Episode 3: The Return of Darkness! Evil Spirit Rises

Jason held back the urge to scream out. He had never seen so much blood in one place, especially on him. Jason quickly got out of the crimson-stained bed and looked at the dagger. "It's the same dagger from that dream. What happened here?"

"What do you think happened?" came a dark voice from somewhere around Jason.

The blonde looked around his room, but spotted no one else standing there with him, though he could definitely sense someone else's presence. "Who are you?"

"That's a stupid question to ask. But if you want the answer, just follow the chill running down your spine."

Jason looked at the blood, then, panicked again, not thinking about the strange voice or what it told him to do. "Oh crap! I hope my aunt didn't see all of this."

"If she's still alive that is," came the twisted reply from the seemingly invisible stranger.

Jason immediately ran out of the room and down the hall to his aunt's room. He opened the door and found her sound asleep in the bed. "I didn't say that she's dead, now did I?"

Jason ran into the bathroom and shut the door. He walked over to the sink and turned on the water. Jason looked up into the mirror and stumbled back at the disturbing sight that met him. Seti Bakura stared back at Jason from the reflection in the mirror. He was dressed in the same jeans as Jason and his silver hair was matted down with blood, along with the same parts of his body as Jason. The bloody Millennium Ring hung from his neck, glowing slightly. A twisted smile spread across his face.

"I bet you thought you would never see me again, didn't you? Well, life is just full of disappointments, isn't it?"

"How did you get here? You moved on to the afterlife. I saw it!" Jason exclaimed. He quickly covered his mouth, hoping that he didn't wake up his aunt with his outburst. The last thing she needed to see was her blood spattered nephew talking to himself in the middle of the night.

Seti chuckled and closed his eyes. "It was all an illusion. I manipulated a portion of an old priest's spirit to fool you into thinking that it was all over when it wasn't."

Jason narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists. He knew that he couldn't fight the spirit, but he wasn't about to let it have its way. "What do you want from me!" Seti didn't answer him. Instead, he smirked and disappeared from the mirror. "Get back here! I asked you a question!"

But Jason only found himself yelling at his reflection. He grimaced and went to work scrubbing the blood off of his skin. Most of it was fresh and still wet, but the majority of it was dried. He washed off most of the mess, then headed downstairs to get some trash bags. After gathering the bags, Jason went back upstairs and yanked off the Millennium Ring, tossing it onto the dresser.

"I'll deal with you later," he said as if though Seti could hear him through the Item. Jason took the sheets off of the bed, balled them up, and put them in the bag along with his jeans and pillowcases. Then, he picked up the strange dagger. "I can't put this in the bag, or it could cut holes into it. I guess I'll dispose of it somewhere else in the morning."

Jason put on a fresh pair of pants, then, ran downstairs with the bag and went outside, where he dropped the bag on the curb in front of the neighbor's house. The cool night air felt relaxing against Jason's bare chest, which was still moist from the washing. But no matter how relaxed he could get, the fact still remained painfully clear.

There was a murderer in his body.

Jason sat on the edge of the bed. The urge to sleep had completely left him since it didn't take him too long to figure out the truth. 'Seti can control my body when I'm not awake.'

He glanced over at the clock. It read 6:39. Jason decided to get some fresh air. He needed it after the events of last night. Jason put on a black shirt and some sneakers, grabbed his deck, and went downstairs. He decided to go to the park. There were usually some duelists around there. They were losers who had nothing better to do with their lives but to play this game, but they were duelists nonetheless. He started for the door.

"You aren't going to go without leaving your dear aunt a note, are you? She could've died last night, you know. Hahaha!"

Jason reached up and grabbed his head and anger, then yelled out, hoping that his aunt wouldn't hear him. "Shut up and get out of my head right now, you bastard! I'm sick of you!"

Jason realized that the spirit, although evil, was right. He had to leave her a note telling her where he was. He wrote out the note and left the house. Jason only walked a few blocks before he felt it again. The cold metal was pressed up against chest. He lifted his shirt and found the Millennium Ring around his neck again. "You can't get rid of me that easily, mortal."

Jason pulled his shirt back down and kept walking. After a few more blocks he spotted a lot of police cars and ambulances. People were crowded all around the scene. They were mostly in their robes and nightgowns, having just woken up. Jason walked up and tapped on a man's shoulder. "Excuse me. What's going on here?"

The tall man looked back at Jason. "The whole family here was killed, I think. Gruesome deaths at that."

Jason's heart skipped a beat. He made his way through the crowd, trying to get a good look at the victims. When he got to the front of the crowd, he caught a glimpse of the people being loaded into the ambulance. Blood was all over them. All except for one boy, who seemed perfectly unharmed. "I see they're enjoying my handiwork."

Jason's heart completely stopped this time. His worst fear had come to be. These were the people that were murdered. He was almost afraid to ask, but he gathered his nerve and spoke up in his mind. 'And the boy?'

The dark chuckled that came after his question was chilling, but the answer he got was downright sickening. "Shadow Realm."

Jason immediately ran from the scene. He feared that the cops would somehow find out that he killed those people. He ran around the corner and sank to his knees on the cold concrete. 'Why did you have to kill those people in my body? Couldn't you have done it in someone else?'

No answer came. Jason got up and continued on towards the park, ignoring everything that happened. There was no way that he was in the current situation. It all had to be a dream. Jason decided to simply shrug it all off and get rid of the Millennium Ring. Or better yet, destroy the Ring.

