Malled: The Triple Play
December 24...
"Hello little boy, and what would you like for Christmas?"
It was Christmas Eve at Domino Mall. Ryou, under the Santa guise, was working as a mall Santa to earn a few extra bucks here and there.
"Wait a minute," Mokuba looked up at the familiar Santa. "I know who you are! Everyone, this Santa is actually…"
But before Mokuba could reveal Santa's true name, a tall figure in an elf costume stepped forward, clamping his hand over Mokuba's mouth tightly. "Now listen little boy, it's time to get our pictures taken, no?"
"Bakura you nimwad!" Mokuba wanted to yell out but his cries were muffled. The photographer pressed the button causing a huge flash. When the picture developed in the computer, Mokuba's face flushed.
Well," Kaiba chuckled. "You get what you paid for." He paid the photographer the money before taking his brother.
"Hmph!" Ryou adjusted his Santa beard. "Christmas Eve is when it's the most annoying."
"It was you who wanted to take this stupid job!"
"Hello Santa." Suddenly, a huge weight pressed onto Ryou's lap. Ryou looked up seeing Tristan sitting on him.
"Tristan?" Ryou's face flushed deeply. "Don't you think you're a little too old for this?"
"Nonsense," Tristan grinned, curling his finger around the fake beard. "There's a lot of things I want for Christmas." He took a glance up at Bakura who was dresseed in a red and green elf suit. "I'm surprised Bakura decided to keep you company. I guess life for him is a real bitch after all."
Bakura cracked his knuckles, grabbing Tristan from behind. "At least I'm not the one being the bitch." He kneed him right on the stomach.
Groaning, Tristan stumbled back. He then charged towards Bakura tackling him down. The two exchanged punches, rolling around.
"Tristan you idiot!" Duke pushed his way from the little kids who were staring on the fight going on. Some of the mothers took their children away.
"Uh…er…" Santa gave a crooked smile to the kids standing in line. Feeling the need to explain, he did. "You see, one of my elves is on their period."
"Hey Santa," a little girl looked up at Ryou curiously. "What's a period?"
"Well…" Ryou started to say.
"Kasumi Atsuzuki," a stern voice pulled the child by the arm. "Don't be asking stupid questions!"
~*~*~*~
Two Hours Later…
Bakura, Ryou, Duke and Tristan had left the manager's office.
"Thanks a lot Tristan," Ryou fumed. "You cost our jobs big time!"
"Ah screw it," Bakura held up his paycheck. "Christmas is tomorrow anyway. If I'm stuck in this stupid ass elf suit for one more minute, I'll snap. And $500 proves it." He then folded the check and placed it in his pocket and headed out the mall.
Ryou, Duke and Tristan went to the bathroom. Ryou undressed himself from his Santa suit and placed his black shirt along with his school uniform jacket. He kicked off his boots and pants before putting on his long pants and shoes.
"I'd leave the Santa hat on Ryou-kun." Tristan grinned. "It looks good on you."
"Ha, ha, ha," Ryou said sarcastically. "Let's go already. The mall's already closed."
"Sure…yeah…" Tristan chuckled. He then clamped his hand over the door handle to one of the stalls. "Just let me use the bathroom first." He then opened the stall, startled to see a familiar person dressed in a Santa suit.
"Oh shit," Duke was taken back as he realized who it was in the Santa suit.
Santa took out a strange weapon, the jewel glowing. Suddenly, the room turned foggy, the doors vanished within the walls. Santa took out his hat and yanked off his fake beard.
"No way!" Ryou couldn't believe who he was seeing. "Could you be Tea's secret Santa?"
"You don't even know half the story." Santa grinned, taking out a handgun, shooting Duke right on the stomach.
"Duke!" Tristan leaped for his friend's limp body. He looked up at Ryou then at Santa. "Every man for himself!" he picked up Duke's lifeless body. "Sorry Duke, didn't wanna do this but…" he then hurled Duke's body right onto Santa, knocking him off the toilet.
"That should give us some time." Ryou backed away from the two.
"Look," Tristan pointed to an air vent. "That's our only chance of escape!"
"You're right,' Ryou climbed onto the sink counter, trying to pry off the vent. "But we gotta hurry. Jolly old St. Nick could get up any minute."
Tristan helped Ryou up and tried to shove him inside the vent. Ryou managed to slip in easily. He was on his hands and knees crawling. Meanwhile, Tristan tried to climb in as well but before he could start crawling, he felt a hand grip onto his ankle.
"You going down Tristan!" Santa snarled, pulling him out of the vent.
Ryou loked over his shoulder. "Tristan!"
"Forget about me you twit!" Tristan yelled. 'Save yourself! Tell Tea and Yami what you saw!"
And at then, Santa yanked Tristan out of the vent. Ryou looked on as Santa wrapped one arm around Tristan's waist. His other arm wrapped around his neck. His eyes glared at Ryou, smirking. "You're next." and at that point, he snapped Tristan's neck before tossing his body to the side.
Shaken, Ryou slowly crawled back, unable to believe what just happened. His eyes were unable to wrench away from two lifeless bodies. He then shifted his gaze towards the Santa impersonator. "You ain't gonna find me you son of a bitch." his voice shook with fear.
"Try me." Santa smirked.
