I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Chihiro: Part I

Chapter Eleven


Every story has to have a turning point. I suppose you could call this a turning point in my story. At least…one of the turning points. It was the significant transition I made from the world of the living to the realm of the dead.

I don't recommend it either. Seriously. It's very painful.

When I woke up, it was as if I had been hit in the head with a brick. Suddenly I was aware of nothing. Nothing but the fact that something about me had definitely changed. I awoke to find myself motionless, stripped of strength, unable to understand why I was on the floor, why I was naked. My stomach ached, I had a horrible headache. There was a disgusting taste in the back of my mouth, something I could only describe as a rusted metallic taste.

I laid on my back on the floor of my bedroom all day, watching as a beam of sun moved across the walls of my room. I was mesmerized by the constant changing of the red numbers on my digital clock, staring at it as the hours slowly went by, as though I had never seen it before. When I had the strength to stand (with much help from the bedside table and the bed frame), I struggled to keep on my feet, only to fall forward and into my bed. Oh…my bed felt wonderful to my broken body. The sheets were clean and cool, crisp and comfortable. I struggled to curl myself under them, and I fell asleep for a long, long time.

I can't remember if it was the next night or the night after that, but suddenly I was feeling better than ever.

When I rose from my bed, it was night. I went into the bathroom to splash water on my face, and paused awkwardly as I stared at someone…someone I was positive I knew…but it was almost like I had never seen them before.

I could recognize this face, but I couldn't fit a name to it. There were things that were strange about it, things I didn't remember, things that were strangely different, like his skin, and how it was now a milky white instead of a creamy tan. And the blond locks, how they glimmered like sunlight under the bathroom light-bulb, and the eyes…golden brown eyes that glowed and stared like…a jungle cat lunging for the kill…

I reached up and touched the face…only to discover that it was my own. But…how had I changed so much? I decided I must have been very ill and over the few days that I had slept, these things had happened to me. But it was so strange…

Turning on the hot water, I climbed into the shower and leaned against the wall, closing my eyes and enduring the warmth. There was something about the water, how it felt more than warm and cleansing, how it seemed to tingle every inch of my skin, how I absorbed the heat from the water.

When I got out of my shower I squeezed my eyes shut and rubbed my temples. I was extremely confused…The last thing I remembered…I didn't know. I didn't remember anything that happened even the last time I was awake. I just remember pain…and sleep. There wasn't anything else I could remember.

When I turned on my radio I had a shocking discovery. According to the DJ on the station it was the 29th...

That couldn't have been right. Last I had known it was...the 26th, and school had just gotten out.

And my exam was...was...the 28th...

...Yesterday...

I had an overwhelming urge to vomit onto the floor, but there was nothing in my stomach so all I could do was bend over and gag. The horrible dreadful feeling arose in my stomach and up trhough my body and into my mind, where my head was swimming with thoughts and confusion. I had missed the test...I had missed the test...

No, why? Why was this happening to me? What had I done? What had I possibly done wrong to be earn this?

I collapsed on my bed, it was the only thing that offered me comfort. I curled into the sheets, naked, grabbing my pillow and holding it to my face. I wasn't tired but all of a sudden I just felt drained and empty, like everything in my body had just been sucked out by some oversized parasite, and the sadness had flooded my entire being, soaking into the depths of my bones.

There was wetness on my pillow, and I was crying. I was crying because I didn't understand what was happening. I was crying because I had missed my biology final. Crying because slept for days and woke up feeling different. Crying because I felt so dazed and lost...

What had happened?

There was an incredible instinct that grew in me to go out straight away and get wasted. And that was exactly what I did. I clothed slowly and clumsily and sauntered out of my apartment. It was dark out and I was grateful...due to all the sleeping I had done I had no mind whatsoever to deal with the harsh rays of sunlight.

As I walked I began to notice things...to anyone they would seem minor but to me they made me stop and think.

All over I could hear sounds, this way and that, as though they surrounded me and I couldn't escape them. I heard dogs barking and cats meowing. I could hear the screaming of a baby and the argument of a forlorn souple. As I walked past the playground I looked at the forboding sight, the happiness drowned in a sea of midnight, but all I could hear was the sounds of children laughing, screaming, talking to each other, playing games, and of the parents calling to them and telling them to be careful...

I stopped and stared at the playground as though there were someone there, and there was. It seemed as though souls of children were playing on that playground now and I couldn't see them...but I could hear them...

I rushed past the playground as quick as I could, still hearing every single little thing in all four corners of my ears. I closed my ears with the palms of my hands and stared down at my feet walking with an urgency that I didn't quite understand, moving with a grace I knew I could never possess. My eyes searched the street and things began to move. The lights were brighter and sharper, the night all around was cascading and beautiful. I could hear the wind, I could smell everything, from the food in the shops to the garbage in the trash cans.

