twenty eight years ago, are you telling me something was here before Kaibaland?" Tristan questioned.
"Honestly, this is what happens when you idiots don't listen to rumours in High School." Bakura rolled his eyes at the group's stupidity.
"Excuse me, you guys were the pranksters of Domino High, you know, I would expect that kind of behaviour from the troublemakers in our group." Tea reminded.
"Ah, those were the good days." Malik fondly remembered.
"Shut up, we're telling it now." Bakura glared at Tea before facing everyone again.
"There was an old Burger/Pizzeria that came before Kaibaland, it was known as Burger World, made popular by Industrial Illusions when they introduced Duel Monsters to the country and making their mascots based off what they thought was the coolest monster card back then." Bakura started.
"So? How is this this place connected to Kaibaland?"
"Oh sweet naïve Joey, we're just getting to the good part." Malik teased.
"On one particular day at Burger World, five high school students were celebrating a birthday there, and one of the employees hiding in a mascot costume convinced them to stay a while longer for what he called a 'surprise'." Bakura continued.
"I don't like where this is leading." Duke frowned.
"So, when nearly everyone else except for those unfortunate five left Burger World, he tricked them into follow them to a unused back room. And then, when the moment was right..." Malik tried to rise the tension in the air by making his voice sound mystical.
"He-"
"No, I don't want to even hear it." Tea stopped Bakura.
"Hey! Don't stop me when I'm getting to the juicy part!" Bakura snapped.
"They were murdered, weren't they?" Yami filled the gap.
"...I would have said that much better, but yeah." Bakura grumbled.
"The myth goes that the deaths were awful and gruesome, and here's the weirdest part, when the police arrived when the five kids were reported missing, the killer was gone and not even the bodies were there, all that remained at the crime scene was the pools of blood that painted the floor and walls of various rooms in Burger world." Malik resumed the tale.
"Did they ever know who those five were?" Tristan raised a question.
"Nah, that's all confidential stuff, the only ones who would know the names of the victims are the families, the police and probably even Maximillian Pegasus."
"Why would he know? He's the CEO of Industrial Illusions." Duke pressed.
"Duh, his family used to own Burger World before it was shut down and he sold the old building to Kaiba himself, thus Kaibaland was born." Bakura replied as if it was the easiest answer ever.
"Oh yeah! The myth goes on to say that Burger World's popularity crashed after the murders. They even said that the customers complained the mascot animatronics smelled like decaying bodies and blood was leaking from their faces. It must have traumatized the kids who saw that actually happened." Malik spoke onwards.
"Hence the shut down."
"Exactly, but the myth doesn't end there. They say five years afterwards, the police got a strange garbled broken message claiming that the killer would return to the scene of the crime at midnight. And what did the police find when they showed up?" Bakura then added in shortly.
"The killer was found dead and written his own blood was the words 'MURDERER'. So the police more or less called the case closed after they found a diary on the killer that confessed to the killing and was haunted by those angry spirits ever since that day he killed them. They say that those spirits still haunt this place, even long after Burger World was demolished, ever searching for more 'friends' to add to their eternal playground." Malik chimed in.
"And that little kiddies, ends the urban myth of Kaibaland." Bakura smiled cruelly.
"Ugh, it's a good thing I'm a realist, I don't believe in that all that hocus pocus." Tea shook her head and scoffed at the very thought of Kaibaland being cursed.
"Screw you, woman, it's still a cool myth." Malik barked.
"..." Joey stayed quite, looking a little pale after hearing the tale.
"Hey, are you okay Joey?" Tea asked when she noticed Joey's pale look.
"Ah! No it's nothing! I was just kinda taken back by all that information. Wow, and I've worked here for almost a whole year and I never knew that kinda of backstory." Joey nervously laughed, Yami had the hunch that Joey was hiding something, and usually his hunches were accurate.
He quietly remembered the exchange of dialogue that he had with his new employer about another hidden role of his new job that was replayed in his mind thanks to the myth Bakura and Malik had just told them.
(Flashback)
"You want me to what?" Yami repeated, raising an eyebrow at Seto Kaiba's request.
"You heard what I said." Seto scoffed, not wanting to repeat himself.
"So let me get this straight, Mr. Kaiba. You want to hire me in order to lure some kidnapper out in the open?"
"Yes. We have managed to keep most of the information what you're about to hear out of public hearing. Let me tell you now, if you breathe a word of anything I'm about to tell you to anyone, I will make your life a living hell." Seto warned.
Yami sighed. "I know that Kaiba Corp likes its secrecy, sir. I wouldn't risk losing my job by doing some that reckless."
"Good. Then we'll get along fine." Seto glared, but accepted Yami's word, he turned around to face Yami. "Very recently, there's been a string of disappearances, five in total, most of them being the last three night guards I hired. Two others were some supernatural fanatics who claimed the place was haunted."
"You hired three security guards before me?" Yami blinked.
"Like I said, we've kept it mostly under wraps and the families of those went missing were easy to keep quiet with some bribing. However, we cannot afford any other disappearances to occur, which is why I'm hiring you, and you're going to catch his kidnapper in his act, hopefully he or she will tell us where the missing five people are." Seto nodded.
