Thank you for reading, following and reviewing this story. Although Halloween is now done and dusted, I will continue the theme of creepie crawlies and supernatural happenings, before heading on a murder/mystery direction.

Warnings: Some swearing, mentions of blood, spiders, rats and.. our beloved ghost acts as an imposter.

Chapter 4.

How to Catch a Rat.

After Jonouchi had gone home, Anzu ran herself a nice hot bath, while Yugi made his mother's recipe for Katsu curry. It was a fail-safe recipe, one which his mother had taught him in the hope that he could at least feed himself something other than take away burgers when he left home. He cooked rice to serve with it.

"Ooh! That actually smells good enough to eat, Yugi!" Anzu teased as she entered the kitchen wearing Yugi's tee-shirt with a motif of a Kuriboh on the front. She was also wearing a pair of clean leggings and her fluffy pink happy lover slippers.

"You smell good enough to eat too," he replied, turning to her with a wink and a smile. Anzu could not help but roll her eyes in amusement.

"Is there some wine to have with it?" she asked.

"The white hasn't been chilled." he said. While he tended to prefer red wine, he did not really mind red or white, but Anzu usually drink white.

"That's okay, I don't mind red for a change," she said, grabbing the bottle of the red wine they had bought while out shopping. "I just feel like I need a glass of something after the day we've had."

"Yeah. It's been quite a day, hasn't it?" he agreed. "Pour me one, please."

Nodding, Anzu opened the bottle and filled two wine glasses, while Yugi dished up their dinner. They sat down at the dining table to eat.

"Mmm…" Anzu nodded her head. "This is tasty, Yugi!" He had made it for her once before but it wasn't this nice.

"Thanks," he said. "I've somehow excelled myself this time!" He chuckled

"I was thinking, Yugi." she said around her mouthful, pausing to swallow and then take a sip of wine. He looked up at her expectantly.

"Yes?"

"While I was in the bath," she continued, "I was thinking about the strange things that have happened since we moved in."

"Oh?" Yugi raised an eyebrow and looked at her. "In what way?"

"I think, maybe, the rat and the bees was just a coincidence." Yugi thought that she sounded more hopeful than certain. "We moved in yesterday and disturbed them. As for the other things, I think we're probably just over excited about moving in. We're also tired and stressed, so our imaginations are running riot," she concluded.

Yugi nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah! I'm inclined to agree with that." He smiled and raised his glass. "To a new start. Tomorrow, the pest control man gets rid of the pests, and we will crack on with making this house our home."

She chinked glasses with him. "I'll drink to that."

The rest of the evening was peaceful and the couple went to bed in good spirits.

::::::::::::

The following morning they could have stayed in bed relaxing, but there was too much to do.

Luckily Yugi was not working today so they had the whole day to concentrate on settling in.

"What time did you say the pest control guy is coming? he asked.

"Between nine and ten." Yawning, Anzu checked the time. "We had better get up. It's eight twenty now!"

"I'll go and make some tea," said Yugi, climbing out of bed. Anzu stretched and then hopped off the futon to go to the bathroom.

Neither of them had any idea that they were being watched.

Over tea and toast, the couple discussed the day ahead.

"Can we look at kitchens and bathrooms later?" Anzu asked.

Yugi nodded. "Yes, sure. I'd like to take my watch back to the store, too."

Anzu raised an eyebrow. "Is it still not charging?"

"No," he said, perplexed. "I tried following the instructions and doing a re-boot, but it's completely dead!"

"Add that to the list of weird things that keep happening since we've been in this house," she said, sighing.

He shrugged. "I don't think its anything to do with the house. Just one of those things that happens." He picked up the box containing his watch, and the receipt. "At least it's still in warranty," he said positively.

A shadow on the wall knew exactly what had caused the watch to die.

::::::::::::

The man from pest control arrived bang on nine. Yugi showed him in and showed him where they found the rat.

The pest controller checked the cupboard, but could see no sign that rats had gnawed their way in.

Standing up he scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Have you seen any or heard any live rats?" he asked.

"No. But the house has been empty for a few years," Yugi explained. "We've only just moved in."

The man nodded. "And you have no idea where they are coming in?"

"No," they both said, shaking their heads.

"That's why we called pest control," Anzu added.