And then there was something else...a scent I had never known before, but obsessed with immediately. A sweet smell that was intoxicating and deliberate.

I turned this way and that, my mouth watering, my eyes wide, my mind sharp! I could smell this substance and I was running as fast as I could, like the wind it seemed, to this source.

I stopped at the edge of the park, where the river met the bank. Sitting on a bench were a couple, a boy and a girl, kissing sweetly and shyly, as though they were on their first date. I watched the back of their heads for moment as they kissed under the moon and at the river's side.

Something about this seemed picture perfect...and for some reason I hated it! I wanted it to end!

I approached the bench, running with the speed I had no control over, and this scent became so powerful that it was driving me insane. I felt something grow inside of me, a sort of animalism, I felt as though my teeth were sharp and I had grown claws, and I was some sort of predator that was running in for the kill.

I reached the bench and flew over it like some crazed jumping beast. I heard the girl scream and the boy was screaming profanities. I landed on my feet, grounding into the dirt with my fingers to stop myself. I turned my eyes on them and suddenly the urge to destroy, to slaughter, to kill was more powerful than anything in my mind.

Without warning I turned on both my heels and made went into a fast run in the direction of the girl. But the guy had spun in front of her, knocking her to the side onto the grass, and so I sank my dirty fingers into his chest and heard him scream in pain. Without further warning I bent forward and clamped my mouth onto his neck.

I could smell it, I wanted it so bad...I could almost taste it! And when I pulled my mouth from his neck there came with me a chunk of his throat. He was twitching and his eyes were wide open, his mouth hanging but no sound escaped. The girl was screaming over and over, louder and fiercer, calling the boy's name but he wouldn't respond, and he would never respond again.

It was then that I saw it, as I tore away his throat...the sacred substance that I had smelled and that I hungered for.

Trouble was that it had all spurted once I had mutated his throat, and now he was empty. I tried to redeem the spilled juice from his wound but it was cold and unappetizing. I threw away his body in a rage, and my animal instinct searched the darkness for his mate, the one that had screamed and the one he had died trying to protect.

She was sitting on the grass staring at me, her eyes wide and streaming with tears. If I wasn't so thirsty I would have let her go, but I walked forward, controling my speed even though it threatened to break out. She cowered and cried when I approached her and curled into a ball, but I took a fist full of her hair and she was screaming again. I pulled her to her feet, she was shorter than me, and I threw her up against the nearest tree. She was crying hard, not screaming anymore, like she knew what was coming and knew nothing could prevent it.

I locked her between myself and the tree. A part of me wanted to tease her and confuse her, rub my body up against her own and make her moan before I make her sleep. There was this want to play...to make her think I was going to rape her.

And I did. I stared at her but she wouldn't look at me. I pressed myself against her and she whimpered. My groin began to pulse as the thought of shoving myself inside of her and hearing her scream came over my mind powerfully. For some reason all I wanted was for her to feel pain, to scream and cry and be scarred, and want it all to end.

I thrust my groin into her, what you may call "dry humping", and she hiccuped. Her tears smelt salty and her blood smelt beautiful. I wanted to touch her but I had to hold my place and make sure she didn't get away. I thrust at her again, and I moaned, and I laughed, and I heard her crying softly.

Was it in some sort of daze, or was it purely on sadistic purpose, I'll never know, but suddenly all I could understand was that I was tearing away her blouse and she was screaming and turned her head to the side so she wouldn't look at me. My hands were beautiful forcing apart the silken cloth, and the sounds of the tearing made me grin. I took her shoulders and threw her down upon the grass, her blouse laid in shreds, and I jumped down and laid myself over top of her, my arousal in direct line with her womanhood. Without warning I slowly pulled down her skirt to her mid-thighs and stared at her in nothing but her undergarments.

She was whimpering when I began to touch her. When I began to run my flat palms up her stomach and down her sides, over her perky breasts and inner thighs. When my fingers brushed her panties she bucked and gasped, and I felt that now I was finally getting to what I wanted. She was being pleasured and I was going to kill her.

I slid down her panties, and then removed her bra. Suddenly she was nothing but a creamy form of loveliness, of purity and tranquility. She was perfect and milky, truly beautiful. I could hear her heart pounding and she was trying not to cry anymore, as if she changed her mind about wanting to enjoy my intentions.

I stared at her for what seemed to be hours. She was a dawny brightness in this dark secluded world of mine. It was almost harsh to look at her. Her body was perfect but it infuriated me. Inside me there was a pulsing need to end her life right there and then.