"And what makes you think that this kidnapper will target me?" Yami asked.
"Whoever this kidnapper is, we know this person does not discriminate, anyone who goes into Kaibaland at night never appear again the next day. We're dealing with a sick-minded individual, god only knows what he or she does with the kidnapped."
"I see. Anything else I should now?" Yami questioned.
"Yes, you will be starting effectively tonight, and I'll give you five days if you can catch this kidnapper, if you don't find or catch him after the fifth night, consider yourself fired."
"Tonight?! You'll fire me in five days if I don't catch this criminal?!" Yami exclaimed, he hadn't expected to be put to work right away, not to mention be given a time limit.
"I would like to get this person behind bars as soon as possible, that way we can get our customers to stop complaining and visit the place again. Since you've had training in martial arts, it should aid you in apprehending this kidnapper. I will admit that the other three weren't as physically skilled as you."
"I...understand." Yami sighed in defeat.
"I'm glad that we can understand each other. And remember, breathe a single word of this outside this office, I'll make sure you never find work in Domino City again. You're dismissed." Seto threatened him before releasing him from his interview.
(End of Flashback)
It hurt that he couldn't tell his friends about that part of his job, he rarely ever lied to them, there were a few times when they were children, but that was entirely different, those were white lies, nothing as big as this.
"You guys sure love morbid tales, huh?" Duke rolled his eyes.
"Just because we find horror funny doesn't mean we're heartless. You guys should learn to respect such stories like that, sometimes myths carries truth." Malik reasoned.
"Either way, I don't give a damn what you guys think. It's a good idea have at least a little respect for the departed, because you never know, they could be watching us right now, hearing what you blasphemers say, cursing your names, whoooo~" Bakura started gruffly, but teased at the end to annoy Tea.
Tea playfully slapped Bakura's arm. "I do have respect for the dead, which is why I don't glorify the idea of them haunting. It must be horrible, to be forced to stay here, never finding your eternal rest or moving on to the afterlife." Tea mentioned.
The rest of their time together passed on with changing the topic to how everyone's lives were going at this moment. Yami didn't know that a pair of hidden eyes were watching him from afar from the zone where all the mascots were displayed on the stage platform.
Time passed quickly for their group, as the rest of their group went to Bakura's house to for their planned marathon, Yami waved them farewell, knowing that he couldn't join them tonight, thanks to his new jerk of a boss. Before Joey left, he turned to Yami.
"Um, you know...You're doing that night shift, right? Be careful, alright?" Joey spoke out of the blue.
"Huh? What brought that on? Don't tell me you actually took Bakura and Malik's seriously?" Yami raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"No, well kinda. It's just...I didn't want to mention it in front of everyone but...do you remember a few years back when we came to Kaibaland for Serenity's birthday?" Joey asked skittishly.
"Oh yeah, I remember. That was a really good party you organized." Yami smiled at the memory.
"Well...I kept this to myself until now, but the stuff that Malik said about blood leaked from the faces of the animatronics? I think...that might be true. Back then, one of the mascot animatronics was leaking blood, it was from the eyes. At first I thought I just imagined it and believed that all this time until...that story."
"Joey, trust me, I'll be fine. Have a little faith in me, will you?" Yami smiled to reassure his best friend.
"Yeah...I guess you're right. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. Anyway, don't sleep on the job, Kaiba hates slackers!" Joey grinned.
"Isn't that more like advice you should be giving yourself?" Yami laughed.
"Hey Joey! C'mon, otherwise I'll eat all the junk food we bought by myself!" Malik called out.
"Go ahead, Joey. Have fun." Yami motioned his head to the now distant view of their group.
"Yeah, you don't overwork yourself tonight, alright? I hope Kaiba gives you overtime pay!" Joey waved as he ran off to join the others.
Yami waved softly at them as they walked off. He glanced at the giant pizzeria known as Kaibaland and took a quick look at his watch to check the time.
"7:30PM, good, I have time to freshen up and get change for my night shift." Yami confirmed and started to make his way back to his own apartment that he owned thanks to some help from his parents.
As he walked to the nearest bus station, he could help but feel a shiver go through his body. There was something about that urban myth Bakura and Malik talked about that worried him, even more so now Joey had been spooked by it, but why should he be worried? It was just a myth right? Right.
But why was it so hard to convince his heart what his logic was telling him? This was not going to be an easy first night...He could already tell.
And that's Chapter 1! Now we get to the really fun stuff! :D
I hope that chapter was longer for you guys. I'll try to get the next chapter as soon as possible. ^-^
Please read and review and let me know what you think of the fan fic so far. It's turning out a little better than I thought. I still suck at horror itself though. XD
Oh by the way, I found a cover for this fan fic. At least until a better one shows up. As usual, this picture does NOT belong to me. This picture belongs to someone named Kaname-Sama, so please credit him for the pic. =3
Oh well, time to put that to action in the next chapter.
Until then, happy reading everyone. Moogle Empress out!