Chapter Five: Broken Glass
/Emotions become volatile
While my alter ego becomes hostile
Declarations of war
What is it good for…? /
"What did you say?!" demanded Yugioh, freezing in his tracks.
"That I wished Jou-chan would--" catching the meaning of what I had just verbalized, I snapped my mouth closed.
"That's what I thought." whispered the millennium spirit, his teeth grinding together as he spoke.
"No, that's not what I meant! Joey, he--"
"Is who you are fantasizing about while we are making love."
"That's not it, Master! I would never forsake you for someone else during such a precious occasion!"
"Don't lie to me." warned my gloomy counterpart.
"I'm not, I swear! I'm just--"
"I told you to stop your fucking lying!" roared Yami, pushing me off of the mattress. "Quit trying to cover your ass, because there's no way you can!"
Curling my body up into a fetal position, I peered at Pharaoh with huge scared eyes. Never before had he looked so forbidding, so positively dangerous. The horror of the shade claimed his trim structure, enveloping him in a black veil comparable to that of the reaper's. Crossing my arms in front of my chest, I prepared myself for the worst.
/Where to go?
I don't know…
What to do?
Options seem so few…/
"Are you scared, child?" asked Yugioh, cocking his head to the side.
Regarding him with an eerie unblinking gaze, I swallowed my words.
"I just asked you a question, Little One, so I expect an answer."
Opening my mouth, I tried to coax my tongue into coming up with a decent response, but nothing came out. Thoughts, sentences, phrases…all forms of verbal communication hung in suspended animation. Too afraid to whisper a sound, I clamped my lips together in a vow of silence.
Forcing a frustrated sigh from his lungs, the king of Thebes said, "Fine then, have it your way. Your stubborn quietness will only equate to having more penalties for you."
Swinging his legs over the side of the mattress, the enraged millennium spirit bounced off the bed. Lifting one corner of the sheets up, he knelt down on one knee to search the space underneath the crimson colored covers.
"Where the hell is that thing?" growled the ruler of all duels, quickly losing his patience. "I need it now!"
Still gripping the red blankets in terror, I remained glued to where I was. There was no telling what dirty nasty objects Yami was going to use against me this time. My master had an ever-growing arsenal of love toys hidden in his private quarters; items that would make even the worst slave owners vomit. Knives, manacles, sharp animal teeth, human bones, piano wire…those sinister bondage tools were just a few of the marvelous weapons he possessed. Closing my wild imagination down, I clasped my head with trembling hands.
"Ah, so that's where I stuck it." I heard him say in wicked triumph, the cold edge vacant from his present tone. "Right over there behind the chains."
All at once, I recalled an event where Pharaoh had left me tied to the inside of his closet, bound by the very chains that he tossed aside now. He had bolted the door to the tiny clothes area, trapping me within the confines of the gloomy area. Many days had passed before he had finally allowed me to see daylight after that, and the brightness from the rays of the sun nearly blinded me when I saw them once more.
/How should I live?
Is there anything more to give?
When will everything be gone?
Maybe at the end of this song…/
/And he did that to me on one of his good days. / my mind moaned, fearing what he would do to me next. /What now? Since he's more upset than usual, what is he planning? /
"Hikari, do you like our games of restraints?" inquired Yami suddenly, strangely calm and collected at the moment.
Clearing my throat, I uttered, "Please don't hurt me anymore, okay? If you do that much for me, I'll be even better for you next time we make love. I'll never, ever bring up another individual's name in your presence, so long as I live--"
"Oh, I know you'll never do that around me anymore."
"See? Then there's no reason to resume our daily rituals."
"We won't be."
Caught off-guard by his response, I widened my eyes in surprise. Was this the start of some fabulous good luck streak? Were the gods finally tired of watching Pharaoh have his way with me and decided to give me some freedom after all? Whatever the reason for my master's changer of heart, I thanked every star in the heavens for granting me temporary liberation.
"Thank-you! Thank-you so very, very much for your kindness!" I cried, my voice heavy with sincerity. "I promise you won't regret this! Whenever you decide to play with me again, I'll be all rested up and ready to--"
"Witness the suffering of your sweet little crush."
Halting in my list of praises to Yami, I stared straight ahead of myself in frozen shock. The blood was draining from my face, sending arctic shivers up my back as I let the meaning of his statement sink in to my brain.
