As promised, here is the second chapter for today. Sorry if it is hastily edited and a bit rough, but I wanted to keep my promise to post two chapters.
Warning: sex -not graphic. Some swearing.
Chapter 3.
Swarm.
Arriving home with their groceries, Yugi put the first two bags just inside the front door.
"You go and start unpacking the cold stuff. I'll get the rest of the bags from the car," he said.
Nodding, Anzu picked the bags up from the hallway and took them through to the kitchen.
As Yugi lifted out the remaining bags and slammed the boot of the car shut, he glanced across at the house next door. An elderly woman was watching from her sitting room window. As soon as she realised he had spotted her she moved away from the window.
Picking up the bags, Yugi was about to walk into the house when the woman came outside. "Hello," she said, looking sheepish. "I hope you didn't think I was being a nosy neighbour?"
Always good natured, Yugi smiled disarmingly. "Of course not! I'm Yugi Muto. We moved in yesterday. My wife Anzu is inside putting the shopping away."
"Nice to meet you, Muto san," she said, bowing.
"Likewise," he replied, bowing his head lightly.
His easy going manner putting her at ease, her posture relaxed a little. "I'm Mrs Yoshida." And then her posture stiffened. "You're like him, you know."
Yugi was confused. "Like who?"
"The young man who used to live here, with the Ishtars."
Now Yugi was even more confused. "Really?!" He laughed awkwardly.
"They were from Egypt. Doctor Ishtar was a surgeon at Domino hospital. But that was a long time ago."
"Oh! Okay," said Yugi, now completely baffled. "How long ago exactly? I know the house has been empty for two years."
Mrs Yoshida looked thoughtful as she counted back the years in her head. "It must have been twenty five years. People have come and gone since then, but none stay. They say…." she thought better of it. "I have a pan of water on to boil. I should go and check it. Nice to meet you." She bowed again and backed away.
"Nice to meet you, Mrs Yoshida," Yugi said, as she turned and scurried indoors.
Perplexed by what he thought she was avoiding telling him, he picked up his shopping bags and carried them inside.
"These are the last bags," he said, putting the two heavy carrier bags full of groceries on the floor.
"Don't put them on the floor!" Anzu shrieked. "I haven't had chance to disinfect yet!"
Frowning, Yugi put them on the table with the other bags.
"Sorry!" said Anzu, "I didn't mean to yell at you. I hope the pest control people find where that rat came in," she said. "Do you know, rats have weak bladders and pee constantly?! I keep imagining their pee on everything."
Yugi pulled a face. He really did not want to think about rat pee. "I just met our neighbour, Mrs Yoshida," Yugi said, changing the subject.
Anzu looked intrigued. "Oh! What's she like?"
"In her seventies, probably. She seemed nice." He decided not to mention the other things she had said.
"It's good to have nice neighbours. I hope the other neighbours are nice, too," Anzu said brightly.
"We should invite them round once we get the house straight," said Yugi.
"Actually," said Anzu, cagily. "About getting the house straight… I know we agreed to leave the kitchen for a few months, but after what happened with the rat I would like to make replacing it a priority."
Yugi raised an eyebrow. "I don't want us to over spend," he said, cautiously. "If we replace the kitchen now the bathroom will have to wait for a few months."
Anzu looked disappointed. "But that bathroom is awful!"
"I know it is. But I worked out our budget, and you know we can't afford to do everything all at once," he said assertively.
Anzu wasn't giving up easily. "But you didn't factor in my money, Yugi! Don't forget, I have a theatre contract starting next month, and it runs into the new year."
"We already discussed your income, and you know why I didn't include it." Anzu's income as a dancer was erratic, and there were times when she was out of work or between jobs and had to take on temporary work. "We agreed that any money you do earn we will save for emergencies?" he added.
"Well, I think the kitchen's an emergency!" she said adamantly. "You should stop worrying about money, Yugi. If you duel in a tournament the prize money alone would pay for new kitchen!"
"Yes. But what if I don't win?" he said, raising his eyebrows at her.
She slapped him teasingly on the shoulder. "You always win."
"You're not giving up, are you?" he said, sighing.
"Nope!" She grinned triumphantly when she could see he was wavering in his argument.
"Okay," he conceded. "Just don't choose anything too expensive, okay?"
Celebrating her victory Anzu jumped up and down, grinning like the cat that got the cream. "I won't!" she said chirpily. "If we need extra money I can always do a bit of teaching." she said, hugging him and giving him a playful peck on the lips. "I love you. And I love our new home. I want everything to be perfect for when we start a family." She kissed him again, a little more lovingly this time.
Forgetting about their finances, Yugi smiled into the kiss, imagining mini versions of himself and Anzu running around. "Do you want to practice starting a family now?" he asked saucily, when they came up for air.
"We should finish putting the shopping away first," she said, trying to pull away, but he held onto her.
