Demons

Chapter 7


Ryou woke with a start, nearly falling out of the tree that he was still sitting in. He clung tightly to the branches around him and breathed heavily. He looked around in confusion, and discovered that it was beginning to darken. He pulled himself up to sit more comfortable, he winced as the new wounds on his body stretched painfully. After he calmed his razing heart, he started to climb down. His arms and legs shook from the effect, but finally he reached the ground. After a few calming breaths, he took his first steps towards home.
Ryou was thankful that he did not meet anyone as he walked, he did not want to explain to anyone why he was in such an awful state.
'Everyone must be home... with their big, happy family.' Ryou thought sadly and jealously.
He too had a family once, with a mom, and a sister and a father. Well, his father he still had but…
'He can as well be dead too.' Ryou frowned. 'We never see each other, we never speak to each other…' Ryou sighed angrily. 'Why am I thinking of him? I shouldn't care about him! He certainly does not care about me, right?' He frowned, feeling that he was a bit unfair to his father.
'But he does the best he can.' Ryou convinced himself, and felt ill of ever thinking anything bad about his only living relative. 'He lost the two people he loved most, and now he is stuck with his pathetic son who is as fragile as a baby that he has to care for!' He growled at first and then he sighed with guilt.
'It must be hard for him… he pay for all my medicines and my physiatrist – who I haven't even seen for quite some time. All father's money is going to waste, because his good-for-nothing son is too scared to talk about his problems!'
He stumbled on a tree root that had grown up from the asphalt. He managed to regain his balance. His body hurt from the movements from avoiding falling to the ground. He bit down on the inside of his cheeks from crying out load. After a minute or so he started to walk again, his eyes filled with tears. 'Why am I even here?' His tears fell. 'Why do I try to survive anymore when I know that it is hopeless? My 'illness' as they call it, can't be cured. It is a part of me now… or rather, it is me! It is all that I have left… I don't remember the other, happy me anymore, and it seams that no one else does either.'

Ryou raised his right hand to wipe away the salty tears. He shook his head with a joyless laugh.
"Look at me… what is this filth that I have become?" He said to himself.

'Sullied… tarnished…' The demons hissed in delight in the back of his mind. And Ryou gagged in disgust of himself, wiping his hands on his shirt to try to get the imaginary dirt off from his hands.
'You want to be clean once again, little Ryou?' They laughed. 'Innocent?'
Ryou gasped and fell down on his knees, clutching the front of his shirt. "Go away…"
They laughed in respond. 'Cut yourself clean, little one.' They hissed and seamed to caress his soul. 'Carve, and let the red liquid wash yourself fresh once again...'

Ryou shuddered, and his trembling hands found its way to a chain around his neck in which his beloved razor hang.
He lifted the chain free from his neck and clutched the sharp steel in his hand. His once shaking hand became more steady and firm as he cut a long and deep cut in his upper left arm. The blood came pouring out and already Ryou felt calmer, but he needed more. So much more, he lifted the razor again.

"RYOU!"

The white haired boy came out from his trance, when three voices shouted his name behind him. He growled for being interrupted and quickly hid the razor. He slowly turned his head around to see Yugi, Jonouchi and Honda running towards him.

"Where have you been?!"

"Don't scare us like that!"

"Ah, Ryou! You're hurt!"

Ryou did not really know who said what, because they all talked at the same time. Before he had time to react, the three other boys helped him to his feet. They started to half drag, half carry him towards his apartment. That, Ryou realized, was not too far away. He had passed his own building as he had walked with his head full of thoughts.

Ryou just felt thousands emotions rushing through him at that moment, and he could not deicide on with emotion to focus on. Angry? He was angry of course, for interrupting him. But also relived that they did. He frowned when he suddenly found himself sitting in his own bed. 'How did they get me here so fast?'

Honda sat on his right side and Jonouchi sat on his left side, they were tending to his wounds and bandaging them. Yugi sat on the floor, washing his dirt covered wounds on his feet.

The two boys at his sides were talking to him, fast and at the same time. Instead of trying to hear what they were saying Ryou ignored them completely. He looked at Yugi instead, who had not said a word in a long time. And neither did he raise his head to look at Ryou.

'He is ashamed of you, boy.' The demons hissed. 'And he sure is disgusted by you.'

