Chapter 3- GET. OUT.
Jounochi and Anzu approached the Kame Game Shop, an all-too familiar place; so many memories had been built here over the years of their friendship with Yuugi. These thoughts leaped into the minds of the two as they arrived at the front entrance; every duel that had been one, every movie that had been watched, every laugh that had been shared were shoved from their thoughts as they focused on the task at hand.
Jounochi tried the door and finding it locked, he led Anzu along the back part of the building. Pulling Yuugi's window open, he heaved himself inside; Anzu pushed herself up and climbed through after him.
"Look downstairs, Anzu; I'll scope out his room." Jounochi said softly. Anzu nodded; easing herself out the door, she crept down the stairs.
Jounochi moved things about Yuugi's room with expertise, looking ever so carefully for the one thing possession Yuugi had been known to cherish more than anything else; the Millennium Puzzle.
Searching for what seemed like forever, Jounochi gave up. With no luck, he sighed. He tip-toed out of Yuugi's room and slunk down the hall.
"JOUNOCHI!" Anzu's horrified scream echoed throughout the house. Jounochi felt a chill run down his spine; he turned and raced down the stairs, taking them two at a time.
"Anzu!" he shouted, looking around frantically.
"In… in here…" he heard her terrified whisper barely slip from her lips. He ran through the living room into the darkroom, a small, secluded part of the Mutou home. Stepping in front of Anzu, his eyes began to adjust to the dim, red light.
"Oh my god…"
Photographs were ripped into thousands of pieces; they littered the floor as shredded memories ready to be stepped on. Smiling faces shone at him from the floor; a happiness that had been mangled into portions. The nearly unrecognizable pictures were stained with the tiniest droplets of red… blood. This scared Jounochi, but what lay upon the shredded photos frightened him even more.
Shattered pieces of the Millennium Puzzle were lying, bloodstained and broken, atop the ripped pictures. He bent down onto his knees, taking into his hand the very piece that he himself had once stolen from Yuugi so long ago. The Millennium Symbol in the center of the familiar piece no longer glinted of gold; it was partially hacked away, completely drenched in scarlet. Jounochi pulled his hand away, fingertips stained with blood.
"Jounochi…" Anzu whispered, horrified. "What do you think hap…?"
"ANZU!" Jounochi ducked into the darkest corner of the darkroom, behind a box of photographs that would forever lie undeveloped.
"Yu-Yuugi-kun, I…" Yuugi looked stricken. Jounochi sat low, barely breathing. Yuugi's eyes were wide with fear.
"Anzu," be breathed, backing away from her.
"Yuugi-kun, what…?" she began to ask gently, diverting all suspicion of Jounochi's position.
"GET. OUT!" he screamed, trying to appear more angry than fearful and failing miserably. Anzu bowed slightly and raced past him, throwing the door to the Game Shop open. Jounochi heard the far away slam as the screen knocked against the door frame; he didn't dare move.
He heard a slight 'thump'. Poking his head ever so slightly around the box that concealed his huddled form, he saw Yuugi, fallen upon his knees, tears dripping off his cheeks.
"I'm sorry… I-I didn't t-tell her…" he whispered, voice nearly inaudible. Jounochi was both perplexed and surprised; Yuugi knew he was there? Lips poised to reply, he saw a dark, threatening silhouette loom ominously above him.
'Who is that?'
"You didn't tell her… true…" the voice of the shadow whispered, a curling, condescending twist to the already unfathomable tone. Jounochi narrowed his eyes, trying to make out the enigmatic figure that struck such fear into Yuugi's heart.
"But no one can ever know…" he breathed, a smirk visible in the dim, red glow.
"I know," Yuugi whispered. "I-I'm sorry, I…"
"Spare me your petty apologies!" The voice growled. "Time to teach you another lesson, Yuugi…" Jounochi's eyes widened from his haven behind the box of photographs. The mysterious figure drew a long, narrow shape from beneath his shirt.
'A… A knife!' Jounochi's heart screamed for Yuugi. 'Run, you baka! Get up and RUN!'
But Yuugi did not move. He merely bowed his head. Waiting.
Laughter, a harsh, painful laughter diced through the room. The silhouette of the murderous man was disappearing, slowly but surely, into the shadows that rotated from the floor about his body. Jounochi was aghast to realize that the man was becoming less and less visible. His hand, clenching the razor sharp dagger, the point from which gleamed so anxiously, rose up high above his head, and before Jounochi's eyes that quivered with horror-struck tears, plummeted, ever faster, straight down.