"It can wait,"
She wriggled free from his grip. "What if the rat comes back?"
"It won't. It's dead." He grinned, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards himself.
Pulling her hand free, Anzu rolled her eyes at him with. "I know that! What about its friends?"
"We'll have to hope it doesn't have any," he said, receiving a withering look from her.
He pouted at her. "I'll put the bags in the top cupboards. I doubt the rat will go in there if the doors are closed."
As soon as the shopping was put away, Yugi made the first move. "About starting a family..." he said, gently touching her shoulders from behind.
Giggling, Anzu turned to face him. "What about it?" she joked, leaning in to press her lips to his.
Laughing, they groped and kissed their way to the hallway. "Where do you want me?" she teased.
"Anywhere. Here," he breathed, fumbling to undo the button on her tight jeans.
"Not the hallway!" she scolded, steering him towards the living room couch.
While they had been out shopping, the shadow had spent his time drifting freely around the house.
When they arrived home, he had shrunk into a shaded corner of the sitting room, trying to avoid them.
But peace and quiet was shattered when the giggling couple came stumbling in to the room, hands all over one another, fumbling for zips and buttons.
Letting out an exasperated groan, which the couple failed to notice, the shadow folded his arms and glared at them. All he wanted to do was have a peaceful day, and those two sex-crazed fools had to come bumbling in and ruin his day.
The shadow raised an eyebrow when the woman pushed the man down to sit on the sofa and then straddled him, her bare breasts bouncing in his face as she rocked up and down in his lap.
It was tempting to spoil their fun. However, scaring people took a lot of energy, and the spirit needed to recharge after this morning's earlier pranks with the cereal and the rat.
But he could not do that with those two moaning and groaning, louder than any ghost! So rather than stick around to watch the climax to their little show, the spirit drifted up through the ceiling, and into the darkness and comfort of the attic, where no one would bother him.
Or so he thought.
::::::::::::
Early afternoon, and Jonouchi came round to see if there was anything he could help with.
Yugi was fiddling with his watch, perplexed that it was refusing to charge, while Anzu was cleaning the kitchen floor.
"You could eat your dinner off that," Jonouchi joked, pointing at the floor.
Anzu pulled a face. "I wouldn't," she said. "Not after what we found under the sink this morning."
Yugi put his decesed watch down and told Jonouch about the rat they found this morning during breakfast.
Although horrified, Jonouchi was not surprised they had vermin; empty houses with overgrown gardens offered easy accommodation, especially during the cold winter months.
He was sceptical that a mop and bucket and a bit of anti-bacterial spray would keep them at bay for long. "You can scrub all ya like, cleaning won't stop em. You gotta find where they're coming from."
"We know that!" Anzu retorted, adding, "That's why we've got pest control coming tomorrow morning.
"I'm sure they'll get rid of them for us," Yugi stated.
"Anyway! Who's hungry?" said Anzu. "We haven't had lunch yet." She looked at the time; two o'clock already – where did the time go?
Yugi felt his tummy rumble, but it was Jonouchi who answered her. "You bet I am. I'm actually starving!" He did not let on that he had already eaten a pot of instant beef noodles at midday, and two, two fingered bars of Matcha flavoured Kit-kat.
Taking a litre bottle of cola and the remainder of the pizza from the fridge, Anzu placed the pizza on a plate in the centre of the table and poured three glasses of cola.
Needless to say, Jonouchi's eyes lit up at the pizza. "It's to share," Anzo told him.
The trio sat down to eat, and Anzu slapped Jonouchi's hand away when he went to grab the biggest piece with the most pepperoni on it.
"Hey! That was the best piece!"
"And it's mine," said Anzu, poking her tongue out at him.
"Meh…" Jonouchi let Yugi take the next piece and then helped himself to two smaller pieces.
"So, what are we doing this afternoon?" he asked, around a mouth full of pizza.
"We thought we might start on stripping the bedroom walls ready for painting," said Yugi.
"Sounds good," Jonouchi nodded. "You chosen the paint yet?"
Yugi shrugged. "Not yet. But we thought a nice neutral colour…."
At the same time, Anzu said, "Something nice and bright!" The couple glanced at each other.
"We'll decide when we finish stripping off the awful old wallpaper," Anzu decided.
After finishing their lunch the trio went upstairs with buckets of warm soapy water, scrapers and sponges, to scrub and peel away the horrible old brown, green and yellow floral wallpaper.
"I didn't think it would be this bad!" said Anzu, holding up what had started out as new sponge. It was now filthy. She went to wring it out in her bucket but the water was also filthy.
"I'm going to get some fresh water," she decided.
As soon as she had gone Jonouchi dropped his grimy sponge into his bucket with a resounding splosh. "Have you looked in the attic yet Yugi?" he asked –he needed a break from stripping old wallpaper.
"No. We haven't really had time," replied Yugi.
