Sorry I got this up a few hours later than I usually do. There were a few things I needed to tweak before I could post it.

But here it is!

Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.

Chapter 10

"What is it?" I asked, holding the amulet closer to my eyes so I could appreciate more fully the intricate carvings in the gold.

Neferu scratched the back of his head. "It's, uh...i-it's a token of my gratitude. For helping me graduate to a full magician."

I smirked at him, the amulet swaying on its leather cord in the faint breeze. "Shouldn't you be giving this to Mahad, then?"

"Uh, no..." He looked at his feet a moment, then back to me. "I mean, Mahad helped me with the big things, like control and actually casting the spells, but you're the one who encouraged me to keep trying and not give up. So, I made this to thank you."

I glanced back at the charm, at the golden eye that glittered in the light, inlaid with a lapis lazuli pupil that seemed to stare right at me. This jewelry had definitely not been cheap to make, nor had it just been spur-of-the-moment. He had to have been working on it for a long time. And for good reason – it was gorgeous. "It's beautiful." I said, running my fingertips over the smooth surface of the lapis lazuli.

He took a hesitant step closer. "May I?" When I raised an eyebrow at him, he gestured to the necklace.

"Oh, of course." I said, even though I could have slipped it over my head just as easily as he could. I handed him the necklace and allowed him to put it on me, then pulled my hair out from under it.

He stepped back when he was done, an expression on his face showing that he was fighting some sort of internal battle. He scowled at himself.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

His eyes darted back to mine. "Y-yes, I'm fine." I cocked my head at him, and he shook his head and smiled. "You look more radiant than ever." He said, almost sheepishly.

I felt my smirk turn to a grin. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, my lady." He bowed.

I laughed. "I think it is I who should be bowing to you, Priest Neferu." I said, bowing back.

"Double honors for the woman who helped me rise to the top." He joked, bowing again.

"Stop that!" I chuckled, nudging his arm playfully.

We had a few moments of laughter before a call could be heard from the other end of the courtyard.

"Sagira! Ira, where are you?" I immediately recognized the voice as Mana. Neferu and I both turned to find the small, bubbly apprentice running towards us. She slowed when she saw Neferu, but continued coming our way. Upon reaching us, she hooked her arm with mine. "Sorry to interrupt you two, but someone has an appointment with Prince." She looked up at me, grinning as always, and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

It had only been a matter of time before Mana found out about Atem and I, what with her closeness with the both of us. Luckily, she was quite the secret-keeper, and not another soul knew of our relationship.

"Right now?" I asked, not wanting to leave Neferu so soon. He would be departing for a temple somewhere in the south in a few hours, and would not return until the next flood season. I had wanted to at least say goodbye, especially since he had given me such a beautiful gift.

"He won't have another break from his magic lessons today. He wants to see you now." She tugged on my arm, then glanced back at Neferu, afraid she had given too much away. "You know, to discuss...spells with you."

I looked back to Neferu. He was giving Mana a strange look. A small part of me thought he seemed angry for a moment, but then that moment was gone, and he just seemed sad. "I'm sorry." I said, bringing his attention back to me.

"It's alright." He shrugged. "I, uh, had to finish packing for my journey anyway."

"Thank you for the necklace. I will never take it off." I told him, my fingers closing around the pendant that hung from my neck. Mana glanced between the jewelry she had just noticed and Neferu, confused.

He inclined his head. "No, thank you, Sagira."

I smiled warmly at him. "You're welcome. I am sure you will make a wonderful magician." I began to walk away with Mana. "Goodbye, Neferu. Be safe."

"I always am." He said, watching me leave. Mana quickened her pace after I had glanced over my shoulder at him for the second time, and soon we were running. I reasoned that I would see Neferu again. This goodbye should not be so dramatic for me. I would be able to bear not seeing him for a few months.

After all, Atem kept me distracted enough.

Atem had fought as hard as he could, but there were at least three people holding him back, not to mention the one that pulled his feet out from under him and shoved him to the ground. He bit, he kicked, he snarled, but his captors wouldn't let him go. One of them even slammed his head on the concrete, and he felt blood trickle down his forehead and saw stars in the darkness, but he still fought.

The entire time, he could hear Erin's muffled screams growing fainter and fainter.

It was times like this that he wished he could still mind crush people.

When Erin's cries seemed to fade out entirely, all four of the people keeping him in place suddenly disappeared. He heard their retreating footsteps, and then nothing.

Ignoring his pounding head, he used a nearby wall as a support to pull himself to his feet. He would find her. This haunted house had gone too far.

After a few minutes of stumbling around, blind and disoriented, the lights came on. He almost thought he was hallucinating, but then he saw the maze around him, and heard people on the other side of the wall gasping and asking what was going on. He used this new advantage to continue searching for Erin, Tea, and Yugi.

