Author's Note: In response to shitsumon's review, I realize that I didn't
make the divorce too clear. So more is explained in this chapter. In fact,
a lot is explained in this chapter.
But. It. Is. Disturbing.
Don't say I didn't warn you. Dark! Dark! Dark!
~~
"I... I was living with my father at the time," Yuugi began finally. "My mother had divorced him when she found herself pregnant, as she was a bit too young, and her parents were... livid. Umm... about... eight years ago, my father bought me a... a puzzle. It was really pretty, so I got to work on it... I finished it about a month ago... it was a pyramid. And then..." Yuugi's voice dropped to a harsh whisper. "Something came out of it.
"I hadn't realized at first what it was. It was... well, it looked like me, but I think that's just because I solved the puzzle. I said 'Hi' to it, still somewhat shocked that there was another person in my bedroom. He looked at me strangely. Then, suddenly, he _grinned_." For some reason, Yuugi shuddered at this. "His grin was terrible, like... like the hounds of the underworld. And then he disappeared.
"I thought that maybe I had just imagined it. Who knows? It was a warm day, perhaps I was having hallucinations. I went down to the basement, where it was cooler, turned on the radio, and forgot about him.
"Until..."
The way he spoke before had been casual, but now the ease with which he had described the beginning suddenly fell away, leaving nothing but a worn kid with circles under his eyes. "Until..." he tried again, but his voice seemed to leave him. He licked his lips, then sat down.
"I woke up early the next morning to find blood splattered all over my clothes and hands. I hadn't even bothered to change into my pajamas the night before, it seemed. Horrified, I jumped up to take a shower, and realized that I was _wearing the puzzle_. It was resting against my chest, tied around my throat with some sort of material that I couldn't even recognize, much less get my hands on.
"I... practically threw myself into the shower, and washed until all the blood had gone down the drain. I put on new clothes, threw the old ones out. And as I walked out of the bathroom, I could hear that in the basement, the radio was still on."
Anzu stepped forward as Yuugi began crying, but he put out a hand to stop her. "I..." His voice was thick with tears. "What had I been doing... that afternoon? I didn't know then... I couldn't remember a thing. But the radio was still on. I had blacked out, and when I woke, it was morning, with blood all over me.
"I wanted to turn off the radio, so I went down the stairs. The cold wrapped around me like... like a death shroud. And when I got to the bottom of the stairs, I took one look, and fainted."
By now, all three listeners had to lean in to even hear anything. "My... best friend of four years, Ryou Bakura... he was... Well, he was dead, of course. But it looked like he must've been hurt really bad while he died... blood was splattered all over the walls... an arm was cut off... and his stomach was..." Yuugi drew in breath, obviously trying to fight off nausea.
Then, Yuugi made an indistinguishable noise. He repeated it, and the others realized that he was saying "when".
"When... I woke up again... It was later in the morning... I was in my room again. There was no blood on me, and I thought I must've been dreaming. But I was still in the clothes I'd put on before I found... I mean, after the shower. And the puzzle had _moved_. Not much, of course, I could've blamed it on gravity. I had put it on my nightstand, and now it was on my pillow. Maybe it could've fallen there? But no... in my _dream_ I had put it on my nightstand, so either way, it had to have been... real...
"I didn't know what to tell my dad. I couldn't exactly go up to him and say... and say, 'Hey dad, could you please move my friend's... mutilated... corpse out of the basement?' So I got up, went downstairs, and poured myself some orange juice, though the last thing I wanted to do was drink it.
"'Hey dad,' I said, casually, 'I think I left the radio on in the basement. Do you think you could turn it off for me? I'm a bit late for school.' When he agreed and left, I quickly poured my orange juice down the drain, washed the cup, and sat back down, waiting anxiously for my dad to come back up and announce that my best friend was in the basement, bleeding all over the carpet.
"But all he said was, 'Turned it off. You'd better hurry, you only have three minutes to get to school!'
"I... couldn't believe it. But what choice did I have? I grabbed my backpack and ran out. Maybe it was just a dream, I tried to convince myself. But... that didn't work too well. Ryou, always prompt, was tardy that day. In fact, he never showed up at all. I went home torn between vomiting and crying.
