Author's Introduction:
Over fifty reviews! I couldn't be more thrilled.
In case anyone's just tuning in now (and you shouldn't be! Go back and read the other chapters! *smile*) I'll catch you up: Shadi has just unlocked Yami-girl's second soul room and come face to face (well, given her height it's more like chest to face) with the Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle. She looks almost exactly like Yami, but her violet eyes and devil's smile seem to keep giving her away…
So who is she? What's she doing in Yami's soul room?
Shadi's the first person in thousands of years to even come close to finding out--but she's not going to make it easy for him…
**
Chapter Nine: Dark Secret
**
You are sickened by the weakness
Of a heart that's filled with fear
And if the world won't understand you
You can make it disappear
And it's a dark secret you carry with you
Carry with you
(Dark Secret)
(Matthew Sweet)
**
"What's the matter?" the girl asked, crossing one leg in front of the other girlishly. "Don't you want to play with me?"
The tall man stepped forward, his robe brushing the floor as he advanced into the doorway, but the girl instantly retreated, darkness swallowing half of her face and body. Only her smile remained bright in the shadows. "Come into my soul. Come in if you dare..."
I have visited the rooms of many people's souls in the past, the tall man thought in confusion, and they have different furnishings and decorations, but always there is always one room!
"I don't know what power you used to find this place, but you'd better explain why you're here." The girl's violet eyes became severe as she waited for his answer.
He chuckled. "From your perspective, I am an unwanted guest. Answering your question is the least I can do."
"I am waiting," she said, brushing dark hair away from her face. She stood so comfortably, an obviously old soul in a modern outfit, balanced perfectly on her high boots.
He held a hand out towards her. "I came to discover the secret of your Millennium Puzzle."
The violet eyes widened in surprise. "So you know of the existence of the Millennium Puzzle."
"Yes. It is one of the Millennium Items, made to punish thieves who would defile the tombs of the pharaohs and steal their treasures. So says the Pert em Hru."
"I am familiar with the Pert em Hru," the girl said, smiling wryly. "Moreso than you, I believe."
"Oh?" The tall man's turban disguised the raise of his eyebrow. "Are you familiar with this?" He held up the ankh-shaped key.
"A Millennium Item?" she asked, cocking her head to one side.
"The Millennium Key," he clarified. "It opens the door to one's soul. In the room of the soul, one discovers everything about a person...who they are, what they love, what they fear...even what they themselves do not know."
"And those would be?" she asked, looking pointedly at the Scales.
"The Millennium Scales weigh the sins of a person on trial." He frowned. "But even I do not know the power bestowed on the person who holds the Millennium Puzzle--because it has never been solved."
"And so to find out," she trilled, "you entered my soul."
"Correct. If I can see a person's 'room', I can see what power they possess. If it is needed, I will draw it into my bloodline."
"As all the kids are saying these days..." she smirked, pulling a silver cigarette lighter from somewhere in the skirt and flicking it to life, "...the hell you will."
He blinked at her sudden vehemence, watching the flame's light flicker over her face.
"I've got to give you an A for effort. The power you speak of does rest in my room," the girl said. "It's just that I won't let you get to it so easily."
"How do you intend to stop me?" He was curious.
"You know how." She chuckled. "A Shadow Game! Somewhere within this soul is my true room. If you can find it, you'll find your answers."
He smirked. "Perhaps now would be a good time to inform you of one other power I hold. When I enter the room of someone's soul, I can... 'redecorate' and control that person at will. Whether or not their personality remains destroyed...that is up to me."
She looked sufficiently alarmed, but tried to bluff. "If I thought you could find my room, I'd worry."
"We shall see, won't we?" he asked. "I accept your game."
"Done!" Almost carelessly, she tossed the still-burning lighter at his feet. He stepped away instinctively, but as soon as the lighter hit the ground, the entire room was filled with bright light--
--revealing a maze of staircases, a labyrinth of doors.
"Not so eager, now, are we?" the girl asked with a smile.
The man's turquoise eyes were wide with shock. Doors...doors as far as they eye can see...and only one leads to the true room!
The only way to find out, he decided, was to open every door, one by one. Boldly, the tall man grasped the nearest knob with a bronze hand and tore open the door. A challenging violet gaze from the girl pushed him to step a tentative foot inside--
--and then he was jumping backwards to the sound of her laughter as a large stone weight crashed down where he had been standing only a second before.
A trap! he thought while the girl laughed and held her abdomen as if he were so ridiculous it hurt.
"Do you give up?" she asked. "Have you had enough?" Her eyes twinkled. "At this rate, you might get yourself in trouble."
The tall man glared at her, and she dropped her arms to her sides. "No?" she asked. "Very well, then. Good luck. I await you..."
And like an illusionist deciding she was going to have to perform after all, she faded away slowly, as if she had never been there at all.
"What is this magic...?" he wondered aloud. But there was no answer. He was alone with the doors.
She seeks to confuse me, he realized as he tried door after door. This girl's soul is so tightly closed against strangers...
She had said she had known of the Pert em Hru--the Egyptian Book of the Dead. She had known the Key was a Millennium Item. How could the sweet, shy girl in the museum have hidden this new dark presence so well?
But it was not the same girl. Of that he was sure. Where the girl in the museum had been shy, this violet-eyed witch was brazen. She moved with the careless grace of a woman who was beautiful and knew it; her confidence was habit, nothing more. She spoke to him as though she was used to talking down to life. Perhaps she had once been someone of importance somewhere…
Resolve tightened his jaw. But I MUST know. I must know the secret of the Millennium Puzzle!
With that thought, he nodded in determination and opened yet another door. It creaked open and he tensed, but no trap was waiting for him. The only thing in the room was a simple throne. The girl was lounging on it, short skirt exposing a long line of thigh, but as soon as she saw him she rolled to a sitting position, looking as though she had muscles in places she shouldn't.