Something in my mind clicked as I wrapped my arms around her and lifted her to my chest. I would have looked as though I was trying to calm her down, comfort her, and I could hear her sigh almost in relief. She wouldn't move, her arms were dead weight and her head bowed as though her neck had broken. I could smell her blood and it was heavenly.

But I knew. Instead of ripping her throat I knew I had to pace myself, and take her slowly. Unlike her misfortuned fellow decaying on the grass over there (I'm sure her eyes were fixed on him), I had to be devious and drink from her slowly.

Gently I tilted her head to the side. Her round gray eyes stared at me in horror, and when I looked into them all I could see was fear. And I loved it.

I ran my fingertip over her bottom lip and marveled at how perfect her skin was. I wanted to see it broken, and so without warning I growled, and my mind made a fantastic twist! My teeth expanded and a redness clouded my eyes, and I dove into her creamy neck and heard her gasp.

I hit a vein, and automatically my teeth retracted and I latched myself to the punctures and drank. Her blood gushed onto my tongue and down my throat. My eyes widened and my mind was screaming in delight. My entire body reacted to this taste, to this sample. I held her tightly and heard her whimper. My fingernails dug into her arm and side and my bite all at once had become much more sinful, much more painful.

All of a sudden...as I drank down her fluid and emptied her, I could see images. They flashed over my eyes like I was watching a television screen. It was amazing, truly. All I could see was the girl, the girl and what must have been her happy life. I saw her at a young age wearing a pink dress with pigtails in her hair. She was at a birthday party, her own birthday party, where she recieved plastic horses with glitter in their hair and colouring books of Barbie and past Disney movies. I saw her as a nine-year-old, stealing away to the garage of a male friend's house, where they played "Doctor" in the darkness and giggled together. I saw her cheating on a test in junior high and felt the emotion she felt when her first boyfriend broke up with her, and when she had made the cheerleading team I could feel her happiness and watched her twirl in her skirt and throw her baton. I watched further on and on, inevitably finding the memories of her father dying of cancer, of her brother being accepted to an important school in England, and lastly to her acceptance of a marriage proposal from the boy that was lying no more then six feet away from me with his throat torn out...

Her heart stopped.

I released her, and I watched her gray, dead body fall like a rock onto the grass, and I stared at her in horror. My system with satisfied with her blood, her mind was reeling over how wonderful it had all felt, how the kill and the meal was perfect all around.

But my heart...as I stared at the girl, and remembered her mirage of memories, the good and the bad...something terrible came over me.

I found that I was crying...tears were running down my cheeks. I struggled to my feet and stared down her. She was naked and gray, like a slab of stone that was chipped into the perfect image of a young woman. Her expression was sad and her eyes were empty, like glass without a need for reflection.

I was crying. Hard. As I sobbed I ran, I ran away from her and from the boy that lay not too far from her. Oh gods I had killed them...I had killed them both! Why?

They were going to get married...they were innocents, they were in love...they were going to get married and I murdered them both savagely! I tore open his throat and let him die in pain, and made her fearful as I took her life from her. Those memories were my punishment. No doubt about it.

My lips were shaking and I was crying, and I ran through the dark as fast as I could, not caring at how everything seemed to zoom about me in a blurry gust. I was crying and I felt terrible...I felt the need to rip out my heart and make sure I die. I deserved it...after what I had done.

I had to go home. I had to go home and try to figure this out. So I turned myself in the direction of my apartment and once again ran as fast as I could.

What had I done? What had I done?

And Seto...what had you done to me? What have you done to me?

My apartment was in view, and at no time at all I threw open the door and found myself in the darkness of my living room. I slammed the door shut and fell back against it. My tears were streaming and my heart felt heavy. I pulled my knees up and buried my face in my hands. Gods what had I done? What had I become?

Inside me came the questions...Seto...Seto what have you done to me? What have you done to make me this way? And why?

All around me came a cascading wave of disturbing sounds. I could hear them both scream all around me, or was it inside me? Was it inside my head? And I could hear her crying when I murdered her financee.

My hands buried themselves in my hair as though forcing me to pull it all out in my frustration and sadness. The screams and what sounded like me in my animalistic fury, like a predator closing in for the kill upon a weakened, frightened, helpless prey...

And footsteps...

Footsteps thundered all around me, inside my head and outside. A wave of a certain scent hit my nostrils and alerted each of my senses. I stilled for a moment, I felt like I was shaking. I raised my eyes and searched the darkness, but my tears had clouded my gaze.

When the tears splashed away I was greeted with a pair of sapphire blues that had made themselves very, very familiar to me. I wanted to scowl but I didn't dare. I wanted to scream but my throat was so dry. I felt my fists clench and unclench, and a knot twist and turn in my stomach.