The latter two he found retracing their steps in an attempt to go back and find him and Erin. Both were visibly shaken, but putting on brave faces and doing what they needed to.

"Atem!" Tea called as he leaned heavily on a wall just meters away from them. She rushed over to him. "What happened to your head? Where's Erin?"

"You haven't seen her yet?" He asked, his hopes deflating.

"No, we thought she was with you." Yugi said. "Are you okay?"

Atem waved their concern away. "I'm fine. We need to find Erin. She got taken away."

Yugi's eyebrows knit together. "What?"

"Some of the workers..." He pushed himself off the wall, despite the pressure this action caused in his temples. Why did he feel so tired? "They grabbed her and dragged her away from me. They held me back."

"That's not supposed to happen at a haunted house." Tea said. "They could get sued for physical assault."

"Unless they didn't really work here." Yugi built on her thought. "That could be the reason they turned the lights on: someone broke in."

Atem stiffened. "That means they kidnapped Erin."

Tea's eyes widened, and then she broke into a full sprint, running back down the way Atem had come. "We have to find her!"

Bright lights shone behind my eyelids, turning them a fiery shade of red. I felt the ground beneath my back, hard and cold and rough. The cardboard armor of my costume was pressed against my shoulders uncomfortably, and my left forearm had gone numb because it was bent at an awkward angle, the leather bracelet at my elbow cutting off my circulation. I shivered.

My eyes fluttered open, and for a few moments, all I could see were purple blobs as they adjusted to the light. Slowly, my surroundings came into focus. Tall plywood walls that were painted black rose up on either side of me, illuminated by old floodlights built into the ceiling. The yellow caged lights of earlier were nowhere to be seen. I could hear the shuffle of footsteps and voices nearby.

That made me sit up. There were people here!

"He – " I began, but my voice cracked. I checked the scene around me again in disbelief. I wasn't in the small, claustrophobic room anymore. There was no heavy metal door closing me in. With the plywood walls, I could only describe this new location as a hallway.

That is, until I realized that the walls branched off into two passageways on one end, and three on the other.

My fingers pressed down on the concrete floor, my head spinning. Was this the maze?

Why were the lights on?

More importantly, how had I gotten out of that room?

I got to my feet shakily and used a wall for support, not trusting my balance. The voices grew nearer, and I moved my feet in the direction they were coming from. "Hello?" I croaked.

The voices grew a little quieter, like they had chosen another path.

I panicked. "Wait!" My throat was so dry that every word I said felt like I was swallowing barbed wire.

The footsteps, as well as the voices that accompanied them, stopped for a moment. Then, "Erin?"

The female voice was like music to my ears. "Tea!" I cried, my steps quickening. "I'm here!"

The shuffling of what I guessed were her and Yugi's feet neared the corner up ahead of me, and then a flash of purple and pink was embracing me. "Oh my god, Erin, you're okay!"

I stood, stunned, as she pulled back and let go of me. "Yeah, I'm a little less scared now that I'm not alone in here. Is it just you and Yugi? Have you guys found Atem?"

Just then, Yugi rounded the corner, followed by his brother. "He found us, actually." Yugi said.

Atem was looking at me like he hadn't seen me in years. His skin was pale, and every step he took seemed to caused him pain. His eyelids were slightly closed. A cut graced the skin just beneath his hairline, and a thick line of dried blood ran down his face.

"What happened to you?" I asked, taking a few steps closer.

"Nothing." He dismissed my worries about his injury for the moment. His eyes were intense, the fire in them fueled by anger. "What did they do to you? Did they hurt you?"

I shook my head. For a minute there, I had almost convinced myself that Atem and I had just gotten separated and I had freaked out and imagined the whole thing.

Because my mind was irrational like that.

"They just dragged me to a small room. After they locked me in there, I must have fainted or something, and then I woke up here. That's all I remember." Except for the dream about the boy named Neferu with another reference to Atem in it.

"That doesn't make any sense." Yugi said. "Why would they lock you in there but then take you out a few minutes later? Atem said the lights came on pretty soon after you were taken away."

Atem's gaze was still bearing down on me. Afraid to meet it and somehow give something away about my dream, I looked at the ground. "I don't know."

There was a moment of silence before Tea put an arm around my shoulders. "We can discuss it on the way out. Atem needs a bandage on his head, and we don't want those kidnappers coming back."

We all agreed. There would be plenty of time to talk about this when we weren't lost in an underground labyrinth.

None of us really felt like talking.

When we had finally gotten out of the maze and ascended the stairs to the surface, the flashing lights of police cars greeted us outside. Joey and Tristan were waiting for us, a frenzied story about why the lights had come on pouring out of their mouths. Apparently, a group of unpaying customers had somehow snuck into the tunnels via a forgotten hatch about a mile away from the little brick building. They had terrorized other people before finding Atem and I, including the two boys, but their encounter hadn't been nearly as terrifying.

