KT: Thanks for your patience, everyone. It's hard to get to the computer when you're juggling a baby. I had to move out of my apartment and back in with my mom because I ran out of money. But enough about my woes. Let's get to the chapter you were all waiting so patiently for.

(Thanks and Special Thanks are at the bottom)

(ooo)

6: Hidden Emotions

"I'm home!" Yugi yelled.

Karen's head appeared out of the living room. "How was your day?" she asked with a cheerful smile.

"Great," Yugi said. "Miss Mai came back from her maternity leave, and all the guys missed her, of course. They missed her a little less when she gave us a pop quiz. I still got an A-. Joey got a C, and Tea got a C. We were all really happy, because the quiz was really hard, more like a test under the guise of a quiz, you know? Anyway, after school, Joey, Tea, and me all went to the arcade, and then to the mall. I never thought I'd like the mall. It was all right. But now I have a load of killer homework to do. I'm gonna get to it." Yugi made his way upstairs and into his room.

"All right, dear," Yugi's mom called. "Dinner is in an hour."

Yugi closed his bedroom door behind him, and as usual, found the book open on his bed.

How was your day?

Yugi sat on his bed crosslegged, and pulled the book into his lap. He grabbed a pen out of his backpack.

It was good. Miss Mai came back from maternity leave. She gave us a really hard quiz. I got an A-. After school, I went with Joey and Tea to the arcade and the mall.

Did you have fun?

Yeah, I did. I'm kind of wiped out, though.

I would imagine so. It sounds like you've had an eventful day.

It was fun. And we're leaving for Grandpa's tomorrow afternoon. I haven't seen him since last year, and I'm pretty excited.

Well, I'm certain he will be happy to see you as well.

By the way, I wanted to talk to you about something.

Certainly.

You know, we've been avoiding the subject of running out of pages, but I checked this morning before leaving, and we only have five left, front to back. We'll be out soon.

I know.

It's been a year since I first met you, and now I feel like I know you better than anyone else, even if I've never seen you.

I feel the same way.

It's going to be really different when you're gone.

Atemu didn't respond for a few moments. Yugi watched the page, waiting for an answer.

It's going to be very different, I suppose. Of course, I won't know, because I won't exist.

I wish there was something I could do.

There must be some way to break the spell, but I have no idea what it could be.

Yeah. Wait a second! Remember that poem thing? About the collected sorrow and the written conveyor and all that stuff?

Yes. Do you think it holds the key to breaking the spell?

Yeah, I do. I think maybe the written conveyor is supposed to be you. I'll write it down again. "Only when the collected sorrow of the one who cares and who is cared for is given to the written conveyor will the long awaiting spirit be released and returned to natural form and at the cost of one shall the other go on." Somewhere in all that fancy talk must be the answer we're looking for.

I think you may be right.

Okay, so we know that you're the written conveyor person. And you must also be the long awaiting spirit thing. So who this "one who cares and who is cared for"?

I don't know.

And what's "collected sorrow"? Is that some emotion?

I don't know that either.

This is a lot harder than I had thought it would be.

What concerns me is that last part.

The one about the one going on at the cost of the other?

Yes. Will someone have to be sacrificed in order for the spell to be broken?

Maybe it's symbolic of something that isn't a person.

Perhaps.

(ooo)

Yugi and his dad packed all of the luggage into the car. "Mom, how many suitcases do you have to bring for a weekend visit?" Yugi complained as he tried to make a little more room to stuff one last bag in.

"I have to have all the essentials," Yugi's mom protested.

"We barely have enough space for our own things," Yugi's dad told her.

Somehow they managed to get everything in the car, despite Karen's extensive amount of belongings, and they all piled in, with Yugi's dad driving. It would take three hours to get to Solomon's house, but he loved to have them over.

Yes, the weekend promsied to be fun.

(ooo)

Karen glanced in the backseat and saw Yugi busily writing in his birthday present. He really likes that book, she thought with a smile. I'm glad Dad gave it to him. It's almost as if the book itself changed him.

"So, who's up for a car game?" her husband invited.

"Honey, we are not singing any rounds of 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat' on this car trip," Karen said firmly.

"Aw." Her husband's shoulders slumped.

(ooo)

We're on our way to Grandpa's now.

How far away is he?

Oh, it should be another two and a half hours.

That's a long time.

Yeah. But I have you to keep me company!

Yes, that's true. You must explain more about this "car" you're traveling in. All right, so there are no horses?

For the fifth time, no, there are no horses.

And it's powered by the... "engine", correct?