"I went back into the basement. The walls were spotless. A coffee table that I'd never seen before in my life had been dragged over the place where Ryou's body was. I was too scared to look under it. There was a note on the table with five dollars. My dad was thanking me for cleaning the basement... He said he didn't know when I'd done it, but I'd certainly done a great job. The walls were spotless."
Yuugi began crying again, just as how he had cried in the past when he'd found that note. The piece of paper, white as bone, more than anything else, proved that the dream wasn't really a dream, that his best friend had probably been killed in his own basement.
"It... got... worse..."
By now, everybody had found chairs, as their legs were suddenly unstable. Their faces were crossed between disbelief and absolute horror. It was easier to pretend that Yuugi was lying, but why would Yuugi lie about something like that?
"I couldn't sleep at all that night. I watched the red numbers on my clock move forwards, and to my tired mind, they blurred, and looked like blood. Hiding my eyes, I don't know how long I was there, sweating and trying not to remember how Ryou's pretty white hair had looked, stained with... blood.
"I suppose I did get to sleep that night, but it was fitful. I woke at two in the morning, and I couldn't look in the mirror for fear that I would be covered in blood again. I forced myself to look eventually, and I was all clean, except for the sweat that was dripping from my temples.
"Relieved, I went to take a shower. It was... warm... and I began to relax... And then, I woke up."
More tears leaked out, even through Yuugi's closed eyelids and the fingers covering them.
"I knew immediately that something was wrong. I hadn't remembered the end of my shower, or getting back in bed. I really didn't want to go into the bathroom, but I had to, didn't I?
"It looked okay at first, but then... I realized that the... shower curtain... was... drawn shut. I... pulled it open...
"Miho was... still alive... Our eyes met, sharing looks of terror. Or at least, they would've, but... Miho had been blinded. 'What happened?' I asked.
"She told me... she said, 'It was Yuugi! He... called me, told me it was an emergency, that I had to come over. He said he was in the bathroom, he said he was hurt, but when I got in, he looked... demonic. I thought his eyes looked red. And he... he hurt me. I think he broke all my limbs, because I can't move them... Please, help me!'
"I didn't have the heart to tell her that I _was_ Yuugi. I just told her to go to sleep, that everything would be okay in the morning. Everything wasn't, of course, but at least she wouldn't die panicked. I left her there, knowing that whatever had moved Ryou would mover her too, and she would be dumped somewhere nobody would think to look.
"There was no doubt she was telling the truth. It wasn't that hard to figure out-I was killing my friends off. I returned to my room, ready to have a nervous breakdown. Then I realized that the puzzle was around my neck again.
"In my mind, I could remember how the not-me looked, coming out of the puzzle as I finished it. He... had red eyes. After that it was just a matter of putting the pieces together to solve the mystery.
"Every night after that, I found another of my friends dead. After I'd found the last one, Ryuuji, I had already figured this out-the demon in the puzzle was taking over me while I couldn't defend, either sleeping or unconscious. While he had control over my body, he would kill all my friends.
"And my father was next."
Yuugi had been speaking in a deadened voice up to this point, which was how he had managed to tell of all this without long, despairing drags of breath. But now, his voice broke again. "...And... I didn't know what to do... everybody would just die because of me. Then, I thought, what if I... killed myself first?
"So I brought a knife to my neck and cut, easy as that. Blood flowed out freely, fair retribution for what I'd been doing. But the puzzle-demon would have none of that, though. I was his vessel, and without me, I suppose he couldn't have destroyed so many lives. So he found me, dying, and healed me. That's why I wear this... collar around my neck... at all times. I didn't want anybody to see the scar.
"The next morning, I woke as early as possible, just after midnight. Sure enough, my dad was in his bedroom, bleeding slowly to death. He hadn't seen who had. stabbed him, he said. I called 911, but it was too late... he had... four days to... live. He gave me a photo of jiisan, and made arrangements for me to live there. I'm not sure how, but he coerced my mom into bringing me here, and... well, here I am.
"I broke it the day I found him lying there, the puzzle, I mean. But every night, it... calls to me, and though it's been broken, it seemed to have... made a connection... now it's almost done... there's only one piece left...
"I don't know how I can stop the puzzle-demon from killing you all. But please, stay away from me. I'm... I'm sorry I got you all into this mess... If I knew how to get you back out of it, I swear I would..."
Only now did Yuugi look up, feeling unpleasantly scrutinized, as if his friends had somehow turned into judges overnight.
