CHAPTER 12
-Anzu's POV-
Three o' clock in the morning. The hour when everything seems to stop. Children sleep, parents dream. The cars have dwindled and disappeared from the streets. Teenager's curfews have passed; the shops and bars have all closed.
There's nobody out at three in the morning. Nobody to see you as you meander down the deserted sidewalks. Nobody to hear you scream, and nobody to care if you did—which is probably exactly the reason that lunatic wants to meet us at this hour, I thought as I stared blankly out the window of Honda's car.
The instructions had been simple. (1) Show up at Hill House at three o' clock in the morning or Shizuka dies. (2) Come unarmed or Shizuka dies. (3) Tell nobody or Shizuka dies.
What's he planning to do? I wondered. Kill us? Kill Shizuka? What if she's already dead? I shuddered and shrank down in my seat. We should have called the police. We should have told Yami. We should have let somebody know where we were going. I shook my head to chase away the army of "should haves" that were marching through my mind and turned to look at Honda.
He sat in the driver's seat, glaring through the windshield to the bumpy road ahead of us. His brow was set in a mask of rage and determination. His mouth was a thin, determined line and his lips were pale. His jaw was tense with fury, and I saw it twitch ever so slightly, a nearly imperceptible pulse of otherwise restrained emotion. He was pale, ashen and his face glistened with sweat. He gripped the wheel so hard his knuckles were white, though his hands were shaking badly.
Poor Honda…he really cares about her, I thought. He had been dangerously quiet since his conversation with the man with the Millennium Eye. It had seemed that he was devastated, both in mind and spirit. Now he looked ready to kill.
"What time is it?" Mai whispered from her seat in the back. Her voice was low and quaking.
I shifted my gaze to the digital clock on the dashboard. "2:55," I numbly answered. Oh God, Oh God, only five more minutes, I thought.
"D-do you think that Shizuka's—"
"Don't say it!" Honda viciously interrupted. "How can you even think that? She's fine! She'll be fine!"
Mai said nothing in response to Honda's outburst and rested her head against the window, ignoring the painful jolts as the car rumbled down the poorly-tended road.
Three minutes later (Was it really three minutes? It seemed more like three seconds) we pulled onto the dirt driveway of Hill House. We piled out of Honda's car and wordlessly began our march to…what? Death? The man with the Millennium Eye? I didn't know and I didn't want to know.
But you will know, I thought as I looked up to the top of the hill, at Hill House. Only one more minute, and then you'll be at the top of the hill…and then you'll find out.
I shivered and pulled my denim jacket tighter around my shoulders as I looked up at the house. It was decrepit and ugly with its missing windows and sunken roof. It was blackened and charred in the aftermath of the explosion—how it had managed to survive the blast at all was anybody's guess. This was the place where everything had started. And this is where it's all going to end, I thought as we climbed the half-rotted wooden steps to the front door.
For a moment, the three of us stood frozen before the door, nervous and jumpy. Beside me, I could hear Mai's breath coming in short, frightened gasps. My throat was thick with fear, and I vaguely thought, we need to knock first. It's rude to just barge in. Then Honda abruptly reached for the handle, and with a furious yank the door was open.
Honda took a step into the dark entryway. All remained still. I exhaled the breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding and followed him inside, Mai right behind me.
The smell of smoke clung heavy in the air, a constant reminder of the carnage that had taken place at this very site only days ago. The floor and walls were cracked and sagging. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw a long, badly cracked table tipped on its side and bits and pieces of broken, burnt chairs scattered around the room. It was eerily silent.
"Where's—" I began.
BLAM! The sound of the gunshot was a shock that made us all jump. The floor in front of us splintered and sent sharp slivers of wood flying into the air. It took my terrified mind a moment to make the connection: The bullet had hit the floor not two feet away from us.
"I'm glad you dumb sons of bitches showed up," said the awful, rasping voice that had threatened me so many times before over the phone.
My insides turned to liquid and panic bubbled in the back of my throat at the sound of that voice. My chest felt tight and my eyes stung with salty tears. "We…we're all going to die," I croaked.
-Jounouchi's POV-
Did you ever watch Loony Tunes when you were a kid? You know, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck…that whole crew? I used to. My favorite used to be Wile E. Coyote; the guy that was always trying to catch the Roadrunner.
