Coliseum rest zone
Willem Spring and Claire had been settled into their respective rooms for several hours. Claire hadn't spoken to her boss since the incident with the guard outside of the Coliseum itself. She couldn't even bring herself to look at him.
'Once the Tournament's over I'm sure he'll be back to normal, it's just the stress of what he's doing that's making him act this way.' She thought to herself as she looked out over the area surrounding the large Hotel resting to the north of the large Coliseum.
Watching as the moon light shone and sparkled on the lake outside of her room. The night air was warm but a slight breeze made it an almost perfect temperature. She and Willem were the only finalists to have arrived as yet though there were several Duelists on the premises. "Here to watch the show no doubt." She said to no one in particular.
"Oh no doubt Claire." Willems voice startled her out of her revelry and she leapt from her chair with a gasp.
'How did he? I'm sure I locked the door!' Her mind screamed in surprise at Willems sudden and unexpected appearance in her room, kneeling at the foot of her bed rummaging through her mini bar.
"The locks aren't terribly complicated Claire. Ooh cashews!" He spoke as if reading her mind.
"Do you mind?" He asked holding up the glass container of the afore mentioned nuts.
"Please, be my guest sir." Claire responded as he popped the tin lid off of the cold container.
"I love cashews." He said before downing a handful.
Claire entered the room and looked around, worried that there might be other surprises in store.
Willem watched her as he merrily munched on the cashews he'd liberated from the mini bar.
"Sir, where's my Duel Disk?" Claire asked slightly worried as she noticed it missing from the dresser where she'd left it.
"Oh, I put it in the safe for you. The one in the closet." Willem said as he knocked back the remainder of the nuts and tossed the glass jar into a nearby trash can.
"Uh, thank you sir?" Claire said as she eyed her employer, his behavior was a total one-eighty from this afternoon. He was almost childlike.
She stepped closer to him and suddenly found out why he was behaving so giddily.
The smell of alcohol coming off of him was almost enough to knock her down. No doubt he'd finished off not just the cashews in his mini bar but the not so insignificant amount of spirits within the refrigerated device as well.
"Claire, you're the only one I can trust. The others, they just want their rewards. But you..." He trailed off as he stumbled over to her, his eye's flashed that same blood red they had earlier for an instant but then returned to their normal golden color.
"You're my friend. Not like him!" He said and pointed to a spot near the bathroom door in which no one stood.
"He just wants revenge against some long dead king. He won't stop talking, screaming really. the voice is so loud." He said as he began to fall.
Claire caught him before he hit the ground, her petite frame shuddered and her knees nearly buckled under the sudden increase of weight placed upon it.
"Sir, you've had a little too much to drink. There's no one there." She said as she struggled to hoist him to his feet.
"He told me you'd say that. He says you can't see or hear him. But I know you'll see him eventually, You always did have vision." Willem slurred as he passed out.
Claires burden became that much greater as Willems body went limp.
"Damn." She huffed as she tried to figure out what to do with her inebriated boss.
Looking around her room she took note of three things.
Her bag wasn't unpacked, the door was wide open and, her bed was turned down.
"Well, I guess I'll be sleeping elsewhere then eh sir?" She asked the unconscious man in her arms as she dragged his body to the bed.
It only took a few moments to strip off Willems shirt and place him in bed on his stomach in the event he were to become ill. She grabbed her bag and claimed her Duel Disk from the closet safe.
Looking over the room one last time she moved to the Mini bar and as a safety measure removed all of the alcohol.
Claire stopped at the door for a few moments and watched as Willem slept before turning off the lights, locking and closing the door and heading down the hall to Willems room.
Five doors down Claire found the door as she had expected it, wide open.
However the condition of the room shocked her to no end. The television was laying on the ground, broken. The mirror shattered and shards of glass lay upon the dressers surface.
The mini bar lay open, all of the bottles of alcohol empty before it. The Jar of cashews nowhere to be seen.
The bed was over turned, linens strewn about the room.
It looked as if a pack of rabid wolves had been set loose upon the room.
Claire spent the next two hours cleaning the room as best she could, carefully cleaning up the broken glass taking notice of the small amount of blood on the dresser and the remains of the mirror itself, placing the television back into the entertainment center, its cracked screen a testament to the force with which it had been thrown to the ground.
