STORY ARC TWO: THE PARTING OF LOST SOULS

Chapter Six: Escape

Kaiba's jaw dropped. "What did you say?"

"I don't know them..." Emrys murmured. She drew in a painful breath. "I... I don't even know who you are..."

"Are you such a huge idiot? You have to go back in there!" Kaiba angrily insisted while he forcefully pointed his thumb at the hospital behind them. "You can't be walking around like this!"

Emrys shook and cried. "Somebody wants me dead!" She then gasped for air and shut her eyes as a jolt of pain immediately radiated from her side.

"I'm driving us out of here," Kaiba replied in resignation as he started the car.

Thirty minutes later, Kaiba drove into a motel parking lot. He parked the car in an inconspicuous spot, got out of the car, and told her, "I'll be back."

Moments later, Kaiba ran back with a key. After unbuckling Emrys' seatbelt, he then helped her get up from the passenger seat and into the room they were staying in.

Kaiba scanned the room.

Just as Kaiba had requested, there were two beds. Once he helped Emrys lie down in one of the beds, he took off his white trench coat, flung it on his bed, sat down on the carpeted floor, and closed his eyes.

Unable to rest his tired mind, Kaiba opened his eyes and then asked, "What do you remember?"

She gave him a blank gaze.

Clearing his throat, Kaiba continued, "You said that someone in the hospital tried to kill you. Do you know who it is?"

"I don't know who or what it is... I woke up and someone tried to suffocate me. Two people slept by my bedside. I didn't recognize the blonde guy, but what I did remember was that he hurt me before..."

"Jonouchi?" Kaiba exclaimed. "That's impossible! The mutt's harmless. If I thought he was evil, I wouldn't entrust him with Mokuba."

"I don't know anymore..." Emrys hid her face with her hands and then wept.

Tightlipped and even-toned, the CEO explained, "My name's Kaiba. We've met a couple of months ago at Domino City. I own Domino Arena...the first place that you did your concert - "

Emrys looked up to Kaiba with a puzzled expression. "Concert?"

"Yes. Your real name is Alexandra Emrys. You use the stage name Alexa. You're in New York for your tour's last concert. That was almost three nights ago. You were staying with Mokuba and me while you're in town."

Emrys' eyes narrowed. "Was he the young boy sleeping by my bedside?"

Kaiba nodded. "He's my little brother."

Shortly thereafter, Kaiba's cell phone rang. He stood up, sat on his bed, and answered his phone. He then heard a frantic voice say on the other end of the telephone line, "Emrys is missing!"

While staring at Emrys, Kaiba said, "Mokuba, go outside. Be away from everyone's earshot."

Seconds later, the young boy came back on the other end of the line. Still wondering what was going on, Mokuba hesitantly said, "Okay, Ni-sama..."

"Listen... Is Yugi with you at the hospital?"

Mokuba sighed. "He got here a few minutes ago. I've never seen him this angry before. You left him at the loft and now she's gone..." After a brief pause and with a semi-pained voice, he reminded his big brother, "You promised you're not going to do this alone..."

"Slight change of plans, Mokuba," the elder Kaiba explained. "She's with me..."

"What?" the young boy exclaimed. "Why? How?"

After explaining the incident at the parking lot, the young boy then asked, "Are both of you okay?"

"No, she's not. She has amnesia."

A momentary silence followed. Shortly thereafter, Mokuba said, "She can't stay out there..."

"Having someone try to kill us twice doesn't help. She's also very afraid of Jonouchi."

The young boy's pitch rose. "Jonouchi? They've been good friends since we've all met..."

Noticing that Emrys had already fallen asleep, the CEO whispered, "I know. It doesn't make sense to me, either. She only remembers little pieces here and there. She doesn't remember her name. She doesn't remember any of us. I need to replace the car somehow and then take her to another hospital."

"What about Yugi? Are you going to tell him what you just told me?"

After the short pause, the elder sibling responded, "Keep this between us for now."

There was no reply on the other line.

Surmising that Mokuba was upset, Kaiba said, "Trust me on this, Mokuba..."

With some understanding now reflected in his voice, the young boy remarked, "Be careful..."

"I will. Take care..." The elder sibling then hung up the cell phone.

While pondering on what to do next, Kaiba gazed at Emrys' sleeping form. After minutes of hesitation, he finally approached her and stroked her hair for a couple of minutes. As he continued to look at her with his sapphire eyes while his heart began to soften once more, he pondered, "I'll find them. As long as it takes, I'll find them. I'll show them why they should never mess with Kaiba Seto!"

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Kaiba bolted up from his bed.

Looking at the time, Kaiba realized his tired body already grabbed five hours of much-needed rest. As soon as he saw Emrys' empty bed, he heard retching from the bathroom.

Kaiba ran towards the bathroom to help Emrys, rubbing her back to give her some comfort.

The vomiting continued for a couple of minutes until Emrys placed her right hand up in the air, signaling that she was now okay. As she flushed the toilet and tried to stand up, she would have lost her balance if Kaiba was not there to assist her. With his help, she walked towards the sink.