I used to think it was hilarious when his oh-so-smart plans backfired on him. If he wanted to throw a stick of dynamite, it would always somehow get stuck on his hand. If he wanted to try and crush the Roadrunner under a boulder, it would always somehow crush him instead. If he tried flat-out chasing the bird, he'd always wind up running straight off a cliff. In other words, no matter how clever his little schemes were or how nifty his ACME gadgets seemed, he'd always end up with a "holy shit, I'm screwed" expression on his face before he got mangled. I was having one of those moments as we waited for Jezebel to finish picking the lock on the door to the castle keep.
What in the hell are we supposed to do once we get inside? I wondered as Jezebel cursed quietly and continued working with the lock. I glanced around our little group and decided, we look like shit. Yug looks traumatized, Ryou's bleeding, Kaiba's sick and Jezebel looks like she's about ready to spazz out. It's us against the most powerful man in the whole freaking world. We are screwed. No doubt about it.
"So," I squeaked, and winced. Christ, that sounded nice, I thought. I cleared my throat and tried again. "So…nice place dis guy's got, eh? I mean, throw some rugs on da floor, stick some posters on da wall and it's home, man." I laughed, a choked noise that sounded completely fake. Yug and Ryou looked at me as though I had lobsters crawling out of my ears. By this point, I knew I was babbling, but I went on. "Yeah, really…I mean, he's probably rollin' in the dough, so why doesn't he bother ta—"
"You're such an annoying mutt…don't you ever stop yapping?" Kaiba inquired.
Even when he's sick he's a pain in the ass, I thought.I gritted my teeth, pissed off, and was about to tell the rich jerk where could he stick his attitude when his breath caught and he started hacking again. I almost felt sorry for him as sat down hard on the ground and wheezed for breath between coughs. Almost.
Damn, I thought as I noticed the frothy blood that bubbled over his lips and dribbled down his chin. Guess he's getting worse. His coughs turned into nasty-sounding gags, and then to dry retches. Lots worse…sucks to be him.
"Kaiba…." whispered Yug as Kaiba slumped to the ground, body jerking against the dry retching. He reached out to touch Kaiba's shoulder, kind of as if to say, "Hey, man, hang in there" and Kaiba batted his hand away.
Jesus, can't he ever swallow his pride? I wondered as his retching finally subsided into deep wheezes, and then to heavy panting. He sounded like he'd just run the Boston Marathon at a dead sprint.
"I don't…need…anyone's help," he grated as he shakily got back to his feet. "I'm fine."
"Bullshit!" I snapped. "You're not fine! When someone's pukin' up blood, they ain't fine!"
Kaiba brushed at the blood that now coated his chin and lips and glared at me. Before he could bust out a good comeback, Jezebel fiercely whispered, "Shut up! I've got the lock! Are you ready to do this?"
"No," I whimpered, snapping back to the situation at hand. Oh holy shit; we're all screwed, I thought. Just like old Wile E. Coyote.
"Too bad," grunted Jezebel. She gave the door and it swung open to reveal…a huge room that was completely empty if you didn't count the small four-post bed with blue sheets that stood in the middle of it.
The five of us stood, blinking dumbly at the sight until Ryou finally queried, "No traps?"
"This is almost too easy," Jezebel muttered as she airily stepped into the keep. Yug, Ryou, Kaiba and I all flinched, expecting her to be smited down by the hand of God and reduced to a little pile of smoking ashes. She wasn't.
Jezebel crossed the room until she was at the head of the bed and looked down. "Huh," she said. "Well this is interesting."
We waited a couple of seconds for her to tell us what she found so 'interesting'. "What?" I questioned once I realized that she probably wasn't going to say anything else unless we asked.
She gave the four of us an odd look, then pulled back the covers on the bed.
The Ruler was there, asleep. He had wild, curly black hair and was so pale I wondered if he even knew the sun existed, let alone ever saw it. His face was round and full, but not fat. His pajamas were so decorated it made my eyes ache. And he couldn't have been any older than seven years old.
"What in the hell?" I whispered.
"But—" Yug trailed. Behind me, I heard Ryou quietly gasp in surprise.
