RESPONSES

Mena: Hi, all! Since Toli isn't here to do the responds with me, Jesselda is going to help!

Jesselda: I figure why not, I'm already dead.


YamiYugimoto092

Mena: Yeah, it was a little short. That isn't our fault though!

Jesselda:...Yes it is.

Mena: Okay, so it is. Scary stories are fun, but not too many at once or you get horrible nightmares! (shivers) Anyway, thanks for reviewing! And by the way, the sequel to Home And Not Alone is up if you're interested!


Veronica

Mena: Hi! Welcome to the fic! Thanks for the awesome compliments!

Jesselda: The suspense is killing you...Great, now the twins will be arrested for another murder...

Mena: Thanks for reviewing!


Masami Mistress Of Fire

Mena: DAMIE-CHAN! (glomps Damion) I trust you've been taking good care of your Mena-chan plushie?

Jesselda:...Um...Hi, Masami...

Mena: (applauds) Good job, Jez!

Mani: Masami-sama! (stands on chair and hugs Masami's neck) I miss-ded you! I recorded all seventy of the messages Damion left Mena-sama on the answering machine...and I snuck into his room and made copies of all his love letters...and I taped this really funny thing where Mena-sama was kissing her plushie in her sleep! I think I gots about an hour of Mena-sama and Damion stuff on tape...

Jesselda: And I have a website.

Mani: And she's bribing me with chocolate!

Mena: Nice to see ya, Masami! Hope your family doesn't die! Wait...that sounds bad. Um...I have a pillow?

Jesselda: Do you know that damn wind of yours came after ME? I am NOT tolerating this! I summoned up some of my powers and destroyed the wind so...

Mena: No more kite-flying, I suppose. Anyway, thanks for reviewing and glad we shocked you!


sabishii kitsune

Mena: Yep, Toli's evil!

Jesselda: Mena, she just said she was having a moment. That means she didn't mean it.

Mena: Oh...well, anyway, you're welcome! Thank you for giving us a whole bunch of reviews! Yes, 10th grade is very brutal. What grade are we in? 11th! And it's EVIL! Enjoy the lighter workload while you can!

Jesselda: I haven't been in a school grade for about nine thousand and eighty-two years.

Mani: (pops up) I'm in second grade!

Mena: (pushes Mani's head back under the table) Nosy little sister. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!


Jennchow

Mena: I like vamp fics too! Especially when Yami's a hot vamp. Those are the best.

Jesselda: Thank you for your review and welcome to the world of insanity and horror known as Mena's and Toli's imaginations.


kristen89

Mena: Yay! Tea's dead! Wait...no she's not yet...

Jesselda: You already knew that.

Mena: You're right! I did! Oh well! Hey! You can't hug Yugi all by yourself! (hugs Yugi)

Yugi: Now I really can't breathe...

Mena: Yugi being huggled forever doesn't seem like a bad thing, but I know what you mean! Thanks for reviewing!


Silver Moon Phoenix

Mena: Hi, guys!

Jesselda: It looks like a group of oppressed spirits/personalities/prisoners around one human to me.

Mena: Toli likes to make prezzies. You can ask for just about anything, and she can probably make it in about five days. Only catch is it'll most likely be square-shaped. I love the Waking the Dragons season too! It's so exciting! Have you seen the two newest episodes? Those are good!

Jesselda: Can we move on?

Mena: Yeah, sure, okay. Thanks for reviewing, guys!

Jesselda: Oh, and don't let Luna kill Yami. They still need him


Ksaturn

Mena: Yeah, I hope she can too!

Jesselda: (sweatdrops) You are the co-author. You don't have to hope!

Mena: Oh. Right. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!


kameeko

Mena: Oh, you think so, do you? Well, only time and the latest chapter will tell!

Jesselda: You put too much suspense in everything, hikari.

Mena: I know. But it's fun that way! Anyway, I can't tell you what Yami will do...don't wanna spoil...but I will tell you this, only because I like you guys and want to give you something to think about. One of the main characters (Tea, Yugi, Joey, Serenity, Yami) is going to die. One of those five. You guys can think about that. I won't tell you which one, but I will say it's one of them.

Jesselda: You want to spoil it that much?

Mena: (shrugs) They have a one in five chance of guessing who it is. It's not bad spoiling. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!


Linkin-Phoenix

Mena: EEEK! ANGER! (hides behind Jesselda)

Jesselda: (sweatdrops) Great, now my hikari's scared out of her mind.

