And Then There Were None
By The Inspector
Chapter Three: Second Death
Disclaimer: I don't own. Don't sue. No money made. Thanks so much!
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Anzu checked to make sure her door was locked for the fourth time and paced nervously around the room. Her hands were clasped close to her chest and had the fingers tightly interwoven.
She walked the length of the room and turned. The Voice had been so accusing, yet so smug. Walk and turn. She remembered the pain on Ishtar's face as he died. Did it always hurt to die? Anzu shuddered violently, her pacing interrupted by her thoughts. He had been fine one minute, and then…
Anzu shook her head sharply and sat down on her bed. She didn't want to think about it. She didn't WANT to think about it! Unbidden, the face of Fumika Hibiya danced across her inner mind. Such a pretty girl, a wonderful dancer. Her neck twisted at a terrible angle.
Anzu's stomach shuddered and she jumped up and ran to the bathroom where she promptly threw up everything she had eaten that evening. Gasping to breathe, Anzu clutched the porcelain rim, not noticing the tears that had begun to fall.
Oh God, let it all be a dream. One bad, freakish dream. She just wanted to wake up.
--
Seto cursed and threw his cell phone against the wall where it broke with a satisfying crunch of metal and plastic. The thing was as useless as his computer. He was actually going to have to wait until the boat came for them. If it came for them.
A deep pit of apprehension had settled in his stomach earlier and refused to lessen. Now it twisted itself again into a tight knot, making itself known. He didn't have Isis's talent for fortunetelling, but he could feel that something bad was going to happen.
Seto winced and pressed the heel of his hand against his forehead and leaned against the wall, taking deep breaths. The walls around him seemed to dip and spin on their own accord.
He was sure his dizziness was from all the stress. The headaches, the short blackouts. They had to be.
--
Bakura sighed in frustration and rolled off his bed. He couldn't sleep. All he could see was Ryou's eyes when he told everyone that he hadn't been around when the former holder of the Sennen Eye had died. So disappointed, so knowing. He hated those eyes.
Bakura slipped out into the hall and tried the door next to his, rolling his eyes when it opened without resistance to his touch. His stupid hikari hadn't even thought to lock his door. It was like asking someone to come in and murder him while he slept.
Bakura closed the door very softly behind him and slunk over to Ryou's bed in the best way an Ancient Egyptian Thief can slink. He leaned over the bed, making sure his shadow didn't fall over Ryou's face to alert him, and pushed the hair out of Ryou's face so that he could see him. Ryou's eyes were closed gently and his breathing was easy as he slept the peaceful sleep of the innocent.
Good then. At least he wasn't beating himself up about the death of his beloved sister. That had been an accident, yet Bakura knew that his light continuously blamed himself for things that he couldn't stop or wasn't responsible for. Very annoying.
"Stupid hikari," Bakura muttered and let himself out the door. Oh well. Ryou wouldn't tell anyone what Bakura had done. He wouldn't dare.
And yet, somehow, someone had known.
--
It was nearly dawn, but Honda had not slept. He starred up at the ceiling and let his thoughts take him where they would. And none of those places brought him any comfort. Finally, finding attempting to sleep a useless cause, Honda shucked off his blankets and went downstairs.
The whole house was eerily silent and he felt like an intruder, creeping around in the dark. Unaware, his feet led him back to the room where they had heard the Voice. Honda looked at the couch where Ishtar had died and shivered. He didn't like it. Death. Johji. His annoying, slightly pervy little nephew.
They had gone on a camping trip. Just him, Johji, his sister, and her husband. Honda hadn't wanted to come; known that he had only been invited along to be Johji's babysitter.
"I want to go swimming!" Johji had said from the second he saw the lake. And he kept pestering Honda about it until he had given in and took Johji out to the raft in the middle of the lake. Honda had just wanted to relax in the water, but Johji wouldn't quit being a pain. And then Johji hadn't wanted to put on his water wings and Honda's patience snapped.
"Fine!" he had yelled, and dropped his nephew into the water. If he didn't want to wear the stupid orange floatation things, fine! It wasn't his problem.
But Johji didn't resurface.
By the time Honda realized that something was wrong and began to search for his nephew, Johji was already dead. Honda had taken the body back to camp, frozen in shock.
But when his sister had demanded to know through her tears how her baby had died, Honda couldn't admit his negligence. Instead he made up a story about Johji running away from him and his trying to save the kid. They believed him, but the Voice had known the truth. He was responsible for his nephew's death.
Honda was so caught up in his memories that he didn't hear the door slid open, didn't sense another's presence until the sharp blade cut into his throat.
--
It was Isis's scream that brought everyone running the next morning. She stood in the doorway to the billiards room, paler than they had ever seen her before. Then hem of her dress was a dusty red at the top and darker at the bottom. The red trail on the floor showed her trip from the drawing-room to the billiards room.
"Isis," Rishid demanded, catching his adopted sister his arms as she nearly fell over in a faint. "Isis, what has happened?" Then he turned and gasped, taking a step away in horror.
On the pool table in the center of the room was Honda's body, bled to an ashy paper white. A pack of playing cards and the colorful chips from a poker set lay scattered around him. The shattered Cyber Commander lay by his head.
"Don't look," Bakura snapped, pulling Ryou back against him and keeping his hikari's eyes averted from the corpse.
"Oh my God!" Anzu wailed, gasping for breath. "Honda!" She collapsed in Jou's arms, sobbing as though her heart would break. Jou held her close, two angry spots of red coloring his otherwise white cheeks.
In the midst of the horror and death, Malik pushed past where Bakura still had a firm hold on his trembling light and fairly sauntered up to where Honda's body was so horrible displayed.
"Eleven little Duel Monsters playing in the den. One lost a bet and then there were Ten," Malik said dreamily, covering Honda's open eyes with two Aces.
"Where's the boat!?" Yami demanded, rocking his sobbing hikari in his arms. "We're getting out of here!"
"It's not coming."
"What!?" Everyone demanded, turning their accusing gazes to Seto.
But Seto met them calmly. "The boat is not coming," he repeated. "Isn't it obvious?" He pointed to the window. "It's storming, no boat will be able to get through. And even if it could, Unknown, Owen, whatever you want to call him, has gone through a lot of work to get us here. The boat probably received instructions not to come."
"But why!?" Anzu shrieked, twisting her hands into Jou's shirt as if trying to anchor herself to her sanity. "Why are they doing this? Who is it?"
"I'm afraid," Isis spoke up, her voice faint and wispy, "That give how the other death occurred last night, there can only be one answer." She took a deep breath, hating herself even as she spoke. "Everyone was moving around after the Voice spoke, any one of us had the chance to tamper with the cake."
"Wait," Yami said, his eyebrows rising as he clutched Yugi closer, "Isis, what are you saying?"
"I'm saying," Isis said heavily, "That the murderer of Ishtar and Honda is one of us. One of us is Owen."
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TBC
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