CHAPTER 10

The Slifer cafeteria door slid to the side violently, crashing into the wall, to reveal Chazz leaning heavily against the door frame. His eye scanned the room and landed on the lone person with him; Syrus Truesdale, who sat at a table at the opposite end staring back at him.

"Oh," Syrus breathed. "You startled me."

Chazz pushed himself off the wall and sloppily wiped off his hands on his black jacket. The blood covering them was mostly crusted over by now, after the excruciatingly long walk across campus, so it just flaked off onto the fabric. He staggered inside, considering the small boy in front of him.

He never thought much about Syrus, after all he was pretty easy to ignore and, even if you happened to notice him, left very little of an impression. But here he sat, looking terrified of nothing and using that squeaking voice of his to spout inane bullshit that made Chazz want to hit him. This boy, the younger brother of a person with actual accomplishments, who was presently hiding from being challenged to a big scary duel. For the first time since joining the merry band of idiots, Chazz felt something other than lukewarm acceptance toward him. He loathed him.

Chazz stopped at the end of the table where Syrus sat.

He'll deal with the pipsqueak later.

Leaning forward, he put his hands on the table. "Leave."

Syrus appeared to want to argue, but went with his better judgment. He hopped up out of his chair and scampered out of the room.

Chazz walked the rest of the way to the back, into the small kitchenette where Dorothy prepared the Slifer dorm's meals. His eye itched badly but he ignored it as he banged around in the drawers, trying to find a more solid weapon that wouldn't break this time. Finding a small paring knife, he shoved it into his pocket next to his deck and stalked out of the cafeteria, leaving the door open behind him.

The sky was getting dark as he stepped back onto the pavement outside. The walk from the hot springs must have taken a lot longer than he thought. With great effort, he started across the building's exterior, to the other side where the stairs were located.

Chazz hoped that Syrus didn't return to his dorm when he ran off, and was thankfully greeted with an empty room when he finally pushed the door open. This was fine. He started inside but stumbled again, gripping the desk to catch himself and knocking various items onto the floor. He didn't pay attention to what any of it was. More quietly, he righted himself and situated his body behind the ajar door. With luck, this wouldn't take long.

Although luck was something not often on his side.

His memories were fuzzy, but he could recall overseeing the Society of Light's abduction of Solomon Muto in Domino City last year. It didn't seem too difficult. Sure, there was only one of him and half a dozen students from the Society that time, but now he had surprise. And a knife. That would help.

Somewhere around five minutes passed, and Chazz felt himself sway more on his feet. His head hurt and the eye underneath bandages threatened to distract him with constant shearing pain.

Finally, the door swung toward him and he heard a single pair of feet walk inside the room.

Jaden sighed. "Dang it, Evan, you broke into my room last week! This is quick turnaround, even for you." He strode toward the mess Chazz made and kneeled over.

Sensing the opportunity, Chazz stepped forward and slammed the door shut, locking it.

He saw Jaden spin around before the world went completely black.

"Chazz?"

He opened his eye.

For a moment, he was at a loss at what was going on. Unfamiliar ceiling. Jaden Yuki's concerned expression floating above his face. He heard himself make a retching noise as vomit threatened to escape his mouth.

"Whoa, dude," Jaden put a gentle hand on his shoulder to keep him on the floor. "You passed out. Are you oka—"

Chazz's hands flew up to the other boy's throat.

A strange noise emitted from Jaden's mouth as the wind was knocked out of him.

He ignored his churning stomach and throbbing head, concentrating on pushing himself up and toward Jaden with one leg while maintaining his grip. Landing on his knees and knocking the other boy backwards, he threw them both sideways across the floor toward the bunkbeds. His aim proved true as Jaden's head slammed down onto the wooden bed frame, and he went motionless on impact.

Chazz collapsed onto the floor to regain his breath. The struggle lasted fewer than ten seconds but it took almost everything out of him. Jaden was larger than him, heavier than Chazz anticipated. If Jaden had been quick witted for once in his life he would have been overcome easily.

Rolling over onto his side, he realized he needed to work fast, before Jaden had a chance to wake up. He had no idea how long these things usually took. He stood and ripped the sheet off the bottom bunk, using the paring knife to cut it into ribbons. Then he moved the desk chair to the middle of the room and hoisted Jaden's lifeless form onto it. After he felt the other was sufficiently tied to prevent escape, he sat on the floor against the counter, his legs drawn up to his chest, and busied himself with using the knife to clean blood from underneath his fingernails.

The nausea was getting bad again, but he didn't have anything for that. Just as he reached into his pocket to get the next best thing, Jaden stirred.

"Wha… why can't I move?"

