Chapter 106, everybody! Gotta get back to work on that buffer….
So a chunk of this was actually written up years ago, which means I had to do some polishing. Saying that, if it's kind of rough, that's why. ^^; We're also entering a chunk of chapters where I had written ahead years ago, and now that I've finally gotten to them story-wise they just didn't fit so…old stuff binned, time to rewrite. ^^;
And yes, it's November somewhere. X'D Popcorn on an empty stomach never sat right with me either, so Yami's keeping good company. ;)
Movie this week is Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, which we watched because Kevin Costner. :D And the music at the beginning is the same music used by Disney for their blu-ray advertisements shame on them.
Angiembabe, thanks for the review! Yeah…I wouldn't mind it so much if it had been honest, but the cheating is just blatant and if they get away with it we can kiss any freedoms and integrity goodbye. :( Plus the sore losers turned into sore winners, and then it turns this fic into something too accurate for comfort. :\ But back to the fic—the parents definitely won't be happy if they find out, and…I should explain it later in the fic itself but it's sort of a pocket dimension. The Shadow Realm would definitely be pretty close, though.
References:
Yu-Gi-Oh! © 1996 Kazuki Takahashi
The Nightmare Before Christmas © 1993 Tim Burton
Dharma and Greg © 1997 Dottie Dartland & Chuck Lorre (Greg and his side of the Montgau family)
Criminal Minds © 2005 Jeff Davis (the other side of the Montgau family)
Skulduggery Pleasant © 2007 Derek Landy (the concept of Head Mages, Serpine, Crux, Marr…)
Malice © 2009 Chris Wooding (the mosaics actually show up in the second book, Havoc)
Original characters, + setting © Kineil D. Wicks (myself, not the girl in the story)
"We've been here before," Honda announced after about an hour.
"No we haven't," Jonouchi snapped.
"Yes we have! I recognize that lamp!"
"It's a lamp! There're a million of them!" he spread his arms. "Do you see a squiggle? Huh? Do yah? I tell you, we haven't been here!"
"And I'm telling you we have!"
"And I'm telling the both of you: that's enough," Yami commanded, glancing around. He didn't want to admit it, but he was sharing Honda's opinion: they had been here before.
"I'm with Jo, we haven't been this way," Kels said, pointing. "See? That mosaic is different."
That mosaic. That was where Jonouchi had drawn his squiggle earlier.
Yami turned in a slow circle, paying stricter attention to their surroundings. There were mosaics everywhere—grayscale flecks that formed frightening pictures. They all seemed to have been done by the same person—they all had that same style, that same feel.
That same sense of malice.
Something about the whole thing made all the little hairs on Yami's neck stand on end. "Jonouchi, give me the chalk."
Jonouchi did so. Yami took it—noted that the long stick had been notably reduced—walked over and marked a little "x" on the wall.
He turned and left down the first alley he could find, his friends following—paused shortly after.
"One Mississippi, two Mississippi," Yami counted, then ran back to the patch of wall he had marked. At least, he was sure he had marked it.
There was no "x".
Yami looked all over the wall as his friends returned, fingers hovering over, feeling…something…coming off the mosaics. By the time they had come even with him, he had figured out what was happening.
He pointed at the wall. "The mosaics," he announced. "These mosaics must move—they keep wiping out our marks." They were magic, they had to be—in this magic-less world, it was like raw heat coming off of them—
And as soon as he said it, there was a mad rushing and clattering, like a thousand tiny rat feet running along a chalkboard. The mosaic changed and formed letters, then words…
—Very Clever— it read.
The mosaic began to move again, and Yami felt—no, knew—that it wouldn't stay on the walls in its pursuit.
"Run!" he yelled.
To their credit, his friends didn't dally.
*\*/*
Kineil left after a few hours—to get air, she said.
Teana figured it was just to get away from all this mind-numbing future-reading.
She was currently resting her head on one of the books, telling herself she was getting it through osmosis, debating…come on, come on, it shouldn't be this hard! There had to be something, some trick that would straighten all this out!
Maybe she was hurting herself over nothing. Maybe it was all a flight of fancy. She'd wake up and it'd all go away.
