A/N: I do not own Yugioh.

"What have I done?
What have I done?
How could I...
...Be so blind?"

— Jack, The Nightmare Before Christmas

Bakura moved away last week.

For a while he stopped hanging with the gang, and then finally he came right up to me, Joey, Tristan and Atem and screamed, "Don't you even know what you did? You killed Yugi! We all did! Everyone single bloody one of us went and murdered the poor kid and his memory by letting his yami take his place! I can't live with myself anymore. I'm going back home, and you bloody idiots can deal with the fact you murdered Yugi!" Then he ran away from us. We didn't get a chance to ask him what he meant, because he didn't come back to school the next day.

At first it seemed weird and really out of character for him. What did he mean we murdered Yugi? Yugi was right there with us, like always . . .

And then we realized no, he wasn't.

For a while we had put the two together in our minds, but Atem wasn't Yugi. Atem was a spirit, thousands of years old, who used to reside in a golden puzzle Yugi had put together. Yugi liked burgers while Atem didn't, and Yugi used to be bullied every day. I used to protect him from Joey and Tristan, who were two of the bullies. Yugi was really sweet and sensitive, the kind of person you could go to if you were having a major issue and just needed someone to talk to.

Atem wasn't like Yugi at all. He never would have been bullied and he made you want to go out and do things; he really wasn't much for just sitting and talking about stuff. The biggest thing they had had in commmon was that they were both good at games, but even their approach to gaming was different. Atem was fierce, while Yugi was more subtle. The more I thought about it, the more horrified I was that they could have become confused in my mind. At least with Joey and Tristan, they hadn't known Yugi as long as I had. Even if Joey was Yugi's best friend, I was his first one. I should never have forgotten who he was.

How could we ever forget Yugi?

Joey was as upset as I was, and he positively roared about how stupid he was to not notice Yugi wasn't around.

"How could this have happened?" he'd yell. "The little guy's quiet, but there's no way we shoulda just forgotten him like that!"

Tristan wasn't quite as vocal as Joey, but he shouted his agreement to Joey's every word. As for me, I couldn't help thinking this made us lousy friends, and that shut me up from saying anything. I was always the first to extol the virtues of friendship, and yet I let Yugi slip through the cracks. When all the evils of the world had come down on us we hadn't let them touch him, but our neglect of him had chased him away.

The irony of that stung.

Still, none of this meant Yugi was dead. Just because we hadn't seen him in a couple of months didn't mean he could be gone, right?

So we all agreed on the following day, we were going to talk to Atem about this. We'd make sure Yugi was okay, and then we'd work out something so this wouldn't happen again. It would be fine.

The next day, Atem came to school with dark circles under his eyes, clutching the Puzzle like it held a dead friend, but Joey and Tristan didn't notice.

"Hey, Atem, what Bakura said reminded us we hadn't seen Yugi for a while. Could you let him out? We miss him," Joey said, while Tristan nodded in agreement.

"No, Joey. He can't ever come out again. Bakura was right," he said softly.

"Wait . . . what are you saying, Pharoah?" Joey said, reverting to the old title because it was painful to think of him as Atem right now. Atem was our friend, not a creepy spirit who stole other people's bodies.

"Where's Yugi?" I said, though I already sensed the answer would be what we wouldn't want to hear.

The Pharoah flinched, and I saw him as he was during the Orichalcos mess. Then he had lost Yugi through a sudden, violent mistake. This time, he had stolen his life without even noticing.

The Pharoah said, "My friends, I looked last night for Yugi's soul room, which has always been across the hall from mine. There was nothing but wall there. After that, I spent the entire night searching for Yugi in the puzzle. Finally, I traversed across the Shadow Realm to speak with Bakura's yami, who I knew had more knowledge of this than I."

"Without realizing it, I . . . I killed him when I took off the puzzle." Tears started running down his face. "I killed him."

None of us really knew what to say. Silence hung in the air, and I'm sure all of were thinking the same, that Yugi should be alive right now. That he could be, if we weren't such "bloody idiots".

And suddenly, Joey yelled, "You F***ING idiot! He's your other half! I never got any of the spirit mumbo-jumbo, but HOW in the HELL could you do something like that by ACCIDENT?"

It was the Oricalchos mess all over again, except this time Joey had no mercy for the Pharoah, only fury because Yugi was gone. He punched him, in the face, the chest, everywhere while the Pharoah stood there and took it, until Tristan held Joey back. Tears were streaming down Joey's face by the end. He didn't have to say he would never forgive the Pharoah. It was written all over his face.

Joey stalked off, and Tristan followed after spitting in the Pharoah's direction and saying, "You disgust me."

Only I lingered to see what the Pharaoh would do. He wasn't really aware of me at that point, but he took the puzzle and slammed into the ground, screaming, "Put him back! Take me away and put him back!"

The puzzle remained whole, but the Pharoah was a shattered mess. Still, I felt no pity.

I left.

After that, we stopped hanging out. There's too much of a sense of failure surrounding us that doesn't stick as well when we're with anyone else. I hang out with my friends from dance class more, and Joey hangs with basketball jocks, while Tristan is into some business club. As for A- the Pharoah, he won't speak to anybody at all. There's no life to him now, and none of the three of us can really deal with trying to help him. Yugi would try, but Yugi's not around anymore. We are, and we just aren't that forgiving.

We can't forgive him, and we can't forgive ourselves.

A/N: Yeah, I know, not everybody likes Tea. Doing Atem, Joey and Tristan is going to be kind of tough though. Joey and Atem are melodramatic, and Tristan's a lot like Joey. I've got some ideas about how I'm going to write it, but it takes longer when I can't get into a character's head. I'm also planning on doing something with Yugi, and his head I can totally get into, so if anyone wants me to skip Tristan, Joey and/or Atem, let me know. I'll probably have the next chapter out faster then.

Also, thank you to my lovely reviewers and Novice Novelist, who motivated me to write more. You guys rock. ^_^

Drawn2Danger: I thought you were right about Joey, so I put it in. Hope it sounded more like them this time. Thanks for pointing that out. :)