Her Sweetness: I just came out of a twenty-minute depression in which I did nothing but lay on my bed, mope, listen to the radio and think about Marik and Malik stories that I want to do. I have been burdened with the thought of yet another plot bunny and so, I am at wit's end.

But please, ignore my ramblings and I'm sure someday I'll be as chipper as a dipper.

Later.

Motel 37

Chapter 11:

The boys panted, nearly out of breath, as they slowed to a halt in the middle of the dark hallway. After hearing that voice, they scattered like nobody's business. Marik being the first person to actually jump over Bakura to get to safety. They wanted to get back to their room and lock the door, but in their excitement and disorientation, they'd gone the wrong way, ending up on the third floor.

When they couldn't hear someone calling after them anymore, Marik stopped and so did the other two.

"O… Okay, Yami…" Bakura sighed, sliding down onto the ground. "I guess… I guess I believe you about the voices thing."

Marik said nothing, only scowling at the fact that Yami was right and he was wrong.

"But… That wasn't the voice I heard earlier." Yami blinked, looking back into the darkness.

"What? You mean there's more than one voice!"

"I guess… I know for sure that wasn't the one calling my name before. This one was all… strange sounding and the one from before was very cold. They're not the same."

"Well, if that's the case, I say we just get back to the room, barricade the door and wait till morning." Bakura nodded to himself.

"Okay… But does anyone know where our room might be?"

"…" Silence followed.

"Perfect. This is just perfect, we're in a motel, trapped with voices, no one knows where our room is and our old man is missing. This is seems to be some sort of curse with us." Marik put his hands on his hips and looked around, "I guess we could always just wander around till we get murdered."

"Stop it…!" Yami growled, but it came out as more of a whine, "Look, it's simple, we'll just find Shivers and ask him to take us back to our room."

"Yeah, well you can go without me." Marik protested, "I can't stand that guy. He looks at me like I'm a piece of meat."

Bakura raised a finger to the other boy, "Don't flatter yourself, Marik. I'd rather have a steak than you any day."

"Humph!"

"Uh, let's go." Yami pointed towards the darkness, "The faster we get going, the faster we'll be there."

Bakura shoved his hands in his pockets and began walking. Eventually Yami came after him, followed by Marik who took his time, looking at the walls and the back of Yami's spiky head. It actually wasn't a bad view, Marik thought. It reminded him of a bowl of fruit. With extra pineapples, of course.

"…!" Marik shook these thoughts from his head. Hanging around this pain in the butt was getting to him. He figured he must've not been mean enough today. Sure, he made Yami cry, but wasn't there something else he could do? He grinned to himself, about to whack Yami over the head with his millennium rod, but before he did, Yami stopped in his tracks, causing Marik to tumble over the boy and his spiky hair.

"Argh! Pharaoh, what the hell are you doing?" He yelled from the floor.

"Wait, listen…" Yami said, raising a finger and looking up.

By this time, Bakura had turned around to see just how his fellow yamis were portraying their stupidity now. "What's he…?" He looked at Yami questionably, not finishing his sentence.

Bring the Dark one… Yami, bring the Dark… Marik…

"There!" Yami squealed, ducking back and hiding behind Bakura, "Listen, didn't you hear it? That's the voice I was talking about!"

"What voice?" Marik jumped off the floor and tilted his head, listening. He and Bakura stayed that way for a moment before Marik looked back at Yami, "… You're a freak and a half."

"No! Please, you can't tell me you didn't hear it! It was loud and clear!" Yami whined, "Marik, it even said your name! It said, and I quote, Bring the Dark one… Yami, bring the Dark… Marik…C'mon! Don't tell me you couldn't hear your own name!"

Marik and Bakura starred at each other. They started to walk off, but not before looking down at Yami and saying in a somber tone, "You are a sad, sad little man."

"What? No! Wait, come back!" The Pharaoh tripped over his own two feet, trying to catch up.

"I can't believe we've had to cancel our second vacation!" Ryou exclaimed, sitting down next to Yugi and Malik on the tram. It was taking them to the airport on account of their cars were still in Domino. The tram began to move and they were soon on the street, taking one longing last look at the Chilly Water Resort, knowing they'd probably never be back.

Yugi turned away and cringed, "Ooh, when I see that other half of mine, I will throttle him! This is it! This is the last time I'm dealing with him! No more!"