Mena: (stares) Wow, look at all his shiny weapons...

Jesselda: Don't worry, I have popcorn. It's Mena's, but she's not eating it. (hands popcorn to Shadow Phoenix) Even though I'm not a fan of blood, I wouldn't mind seeing the action that is to come, obviously...

Mena: Thanks for the warning about the rating. We took it to heart, as you can see. And especially after this chapter, yeah... (notices) Hey! Jezzy, that popcorn was mine!

Jesselda: I know.


Mena: Toli has pre-written this next chapter, handed it to me, told me to let you see it, and gone to get a cup of coffee and a few chill pills. She says, quote "This chapter was terribly fun to write, and makes me feel terribly evil, WUAHAHAHAHAHAHA," unquote. Because you all know I'm too sweet and innocent and sugar-happy to write something like this.

Jesselda: Your sister is a psycho.

Mena: I know! Oh, yeah, and some of you may have happened to kinda sorta notice the new rating. Yeah, about that...Our sources tell us now is the time to raise the rating, and yeah...after this chapter, it's probably going to be necessary. So that's a warning.

Jesselda: Right. Let's see what this cue card says... "Chapter rated for graphic descriptions, blood, more blood..." Yeah, I think so.

Mena: Well, let's get to it! WDOY, no matter how hard we try, it'll stay that way till we die, but at least I'm not a guy. Here's the chapter


TWELVE: In The Sea

Red blood, pooling all around. He carefully dipped a finger in it, reveling in the wonderful smell of it all. Bringing the finger to his lips, he tasted the blood. It was delicious. And it was all around him. His hands went down, seeking more of the mouthwatering liquid.

The blood...it was everywhere. Its smell was overpowering. He wanted to see more of it. He wanted to see their blood everywhere. Someone ran past him, screaming. His lips curled up into a smirk as he easily reached out and grabbed them by the back of their shirt. His fingernails lengthened into claws, and he dug them deep into the flesh of his victim.

Blood spurted out in a bright stream. He had hit an artery. He released his hold on the person and let them crumple to the ground, their lifeblood quickly leaving them. There was blood on his fingers now, and he licked it off. He turned, looking for someone else to kill.

His red eyes searched for another victim. There were still several people alive, stumbling and falling over the bodies on the floor as they tried to escape him. He turned, and his eyes locked.

Blue.

Shining blue, flashing with terror. It was a girl who looked just shy of 13. She was staring at him with obvious terror on her face. She was on her knees beside the dead body of a woman. Even through the smells of the blood already shed, he could smell hers well. It smelled better than most. She was next.

She had tried to hide herself underneath a chair, but he knew where she was. He walked over and stood in front of the chair, staring down at it. He could see her hands sticking out, despite her attempts to hide herself with the woman's body. His blood-streaked claws reached down to destroy her so-called hiding place.

Someone raced by behind him, screaming, "I'm calling the police!" He recognized the term and realized he didn't need human law enforcement here any sooner than possible. He turned and went after the man, grabbing him by the hair just a few feet away from the entrance. He sniffed, and then wrinkled his nose. The man's blood smelled terrible. The man was obviously a druggie. He settled for ripping the man's heart into shreds and dropped him on the floor.

He turned and made his way back to the chair. There were only a few people left in the dark room, and they all had severe wounds. Some still had the strength to scream; others were sobbing, and some were saying incoherent words and they drew their last few breaths. He wanted to hear the dying screams; he relished in it. For a while, just a little while, their screams drowned out the screams in his mind. The ones from his mother and father. The loudest and most chilling scream, from Yugi, who had barely escaped a little blood game he had been forced to participate in. 'He wouldn't have to suffer if humans didn't exist,' he thought. The thought made him angrier. Now he wanted them silenced. All of them. All of the filthy humans.

But first, the girl. The one with the blue eyes.

He went up to the chair and grabbed it by the armrests. He pulled it up from where it had been and let it drop to his side. The girl with the blue eyes was gone. His eyes narrowed as he tried to find the scent of her blood. Someone lying on the floor near his feet moaned. He stepped on them as he walked by.

'Where did she go?'

Suddenly, a movement near the corner of the dark room caught his eye. He turned and saw her, shoving open a door that led outside. He turned and walked that way. He reached the door before it swung shut and knocked it off its hinges. He stepped out into the cool night air, feeling his rising anger diminish some.

The girl was gone. Her scent was gone.