Except it had happened before, and no, it never went away no matter how much she wished it.
Why me? she thought. I moved here to get away from the crazy, what is it about here that made all the possible futures go 'eff this town in particular'?
You know what, you know what, she needed to quit anyway, she was losing the forest for the trees, her brain was throbbing and this was just UGH.
"Um, hi," she heard Yami say. "There's more comfortable pillows. Unless you're trying for osmosis—if that works, let me know how, please."
And ugh. "No, just—resting my eyes," she said, peeling herself off the book. "What time is it?"
"Around lunchtime," Yami declared, sitting on a stack of books and politely ignoring Lil' Stevie bopping around him with interest. "So I was thinking lunch then a movie? Or we could take a walk and I can tell you all about the new Halloween plans I just put through—much better than the sparse stuff we were going to have, oi."
Something deep inside told her that Halloween was going to be bad. "I'd rather skip that holiday, if it's all the same."
"Gasp—why? Just—why?"
"I need more than part of a month to prepare for Christmas, personally."
"We can talk about Christmas starting in November—you know, around discussing Thanksgiving."
"It's November somewhere."
Yami looked at the stack of books she had on the deck. "Ah," he noised. "Doing a bit of light reading?"
"I'm just going to pretend you're being sarcastic," she said, rubbing her eyes.
"Well, in my experience the topics of time travel and alternate dimensions are best approached when you're either drunk or playing a card game and need a distraction. Sometimes both."
"These are more incidents, aren't they?"
"You can't say we're boring."
"I suppose not. By the way, I'm together enough to realize I'm talking to a bird and that's distracting."
"Ah," he noised—there was sort of a swirling movement her sore mind didn't quite want to hook onto, and then Yami was standing next to her. "Say, Kineil didn't happen to come by here, did she? I was hoping to ask her about her friend Jake."
"She was here earlier, but she had to leave when she sprained her frontal lobe."
"I'm pretty certain I've had that injury before," Yami observed, looking the scattering of books over before looking at her. "So? May I rescue you from this strain on your brain?"
She considered it, wondered if she could risk it…how many days could she say well I can afford to let this one slide before she woke up and realized she had missed all opportunities?
But a break sounded wonderful—he was right, she needed it, her head was pounding and the words were swimming and she needed to take at least a little bit to let the information settle.
"Movies, you said?" she asked finally.
He grinned. "Yes." Helped her up, smiled in amusement at Lil' Stevie hopping up to her shoulder. "And lunch—maybe lunch first popcorn on an empty stomach just never sits right with me."
Fair enough—and hopefully enough to get her back on track.
She was not letting any of those bad futures happen—not if she could help it.
*/*\*
Rushing, clattering, till Yami was certain that was the only sound that existed in the world.
And still they ran.
Behind them, the mosaics had built into a wave, crashing through the narrow alleys and chasing them down, inexorable, inevitable, gaining as they reached the edges of their limits—
And then—light up ahead—
They burst out into what was unmistakably a town square, thankfully clear of people.
"Left!" Yami barked.
They ran left, and the wave crashed behind them.
Up ahead, an open door—
"There! Get in!"
They piled in, Kels grabbing Anzu as she tripped, both dashing in, mosaics hot on their heels—
And then Yami was slamming the door, Jonouchi, Honda, and Bakura throwing their weight into it as well, mosaic chips hammering like buckshot—
Then silence.
They stayed where they were, breathing heavily, trembling with fear and fatigue, unsure of where they were….
Yami silently led the group through the building, also mercifully empty.
"What are we looking for?" Kels asked finally, sotto voce.
"We need to find a place to hide, rest, and regroup," Yami said quietly.
They found such a place in what looked like an abandoned balcony converted into storage. It was so high that Jonouchi and Honda's hair brushed against the ceiling of the arching town hall, which looked long unused.
Silently, they found individual hiding spaces and curled down to rest, Yuki curling up against Yami, none of them talking or even glancing at each other.
He deserved that attitude, he felt.
Exhaustion finally stole over the group, him trying to stay awake, keep watch….
But sleep overtook him as well, and he didn't wake until he heard the tolling of bells and an announcement:
"Town meeting tonight!"
