Chapter 2 – The girl with the camera
"Okay! Joey's turn!"
Tristan laughed. "I gotta have a shot of this! I dare Joey to scarf the last six slices of pizza and then drink his soda in less than two minutes!"
Shaking his head, Joey smirked indulgently. "That's not a dare. Nowhere near as challengin' enough."
"No, that's just how Joey's always eats his dinner!" said Téa.
They all laughed. Everyone was staying around at Yugi's house for the night and Grandpa had ordered them all pizza and rented a few DVD's to keep them out of his way, whilst he dealt with a new delivery for his shop and tried to fix his phone. Ever since the earthquake the previous night, the phone lines had been out, but since the company assured the entire city that everything was now fully operational, Grandpa now had an evening ahead of him of frowning at his own stubborn contraption and wondering why it still refused to work. Yugi had never heard his grandfather curse, so he was surprised by the language he had managed to come up with whilst wrestling with the phone and screwdriver.
"I don't get why he doesn't just call a repairman," said Tristan.
"'Cause he's Grandpa," said Yugi, folding his hands behind his head. "He's about as likely to ask someone else to fix his phone than Joey is to share his pizza."
Joey, who had been stuffing his mouth and only heard the part about sharing food, hastily muffled "Not happening, bud!"
Yugi smirked and mentally, he could see Yami shaking his head, an equally broad grin on his face. [We know him too well.]
"So, have any of you finished your assignment for Monday?" Téa asked, glaring around the group as they all paled.
"Aw, come on, Téa! You're not gonna turn this into a homework session, are you?" moaned Tristan.
"Only if you force me to!"
[Yugi.]
[I know, I sense it too.]
Yugi slowly got to his feet. "Guys..."
"Hey! Don't change the subject! You're not getting out of it that easily!"
"No... I sense something..."
They all fell silent and Téa's defiant expression faded. "What is it?"
"I don't know," he said. "But... it feels like the same thing I felt last night too..."
He trailed off and they listened for several long moments.
Bang! They all jumped as the front door slammed shut downstairs. Joey released a long breath and Tristan and Téa laughed nervously. Yugi frowned as he saw Yami in his mind's eye, crossing to look out of the window.
[It's Professor Hawkins.]
"What's he doing here?"
Joey looked up, confused. "Who?"
Stepping over the open pizza box, Yugi opened the bedroom door and went down the stairs, closely followed by the others, who watched him with curiosity and fear as they made their way downstairs. The voices of Grandpa and Professor Hawkins drifted out from the shop towards them.
"... an absolute disgrace, Solomon! Wouldn't even let us clean her up before they whisked her off to the police station!"
"I imagine it didn't do them any good, anyway."
"Not a bit of it and that's the only reason why I managed to get her released."
"Well, she'll be fine here. We'll put her up for the night and keep an eye on her."
"Thank you, Solomon. I knew she'd be safe here."
Yugi frowned as he peered around the door of the shop. He didn't like to go out, since he was only wearing his pyjamas, but he could clearly see his Grandpa standing with his back to the door and the Professor, suited but weary, in the doorway, with his arm around what looked like a small black lump.
"What is it, Yuge?" Joey hissed. Grandpa heard them and looked around.
"Ah, Yugi! Perfect timing! Looks like we'll need to set up the spare room, we have another guest tonight!"
The professor smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry for disturbing you all, but I didn't know where else I could bring her." He motioned to the black figure and as it moved slightly, Yugi finally recognised the small form of a girl, wrapped in a heavy black coat and her face partially hidden by a long, dark fringe.
"Bring her in, Arthur." Grandpa motioned them all back into the living room as the Professor guided his charge in after them. She moved rather reluctantly and her legs, covered mostly with black leggings, trembled painfully as she walked, making every effort not to appear weak. In the stronger light of the lounge, Yugi was able to get a clearer look at her and was disturbed by what he saw. The girl's large brown eyes were vague and distant, though they shone brightly and alert, taking in her new surroundings as she clutched dependently to the coat around her shoulders. Her face was pale, too pale and her expression was strange, emotionless, yet as though she were about to burst into tears, but at the same time that she had shed tears too many. Yugi had never seen a face like hers: so defeated, so haunted.
"This is Mio," said Professor Hawkins. "And that's all I've managed to find out about her, since she doesn't talk very much. Hardly at all, really."