At a hurried pace, Ryou crawled through the twisted paths of metal. What seemed like hours, he saw the end of the air vent. He pushed the vent open, tumbling outside. He was surprised to find himself in the arcade. "Well this is a first. Landing in an arcade. Well it's a good thing too. I'm sure Jolly old St. Fucker ain't gonna find me here."
Suddenly, the lights went on. The Santa attacker leaned against the glass door, smirking at Ryou. "I knew I'd find you here."
'But…wait…how…" Ryou stammered.
'Oh Ryou-kun, don't be silly. I can hear your scampering." he pointed up the vents. He then walked around the arcade, admiring the picture less video games and glass cases full of valuable prizes. "Hmm, you can help me win one of those prizes. Especially that one." he pointed to a dagger displayed on the wall.
"And how the hell am I supposed to do that?" Ryou glared at Santa. Suddenly, he realized what Santa was planning to do. He then started to run, seeing his attacker right behind him.
The two reached a water gun game. Ryou, in desperation, grabbed one of the water guns and with all his might, whacked St. Nick on the head. Santa fell on his knees and collapsed to the ground, knocked out.
"Gotta get out of here." Ryou looked around for the exit door. Finally seeing it, he ran towards it, trying to open the door only to find it locked. He yanked the door as hard as he could but the door did not budge.
Twenty minutes later, the door still had not opened. Ryou pounded his fist on the door, hoping to break it. However, while doing so, Santa began to stir. Slowly, he began to get up, making his way towards Ryou. He grabbed the young boy from behind.
Ryou struggled to escape his assailant but his grip was too strong for him. "You know,' the stranger smirked. "I change my mind on the dagger." he spotted a game in which moles unexpectedly pop up and a hammer is needed to whack them. "Well, well, what do we have here?" he read the title of the game. "Whack a mole. That's really cute." Santa's magic weapon started to glow causing Ryou to disappear. "I suppose one game of this whack-a-mole wouldn't be so bad."
"What the hell is going on?" Ryou looked around the darkness, pounding on the wall. "Where am I?"
Santa put in four tokens, starting up the game. "Even Santa gets bored when it comes to dealing with naughty and nice kids and from screwing with Mrs. Claus." Soon, happy music sounded off as moles started to pop up. Santa lightly tapped the mole with the mallet.
Suddenly, Ryou's head suddenly popped up. 'What the?" he looked around. "What am I doing in a Whack-a-Mole game?"
And at that instant, Santa brought the mallet as hard as he could onto Ryou's head. Instantly, Ryou was knocked out and soon, he was forced back into the hole.
"Well what do you know," Santa chuckled. "Fifty bonus points for whacking a queer." As the game continued on, Ryou's head popped up from time to time. And at each time, Santa brought down the mallet, each harder than the next.
When the game finished, Santa took out his magical weapon, mumbling something. Surprisingly, the Whack-a-Mole game vanished. Ryou laid on the floor, his head smashed and bleeding. He then took out a cell phone, dialing 911. "Police, I found my friend knocked unconscious. He's not getting up! Domino City Mall." Turning off the phone, he then made his way towards the exit, smashing the glass with his weapon. Climbing out the door, he then shuffled his feet through the snow.
~*~*~*~
8:45...Two hours after the mall incident…
In the late of night, Tea and Yami were walking hand in hand in the snow. The two had been in a snowball fight and were now getting tired from the excitement.
"So what would you like for Christmas?" Yami grinned, kissing her on the cheek.
Tea laughed softly as she took Yami inside. "Come on, let's go inside and watch a movie."
"You're not worried?" Yami stared at Tea curiously as the two curled up on the couch, pulling Tea close to him.
"I guess you can say this is possibly the only night I can cherish." Tea switched on the T.V "A Christmas Carol should be on any minute."
"We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you a few news updates." the news announcer announced. 'The case of the missing Midori Hamasaki has come to a sad close."
'Midori?" Tea sat up, watching the T.V intently.
"Hamasaki's body has been found hanging by her neck on the swing set of Domino Park. She has suffered stab wounds on her stomach. She was taken to the nearest hospital where she was pronounced dead…"
And at then, Tea released a loud childish scream. She fell to her knees, sobbing while Yami held her trying to calm her down. Tea wrapped her arms around Yami's waist tightly, sobbing into his chest.
"In other news," the announcer drowned. "Their bodies have been found in Domino city Mall. Their names have not been identified…" the TV went on to show pictures of three familiar people. Tea finally had the courage to look up only to be horrified to see images of Duke, Tristan and Ryou.
"Oh no!" she groaned. "Not them too!"
"Duke, Tristan and Ryou." Yami looked on at the T.V screen.
"Why?!?" Tea cried out. Yami held her tightly as he continued watching.
"Security cameras have caught this massive footage on the suspect who performed this crime." The T.V went onto show Santa shooting Duke on the stomach and Breaking Tristan's neck while Ryou escaped in the vent. The scene shifted to the arcade when the suspect was playing Whack-A-Mole, knocking Ryou with the mallet over and over again.
Tea's eyes widened with shock. "Wait a minute…isn't that…"
Yami's hand placed on Tea's head. "Marik."
~*~*~*~
A.N: ^_^ I like to take this time to apologize to all the Ryou fans…er…yeah you know why I put this.
~*To Be Concluded*~