Mari filled two cups of hot chamomile tea and quickly ran back to the kitchen to her heavily distraughted friend. Ami sat with her face in her hands, quietly sobbing. Mari sat in the other chair and gently rubbed Ami's back. Yugi shook his head, feeling heavy pity on his cousin. He wasn't sure how they were related, Grandpa could never keep the story straight. Grandpa seemed to recall mostly about one of their relatives being Ami's mother, who was adopted into the family as a child. Sometime after Ami's mother odd disappearance, Ami was left at the Game Shop's door step. Yugi was thrilled when Grandpa took her in, it was nice to have another person in the store his age to talk to.
Then things changed after Yugi married Mari and Kaiba married Ami; Yugi and Kaiba were focused on being men of business, Ami and Mari made their lives about being a business man's wife and raising their children. They arranged play dates with Tony and Leigha just about every week, while Ami and Mari would sit in the dinning room drinking tea and gossiping about the changing world. As the children grew older, it became more let's-duel date for the kids, and Mari and Ami started making less frequent girl dates. Somehow, Tony and Leigha managed to remain close friends.
With a reassuring smirk from Mari, Yugi turned around and headed back to the store room where his friends stood in a small circle. He was amazed Joey and Duke could pull themselves away long enough to meet up, even if they had to bring their children along. In a way, it was nostalgic. Just like their teenage days, staring with envy at the cards they wished they could buy, challenging each other to duels, drinking soda's and eating bags full of chips. Their children were hanging out upstairs in Tony's room, no doubt figuring out how to help find their friends.
"What an odd time for us all to come back together, heh?" Tristan sat down in one of the chairs with his unopened soda in hand. The temptation to drink another soda was high, even though he limited himself to two a day, and he already drank three.
"Yeah, when a couple of kids go missing." Joey added, carrying a sleeping Jed in a dark purple blanket.
Yugi sat down, staring at his cup of hot tea, wondering where the three girl's would have gone. "Not just any kids, Joey, one is Kaiba's daughter. My niece."
Joey gulped, guilt crossed his tired face. "Sorry, Yug, didn't mean anything like that. It's just...taking Kaiba's daughter doesn't surprise me all that much. Kaiba still has a lot of enemies, this is probably some stupid ransom. What I don't get, is why would anyone take Janny and Moriah? No offense to Marik and Bakura, but they're no Kaiba's. They don't have money to waste."
"I just can't really see who else beside's Pegasus would take Leigha Kaiba." Tea mentioned, sitting down at one of the chairs and straightened out her pink blouse. Yawning, she dreaded the outfit she picked for herself. A pink blouse with a denim skirt, with white socks and white tennis shoes was not the statement she wanted to make to new students. But, thanks to various calls in the middle of the night from her friends and clients, she hardly slept a wink.
"It could be anyone nowadays, and besides, Pegasus has stopped bothering us for years except for a video he sent my son."
"A video, Yug?" Joey asked, tilting his head.
"Yeah, and I can't tell if he's up to his old tricks." Yugi answered, remembering the day Tony received a 'present' from Pegasus. "A few years ago, he gave Tony a bracelet, a golden one with hieroglyphics meaning 'Fair Prince'. Haven't heard from him since." Then Yugi remembered. "the next day at school, Toni saw Janice wearing a golden glove with the inscription of 'Demon' on it."
"Demon? That's a bit dark." Tea commented, then she remembered the island which seemed like a life time ago. The spirit inside Bakura's millennium ring had saved them from being sent into the Shadow Realm, and managed to erase their memories of the event. "I think he might remember Bakura from our time on the island. But how could he know who Moriah is?"
"Not sure. The police are already heading out to Pegasus' place anyway, boat or airplane, whatever Kaiba paid for." Yugi informed, sitting between to Joey and Duke. "They, also, spoke to Toni before he came home from school today. Poor kid thought he was in trouble."
"Some punks at school said my oldest boy had a thing with Janny." Duke informed, fidgeting with the dice in his hand. "I mean, yeah, CJ has said something, but it's just a teenage boy thing. But the police consider him a suspect. He's just a kid, how could he be suspected of anything?"
"Yeah, did the same with my girls, even Phoebe was being questioned. She's not even in the same school!" Joey shouted loud enough that Jed woke and began to fuss. Groaning in annoyance, Joey bounced Jed up and down gently and rubbed his back, hoping he would go back to sleep. "No doubt this was Kaiba's idea. Kris!" Joey shouted towards the stairs, which seemed to add to Jed's screams. Phoebe, Gael and Krissie ran around the corner, both reaching for their baby brother. Gael scooped him into her arms and dashed up the stairs with her sisters closely behind. "What I, also, don't get is how could Kaiba's girl be friends with Moriah or Janny? No offense to them, but I'd thought she'd deem herself above them."
"Yeah, it is kinda odd." Tristan commented, remembering the last gym class he had with the three girls. The three girl's stood in a corner, pretending they were a team. "The three of them have been famous for skipping a couple of classes around the end of the day. That's what I hear around the academy lately."
"Wait, Leigha Kaiba skipping class? Now that's something you see every day." Joey joked, taking a long drink of soda.
"She still get's an A in all her classes, even the one's she missed." Tristan added, wondering if Kaiba had anything to do with her grades. "Not only is she smart, she's pretty athletic. I oughta know, she's in my gym class. Same with Janny and Moriah, smart girls, do really good in class, but they enjoy skipping gym class a lot." He chuckled at a memory. "Not sure about Marik, but Bakura was pretty much an outcast. Janny was like that her freshmen year, but ever since she teamed up with Leigha and Moriah on the mile run, she's come out of her shell a little bit."
