Chapter 3

There was another solution to insomnia the young CEO realized, and it wasn't work related. He sat in his bed, back against the expensive and exquisitely detailed headboard, with a leather bound book. The item had been purchased with the intension of using it to relieve his stress when work became too much, a release. But, it seemed work was more powerful than he realized and the book was left blank for a few years. Seto gently traced the imprinted design on the cover.

Picking up the pen from the night table, Seto clicked the top and opened the book. And then he stared at the blank page, as if the lines would tell him what to put down on them. (Where do I even start?) He thought, frowning slightly, (Probably with the nightmares...) As he pressed the pen's tip to the paper, the words easily began to flow from his fingers onto the page. Time flew by as Seto filled up page after page with vivid recollections of the nightmares that plagued him.

After what seemed like only a few minutes, Seto glanced down and realized he had filled up a good twenty pages with his first real entry. Gently he placed the pen down beside him on the mattress and flipped back glancing briefly at the always perfectly written characters. A great relief swept over at him as he genuinely felt better after pouring his soul out to the inanimate counsel. So relieved was he that a rare smile crossed his pale lips, and it didn't dare grow any wider. There was a small, nagging feeling in his stomach not to let his guard down. History proved any small high will be met with a devastating low.

However, Seto couldn't control his eyelids. They drooped down ever so often, demanding to the young man that they required shutting and refusing to be open any longer. His grip on the book loosened, as his eyes closed gently, a small sigh escaping him. Soon his entire body relaxed and he fell into a much-needed sleep.

At twelve midnight, the Blue Eyes White Dragon clock on the far left corner of his dresser beeped quietly. One of the large French doors was left open, in Domino's sudden heat wave, any attempt to gather cold air was mandatory. In his new state, the common sense idea of jacking up the air conditioning didn't occur to the eldest Kaiba brother. At 12:01, a black figure appeared outside of the moonlit doors. Sliding through the open space of the door, the figure glanced around the room and saw Seto sleeping peacefully.

Their feet didn't make a sound as they crossed the room over to the master bed. The black cloak brushed against the floor, giving the appearance the figure was gliding. A hood covered their face, hands clasped together, engulfed by the voluminous sleeves. Their lips curled into a smirk, eying the sleeping executive. Raising her hands, Kurayami lifted the hood from her head, setting it down. "It seems you've forgotten me, Seto Kaiba," she whispered, her breath dancing across his cheeks. "I can't have that...you're going to be very important to me later on..."

Reaching over, Kurayami swiftly plucked the book from Seto's loose grasp. "Hm, what is it we have here?" She murmured. Flipping the book open, she read his recollection of her induced nightmares. It took quite some restraint not to laugh at how shaken up he was. Her plan was working perfectly, everything moving as she had envisioned, down to the last subtle movement. "I should leave you a bit of a note...to show my appreciation of your remembrance." Raising her skeletal arm, she pricked her right wrist, a small trickle of blood falling onto the porcelain white of the bone finger. Using her blood as ink, she wrote a small message back to the President of Kaiba Corporation. "I do hope you read my message, Seto..."

Seto shifted slightly, the smell of her blood wafting up to his nostrils. Kurayami raised an eyebrow, and set the book down where she had picked it up from. "No, I don't want to buy your vacuum cleaner," he mumbled in his sleep.

A wider smirk crossed Kurayami's lips, and she wiped her skeletal hand before placing it on his cheek, caressing it almost lovingly. "Oh my little High Priest," she chuckled, "Is that what you dream about? I think I should change that..." Leaning in, Kurayami placed a kiss on Seto's lips, her skeletal hand forcing black energy into Seto's mind. Smiling darkly to herself, Kurayami slowly moved back to the open French door, and left, without another sound.

[Late Morning]

Seto woke with a horrible crick in his neck, said body part incredibly stiff from sleeping with his head against hard wood. The pain was dull, yet sharp at the same time, and he rubbed his neck with some added pressure in order to alleviate the pain. He glanced down at his lap, noticing the book still there. "I fell asleep while reading it..." he mumbled to himself, picking it up. "What did I even write last?" Seto flipped the pages to the last page and stared in horror.