"I'm getting rid of you once and for all," he muttered as he continued to walk. His mind was set on finding a way to destroy the Ring. Perhaps he could use some of his late uncle's tools to do the job. "Yeah, that's what I'll do. I'll take the power saw and…"

Suddenly, Jason felt a pressure on his head, which was then followed by blinding pain. It felt as if his brain was on fire. He stumbled around, trying to think, trying to see, but darkness was all around him. When he finally regained his consciousness, it was too late.

"Watch out!" was the last thing that Jason heard before he spotted the car and realized that he was in the street.

The first thing he felt were his legs being taken out from under him. Pain shot through his shoulder when he slammed into the hood. His body slid up the hood and his head immediately crashed into the windshield. Jason could feel the glass shatter and imbed itself into his forehead, as he rolled off of the hood after the car came to an abrupt stop. He rolled over on the ground and felt immense pain as the bones in his arm rubbed up against each other. Jason looked up at the sky and closed his eyes, feeling the blood roll down his face, knowing that this was the end.

Jason awoke in a strange room, filled with darkness. A few candles were placed around the room. 'Where am I? I feel alive, but I could be wrong.' Jason got up and walked around. He immediately noticed that there were no injuries on his body. 'Now I know I'm dead. This must be Hell. I was afraid of this. Oh well. Let's just get this eternal punishment thing over with.' But no punishment came. Jason looked around and realized that he still had his body, and he was very much alive.

'Okay. This is weird.'

He spotted a door at the far end of the room. Jason walked over to it and opened it. There was a long hallway, with doors on either side. Jason walked out into the hallway and opened the first door he saw. He saw the same image from his dream; the image where Seti was crouching behind the table. But this was from Seti's point of view. Jason closed the door and opened the next one. It was the same thing. Another image from his dream, but through Seti's eyes. Jason quickly shut that door and opened another one, and another one, and another one. The same awaited him behind each door. A part of Seti's life was all he could see.

'These images aren't random. They're memories! Seti's memories. That must mean that I'm inside his mind. Is it another dream? Did the accident knock me into a coma?' Jason pinched himself. 'Itai. That stings. Well, I'm not dreaming. I'm inside Seti's head.'

Jason looked up and saw the strange eye. It was the same eye on the front of the Millennium Ring. Suddenly, his earlier apprehension was repeated in his head over and over again. 'Seti can control my body when I'm asleep. And if I'm in a coma, then…he switched places with me. He's in control now!'

Seti looked up at the white ceiling of the room. After listening to an hour of Jason's aunt's wailing, he became aware of his surroundings. The building that the mortals called 'the hospital' was where they took him. Seti tried to sit up, but pain ripped through his arm. He looked down and saw the cast on his arm.

"So this is the price I must pay for freedom. Well, it's a small price compared to my mission. Ring, come to me."

The Millennium Ring materialized around his neck. Seti concentrated, and immediately felt his wounds and broken bones repairing, until he was completely healthy again. He ripped off all of his bandages and the cast over his arm. Seti got out of the bed and focused on the Ring.

"First thing's first. To get rid of the one person who can stop me."

Jason paced back and forth up and down the hallway. He tried to think of a way to get out.

"Maybe I can take control of him when he goes to sleep. Then I could find a way to knock him unconscious and take back my body."

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that. You are the only obstacle in my mission, therefore, you must be eliminated. Goodbye fool," came the voice of the dark spirit who trapped Jason in the Ring.

Jason started to lose the feeling in his legs. He looked down and saw his body beginning to waste away. He was disappearing into the shadows. "No! I've got to fight it!"

"You can't. Just embrace the shadows and it will all be over quickly."

More and more of him wasted away. His waist, his stomach, his chest, all the way to his face disappeared into the shadows. 'It's over. It's all over,' Jason though as the freezing cold darkness pulled him in and surrounded him.

"Now that I've completed that little task, it's time to pay an old friend a visit." The small triangles that hung from the Millennium Ring pointed towards one of the walls in the room. "Oh good. He's close by." Seti got dressed and walked out of the room, dispatching any doctors he saw.

The pot on the stove whistled loudly. The white-haired boy ran over and turned it off before it boiled over. Life was pretty normal for Ryou Bakura since he was rid of his yami. The doorbell rang, distracting him from his thoughts. He walked to the door and opened it. A tall boy stood before him. His blonde hair was a little messy, stained with what Ryou assumed was red dye. He glared at Ryou. "Hello. How can I help you?" Ryou asked uneasily.

"You can give me the Millennium Eye," Seti responded as the Millennium Ring materialized around his neck. Ryou backed away from the door and tried to shut it, but Seti's strength was too much for that. He walked into the house and grabbed the white-haired boy by the throat. "Tell me. How has your life been since I left? Is it pleasant and cheery? Let me skip past the small talk. Where is the Eye?"

Ryou choked and sputtered, but managed to talk. "It's still in the same place that you left it last time."

Seti lifted Ryou into the air as if lifting a small child. Ryou could feel his head spin as he slipped in and out of consciousness. Seti grinned, then, hurled Ryou into the nearby wall with the greatest of ease. The boy immediately passed out from the impact. "You always were weak," Seti spat as he went back to Ryou's room.

When he went into the dining room a bookshelf caught his attention. It was filled with ancient books from different civilizations that Ryou's father picked up on his expeditions. But Seti noticed one book. "I don't believe it. I thought that I would never see this again."

It was one of Salazar Midus' old tomes. Seti picked the book up carefully and took it back into Ryou's room, where he sat on the bed and opened the book. Some of the hieroglyphs had been faded, but he could still read them. "This is excellent. Now that I have one of the books of Salazar Midus, I don't need the Millennium Items. Well, not all of them anyway."

Seti continued to read through the ancient text, ready to fulfill his promise and bring suffering and misery to the pharaoh who cursed his master.