CK: Yay! Chapter 2 is up! Responses time!

Minor Arcana: Thank you for your compliments! It's nice to get such positive reviews. Unfortunately, I haven't had much time on my hands lately, so I haven't had a chane to read any of your fics, but once I do, I'll make sure to check them out.

Myotismon13: Thank you! This means a lot, because I've read some of your works, so I know how good a writer you are (I loved Pegasus' Answering Machine).

Tola: I don't think you're the only one, and I happen to agree with you. Yuugi, Anzu, Jounouchi, and Ryou most definitely fit into this category (Honda's a static character who doesn't have too much depth or history, so I don't think that it applies to him).

CPegasus: Thank you for your kind comments! I hope you got my review of 'All For You', and thank you for promising to read the rest of the chapters. Arigato!

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh, 'Hello' by Evanescence, 'No One Mourns the Wicked', 'The Newcomes', 'The Pardon', 'Rock Springs', 'My Sweet Audrina, the works of Edgar Allen Poe, or Newsweek ((boy, that was long))

"No one mourns the Wicked

No one cries "They won't return!"

No one lays a lily on their grave...

And Goodness knows

The Wicked's lives are lonely

Goodness knows

The Wicked die alone

It just shows when you're Wicked

You're left only

On your own...

(spoken) Are people born Wicked? Or do they have Wickedness thrust upon them?"

-"No One Mourns the Wicked", from the musical "Wicked"

"The wicked are wicked, no doubt, and they go astray and they fall, and they come by their deserts; but who can tell the mischief which the very virtuous do?"

-'The Newcomes' by William Thackeray

Voices......

He heard voices.....

They were starting to get louder, and Pegasus began to make out what they were saying. Was he dead? Was this the afterlife?

".........didn't find him for three hours....."

".........surprised he didn't die....."

".......been raining for hours...........wonder he didn't die from exposure....."

There was another sound, too.......a siren. He was in an ambulance. He had failed. He had failed, once again, to reunite himself with Cyndia.

How could he have always failed? How? Was it his destiny to lose, just like it was Yuugi's destiny to win? Did he have a curse upon him? Perhaps it was karma.......bad karma returning to haunt him for what he'd done in the past.

He could see now.......his vision was blurry. Croquet was in the ambulance, sitting nearby, in fact. He must've been the one to find Pegasus. And there was a nurse.........they were saying something again, but Pegasus could only make out little snippets......

".........probably in a coma........hit in the head very hard...."

Heehee. Despite himself, Pegasus wanted to giggle. A coma..............but he could still see and hear. It was just like that book he had read, the one with the little girl..........'My Sweet Audrina'. He had read it during those horrific months between when he found out Cyndia would die, and when she actually did. He had read many, many books just like that one, and they were all about the dead. How the dead never left you. How the dead would haunt you even once they were gone. Pegasus's favorites were by Edgar Allen Poe.......'the Raven' and 'Annabelle Lee'. Poe had lost his love true.......and great tragedy had inspired his greatest works.

(Playground school bell rings again)

Cyndia had always been a sweet little girl........the girl next door, the one with the never-ending smile. She was pure, innocent, the one whom darkness could not touch. Her parents were extremely strict and over-bearing, making sure that their children would always remain good. They always believed that they were successful, and all appearances pointed to that success. Cyndia and her sister, Estella, always drawn people to them with their innocent charm and beauty. All of the boys around them fell for either one or the other. Pegasus had been lucky. He had managed to make her fall in love with him as well.

Cyndia had always been sick........not dangerously, but sick nonetheless. A blood condition. She couldn't build up immunities as well as everyone else, so she became sick easier and the disease would always linger longer. But the doctors frequently assured Cyndia's family, over and over again, that it would never kill her, as long as she took care of herself.

(Rain clouds come to play again)

It happened when she was fifteen. She kept getting sick, over and over again, more so than usual. It got to the point where she was forced to leave school and a private tutor was brought in to teach, whenever Cyndia was well enough to learn. No one could understand it. Her parents blamed the doctors, saying that they had lied about her condition. The doctors denied it, which only made her parents angrier. Pegasus would visit Cyndia when she was ill, and he would watch as she tried to calm her parents. "It's no one's fault that I'm sick," she'd say. "That's just the way it is."

One night, though, it got worse. She had a fever that refused to get better, and her temperature climbed to 104 degrees. Her heart kept beating irregularly, and even though she was sweating profusely, she kept on shivering as though it were very cold. Her family rushed her to the hospital. The doctors put her into a stable condition, and her fever lessened. However, they decided to run some tests, to see what had happened to someone so young. What they found shocked everyone, but explained everything....