Written in neat Kanji in crimson blood was a simple message, 'Sleep has evaded you, but the days draw nearer ... to when the only possibility is eternal rest.'

Quickly he threw off the covers and stumbled to his closet where he threw on some clothes, and ran out of the room. There was only one person that could help him decipher what this message could possibly entail for him in the coming days. He sprinted out of the Kaiba estate to find Isis Ishtar.

A lanky tanned male leaned against a lamppost, his amethyst eyes scanned the people scurrying past, holding their belongings close to their bodies, as if a random mugger will jump them at any second. He chuckled, brushing his starkly contrasting blonde hair out of his eyes. As he pushed himself off of the post, he noticed a tall brown haired young man run like he was being chased by a knife-wielding maniac.

Curious, the foreign boy squinted, trying to get a better look at the sprinting male. (That's...quite odd to do out in broad daylight,) he thought. His eyes suddenly narrowed as he saw the other male run into the museum. (What business does he have in there?) Malik Ishtar didn't know the young man bursting into Isis' museum, but he was damn well going to make sure it had nothing to do with his sister. He was going to have to check this one out himself.

Malik pushed his way through the crowd none too gently, ignoring the cries and curses that flew out from the disgruntled public that was directed at him. He was intent on reaching his destination, and find out just what the hell that guy was doing. Soon Malik reached the steps of the museum and walked in, keeping his footsteps quiet, easily spotting the sprinter, as he had stopped to look around, trying to figure out where Isis was. "Now just what is the hurry?" he murmured to himself.

He followed the taller male into room after room, keeping himself out of view as the latter finally found Isis, who was examining an old artefact. "You have to help me!" He demanded horror and anxiety rampant in his voice.

Malik's sister turned around, her eyes clouded with worry. "Seto? What is the matter? You look dreadful," she said, putting a hand to her mouth.

"That woman!" Seto exclaimed, waving his book around. Apparently this should have clued Isis into the situation, but her eyes still showed she hadn't a clue what was bothering Seto. Seto dropped his voice to a whisper. "The demon woman," he whispered, clutching the book. "She came to me."

Isis frowned deeply. "She has?" Suddenly she turned around and closed the doors leading into the room, locking them with her administrator key. "We can have the privacy we need now." Isis looked at him. "Tell me what happened, everything."

Seto closed his eyes, took a shaky breath and opened his eyes as he began to speak. "Last night, I had trouble getting to sleep ... I've been ... well a raging insomniac the last few days, and I found this book I bought months ago. I bought it to write in as a journal of sorts, but work took away its primary purpose...so that night I began writing in it about the dreams I've had and just...everything. It was an amazing release.

"Soon enough I dozed off after writing twenty pages. I don't remember anything other than that, it was the first time I've ever had a dreamless sleep. But then, the next morning I wake up and besides my stiff neck, there was this ... horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach, what you get when the day starts off terrible...I remembered the book that was in my lap and opened it, to see just how much I had written...

"And that's when I saw it on the last page. There was...a message written to me, written in blood, that said 'Sleep has evaded you, but the days draw nearer ... to when the only possibility is eternal rest.' I couldn't think straight. I still can't. I thought this was all in my head and you were full of crap, but now this...this cements it...some crazed psycho is after me and I don't know where they'll come from next!" Seto explained, running a hand through his hair.

Isis' frown deepened, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Come with me, Seto. There is something I must show you now." Seto nodded, unsure of what the proprietor of the museum had in mind, but at this point, he was willing to go along with anything. The two left through the door on the east wall.

Malik came out of his hiding spot, vaguely surprised that Isis' Tauk didn't alert her to his presence and subsequent eavesdropping. The whole ordeal that this Seto described to his sister intrigued him. A demonic woman with such unearthly powers was tormenting him in his sleep and now consciousness? Someone with such powers would most definitely be a powerful ally.

It was then that Malik Ishtar decided he would go on a search for Seto Kaiba's mental tormentor. Grasping the Millennium Rod that was in its holster on his belt, his lips curled into a smirk. There was no doubt in his mind, that not only would this primarily abysmal trip to Japan not be a total waste, it may just be the best thing he's ever done. "I will find you, Mistress of the Dark," he whispered to himself. "We shall have quite the conversation..."

-TBC-