Chapter 4

Fear and Comfort

Right as dawn spread across the sky, Yugi stirred a bit before his eyes flutter open. At first his vision was blurry, but as soon as his eye-sight cleared, Yugi realized he was not in his room. Sitting straight up, Yugi looked around the room he is in; he is laying on a dark marble four-poster bed with violet sheets and comforter with pillows a soft sliver shade, a dark marble wardrobe in one corner, navy blue carpet, the walls were painted black and two tall windows with very dark purple curtains drawn shut to keep the sunlight from shining through.

At first he felt fear rise in his heart, but when he saw Amethyst sleeping right next to him, Yugi calmed a little bit down. But seeing that he is not in his home, Yugi felt really scared about being in an unfamiliar place. Jumping at the sound of a black wooden door opening, Yugi saw a young girl about nineteen, with long autumn red hair that reached to the middle of her back, gentle silver eyes and wearing a white dress with black sleeves and slippers with a bundle of clothes in her arms enter the room.

Moving her eyes until they were locked with Yugi's fear-filled eyes, the girl send him a gentle smile. When she spoke, her gentle tone helped calm him a little more, "I see you're awake."

Not moving from the bed as the girl approach him, Yugi asked with a hint of fear still in his voice, "Who are you and where am I?"

Still smiling at him, the girl said as she sat at the edge of the bed, "No need to be afraid. No one is going to harm you here." Taking one of his hands into hers, the girl added, "My name is Amber, I'm a maid here in the manor."

"What manor is this?" Yugi asked, now curious about where this place is.

Smiling at his curiosity, Amber said, "If you look outside the window, you may figure out where you are."

Getting out of bed, Yugi went over to a window, pulled back one of the curtains and when he looked outside, he is completely shock to see that they are in the mountains of Japan with Domino City off in the distance. Staggering back from the window and collapsing onto the bed, the young teen realized where he is. Seeing the expression on his face, Amber went over to him to be sure he is okay. With Amber right next to him with concern written on her face, Yugi then said to her, "So this place has been here in the mountains this whole time?"

Confused, Amber asked, "What's wrong, Yugi?"

Looking into her eyes, Yugi also gave her a confused look, "How do you know my name?"

"I heard it from my masters when they brought you here."

"Who are your masters?"

"That's not important right now. I'm curious about what you meant earlier."

"Oh, it's just for a while I've been wondering what's beyond the mountains."

Realizing something that triggered him to wonder that, Amber then said, "You've been hearing the music then?"

Nodding, he added, "Yes. So it was coming from this manor?"

She just simply nodded. After a couple minutes, Amber got up and said as she turned toward him before leaving, "I'm going to go prepare breakfast for you. You should get yourself cleaned up and come down when you're all dressed. I left your new clothes at the foot of your bed."

"Okay, thank you, Amber."

Just as she was going to go down the hall, she stopped, stood back in the doorway and said, "Before I forget, someone will be waiting for you downstairs."

Then his curiosity perked up. "Who?"

Amber just give him a friendly grin. "You'll see." With that she left to get things taken care of. Curious about who is waiting for him, Yugi got out of bed, took a nice relaxing shower, and got dressed in the outfit Amber brought for him; a shirt with a gentle shade of purple, black pants and dark boots. All dressed for the day, with Amethyst at his heel, Yugi left the room and went downstairs.

Arriving in the big dining room with a table long enough to sit up to ten people, Yugi is taken completely by surprise of who is already seated at the table. "Ryou? Malik?"

Upon hearing their names, the familiar albino and sandy-blond turned and smiled at their old friend. "Yugi, good morning!" said Ryou as he and Malik got out of their seats and hug the smaller teen.

To see his two friends that have gone missing about a year ago, Yugi couldn't help but hug them back. "I can't believe you two are alive."

"Actually, we're not really how we used to be." said Malik when the two became a little saddened.

Confused, Yugi made eye-contact with them and asked, "What do you mean, Malik?"

"Come sit with us and we'll explain everything." said Ryou, gesturing to the chairs they were just in when Yugi entered the room. With a nod from his head, Yugi went over and sat next to Ryou with Malik on his other side so Yugi could face both of them. "Okay, last year, the two of us met two special but not normal men with Malik meeting them first. Around the time he went missing, he came to me and told me what had happened."

Raising a hand when something clicked in his head, Yugi said, "You were turned into a vampire, right?"

Nodding, Malik continued the explanation "I told that to Ryou. Marik, the vampire who changed me, told me that his best friend Bakura became interested in Ryou, and eventually I introduced him to Bakura. Soon enough, the two spent time together and became close. And you know where that eventually lead to."

Now knowing what caused two of his best friends to disappear, Yugi then faced them with a hint of fear in his eyes, "But why would you two go anywhere near vampires?"

Before answering, Ryou and Malik understood why he is asking that. "We know that you fear them because of what had happened to your mom, but Bakura, Marik and their friends taught us that not all vampires are dangerous and deadly. Even Amber gave us a few lessons after we changed and left our old world behind. They loved and cared for us so much that we've stayed in the mountains with them."

"But if you guys have been here the whole time, why didn't you ever come back to see us?"

"Thing is, Yugi, there is a very strict rule with our kind; the human race must never know about us, only when we are out feeding do we interact with them, where we have them hypnotized to not realize we are vampires."

Understanding everything they told him, Yugi then realized that they are out when it's daytime. "But if you two are vampires, then why are you up when it's light out?"

Both laughing like he just asked an obvious question, Ryou answered once he calmed down, "That's because we are hikaris."

When Yugi gave them a puzzled look, Malik continued once he regained his composure and held up two fingers, "There are two types of vampires; the Yamis and the Hikaris. The Yami vampires are the night dwellers, Hikari vampires are free to wander in broad daylight." Malik said as he drop one finger for each information.

Processing the information, the small teen then thought of Amber. "What about Amber? Is she a Hikari vampire since she's walking around in the daytime?"

"She's not a vampire. Amber is a werewolf."

Seeing Amber bring out a trolley with covered trays, another question popped in his head. "Do you two know who brought me here last night?" Yugi asked as Amber set the three trays in front of the three and set a saucer full of creamy milk down on the floor for Amethyst.

The two nod their heads with Ryou saying, "Yeah, the two vampires who own this manor."

"But why did they bring me here?"

"It's better to ask them yourself, Yugi." Malik answered as he started to eat his breakfast of pancakes, sausages and over-easy eggs with a goblet full of a thick red liquid.

"He's right Yugi, you're better off asking Yami and Atem." Ryou added as he started eating his salad that some red fruits such as apples, strawberries, and cherries with no dressing and a goblet full of the same thick liquid as Malik's.

Seeing they had a point, Yugi nods his head and starts eating his breakfast that is the same as Malik's but had a goblet full of orange juice instead. As the day went by slowly, Yugi became nervous about meeting the two vampires who own this manor and asking them his questions.