AIDS.

(Has no one told you she's not breathing?)

The next month or so was insanity. Cyndia's family was chaotic. How could this have happened to such an innocent little girl? Cyndia didn't give them any answers, and neither could Pegasus. But Pegasus knew whom everyone suspected. Cyndia's family believed that Pegasus had been unfaithful, and that it was his fault that she would die. Pegasus's own family blamed Cyndia, thinking that she had cheated on him. Pegasus and Cyndia both knew that they had been faithful, they had sworn it to each other so many times. But that still didn't give them an answer.

Everyone in their families were tested. There was always the possibility that either Pegasus's or Cyndia's parents had the disease, handing it down to their children. Everyone's tests came out negative. Cyndia was the only one infected with AIDS. Knowing this gave Pegasus's parents a sort of smug satisfaction, knowing that it wasn't –their- son that had given it to her. Cyndia swore to Pegasus, over and over again, that she hadn't cheated, she HADN'T, that she loved him and would never do something like that to him. Pegasus believed her. He trusted her, he loved her, he knew she would never lie to him.

But that illusion was shattered quickly. It was true that Cyndia had never cheated on him. But she had lied. She had lied to them all. They all found out when her dad came to wake her up one morning, and found her sitting on her bed, hypodermic needle in hand.

(Hello)

(I'm your mind giving you someone to talk to)

Enraged, her parents searched her entire room. They were shocked to discover just how deep into drug addiction Cyndia had sunk. Marijuana and cocaine were found scattered around her room, and more needles were found upon closer inspection. Glue and spray paint that the servants had sworn had gone missing were hidden in Cyndia's dresser drawers. A wallet belonging to Cyndia's dad was found, with large amounts of money within, presumably so that Cyndia could buy more of her drugs.

Her parents kept her in their home, never letting her leave unless one of them went with her or some other trusted adult. They swore everyone who knew to secrecy, because they didn't want a scandal. Cyndia had enough problems already without her face plastered onto the evening news. If they kept her inside, if they kept a close watch on her, then she would be alright. They would get her through this.

(Hello)

Pegasus didn't know what to do anymore. She'd lied. She'd lied to everyone close to her. For several weeks afterwards, he rarely ventured out of his room. Cyndia would call him every day, begging, pleading with him, swearing that she had never meant to hurt him, that she loved him and wanted to be with him forever. But he couldn't believe her anymore. It hurt just to think about Cyndia, how she had betrayed him.......knowing all the while that he loved her, and that she would die...........

After about two and a half weeks, he broke down and went to visit Cyndia. He had wanted to see her badly this entire time, despite how much it hurt to think of her. When he arrived at her house, he was greeted by Cyndia's dad. "If you want to visit her, she's in her room," he said, quietly. "She's been in there for almost two solid days. She won't even eat any more."

Pegasus went upstairs to Cyndia's room, and noticed that the door was open. When he peered inside, his stomach churned. He saw Cyndia, sitting on her bed, her face pale and her eyes bloodshot, giggling insanely. An odd, hazy smoke wafted out of the room, and Pegasus guessed quickly what had happened. He got out of the house as quickly as he could. Cyndia hadn't even seen him at the door. He couldn't face her now......he doubted that he could ever face her again....

(If I smile and don't believe)

(Soon I know I'll wake from this dream)

The night of his visit, Pegasus attempted suicide for the first time. He couldn't handle it any more, it was just too much. He twisted one of his bedsheets into a crude rope, forming a noose. He stood on a stool, placed the noose around his neck, and kicked the little stool away. But the sheets tore under his weight, and he crashed onto the ground. His parents heard the commotion and came to see what had happened. It didn't take long to see what he had tried to do.

Pegasus was sent to a hospital to receive therapy, where they tried to cure his depression. Pegasus didn't remember much of it well, just doctors talking and smiling, always asking him if he felt alright. Of course he wasn't alright. The girl he loved was going to die. The girl he loved was a drug addict. And the girl he loved had lied and betrayed everyone. And yet, throughout it all, he loved her. He loved her too much for him to bear.