Chazz rolled his eye, opening the bottle of painkillers with unsteady fingers. "You're tied to a chair. Obviously."

"You really hurt my neck…" Jaden lifted his head, surveying his surroundings. "Chazz?"

"Where's your water?"

Jaden just stared before jerking his head to the cabinets Chazz was leaning against. He opened one and pulled out a fresh bottle, taking a swig along with however many pills fell into his open palm.

"Did… did you do this? Why?"

"If you're going to ask stupid questions we'll be here all night," Chazz snapped.

Jaden waited, but he didn't intend to elaborate further. When Jaden finally seemed to realize that, he let his eyes travel to the knife. "Why do you have that?" He asked timidly, clarity evidently returning to his mind.

"Oh that," Chazz waved it lazily in the air, a smile twitching on his lips. "That's for later. By the way… don't think about screaming because I have a gag ready if you try."

The Slifer dorm was one of the least ideal places they could be, but he sure as hell wasn't going to figure out how to drag Jaden somewhere more secluded. He'd just need to make this work.

Jaden nodded in understanding. Chazz was glad for once that he was more the type to talk someone down from an escalated situation, especially someone he considered a friend. Chazz could use that.

Feeling a little better, he stood and walked over to Jaden's side. The room wouldn't stay still, but getting some water helped his stomach settle down a bit.

"So, uh…" Jaden tried to sound casual, failing spectacularly in Chazz's opinion. "What do I gotta do to get out of here?"

He moved the knife to his other hand so he could root around in his jacket pocket. Deck, crumpled paper, something sticky, loose keys… "Look, I feel like shit so I'm going to keep this short. I hate you. I hate all of you—"

"Oh, you always—"

Chazz abruptly slammed his hands down on the arms of the chair, causing Jaden to jump. The handle of the knife pressed into his palm painfully. "You don't understand. I have had to live with you people for years now. Every day, I have to sit by and watch everything get handed to you. Glory. Titles. Absurd amounts of loyalty that even I would—I'm getting to it."

His gaze shifted to the blurry dark figure across the room off to Jaden's right.

"Chazz? Who are you talking to?"

He squeezed his eye shut. The room was getting too hot.

Too loud.

"Both of you need to shut up so I can think."

"Is this… is this the schizophrenia?"

Chazz stood up straight and glared down at him. "Where did you hear about that?"

Jaden visibly gulped. "Is it true then? I didn't hear any duel spirits…"

"Be quiet!"

"Should we get your medicine?"

Chazz moved to put his back to the figure and wheeled the chair around so Jaden faced him again. He could still feel the presence in the room behind him but ignored it. "I am tired of you getting everything. So why don't you come down to my level."

With that, he opened his fist and dropped the object he dug from his pocket onto Jaden's lap. It was Ruby Carbuncle, bent in several places with a red stain in one corner of the card.

The gesture proved ineffective since Jaden was too dumb to figure it out.

"Why do you have one of Jesse's cards?"

He didn't have time for this.

"Wait…" Jaden leaned as far forward as his restraints would allow.

The floor tilted up toward Chazz dangerously.

"Is that blood? What happened?" Jaden's voice sounded more serious, anxious.

Why didn't his eye ever stop hurting?

"What did you do to Jesse?"

"He's dead," Chazz snapped, grabbing Jaden roughly by the hair. "You have no idea what it's like. Being gawked at by a bunch of cretins who've never seen someone with scars all over their face. You know, I can't see with this eye anymore," he vaguely indicated his eyepatch with the knife's tip. "Haven't for a while. And what was the point?"

Jaden shook his head.

"Jack shit," Chazz seethed. "I didn't get hurt saving the fucking world. Or even one person. This was done by some random asshole who didn't even have a good reason for it. No one is going to look at me and be inspired to do anything but turn away. Sometimes, Jaden — sometimes bad things just happen. I'm done being the one they happen to."

He jerked Jaden's head back and to the right.

"Wait wait you don't want to do this!"

"This is better than what I want," he smirked, positioning the knife with difficulty as the other boy struggled, trying desperately to kick him away with his poorly tied together feet. His blade made contact with the layer of skin just below his eye, creating a thin red line. "Hold still, idiot."

Apparently, he underestimated the powerful motivator that avoiding mutilation could be, because Jaden managed to pull one arm free of his restraints and shove Chazz away from him. He was already out of the chair and making a break for the door before Chazz could recover.

Never one to let something go without leaving claw marks in it, Chazz took advantage of Jaden's failure to realize it was locked to lunge at the other boy. Fighting through another wave of intense nausea, he dug his fingernails into Jaden's cheeks as he pulled him away from the door, feeling resistance as Jaden tried grabbing at the handle.