Rebuilding the bed and throwing away the emptied bottles of spirits that once lay before the now nearly bare mini bar.
"This is far too familiar for my tastes. If I'd wanted to clean up after a violent drunk I'd never have left home." She sighed as she finally plopped down upon the bed.
Willem Springs Room, three hours earlier
"What a wonderful night, a full moon beautifully sparkling upon the water. A pleasing breeze." Willem sighed as he scooped up a handful of cashews from a small bowl on the patio table next to him.
'How fortuitous that they stocked my favorite brand of cashews.' he thought to himself.
His ears perked as he heard a voice behind him.
Turning Willem saw nothing in his room that hadn't been there before. Thought he light in the bathroom was on.
"Odd, I remember turning it off." He spoke to himself as he rose from his seat on the balcony and walked to the bathroom.
As he turned off the light he heard the voice again, louder this time. From behind him.
Spinning quickly he caught a brief glimpse of what looked like a white robed figure with a large Ankh around its neck.
"My mind must be playing tricks on me." He spoke aloud again.
"You mean OUR mind don't you child?" The voice boomed in his mind. Causing a significant amount of pain, as if an air horn had been sounded mere centimeters from his ears.
"I meant no disrespect." Willem stammered, hands covering his ears.
"Go to the mirror." The voice commanded, before Willem could agree his body jerked forward towards the mirror over the dresser.
As he looked into it he didn't see his face staring back, but a cloaked figure. Glowing red eyes shinning in the darkness of the hood. Dried ancient looking hands folded before the figure. The fingers of which ending in black talon like nails.
Though he couldn't see it Willem was certain the figure was smiling. Something in the back of his mind warned him that he didn't want to see the entirety of what was concealed beneath the shadows the hood created.
"Hello child. Nice to finally see you." The figure spoke and the shadows in the hood swirled. The glowing red of its eyes pulsed.
"What... are you?" Willem sputtered, his eyes wide as the figure reached out of the mirror and gripped his chin. The cold grip of the figures hand was unlike anything Willem had every experienced or wished to experience again, despite the aged look of the hand the grip was almost vice like, causing a significant amount of pain.
"I am everything you and this feeble world will grow to fear. I am the end. And a new beginning." The figures voice boomed again.
Willems head felt like it was going to split open.
"I am the rightful heir to the power of millennia gone by. I am darkness and death." The figure released Willems chin and retracted its hand back into the mirror.
"You want to destroy the world?!" Willem was scared to death. He wanted to rule, not destroy.
"YES! Destroyed so that it may be reborn in a new image. MY IMAGE!" The voice screamed in shrill tone, Willems face turned dark red as he fought against the pain that continued to grow in his head.
"NO!!!!" Willem lashed out with a fist and shattered the mirror, scattering shards of glass out upon the dresser.
The figure laughed and looked up at him from each of the shards.
Willem watched in shock as his hand, bleeding and torn healed at a phenomenal rate, pushing the shards of glass that had been lodged within out and sealing the skin without even a scar to show.
"That wasn't very nice Willem, but you see I'm still going to help you." The voice came from the television now.
Willem rushed over to it and pulled it from the entertainment center, cracking the screen as it hit the ground the set sparked and fumed.
"That was an expensive piece of equipment Willem, you should be ashamed of yourself." The voice called from behind him yet again, The cloaked figure clearly visible in the reflection of the class covering a small painting hanging over the headboard of the bed.
Willem lost it, He stepped over to the bed and flipped the mattress and box spring in one move, grabbing the picture he flung it out the open door off of the balcony.
The pain struck him again, like a railroad spike was being driven into his brain.
Willem dashed for the mini bar, tearing the door open he grabbed for the bottles within and began drinking them.
As he finished the last he could feel the pain subsiding.
"That's not a viable solution child. The drink won't get rid of me." The voice called in his mind.
"Claire, She'll help me. I just have to show you to her." Willem spat.
"She'll never be able to see or hear me. And if she ever does, She's mine..." The voice trailed off as the alcohol began to take effect. Willem stumbled towards the door and then out into the hall.
