A/N: thank you for reading this story so far and sorry about the wait. As previously mentioned, these are borrowed material for artistic pleasure. I just consider it a bonus if you like it too. To tell you the truth, I used The Ring to start my muse but it looks to me this turned into a monster of it's own. Had to read a lot of info on…well, I should stop before I ruin the story for you guys. : P
Oh by the way, if this seems a little bit like Thomas Harris's Silence of the Lambs, that's because I've been drawing some of my muse from that too.
Thanks again,
Shadowwind
Ps: thanks for all the reviews, and remember: Give a little kindness and receive a little kindness.
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In the Iron Dark
Chapter Two: Half A Year
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The cool early spring morning air whisked through the wooded area as groups of teens dress in various sorts of jogging suits move along a dirt path. The trail inclined and declined in various degrees at odd turns and slopes. A creek a distance down in a small gorge trickled in the sun light as the joggers paced through the trail. The end of the trail came into the leader's view and he sped up his pace. The beams of sun light through the first of the light luscious spring leaves danced upon the joggers as they entered through a rusted gate and on to a small gravel parking lot.
"Great run guys, I'll see all of you here next week," said a tall blonde in mid-twenties man said as he passed out bottles of ice water.
As the group dispersed a group of three girls, a short blonde with a yellow jacket and blue workout pants, a tall slightly chubby brunette with an all red workout suit and a tall light brown colored girl with white top and blue workout pants, trailed behind the whole group. Each was drenched in sweat and one of them; the one with the white top and blue jeans had what appeared to be grass in her hair.
"Whew," the African American said, "that was long wasn't it?"
"That was mortifying," said the brunette, "Nicole, why did you make us do that?"
"It's healthy for you Katy."
"So." Katy managed to speak through the gasping wheezing sound she was creating. "Rita do I look pink to you?"
"Very, Katy."
"No, you only look like a little pink."
Katy groaned with all it was worth, which was a lot. Katy hates being pink and I still don't see why, thought Nicole as she started to drink her cool water.
One of the leaders suddenly had an announcement to make. "Ladies and gentleman as you all know, Ms. Rolland is leaving us tomorrow and this was her last run with us."
"So as a celebration of Nicole passing on," said another leader as she came to the middle of the group with grocery bags, " to bigger and better things, we're passing out some special sugar cookies since sugar cookies are Nicole's favorite sweets."
There was a collective cheer as cookies were presented to the whole jogging group.
"Oh, I forgot you're leaving tomorrow," Katy said, " where are you going again?"
"Japan."
"Awesome," a girl with a bright pink workout sweater and a nametag with the words 'Hello! You're a bastard, may I help you?' walked up to Nicole and her group. "How long are you going to stay there?"
"Two months to maybe five years, depends on what my dad finds out in Japan."
Rita raised her eyebrow, "you sound like you really don't know!"
Nicole simply smiled at her comment. "Yea, but that's what I like about my dad's job, the uncertainty of where you go next and how long will be the stay."
Nicole looked at her water as she tilted the bottle so the water would swirl around, Katy said, "But you're a sophomore, you'll be going to college in two years remember."
"I know," replied Nicole. She rubbed the back of her head in an attempt mock headache but it went over her friends' heads.
"What will you do about school?"
A big grin came across Nicole's face suddenly and she said, "I'll be going to a normal Japanese school."
"Sure, that's wise?"
"Huh?"
"I mean, it's a whole another culture, and you'll be trying to learn different things by a different language. I mean, look at math, that's you're worst subject. How are you going to manage learning math by Japanese? I doubt you're fluent in Japanese."
"I'll manage…somehow."
Rita, Katy and the girl with the nametag shook their heads in disbelief of Nicole's response. Sigh. Well I think it's a cool idea.
The day went fast for Nicole Rolland after the jog. She didn't go to school because it would have been pointless. Assignments, homework and teachers with fake 'We will all miss you' speeches just didn't work with her.
Her father had got a hotel room for them to stay. After the jog she came here just after her father left.