Malik had been rather calm till now. Knowing that when he got back home, he'd have to face his six-year-old yami, "I can't stand this! How could Ra be so cruel as to let me find out from Yugi, that my yami has been deceiving me! Just a sick and twisted toddler is he!"

"Um, please…" Ryou tried to shush them both. The other fifteen people in the tram were starring at them and Ryou was uncomfortable, "You guys, maybe we could lower our voices a tad?"

"That retched Pharaoh…!"

"That little kid…!"

"I WON'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" They shouted in unison, standing up.

Ryou was almost in tears as he pleaded, silently, "Oh Ra…! Please, don't cause a scene, please…!"

The driver looked back in the rearview mirror, "Hey! All passengers must remain seated, no exceptions!" He motioned towards the sign that said the same thing.

In Yugi's blind fury, he walked up to a woman and her child and told his entire story. Of how this was their second vacation in two months, of how their yamis always manage to mess things up, and how he wanted to just let Yami rot in that motel, just like he'd rotted in the millennium puzzle for 5,000 years. Then Malik, crawled over, bawling his eyes out, telling the same woman and her little boy that his yami was under aged by a mile and that he was a cradle robber.

The little boy blinked at both hikaris, "W-What's a… yami?"

"It's something that brings great discomfort to all who are involved! A yami is something that hides under your bed in the dark and is the thing that goes bump in the night!"

"A yami is that thing in your closet, it's the noise you hear when you're awake late at night! When you turn every corner, when you think you're safe… A yami is there and it will scare you!"

"BUGGA BUGGA!" Both hikaris yelled and made horrid faces at the child.

He blinked and busted into tears, huddling against his mother as she scolded the boys and hit them on the head with newspapers. Said newspaper did not make it to Yugi's head as it was stuck on one of his spikes. Before pulling it off, he noted that more bombings had gone off in Saudi Arabia.

"Malik! Yugi…!" Ryou cried, coming over and having to drag them back to their seats. After apologizing to the driver and the mother of the young boy who'd they had scarred for life, Ryou, Malik and Yugi continued the ride to the airport in silence.

He was lost and that was the bare fact. Nothing looked familiar, no one was around, and he didn't even know which floor he was on anymore. He could've sworn those were the boys he saw, running in the opposite direction. And he would've gone off after them if it hadn't been for his plastic foot slowing him down.

So here he was, wondering aimlessly with a small candle that was almost spent. A few more minutes and once again he'd be in complete darkness. The old man sighed, "Drat. I don't think I'll be able to find them tonight. Maybe I should wait till morning?" He looked around at the looming darkness, "Eh… on second thought-"

Before he could finish his statement, his ear twitched. That was always a sign that his hearing aid was picking up some strange activity. He followed the noise and soon a peek of light was in sight. It was the same room he'd seen about two hours ago! That same study with Shivers and the other fellow.

The voices were getting closer and he decided not to stick around. As he was about to duck out of this hallway and turn a corner, another candle shown next to his. He looked up and saw a face, straight and foreboding. The old man was horrorstricken and tried to scramble away. But it seemed that the taller man already had a grip on his overalls and he was stuck, trying to run in midair.

"Why, Mr. Motou…" Came a familiar voice from behind. Grandpa was turned to face Shivers as he sauntered over to the older man.

"…" Grandpa only blinked as Shivers gestured towards the other man and said, "Shakes, please set him down."

The old man was set down as requested and he looked back over at Shivers, "Shivers, I heard you and your friend, here, talking earlier. What's all this about Marik is the one and they're not getting out?"

"It always starts like this doesn't it…" Shivers said to no one inparticular, "There's always someone questioning my reasons and then it all comes crashing down. Well, I'll tell you one thing… I've been trapped here long enough. After Marik is utilized tonight, we'll finally get out of here."

"Utilize…? Wait, you can't 'utilize' Marik for anything! I've gotta get these kids home!"

"Oh no? Just watch me. When Mr. Motou gets Marik down there-"

"That's all fine and dandy, but we'll be leaving now." He turned on his heel and started for the other way. Grumbling about how weird this new generation is.

Shivers didn't even have to say anything, Shakes went over and picked Grandpa up once again. "H-Hey! Just what do you think you're doing, young fellow? Set me down!"

"Shakes… What say we make sure nothing goes wrong this time?"

