It's been a couple of weeks since I had my duel with Hunter, and things are starting to become routine. Not that I mind, in fact I much prefer things ordered and neat so I don't get confused or accidently do something wrong.
"Hey Azure, have you done that homework Dr Crowler set us?" Jasmine asks me as I sit next to them in the common room of the dorm.
"Yeah, do you guys need some help with it?" I ask, looking at Jasmine and Mindy with an accusatory stare. They crumble slightly under my gaze before I let out a light chuckle, before leaning over to see the sheet.
"Don't worry guys, this particular piece of work is a lot harder than usual, I mean it's way beyond anything he taught us. Maybe Dr Crowler wanted to find yet another reason to deal out detentions." I say to them. After helping them with what I can, I go to my room and try to finish reading the latest book I got from the library. I look over at the clock once I've finished, and find it to be almost midnight. I pull my jacket on to shield me from the steely night, and start climbing down the pipe.
Suddenly, I hear light pattering footsteps and turn to find the source of the noise. The only person I know to be out at this time is Zane, and he never makes a sound, and never runs. I creep round the corner, and to my surprise, find Alexis scurrying across the yard cautiously, unaware of my gaze. She's heading to the forest. That is not exactly a pleasant place to be at night, and I don't want her to get hurt. I take out my custom-made duel disk and in its smaller form call Zane.
"Azure?" He answers.
"Hey, Zane, I may not come tonight. I… Alexis has left the dorm, and I don't want her to get caught or worse." I explain stutteringly.
"Okay. That may be good actually, Dr Crowler's at the port, and though we'd get away with it, I'd prefer not to get caught ourselves." He tells me, and my eyes widen.
"I wonder why he's there… anyway, I better go before I lose Alexis. Have a nice night." I mumble, blushing even though he isn't here.
"Good night Azure. Be careful." We cease the call, and I look over to where Alexis had gone. Knowing exactly how to follow without setting off any alarms of any sort, or being seen, I follow at a faster pace. I find it quite easy to follow her, as she doesn't look back often at all. I follow at a safe distance, and it's so dark, even if she did turn round in time to see me, she still wouldn't be able to.
I follow her through the trees, and suddenly a large structure comes into view, dark greys blurring. I notice the windows are all smashed, and the only way I could describe it is as run down as anything could possibly get. Hang on…
"The Abandoned Dorm." I murmur in realisation, and my eyes find Alexis placing a delicate rose by the broken gate. She says something, but I don't hear. She probably wants to be alone. At least I now know she's safe, and I'm sure she can get back unharmed. I turn away and start walking back to the girl's dorm, ready to get some sleep. After walking nearly half way back, I hear a shrill scream in the distance. I turn and realise it came from exactly where I left Alexis. My heart rate quickens.
What if she's hurt? What if she's in danger? What if she went into the Abandoned Dorm? The questions continue to appear in my head, as I start running back to the abandoned dorm.
As I'm running, I look around suddenly slightly afraid of the dark forest, and think that I should let someone know we were here right? In case something's happened? Thank God he picks up.
"Azure?"
"Zane!" I breath, my breath still ragged from running. "I followed Alexis, and she's at the Abandoned dorm, and I turned back because I thought she'd be fine but then there was this scream, and I have to find her and-"
"Azure!" He says sharply, and I stop to listen. "You're at the Abandoned dorm? Don't go in Azure, it's dangerous, you don't know what could be in there-"
"I have to Zane! If Alexis is in there hurt or in danger, I have to-" The connection starts to break as I hear Zane's words blurring out.
"Don't…dang…no…fe…ease…" The connection completely ceases as I find myself in front of the Abandoned Dorm once more. Mustering up all the courage I have in me, I enter.
I look through the first large room I get to, and the walls are cracked and dull parts covered by pictures and strange symbols. I recognise them! Aren't they the millennium items? I face yet another wall, and upon it sits a dusty portrait of a boy in white obelisk blue uniform. He looks familiar to me, his features are trying to click something within me. It must be Alexis' brother. I take the picture off the wall, and carry on through the halls.
"No Way! You forgot about my face-down card, mirror gate!" I suddenly hear a familiar voice coming from further down, Jaden's voice. I start rushing towards the sound, the sound of a duel.
"Well that stinks." Just as I rush in, I see Avion being destroyed on Jaden's field.
"Jaden!" I say in surprise. When did he get here?
"Azure!" I hear Syrus and turn my head to see him and Chumley watching the duel.
"Who is that guy?" I ask as I approach them.
"We don't know! He just randomly showed up! He has Alexis in a coffin over there! Jaden's now duelling him in what he called a "shadow duel" to get her back!" Chumley explains, and my eyes widen as I search for the direction Syrus had pointed. Not paying attention to the duel before me, I bring out my duel disk.
