YUGIOH

Eternal Darkness 2

Chapter 4.

It was a few days later, as Yugi and the others were once again returning to school. It was morning, and Yugi, Tea, and Tristan made it to where they normally met up with Joey. Once again, he was running to make it to them, being late as usual.

"Late again, huh?" Tristan teased, but Joey looked panicked about something.

"Joey...what's wrong?" Yugi asked.

Catching his breath, Joey flashed them a newspaper he got, gasping. "Yugi...I think we got problems."

"What kind of problem?" Yugi asked.

Practically shoving the paper in his face, he said. "Look!"

Yugi looked over the paper, and asked. "Uh...the Pizza Parlor closed for renovations?"

"It figures Joey would be panicked about food." Tristan said.

"Not that! The one below it!" Joey snapped.

Yugi read an article that mentioned a young man was murdered in Domino Park, assumed dead a few nights ago. "Gee, that's terrible. That poor guy." He said.

Tea asked. "But, Joey...what does this have anything to do with us?"

"It doesn't." Joey said. "It has to do with Kaiba."

"Kaiba?" Tristan asked. "That's crazy. You think Kaiba did this?"

"Actually, I do." Joey said, looking all serious. "And this guy aint the first one, neither. Look...they said he's the forth one in a chain of murders that have all been taking place at night close to the park, these past few weeks."

"But, that doesn't mean Kaiba did it." Yugi said.

"Come on...it all happened at night?" Joey asked. "And that's the same park that Kaiba ended up becoming a vampire! He's following the same killing path that the original vampire did!"

Tea had grabbed the paper from him now, also reading it. She added. "Joey, it also mentions that the killer has been clawing and maiming their victims to death."

"It also mentioned huge bite marks…see?" Joey spat.

Tristan smacked him. "Dumbass, he's a vampire...why the hell would he maim his victims?"

"Because he can also become a Blue Eyes, which is something a dragon could certainly do!" Joey spat. "And the bite marks prove he's still getting blood, that way."

They looked at him in disbelief.

Joey argued. "Hey...they said some of the ways these people were damaged could only have been done by inhuman strength. Ya hear? Inhuman! You know any other people with inhuman strength, besides Kaiba?"

Yugi shrugged. "Maybe...a tiger from a nearby zoo escaped and did this."

"But, then that would have been reported. Nutt'n like that happened!" Joey said. "And they couldn't identify anything that could have done that damage to these people, so they didn't ID it as an animal but a killer!"

Yugi sighed. "All right, Joey...we'll go to the mansion and try to talk to Kaiba tonight. I wanted to talk to Kaiba anyway about the tournament, so if you want...we can mention the park thing to him. Just please don't automatically accuse him?"

Joey swallowed. "Uh...why night? I mean...wouldn't it be safer to go during the day?"

Yugi explained. "Joey, I want Kaiba to feel comfortable to walk around in his own house while we're there, so he doesn't feel confined. He's not going to do anything."

"Okay, maybe you're right." Joey said. "After all...he'll have Mokuba there, who wouldn't like it if he tried to eat us."

Everyone just rolled their eyes and continued towards school. Joey kept up, asking. "So, when tonight?"

"I think 9pm would be best." Yugi said. "It'll be passed dark, but not too late. Mokuba should be back from work by then, and I'm guessing that Kaiba's probably not going to want to go to work until Mokuba goes to sleep."

"That's good timing." Tea agreed.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

They were now at school. It was passed homeroom time, and they were all entering their second period classroom. To their surprise, they found out they had a new substitute teacher today.

The bell was about to ring, as the sub checked his watch, then closed the door as the bell rang.

"I wonder why we have a new teacher today?" Yugi asked.

Tristan shrugged. "Who knows? That just means we wont have any real work to do today."

"Are you listening?" Joey asked, nudging Tristan who he was talking to at the time. "This kid last period was being a total dick…so, I dueled him. He was actually pretty good, but I totally kicked his ass."

Tristan turned and grinned, saying. "That's funny. I heard he totally wasted the floor with you."

"What? That's bullshit! I creamed the guy!" Joey snapped.

The teacher cleared his throat as everyone turned. Joey snickered, muttering. "Teacher sub...study hall period."

Tristan rolled his eyes, whispering. "I just said that...didn't you hear me?"

Yugi, and Tea both smiled at the other two arguing, being used to them goofing off.

As they took their seats, the teacher wrote his name on the chalkboard and turned. "Greetings, class. I am Mr. Gabriel...I will be your teacher for today."

"Sir...what happened to Mrs. Follansby?" Yugi asked.

Gabriel stated. "A family member had taken ill, so she had to step out for awhile, I'm afraid."

"I see." Yugi said.

"But, she had a ditto assignment she wanted you all the complete." He added. "So, if you will one at a time come up and take one sheet each, we can get started."

Gabriel then carefully observed the students, as they all came up each taking a paper, and then returning to their seats. As they did, he became intrigued as one of them actually reacted different from the others.

It was Joey. As he came up to get his ditto, he paused...wrinkling his nose and looking strangely at the teacher, trying to keep his distance while grabbing a sheet.

"Excuse me...you, what is your name?" Gabriel asked him.

Joey and all his friends looked over. Joey answered. "Uh...Joey, Joey Wheeler. Why?"

"I was simply curious why the strange look on your face?" Gabriel asked.

"Nothing..." Joey said quickly, looking away awkwardly.

"Please...do tell me if there's a problem. Nothing you can say will offend me." Gabriel stated.