~~
Next time: Anzu, Jou, and Honda's reactions. Face off with the 'puzzle- demon'.
But. It. Is. Disturbing.
Don't say I didn't warn you. Dark! Dark! Dark!
~~
"I... I was living with my father at the time," Yuugi began finally. "My mother had divorced him when she found herself pregnant, as she was a bit too young, and her parents were... livid. Umm... about... eight years ago, my father bought me a... a puzzle. It was really pretty, so I got to work on it... I finished it about a month ago... it was a pyramid. And then..." Yuugi's voice dropped to a harsh whisper. "Something came out of it.
"I hadn't realized at first what it was. It was... well, it looked like me, but I think that's just because I solved the puzzle. I said 'Hi' to it, still somewhat shocked that there was another person in my bedroom. He looked at me strangely. Then, suddenly, he _grinned_." For some reason, Yuugi shuddered at this. "His grin was terrible, like... like the hounds of the underworld. And then he disappeared.
"I thought that maybe I had just imagined it. Who knows? It was a warm day, perhaps I was having hallucinations. I went down to the basement, where it was cooler, turned on the radio, and forgot about him.
"Until..."
The way he spoke before had been casual, but now the ease with which he had described the beginning suddenly fell away, leaving nothing but a worn kid with circles under his eyes. "Until..." he tried again, but his voice seemed to leave him. He licked his lips, then sat down.
"I woke up early the next morning to find blood splattered all over my clothes and hands. I hadn't even bothered to change into my pajamas the night before, it seemed. Horrified, I jumped up to take a shower, and realized that I was _wearing the puzzle_. It was resting against my chest, tied around my throat with some sort of material that I couldn't even recognize, much less get my hands on.
"I... practically threw myself into the shower, and washed until all the blood had gone down the drain. I put on new clothes, threw the old ones out. And as I walked out of the bathroom, I could hear that in the basement, the radio was still on."
Anzu stepped forward as Yuugi began crying, but he put out a hand to stop her. "I..." His voice was thick with tears. "What had I been doing... that afternoon? I didn't know then... I couldn't remember a thing. But the radio was still on. I had blacked out, and when I woke, it was morning, with blood all over me.
"I wanted to turn off the radio, so I went down the stairs. The cold wrapped around me like... like a death shroud. And when I got to the bottom of the stairs, I took one look, and fainted."
By now, all three listeners had to lean in to even hear anything. "My... best friend of four years, Ryou Bakura... he was... Well, he was dead, of course. But it looked like he must've been hurt really bad while he died... blood was splattered all over the walls... an arm was cut off... and his stomach was..." Yuugi drew in breath, obviously trying to fight off nausea.
Then, Yuugi made an indistinguishable noise. He repeated it, and the others realized that he was saying "when".
"When... I woke up again... It was later in the morning... I was in my room again. There was no blood on me, and I thought I must've been dreaming. But I was still in the clothes I'd put on before I found... I mean, after the shower. And the puzzle had _moved_. Not much, of course, I could've blamed it on gravity. I had put it on my nightstand, and now it was on my pillow. Maybe it could've fallen there? But no... in my _dream_ I had put it on my nightstand, so either way, it had to have been... real...
"I didn't know what to tell my dad. I couldn't exactly go up to him and say... and say, 'Hey dad, could you please move my friend's... mutilated... corpse out of the basement?' So I got up, went downstairs, and poured myself some orange juice, though the last thing I wanted to do was drink it.
"'Hey dad,' I said, casually, 'I think I left the radio on in the basement. Do you think you could turn it off for me? I'm a bit late for school.' When he agreed and left, I quickly poured my orange juice down the drain, washed the cup, and sat back down, waiting anxiously for my dad to come back up and announce that my best friend was in the basement, bleeding all over the carpet.
"But all he said was, 'Turned it off. You'd better hurry, you only have three minutes to get to school!'
"I... couldn't believe it. But what choice did I have? I grabbed my backpack and ran out. Maybe it was just a dream, I tried to convince myself. But... that didn't work too well. Ryou, always prompt, was tardy that day. In fact, he never showed up at all. I went home torn between vomiting and crying.
"I went back into the basement. The walls were spotless. A coffee table that I'd never seen before in my life had been dragged over the place where Ryou's body was. I was too scared to look under it. There was a note on the table with five dollars. My dad was thanking me for cleaning the basement... He said he didn't know when I'd done it, but I'd certainly done a great job. The walls were spotless."