Jaden made a pitiful sound as he whirled, trying to knock Chazz off him. With all of his strength, Jaden twisted his body around and sent Chazz backwards, causing him to lose his footing and crash into the window.

Something gave way. His surroundings darkened and the ambient sounds around him shifted.

A second later, he hit solid ground.

With difficulty, he rolled onto his back. Stars, sprinkled across the blackness above him, went in and out of focus. Two moons floated above, one solid and the other transparent. Huh. He didn't think it was possible to get double vision with only one eye.

Slowly, he became aware that his leg was folded unnaturally beneath him, but he couldn't move it.

A black shape stood over him. They looked at each other for long moment before the figure turned and walked away. Chazz closed his eye, centering his attention on the shard of glass tearing alarmingly deep into his side. Fucking Slifer dorms, too cheap for halfway durable windows. He always hated that building, and now it was actively trying to kill him.

"Chazz?"

Jaden came running up to him, his feet slipping in the dewy grass.

"Oh my god, Chazz!"

He fell onto his knees next to him, grinding glass into the soil.

"You're… that's a lot of blood…"

No shit.

Hot liquid pooled up from his torso to his shoulder, which he found oddly soothing in the cool night air. His head pounded, sending out waves of pain with every heartbeat. Everything hurt. He could feel pieces of the window penetrating the back of his head, down both of his arms, across one clavicle, in his side. The stabbing pain was annoyingly familiar at this point. He was getting really, really sick of broken glass.

Chazz looked up at Jaden, jaw clenched in frustration. Some villain he turned out to be. A single scratch while he was profusely bleeding from what felt like everywhere. How appropriate that he failed at this too.

"You'll be fine," Jaden was saying, hands held in front of him like he didn't know what to do with them. What kind of hero couldn't perform basic first aid? "I'll find someone and—"

"Is anyone else here?"

"No."

Chazz swallowed thickly. "Stay."

"I need to get help."

He reached out to grab Jaden's arm, missing by several inches. His hand landed with a dull thud onto the ground. Something in the grass slashed into his palm.

Jaden hesitated but settled back down beside him, movements threatening to make Chazz vomit. The rest of the world was hard enough to keep in one place.

He wished literally anyone else could be here watching him die. He missed the Ojamas. After all his persistence, they left him to himself, that unrelenting and suffocating presence he couldn't wait to finally get rid of. If he called out, they would probably come, but he didn't want to do that to them. He wished desperately that he could be alone. But if Jaden left, he'd just bring back someone else, maybe someone competent who could actually help. And Chazz really didn't want that.

This sucked. His last minutes on earth had to be spent with someone he hated, making sure he couldn't be saved. Typical.

"What happened to you?" Jaden asked sadly from somewhere in the darkness.

"…I fell out a window."

He laughed humorlessly. "I meant you… you hurting people…"

"Oh, right."

"I didn't think you could do something like…"

"Shut up," he mumbled.

Breathing was too demanding. Chazz felt like he was falling again, but the smashed glass embedded in his skin told him he was still lying on the Slifer lawn. He was going to lose consciousness, almost wanted to just so he could rest, but his desire to make sure Jaden didn't leave won out. The pain started to drift farther from his mind as he grew more numb and lightheaded. His awkwardly bent leg didn't even register any more. He coughed, feeling something warm dribble out of the side of his mouth.

"I need to find someone," Jaden insisted, panic evident in his voice. "You're bleeding really badly, and there's this big piece of glass… you'll die…"

"Don't worry," Chazz forced out. "You'll get over it."

He regarded his regrettable companion one last time, disdain swirling up from deep within the fog. Even by complete accident, Jaden got the better of him. Really, he shouldn't have expected anything different. He was always meant to fall. After all this self-assurances that this was the right path, that he needed to fight back rather than simply overcome, he walked right into the open arms of failure. He shivered violently.

"I have a question for you, Chazz."

"Shoot."

"You ever read fairy tales?"

Yeah, Chazz read fairy tales.

The hero always wins in the end.

"Chazz?" Jaden reached out and nudged his shoulder, afraid of making the injuries worse. Chazz, who had grabbed him with feverishly warm hands fewer than ten minutes before, was now alarmingly cold to the touch. "Oh no. No no no no no no."

With eyes welling with tears, Jaden leaned over his friend. "Come on, Chazz. Open your eyes, breathe, please do something."

The gentle shaking became panicked as each minute passed without any signs of life.

"Help," he shouted desperately. "Someone help!"

He looked down at his hands, tightly balled up into Chazz's jacket. They were covered with a layer of blood that looked almost black in the dim moonlight.

Chazz… Jesse…

Oh god.

Jaden collapsed onto the ground, littered with broken glass, as a scream tore itself out of his throat.

End