Chapter Two

When the alarm clock ranged, she opened her eyes in a flash after feeling her heart give a rapid jump from her sleep. She slammed down on the clock, silencing it in just seconds.

"Another bad dream, another shitty day." She groaned as she got out of bed and headed to her bathroom. She went to the medicine cabinet and looked at her face in the mirror.

A ghost white face stared at her through the mirror's reflection. Dark rings had started to appear as she looked like the ghost in very much sense in her dream. She had gotten very little sleep the other night when the nightmare came. As like every other night too. Always was and always will be.

How can you see into my eyes like open doors
leading you down into my core
where I've become so numb without a soul my spirit sleeping somewhere cold
until you find it there and lead it back home

It seem to only dread closer on her as she tried to run away from the very shadows of her thoughts as they always tend to close in on the memories of past nightmares as before. People would consider this as a sign of simple nightmare ordeal after a traumatized childhood, which she should have gotten over by now after past mourning and such. Some said time would heal and remorse and misery disappears after that person gets on with their lives again once more.

(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can't wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
bid my blood to run
(I can't wake up)
before I come undone
(Save me)
save me from the nothing I've become

But not to those who have been having them all their life, Tea thought miserably. Yeah right, those jerks don't know a single damn thing at all! Standing there looking at herself, she drew her eyes away from the image she seen countless times, only to be consentingly remind of who's face she remind her of.

"Why, why are you doing this to me?" She whispered to herself as last night's dream came into mind.

"Anzu...."

Why....why are you doing this to me. You and these horrible nightmares.

In her dream, she was in a dark terrifying place, a place where only shadows and darkness seem to tangle up in a woven well-thread web in the very room she stood in. A place she had been in before and seen the worst of her nightmares happen countless times. She was walking down that path that leads her down that eerie hall until she had seen her.

Anzu. Her sister. Her dead sister.

now that I know what I'm without
you can't just leave me
breathe into me and make me real
bring me to life

So thin and pale she was, like never to be touched by the sun at all and there was the same emptiness in her once beautiful blue eyes that Tea had seen millions of times before in this place. So empty and hollow. Without life.

Without Anzu at all. An empty shell of what her sister once was was staring right across from her.

Tea saw that she was holding something in her hand as Tea stepped closer to her.

A knife.

A knife that Anzu raised slowly over herself, carefully aimed at a vital part of her then slowly plunging it down into her body.

She said something that Tea couldn't understand but watched in horror as the blade was being pushed right into her sister's own beating heart...

And Tea heard herself screamed, screaming as she watched the blood that spurted out from Anzu's chest, black. Black as this endless abyss. Anzu looked over towards her, her mouth opened wide and black blood came oozing out of her lips.

"Tea..." And was gone there as she lied dead on the ground as Tea heard herself screamed.

(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can't wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
bid my blood to run
(I can't wake up)
before I come undone
(Save me)
save me from the nothing I've become

"Anzu!!!!!" And woke up at the same time as her alarm did just then.

"Why does this happen, why just why" She felt a wave of nausea rolled in her stomach and headed over to the toilet and retched out of what little she had ate yesterday.

"God..." She panted as the last bit of whatever food she last had was out of her system and flushed it down.

She quickly undress and headed into the shower for the cold water to wash away all those terrible thoughts and memories of what she dreamed. Horrible nightmares to what happens to Anzu.

Sometimes I don't understand why this has to happen to me or to you even? She thought as she recalled that some of the other dreams that had been much more worse than what she had dreamed in the past.

Before she had seen Anzu slit her wrists or used a cup of poison, or fall of a cliff where sharp rocks waited at the bottom, or drown or....

She shuddered, and those had been the first nightmares she recalled. Why are you haunting me like this Anzu, isn't it bad enough that you're already...

She turned off the shower and step out drying out. And as she looked at herself again she saw herself crying. Bitter tears falling and trailing down her cheeks. She used the towel to wipe them away but she could feel herself crying inside.

After Tea finished getting dressed and headed out the house for school, she again wondered how it happened almost everyday of her life. How this would even happened to someone like them...

"I should go probably pay her a visit soon. It has been awhile since I last seen her." She said sadly as she headed down the sidewalk to Moto's gameshop.

I mean we were happy together then as a family, just the two of us together as we had been sisters and understood each other, through smiles and tears. Tea considered it thought as she thought and made comparison of the new family she was in. The Gardeners, Tea's adopting parents, had already gone to work and probably wouldn't be home until after Tea went to sleep.

Or they go on one of their 'business' trips, leaving me to the house for a month or so. She sighed.

The Gardeners were ok parents. Sure they loved her and given her everything she could ever wanted, but the last thing she truly ever want was the one thing she could never have again with:

Love. And where was that love? Gone from her life.

Gone forever. Passed away with my sister Anzu.

frozen inside without your touch without your love darling only you are the life among the dead

Just as she made her way downtown towards the gameshop, Tea quickly plastered a fake happy smile on her face and hope none that the makeup she had applied covered up her pale complexion as she did each morning. She always hate putting that glob on her face, but it easily help to disguise her paleness so no one would get suspicion or know better of the sleepless nights she had. She knew that she had to acted normal around other people, especially to her 'friends', if that what she wanted to call them.