Willem Spring and Claire had been settled into their respective rooms for several hours. Claire hadn't spoken to her boss since the incident with the guard outside of the Coliseum itself. She couldn't even bring herself to look at him.
'Once the Tournament's over I'm sure he'll be back to normal, it's just the stress of what he's doing that's making him act this way.' She thought to herself as she looked out over the area surrounding the large Hotel resting to the north of the large Coliseum.
Watching as the moon light shone and sparkled on the lake outside of her room. The night air was warm but a slight breeze made it an almost perfect temperature. She and Willem were the only finalists to have arrived as yet though there were several Duelists on the premises. "Here to watch the show no doubt." She said to no one in particular.
"Oh no doubt Claire." Willems voice startled her out of her revelry and she leapt from her chair with a gasp.
'How did he? I'm sure I locked the door!' Her mind screamed in surprise at Willems sudden and unexpected appearance in her room, kneeling at the foot of her bed rummaging through her mini bar.
"The locks aren't terribly complicated Claire. Ooh cashews!" He spoke as if reading her mind.
"Do you mind?" He asked holding up the glass container of the afore mentioned nuts.
"Please, be my guest sir." Claire responded as he popped the tin lid off of the cold container.
"I love cashews." He said before downing a handful.
Claire entered the room and looked around, worried that there might be other surprises in store.
Willem watched her as he merrily munched on the cashews he'd liberated from the mini bar.
"Sir, where's my Duel Disk?" Claire asked slightly worried as she noticed it missing from the dresser where she'd left it.
"Oh, I put it in the safe for you. The one in the closet." Willem said as he knocked back the remainder of the nuts and tossed the glass jar into a nearby trash can.
"Uh, thank you sir?" Claire said as she eyed her employer, his behavior was a total one-eighty from this afternoon. He was almost childlike.
She stepped closer to him and suddenly found out why he was behaving so giddily.
The smell of alcohol coming off of him was almost enough to knock her down. No doubt he'd finished off not just the cashews in his mini bar but the not so insignificant amount of spirits within the refrigerated device as well.
"Claire, you're the only one I can trust. The others, they just want their rewards. But you..." He trailed off as he stumbled over to her, his eye's flashed that same blood red they had earlier for an instant but then returned to their normal golden color.
"You're my friend. Not like him!" He said and pointed to a spot near the bathroom door in which no one stood.
"He just wants revenge against some long dead king. He won't stop talking, screaming really. the voice is so loud." He said as he began to fall.
Claire caught him before he hit the ground, her petite frame shuddered and her knees nearly buckled under the sudden increase of weight placed upon it.
"Sir, you've had a little too much to drink. There's no one there." She said as she struggled to hoist him to his feet.
"He told me you'd say that. He says you can't see or hear him. But I know you'll see him eventually, You always did have vision." Willem slurred as he passed out.
Claires burden became that much greater as Willems body went limp.
"Damn." She huffed as she tried to figure out what to do with her inebriated boss.
Looking around her room she took note of three things.
Her bag wasn't unpacked, the door was wide open and, her bed was turned down.
"Well, I guess I'll be sleeping elsewhere then eh sir?" She asked the unconscious man in her arms as she dragged his body to the bed.
It only took a few moments to strip off Willems shirt and place him in bed on his stomach in the event he were to become ill. She grabbed her bag and claimed her Duel Disk from the closet safe.
Looking over the room one last time she moved to the Mini bar and as a safety measure removed all of the alcohol.
Claire stopped at the door for a few moments and watched as Willem slept before turning off the lights, locking and closing the door and heading down the hall to Willems room.
Five doors down Claire found the door as she had expected it, wide open.
However the condition of the room shocked her to no end. The television was laying on the ground, broken. The mirror shattered and shards of glass lay upon the dressers surface.
The mini bar lay open, all of the bottles of alcohol empty before it. The Jar of cashews nowhere to be seen.
The bed was over turned, linens strewn about the room.
It looked as if a pack of rabid wolves had been set loose upon the room.
Claire spent the next two hours cleaning the room as best she could, carefully cleaning up the broken glass taking notice of the small amount of blood on the dresser and the remains of the mirror itself, placing the television back into the entertainment center, its cracked screen a testament to the force with which it had been thrown to the ground.