Thankfully he accepted the 'reasoning' behind not going to school. There was no reason to go since there was no one like her or would like her. Her really good friends on her same street go to a different school. She wasn't drop-dead gorgeous, she didn't act ghetto, she was not in the "in" crowd and she liked manga, RGB games (was in RGB club), and listened to just about everything including bluegrass. But for some reason after her passionate plea to not go to school today, her father said, "you're pretty normal to me."
She sighed, and continued to flip cannels. She laid her feet against the headboard and propped her head up with a pillow. The lights of downtown Atlanta glowed from behind thin white curtains and by looking out to window, she let her mind begin to wonder.
Sigh. No more ridiculous Georgia drivers with their too huge SUVs, constantly annoying cell phones, winding confusing highways and miss matched farm fields.
I wonder what Japan is going to be like…wouldn't it be crowded from coast to coast? Wouldn't there be neon signs blinking every which way? I wonder if you really have to drive on the other side of the road. That's weird.
And so that's how she spent her evening looking out the hotel window wondering what awaits her at a journeys end.
She was about to fall asleep when her father entered the room, a tall businessman with curly black hair with more than just a touch of gray; the hair was near buzz-cut length. He had a white kaki shirt with silver cuff links, black kaki pants and black tie that had thin stripes of sliver. His upper body was broad and slightly muscular though his belly was a slight potbelly. He had a tan leather computer bag that looked big and stuffed. In his hands were two large folders, one red and one blue, full of different color papers, and what appeared to be pictures.
"Hi daddy." Smiled as her dad walked up and kissed her on the cheek.
"How was your day?"
"It was ok."
Her dad walked over to the small table and stiffly sat down on the chair.
"You ok?"
"The bishop wants us over for dinner tonight. He wants us over by eight."
"Sounds like fun, " Nicole replied with sudden interest in the folders. Are those what I think they are? She started scratching her dad's head as leaded over to take a look the folders.
"Are those-"
"Yep. Case files. The reason we're going where we're going."
"Can I-"
"Nope."
"Please-"
Her father looked back at her and gave her a piercing stare. "Nicole Lauren Rolland did not ask me again, you know I do not want you looking at this stuff."
"Dad I'm not a baby, I can handle pictures of crap some psycho did to some girl."
"Nicole these people are not psycho," said her father. Nicole knew the lecture by heart: '…as soon these people have methodology to their madness, they plan, they think and follow after their own set of principals, they are not psychotic, they are... something else.
She looked at the red folder as her dad rambled about that very thing. Her eyes traced every foreign scribble on that folder and she was awed at the intricacy of a few simple lines. Under the two simple lines were the translation, "Cyber Ghost case: Profiler Copy Only."
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Yugi Mutou lay on his bed staring at his ceiling. His golden bangs draped over his dilated, unmoving amethyst eyes. His computer was beeping with incoming messages, and the date, 4/21/04, blinking on and off in the corner of the screen.
Six months have passed and nothing has been found on Jonouchi's killer. For too long, the police suspected it was gang related or civil dispute with his father because of his past records with the police. It wasn't until a few days ago the case happened upon an FBI profiler helping on a separate case in Tokyo that Jonouchi's death was linked to 10 other known and confirmed cases in Canada, the U.S. and Japan.
The media caught wind of the revelation when it became quite clear there was an international serial killer loose and it seems every day, a new victim was discovered in some stack of unsolved cases somewhere far away. So far 12 cases worldwide are waiting to be looked at by the FBI. The international media went into frenzy, sick of just terrorist threat this and terrorist threat that, and gobbled up the story of the international serial killer dubbed Cyber Ghost.
When the FBI linked Jonouchi's mysterious death to the Cyber Ghost case, everyone that knew Jonouchi was being asked by the media to comment. Since Yugi was one of his closes friends, his phone and email were constantly being bombarded with reporters wanting the inside story.