Seto stood there, in my living room just a few yards away. He was dark, as he always was, his clothes were black as midnight and his hair melted into the dark air. But his face and his eyes, so luminent that you could see them even if you were blind. The sapphire eyes, for what seemed to be only a moment, were filled with a kind of sadness. A kind of unwanted remorse.

"Seto..." I murmured, but it came out as a sort of growl, an unwelcome snarl. But I had never intended it to be. If nothing else I was happy to see him...but there was a sort of horror that flooded over me...a realization at what had happened a few nights ago when he had last been here.

I struggled to stand to my feet, and he watched me. Concern was written on his features but I guess I overlooked them. I stared at him with my eyes wide and my lips trembling. I wanted to do so many things. I wanted to hug him and feel him wrap me in his warmth and power. I wanted to strike him and be furious with him for gods knows what reason. But I did neither, and all I did was look at him like a lost child.

He took a step forward, his eyes were brighter as they moved. "Puppy..." he murmured, barely audible, but it felt so wonderful to hear him say as much.

I don't know what happened, but in a second I found myself within his arms and it was a feeling warmer than anything I had ever experienced before. He gripped me tightly, more than he had ever done in the past, like he was truly happy to see me, or he was trying to suffocate me. I felt his hands go up and wove themselves in my hair, and I pressed myself into him, soaking up his warmth, cherishing this undead embrace.

"Oh gods Seto...what have you done to me?" I whispered, and now I wasn't angry. I didn't feel angry with him anymore.

He seemed to hold me tighter, and pressed his cheek against my hair. "Shh...Jou. I've given you...a new life."

I opened my eyes as I heard him say this to me. A realization swept over me within an instant. I gasped slightly, when I realized that he had turned me. He had given me a "new life"...and that new life was one of...a vampire.

It all made sense now...the change in my appearance, the thirst for blood, the speed, the hightened senses...it all made so much sense now!

Me, a vampire...it was almost too...unreal to be true. I was a vampire. I really was.

Seto had made me a vampire...

I heard him muse against my head deep within his throat. "Yes Jou...I've given you the kiss of death and filled you with eternal life...and..." he seemed to hesitate. I knew what he was going to say next, but I waited to hear him say it. "We are bound, Jou...for eternity."

I pulled from his embrace and stared up at him. For once the fire in his eyes seemed to shine with happiness, and his lips were pulled into an adoring smile. I wanted to cry on the spot, break down and sob into his chest, and let him comfort me like I knew he would. The thought of being bound to Seto...the thought that he wanted it this way, that he had done it...the idea that now I would always be with Seto, no matter what...until the end of time...

It didn't matter anymore...the feeling of anguish and confusion...nothing in my heart hurt anymore, nothing in my head was objecting anymore. My body was slowly releasing itself to the knowledge that I had become a member of an undead race...and I would be with Seto...

Leaning up on my tip toes, I closed my eyes and pressed my lips to his. I could feel his surprise but it quickly gave away, and soon he was kissing me back. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and let him hold me tightly and we savagely assaulted each other's mouths. It was wonderful...this passion, this feeling, this sense of feeling whole. I could feel my blood burning, it was responding to being so near to Seto's blood, I knew it...my body ached with desire for him. I wanted him, all of him, and now I had him.

We broke the kiss, I gasped just lightly, and grinned as Seto ran his fingertip over my bottom lip. I couldn't believe this...this slaave I felt for him. This attachment, this yearning, this wanting to be his, to be with him always. And now we would be together. Always.

"Seto...my blood is burning..." I don't know why I said it right then, but a sort of discomfort clouded over me...the feeling of hunger. I felt...I wanted more...the girl hadn't been enough...I wanted, needed more!

Seto regarded this for a moment, and then he nodded with a tiny smile. He took my hand, something he had never done before, and led me out of the apartment. I knew we were going somewhere to find someone to feed on...that's what we would be doing now...feeding together. Doing everything together.

As soon as I closed the door to the apartment we went rushing off into the night together, like a frenzied young couple on the prowl for nightlife. We were dancing along the wind like leaves caught in an updraft, spirits that haunted the evening air. The world was a fantasy blur to our eyes, the lights and sounds were magnificent.

This life...this new life...it was amazing, and I was a part of it. And I was with Seto. Something in my head wouldn't understand that I no longer had anything to worry about. I would never be lonely, I would never go hungry...I had power. Oh, this was too much! I had blood that burned of fire, and senses hightened to incredible lengths.

I had power, and I had Seto.


A/N: Sorry about the delay, guys. There was a death in the family right after Christmas and I couldn't do much at the time. I also apologize about the shortness. The chapters from here on end will be longer, action-packed, and filled with nyummy yaoi goodness!