(Don't try to fix me, I'm not broken)

He did remember one thing about therapy, though: the paintings. The doctors had tried to get him to express his unhappiness through his paintings. And he had, but it was nothing like the doctors expected. Pegasus painted horrible creations of monsters tearing people limb from limb, of corpses lying on the ground and bleeding, of horrified men and women screaming in terror. The doctors were confused at first, but Pegasus knew why he needed to paint these things. He needed someone to suffer, to go through the agony he himself was experiencing. Someone was to blame for this, it was someone's fault that Cyndia would die. Pegasus knew, deep down, that Cyndia had brought this all upon herself, but he didn't want to think that. Instead, he blamed an unknown someone. Some unknown person had placed the drugs in her hands, had forced her to inhale them, and had done it over and over again so that she couldn't stop. Pegasus, throughout the years that passed, had watched as the face of this unknown person changed. Sometimes he would see himself as this unknown, other times it would change to Cyndia's parents or sister; more recently, it had changed to the faces of the Kaibas and the Mutous. Pegasus had used it as a way of coping, even if it was completely illogical: it was much easier to ruin someone's life when you believed that they had ruined yours first.

Pegasus had always felt betrayed by Cyndia's actions, but in the end, he supposed that he was just as bad. He hadn't lied, no, but he had hurt people. He and Cyndia were even now, she had betrayed him with her substance abuse, and he had betrayed her by stealing souls for her return. No one was morally superior to the other any more. He wondered what she'd think of him now......

Pegasus also remembered something else about the therapy sessions: Cyndia's visits. After a week, she came to see him. When she arrived, he almost didn't recognize her. She had been losing weight very rapidly, and her skin had become taut around her bones. She was pale, and sickly, and there were gaunt rings forming under her eyes. But when she saw him, those eyes brightened, and it was as though nothing had ever happened between them. They held each other and cried, but they were just happy to see each other again. Nothing else mattered.

About a month later, Pegasus was recovering somewhat, mostly because he now saw Cyndia almost every day. She had been placed into a substance abuse program at the same hospital, and the doctors allowed them to visit each other for an hour or two at the end of the day. However, while Pegasus was growing steadily better, Cyndia was growing steadily worse. It was clear that her health was deteriorating from the AIDS quickly; add her blood condition and her withdrawal symptoms, and it was very clear that she would not live long. The doctors had already said that she wasn't expected to live out another year.

She was only sixteen........

(Hello)

(I'm the lie living for you so you can hide)

Pegasus constantly felt torn between his happiness when he saw her, and the fact that it was always tinged with sadness. Some of their best times together were during those visits at the hospital, but that was because they knew that they had to savor those days because there weren't many left. Pegasus's paintings became more and more vicious, and he began to paint more and more frequently his images of suffering and anguish.

During one of these visits, Pegasus turned to Cyndia and said: "I know that we don't have much time left together, and I know that this might come off as rash......but I love you. I love you more than anyone or anything. So I want to ask you something....

........will you marry me?"

Cyndia had held him tight and repeated, over and over again, yes, yes she would. And for the first time in a long while, the two of them laughed together. They had something to be happy about again. They would be husband and wife. It felt so good to happy.

When they told their parents, they were very supportive, and were also glad to have something to look forward to. Each family had been drained by recent events, and it was nice to look towards the future hopefully instead of with anxiety. The ceremony would be small, just the couple, their families, and the priest. Pegasus and Cyndia didn't want an outlandish wedding, nor did they have the time to plan one in any case. They made arrangements for the wedding to occur in a little over a month, which was approximately when Pegasus would be done with his therapy. Then, Pegasus and Cyndia would live out the rest of their time as man and wife.

Riding in the ambulance, Pegasus mentally smacked himself. He should have known, even back then, that nothing was supposed to work out for him. How could he have really been so hopeful?

(Don't cry)

About a week before the wedding, Pegasus was awakened in the middle of the night by one of the nurses on duty. When he asked what was wrong, all she could do was mumble that his family had summoned for him down in the emergency room. Pegasus ran as fast as he could, dread filling him with every step.

Outside of the emergency room was his family and Cyndia's. All of them were crying, and Cyndia's mom had collapsed into her husband's arms, sobbing. The only one who was dry-eyed was Cyndia's sister, Estella, who seemed to have gone into shock. She was leaning against the wall, staring wide-eyed into space, murmuring to herself over and over again. Pegasus ran up to her and begged to know what was going on. She didn't answer, she didn't even look at him. She just kept murmuring to herself, "Gone, gone, goodbye.......so it's true, she is gonna die, goodbye, gone away."

Finally, one of the doctors explained everything to him. Cyndia had seemed fine until about one hour ago, when she began coughing up blood, then passed out. The doctors checked to see what was wrong, and noticed that her heart was going into strange palpitations. They didn't understand what exactly was wrong, but they believed that it might have to do with her withdrawal from her drugs. It must have weakened her heart, and with the additional pressure from the AIDS and her blood condition, it was a fifty-fifty chance that she would live through the night.