"Adynn, come out!" I say, and his form appears next to me. I run over to where Alexis is hidden as the duel continues.
"Now the Shadow Games have truly begun!" I hear the man in black metal say, and am cast backwards onto the floor by the light from what looks like a millennium item.
"You can't hide from me girl, your monster won't save you!" He almost growls as Adynn stands in front of me to shield me from the light.
Azure, we won't be able to save, or even get to Alexis! We must let Jaden fight this for us.
Adynn exclaims in my head and I frown with worry. Okay, I tell Adynn. Adynn forms a shield around us, and though I can see, the sound is blocked out.
"Thank you Adynn. What's happening to them… can I see through Jaden?" I say, my eyes widening as I see a gap in Jaden's torso.
"It's that millennium item, it's doing something. I'd say it's inducing the shadow games, as that is what it looks like." Adynn replies gently.
"Shadow Games? Isn't that what Yugi…" I drift off.
"Yes. But it doesn't feel the same. Not at all. It doesn't feel as it did last I witnessed one."
I watch in silence as I watch Jaden's thunder giant get destroyed. What rotten luck, but Jaden will pull through, he always does, right?! Jaden continues to lose life points, but holds in there with his handy spell and trap cards, and even manages to destroy his opponents monster before they're resurrected. Then, just after Jaden had paid a hefty toll to his life points, I smile as flamed wingman appears and attacks the opponent. The black metallic man then brings out an even stronger monster however, and I begin to worry again for Jaden. Maybe in circumstances such as this, Jaden won't be able to do his best?! I'm scared for him now, as more and more of him starts disappearing!
I watch and call out Jaden's name as he collapses on the floor. What's wrong with him? What's that guy doing to him? I watch suddenly though, as Jaden rises from his feet, and manages to destroy the field spell in play. The room becomes a large stone hall, and Jaden then throws a card directly into the millennium item, causing it to crack through the eye.
"A trick! It was all a trick! That fake millennium item must have been making it look like Jaden was disappearing!" I say to Adynn, and he stands.
"It appears so. Perhaps that was why I found it so easy to block out the fake shadows." He murmurs and I raise my eyebrows at him.
Then, out of the blue light shines from all around, creating an eye in the middle of the battlefield.
"Adynn, what is that? Can it be more theatrics?" I ask frowning.
"Wait a minute, there's something not right here, this can't be right." He says, gravely serious once again. Then, Jaden is covered by blue-black smoke, so we can't see anymore. Adynn releases the shield around us, and I run over to Syrus and Chumley.
"Guys, what on earth is happening?" I say as I reach them.
"Jaden! How can he be gone?" Syrus whines.
"This can't actually be a shadow game? Syrus, you're just letting those stories get to you." Chumley replies, but his voice is wobbling. We watch anticipating the end of the duel, and I cry out as I see Jaden stick his head out of the mist.
"Jaden!" Syrus yelps.
"Are you okay?" Chumley asks, completing the pair.
"Huh?" He says. "Never better guys!"
"What happened in there?" I ask adamantly. Then, we hear a spark of electricity, and Adynn, still beside me blocks us from the smoke, getting ever so smaller and smaller. It bursts in the air, disappearing into nothing, and we look around in wonder.
"Thank you Adynn." I say, and put him away back in my extra deck.
"Awesome! I wonder what he does for an encore! Talk about a magic trick!" Jaden says, and I stare at him.
"Jaden, you do realise that wasn't-" I stop as I see Alexis moving in her unconscious state, and rush over to her.
"Guys, help me get her up and out of here. This place is giving me the creeps." I say, almost shuddering.
Once out, we set Alexis down on the grass and I shake her gently.
"Well well, good morning sleep head!" Jaden says as she awakes.
"Where am I?" She says as the first thing enters her head, and I smile gently.
"The old dorm." I tell her.
"What are you doing here?" He asks all of us.
"Hold on, what kind of thank you was that?" Jaden says, and I glare at him lightly. "We're here because we had to find the bad guy, win the duel, and rescue the damsel in distress!"
"He's exaggerating." I say, not wanting to worry her. I'm sure she's gone through enough tonight.
"I remember a strange man snatching me!" She says.
"Oh yeah, we found this!" Jaden says, handing Alexis her card.
"Oh, and I picked this up as well." I say, handing her the picture of her brother.
"My brother? This is the first trace of him I've seen in a while!" She exclaims. I smile warmly.
"I knew you'd want it." I tell her.
"How did you-" I know she's about to ask me how I knew, luckily Jaden interrupts.
"Uh-oh. We better get back before they notice we were gone." Jaden says as the sun rises.
"Yeah, bye Alexis, Azure!" Syrus says.
"Yeah, later!" Chumley adds.