The pest controller had a quick look around. "Do you have a basement?" he asked. "I was called to a similar problem in the house opposite a few months ago and that was where they were getting in."

"We do," said Yugi, taking him into the utility room, where the door to the basement was situated. "It's pretty untidy so we've kind of avoided going down there so far," he explained, as they descended into the dirty, cobweb encrusted space underneath the house.

Yugi and Anzu stood and watched, while he picked his way around the rubbish that had been left behind. Broken chairs, an old sideboard unit, a rusted bicycle with a bent front wheel and torn saddle were just some of the items dumped there.

"This old mattress," the pest control man said, pointing at the filthy, moth eaten double mattress plonked up against one wall. "There's evidence of mice having nested." He poked at a hole. Yugi stepped closer. His nose wrinkled in disgust at the smell.

"I'll get rid of it," he said, realising that he would need to hire a skip to get rid of all the stuff down here.

The man scanned the basement and honed in on the rectangular window, high up on the wall, that allowed natural light into the room. The window opened out at ground level, onto the south facing patio and overgrown garden at the rear of the house. Due to years of neglect weeds had rooted themselves in the cement at the base of the window, causing it to crumble and making the window loose. There was a noticeable gap under the window where rain and rodents could get in. The concrete wall and the floor underneath the window were covered in a green slime where the ingress of water had made it damp.

It was a job for a builder, but in the meantime Yugi would need to plug up the hole with filler and allow the wall to dry.

After checking the basement and setting traps, the pest control man went outside and checked the condition of the drains, before setting a couple more traps. He left, saying he would be back in a couple of weeks to check the traps. He also advised them to do clear the basement and the overgrown garden.

After he had gone, Yugi and Anzu went to the mall. The manager of the shop where Yugi had bought his watch said that he would have to send it back to the manufacturers for them to look at it, so Yugi left it with them and he and Anzu then went to look at kitchens and bathrooms.

They saw a couple of styles they both liked, so they booked appointments for someone to come and measure up and quote, and with Anzu clutching a pile of glossy brochures, they went home.

:::::::::::

That evening, Jonouchi came round after work, and Yugi asked him if he would mind helping remove the old mattress from the basement.

Jonouchi was happy to oblige.

Since it was the first time that he had seen the basement, his eyes lit up when he saw the potential treasure chest. "Wow! Look at all this stuff!" he said, trotting down the steps into the basement to look around.

Not seeing the same potential as his friend, Yugi followed him down the stairs. "I'm going to hire a skip to get rid of it all," he said.

"I'll take some of it off ya!" Jonouchi replied, having a good nose around, "That chest of drawers and those those chairs? I can fix em up and sell em."

"Sure. Help me move this old mattress first and you can take anything you want," said Yugi, hoping that Jonouchi would take most of it.

Anzu came down to supervise, as the two men gingerly lifted the festering mattress, disturbing years of grime and cobwebs. A rat ran out from behind it, making them all scream, as it made its escape.

A spider still attached to its web stuck itself to Jonouchi's face, causing him to splutter and let go of his end of the mattress to wipe it off. It toppled, and the revolting thing fell against Anzu; a particularly nasty patch stained with rodent urine touching her hair. She shrieked and pushed the mattress away, jumping back at the same time

Meanwhile, Yugi still had hold of his end of the mattress and was struggling to control it as gravity tried to take the other end down. To keep his balance, he stepped back, widening his stance and trying to brace himself. But he trod on the bent wheel of the bicycle, lost his balance and fell forward on top of the mattress. He let out a yelp of repulsion at the damp, musty smell and the creaking of old springs.

With all this mayhem, none of them spotted a shadow flit across the entrance to the basement.

There was no need for him to play tricks to frighten them – they seemed to be doing a good job of that on their own.

The trio sorted themselves out and tried once more to remove the mattress.

"It's a pretty big basement Yugi," Jonouchi observed, as they shuffled the mattress towards the stairs. "Any idea what you plan to do with it?"

"Fill it in with concrete," said Anzu, not impressed with their subterranean cavern.

"I was actually thinking it would make a great dance studio for you," said Yugi, laughing.

Anzu was unimpressed. "Ugh!" she said, shuddering.

Jonouchi laughed. "It ain't that bad. If you don't want a dance studio, I'm sure Yugi would like a games room, eh, Yug?"