No one slept that night. Everyone paced up and down, saying very little, just hoping silently that everything would be alright. At about 5:30 in the morning, the doctor delivered the tragic news that Cyndia would live maybe another hour. He let everyone in to say their goodbyes, and it was then that Pegasus finally began to cry.

(Suddenly I know I'm not sleeping)

One by one, they each sat next to Cyndia and held her hand, telling her how much they loved her and would miss her and that they forgave her for everything. The entire time, Pegasus stood there, staring at the dying girl on the bed in front of him. It wasn't Cyndia. It COULDN'T be Cyndia. Cyndia was a happy girl who loved to read and sing and would never do drugs or get AIDS or lie or leave them, ever, ever, ever. It was a joke, a horrible joke. The girl on the bed was lying to them, she wanted to make them think that Cyndia was going away. But she wasn't gone, she was at her house in her room, waiting for them all and wondering where they had gone. And they would all go back and see her and be relieved, and they would laugh and cry and everything would be alright again, and no one would have to lie to anyone anymore and she and Pegasus would be together forever and ever and ever.

This couldn't be happening.........he was dreaming, he was sleeping, he would wake up in his bed and everything would be the same......

When it was Pegasus's turn to say his goodbyes, he sat on the chair next to her and held her hand, like everyone else had. But for a full minute, instead of saying anything, he just sat there and wept, holding her hand and feeling how very, very cold it was. Finally, he said to her: "I love you........so please don't go......please, please, don't do this to any of us...........because you don't deserve this, you don't deserve any of this......"

For the next fifteen minutes, the two families stood next to each other, not knowing what to do. They talked, and shared memories of Cyndia, and every now and then someone would say, "You remember that, don't you Cyndia?" As though she could hear them. Maybe she could, Pegasus didn't know. All that he knew was that, as they talked, the heart monitor kept on beating, slowing down with every minute.

And when it finally stopped, there was silence throughout the room.

She was sixteen. He was seventeen.

She died surrounded by the people she cared about the most.

(Hello)

Pegasus was vaguely aware that he was no longer in the ambulance, that he was on a stretcher in the emergency room. There was a familiar sent of chloroform, too..........

Pegasus remembered this hospital.......this was the same one where Cyndia had died. Who knew, maybe this was the same emergency room. He couldn't tell, all of the rooms in the hospital looked the same to him......

There had been an article in Newsweek magazine about a year ago. It had a boldly written title: 'The 25 Most Successful People In America'. Pegasus was listed as #14, with a small blurb stating that 'he has lived the American dream, creating a business empire through the marketing of a children's game'.

Pegasus had wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Success? SUCCESS? The pit of despair known as his life was a SUCCESS? He would give it all away, if he could be happy again. He had money, yes, he had influence, yes, but what good was it to him? Here he was, in a hospital, and all he could do was hope that something would go wrong and he would die as he had planned.

(I'm still here, all that's left of yesterday)

For years afterwards, people wondered how Cyndia had been getting the drugs, when everyone knew that she rarely ventured far from her house, even before she was sick. Some people thought that it was Pegasus for a while, but it didn't last long, and it was just left as a mystery. Pegasus thought that he knew how, and there was evidence that he was correct. Estella had probably never had a drug problem, but she was always going out to parties or to nearby cities to shop. She always seemed to have nice things, things too outlandish for her parents to have bought her. People wondered where she got the money, and Pegasus had a pretty good guess.

Whoever said money was success lied. Pegasus had more money than he knew what to do with, and it had gotten him nowhere. Estella had gotten money like she wanted, and it had lost her a sister. They both were successful in terms of wealth, but it did nothing for them.

Pegasus lay there on the stretcher, his mind wandering. Her voice, her voice........he still couldn't remember her voice.......it was as though it was sitting there, waiting for him to remember it, but it was just out of his grasp.

Cyndia.....

He heard music now......softly, then louder...........why was their music in the hospital? Was he going to Heaven? Pegasus saw nothing had changed in front of his eyes, except......he hear a voice now, clearer than those of the doctors and the nurses......

"Pegasus........"

There it was.........he's though he'd forgotten, but there it was..

........Cyndia?

"I dreamt the past was never past redeeming:

But whether this was false or honest dreaming

I beg death's pardon now. And mourn the dead."

-The Pardon, by Richard Purdy Wilbur

"I thought that the difference between a successful life and an unsuccessful one....was how well you were able to put things like this out of your mind and not be bothered by them, and maybe, too, by how many troubles like this one you had to face in a lifetime. Through luck or design they had all faced fewer troubles, and by their own characters, they forgot them faster. And that's what I wanted for me. Fewer troubles, fewer memories of trouble."

-Rock Springs, by Richard Ford