a/n

I am changing the story line a weeeee bit from the original story arc. I want my character to be a little older and more mature, so she is not in high school anymore. She is 18 and working a real job. Yugi and co. are still in high school but are in their senior years so they are older as well (17-18), Yami Yugi is 3018 for reference if you care about ages. More references: this takes place in modern time (obvi) and is between Kaiba's second tournament and the world of the pharaoh's memories. OKAY LET'S GO

Chapter One – The Chain

Domino City, Japan

Present Day

"My love, don't leave me.

Stay with me forever.

You're my other half.

You have my heart."

The sunrays streamed from my window on to my face when I woke up. There it was… that bizarre dream again. That voice was almost haunting… I couldn't tell if it belonged to a male or female. But I could tell, whoever it was, was clearly in pain.

I am no stranger to strange dreams. I've been having them since I was a little girl, but these recent ones… are almost haunting. Like someone is trying to tell me something, warn me. I also couldn't ignore the sudden shift in energy this morning as I rose from my bed to look out the window. Something was going to happen, but what, I was unsure of.

"Anna, time to get up!"

I heard my roommate Abi from the other side of my door, she was usually my alarm clock but as it turns out, I did not need her today. She poked her head through the door, not bothering to knock, "Oh, you're already up." She said, surprisingly.

Unsurprisingly, Abi was already dressed and ready for the day. She was way more of a morning person than I was, I was more of a night owl. Abi had her pin straight blonde hair pulled back in a pony tale and her office work attire on. I sighed seeing how pulled together she looked, almost envious at how beautiful she looked.

"You're going to be late if you don't get dressed now." Abi stated coming into my room. I smiled and got out of bed.

"Are you going to help me get dressed?" I asked, I know she knew that I appreciated her sense of fashion and today was my first day at this new job and I wanted to look impressive. Abi worked at a law firm as an administrative assistant, so she definitely needed to dress up a little more. I was just working at the local museum as an assistant to the chief curator. I would need to dress up but not that much.

This was only a part time gig. I didn't want to do this forever, but the pay was nice for just being out of high school with not a lot of prior experience. Honesty, Abi got me the job through a connection of hers, so I was ever grateful to her.

I really wanted to be a musician and singer; it's been something that I've dreamed about since I could remember. I played gigs at local bars almost every weekend but that wasn't cutting the rent, hence the day job.

Abi went straight to my closet and started shifting through my clothes. I didn't think I had that bad of a sense of style, I just knew that Abi had a better sense. She pulled out a black pencil skirt with a white button up. Simple and sleek. She also brought out some heels, but I told her no way, opting for flats. There was no way that I was standing around in heels all day, it seemed incredibly uncomfortable.

After I was dressed, Abi put me in front of the mirror to get my hair managed. I had thick strawberry blonde hair that went down to midway down my back, if I didn't manage it, especially in the humidity, it would be a total rat's nest. She brushed it out and pulled half if it back in a red ribbon. We decided against makeup, thinking it would be too heavy on my pale skin.

"Okay, you're ready!" Abi stated.

We ate a quick breakfast and made our way to the bus stop to go to work. Abi's law firm was about a block away from the museum so we could commute together, which I was extremely grateful for.

She wished me luck as we separated for the day. I made my way from the bus stop to the busy intersection and crosswalk. I looked at my watch as I made my way to the pristine white building, noting that I was a little early. It was still early in the day and the sun had barely risen over the tall skyscrapers of the city.

The air was a little cool, not too bad for early spring. The flowers in the trees were starting to bloom across the street from where the museum stood, I paused a moment longer to admire the view.

After a few minutes, I decided it was time to actually go inside the building. The museum had a huge staircase leading to the entrance, I made mental note to never wear heels to work because climbing these would hurt like hell in heels.

When I finally made it to the entrance, I was greeted by some security guards, I assumed they were watching for any suspicious activity. I'm sure this museum had a lot of important artifacts located inside so it made since that they would have some kind of security to discourage any thieves.

I made my way into the building, the guards paying no mind to me. I guess I didn't look threatening to them. I found my way to the front desk, while taking in all of the neat architecture and artifacts this part of the museum had to offer. The receptionist saw me, "Hello, how may I help you?"

I returned her smile and responded, "My name is Anna Saito and I am Mr. Tanaka's new assistant."