"Maybe," Yugi chuckled awkwardly. "We will decide once it's cleared out and rat free," he decided.

The shadow listened to them talking. Do with it what they will, the basement still held a terrible, dark secret. One which they would surely discover if they were to embark on extensive work.

The shadow took a shuddering breath. Time was of no essence to a spirit, but if the number of people moving in and out of the house was anything to go by, he knew the secret had remained down here for quite some time. But was he ready for that discovery? Letting out his breath, he slammed the door closed and spun away, going up into the attic, which was as far away from the basement as he could get.

The three people in the basement jumped out of their skins when the door to the basement slammed shut.

Yugi ran up the steps to open it, only to find that it would not open. He turned and looked down at his wife and friend with a grim expression. "It's locked!" he said.

Face as white as a sheet, Jonuchi ran up to join him. "You're kidding me!" he yelled twisting the handle, tugging and pushing at the door. It would not budge so he shouldered it with all his force. The door rattled on its hinges, but did not give.

He punched it, cutting his knuckle. "Shit!" he said, sucking on the blood that oozed from the cut. "How the heck did it lock itself?!"

Believing they were trapped, Yugi sagged down to sit on the top step. Letting out a sigh, Jonouchi sat down beside him. "How are we gonna get out?" he grumbled, clutching his battered hand – he probably should not have hit the door quite so hard.

Anzu came up and edged past the pair. "It can't be locked!" To reassure herself, she turned the handle and the door opened with ease. "We're you two playing a trick on me?" she said, glaring at them.

Yugi and Jonouchi stared in disbelief. "No!" said Yugi, shaking his head.

"It was definitely locked, wasn't it Yug?!" his friend said.

"It was Anzu, I promise," Yugi said, imploring her to believe him.

Not knowing what to think, Anzu sighed. "The door must be sticking," she decided.

"Let's get rid of that mattress and then I'll take a look at it for you," Jonouchi offered.

With Anzu holding the door open, in case it slammed shut again, the two men removed the old mattress and took it outside.

After letting Anzu bandage his hand, Jonouchi took a look at the door. The hinges were a little stiff, but he could find nothing that would have caused it to stick like it had.

:::::::::::

It was now the weekend and there was much work to be done. For now the basement was forgotten in favour of cleaning away years of cobwebs and dirt in preparation for painting.

Honda and Jonouchi came round to help, and by Saturday evening they had painted the ceiling and walls in the master bedroom. On Sunday they painted the sitting room.

The shadow watched them work. No one, dead or alive, enjoyed living in squalor, and he was no exception. In all honesty, he had never liked the horrible, brown striped wallpaper in the sitting room, or the gaudy floral walls in the bedrooms. The décor had been chosen by Mister and Mrs Ishtar and was a constant reminder of them. Quite frankly, he was glad to be rid of their poor taste.

His new house guests were doing a good job, applying fresh coats of paint, and he vowed he would let them finish it in relative peace.

Although, he did let Jonouchi take the blame for a paint pot that was accidentally on purpose knocked over – oops! Jonouchi also got the blame for a paintbrush mysteriously ending up in Honda's mug of tea.

Honda also took a look at the 'faulty' light switch in the dining room but could find nothing wrong.

He replaced it anyway.

By late Sunday afternoon they were all pretty worn out. Honda went home because he had been lumbered to babysit his nephew that evening, but with the offer of free beer and a steak cooked by Anzu, Jonouchi stayed.

She planned to cook the steak with mushrooms, noodles, and a huge bowl of mixed vegetables, but just as she started cooking the lights went off.

She groaned. "Not again! Honda was supposed to have fixed it!"

Prepared for the usual routine of the lights going off during dinner, Yugi rolled his eyes and turned them back on. He sat down and they went off. "Okay…" he said very deliberately. "If that's your game, then we'll play it my way." He pulled out a box of matches, while Anzu placed the candles they had bought on the table. Jonouchi was a little bemused.

Yugi lit the candles.

"Romantic dinner for three," Jonouchi said, snickering.

At first, the candles gave off a nice glow, but then flickered as a gentle, but cold breeze ghosted across through the room. All three shivered.

Jonouchi's eyes went wide. "Did you guys feel that?"