The gang stood, awestruck, equally alarmed by the frail state of the girl. "Where did she come from?" asked Téa, whispering as though afraid her voice might shatter the delicate state Mio was in.
"What's wrong with her?" asked Tristan. "It's like she..."
Arthur sighed. "It's a long story and I, for one, am extremely tired. I could do with a coffee... or something stronger."
"I've got just the ticket," said Grandpa, disappearing into the kitchen. Arthur sat down wearily on the couch, leaving the girl standing helplessly by herself. He looked up at her and then at Téa.
"I don't suppose you could run a bath for her, could you?" he asked. "She's could do with getting cleaned up, especially after what she's been through."
"Sure." Tentatively, she approached the girl, pausing only when she flinched and tried to back away, her brown eyes wide with fear. But Téa smiled and held out her hand. "It's okay. I won't bite. Do you want to come with me?"
Hesitating, the girl finally nodded and together the two girls went upstairs.
Yugi shook his head, imperceptible to anyone but Yami.
[What happened to her?]
[I don't know, Yugi. It may not be wise to question Professor Hawkins now, though. Let him rest. He looks as exhausted as she did.]
[You're right.]
"Yugi." He looked at Grandpa. "Will you go and help Téa? She may not know how the thermostat works."
"Okay."
Leaving Tristan and Joey to take seats opposite the Professor, Yugi climbed the stairs and sure enough, as soon as he reached the landing, Téa poked her head around the bathroom door. "Yugi, I can't get any hot water."
"You need to turn on the thermostat." He stood in front of the door. "Are you both decent?"
"Yeah, you can come in."
Yugi pushed open the door and saw that Mio's stance hadn't changed at all since Téa brought her upstairs. She still clung to the black shroud and her eyes still stared miserably at the floor. He stared at her for a few moments and then crossed to the boiler cupboard.
"It's in here," he said, turning up the temp meter and turning back as Téa muttered a quick thank you and then held up a hand to Mio.
"I'm just going to take your coat off, okay?" Gently, she tugged on the black cloth, pulling it out of the girl's grasp until she let go completely and Téa was able to pull it away.
The coat fell to the floor. "Yugi..."
"What is it?" He moved around to the front and had to fight to stop the horrified gasp escaping his throat. The girl's neck was plastered with thick blood and the flood of red that flashed before Yugi's eyes, the copper smell of the vital liquid flowing from the deep gash of her neck, filled him with horror and disgust before his prolonged stare began to make more sense of what he saw. The blood may have looked like a lot, but there was only a little, seeping from a small cut beneath her jawline and it ran in small rivers across her neck and collarbone. It had only looked like a lot more blood because of the fluorescent red mark underneath, criss-crossing her neck, and the red butterfly bow in the middle of the dipping neckline of her brown, laced top.
Sighing, Téa reached down and took a flannel from the side of the bath, damping it in the lukewarm water. "Let's get you cleaned up, alright?" Her hand stopping only once, she began to gently wipe away the blood. It shouldn't have taken her so long, but she went slowly, taking her time, afraid that any sudden movement, any pressure...
The slightest push might shatter the poor, fragile girl to pieces.
"We found her last night, after the earthquake," the Professor explained. "A group of my colleagues and I went up the Domino forest, where the construction site is located, to investigate the paranormal activity going on there."
"Paranormal activity?" Yugi asked.
"Didn't you see it last night?" They all stared at him blankly. "The unnatural darkness, the monstrous laughter echoing around the streets, the red light...?"
"Oh, wait, I saw a light!" said Joey. "But I assumed that was the street-lamp outside my building."
"No, the light was emanating from the forest. A pure, crimson red light, too dark to be the sunrise, too bright to be a forest fire. It's a light I've seen before."
Yugi looked up sharply. "Really? Where did you see it?"
"This was many years ago. I had been called to investigate some old ruins in an area known as the Forest of All Gods. I saw that light, one night, from my tent and I've never seen anything like it since. It was astounding, but at the same time, sinister. It wasn't until later on that I learned that the area was meant to be haunted."
"Okay!" They looked around as Téa came down the stairs, holding the bundle of the girl's clothes, and Mio followed close behind in a pair of thick blue pyjamas. "Good thing I brought spares," said Téa, handing the bundle over to Grandpa.
