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Chapter 9 - Destruction by a Caring Hand
In the darkness of night we sometimes find light. The moon above, shining down upon the landscape of our mind. It illuminates the dark corners and gives us a gentle way to confront our fears. It does not burn and scorch like the sun. it does not drive away the shadows. Instead it allows us to stand face to face with those shadows. We can stare into the darkness as it stares back at us.
As a father helps to illuminate the darkness in his daughter's heart and mind, an uncle steps into the darkness of his nephew. To bring in a light so long denied.
It had been several nights but finally Pegasus had gather up enough courage to go forth and do what he must. Finally he had devised a plan. Finally he had dampened enough of his doubts.
Seto closed the bathroom door behind himself. Pegasus had watched as he had left the bedroom with the sleepy bundle in his arms. His eye had followed as he had walked across the hall. He studied his shaking hand and began walking as the door was carefully closed.
Pegasus opened the bedroom door and slipped inside. He looked at the lone sleeping form in the bed and he steeled himself. He had work to do. Important work. Seto had begun his work and now Pegasus had to begin his own.
+…+
The Traveller looked at a lush landscape. This was a canvas which had not only accepted the work of the Painter but enriched it. Colors had changed since he had last been there. They had become more saturated. They had become more…real. Everything was deeper and more full. This was not what the Painter had created, this was something more beautiful and beloved.
The Traveller took an experimental step forward. The ground was solid beneath him. The insidious path was no longer there. There was no terrible blackness waiting to swallow him up. That darkness had no place here. That insecurity was not allowed to exist.
A soft sun hung in the sky, illuminating everything. Vibrant green grass grew across the ground. Sweet flowers dotted the land. Soft and fluffy creatures roamed about. Gentle breezes danced.
The boy had taken what he had been given and he had grown it further. He had poured his hopes and dreams into it. He had made a paradise for himself.
Now the Traveller had arrived to pick at that beauty.
The Traveller felt a sickening guilt rise up. He walked through the beautiful land, steeped in so much serenity, and he looked for the boy. His eye searched, even as his sickened heart cried out for him to turn back. He was looking to bring pain back to this mind. His was a dirty business.
As detestable as it was, he could not abandon it. If the Traveller could accomplish his task, the boy could begin to allow himself to see reality.
To take from him the only happiness he has ever known…
The Traveller shook his head. No. He was not there to take from the boy. He was there to give. He was there to give the boy some truth.
He was there to give the boy reality-
"Hello."
The Traveller jumped at the soft sound of the greeting. He turned quickly and saw a boy standing in the grass. He held a soft little bunny in his arms and he was stroking it while looking up at the Traveller.
"Hello. Who are you? You're not some new animal, are you?" the boy's words felt like silk to the Traveller's ears. They spoke of a gentleness, of a calm, that might be forever torn from him.
"Hello…ah yes, you are correct. I am not an animal."
"Who are you?"
The Traveller tried to search for the appropriate title to give himself.
"Are you a friend?"
"Yes… Yes, I am a friend."
A smile spread across the boy's face, "Oh, good, a new friend!"
The Traveller marveled at how ready and willing the boy was to accept a new friend, even a stranger.
"Do you have many friends here?"
The boy looked down at his bunny rabbit, "Yes, I have many animal friends!"
The Traveller felt himself smile.
"I was just about to have a tea party with my friends, do you want to come?"
The Traveller nodded.
The boy walked closer and took the Traveller's hand. He turned and pulled the Traveller gently, presumably in the direction of the party. The Traveller followed. He allowed the little hand in his to gently guide him. He looked down to the boy's footsteps. Every step the boy took was marked with a patch of flowers, which began to grow as the boy lifted his foot from the ground. Life and love flowed from the boy, bringing even more new life into this beautiful world.
A world, you seek to destroy…
The Traveller shook his head. The boy stopped and turned to look at him. "What's wrong?"
The Traveller debated for a moment, he looked at the bunny, then he looked at the horizon. He steeled himself, once more. "Yuugi…" The boy shivered for the briefest of moments, "do you… like this world?"
The boy smiled, "Of course! I love it! I have pretty flowers and lots of friends!"
"What…what if this world was not…real?"
The boy shivered for a moment. "Nuh-uh. This is a perfect world and it is totally real."
The Traveller felt as though a hand had taken a hold of his heart. As if someone had reached into his chest to begin to squeeze the pitiful and dead thing. "Yes. It is very beautiful. Maybe a little too beautiful?"
The boy frowned, "How can it be too beautiful?"
"I don't know…" The Traveller struggled to find the words. "What if maybe there are too many flowers?"
"Too many flowers?"
The Traveller felt the boy's hand in his. He looked at his large purple eyes. "Tell me, what do you see when you look around?"
The boy looked at the Traveller strangely and then smiled. He looked out at the graceful landscape, at the gentle world around him. "I see a beautiful world where everyone is my friend. Where everyone loves me. Where there is no hurt. There is no darkness." The boy's eyes lost some of their focus, they seemed to be looking past of the green grass, the bright flowers, looking through the herd of unicorns who were quietly grazing. "I see a world where everyone is happy…"
"Why is everyone happy?"
