A/N: I'm updating this thing fast! I'm just really inspired by this thing... but I've hit a bout of writer's block. Mehhhh...
Ten Little Duel MonstersA few minutes later, the group of eight people had gathered in the dining room where they had eaten dinner. Serenity and Ryou had helped to make everyone a good, strong pot of tea. At the moment, they were back in the kitchen, searching for an asprin to help soothe Marik's terrible headache.
"In old books, they gave people brandy to calm them down," Serenity said, picking up a bottle of wine that had been buried in the back of a cupboard. "But we'd have to keep it away from Kaiba."
"So you think it's him too?" Ryou said, turning from the cupboards to face her.
"Yes! Who else could it be?" Serenity said, wide-eyed. "You heard him. 'I hated Gardner.' 'Not that necklace crap again?' You see? Ishizu and Tea have both been on his nerves since the day he met them. And now he's getting rid of them."
"You know, you may have something there. Ah! Here's the asprin!"
"Listen, let's watch out for each other, and everyone else! Especially Yugi. If Kaiba is the one, then Yugi's going to be killed next."
"Right." Ryou filled up a glass with water and grabbed two asprin. "If Marik doesn't calm down within an hour, let's give him some wine. Otherwise, let's forget it's here. Alcohol and homicidal maniacs don't mix.
A loud, scream broke the night stillness once again. A scene much like before unfolded, except everyone was fully awake this time.
Joey was the first one out of his room. Within a few seconds, Yugi had also burst out of his room.
"Who now?" Joey asked fearfully as Serenity and Ryou burst out of their rooms, spied Yugi, and breathed a sigh of relief.
Ribbon ran frantically out of her room. "What now?"
"What's going on?" Tristan asked as he ran from his room.
There was a brief pause.
"Who's not here?" Ryou asked.
"Well, Kaiba's downstairs," said Ribbon, counting heads. "So...Marik!" All of the people currently in the hall ran to Marik's room and opened the door. Marik lay, deathly silent, upon his bed, although there were no physical marks that gave any clue as to why he would be dead. Immediately, Joey turned on Ryou.
"All right, what did you do to those asprin? Did you poison them? Or did you give him an overdose?" He held up a fist. "Speak up!"
"Big brother, calm down," Serenity pleaded, latching onto Joey's arm. "I was with him! He didn't do anything!"
"Yeah right! He never goes anywhere without that ring, and he says he didn't bring it with him? As if! I bet he's wearing it right now!"
"What's going on?" Marik asked in a sleepy voice, rather shocked and confused by seeing a group of people in his room while he was asleep. He raised himself up into a sitting position and stared at everyone.
"Ummm...nothing," Ryou said, eyes downcast.
"Wait! Someone still screamed!" said Yugi.
"Kaiba!" said Tristan. The group ran downstairs to Kaiba's room. There was a loud banging and shuffling coming from inside.
"Kaiba?" yelled Ribbon, banging on the door with her fist.
The door was wrenched open by Kaiba and everyone caught a glimpse of his room.
It was a wreck. The drawers had been wrenched out of their homes and the contents had been dumped on the floor. Everything on a shelf had been knocked askew.
"Kaiba? What's going on?" Yugi asked.
"I CAN'T FIND MY LAPTOP!" Kaiba yelled angrily. "DON'T YOU REALIZE THAT WAS OUT ONLY COMMMUNICATION DEVICE; OUT ONLY WAY TO GET HELP FROM THE OUTSIDE WORLD!"
"Chill, Kaiba," said Joey. "We didn't take it."
Kaiba slammed the door in Joey's face. Convinced that everyone was alive and well, everyone went to bed.
Serenity awoke to the sound of birds chirping and to the sunlight pouring through her window. She glanced through the window to see Duelist Kingdom bathed in sunlight, looking like something from a fantasy world.
"It's so perfect," she thought. "You'd never guess that there have been two murders here." She remained sitting for a few seconds, then rose, dressed, and cautiously left her room, glancing at her watch. It was already 1:00 p.m., and the closed doors up and down the hall showed other people hiding from the current events in the protection of sleep.
Noise was coming from the kitchen. Slowly she crept downstairs to find that Ryou, Ribbon, Joey, and Yugi were already awake and busy fixing lunch. They were also discussing their opinions of who the murderer was.
"It HAS to be Marik," Ribbon declared decisively. "I mean, who ELSE has gone on a killing rampage before?"
"True, but that was his yami. He didn't do it himself," said Ryou.
"You would say that," Joey said, rather meanly.
"Meaning?" Ryou asked defensively.
"Who else was forced into evil things by their yami? Oh yeah, that was you. But you never got rid of that ring! And now you claim you left it at home? There's not a doubt in my mind as to who the killer is!"
Serenity decided that now was a good time to interrupt. "Good morning," she said, trying to sound enthusiastic and happy, yet failing miserably.
Joey, who would never let his sister see him in a bad mood, stopped yelling at Ryou, even if he did send him evil glares once in a while. Ryou decided to shrug it off.
Eight people were sitting down to lunch. There was very little conversation, although there were many valiant attempts to start one.
"Could you pass the sandwiches?" Joey asked. They were passed to him wordlessly.
About five minutes later, Serenity said, "You know, I could have sworn that there were ten of these china Duel Monsters figures yesterday."
"There were," said Ribbon. "The Magician of Faith has disappeared."
"So has the Mystical Elf," said Marik. "Now there's only eight."
Everyone stared. Only eight...
After everyone had finished lunch and the dishes had been washed, nobody quite knew what to do. They all met in the living room, sitting down and seeming to drown in the gloomy silence. Ever practical, Kaiba started a one-sided conversation that sounded more like a lecture.