"Well, let's get this over and done with, shall we?" Jezebel brightly inquired. There was a blur of motion and suddenly her hands were around the boy's neck, squeezing, choking.
The kid's eyes flew open and he kicked and scratched at the hands around his neck, but he wasn't strong enough to fight off Jezebel. It was like an ant trying to stop the Nike cross trainer that's about to smash it from coming down. The boy's eyes glittered with tears, and he must have known he was about to die.
"Jezebel, stop!" Yug screamed. He pushed past me to run into the keep.
"What? Getting squeamish at the ugly part?" Jezebel replied, squeezing all the harder. "Go wait out in the hall if you can't handle it."
Yug looked horrified and exclaimed, "You can't! He's just a kid!"
Jezebel laughed and flatly answered, "I can't just back out now, you know."
"There must be another way," Ryou said as he stepped through the door into the keep. "There must be something else we can do…."
"Idiots!" hissed Jezebel. "I'm going to kill him and get my pay and then we'll be done with it!"
"Stop this. It ain't right," I said.
Kaiba followed me into the keep and Jezebel gave him a look that said, "Talk some sense into them, would you?" He sighed and muttered, "Let him go."
Jezebel snarled with rage, but let go of the kid. He flopped back down onto his bed, gasping for breath and crying hoarsely. "You'd damn well better be paying me for all the time I've wasted," she growled.
"You'll get your pay! All of it!" Yug angrily shouted back. He sighed and brushed his bangs out of his eyes before adding, "Let's just get out of here." No sooner had the words left his mouth than the heavy door that led back to the hallway shut with a very ominous SLAM! It was exactly like something out of a bad horror movie.
Behind us, the broken sobs of the seven-year-old boy got darker and deepened into the laughter of a full-grown man. And from the sound of that laughter, it was a full-grown, extremely pissed off man.
"Shit!" Jezebel screamed. She extended her claws and made a swipe at the now adult Ruler only to be sent flying head over heels through the air. She smashed into the far wall of the keep with a loud thud, fell to the floor and stayed there.
The man on the bed looked nothing like the innocent little kid we'd seen earlier. This guy was huge. His face was lined with a beard so thick it looked like a lion's mane. His biceps must have been twice the size of one of my thighs. He had a deranged, almost psychotic glint in his eyes.
"Oh my God. Oh my God," I whispered, repeating it over and over, like a skipping CD.
Kaiba was muttering a string of cuss words that would have made Jezebel proud. Yug was trembling. Ryou's eyes were so wide I doubt he could have blinked.
"Fools," he chuckled. "All of you." He eyed each of us with a look of complete and total contempt. "Mercy. Compassion. Pity!" He spit the words at us like nails. "What use are these?"
He glowered at us, as though expecting an answer. When (surprise, surprise) none of us said anything, he laughed again. "Deaf and dumb, eh?" he snorted. His face went serious. "I have no use for the likes of you, my dear usurpers of the throne. You turncoats. You traitors!" The word echoed off the stone walls like something out of a crazy techno song. Traitors…traitors…traitors…. "Into the cesspool with the lot of you!"
The Ruler waved his arm and the ground…rippled. It rippled like a wave of water. And suddenly I wasn't standing on solid ground anymore. I was falling. Falling through heavy, rancid air.
"Aaagh!" I screamed and flailed as I fell. I caught a glimpse of Kaiba out of the corner of my eye. His wings were out, and he was flapping wildly, trying to prevent his fall, but his wings didn't do anything to help him against the dead air.
I looked down and saw an endless expanse of thick, sludgy water glimmering in the dark. It churned and spun in a wild whirlpool of filth. I had time to scream one more time before I hit the surface and sank into the turbulent waters.
Author's Notes: Whew! I can't believe I've been working on this thing for almost a year now. It's getting close to the end now. Thanks to everyone who's put up with my less-than-wonderful update record. Summer vacation's coming up soon, so I should be able to get these chapters out a little (OK, a lot) more often than I have been during the school year. Until next time….
Thanks to WildBlackWolf and Viva, Sunrise and Sunset, dragonlady1220, Leland Lancaster and AmunRa for reviewing. You guys are wonderful!