Joey then gave an amused smile, saying. "Well, it's just...I think your cologne expired or something."

Some of the other kids giggled, but didn't say anything. Tristan looked amused, Tea looked shocked from Joey's rude comment, and Yugi looked confused.

"Oh, I see. I'll make sure to check the date on it. Thank you." Gabriel said, trying to hide his excitement. 'Finally, a more worthy one. He'll do just nicely...'

As they took their seats again, Tea whispered. "How could you say that to him, Joey? Just because he's a sub, doesn't mean you have to insult him!"

"What? He asked me what was wrong, so I told him. Didn't you guys smell it, too?" Joey asked.

Yugi shrugged. "We didn't smell anything, Joey."

"Take Joey to smell the weirdest things." Tristan said, shaking his head.

They didn't say anything more. But, Yugi glanced over at Gabriel one more time, feeling strangely suspicious of this new teacher.

Still, Yami was no longer there to talk in his ear and tell him how he possibly sensed dark magic or danger, so he simply decided he was probably just being paranoid and continued his work.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Yugi and the others were allowed through the front gates of the Kaiba household, in order to approach the mansion.

They all observed the perfectly cut front lawn, that could even be seen at night due to the bright lights they had that lit the area. Then as they all admired the mansion that they were quickly reaching, Tea noticed something.

"Hey, guys…check it out!" Tea pointed.

"Yeah, it's the mansion…no kidding." Tristan said.

"Not that." Tea shook her head. "Don't you notice it's missing something? Where are the windows?"

Sure enough, the windows that were once everywhere along the walls of the mansion, were now gone…walled up and painted white to match the rest of the huge home. There was probably not one window left in the building.

"Wow. So much for worrying about Kaiba walking around in the day." Tristan muttered.

Joey agreed. "Yeah. We probably should have come during the day, after all."

"This is still a good time." Yugi said. "Mokuba might have been at work during the day."

"Good point." Joey said. He didn't want to be in the house with just the Kaiba vampire. He'd rather have Mokuba there, too.

The guards had alerted Mokuba to the arrival of Yugi and his friends, and came running over to answer the door, as they approached.

Yugi barely had the chance to knock, when Mokuba whipped the door open, saying. "Hi, Yugi! Why are you guys here?"

"We came to see Kaiba." Yugi said. "Is he here?"

"Yeah...he's here, but he's kinda busy." Mokuba said, looking behind him in the direction of the stairs, as if thinking about any way to get his brother to squeeze some time out to see them. Then turning back, he said with a smile. "He's in the planning room. He's had a lot of things he had to work on, lately. But...I'll see if he can come down."

"Gee...thanks." Joey growled.

"Come on!" Mokuba said, running from the door into the house. "I'll bring you in the living room then go get him, okay?"

After leading them to the living room, Tea looked it over, saying. "Wow...you guys did a great job with the place."

She remembered clearly what the place looked like, after Cavnar was defeated…it wasn't a pretty sight.

"Yeah." Tristan agreed. "I remember how trashed this place was before."

"It was pretty bad...but it didn't take long to fix. The longest part was actually getting all those stupid cops out of the way, and stop calling it a crime scene." Mokuba groaned, rolling his eyes.

"So, Mokuba..." Yugi asked. "How has Kaiba been, since the last time we saw him?"

Mokuba replied. "Well...for awhile he was real quiet and distant. I think he was depressed. But, these last few weeks, he's been better than ever!"

"P-past few w-weeks?" Joey gulped nervously, giving Yugi weird warning signals with his eyes. After all, all those killings took place within a few weeks time.

Mokuba nodded happily. "Oh, yeah...he's been great! In fact, I haven't seen him in this good a mood since before he became a vampire. I'm glad things are getting better for him again."

Mokuba then chuckled. "I think Seto was so upset over all the things he had lost with Kaiba Corp after becoming a vampire, that he forgot he could change into a Blue Eyes. He's now been going out more at night like that, taking occasional flights. I think it really helped him out! Anyway...let me go get him."

Mokuba happily left to go fetch his brother. After he left, Joey grabbed Yugi by the collar, shaking him frantically, as he spat. "Did you hear that? Last couple weeks there's been a mass killing, and suddenly Kaiba's in a good mood! We gotta get outta here! We are so dead!"

"Joey, stop it!" Yugi protested, pulling away from the panicky Joey. "That doesn't mean anything. Just because Kaiba ended up in a good mood, doesn't mean it's because he's maiming people. You heard Mokuba...it's because he started to take on his dragon form more."

"But, that's exactly what I warned ya about earlier!" Joey spat. He flashed the paper in Yugi's face again, that he had been keeping in his pocket all during school, while spazzing. "Kaiba's turning into a dragon, and these people are getting all maimed and clawed up!"

With his friends still looking skeptical, Joey added. "Look...there's a pattern. Mokuba says that Kaiba's been moody and feeling down. Suddenly, we start getting killings at night, and now Kaiba's feeling better. You telling me that aint making any sense?"

Yugi insisted. "It's a coincidence, Joey...nothing more. If Kaiba was killing, then why would he be in a better mood? He's not a killer."

"He's a vampire! That's what they do!" Joey spat. "Humans aint important to him no more...they're like meat! Besides, maybe he aint totally with it when he's a dragon!"

"Yugi..." A voice suddenly hissed out behind them.

...Kaiba had arrived.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Next week…Kaiba speaks to the group. Can Yugi talk to Kaiba before Joey shoves his foot in his mouth? What will Kaiba do? Could he truly be responsible for the killings? Find out next week!

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