Summary: ...
Warnings: Death, horror, all that good stuff. I won't be giving any truly graphic descriptions of gore and bodies (remember the eleven year old beta reader and the fact that I'm trying to scare people, not gross them out). Probably a slow start, but beware...
Oh, Téa fans, please do not flame me. I have nothing against Téa: She annoys me a little, but not that much. All nastiness is for plot related reasons, as you shall see. (It's just so I can go "He" and you won't have a clue who I mean.)
Prologue
How could a place so airy, so full of light even while the sky was darkening be so filled with death and darkness?
The once elegant marble columns were now pitted and eroded by constant sandstorms - like the one brewing now. The cracked flagstones had a thin covering of sand and rubble from the broken walls. The sand stirred, whirling slowly around his ankles as he moved.
He didn't want to stay here.
It wouldn't be safe when the storm came, and it reeked of old fear, old deaths. But he couldn't go - not yet.
He had to find Yami. He couldn't leave without him.
Straining his senses for any sign of the spirit - turning quickly as his anxiety started to grow into panic. He had to find him.
There was nothing - except from a faint, unfamiliar and yet familiar scent, and the distant clang of metal of metal.
He had no idea of how long he'd been running. All he knew was that the storm clouds were gathering over him, weaving into a mat above him as the wind started to pick up.
He didn't have much time.
Too many corridors. Too many doors. Too many echoes and false turns. Too much to prevent him finding his friend.
[Yami?] he called desperately. [Yami, answer me!]
[Yugi?] Yami's mental voice sounded startled and not quite awake. Had he woken him up? Then what was that noise? But there was something wrong with Yami's voice, like it wasn't quite in sinc with the world around him. [Yugi? Is something wrong?]
[Where are you? I can't find you - where - we have to get out of here now!]
[What - Yugi I'm here. Where I always am.]
Where he always was? That wasn't much help. Yugi was completely lost, and couldn't remember anything about this place.
[I can't find you though!]
But even as he thought/spoke, the clanging got louder, and he could finally place it - a doorway where the door hung, half rotted, off it's hinges.
[Yami!] he gasped, darting through it.
[Stop it Yugi. You're worrying me.]
But he didn't look worried. He looked calm, collected, with that smirky half-smile he reserved for annoying his opponents.
In this case, Yami's battle was more... physical than usual. The spirit was laughing as he ducked a swing of a bright green staff and countered with a slash at his opponents stomach.
The green staff smashed down, just in time to block the blade - that was where the clanging noise had come from. But if Yami was in a fight, why did he sound like he'd just been dragged out of his sleep?
The courtyard was opened to the sky, with fluted columns framing it. Shadows clung to them, making it impossible to see if there were other watchers, other people watching Yami and the Dark Magician try to kill each other.
Dark magic crackled where Yami had been before he'd dived out of the way, and one of the pillars disintegrated.
"Téa?" Yugi gasped, seeing the brunette illuminated in the flash. He stepped forwards, moving to her - then leapt back with a muffled scream.
[Téa! Téa NO!]
She was pinned against the stone wall like a butterfly against a card. Arrows speared her throat, arms, chest - she stared back at him with shock still apparent in those bright blue eyes. The blood had crusted over clothes, and smeared across the floor.
[Yugi?]
He tried to scream. Tried to force words out through his frozen throat.
He failed. All he could do was step forwards, trembling, eyes wide and crystallised with tears.
[Yugi? Yugi WAKE UP!]
[She's dead.] he whispered numbly. [Téa's dead.]
He sank down on his knees, violet eyes never leaving blue ones.
"Yugi?"
There was something... unreal about Yami's voice, almost as though it was a distorted echo.
[Téa's - Yugi, wake up! Please!]
That was real, in the way none of this was, not even the Dark Magician bearing down on him, staff raised.
Then Yami was between them, shielding Yugi as he always did. His hand snapped forwards - a flash of silver - the hilt of a knife sprouting from the Dark Magician's chest as he staggered back.
[Yami...?]
[Yugi PLEASE!]
He watched in horror as the Magician stopped moving, one hand coming up to brush the metal very lightly with his fingers, before he looked up at Yami with hate in his eyes.
The staff swung.
Yugi screamed.
And then there was nothing but the rich, cloying scent of roses.
Yugi jerked up, screaming, tears pouring from his eyes. Yami, kneeling by his bedside, gripping Yugi's hand with his own, was just relieved that he'd finally woken up from whatever was distressing him.
"It's okay," he soothed, squeezing the hand he held. "It's okay, it was just a bad dream. Just a bad dream..."
Yugi stopped screaming, dry sobs replacing them as he looked around wildly. Apparently he wasn't seeing much. But one thing he could see was his yami.
Yami was cut off, by the smaller boy blinking, shivering - and then flinging his arms around the startled spirit's neck.
[It was... horrible...] he sobbed into Yami's neck, clutching him tightly. [Just.. horrible...]
Yami frowned, and tentatively hugged the boy back.
[What was?]
Before Yugi could answer however, there was a clatter of footsteps, and Yami managed to fade out before Yugi's grandfather walked in on his grandson hugging his double.
"Yugi? What's wrong?"
The tears splashed down his cheeks again, and Solomon wrapped an arm around his grandson's shoulders. Yugi clung to the old man, his scared violet eyes darting across the dark room repeatedly.
"It was - was -"
"A nightmare?"
"Mm-hm." He nodded.
"Do you want to tell me about?"
"Mm-mm." He shuddered and shook his head.
Yami wasn't probing or snooping. Something had scared his friend, and he was trying to find out what. The fact that he was going into said friend's mind without permission, and was probably going to feel guilty for a long time were secondary concerns.
So he slipped back into the puzzle and skimmed over Yugi's surface thoughts.
What he saw there...
[Oh Yugi,] he murmured, his spirit gently brushing the other's. [No wonder you screamed.
Solomon, he noticed, was watching Yugi closely.
"Do you want to come downstairs for a while? Watch TV while I get you a drink?"
Yugi scrubbed his eyes, then nodded.
"Could I call Téa?"
Solomon blinked owlishly for a minute, then glanced at the alarm clock.
"Yugi," he said gently. "It's three a.m. I don't think she'll like you calling her now.
As Solomon spoke, there was an instant argument in the strident tones of the telephone.
"Who could that be - ?" he asked, half rising, before looking guiltily at his haggard grandson.
But the haggard grandson was giving him a wobbly, tearful smile and nodding reassuringly.
"You - you go see who it is. I'll be coming downstairs in a minute anyway."
Solomon paused, but was distracted by the phone's harsh call.
"Go," Yugi repeated. "I'll be fine."
But as his grandfather left, Yami saw that wobbly smile get even more wobbly, before finally shattering altogether. Instantly Yami reappeared, folding his arms around him as the smaller teen burst into tears again.
]It's okay Yugi. She'll be fine. You know that - [ Yami wasn't much good at "comfort". He was the strong one, Yugi the demonstrative one. Comforting each other wasn't really something they did that often.
But it seemed to be enough for Yugi. [I know... but - but - ] He shuddered, clinging to his yami. It was understandable. Seeing the arrow-ridden body of one of your best friends and watching another get his neck broken was hardly going to do much for your peace of mind.
[It was just a bad dream. You'll forget it in time...] But Yami's hollow comfort was cut short by Solomon yelling up the stairs, sounding bewildered.
"Yugi? It's for you!"
So... um... what do people think? I'm not sure I like this fic - or On The Cliff Edge, the one that goes with it. If anyone's interested, that fic should have been the next chapter. Not much to say on this one, so BYE!