Grinning, Jonouchi trotted out onto the landing to take a look. "Do you have a ladder?"
"No," replied Yugi, at the same time spotting a pole with a hook, hanging on the wall behind where Jonouchi was standing. "But I think there must be a built-in loft ladder." He reached round his friend and took the pole, lifting it up to open the hatch. The hatch swung down to reveal a retracted ladder.
"Awesome. Let's take a look," said Jonouchi, grinning as he reached up and pulled the ladder down. "We might find valuable antiques up there!"
Beside him, Yugi rolled his eyes sceptically. "I doubt there's anything other than cobwebs," he said.
Anzu came back up the stairs. "What are you two doing?"
"We're checking the attic, see what's up there," Jonouchi told her.
Anzu put the bucket down, and watched Jonouchi climb the ladder. "Be careful Jonouchi. We don't know how sound the floor is."
"Don't worry. I know what I'm doing," Jonouchi said confidently, peering into the darkness.
In the loft, the shadow was hiding in the darkest corner, when suddenly the loft hatch dropped, letting in light and noise.
A blond head appeared through the opening, groping for a light switch. Finding one, the noisy blonde flicked the switch, illuminating the attic space.
"Hey! Yugi! You wanna see it up here! Like I thought, there's a shit ton of old stuff."
"Like what?" Yugi called up to him.
Incensed that his peace and quiet was being shattered, the spirit drew the shadows inside himself and then sent out a burst of shadow energy, aiming it at the lightbulb.
"There's…." Jonouchi did not get to finish his sentence because the light bulb exploded, sending glass fragments flying. Ducking instinctively he nearly fell backwards off the ladder. "Fuck!" he exclaimed.
In another rush of anger, the spirit then gathered the rest of his shadow energy and rushed out through the loft hatch and down the stairs.
Barely had Jonouchi regained his composure, when a swarm of something that looked like tiny black bees hit him. He shrieked, falling off the ladder. Yugi tried to catch him as he fell, and the pair ended up in a heap on the landing.
The swarm carried on down the stairs and into the sitting room.
"What the fuck was that?!" said Jonouchi, mouth agape.
"I don't know," said Yugi, trying to push his friend off. "Did you manage to get a good look at it Anzu?"
"I don't really know," she said. "It was a swarm of bees, or tiny black wasps. I didn't see them properly as I was more concerned about Jonouchi crushing you!
"I'm fine," replied Yugi, getting up. "What about you Jonouchi? Those things, whatever they were, hit you full on!"
"Did they sting you Jonouchi?" asked Anzu.
Jonouchi patted himself all over. Apart from banging his shin on the ladder as he fell, he was unharmed. "Nah.." He shook his head, frowning at the sensation he had felt as the swarm passed over him. "They felt like icy cold sleet, sort of," he said, for want of a better analogy.
Yugi hummed thoughtfully. He did not know quite what to think. "Whatever they were went downstairs. Let's go and look."
Jonouchi grabbed his arm. "You sure you wanna go after those things Yugi?! They might attack you!"
"They didn't hurt you, so I'm willing to bet they're harmless," replied Yugi.
"Harmless!" Jonouchi shrieked. "They knocked me off the fucking ladder! If I hadn't fallen on you I might have broken my neck!"
"They didn't knock you Jonouchi," Anzu told him. "You screamed and fell."
"Meh," said Jonouchi, scowling. "I didn't scream."
"Yes you did," said Yugi, already trotting down the stairs.
"Hey! I ain't letting you go down there alone!" Jonouchi shouted at him. He looked at Anzu. "You should go after him."
Anzu rolled her eyes at him. "Says Mister Brave." Without hesitation she followed Yugi. Jonouchi followed her.
When they caught up with Yugi, he was already looking around the sitting room. "I could have sworn they came in here," he said, utterly baffled, "but there's no sign of them!"
"Maybe they went in one of the other rooms," said Anzu. They checked the rooms but there was no sign of any swarm.
"It probably went out there," said Jonouchi, pointing at the kitchen window, which Anzu had left open to get rid of the strong smell of cleaning products.
"Well, at least they've gone," said Anzu, closing the window so that they could not came back in.
"We should go and finish stripping the wallpaper," said Yugi.
"You don't wanna check out the loft then?" asked Jonouchi, receiving glares from both Anzu and Yugi.
"Why don't you check it out," Jonouchi," said Anzu. "Perhaps you can change the bulb while you're up there."
Jonouchi took a rain check on going up into the loft to change the light bulb, using the excuse that Yugi and Anzu did not have any spare lightbulbs in the house.
Deciding that the loft was a distraction keeping them from what they were supposed to be doing, Yugi pushed the ladder back up and closed the loft hatch.
The dusty old objects in the loft would have to wait.
Thank you for reading.
Hopefully, if I get time, another chapter tomorrow.