"Listen, you can't just sit there feeling sorry for yourselves. You need to take precautions to make sure that you don't die too."
"Could you possibly be more heartless, Kaiba?" Ribbon asked at the same time that Joey retorted, "Such as?"
"Such as," Kaiba said, glaring at Ribbon, "never being alone with one person, in case they're the killer. And it's probably a bad idea to be totally alone unless you're sleeping. And always lock your door at night."
There was a long pause; no one even acknowledged that Kaiba had spoken, although they had all been listening.
"So now what?" Tristan burst out suddenly. "There have been two murders, but we can't expect to sit and do nothing the rest of the weekend! We have to do something or we'll all go mad with grief!"
"Fine. I suggest we eat dinner," Marik said automatically, cheeks still wet with tears.
"Dinner! We just ate lunch!" Joey protested, not hungry for once.
"You're wrong," Serenity said, shocked, as she looked at her watch. "It's already 8:00."
"So who wants to cook dinner?" Ryou asked, getting up and heading towards the kitchen.
"I will," said Serenity, standing.
"So will I," said Ribbon.
The three people who had volunteered headed to the kitchen and began to cook. About half an hour later, everyone was sitting down to dinner. However, nobody seemed very hungry. They all just picked at their food, appetites gone. Therefore, when Marik fell asleep in the mashed potatoes, exhausted from grieving, they all decided it would be best to go to bed.
"Lock your doors," Kaiba reminded them as everyone else headed upstairs.
Eight doors shut and locked.
Serenity woke up before anyone else the next morning. With a jolt, she realized that there hadn't been a murder in twenty-four hours. All they had to do was sit in a group for another day, the weekend would be over, the boat would come, and they could leave! She was in such a good mood that she decided to make everyone homemade French toast.
"Tea loved French toast," Serenity recalled, gloom replacing her previous ecstasy as she remembered why she had been sad in the first place. Nonetheless, she decided that French toast was a good idea, so she headed down to the kitchen, glancing behind her every so often to make sure that no murderers were following her.
"Owww!" she muttered as she stepped on something sharp passing the table. Glancing down, she saw shattered pieces of purple china.
Her heart skipped a beat and hopped into her throat. Looking at the china figures, she counted them mentally.
"Kuriboh, Blue Eyes White Dragon, Winged Dragon of Ra, Cyber Commander, Dark Magician Girl, Red Eyes Black Dragon, Change of Heart..." She gasped. "It's only seven! The Dark Magician is gone!" Her heart beat faster than it had before. "Yugi! I knew he was in danger!" She ran from the room screaming, "Yugiiiiiiii!"
"What do you think you're doing, Wheeler?" Kaiba stormed, bursting out of his room. He got a glimpse of Serenity as she dashed up the stairs. Rolling his eyes, he followed her.
Serenity pounded on Yugi's door with her fists in rapid succession. "Yugi! Yugi! Open the door!"
"What's wrong?" Ryou asked, exiting his own room.
"Kaiba's killed Yugi!" Serenity screamed hysterically. She began to pound on the door again. "YUGI!"
By this time, Kaiba had run upstairs and everyone else had left his or her rooms. Kaiba reached forward, turned the doorknob, and pushed the door open.
Yugi lay peacefully on his bed, starchips sprinkled across his face and in his hair. Kaiba placed two fingers on Yugi's neck and searched for a pulse.
"It's no good. He's gone."
A/N: Oh, poor Yugi. EEEEEEEP! (begins running from Mel and Rebecca). Mel: Get back here, you Yugi-murderer! Rebecca: If you think the way I hated Yami was bad, wait 'til I get back at you! Telecoi: Chill! It's just a fic! Yugi's fine! (shoves Yugi at Yugi-fangirls-bent-on-taking-revenge, who immediately begin squealing and hugging him) Whew... Well, another chapter done? Who do you think did it? Review, PLEASE!
Seto's Obbsessive Stalker: You think it's Ribbon? (draws tally mark under Ribbon's name on big chart)
NekoAi: And another vote for Ribbon... (draws tally mark under Ribbon's name on big chart)
Raven's Darkness: Now Pegasus has a vote! (Pegasus: I'm so loved! Telecoi: Not really... she thinks you're a homicidal killer. Pegasus: ...You mean I'm not?) (draws tally mark under Pegasus's name on big chart)
TCD0012: Wow, great theory! I can see this fic is making you think! I'm so happy!
Ryouismyidle: ...well, people are already REALLY gonna hate me for this chapter! What's a few more homicidal, revenge-bent people going to hurt? Aside from me, I mean. Besides, you know that at least one of them are gonna die, if not both. Whoops! I've got to stop giving things away in review responses!
BoredAsCrap: Heh. Love your name. Okay, since you suspect Yugi and Serenity, I'll give them each half a vote. Although most likely you don't think it's Yugi anymore... (draws one-half of a tally mark under Yugi and Serenity's names on big chart)
Athena777: Since you think it's two people, they each get half of a vote. (draws one-half of a tally mark under Tristan and Kaiba's names on big chart)
Revan Starr: There's no way I could kill off my favorite character so early! And I accept your duel (sporks rock, by the way. And it's fun to say) (pulls out earring) Well, I suppose I could have worse weapons. At least this is the pointy pair of earrings that always poke my ear and turn it red...
Standings: The votes are thus: One and a half votes for Tristan, one and a half votes for Kaiba, two votes for Ribbon, one vote for Pegasus, one-half of a vote for Yugi, and one-half of a vote for Serenity. There are no votes for Marik, Ryou, or Joey, as well as all characters who aren't here, except for Pegasus.
This is Telecoi, ending the story.