The ride home had been filled with questions, since everyone besides Joey and Tristan, who had driven Tristan's dad's car up to the haunted house, had insisted on riding home with me. The questions ranged from "Did you see their faces?" to "What did the room look like?" to "Why did you faint?" I dodged the last question, not wanting to bring up the strange piece of jewelry that I was pretty sure had caused the blackout.

The entire time, Atem had been watching me like a hawk from the passenger's seat. He didn't ask a lot of the questions, but his were much more urgent than Tea's and Yugi's. His tone when he asked them sounded like he desperately wanted to rip someone's throat out for messing with us. That tone scared me.

We had all decided to head back to the game shop and hang out at Yugi and Atem's to recover. The second we had gotten to the living room, I had collapsed on one of the sofas, and Atem sat down with me. He hadn't complained about his head, but I knew it had to be hurting him.

So there we were. The six of us sprawled out across the room, Joey and Tristan on the floor, and Tea and Yugi sharing the lounge chair. We were all exhausted.

I glanced over at Atem. He was glaring down at his hands in his lap, which were clenching and un-clenching, seemingly with the waves of pain he was experiencing.

"Atem," I murmured softly.

His head whipped to me. The angry fire in his eyes that had been directed at his hands dissipated as soon as they met mine. "What? Is there something wrong?"

I leaned towards him to get a better look at the bandage on his forehead. We should have taken him to the emergency room. The gash had stopped bleeding shortly after we emerged from the maze, and Mr. Muto had cleaned it and covered it with a surgical pad left over from one of his surgeries, but the new purple and blue splotches that were beginning to blossom on the skin around it worried me.

"How's your head?"

He brushed some fingers over the bandage, but then shrugged. "I've had worse."

Across the room, Tea sat up straighter. "I think you should go to the ER. That doesn't look too good."

Atem shook his head. "I'm alright, really."

I crossed my arms, sisterly instincts kicking in. Though I had never scolded Atem before, I didn't feel uncomfortable doing so. "No, you're not. There's pressure at your temples and you're tired, aren't you?"

His impassive expression faltered. Those narrowed amethyst eyes searched mine, trying to figure out how I had guessed his condition.

"Miri got a concussion in a soccer game once. You're not supposed to fall asleep. You could end up in a coma."

He shook his head again. "I don't have a concussion. I'm fine."

Yugi stood. "Why don't we take you to the hospital just in case? Gramps even said to if it gets worse, and I'd say it's definitely gotten worse." To make his point, he helped Tea up and kicked Joey on the floor to rouse him from his nap. "We can go with you."

"Go with who where?" Joey asked sleepily.

"Get up, Joey." Tea said, coming over to stand by me as I got up. "We're taking Atem to the ER."

Atem didn't know what to say that would keep his friends from helping him. He just sat there, staring at us as we all got ready to leave. His exhaustion was wearing on him. I could tell by the slump of his shoulders and the fact that he wasn't being as stubborn as he usually was.

"He's in no condition to walk." I told Yugi. "I can drive, if you want."

"We can't all fit in your car." Tea said, glancing at Joey and Tristan, the latter of which was still snoozing.

Joey picked up on her concern. "I'll ride along so Yugi and I can help with Atem." He helped Atem up, slinging one of the violet-eyed boy's arms around his shoulders without a protest from him. In fact, as Atem lifted himself off the couch, he was putting most of his weight on Joey.

If he didn't have a concussion, it had to be something equally as bad.

"What will we do with Tristan?" Yugi asked as he put himself beneath Atem's other arm to keep him steady.

"He'll probably sleep until we get back." Tea said. "Come on, there's no time to waste."

We made it down to the darkened shop before Atem's head dropped, eyes fluttering shut. I grabbed his chin, and they opened to focus on me. The black of his pupils almost completely dominated the purple of his irises. "Hey," I said, my voice firm, "you've got to stay awake. Giving in to sleep could make this situation a whole lot worse, okay?"

He grunted in response, but he obediently kept his eyes slightly open as Joey helped him into the car. Yugi got in on the other side so he and Joey could keep Atem upright in the backseat, and Tea took shotgun so she could direct me to the hospital. The drive was tense. I kept looking in my rear view mirror to make sure Atem was still awake. Joey had told him to focus on something to keep his eyes open, and he had chosen the mirror.

"Turn there." Tea ordered, pointing to a side road at a red light. I obeyed, and soon the hospital was looming over us. I found the ER entrance and pulled up under the awning.