'Yes, I know.' Ryou thought, and closed his eyes. 'I know.'

The white haired boy felt Jonouchi shake his shoulder gently, he opened his eyes again to glance at him."We were all worried for you, pal." Jonouchi said. "Thought that you had been kidnapped or something!"
Ryou frowned again and looked down on his hands that lay in his lap.

"Ryou-kun?" Asked a quite voice.

Ryou lifted his head to look at Yugi who stood before him. The shorter boy pulled and picked at his shirt, where the millennium puzzle used to hang before. He always used to play or hold the puzzle when he was worrying or thinking. Right now, it seamed that Yugi really would wanted his yami to still be there – to help him and give him advises.
"Ryou-kun?" Yugi quietly asked again, but the other boy did not answer him.

"Are you not going to tell us what happened?" Honda asked and laid a comforting hand on Ryou's right shoulder.
Ryou shook his head and shrugged, and avoided looking at them.

"Please, Ryou-kun." Jonouchi pleaded. "We just want to help."

Ryou breathed a little quicker, with a hopeless look on his face. "Guys," He whispered. "Can… can I sleep?"
Jonouchi was about to protest, he wanted some answers and explanations, but Honda glared at him.
"Sure, Ryou, just rest." Honda said softly, and pulled a blanket over the white haired boy as he lay down with his back towards them. The three friends exited from the bedroom and went to Ryou's living room/kitchen to sit down. They sat quiet for a long time, before Honda broke the silence.

"Do you think we should, you know…call someone?"

Jonouchi frowned. "Who?"

Yugi looked up. He had not said much at all since they found Ryou earlier. "I think you're right, Honda-kun… Ryou needs help." He said slowly.
"Jonouchi's eyes widened, finally understanding what the other two were talking about. "You wanna send him to a psych ward or something?" He exclaimed.

Yugi looked sad. "I think this is too large for us to handle all by ourselves, Jonouchi-kun." He said. "Ryou needs professional help."

In his bedroom Ryou was still awake, half listening to his friends that talked in the other room.

'Am I going to a psychiatric hospital… again?' His eyes widened and he closed his eyes in pain as he heard his demons screaming from anger.
'Of coarse They are furious,' Ryou thought. 'In the psychiatric hospital there are peoples who try to 'cure' mentally unstable people from their demons.'
'But they are wrong, they are the ones that needs treatment.' They hissed 'Escape, we're not going there, boy.'

Ryou tried to ignore Them. Concentrating on the wall before him, he tried to block Them out the best he could. He knew that They would make him pay for it later, oh yes, he knew. But right now, he had to fight Them. He needed to stay as clear in the head as possible; his friends were still in his apartment. 'They do not need to see me at my worst.'

He sat up, breathing fast. 'I need something to focus on.' He rose up from his bed and walked to his desk, choking back a cry with every step he took. His wounded feet were now cared for, but they still hurt a lot when walking with them. He sat down on the chair and reached for a pen and paper.
He had begun to write a short story once, that was based on his own experiences, but he never came far with it. Now though, he had something to write down again. A bittersweet memory from long ago. He lifted the pen to the paper:

Once when I twelve, I thought I saw an angel. It was my second suicide attempt in a very short period of time, and this happened not too long after He destroyed me. I probably hallucinated by the loss of blood and by the strange mix of pills that I had found in my parent's bathroom cabinet. But it did stand an angel in my room, he was leaning against the wall and looked right at me. He was not as I always imagined an angel. He had no wings, no halo and no little harp that he played on. He stood there, barefoot, dressed in black pants and a red shirt that were too large for him. He had very short brown hair, and he had white paint around his brown eyes. His eyes were sad, but he did not do anything to help me. I remember that he seamed to glow, a soft, light glow. And that was the last thing I saw before I lost consciousness.

Ryou lay his pen down with a sigh. He remembered that moment like it happened just minutes ago. Suddenly he gasped and fell down to the floor, he desperately tried to breath but it felt like something squeezed his very lungs! He scratched his face and neck with his nails, and bit down on his tongue and his lips so hard that they started to bleed. The tears fell from his eyes as he heard Them. 'You disobeyed us, boy.'

TBC...


Author's note: You might be wondering were Anzu is. I decided not to have her in this fic. Why? I just don't like her.
The more you review, the more I'll write! :D