What was once silent remorse of a few became loud vigils and shouts for justice by the whole community of Domino City. For Jonouchi wasn't the only victim. A young 13-year boy in Marble Heights, an apartment complex in Domino's suburb, was found dead in Tokyo the same way as Jonouchi a month ago. Suspicion was dead on that these two deaths were that they were connected.
However, Yugi wasn't taking part of anything at the moment. Since Jonouchi's discovered body in a computer software company's car garage, Yugi became increasingly distant to the world even though his shadow powers were growing. He became increasingly sensitive to the slightest dark image of evil or pain, either real or imaginary. He would sit for hours in his soul room staring in a corner muttering, as Yami would talk through the door to persuade Yugi to let him in. At times the spirit was forced to take over when Yugi was really going over, something that not even Bakura's yami liked.
At the moment Yugi was doing just that…
"Yugi…Yugi, what are doing? Open this door right now."
A dark room, mirrored like Yugi's room stood, a mess, with floorboards torn out, bedding spend everywhere, posters ripped and the walls punched in. In a corner sat Yugi rocking back and forward muttering, "they're gonna get me. They're gonna get me-"
"Yugi, we've been through this, nothing is going to happen to you. It was just a an email…"
"He took their souls-"
"…That had a video…"
"And he likes to play with them-"
"That wasn't Jonouchi…"
"They're precious to him, his light-"
Yami started to pound the door and Yugi kept rocking back and forward, staring at the computer monitor that was on its side on the floor.
The blank monitor suddenly flicked on and the screen went red. The speakers which were on different sides of the room, one in the closet and the other under the bed, crackled on with soft audio of children sobbing their way through a nursery rhyme.
Yugi stopped rocking and started blankly at the computer screen as Yami suddenly burst into the room.
"Yugi!"
Yugi slowly turned ad tilted his head with the same odd, blank expression. His purple eyes were now nearly black and his skin was starting to turn porcelain white. He smiled slightly and brought his index finger over his lips.
"Shh!" Yugi voice suddenly came out high and squeaky as a little girl's voice. In fact it didn't sound like Yugi at all. "Be quiet the movie is starting."
Yami eyes widen…
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10/23/03 (third day)
A small white alarm shrilled in a high tone in the early morning darkness. It was promptly thrown against a wall. The tall blonde rolled out of bed, the hair on the top of his head was a mess.
He had apparently been cleaning his room but his room started to look organized. The piles of trash and laundry of the past were missing from his floor and the dirty walls were looking a bit white now. However the wood floor was still covered with various strains and smudges and the desk was still covered with papers and junk.
The blue-eyed blonde quickly got dressed in his blue school uniform. He took his school bag and put his laptop in it while all the while eyeing his door for his dad. The drunk that he was, Jonouchi knew the violent rage of his father is always unpredictable. Which is way he became extremely stressed when things of the passed few days went strange.
Ever since that email two days ago, the same person started sending him pictures of dead girls and boys, starting with a picture of a little girl who looked to be about four year old and of Indian origin. Her little blouse, and headscarf were dyed white and was covered in dirt and what appeared to be blood. Her body was in a sleeping position and water was poured around her body. The only way to tell that she was dead was her frozen eyes.
That was what scared Jonouchi into action.
Yugi was still in America visiting family, and won't be back for another week. Honda was still working out trouble with his parents and crashing there wouldn't be wise. His sister and mother were busy unpacking and will be busy for a while. He didn't to be nuisance at the moment and didn't like the fact of his sister finding out about this new crisis. Bakura had hinted earlier about troubles with his yami, so he didn't want to go there. (How the hell does he do it?) So that left two people: Anzu and Seto Kiaba.
It has been a little known fact that Anzu is not a morning person. So with that info in mind, he crept out of his dad's filthy apartment and headed towards Kiaba Manor.
He was going to figure out what the fuck is going on even if it killed him.
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A/N: Well, what do you think? Bad? Good? Horrible-why-did-you-do-this? Please no flames, just tell me if it's good or bad and is there something I should fix.
Thank you :)