That's right.

That simply sounds so farfetched.

Yugi had to resist laughing out loud. Maybe, but that's just because you've never seen a car before. Trust me, cars are very commonplace in the 21st century.

I see...Tell me, Yugi, do you believe in fate?

Fate? Well, I never really sat down and thought about it, but maybe.

I do. I think that it was fate for us to meet. Think of how much better both our lives have gotten since we met one another. Something like that can't be pure coincidence.

Especially since it sounds like we look a lot alike.

That too.

Yugi beamed at his book. I'm so glad I met you, Atemu.

And I'm glad I met you.

You know, we really ought to be grateful for this book. I mean, I know it imprisoned you for 5,000 years, but without it, there's no way we could ever have known each other.

Yes, it seems good things can come out of the very worst.

Yugi hugged the book to his chest. He couldn't imagine living life without the book or Atemu. He wondered how he did it all those years. Then the thought suddenly came to him that he'd have to start wondering again, because the pages would run out sooner or later. Yugi had learned the art of smaller handwriting in the year he'd had the book, but still, he knew there were only a few pages left even now. Yugi put the book back on his lap with a sigh.

So, anything else you want to know about the car?

Yes. What is an 'automatic window'? You wrote that in the corner about three pages ago.

I did? I must have been scribbling. Well, do you know what glass is?

...No.

Oh. Well, this might be a little hard. Okay, glass is this thing you get when you set sand on fire, I think.

You can set sand on fire?

Uh, maybe?

...Okay...I'm listening.

Well, anyway, you can see through glass because it's clear. We use glass for windows and things like that, and in the car there's usually six windows. One for the front, two for each side, and one for the back.

That's a bit confusing. How about the basics?

Okay. Well, a car can have several names. Like "automobile" or "vehicle", but people usually just call it a car. There are different kinds of cars. The kind that's bigger and seats more is known as a van. The kind that's higher up off the ground, and has the big bed on the back is called a truck. There's also a bunch of companies who make cars, and they name their vehicles.

Very interesting. Tell me again, why do you have to take a test to pilot one of these things?

Well, little kids don't have the brain capacity to properly drive a car. When you turn 15, you can get your learner's permit, which basically allows you to practice driving a car before you can get your license at 16.

So you have a few years before you're old enough to get your "learner's permit".

Yeah. Right now an average 12-year-old probably wouldn't be able to properly drive a car unless they had above average intelligence.

Like you.

Yeah, like me. I don't know, I might have the capacity to drive a car, but goodness knows I'm not tall enou

"Look out!" Yugi's mom screamed.

Yugi's head snapped up in time to the see the speeding car run the red light. It crossed in front of them quickly, but not quickly enough. The Motos' car slammed into the speeding car's side. All three passengers were thrown forward. The book flew out of Yugi's lap and bounced off the back of Karen's seat. Both cars skidded across the intersection. Other cars had to screech to a halt to avoid joining the wreck.

The silver car spun around twice before coming to a stop in the middle of the intersection. A truck had to swerve to avoid the Motos' car as it drove forward, with a fallen bag jamming the gas pedal to the floor. The car only stopped when its front end smashed into a telephone pole.

(ooo)

"And now our top story. Earlier this morning there was a two-car accident on the Waylock-Morris intersection. We'll go live to the scene with Andrea Bates."

"Thank you, Richard. I'm here on the scene where the accident occurred approximately three hours ago. Witnesses say that this silver car over here ran the red light and passed in front of the white car by the telephone pole. The white car smashed into the lower right side of the silver car, causing both to spin before the silver car flipped over and white car hit the pole.. The driver of the silver car, Kevin Wildes, escaped severe injury, but the passengers of the station wagon, Shou and Karen Moto and their twelve-year-old son Yugi, were not so fortunate. Karen Moto had to be airlifted to the hospital for several life-threatening injuries as police officers cleared the streets for an ambulance to get through to her husband and son--"

"I don' believe it!" Joey exclaimed. He grabbed the phone next to the sofa and dialed a number. It rang three times before a girl's voice came on the line. "Hello?"

"Tea, it's Joey," Joey said. "Yugi's family got in a car wreck!"

"What!" Tea exclaimed.

(ooo)

What...what happened? He turned over, or tried to. But his body wouldn't respond.

"What the hell?" He tried to stand up, but he couldn't. He tried to open his eyes, but they didn't budge. "What's going on?" He tried to reach out and find something, but his hands didn't work.