"See you in class!" Jaden says lastly, before they turn to leave. "Oh, and if anyone asks, we were never here!"
"Typical Jaden. We should get back. It'll take more than one cup of coffee for me to wash this night out." I say, before pulling her to run back to the girls dorm.
"So when did you get here?" Alexis asks after a few moments.
"I was outside for some fresh air because couldn't sleep for some unknown reason, and I heard you scream." I say, an excuse forming in my head straight away. "I didn't know it was you at the time, but I thought I should check it out."
"And then you found all that." Alexis finishes for me.
"Yep. I arrived just after Jaden started duelling I think, that guy was seriously creepy." I say, frowning. "Were you okay, did he hurt you or anything?"
"Yeah, I mean after he put me in some creepy coffin. It was just dark, and that doesn't really scare me. It was a little like sleeping, but, well I'm not really sure." She says, forehead creasing as she tries to explain.
"As long as you got out okay, I'm sure there was nothing to worry about." I say as we get back to the school grounds.
Alexis yawns and I can see her eyelids already fluttering close.
"What a night, I'm so glad we don't have anything tomorrow… I mean today… so tired…" She yawns once again, and I lead her back to the girls dorm by her arm. As we get to the entrance to the dorm, a figure catches my eye from afar. I turn my head and look properly, and see Zane staring at us, before turning away, to what I'm guessing is the boys dorm.
"Alexis, just go up to your room and go to sleep, okay? I'm just going to get a drink." I say, pushing her forward slightly, urging her into the dorm.
"Okay…" She yawns once more. "Sleep well Azure…" She mumbles her way up the stairs, and after she disappears through the doors at the top, I hurry back out. I slip my way to the obelisk blue boy's dorm, but as I begin to head to the front doors, I see some crazy people walking out, freshly awoken. Honestly, I know I wake up at six, but five? I look around and remember correctly that Zane's room has a balcony, and so head around the side as sneakily as I can to look along the windows. Finally, as I reach the final side, I see Zane looking out pensive, until his gaze turns towards me as I make my way to the tree right by his balcony.
"Azure." He says in acknowledgement. His brow creases as I take a step up onto the first branches, before climbing my way across the limbs of the tree to the side of the balcony. I place a hand down on the railing and I feel Zane's hands guide me down onto the floor before I lean into him.
"Please don't do that again." I feel him whisper lightly, almost as if he were embarrassed asking. I look up.
"Hmm?" I fold my arms around him.
"Leaving me with a broken phone call before running into the forest at night after hearing a scream doesn't put me in a particularly comfortable position Azure." He says softly. "What happened?"
"She was there to be where her brother had been… at a guess. But there was a man, dressed in black with these metal attachments all over him, who must've taken her, hence the scream I heard." I say as he leads me indoors. "I'm not sure how Jaden, Syrus-"Zane tenses. "- and Chumley got there, but when I got back to the old dorm Jaden was duelling the man who had Alexis. The man said… he said it was a shadow duel."
"Shadow Duel? Like with Yugi Moto?" He asks and I nod, before telling him the rest of the story.
"…by the end, though Jaden had exposed it as a fake, Adynn told me that it felt just as a Shadow Duel felt. I don't understand, at first it wasn't but then, as he started to lose it was?" I question my own thoughts.
"It wouldn't surprise me if something actually happened down there. The students who stayed there were rather… obsessed with the millennium items." Zane tells me. "But you don't need to worry about it Azure, you're safe and that gladdens me."
I nod and we share a smile before my mouth opens into a yawn.
"Come on, you should get some sleep." He says to me and I nod hazily, my eyes half-lidded to sleep.
"Did you stay up till now as well? Zane you should have slept." I say as I take in his heavy under eye circles. He chuckles lightly.
"Don't you get it? Like I would've slept after you left me with that message." He mumbles, his cheeks tinging pink as he speaks. I'm left with no words as he peels my coat from my arms as I yawn once again.
"Just sleep here, lucky it's a Saturday." He murmurs as he brings me to the side of his bed, pushing the covers over.
"Mmhmm… I'm so tired…" I say, my eyes drifting close as he lays me down comfortably, the days of few hours of sleep piling up on me. As I curl up in the covers, I'm barely aware of Zane going into his bathroom briefly before returning in a loose t-shirt and shorts. I also pretend not to notice when he climbs in next to me, and I try to keep my breathing regular.
Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Considering how tired I am, right now I am a little too aware of the situation. It's not that I don't like being this close to Zane, I really actually maybe quite like it. But what the fuck do I do now? My thoughts are silenced however when his arm drapes over me, and I feel a soft breath on my ear.
"Go to sleep Azure, I'm sure you need more sleep than I do." Zane murmurs, and slowly I relax into his embrace, eventually curling into him, drifting to sleep faster than ever.
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