"So we meet again!" he called across the room to her. "Is this truly you? Have I made it to the true room?"
"You tell me," was her answer, but she did not rise from her throne. She waited with the endless patience of one entombed as he walked across the room towards her.
As soon as he was halfway across the room, her already wicked smile became absolutely evil, and he realized too late that he'd made a very careless mistake.
Sure enough, the stone floor gave way beneath his feet, and as he stumbled, his weight caused it to collapse further. Scrambling to right himself only made the hole wider, and finally he lost his footing completely and fell into a yawning dark. He barely had enough presence of mind through his panic to grab a loose stone on his way down.
Another trap! he thought in fear. If I fall into this darkness, I'll be lost in this girl's soul forever!
Speak of the devil--she was suddenly above him, circling the hole in the floor like a shark scenting prey. "Shall I push you in?" she chuckled, kneeling at his side. Her fingertips played lightly along the only hand that was holding him out of the endless dark, soft, so soft, and then she was offering her own hand to him.
He blinked up at her, the devil in such an angelic pose.
"Don't worry," she said softly. "My hand isn't a trap."
Still, he hesitated. "You have given me no reason to trust you."
"Look at it this way--what do you have to lose?" She offered both small hands, and suddenly her smiling face was deadly serious. "I give you my word, on all I hold holy. You will leave this room alive."
Somehow, staring up into those dark violet eyes, he could believe. He hoisted his arm up and grasped her hand. She held on tight and leaned back with all her slight weight. Slowly, she helped him out of the trap.
He knelt on safe stone as soon as he was able, staring at the worn floor of the tomb. His knuckles were raw and scraped--how could that happen in a room of the soul? Lifting his head slightly, he saw the soul room door he had entered through at the very beginning. How had he ended up back where he had started?
"I had never imagined that you would save me...if it is indeed the same you..." he gasped. "I am in your debt."
The girl's smile, wicked or not, was gone as if it had never been. "I don't like your hobby of peeking into people's souls. I want you to leave. Right now." She turned away, an indication that the discussion was closed.
He nodded, turning away from her to the heavy door. "So I have lost this game."
Surprisingly, she spoke once more, turning only her head to look at him, dark hair falling over one shoulder. "No. This is just the beginning."
Once again, he nodded. "You are right. Farewell." Finally, he turned away for good, exiting through the door.
**
When he came to, those same bronze hands were shaking him. "Hey. Hey! Are you all right?"
The museum corridor was full of five o'clock darkness, the glass cases reflecting their silhouettes back at him, one tall and one small. He was gasping for breath, his brush with death still fresh in his mind. I entered this girl's soul to test her, but in the end I was the one who was tested!
She was still shaking him. "Are you all right? Sir? Can you hear me?" Her red eyes--yes, red, now, not violet--were wide and concerned. "You closed your eyes and stopped moving!"
"I am unharmed, little one." Slowly, he rose to his feet.
"Wow. You're so pale." She patted one hand over her heart. "You gave me a scare."
He regarded her evenly with turquoise eyes. So different from the other her--her crimson eyes, her easy smile, her genuine concern for him. "You are a strange girl."
Her brows dipped slightly, as if she didn't understand his meaning.
"Oh, I almost forgot..." He reached into his robe and drew a golden pyramid from its folds. "If I'm not mistaken, this is yours."
Her crimson eyes lit up as if someone had touched a match to them. "YAY! THE MILLENNIUM PUZZLE!" she cheered, as if it was her birthday and she'd gotten exactly what she wanted.
He handed it to her, unable to help smiling a little at her jubilation.
She looped the cord around her slim throat and bounced a little. "So that's it! You had it! Thank you!" she cried.
He chuckled. "You don't need to thank me. I am already in your debt..."
"Debt?" The confused look was back. Her fingers played absently over the Puzzle, as if they'd done it a thousand times before. "I haven't done anything."
"It was the other you," he clarified.
The girl's face stilled, and he wondered if the other her was peeking out behind her eyes.
And then she laughed.
Actually, she shrieked, clutching her stomach as if the laughing hurt...much as her other self had. "Other me?!? No way! I'm me. I'm the only me there is!" she giggled.
Sick realization slammed into him. She hasn't realized the existence of her other self yet! She truly does not know!
She was still laughing. "Other me!" she giggled again.
"What is your name?" he interrupted gently.
"Yami," she answered readily. "My name's Yami."
That is it, he realized. There are TWO sides to this girl's personality, and only when they join will the true power of the Millennium Puzzle be awakened.
"Very well. Yami," he said, turning to walk away. "There is something you must do...you must discover your other self!"
Now she looked alarmed. "What?"
"You have solved the pieces that make up the Millennium Puzzle. It is your duty...it is your destiny...to solve the riddle that is its power." He walked down the corridor, robe sweeping behind him.
"Wait. Wait," she called. "What's your name?"
He turned slightly, pausing. "...My name is Shadi." Chuckling, he admitted, "You are the first to ever know it..."
"You can't just say something like that and leave me like this," she protested, small bronze hands curling into fists. "My other self? What's that supposed to mean?"
"You will have to seek her out on your own," he told her, turning away to walk down the corridor. "There is one more person I must place on trial...one more man who has defiled the territory of the gods."
He heard her mutter to herself as she went her own way. "It's a good thing I'm good at riddles."
**
Author's Note:
And now, let's all have a round of applause for Yami-girl, who defeats her enemies without remembering a thing!…
Thus, the mysterious Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle has made her first appearance and had a little fun. And Shadi's back to square one.
Unfortunately for Yami, he isn't content to stay there…