When she first met the gang, Yugi, Joey, and Tristan, she preferred to call them 'acquaintances' in her head, not friends and such. Friends would be coming too close to home to where her heart lied. But after spending a lot to know them and going on adventures, she found that she could get use to them. But the empty void inside her still could not be filled.

Sadly she thought it would always remain empty.... forever.

She saw Solomon, Yugi's grandpa, sweeping dust by the front door, getting ready to start business. He looked up and waved as he saw Tea coming. "Morning Mr. Moto." She called out.

"Oh hello Tea. Yugi will be down in a sec." And right on cue Yugi appeared out the door, the puzzle around his neck jangled as he walked over to Tea.

"Hey Tea, ready to go." She nodded. They walked to the school together and headed to their first class where the rest of the gang was. Joey and Ryou were dueling and Tristan and Duke were arguing again on who would get to date Joey's sister, Serenity. She rolled her eyes at them and then sat down in her seat looking about. Her eyes wandered to students coming in and taking their seat to the very back where Kaiba sat, typing on his laptop.

She saw that a lot of things have changed, the gang had more friends and allies with Mai, Serenity, Duke, Bakura, Ryou's Yami if he was considered one, Malik, Isisuke, Odion, and so on, even Kaiba though she knew he wouldn't dare admit that to anyone he was their friend.

Many things are happening and we all are pushing forward and going ahead in our lives. She was stopped when the bell ranged and the teacher came in and started class. Well at least I can take my mine off of my dreams for the moment at least, she thought doubtfully.

Classes went by fast in Domino High and she and the guys were already walking back to the gameshop. On their way, everyone was chatting about the new duel championship that Kaiba's tournament had coming up.

Hmm, Kaiba's always trying to get his title back from Yugi ever since he beat him, when will they learned. Joey was saying he was going to beat Kaiba's butt (which will be in a million years she thought) while Yugi says Yami's is going to have a great time during the duels. She wished she could just walk away without telling them and not look back, but they would suspect something was wrong and probably asked her later why. Seeing as she had little else to do that day, she followed them to the shop and watched as they played and practice. But still her mind wandered on and off to other thoughts in mind. After staying for three hours, she finally told them she had to go.

"Okay, see ya Tea." They said as she left. Yeah see ya she called out to them. Along the way, a tear was shed down her face as she made it to her house.

She made it back around four, the answering machine beeping with one call. Guessing it was her parents, she played it while she went to the fridge and got herself a drink and dinner.

"Honey, me and your father are going to Hawaii for business..."

Yeah right, Tea thought as she popped the top of the Diet Pepsi and taking a plate of cold leftover pizza up the stairs to her room. The message ended saying her parents were going to be gone for about three months.

"Wow, how exciting and I bet that wasn't really a business trip you had planned on but more likely to get away from her daughter!" She said, sarcasm dripping from her words as she shut the door behind her. She laid the pizza and drink on the stand and went to the CD stack collection of towering burned CDs. A lot of the CDs had belonged to her sister, all downloaded and burned from the Internet. Tea had gotten those CDs along with the WebPages address where she got her music from as Anzu once told her where the best places were to download and how to keep spyware off the desktop.

Tea grabbed one of the CDs and plopped it into her stereo system and placed it on full blast. Music blared out loud as she sat on the bed and munched on her cold dinner.

all this time I can't believe I couldn't see
kept in the dark but you were there in front of me
I've been sleeping a thousand years it seems
got to open my eyes to everything
without a thought without a voice without a soul
don't let me die here
there must be something more
bring me to life

Her sister always liked Evanescence and their haunting melody sooth Tea as she listened to them. She then layback down on her bed and stared at the ceiling. Then going to the side of her bed, she went underneath and grabbed a slim black box and laid it out in front of her. Inside laid all the treasures of Anzu Mazaki that had been collected and cherished. Pictures of them being together, small tinkets that Anzu had collected over the years and a black journal embedded with a black rose. Tea kept that close to her as this held all the precious things her sister had ever accounted before in her life. All memories, poems, lyrics, everything her sister had written down as they lived together as the only two to understand. Tea took one picture out of the box where a smiling seven Tea stood next to a thirteen year old Anzu whose eyes twinkled with joy and laughter.


(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can't wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
bid my blood to run
(I can't wake up)
before I come undone
(Save me)
save me from the nothing I've become

(Bring me to life)
I've been living a lie, there's nothing inside
(Bring me to life)

Why, Anzu why did you have to leave me? Why did you have to leave me so soon? She thought gripping the picture tightly in her hands and letting tears fall on it before she wiped them cleared. She stood and stared out through the window to where the sky was darkening and her thoughts were as dark and cloudy as the endless night ahead.

Bring me to life
(I've been living a lie, there's nothing inside)
Bring me to life