"How is she?"
"Still quite shaken." Tea looked curiously at Arthur. "What happened to her, professor?"
"We're not sure. We found her coming out of the trees, just after the red light disappeared."
Téa's eyes went wide. "From last night, you mean?"
"Yes. She was injured when we found her, but when we brought her back to camp, the police turned up. Most of them were cranky and trigger happy and they were quite content to arrest Mio when they found out she had come from the forest. Blamed her for starting the fire."
"But there was no fire!" shouted Joey.
"That's what we told them, but they weren't having any of it. They held Mio in the cells for hours and even tried to interrogate her, but it was no use. She's clearly traumatised."
Yugi looked at Mio sadly. "But by what?"
"Who knows..."
"Wait." Téa ran across to the laundry bin by the kitchen door, where Grandpa had dumped Mio's clothes and she pulled out a brown packet from inside. "She was carrying these."
The professor nodded. "The police confiscated them when they brought her in, with some difficulty, I might add. But they gave them back when they let her go."
Téa pulled out a couple of old fashioned devices. One was clearly a camera, though it was very old and had strange runes etched around the lens. The other device, none of them could figure out, no matter how long they stared at it, but the golden glowing window at the front made it feel all the more ominous. Mio's eyes went wide as Téa placed them on the table and she quickly grabbed up the camera, holding it protectively against her chest.
Those look really old, Yugi thought.
[Yes, and there is a strange aura emanating from them.]
[An aura?]
[I can't be sure, but... is something stirring inside them? I can hear voices... most of all from that camera.]
Yugi looked up at the camera in Mio's hands and she suddenly held it up, her wide eyes staring at Yugi. He stopped. She looked terrified. Of him? What was she so frightened of? Slowly, she raised the camera to her eyes and
FLASH!
The light blinded him for a moment and he blinked hard. Joey laughed. "A souvenir of the King of Games!"
Yugi laughed as well. Perhaps she had just recognised him from the Duelling world, but as he tried to comfort himself with this thought, Yami's uneasiness broke through.
[What is it?]
[The light from that camera... I could feel it. It reflected me for a moment.]
[What? But that's impossible!]
[That camera...]
Arthur was also looking at the camera, frowning as he looked between Yugi and the old device, before he finally reached down to the other old piece of equipment. "Mio?" he asked gently, causing her to jump. "Could you show us what this does?"
Mio looked thoughtful for a moment and then sighed, reached down to the machine and pulled open the small drawer at the front. Téa gasped in delight as they saw the collection of rubies, emeralds and more precious jewels stashed inside and Mio pulled a bright blue crystal from the bottom of the pile and clicked it into place in the small gold window. Turning a dial on the front, a hiss of white noise filled the room.
"Oh, it's a radio!" said Joey, proudly, whilst the others looked at him exasperatedly.
Mio flicked a switch and a flow of light coursed through the little crystal and the white noise became louder. She turned up the volume. A small voice resonated behind the hisses and moans, a little girl, crying desperately, snatches of her voice bursting through the interference.
"...no... don't wanna kill... didn't wanna kill anyone... let's stay together... I won't kill anymore... can't kill anyone anymore..."
The radio went dead. They sat in stunned silence for a long time. Téa finally coughed and laughed nervously. "Suddenly not so beautiful, huh?"
Tristan shook his head. "What the hell was that?"
"I've heard about devices like these," said Arthur. "But I thought that they were just urban myth. Radios that can pick up messages from the spirits."
Yugi's voice finally came back and he tore his gaze away from the radio. "Message from the spirits?"
"I suppose this one works by placing a stone or an object that was once owned by a person into the radio and it transmits their thoughts of the time when they were alive." He looked up at the girl. "Am I right, Mio?"
She nodded slightly.
"So what does the camera do?" asked Joey.
They all stared, Mio holding it consciously close against her breast and Yugi felt Yami sharing a memory with him, a sensation of his own soul being captured, exposed by the flash of the camera.
"I'm not sure... but it could be..." Arthur cut himself off and sighed. "I should get going. I have a lot of work tomorrow and I still need to find out what happened in that forest."
He rose to his feet and the others followed, bidding him goodnight as he left to the shop, Grandpa following close behind.
