: To Bury and to Praise :
I sit alone in the dark. No one else stirs, but the alone is pulling and aware of my presence. I am often enough lost in its clutches. Something is stirring something inside of me, drawing my ethereal body closer and closer. I stare out the window into an unblinking night sky. The stars all mock me with their brilliance, dancing through the heavens as they whisper all my secrets. And there I stand, not knowing even one.
I sigh, but no one hears me. I start to doubt that I have even made a sound. I want to scream, but I am voiceless. I float along in this stream of time, locked up and bound to ignorance. I am chained to this fate, and eternal hell is inevitable. What happened in my past that would make me force myself into such a life? A force greater and with a more powerful evil than ever seen before must have come after my lands and my people- why else would I imprison my very soul?
Yet other questions remain unanswered. I hesitate, as I consider the possibility that it may not have even been my own doing at all. Perhaps the evil, malevolent force that threatened the end of the world was... me. A chill runs through me, though the room is warm and I am not able to feel it well anyway. Knowing next to nothing about oneself is horrible. I don't even know if I was a kind person, or if I was cruel and terrible and caused so much pain. And I cannot stand it; I cannot take this any longer.
But what am I to do? How can I even bear to exist? I devote myself to this cause- the destiny I am not sure I was really ever destined for that I must trust blindly. I do not even have a body of my own, and I know nothing about my own life. I'm selfish. I am so brutally, brutally selfish. But I yearn to know so badly. I only want at least a single flame of memory. Because it is hard to handle even that luxury denied to me. If I could live, I am sure that in this state I would want to die. But I don't have a real life.
Right now, I don't even live...
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Yugi woke to the sunshine filling out his window. The morning was fresh and new, like cleanly hung curtains or a blooming flower on a windowsill. The daylight was invigorating, and each breath he drew fulfilled and strengthened him.
The spirit of the puzzle was there, his image coalesced into a shadowy body of his own. But it was Yugi's form he wore. The two souls contained in one body; a strain to both the host, and the intruder.
"Good morning," Yugi said softly and brightly, sensing an ominous mood hang in the air around the pharaoh.
"Good morning Yugi," he replied stiffly.
The boy hung his head. The day was already becoming dull. He couldn't imagine what it would be like- being contained in spirit form for millennia, everything that was known destroyed or changed. And no memories. No friends' smiles to help boost him, no warm-hearted laughter ringing in his ears. Just a shell of his former glory, with a power that he didn't even know how to use.
Yugi got dressed and ready for school. He wanted to hurry and go; hopefully the sight of those three loyal friends would bring up the mood. "Well..." he said hesitantly, "I guess it's time to go."
"Of course. Live your life Yugi, please. Find your destiny, and save yourself from a lonely, demoralizing fate." And with a cynical smile, he was gone.
Yugi didn't know the miseries that his "other half" was feeling, but he knew that they weighed heavy on his own heart and mind. With a sad sigh, he headed downstairs to say goodbye to his grandfather. He could only hope that with time, the memories of a lost life would return. He could only console futilely, hoping against all odds that destiny would be kind.
A destiny where light and shadow intertwined, and somehow, someway, controlled the fate of the world. The responsibility was great. But in that same spirit, the rewards would be greater.
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I had this written for a long time, just sitting in one of my notebooks. But a couple of months ago, I finally saw the end of the series, and decided I might as well try to refine and post it. Just to see if anyone liked it or something. Heh. I always imagined Atemu hiding any insecurities he felt, or at least being more angsty than he was portrayed. I don't know. I just thought I'd see how this went over. And so, with that, I say farewell.
I believe in...
A Darker Destiny