Yuugi began crying again, just as how he had cried in the past when he'd found that note. The piece of paper, white as bone, more than anything else, proved that the dream wasn't really a dream, that his best friend had probably been killed in his own basement.
"It... got... worse..."
By now, everybody had found chairs, as their legs were suddenly unstable. Their faces were crossed between disbelief and absolute horror. It was easier to pretend that Yuugi was lying, but why would Yuugi lie about something like that?
"I couldn't sleep at all that night. I watched the red numbers on my clock move forwards, and to my tired mind, they blurred, and looked like blood. Hiding my eyes, I don't know how long I was there, sweating and trying not to remember how Ryou's pretty white hair had looked, stained with... blood.
"I suppose I did get to sleep that night, but it was fitful. I woke at two in the morning, and I couldn't look in the mirror for fear that I would be covered in blood again. I forced myself to look eventually, and I was all clean, except for the sweat that was dripping from my temples.
"Relieved, I went to take a shower. It was... warm... and I began to relax... And then, I woke up."
More tears leaked out, even through Yuugi's closed eyelids and the fingers covering them.
"I knew immediately that something was wrong. I hadn't remembered the end of my shower, or getting back in bed. I really didn't want to go into the bathroom, but I had to, didn't I?
"It looked okay at first, but then... I realized that the... shower curtain... was... drawn shut. I... pulled it open...
"Miho was... still alive... Our eyes met, sharing looks of terror. Or at least, they would've, but... Miho had been blinded. 'What happened?' I asked.
"She told me... she said, 'It was Yuugi! He... called me, told me it was an emergency, that I had to come over. He said he was in the bathroom, he said he was hurt, but when I got in, he looked... demonic. I thought his eyes looked red. And he... he hurt me. I think he broke all my limbs, because I can't move them... Please, help me!'
"I didn't have the heart to tell her that I _was_ Yuugi. I just told her to go to sleep, that everything would be okay in the morning. Everything wasn't, of course, but at least she wouldn't die panicked. I left her there, knowing that whatever had moved Ryou would mover her too, and she would be dumped somewhere nobody would think to look.
"There was no doubt she was telling the truth. It wasn't that hard to figure out-I was killing my friends off. I returned to my room, ready to have a nervous breakdown. Then I realized that the puzzle was around my neck again.
"In my mind, I could remember how the not-me looked, coming out of the puzzle as I finished it. He... had red eyes. After that it was just a matter of putting the pieces together to solve the mystery.
"Every night after that, I found another of my friends dead. After I'd found the last one, Ryuuji, I had already figured this out-the demon in the puzzle was taking over me while I couldn't defend, either sleeping or unconscious. While he had control over my body, he would kill all my friends.
"And my father was next."
Yuugi had been speaking in a deadened voice up to this point, which was how he had managed to tell of all this without long, despairing drags of breath. But now, his voice broke again. "...And... I didn't know what to do... everybody would just die because of me. Then, I thought, what if I... killed myself first?
"So I brought a knife to my neck and cut, easy as that. Blood flowed out freely, fair retribution for what I'd been doing. But the puzzle-demon would have none of that, though. I was his vessel, and without me, I suppose he couldn't have destroyed so many lives. So he found me, dying, and healed me. That's why I wear this... collar around my neck... at all times. I didn't want anybody to see the scar.
"The next morning, I woke as early as possible, just after midnight. Sure enough, my dad was in his bedroom, bleeding slowly to death. He hadn't seen who had. stabbed him, he said. I called 911, but it was too late... he had... four days to... live. He gave me a photo of jiisan, and made arrangements for me to live there. I'm not sure how, but he coerced my mom into bringing me here, and... well, here I am.
"I broke it the day I found him lying there, the puzzle, I mean. But every night, it... calls to me, and though it's been broken, it seemed to have... made a connection... now it's almost done... there's only one piece left...
"I don't know how I can stop the puzzle-demon from killing you all. But please, stay away from me. I'm... I'm sorry I got you all into this mess... If I knew how to get you back out of it, I swear I would..."
Only now did Yuugi look up, feeling unpleasantly scrutinized, as if his friends had somehow turned into judges overnight.
~~
Next time: Anzu, Jou, and Honda's reactions. Face off with the 'puzzle- demon'.