"Oh, right!" Her brown eyes lit up, "I am Himari Ito, but please call me Himari. I am the receptionist at Domino City Museum." Himari was an older woman, older than me anyway. She looked like she was in her late thirties, maybe early thirties. She had black hair that was pulled into a tight bun and wore a light lilac blouse with a gray skirt and gray heels.

"Right this way, Anna. I will introduce you to the team and Mr. Tanaka." She smiled as she got up from her desk and mad her way to around the front to be beside me. She ushered for me to follow her. We made our way through the Museum, I got to take in some more interesting exhibits including ancient Rome, Mesopotamia, Aztec, Nara and Heian Periods in Japan, and much, much more.

I was led to a back room, where a woman and man greeted us. The woman had beautifully tan skin and dark blue eyes. She looked like she may be Middle Eastern or from somewhere in that region. She wore a long pale garb with black trimmings. The man had salt and pepper black hair, was clearly much older than any of us in the room. He wore a black suit with a gray tie. The room we were in looked like a meeting room, nothing too extravagant."

"Ms. Ishtar, Mr. Tanaka," Himari greeted, "This is Anna Saito. She will be joining our team today as Mr. Tanaka's new assistant."

They both smiled at me, Mr. Tanaka being the first to speak, "It's nice to meet you, Anna. I'm very eager to get started and to get you involved with projects."

I smiled, "I'm excited as well."

Himari spoke up again, "Ishizu and Haruto are the museum's chief curators, they put together and plan all of the exhibits through the museum, as the assistant, you'll help them stay organized."

I listened while Himari explained my job description further. It seemed simple enough: answer phones, organize paperwork, normal office activities.

I tried to ignore the fact that while Himari was speaking to me, Ishizu's gaze never lifted from my form. She was intently staring. I tried not to think anything of it, but it was kind of creepy. I should ask her if something is wrong, I don't want to assume something negatively about her.

Ishizu and Haruto excused us, and Himari showed me to my new office. It wasn't anything fancy, just a desk, chair, phone and computer. She left me to my own devices and to set up my new email and figure their computer system out.

A knock at the door brough me out of my concentration, I looked up and in the doorway was Ishizu. "Hi Ms. Ishtar, you can come in."

"You may call me Ishizu, there's no need for formalities." Her voice was almost as sweet as honey. "Where are you from, Anna? You seem familiar to me."

That must be why she was staring at me, I replied. "I'm from Domino City. You probably recognize me from my friend Abi, she is Mr. Tanaka's niece. That's how I got the interview."

She seemed accept my response, but hesitantly for some reason. "Right, well I'm glad to have you on board. Would you like a tour of the museum?" She offered, kindly.

"I would love to, but I really want to figure out this system. Can we do it tomorrow?"

"Of course, let me know when you're ready." And then she left just as quickly as she had gone.

The day went on, nothing really exciting happened, just your usual first day of work rituals.

Himari came into my office as I was packing up to leave for the day, "You did great today! No crazy mishaps. We'll be able to start you on those projects Haruto mentioned earlier today."

"That sounds great! I'm really eager to learn and to get started." I replied as Himari left the room.

I shut my computer down and got my bag read to go and closed the door to my office. I made my way down the hallway and passed by what looked like an ancient Egyptian exhibit. Curiosity got the better of me and went to look at it. I had a couple of minutes to spear before I met Abi for the bus to take us home.

The exhibit was expertly laid out, curated so that you would not question what you were looking at. There were a couple of sarcophagi, head pieces from kings and queens from long ago.

The two stone tablets hung on the wall are what caught my attention though. They looked positively ancient, with cracks and even some of the hieroglyphics had worn away.

"My love, don't leave me.

Stay with me forever.

You're my other half.

You have my heart."

The same haunting voice in my dream called out to me again, before I could register it, I ran from the exhibit, not wanting to be near it any longer.

I was positive that I experienced some kind of paranormal event. Usually that voice just came in my dreams but now it happened when I was awake… in real life…

I looked back one last time at the exhibit. Some other curious museum goers had gone to check out the stone tablet after I left but I paid them no mind. It was one of the figures on the tablet that caught my attention: those eyes, I had seen those eyes before.

I shook the thought away quickly and exited the museum, eager to get away as quickly as I could.