Authoress's Note: Well, I'm sure my fans are all wondering why this took so long… *takes out my big, long list of excuses* Well… I started working, I got out of school, there is something wrong with my left hand (writing hand): the wrist hurts and I need a brace for it. My right arm recently suffered an injury involving a funny bone and the end of a metal shelf, full contact, lots of pain, and now I can't put my elbow down on anything and the pinkie side of my right lower arm is numb. And then there is this thing I've had for three weeks and I'm STILL not over it! And then this wouldn't upload…
Disclaimer: I do not own "Yu-Gi-Oh!"
"I am White Shadow,
Ever moving, ever turning,
Twirling in a vehement sea of disunity.
I am White Shadow,
Laughing demon of the sky,
And you must say good-bye
To all your cares and dreams…"
- from "The White Shadow"
He led me to a room with whitewashed walls and gilded ceiling murals. It wasn't very impressive. In fact, it barely even registered in my mind.
"Maxamillion James Pegasus."
The doors closed behind me. I turned to the left and wondered why he was going to such lengths to keep me in.
Shadi was sitting on a gilded chair like a pharaoh. He was smoking something, most likely a New World product, and the smoke curled around his form. He wasn't wearing the turban. His head was covered in hair.
I didn't like the room. It was too dark for me to be comfortable. Ever since Cynthia died, the dark brought hallucinations of her in a coffin with the worms crawling all over her and consuming her beauty until she was reduced to bone, and then even that was gone and there was only dust, dust, dust.
"Do you know why you are here?" he asked.
No, I did not know. I remained silent. Whatever it was, I had already deduced the following things:
1. It was going to involve pain.
2. Shadi was going to be the one responsible for the pain.
3. I would be a mess when it finally ended. Wait, I already was a mess, so that wouldn't be much of a change…
"Because you have not answered me, I will assume you already know why I have brought you here."
"No. But whatever it is, I don't like it."
I hated having shorter hair; unfortunately, vampiric hair doesn't grow at all. I had shorter hair to please Cynthia when we were together. She liked running her fingers with it, and we would sit under the trees and I would paint her. My paintings were everywhere in that town.
Damn. I could have been famous as an artist. I am pretty sure nobody in the area knows what the little artistic scribble in the corner of the painting is when they stare at her perfect form at the inn, the angel sent from Heaven dashed against the wall, the very portrait of everything that is defined as feminine Beauty rolled into one.
And Bakura is – was – masculine Beauty so perfect that everyone on the street stared at him. He made ripples on the street when he walked past, though he was blissfully unaware of what he could do to others. It's no wonder he was changed, for the beauty was amplified and it made me see him, lost and alone, on the street. The two Bakuras; are they really dead? I sometimes think I see his face in the window now… or maybe it's just a trick of my Eye. Millennium Eye. Sennan Eye.
I sometimes wear my real eye now instead of the Millennium-Sennan Eye.
But I was standing in that room now. The Eye had already declared ownership of me, but I did not know it. I thought the golden light in my cell had been God finally deciding I was worth saving.
There was a gold glint in his hand. I stared at it and backed away. I didn't want to know what it was. I didn't need to know what it was. I wanted to run back to that cell and lock myself inside.
"Midnight Blue," Shadi said.
He had been hiding in the darkness (one more reason for me to really hate it) and he had been so good at it that not even his own creation knew he had been hiding there.
Midnight walked to the throne; I was engrossed in his movements. He went down on one knee and tilted his head downward; his black hair spilled over his shoulders. The sight was like a hand running down my spine. I shuddered with ecstasy.
"My Lord Shadi," he whispered. I could sense his fear; his voice was quivering almost imperceptibly. "What is it you want me to do?"
Shadi revealed a golden dagger with hieroglyphics etched on the gold blade; the hilt was encrusted with jewels. He leveled his eyes at me and said in a carefully controlled voice, "Take out his eye."
Midnight's mouth dropped open. He mouthed, "But," only no sound came out. His eyes darted from me to Shadi. "W-which one?" he asked.
"It doesn't matter."
He took the blade from Shadi, acting like it was a poisonous snake, and reluctantly moved towards me. His face was horrifying: an immortal grimace, probably from the idea of seeing an empty socket.
"I…"
"Yes, Midnight Blue?" His voice held a threat…
There was nothing I could have done at that moment, nothing that could have raced through my mind in those precious seconds. I saw Shadi and Midnight; Midnight was holding my shoulder and slowly advancing the blade.
I saw a small gold glimmer when Shadi opened his hand and felt a stab of pain when the blade went into my eye. It wasn't normal pain; it was electric. I wanted it out and I wanted it out at that second. It didn't matter if my eye came with it…
And yet I did not scream, but I heard my voice let out an enormous cry. My voice, but not my cry, and Midnight echoed the cry with his raw screams. I held my empty socket; the lid hadn't closed over it. There was blood pouring over my fingertips, and I could see through my good eye.
Shadi threw the Millennium-Sennan eye in the air, and it felt like hours before it finally reached me. It came at my level, the eyelike part facing me, and when it was an inch from my face the world burst like glass. It shattered reality and Midnight melted away, but even after it was all gone I could hear Shadi's laughter. The Eye glowed brighter and it pulsated with each breath I took.
A great monster reared up before me, a monster that had no place anywhere in reality, and even more monstrous because its face looked like Cynthia's face. Her sockets were covered with and her lips were as red as blood; she held her eyes in her hand. The eyeless sockets opened, but instead of the emptiness, there was a brilliant blue light. Her form was blown by unseen winds and the Eye was furious with her presence… I was furious…
Red light began to engulf her, and I recognized this light as fire, and through the crackle she laughed…
"I sssseeeeee you…"
Everything went black.