When Kaiba noticed that Emrys' eyes were scanning for something, he took out a new toothbrush, squeezed some toothpaste on it, and presented it to her.

Emrys tiredly nodded as she dependently held on the bathroom counter for balance. She gargled first and then got the toothbrush from him.

After Emrys was done, he then gave her a face towel he lathered up at the bathtub faucet. As he stayed behind her, in case she lost her balance, she used the towel to clean herself up.

Studying Emrys' eyes, Kaiba inquired, "Ready?"

Emrys weakly nodded. Once she did so, Kaiba led her back to her bed.

"How are you feeling?" Kaiba asked as he sat on his bed after helping her.

While lying down, Emrys responded, "As if I was hit by a truck... Every part hurts..."

"A car hit you," Kaiba corrected Emrys. "You were throwing up because of the concussion. You also have a few broken ribs and a bruised liver."

"Are you a doctor?" Emrys asked.

"No," Kaiba dismissively smirked. "The doctor at the hospital told us. You were in a coma earlier."

Emrys' watery hazel-brown eyes widened. "Coma? H - How long was I out?"

"Almost two days."

"The car that hit me... Was it the same as that car in the parking lot?"

"Yes."

"What do they want?" Emrys asked in sheer frustration, causing most of the muscles from her body to tighten. Excruciating pain shot from her side, leaving her gasping for air and shutting her eyes.

Once Kaiba saw her Emrys' pain subside minutes later, he replied, "I really don't know who it is. I don't know if those people were aiming for you, me, or both of us."

"Some help I'll be in that area..." Emrys remarked with quiet and cold sarcasm.

Noticing that Emrys' face was flushed, Kaiba stood up, approached her, and felt her forehead. With a matter-of-fact tone, he said, "You're burning up. You should go back to a hospital."

"No, please..." Emrys then grabbed Kaiba's arm with her right hand, gnashing her teeth from the pain caused by her abrupt movement.

While azure eyes were focused on Emrys, their owner murmured, "Emrys, you really need treatment. It won't be the hospital where you were last confined."

"The shadows might come back," Emrys whispered in between silent tears of fear and pain. "I'm not safe there. Please..."

Kaiba was startled when he heard the word "shadows" come out from Emrys' lips. Entering the bathroom, he rinsed the face towel she used earlier. He then grabbed the container of rubbing alcohol from the first aid kit inside the room, used the coffee pot as his container for the hot water and alcohol, soaked her face towel in the hot mixture, and wrung out the excess water.

A revelation dawned upon Kaiba as he gave Emrys a sponge bath to help break the fever. He did exactly the same thing for Mokuba whenever he was sick just as their mother did whenever one of them was ill. Now, he was instinctively doing it for her. What surprised him most was that he had no regrets doing such a gesture for someone who was not family.

Sounding more incoherent, Emrys mumbled, "I don't want to go back there..please..."

Letting out a relenting sigh, Kaiba gazed at Emrys and said, "I won't take you back there right now. If your fever doesn't come down by tomorrow, I'm taking you to a hospital. Do we have a deal?"

Emrys weakly nodded. Feeling much at ease, she whispered to Kaiba with watery eyes, "Thanks... for taking care of me... for keeping me safe..."

Kaiba did not sleep well throughout the evening. He occasionally got up from bed to soothe Emrys' fever-heated skin with the face towel soaked in the alcohol mixture.

During Emrys' sleep and feverish delirium, she incoherently mumbled in between moans of pain and snippets of various dreams...or nightmares.

In the middle of the night, Kaiba jumped out of bed as he heard desperate gasps for air and malevolent laughter. The creeping moonlight - his only source of illumination within the room - provided an eerie and sinister ambience. What he saw before his very eyes not only shocked him, but also caused the ends of his hair to stand up in fright.

Three robed and hooded figures stood around Emrys' bed. One of the robed figures already dug his hand deep inside her chest as if her still-beating heart was being torn out with bare hands. The second sinister trespasser grabbed her legs while the third accomplice secured her left arm.

In between screams and gasps, Emrys' body writhed in pain in spite of being pinned down.

"Get the hell away from her!" Kaiba screamed at the top of his lungs as he ran across the room. After violently and repeatedly swinging his arms to hit the intruders, he even received a bigger shock.

Kaiba's hands and arms went through the robed figures.

Running out of options, Kaiba reached for the night lamp.

Once the lamp was turned on, the specters disappeared.

Kaiba ran by Emrsy' bedside and checked her pulse. His blood froze.

Emrys was not breathing anymore.

Author's Note

Although this story arc stands independently from The Encounter of Lost Souls and There Will Come Soft Rain, the three stories are inter-connected. This fact will also apply to most of the subsequent Yu-Gi-Oh fan fiction stories that I will post in the future.

Normal Disclaimer

Yu-Gi-Oh is the property copyrighted by Kazuki Takahashi. This fan fiction, as well as the original characters, is the author's property.

Enjoy reading!

PJ Zatken