Anzu and Yugi both nodded. "Yep!" said Yugi. "And my guess is that any minute now…." The candles went out as another light gust blew over them.

Anzu let out a long, withering sigh. "Oh, how boringly predictable," she said sarcastically.

"What's going on?" asked Jonouchi, in a small voice.

"It happens when we sit down to eat." Yugi told him. "It's like gremlins, or something."

"Meh…" Jonouchi was not convinced. "You should probably close the windows." - the windows had been left open to help remove the paint fumes.

Yugi was about to light the candles again when the light came back on.

It stayed on this time.

Halfway through their meal Anzu's phone rang, with an offer she could not refuse.

::::::::::::

The following day was Monday, and Yugi was back at work.

Unexpectedly, Anzu was as well.

The phone call that Anzu had received last night, was a short notice offer to go to Tokyo to star in a dance video for an advertisement. The dancer that was supposed to be doing it had sprained her ankle, and since she and Anzu were good friends, the dancer had suggested the producer call Anzu to see if she could do it. Even at such short notice Anzu accepted without hesitation – the money was too good for her to turn it down.

However, their new wardrobes were being delivered today. The plan had originally been for Anzu to wait in for them. That task now fell to Yugi.

Unfortunately, he had to attend an important publicity meeting for an up-coming gaming festival being hosted at Kaiba Land. Seto Kaiba wanted Yugi to attend because the King of Games always brought in the crowds. And since his friends were all at work, and his mother was away in Kyoto, where Yugi's father was currently working, Yugi had no one else to ask.

This meant juggling his day. "I've had a message and the wardrobes will be delivered between twelve and one thirty," he told Seto. "So I'll have to go home at that time, and wait." He received the usual 'hmph,' but since he was doing Seto a favour by being here the man could not stop him.

He set off at eleven thirty to go home. The journey by car would take around twenty minutes, but on the way got a puncture. "Shit!" he said, slamming the car door shut as he got out.

Retrieving the emergency pump from the boot, he tried to pump the tyre up but could not get the tyre to inflate and the spare was flat.

After kicking the flat tyre in a temper, and a few moments of choice swear words and panic, he calmed down enough to think straight.

He reached inside passenger footwell for his backpack, so that he could call and tell the delivery company he would not be able to make it home to accept the delivery.

His phone was not in his bag. He rummaged around inside the car but there was no sign of his phone. Don't say he left it backstage at Kaiba Land!

More un-Yugi like swearing.

Groaning, he ran through his options, and the best he could come up with was to catch the bus home and deal with getting the tyre fixed later.

He had to wait eight minutes for the next bus to arrive, and counted every second it spent stopping at bus stops.

Finally, he arrived at the nearest stop to his house. He ran up to his front door and opened it. It was twelve thirty forty.

::::::::::::

While all this was going on, the ghostly shadow had been drifting around the house looking at the decorating work in progress. He had to admit he was getting quite excited at the prospect of nice, new, modern fittings in his house.

He was also growing fond of his new house guests. At some point he planned to introduce himself properly, but knew from past experience that when he did that people tended to scream in terror and flee the house screaming 'GHOST!'.

Since he did not want to frighten Yugi and Anzu away just yet, he needed to be careful with his timing. But, there was no escaping the truth that he was dead, and a ghost, so there was probably no such thing as good timing.

A truck pulling onto the driveway caught his attention. The doorbell ringing moments later caused him to sweep down into the hallway to see who it was.

Only this morning, he had heard Yugi and Anzu discussing a delivery. Yugi was supposed to be home in time to receive it, wasn't he?

Realising the delivery men might leave without delivering, the spirit materialised into his fully human form. It took a lot of energy to materialise like this, and not have a big red splotch of blood soaking the front of his shirt from when he had been killed. It had been a while, too, since he had last materialised in this way. The feeling made him feel strange and dizzy at first, but he soon adjusted.

He quickly checked the front of his shirt was not blooded, and smirked smugly – oh, he was good.

But no matter how good he was, he could not make himself fully corporeal, so he used his shadow magic to open the door.

"Mister Muto?" the delivery driver enquired.

"Yes. That's me," the spirit replied. The moment the words left his mouth, he wondered what the hell he was doing, imitating Yugi Muto. But they looked so much alike that he might as well.