We all scrambled out of the car, Joey and Yugi mostly carrying an almost unresponsive Atem to the doors. Tea and I rushed to the counter in the waiting room, ignoring the stares we received from other patients for our strange costumes. Tea slammed her palm down on the bell repeatedly, her movements growing more and more impatient. I tapped my fingers on the granite, trying to get some of my nerves out.

A woman appeared in the office door behind the desk, and she seemed to be in no hurry to enter a new patient into the system. Her frizzy red hair and stumpy posture brought to mind a dwarf from Lord of the Rings. "How may I help you?" She asked, her voice slow and slurred with an unrecognizable accent.

"I think our friend has a concussion." I said, pointing to Atem, who Joey and Yugi had positioned behind us. His new focal point became the nurse. His eyes were glazed and still dilated.

The woman glanced at Atem and then back to us. "Do you have a parent or legal guardian present?"

Crap! We'd forgotten that tidbit. "No."

"We'll have to contact his parents – "

"You children do not wait up for your elders, do you?" Came an old, familiar voice from behind us.

"Grandpa!" Yugi said, relieved.

Tea and I both sighed. I thanked my lucky stars that Yugi's grandfather was not as senile as he sometimes made himself out to be.

Mr. Muto stepped between Tea and me. "I believe I can handle this, ladies. Thank you."

Tea and I stepped back as he began talking to the nurse, then turned to the boys. "How's he holding up?" Tea asked, reaching out a hesitant hand to get Atem's bangs out of his face. Joey had taken off his helmet in the car so we could see the full extent of his injury.

The bruising had spread, and gotten darker.

"Atem, can you still talk?" I asked.

His dilated eyes focused on me. "A little." He slurred, like his tongue was too big for his mouth.

"The doctors will help you, okay?" Tea said.

He didn't respond. His gaze remained locked on mine.

Mr. Muto didn't take long to fill out the paperwork, but we sat in the waiting room for at least twenty minutes before a doctor came in with a wheelchair to escort Atem to an actual room, which Yugi's grandfather had requested so we wouldn't be taking up unnecessary ER space.

"A concussion is not always an emergency." He told us as we followed the wheelchair to the main part of the hospital.

We got Atem onto the bed, which he allowed us to lay him back on, and everyone took seats around the room. I was left standing at the bedside; not that I wanted to leave his side.

The doctor used ginger fingers to examine the area around the injury, and asked Atem routine questions.

"What is your name?"

"Atem Muto."

"What year is it, Atem?"

"...2014..."

"Who is the president?"

"..."

Atem didn't look like he couldn't remember the last answer, it looked like he hadn't known it in the first place. This struck me as strange. He grew up in America, right?

The doctor finished with his evaluation and wrote something down on his clipboard. "He might need a CT scan. I'll be back in a few minutes."

Atem's expression grew slightly panicked at the doctor's words. "What's that?" He asked, his words hardly recognizable.

Mr. Muto put a hand on Atem's shoulder. "You'll be alright. You've been through much worse."

Tea cleared a spot for me on the sofa, but I didn't want to sit down. I offered the seat to a grateful Mr. Muto, and stayed standing by Atem. A nagging feeling in my stomach was telling me to remain there to keep him from totally losing it. He kept his eyes fixed on me.

Out of instinct, I grabbed his hand. This seemed to make his eyes sharpen slightly, and his gaze darted between my face and our hands. The fireworks had grown less noticeable. "You're going to be fine. I promise."

He tried to give me a small smile, the right side of his mouth turned up slightly.

The doctor returned ten minutes later, ready to take Atem to be scanned. Mr. Muto went with them, leaving the five of us in the room.

"I've never seen the guy so hurt before." Joey commented, watching the door swing shut behind the three men.

I sat down in the spot Mr. Muto had occupied just moments ago. "He looks really bad."

"He'll pull through." Yugi said, voice unwavering. "He always does."

We all nodded. It was only a concussion. Hopefully.

In the silence that followed, I noticed for the first time that there was a weight around my neck. It wasn't a significant amount, so I must have just dismissed it as my armor in the chaos that had ensued since the haunted house. But this definitely originated from my neck, as if there were a string around it holding something in place.

I raised a hand to my chest to find something solid lying just beneath the fabric of my turtleneck. Something that, when I felt around the edges of it with my fingers, was oval-shaped, pinched at the sides.

If I didn't know better, I would have thought it was an eye.

Whoa, Atem's in the hospital! Is he okay?

And now we've learned a little more about Neferu! And Mana finally showed up! Yay! She didn't play a very big part in this flashback, but she will be appearing much more frequently later on. She's my favorite Memory World character!

Sorry if this chapter seems short and a little choppy. I didn't have a lot of time to work on it this week, and I really wanted to get it up for you guys, especially since I skipped a week between my last two posts.

Hopefully you still liked it, though!

Don't forget to review and tell me what you thought!

-creativelybored