The man nodded and with no emotion whatsoever, he stomped down the hallway, Grandpa in hand. It wasn't two minutes later when they made their way to the lobby. The front door was totally covered in silly putty that Shivers had put up due to the flood and rain. The lobby was mostly dry now except from a few puddles and putty. Shakes walked over to a large window, thunder still raging outside and rain still coming down in sheets. He was beginning to unhinge the latch, but Grandpa thought quickly.

"Oh no! Listen, you don't want to do this…"

Shakes looked down at him, "…"

"Um… How about I give you a piece of prune pie, you let me go get the boys and we call it a night?"

"…" He said nothing and, with one quick motion, threw the old man out into the rain, landing in a wet, thorny bush. The window slammed closed behind him and Grandpa watched, heartbroken, as Shakes disappeared into the darkness of the motel. He sighed, "Do the words 'prune pie' mean nothing anymore?"

Back on the third floor, the yamis were finally calm. It had taken a while and much patience on Yami's part to get the other boys to stop hitting him over the head with random body parts. Eventually they tired of their mean reindeer games and let Yami walk with them in peace. But now as they felt that this was their third time going around the same floor, they began to get restless… and aimed their unhappiness at the Pharaoh.

Whack!

"Ouch!" Yami rubbed the back of his head and looked back at Marik who was twirling his millennium rod between his fingers. "W-What the hell did you do that for, Marik?"

"Because, I feel lousy. And being mean to you makes me feel better."

"… Jeez."

"Alright, I've had just about enough of this." Bakura said, glaring down at his Pharaoh, "We've been going round and round and there's been no room, no voice, no old people and what I'm mostly upset about… NO BLOOD!" The Tomb Robber punctuated his sentence with a head butt to Yami's scull.

"Gah!" The boy fell backwards, holding the bleeding spot on his head.

Bakura grinned, getting down on all fours and hovering over Yami. But just before he could lick Yami's forehead, he noticed something a little beyond him and Marik. A square frame of light shown out in the hallway, supposedly raining out from a door.

When Yami didn't feel a tongue on his face, he looked up, "Bakura…?"

Both Bakura and Marik had gone to investigate. And this left Yami alone in the hallway. He immediately jumped off the floor and ran to the light that he saw protruding from the doorframe. He peeked inside the door and came across a rather large room, lit with candles and a few lights. Two large windows hung on the walls and shelves upon shelves of literature took up the rest of the wall space.

Yami stepped into the room, carefully, and then noticed his fellow yamis over by a large red chair. "Y-You guys… I don't like this place…" He said meekly.

"Relax. It's totally empty." Marik traced the lining of the chair with his fingers, "And you of all people should want to say here, Pharaoh. Wouldn't you want to stay here rather than out there, in the darkness?"

"Uh… I guess. This must be Shivers' room or something…" He wandered further into the room, keeping his hands locked in each other, behind his back, "I think we should be careful and not touch – Bakura!"

Bakura ignored everything Yami was saying and touched at the books behind a desk. "This person has bad taste… Horror… mysteries… Where's all the dirty – Crap. Hey, Marik, come look at this!"

Marik came over and looked over his friend's shoulder. Bakura was pointing to one particular book and Marik read the title, "1001 Ways to Seduce a Roommate. Damn… Heh, go, Shivers."

"Don't touch, don't touch…!" Yami pleaded, now standing behind the other two.

But Bakura had already pulled said book out of place. It resisted though, and Bakura pulled even harder. He tugged one last time and finally the book came out of the bookcase and the entire wall shifted. Half going to the left, half to the right, leaving a gaping hole in the wall to be revealed.

"Oh, (bleep)…" All three boys' mouths and eyes were wide as the walls came to a stop. The opening in the wall was a bit lighter than the hallway if only because there were more candles.

Yami, being the first one to come out of the stupor, shook his head and began to do a nervous little dance, "Ooh, we've done it now…! We're going to be killed if Shivers finds out! Bakura, put the book back! Put it back!"

"Not a chance." Bakura smirked as he walked into the hole.

Marik followed with a similar expression on his face.

Whispering his threats and still lingering at the entrance was Yami, who yelled quietly, "Marik! Bakura! Get back here, you psychos! Oh… Damn them." He cursed under his breath as he followed, calling for them to wait up.

That's right, Yami… Let them follow… Bring him to me…