"…because they don't hurt…" A whisper of sadness had crept into the boy's words.
"Yuugi…what do you want most in the world?" The Traveller felt the boy's shiver at the mention of his name.
"I want this."
Vicious and cruel man. False friend. Here for selfish-
"You want the grass and the animals. You want all of this brightness."
The boy turned to him and smiled. He nodded. "I want all of this happiness."
"But what about Anzu?" The boy looked in the Traveller's eye. "She isn't here, is she?"
The boy looked away, down at the rabbit.
"She lives in another world, doesn't she?" The Traveller felt the boy's hand tremble as he nodded. "What if the world was a bit different but she was in it?"
Slowly, the boy's hand slipped out of the Traveller's. It came to rest of the rabbit and he began to stroke it. "She can't live here."
A hand squeezed the Traveller's heart.
"Yuugi, go on to your tea party. I must go… for now."
"Will you return…?" The words were soaked in sadness and the boy continued to look at the bunny, his hand still petting it.
"Of course. Now go, you don't want to keep your guests waiting."
The boy turned and slowly walked away. There were no other parting words. No smile. His shoulders were drooping. The Traveller's eye followed him as he walked. There were no flowers in his wake. There was only the grass. There was no joy or love flowing out of him.
Just a lonely boy in a beautiful dream.
The Traveller looked at the last footstep which had given life. A red peony swayed gracefully…sadly.
He looked away. His heart was slowly being crushed. This was not like the heart held in the hand of the sad boy. This was not a raw heart thumping, held up for one to see. This was a heart which was-
A tree, the Traveller had not paid attention to, suddenly caught his eye. Something about it did not fit. He took a step towards it. He looked at it closely. He saw something in it. Something dreadful.
He tried to turn away from it but his feet kept taking him closer. Closer.
He stood before it and gaze into it's hollow. A cleft in its trunk held a familiar color. He looked into the hollow and recognized the red…
His hand, unbidden reached towards it.
The Traveller glanced down at his hand a second too late.
+…+
Pegasus stands in a sitting room. A fireplace warms it and throws light and shadows as its flames undulate. His eye darts around the room, desperate to get his bearings. This is not the bedroom he visited. This is not the throne room.
A naked girl stands in the center of the room. She is looking through him. Her eyes are looking at something, focusing and refocusing. He turns and sees the doorway.
A man stands with a little boy. He leads him closer. Pegasus takes a step out of their way.
Bakura hands Anzu a pink shift. She wriggles into it. He lets go of Yuugi's hand. Pegasus watches as Yuugi tries to retain his grip. Bakura leads Anzu away, taking her away to some darkened corner. Yuugi takes a step to follow but servants surround him. They shuffle him off to a crimson chaise lounge.
Pegasus watches Anzu disappear with Bakura. They seem to be swallowed up by impossible shadows. They have gone where he cannot follow. He turns his attention back to Yuugi. The boy tries to sit absolutely still as the servants begin their work.
Blonde strands are separated from black. They comb and brush. Pulling and styling. Arranging and expertly adjusting each strand into its new shape.
As their hands work Pegasus stares in horror at the transformation.
In the chaos of the night of the fire. After Yuugi's hair had to be shaved…Pegasus suddenly realizes that it was Bakura who had insisted that the boy's head must be shaved in order to properly care for his wounds. He had not accepted any explanation against it. No one had understood it, but it had been of the utmost importance that all of Yuugi's hair be removed. It had seemed a cruel thing to do to the boy, soon after such a trauma like the fire.
They had not understood the real reason.
Bakura had seen it. He had known what it would be for the boy to see that face looking back at himself every day. Pegasus had been so preoccupied but Bakura knew his charges. He knew his children.
Yuugi sits on the crimson chair and tries not to fidget as the servants finish their work. He can feel that something is changing about himself.
Strand by strand the boy is removed. Strand by strand he is replaced with Yami.
Pegasus stands rooted to the spot. Everything within him shakes. Shivers of revulsion. Quakes of rage. He wants to grab the boy and smooth down his hair. He wants to grab the boy and tear out his hair. He wants to do anything to remove that monster from the visage of the boy.
Anzu returns to the boy's side and she tries not to look shocked. She tries not to be horrified. Her little brother… transformed into the monster.
Pegasus turns away from it. This is the true horror the boy cannot face.
He takes a step back.
+…+
The Traveller looked deep into the broken tree.
This is what you want him to face.
+…+
Pegasus stood over the boy. A smile played over the sleeping face. A smile sat so natural on his lips.
The man reached down and ran a hand over the boys black locks. A few inches long now that they had grown back.
No. I don't want to show him that. I want him to wake up and see this.
Not all that is covered in light is truth. Where there is light there are shadows. A truth we all must accept before we can truly understand the power of that light.
For every heart mending there is a break which must be confronted. It is a bitter but necessary medicine we must take before we can become healthy. Before we can become whole.