The first pain was only a slight one, from saltwater stinging her wide-open eyes. The second was worse, and it shot up her right leg and to her chest. The third attacked her left arm and seemed to migrate to her right. The fourth was a pain in her brain, a pain of coming death.

Tea pulled herself out of her ball, adding more pain. She could barely see through the dark waters, and she knew that was only because of her enhanced eyesight. She had no doubts that a regular human would be blindly waiting for their inevitable death. Tea was determined to fight for her life.

Kicking upwards, Tea searched for the surface. As of yet she couldn't sense any vampires coming near her, although the strong sense of them all around her bothered her. When she finally reached the surface she gasped for air, and that seemed to hurt her chest. She ignored the pain spreading all over her body and looked around for something to help her climb out of the water. She could feel her own blood flowing around her and knew she had to have hit one of the rocks.

Tea thought she saw land in the hazy distance, and she swam that way. Her left arm would not work right, for half of it was immobilized with pain and the other half numb from the icy water, so she was towing herself with her good arm. As good as it could be, that is; it hurt, too, just not as much as everything else. She thought she was getting closer-and hoped-when something surfaced in front of her. Years of seeing scary things in the night kept her from screaming in shock, but she nearly gagged when she saw the thing in front of her.

It was human-shaped, at least the part she could see, the shoulders and up. It had long stringy light hair, which strangely didn't look wet, and weird yellow and red glowing eyes that darted all over the place. Its fangs took up nearly half its face, and its tiny nose was covered in a very dark fluid. It looked like a build-up of blood. A strange rumbling sound was coming from its throat. But the skin was the worst part. It looked like melted plastic; wrinkled and covered in what looked like giant warts. It looked like a tortured doll that had been left in the oven too long.

"You must be one of the freaks set to dine on me," Tea said.

The thing opened its mouth and let out a terrible roar. It sounded exactly as Yami had described it; tons of metal objects being scraped together. Tea could barely contain her sanity from the horrible racket, which sounded worse than the creature looked. Then, as Tea watched, horrified and repulsed, it opened its mouth still wider until it looked like mouth of a lion. A terrible salty stench hit Tea in the face.


Yugi had his face in his hands, refusing to look down at the water. He could feel tears coming. Tea didn't deserve such a terrible death, no matter how many vampires she had killed. He could feel Yami standing behind him, and suddenly lost control of his anger. He whirled and struck Yami across the face as hard as he could. Yami's face jerked to the side; his body leaned for a second. He was obviously not expecting that, and Yugi really wasn't either. He was too pent up to care, though.

"You are a monster," Yugi said dangerously, his own eyes unknowingly beginning to glow with fury. "And you want me to become a vampire like you! So I can commit terrible crimes and simply not feel guilty!"

Yami stared at Yugi. A trickle of dark red, nearly black blood slipped from a cut on his lower lip.

"After what I've seen you do, I would never resign myself to becoming like you," Yugi said. "You are a terrible, horrible fiend, and I hate you!" Suddenly energized, he hit Yami again on the other side of his face. This time Yami was more prepared and only his head moved.

"Be reasonable," Yami stated, ignoring the new wound on his cheek.

Yugi backed up a few steps. "No," he hissed. "I will do no such thing." His eyes were filled with hate and anger, and through the burning rage, he could feel sadness. Yami advanced, and Yugi retreated again. "Don't touch me," he warned.

"Yugi, stop being ridiculous," Yami said. "You know you have vampire blood inside of you. True, you have human blood too, but which one do you think controls your life more? You're supposed to be a vampire, Yugi. It's inevitable."

Yugi stared dumbly at Yami, his mouth slightly open. The anger inside of him was slowly extinguished, as if it were a flame snuffed out. Yugi sank to his knees and felt tears slide down his face. Was he doomed to have something so vile a part of him forever? He was determined not to let it be so. "It can't be true," he whispered, putting his hands to his face. He collapsed on one side and kept his hands in front of his face, refusing to look at his brother. All of the pain and exhaustion and fear and confusion that had been perpetually shifting through his mind seemed to converge on him, tiring him out to a seemingly unbelievable extent. He just wanted it to be over. He wanted there to be some way for him to make it out of this.

He could sense someone next to him. Yugi didn't bother to look. He just tried not to start sobbing. He felt someone lift him up off the ground and cradle him in their arms. He knew it was Yami, but he just didn't have the energy to fight him. He just wanted to fall over dead. He wanted to be able to take Tea's place. He wanted to be able to go back in time and stop Yami from murdering Tea's parents. To stop his own parents from having him. His mind was numbed with depression.

