*CHAPTER 1*

~Yuugi's POV~

   I didn't want to open my eyes.  It wasn't that I was afraid of what I would see when I did…I was just too exhausted to manage even that small effort.  The sun beat down on my face and turned the air hot and heavy.  My throat was painfully dry and parched.  I tried to swallow, only to choke on something rough and grainy.  Dirt? I vaguely wondered as I coughed.

            "I think he's waking up, Heath," a girl's voice whispered from somewhere above me.  "Aiden?  Can you hear me?"

   Heath?  Aiden?  What…?

            "You're wrong, Catherine," a tinny male voice responded.

   Catherine…that's not a Japanese name, I thought.  Where am I?  America?  England?

   The cold water hit me like a slap in the face.  I sat up with a yelp, spitting dirt out of my mouth and mopping at my eyes as a pair of thin, strong arms embraced me in a strong hug.

            "I told my father not to send you out in this heat," the girl's voice said.  "Are you all right, Aiden?"

            "Who's—" That's as far as I got before I opened my eyes and saw.  The girl that was holding me had dark brown eyes and deeply tanned skin.  She had a cute button nose and nice, red lips.  She might have been pretty…if not for the hundred or so live snakes that took the place of hair on top of her head.

   I froze.  Stopped thinking, stopped breathing…just…stopped.  I couldn't take my eyes away from that disgusting, writing mass of snakes.  I think I tried to scream, but all that came out was a sick little whimper.

            "I think he's got heatstroke, Heath," the gorgon-girl grimly announced.

            "Better take him to the tent and get back to work," answered the male voice.  I heard footsteps walking away, and wanted to scream: "Wait!  Don't leave me alone with this monster!"  All I could get out was another sobbing whimper.

            "You'll be all right, Aiden," the girl whispered, scooping me up and beginning to walk.

   Coral snake, I thought, still too horrified to look away from the snakes.  Cobra.  Sidewinder….  I was so giddy with fear I started to giggle.

            "Shh….  Just rest, Aiden."

   I finally managed to rip my gaze away from the hideous sight and caught a glance of my surroundings.  There was nothing but freshly plowed field in all directions.  Hundreds of men and women worked in lines of twenty or so sowing seeds.  Most wore hats or cloths over their heads to protect against the baking sun.  A few of the men had their shirts off and their skin was flaked with blistered sunburns.

   A huge yellow tent was the only source of shade, and a few workers were huddled in its shadow, red and sweating.  When they caught sight of the gorgon-girl, they started howling: "Snake-headed freak!" and "Bastard child!"  A couple of the snakes on her head hissed menacingly at the workers, and they relented; though I still wonder if it was because they were actually afraid or if they looked as tired as I felt.

   She carried me inside the tent and hollered: "Gabe!  Are you still here?"  There was no answer, but she apparently found whoever it was she was looking for, because she smiled and said: "Oh, there you are.  You've got company; I've brought Aiden."

            "How many times've I gotta tell you people?  My name's not—oh Jesus!" a very familiar Brooklyn-accented voice shouted.

   The gorgon-girl laughed and answered: "Right.  Your name's not Jesus.  Anyways, here's Aiden."  She set me down on the floor and added: "I'd better get back to work."  And then she was gone.

   I almost cried with relief.  I would have if the owner of the accented voice hadn't have chosen that moment to inquire: "Yug?"

            "Jou!" I sobbed.

            "You all right?  That…thing…didn't hurt ya, did it?"

   I shook my head no and shakily sat up.  "Where—" my voice cracked and I cleared my throat before asking: "Where are we, Jou?  How did we get here?"

            "I got no idea.  Last thing I remember is that creepy house and then the explosion."

            "What ex—" I trailed off as memory came back to me full force.  Sneaking out of the house.  Yami and Bakura.  Kaiba.  The gunshot wound.  Pain.  Heat.  A huge noise.  Then…nothing.  I pulled up my tee shirt and frantically ran a hand over my stomach, half expecting to feel a gaping, bloody hole.

            "Do ya think…maybe…we died?"

            "What?" I demanded, letting my shirt flop back down.

            "In the explosion.  Do ya think we died?"

   I shivered.  "I…I don't know.  What are we doing here if we did?"

            "Maybe we're in Hell."

   It was believable.  The gorgon-girl certainly could pass as a demon.  But….  "No," I quietly replied.  "Why would they be calling me Aiden and you…what was it?"