"Maybe they met up with someone from their classes, I mean the dance classes and others like that." Yugi spoke, bringing the subject from previous gym classes. "Both Marik and Bakura are struggling in their marriages. Marik said he and Rikki are on the edge of separating, Bakura and Mead have started going through a divorce. Both of them have a couple of more kids besides their daughters. They basically threw both girls into after school programs so they could ignore the troubles at home."
"It's gotta be stressful on them." Tea commented, her heart growing heavy. Moriah and Leigha have taken lessons at her dance studio years before. They were intently focused on the movements and the stretch's, however, they never hung around with the other girl's unless it was Leigha who rarely attended. "Maybe they just ran away."
Yugi shook his head, taking a sip of his warm tea. "I don't see Leigha running away, she's fine at home. Maybe Moriah and Janice. No offense to Bakura or Marik, but I wouldn't blame them for wanting a little time to themselves."
Tea jumped, startled to hear her phone ringing loudly. Quickly, she grabbed it and flipped it open. She sighed reading a text from one of her students wanting to know when the next class was, and she was infamous for forgetting times and days.
"Jeez, Tea, can't get a break?" Yugi joked, smiling.
"Hey, I've working on a Dance Studio ever since you guys started having kids."
This is wrong, very wrong. Janice thought to herself, walking down the uptown part of Domino City, the 'dark outskirts' as the kids at the academy called it. Crowds of people gathered around alley ways, blocking doorways of abandoned buildings, car's zoomed by carelessly and not minding pedestrians. Jocks dressed in leather jackets, modern gangster's struggled to keep their pants on their waist, traded their boxes of cigarettes and began smoking, a couple of girls dressed in such tight and gaudy outfits that even Gael would scream at. Janice wrapped her arms around herself, and kept her head down, keeping a safe distance behind Moriah.
"All distractions are gone."
Janice froze, Moriah's voice was much deeper and darker. Moriah turned to face Janice, a dark shadow casted over her golden eyes, making them appear sinister and malicious. Janice lowered her head, pretending to not notice. Both girl's were fully aware of their 'alter ego's'. Moriah called her's Nala, Janice's was Kari. Whenever one spirit took over one girl's mind, the other followed. It was near impossible to fight back, dark thought's corroded their mind's, making it almost too easy for the spirits. The experience was never pleasant. It was like being treated as a robot; another voice was telling you what to do, they would randomly take over their mind, and both of them would suffer amnesia afterwards.
"Oh don't act so surprise, Kari." Nala said harshly, crossing her thin tan arms.
"My name is Janice." Janice blinked hard, focusing on her neon blue shoes. Her head felt like it was swelling, her mother's harsh word's echoed in her mind, her skin grew cold and clammy.
"Stop with this nonsense and take over the girl's mind already!"
Let me loose, girl!
Janice wrapped her arms around herself, digging her nails into her arms, redirecting her attention to the slowly burning pain. Even with her eyes shut tightly, her body still wobbled side to side, her head began to feel over heated, her teeth grinded together tightly to where she expected one of them to break. The spirit fought her fiercely, refusing to give in. The longer she fought, the more darker memories appeared in her mind's eye.
Her mother slapping her father, her father slowly falling into depression and his health was failing, one of the twins ran away long enough for the parents to call the police, the stress's of trying to be the best in the extra curricular activities.
It's useless, Janice thought to herself, giving in to the spirit's control.
Janice inhaled slowly, and a sly smile crossed her lips.
"Impatient, aren't we, Nala?"
Nala scoffed, rolling her eyes, placing her hands on her thin hips, the double black studded belt bounced to the other side. "As I just said, we have gotten rid of the major distractions in their lives. Things are coming together quiet nicely."
"It took over two years, but thanks to us, we have broken their bonds." Kari dropped the back pack on the ground and brushed her hair behind her ear. "Little Janny's been relying on me for support with her family dilemmas, she still sees me as her friend. Safe to assume the Ishtar girl is doing the same with you?"
A proud smile crossed Nala's lips, reminiscing her past devious plans that was slowly destroying the Istar family. "I am showing her what she will become in her dreams. She was afraid at first, but now she's immune to it. Her fool of a father believes it to be simple night terrors, and that petty medicine he forces her to take does nothing. She has nearly grown accustomed to these nightmares, I merely show her slight mercy by showing her less cold, and heartless dreams. To add to my success, she doesn't trust anyone at home. Not even her dear father."
"These girls are so easy to manipulate, dark thoughts swirled in their minds before we arrived." Kari reminiscence the last few years of being the 'voice of reason' in Janice's ear. It was Kari's idea for her to begin taking all the extra classes, and extra curricular activities. And after revealing to Mead some of Bakura's sins, and made their lives complicated, it was easy as slicing pie for Kari to take over Janice's mind. "And now with the Kaiba girl gone, this will be a walk in the park. Is it time to begin our plan then?"
A soft thunder caught their attention. A cold wind brushed through Nala's leather jacket and a rain drop fell on Kari's face. Nala looked up at the darkened sky; the sun was about to set, but the sky threatened storms. Thinking about the world's sky never showing light again, the sun hidden behind the black cloud brought an excited smile to her face. "This world will become dark, swallowed by shadows and the minds of idiotic fools will be in my control."
"Our control, fool."
"Yes, that is what I meant."