Why me? Yugi thought.


"Why me?" Yugi sobbed. "It's not fair. It isn't my fault my mother was a human. Why does everyone hate me for it?"

Yami wrapped his arms around his upset little brother. "It's just in their nature," he replied. "You don't have to worry about it, though. I won't let anybody hurt you."

Yugi buried his face in Yami's shirt. "It's not fair," he whispered. "I didn't do anything to anybody. I wish I was dead."

"Now don't say that," Yami said, pulling his brother away he could look him in the eye. Watery amethyst met concerned crimson. "There's no reason for that, Yugi. Not all the vampires hate you. Mako likes you, doesn't he? And I like you too. They'd all like you."

"Then why don't they?" Yugi asked, starting to wipe away his tears.

Yami sighed. This was hard. He was still so young, and couldn't understand the force behind hate as well as someone older. "Because you're different," he said. "They think because you have human blood inside of you, that makes you weaker than them. But the both of us know that isn't true. When you grow up, you're going to be just as strong as any vampire. Even stronger, I bet. And then they'll see what a mistake they made."

"Really?" Yugi asked hopefully.

Yami reached out and wiped the rest of Yugi's tears away himself. "I promise," he said, smiling. Yugi smiled back and hugged his older brother.


"So, you wanna eat me, do you?" Tea said to the monster. It gazed back at her with its strangely vibrating eyes like it was listening to her conversation. "All right, let's see how good you are. Come get me."

The monster watched her for a few moments. Then it opened its mouth wide again and lunged at her. Tea dived underwater, the creature's long fangs barely missing sinking into her skin. She grabbed a thin rock sticking out of the ground underwater nearby and used it to propel her good leg into a kick. She hit the monster right in the stomach and sent it flying away. It stopped itself in the water a few yards away, rubbed its stomach in pain, and came at her again. Tea broke off the rock near the middle and thrust the sharp point at the monster's face. It screamed as the rock's point stabbed its eye. It sank down into the water, and Tea continued her hurried swim to the gray shore.

Suddenly, a loud yell to her left stopped her in her tracks. Tea turned. It sounded so familiar. Her heart sank when she realized who it was.

"Hey! Somebody! Anybody! Help me!" Joey was screaming. He was thrashing around in the water, trying to stay afloat. Tea turned and started swimming quickly towards him, the cold water numbing her pain-filled limbs and enabling her to go faster. She reached him just as another of those creatures did. This one had a slash on its cheek, like someone had put up a fight before being consumed, and black liquid that Tea assumed was blood was oozing out of it. It opened its mouth and came at Joey. Joey, of course, couldn't see it, and continued to yell for help. Tea sliced through the water towards the creature and attacked it, flinging her entire body at it. She knocked it away, and Joey, hearing the noise, quieted and turned to where Tea was, his eyes filled with fear.

"Don' tell me I'm so tasty you bloodsuckin' freaks gotta fight ova me?" Joey joked in frightened voice.

Tea reached for his arm. "Nope, sorry, I don't dine on other humans."

Recognition and relief dawned in Joey's eyes. "Tea?"

"Yeah." Tea grabbed his arm. "I'll lead you to shore." She started swimming with him following.

"Oh yeah, you can see through this pitch black, can't ya?" Joey said as they kept swimming.

"Yes," Tea answered, hearing another metal growl to her left. It was distant, however. "Where's Serenity? She isn't here somewhere too, is she?"

"No," Joey growled. "Dat creep Yami took 'er somewhere. I dunno where. I jus' hope she's okay."

"We'll find her, I promise," Tea said. They finally reached the shore, and Tea clambered out of the water, followed by Joey.

"How?" Joey asked.

Tea felt a steely determination to save both Serenity and Yugi, and the whole city, if she could just try hard enough. "Somehow. We will somehow."

END CHAPTER


Mena: Toli! You're back!

Toli: (carrying coffee, chill pills, and Prozac) Yep! But now that I've calmed myself down, how will I get in the right mood to write a scary story?

Mena: Um...Yami's a villain?

Toli: He is? (effects of coffee, chill pills, and Prozac reverse) AHAHAHAHA! THE EVIL WILL CONTINUE!

Jesselda: O.o; (sweatdrops)

Mena: (sweatdrops) I knew that'd work.