"We have the parts for your wardrobe. Where would you like us to put it?" the delivery man said.

The spirit moved aside. "Upstairs, in the main bedroom." He watched, as the two men carried long panels, shelving and doors, as well as bags of hinges, handles and other fixings up the stairs and into the master bedroom.

When they had finished, they handed him the delivery invoice. It was very difficult to for a non corporeal being to take hold of an item like a delivery slip, but he somehow managed to hover it in his hand without actually touching it.

"Your signature please." The delivery man held out an electronic pad for him to sign. The spirit stared at it.

"On that?!" He had never seen anything like this before. Luckily, the man picked up the stylus pen that was hanging from the pad on a string, and offered it to him. A quick study, the spirit understood.

It was tempting to just use telekinesis to move the pen, but he placed his hand around it as if he was holding it and made the pen do a squiggle, that sort of spelled out Yugi's family name.

"Thank you," the driver said. "Have a good day Mister Muto." He pivoted on his heel, marched back to his lorry and climbed into the cab, completely unaware that he had just spoken to a ghost.

The spirit watched from the open doorway, as the lorry reversed off the drive and left. That had been fun, he should open the door to people more often.

He gestured at the door, closing it, and looked down at his chest, where a dark, sticky patch of blood was now spreading out to soak his shirt.

Ten minutes later, and back in shadow form, he watched as a flustered Yugi come running towards the house.

::::::::::::

Kicking off his shoes, Yugi scanned the mat. There was no 'sorry, we missed you' note on the mat.

Believing that he had not missed the delivery, some of the tension eased from him. He went into the kitchen to get himself a glass of water.

At first, he did not notice the delivery invoice on the table.

Knocking back the water, Yugi refilled the glass and then went to the fridge to get something to eat. He found the sushi that Anzu had bought for later and decided to eat it now.

It was when he sat down to eat that he noticed the delivery invoice. For a moment he stared at it, wondering how it got there.

Maybe Anzu had changed her mind about the job and came home?

Unlikely; she would have rung to tell him if she had.

He got up anyway and went to check the rest of the house. After peering into the sitting room, he shouted up the stairs, "Anzu! Are you home?" There was no answer.

To make sure the delivery invoice was not a trick, he went upstairs to check, and was dumbfounded to see a neat stack of pieces for the wardrobe, ready for the fitters to come and assemble, laying on the bedroom floor against next to the wall where the wardrobe was to be built.

Only himself and Anzu had keys to the house, so how did they get in to deliver it?

Scratching his head, he went back downstairs and looked at the invoice. Scanning the details, he decided to ring the phone number printed on it.

As it rang, he wondered what he would say.

{Hello! All Things Furniture!} said a cheery, polite female voice.

"Oh! Hi! Aehm, It's Mister Muto here. We just had our wardrobes delivered," he gave the address. "Can you tell me who signed for the delivery and let them in, only I was supposed to be here but I wasn't home in time. I just got home to find they've already been delivered and… well, only myself and my wife have a key and my wife's in Tokyo today." He knew he was rambling, but the lady on the other end let him waffle.

{Hold on a moment Sir.} she said once he had finished.

"Thank you." He fidgeted while he was put on hold.

The woman came back on the line a minute or two later. {Hello! Yes. I can confirm that you signed for the delivery.} she said, sounding a little awkward.

"Me?"

{Yes, Sir.}

Yugi's eyes narrowed. "But I wasn't here. Can you tell me what the person who signed as me looked like?"

{I would have to ask the driver. He's out on the road making other deliveries, but I can call him and get back to you if you wish?}

Yugi answered quickly. "Yes, please."

While he was waiting, Yugi poked at his sushi. Hopefully, there would be a perfectly rational explanation, but unfortunately he could not think of one.

When the woman called him back and said that the driver described the man who took in the delivery as about five, five in height, slim, hair matching Yugi's, and wearing blue jeans and a black muscle shirt, Yugi was left totally baffled. He thanked her and hung up.

Everything about the description matched him, apart from the clothing – Yugi was wearing charcoal coloured trousers and a lilac button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

He sat, drumming his fingers on the table and sighed. Strange things kept on happening in this house and he was struggling to find a rational explanation.

Feeling the need to get out of the house for a while, he decided to go and get the flat tyre on his car fixed.

Thank you for reading.

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