Yugi sighed. The room was sitting in tense silence, everyone consciously aware of the mute girl standing before them, the spirit message still ringing in their ears.
[There's a light there.]
[Yugi frowned at his other spirit. You mean the camera?]
[No, I mean on her neck.]
Turning back, he looked curiously at Mio and saw to his surprise that Yami was right. A red light was shining from Mio's neck, right across her collarbone, but as he got to his feet, it faded into a unremarkable bruise.
"That mark on her neck..." he muttered. "It looks kind of like a butterfly."
Mio gasped and dropped the camera. They stared at each other, she in horror, he in confusion. He hadn't really thought about what he was saying, but it was true, the red streaks fanning out either side up and down her chest, the two tiny circles on her windpipe like antennae, looked remarkably like a little red butterfly in her pale skin. Yugi didn't know why he had said it, but it had had a strong affect on Mio, who looked almost ready to faint from the shock.
"Is it a bruise?" asked Téa. "How do you think she got it?"
"It looks more like a birth-mark," said Tristan.
Joey scoffed. "Who has a birth-mark like that?"
And they were off, arguing for much of the night, first about the mark, then the camera and it went on, leaving Yugi and Téa to show Mio up to the guest bedroom. Once they made sure she was comfortable, they returned downstairs to drag the squabbling boys back upstairs out Grandpa's way, since he still needed to fix his phone.
Yugi turned in his sleeping bag, groaning irritably as he pulled himself to his feet and stepped over Joey to get to the door.
As he was coming out of the bathroom, he passed the guest bedroom and stopped as he heard the rustling inside. Slowly, warily, he opened the door and peered in, seeing that Mio was tossing and turning in her bed, her eyes screwed tightly shut and her fists clenched either side of her as she thrashed around.
Yugi had no idea what to do. Instinct told him to go and wake her up, but he had read somewhere that that only makes it worse, and it was too late for him to wake his Grandpa or Téa. But before he could worry on it another moment, Yami took over and strode into the room, taking hold of the girls' flailing arms. He didn't make a sound, but holding Mio's hands down with one hand, he gently stroked her forehead, brushing her fringe from her feverish brow and after a few moments, she calmed down, falling into a deep slumber.
Sighing, he let Yugi take control again as he stood up.
[Thanks.]
[Well, if it'd been left to you, you'd have been standing there all night.]
[I just panicked, okay!]
[I noticed. Now let's leave her be, she'll be alright now.]
Yugi nodded and turned away from the bed.
This thing is too dangerous...
Frowning, Yugi looked at the beside table, where the old brown camera was sitting. A shiver ran down his spine as he stared at it, at the gold runes lining the lens that shimmered in the dim landing light, seeming to move of their own accord.
[Did you hear that?]
[I did. It would be best to leave it alone.]
Yugi wasn't convinced. In the bed, Mio was beginning to stir again, her brow furrowed as another nightmare set in and another deep, wordless murmur sounded from the camera. Shaking his head, Yugi reached out his hand
[Yugi, don't!]
and touched the cold device and
"So, this is.... the Camera Obscura..."
Deep in the woods, a stone pillar, a shrine wrapped in ropes, sacred sutras hanging down all over it, the darkness, spying, not supposed to be here, but -
"It take pictures of impossible things..."
The old man wore an old-fashioned kimono and the camera, despite its age, looked odd in his hands as he lifted it up to his eyes, staring through the lens at the shrine. His finger hovering on the shutter, he continued to stare.
A sick grin. A thousand arms reaching out to grab him.
Gasping in horror, he brought the shutter down. A flash of light. He fell to the ground, dropping the camera beside him.
"What was that!?"
The shrine remained silent, ordinary, giving no answer.
But he had seen it. "I can't believe..." The arms, pale and desperate, so many of them stretching out, flailing and... "So it's true!"
This thing is too dangerous...
Yugi sharply pulled his hand away, his eyes wide with shock.
[Yugi! Are you alright?]
Yugi drew in a long breath. [Fine... just... What was that?]
Yami sighed. [I could feel something otherworldly about that camera. I could sense the evil coursing through it. You should not have touched it, Yugi. It could have absorbed you.]
Yugi shook his head. [I don't think it's designed to absorb me.]
He spoke aloud, his voice sounding jarring in the prolonged silence. "The Camera Obscura... Where did Mio get something like this?"