/He doesn't mean Jou-chan…he can't possibly be talking about my friend…/
"That's not funny." I whispered, hoping that this was just the king of games' idea of a bad joke.
"Whoever said that I was jesting?"
Swallowing the chilly lump of fear in my throat, I turned to face my captor. "You'd better stay away from him, Yami. You'd better just stay the hell away from him."
"Who's going to stop me, someone like you?" countered Pharaoh, his violet orbs dancing with malevolence.
"I will if I have to!"
Malicious snickering ricocheted off the walls in the bedroom. "My, my, aren't we brave?" mocked Yugioh, sitting himself down on the edge of the bed. "Here you are, all bloody and bowed by my hands, and yet you think that you somehow have enough strength to seek out your little comrade and tell him that death is coming. Very valiant, I'll give you that much, my pet. Unfortunately, happy thoughts don't win somebody's independence: only brute force does."
"No! I won't let you take him!" I shouted, struggling to get myself up into an upright position. "I won't let you!"
Flashing me one of his patented sadistic sneers, my slave driver shoved me off the mattress. My poor body plummeted to the floor below, landing with a stomach-wrenching thump. No matter how much I screamed at my small frame to fight back, I knew I had already lost the war. There was nothing left for me to draw on, no special reserves of power for my tiny structure to become rejuvenated by. Nevertheless, I kept trying to get to my feet. Joey's life was at stake, and I wasn't ready to give up on him just yet. I couldn't let Yami have him. I couldn't bear to see someone else go through the same endless hours of brutal torture that I had to live with. No, I won't allow Pharaoh to hurt anyone else, much less my best friend, someone I know and love so well.
Lightly, Yugioh shook his head. "If you can't even save yourself, why would you even bother trying to save someone else?"
Seizing my neck within his death claws, he lifted my head to meet the sight of one of the bed's sturdy wooden legs. I knew what Pharaoh was thinking, what he intended to do with me. The only problem was that I had no way of preventing his devastating action.
"Pleasant dreams, Angel Baby." laughed my master, determined to shatter all of my hopes and prayers by stalking Joey down.
Within seconds, my head was going to collide with the bed post, but there wasn't a thing I could do to stop it from happening. All I could do now was beseech the help of whatever deities were residing in the universe. Maybe there was still someone out there who gave a damn, someone who would act as a guardian angel and destroy all the evil I was surrounded by. My heart is like a beautiful stained glass painting: after someone breaks it one too many times, I have trouble picking up all the pieces and putting them together again…
"That's right, my Pet, you're nothing but a fragile little shard of glass." stated the king of Thebes, grinning in wicked triumph. "All you ever do is shatter on impact, just when you hit ground zero. There's no where left to fall, you've lost it all, and now you belong to me. Well, you'll be completely mine after I eliminate the Prince Charming from your life." amended Yugioh, his expression growing sour with the allusion to Jounouchi. Baring his fangs, he spoke in a low, menacing tone. "You see, Hikari, no one ever takes what's mine. No one. That goes for idiotic smart-mouthed losers like Wheeler. So, if it's Katsuya Jounouchi you want, I think that can be arranged. I hope you don't mind if I'm going to be the one who gets him when everything's said and done."
"N-No…y-you c-can't…" I said weakly, knowing that my Yami would stop at nothing to own me body and soul in the end. Worse yet, he wished to commit the same horrible actions against Joey like he did to me. I couldn't let myself think about that, though. That would cause me to have a classic nervous breakdown.
"Don't worry, I'll let you watch. Who knows, you may even like it."
My forehead crashed into the bed frame, literally making me see stars. Everything went black as I doubled over onto the carpet, holding my mid-section with my tiny arms. All I had to hold on to was myself, so I kept my limbs plastered around my small frame. Glass…something inside of me was crumbling to ashes, falling to pieces like a distorted jigsaw puzzle. Little did I know that the thing that broke was my own heart, the sections of my delicate organ scattering across the floor in millions of directions. With my master off to break the spirit of my best friend and me lying here, totally incapable of moving, I feared that the pretty stained glass painting I so loved and cherished would never be put back together again.
/Feelings never mattered
On pavement blood spattered
Kneeling in dead grass
Hands gripping broken glass/