            "Gabe," he chuckled.  "Maybe Hell's got its records messed up."

   We laughed nervously at the feeble attempt at a joke.

            "We should ask someone," I wheezed through my laughter.

            "Yeah, I can see it now," Jou replied, choking back a few laughs of his own.  "'Um, excuse me, sir.  Can ya tell me who da hell I am and what da hell I'm doin' here?'"

   We started giggling stupidly.  The people outside the tent probably thought we were completely insane.

            "Hey, did ya try talkin' to Yami? Maybe he knows what's goin' on," Jou suggested, once he was finally able to speak again.

            "No.  Wait a minute," I answered.  I concentrated, trying to tap into our mental link…and didn't find it.  What? I thought as I (unsuccessfully) tried again.

            "Shit, Yug!  Your puzzle!" Jou exclaimed, shattering my concentration.

   And that was when I noticed the absence of the familiar weight around my neck.  I brought my hand to my chest, but felt no sign of metal or chain.  My puzzle was gone.

~Anzu's POV~

   I couldn't believe it when I heard the news.  I wouldn't believe it.  Not until Honda drove me to the hospital to see for myself.  And even there in the car, I didn't believe.  I didn't believe, even when I saw Shizuka, eyes red and puffy from crying.  I didn't believe; not even when I found Mokuba huddled miserably in a waiting room, staring mindlessly into space I didn't believe.

   We saw Jounouchi first.  IV's.  Heart monitor.  Ventilator.  Burns all over his face and chest.  Coma.  Honda could barely take it.  He gave a kind of choked off yell when he saw him.  I believed.  I believed, but I didn't cry.

   Next, Ryou.  They'd said he'd been thrown out a window by the explosion, and I'd hoped (God how I'd hoped!) he'd been spared.  But no.  Everything above his eyebrows was bandages.  I couldn't see even a hint of that long, silvery hair of his.  Coma.  I didn't cry, not even when Bakura came out of the Ring and chased us out of the room, hissing curses in Egyptian after us.

   Seto.  Honda hadn't wanted to even try and see Seto, but I insisted.  The doctors wouldn't let us in, but informed us that "his condition is stable."  They said he suffered third-degree burns all over his back.  They said he'd saved Yuugi.  That he'd pulled him out of the house; that he'd been going back to get Jounouchi.  Honda wouldn't believe it.  I could hardly believe.  But I did, and still I didn't cry.

   Yuugi.  We couldn't see Yuugi, either.  He was struggling, they told us.  The bullet wound was critical.  But (thank God) no burns.  And still, I didn't cry.

            "Why?" Shizuka had whispered, burying her face in Honda's shoulder.  "Why?"  He'd hugged her, stroked her hair, whispered to her, hid his own tears for her sake.  He'd steered her off toward a waiting room, and I didn't follow.  I went to wait at the car.  And still, even then, I didn't cry.

   I stepped off the elevator on the ground floor and almost ran straight into Mai Kujaku.  She grabbed my arm and yanked me around the corner, into a somewhat deserted hallway.

            "Anzu," she whispered.  "I just read it."

   I looked and saw that clenched in her left hand was a newspaper.  The newspaper with the story about my friends, or "the unfortunates", as they were dubbed.

            "I just read it," she repeated.  It was then that I noticed how awful she looked.  She was pale.  Her hair was wild and unkempt.  And she looked absolutely terrified.

            "Oh, God, Anzu.  I was supposed to be there," she croaked.

            "What?  What are you talking about?"

   She pulled a card out of her pocket and pushed it into my hands with a sob.  No, not a card…an invitation.

            "What is this?"

            "Just read it!"

   I opened the invitation.  "Late-night duel for exceptional duelists," the blue and gold writing announced.  "2:00 am, sharp."  And there it was.  The address.  The same address.  The same house.

            "I was supposed to be there!" she whispered again.

   I walked out of the hospital in a daze.  And still, I didn't cry.

   I went back to Honda's car.  I leaned on the hood.  Through the windshield, my eyes fell on the open newspaper and the headline: "TRAGEDY AT HILL HOUSE—FOUR COMATOSE".  And then I cried.

Author's Notes: Even more morbidity.  It'll get exciting soon, I swear!  Thanks for reading, and thanks to my lone reviewer, BluJay!