Rebuilding the bed and throwing away the emptied bottles of spirits that once lay before the now nearly bare mini bar.
"This is far too familiar for my tastes. If I'd wanted to clean up after a violent drunk I'd never have left home." She sighed as she finally plopped down upon the bed.
Willem Springs Room, three hours earlier
"What a wonderful night, a full moon beautifully sparkling upon the water. A pleasing breeze." Willem sighed as he scooped up a handful of cashews from a small bowl on the patio table next to him.
'How fortuitous that they stocked my favorite brand of cashews.' he thought to himself.
His ears perked as he heard a voice behind him.
Turning Willem saw nothing in his room that hadn't been there before. Thought he light in the bathroom was on.
"Odd, I remember turning it off." He spoke to himself as he rose from his seat on the balcony and walked to the bathroom.
As he turned off the light he heard the voice again, louder this time. From behind him.
Spinning quickly he caught a brief glimpse of what looked like a white robed figure with a large Ankh around its neck.
"My mind must be playing tricks on me." He spoke aloud again.
"You mean OUR mind don't you child?" The voice boomed in his mind. Causing a significant amount of pain, as if an air horn had been sounded mere centimeters from his ears.
"I meant no disrespect." Willem stammered, hands covering his ears.
"Go to the mirror." The voice commanded, before Willem could agree his body jerked forward towards the mirror over the dresser.
As he looked into it he didn't see his face staring back, but a cloaked figure. Glowing red eyes shinning in the darkness of the hood. Dried ancient looking hands folded before the figure. The fingers of which ending in black talon like nails.
Though he couldn't see it Willem was certain the figure was smiling. Something in the back of his mind warned him that he didn't want to see the entirety of what was concealed beneath the shadows the hood created.
"Hello child. Nice to finally see you." The figure spoke and the shadows in the hood swirled. The glowing red of its eyes pulsed.
"What... are you?" Willem sputtered, his eyes wide as the figure reached out of the mirror and gripped his chin. The cold grip of the figures hand was unlike anything Willem had every experienced or wished to experience again, despite the aged look of the hand the grip was almost vice like, causing a significant amount of pain.
"I am everything you and this feeble world will grow to fear. I am the end. And a new beginning." The figures voice boomed again.
Willems head felt like it was going to split open.
"I am the rightful heir to the power of millennia gone by. I am darkness and death." The figure released Willems chin and retracted its hand back into the mirror.
"You want to destroy the world?!" Willem was scared to death. He wanted to rule, not destroy.
"YES! Destroyed so that it may be reborn in a new image. MY IMAGE!" The voice screamed in shrill tone, Willems face turned dark red as he fought against the pain that continued to grow in his head.
"NO!!!!" Willem lashed out with a fist and shattered the mirror, scattering shards of glass out upon the dresser.
The figure laughed and looked up at him from each of the shards.
Willem watched in shock as his hand, bleeding and torn healed at a phenomenal rate, pushing the shards of glass that had been lodged within out and sealing the skin without even a scar to show.
"That wasn't very nice Willem, but you see I'm still going to help you." The voice came from the television now.
Willem rushed over to it and pulled it from the entertainment center, cracking the screen as it hit the ground the set sparked and fumed.
"That was an expensive piece of equipment Willem, you should be ashamed of yourself." The voice called from behind him yet again, The cloaked figure clearly visible in the reflection of the class covering a small painting hanging over the headboard of the bed.
Willem lost it, He stepped over to the bed and flipped the mattress and box spring in one move, grabbing the picture he flung it out the open door off of the balcony.
The pain struck him again, like a railroad spike was being driven into his brain.
Willem dashed for the mini bar, tearing the door open he grabbed for the bottles within and began drinking them.
As he finished the last he could feel the pain subsiding.
"That's not a viable solution child. The drink won't get rid of me." The voice called in his mind.
"Claire, She'll help me. I just have to show you to her." Willem spat.
"She'll never be able to see or hear me. And if she ever does, She's mine..." The voice trailed off as the alcohol began to take effect. Willem stumbled towards the door and then out into the hall.