"Wh...why?" His mind was utterly confused. Why was his body not responding? He knew he had to be lying down, but he could feel nothing underneath him. He could hear no one, and it must have been night. "Who did this to me?"

Then, all at once his last moments before blacking out returned. Someone had asked to meet him in the library. He came. There was no one. Then he turned...and he saw the cursed book.

The book? The book! I must be in the book! He started to feel panic. He had heard of the book's curse, how it stole the body and soul of a living person and trapped them within its pages. But he hadn't believed it. He realized he could still hear that man's evil laughter as the wind pulled at him.

That damn advisor did this to me! he fumed. Impossible! When I get out of here, he will rue the day he--

His thoughts came to a screeching halt when he realized there was no getting out of here. The curse was eternal. Any avenging would be left up to those outside.

If they even knew.

"I'm trapped," he said out loud with a sense of dread. And then he was silent.

Silent.

Silent.

Silent.

"My name is Yugi Moto."

He would have blinked if his eyes were working. Was someone speaking to him? He decided to answer.

"Hello, Yugi Moto. My name is Atemu."

(ooo)

Atemu waited as patiently as he could. Ever since he had met Yugi he had begun to have a sense of time. And his senses told him there was a reason Yugi had stopped his sentence mid-word, and hadn't responded in so long.

As the time passed, Atemu began to feel more worry. Was Yugi all right? Had he gotten hurt? Had someone taken the book from him?

Then he sensed it.

"Sorry about the interruption."

The words themselves seemed flat, not full of life like they usually were. Atemu knew instantly that something was wrong.

"Yugi, what happened? Is everything all right?"

"Everything's fine. I just saw something...interesting."

Atemu knew that Yugi was lying to him, but he didn't know why. "Are you sure?" He was begging for anything.

"I'm sure."

Atemu sighed. Yugi obviously wasn't going to tell him what happened. "All right."

"So, you were asking about windows, right?"

"Yes. Yes I was." Atemu could almost feel Yugi's sadness. But if Yugi didn't want to talk about it, Atemu would not force him. He could only hope that Yugi would eventually tell him what was wrong.

I just want to help you...

(ooo)

"You don't want to help me," Atemu scoffed. "You only want my position. Do you think I'm stupid?"

"Of course not, Your Higness," the advisor said to the floor.

Atemu was only sixteen, but he was no idiot. He could see right through anyone's face. His mother had always told him he had the wonderful gift of being able to sense people's true emotions. And this man before him was nothing but a greedy liar.

"I'll give you one more chance," Atemu said. "Mess up again, and you're going straight to the dungeon."

"Yes, Your Highness."

And the man had seemed to change. But really, all he had done was hold in his plot until he had gotten his hands on the book. That had taken four years. And then, when the time was right, he captured the young pharaoh in the pages and tried to take control of the kingdom.

Atemu didn't know if the man had been successful or not, but he certainly hoped he hadn't.

(ooo)

And now, Atemu could tell that Yugi was hiding something. Even as he explained, or tried to explain, the "car", Yugi seemed different. There were no cute jokes about Atemu's ignorance, no pretending to poke Atemu by poking the pages with his pen, no nothing. Atemu thought Yugi might be sad because they had only a few pages left. But there was something more. Something else had happened to change Yugi. Atemu only hoped it wasn't too terrible.

He had no idea how truly terrible it was.

(ooo)

Thanks to Miko102, frogger666, littleslg, dragonlady222, Yami-Echo, yamiishot, DarkCrimsonFlame3, yamisgirl13, xBakura's lovex, unseenwater, Angel's Nocturne, AnimeWarriorSkye, Yana5, Masami Mistress of Fire, moonlit-leaf, KawaiiYuki, kingleby, Yami Neferbre, cheeky-eyes, Tucker's Mayflower, The Black Angels Red Rose, Godell, MikosWish, YamiXYugi-yaoilover2899, Seigyoku Kiryou 'n Honoo Iware, YamiYugi3, littlekittykat, cosmic tomato, flamescythe, Miss Elizabeth Blakeney, and child star for reviewing and having such patience with me!

Special thanks to Miko102, littleslg, dragonlady222, Angel's Nocturne, Anime WarriorSkye, Yami Neferbre, cheeky-eyes, The Black Angels Red Rose, YamiXYugi-yaoilover2899, and Seigyoku Kiryou 'n Honoo Iware for your comments on my darling baby! Andi says "guuuhhhhhhhhh"...I think that means "thanks."

Sorry if the chapter seems short, everyone. I promise next one will be longer, much longer! If I missed anyone, I'm sorry. I'm kind of sleepy...