Chapter 10: Haunting Tune

I sat outside for a couple of hours. Doing nothing. Didn't want to do anything. Silence had gone back to what she did best. I was a little surprised at her actions from before. There had been someone looking out at me for the first time in those silver gray eyes. Looking back, I am more startled now than I had been then. Someone was alive in there. Looking out at me.

I wondered if she wanted to get out. Wondered if she were a prisoner too. Of some sort. Bound by the pen and the paper. Prisons have many shapes and forms after all. You'd be surprised how harmless they look sometimes. But that's the point in some traps right? And traps lead to the belly of prisons. First you have to be caught to be caged. Some prisons you know right away, after you've been ensnared and put into it, that it's a cage. But others, the more cruel types, pretend they're not. It takes a while for the captive to see he's caught.

Those are the cruelest because they captive still thinks he has time to run when there is actually none left for him. Hope can choke a man and kill him, just like dreams can long after they've been turned to nothing. They can suffocate and kill without mercy.

I was staring up at the slightly clouding sky, arms stretched out along a bench in a park as I rested my head on the back, looking up at the puffy white shapes moving smoothly along. Scribbling and the sound of girls singing flowed with them. It must have been a chorus of some type. We were in a park near the school. I guess we were close enough to hear them singing. I could also hear a piano cooing with their voices.

The song's "Green Bird". I don't know who sings it, but I've heard it before on TV. It's a beautiful cheerfully sad song that pulls at your ears. The words aren't English. You have no idea what their saying. But it sounds beautiful. Sing-song and sorrowful. But the Piano doesn't cry. So it sounds like rain. Sweet, sweet pattering rain behind the female voices.

My second love is listening to music. I find I like classical and music with no words, or foreign words striking. I also like rock music and rap, but sometimes I like to pull out a song with just a piano or a cello. Listen to it and let the pictures dance right into my head. Let myself fall a sleep to it over and over again. Dream to my heart's content.

The breeze combed my hair lovingly. My eyes hooded and I let myself go for a while, legs slacked and stuck out, arms hung, head back, eyes half open. My fingers were twitching, pretending to play the piano. I was mouthing the incomprehensible words. Falling down in my head. Just falling.

Then shadows fell over my face and I had to wake up. The sweet pattering of the piano was still there though, so I did it more half asleep. I sat up and looked up at the three figures standing like a wall to the side of me. It was the three hackers. They were all looking down at me like I was the idiot. I stretched for a moment, rolled my shoulders, and yawned when the girl spoke.

"How could you yell at Kaiba like that?" she demanded seething.

"Sibby, we weren't going to argue about that, you promised." Tabber said.

"Well, I lied." Sibby replied viciously.

"Easy, I opened my mouth and used my vocal chords." I said boredly, straining to hear the piano and the chorus. It had been a long time since I had heard the song and they kept playing it over and over. I hadn't had my fill yet.

"And do shut up." I added. Sibby swelled up next to me like a giant parrot. I was sure she was going to start squawking, loud and annoying, when Harti replied.

"I agree." Sibby glared venomously at him. Tabber grinned helplessly. Harti took the look and grinned more confidently back.

"That's not going to work on me, Sib."

"How about I slap you?"

"You can try."

"Are you saying I can't?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying-" I took my pistol out, pointed it up, and blasted the sky about ten times before blowing on the muzzle. There was silence as they simply stared at me. I didn't bother to look at them and said very softly.

"Shut up." They remained silent. To my dismay, I found the music had stopped. Instead, there was distant screaming and yelling. I sighed mightily. That was one way to blow a good afternoon. I rubbed my eyes, trying not to get too angry with myself before pocketing the gun and looking at them distastefully.

"Now that you've ruined the song, would you please tell me what you are still doing in my line of sight?" I looked from the three of them. Only Harti could look me straight in the eye. The others thought the sky and the ground looked quite interesting. Silence kept scribbling besides me. She hadn't stopped. I glanced at her, impressed, before looking at Harti again.

"We want to talk to your employers."

"You can't."

"So you're going to try and stop us? I bet they can hear everything I'm saying right now."

"I'm not going to stop you. The channel I have is static; I've been out of touch with them since the near beginning." Harti looked at me with real surprise for once.

"…Are you serious?"

"Yeah, would I kid?" I snarled. He looked at me like I I had just grown three heads for a minute. I'm use to that stare, so it was easy just to keep looking at him as his expression changed to bored.

"No, guess not." Didn't care if this was an insult or not. I was going to go back to my slumped position when the three of them suddenly tensed, hard enough to feel the vibration. I wasn't sure that was possible. Maybe it was a glitch. The Scribbling continued, but it came faster and more out of control. Silence's hand was nearly dancing off the paper. I glanced at it, a little startled, before looking up at their faces.

They were staring. Each of their eyes were glistening. Even Harti's. He didn't seem the type to go into instant awe. I was a little disappointed. A group of stiff statues, looking, incessantly gazing, like tourists, or loyal subjects to a lord. Struck dumb in the presence of a god.

I turned to see what the heck they were gawking at.

I saw Yugi walking toward us. His hair was unmistakable. How could you mistake something that looked like a flaming wig? He wasn't smiling. Looked more like nerves to me than anything. I found my self frowning at that look. Had to shift and fix my face before he came closer. I had enough time.

He wasn't alone.

I saw a familiar face. The same head of white fluffy hair, the familiar brown eyes and complexion, but it was different. The kid looked a little bit blanker, definitely less mean, a little softer spoken. I was reminded heavily of the kid that locks himself in the Library after school as well as before. I didn't see the angry hard face. Still, I didn't like that Yugi was hanging around with him.

About two feet away, Yugi looked over her shoulder, a flicker of a second, before turning around even more nervous. No one was behind him. I furrowed my brow at this action, turned to the three idiots behind me, just standing there staring at him. They're voices from before flocked the inside of my skull

"You know Yugi Mutou?" "Yeah." "Pale kid? Spiky yellow, red, black hair? Short? Purple eyes?" "Yeah, I met him." "Wait, you spoke to him?"

They made him sound like royalty. I thought this irritated. Then I froze at the thought. Royalty. Like Royalty. Man with formal clothes. Like a King. They looked at him like he was a King. You'd record a fight with a King right? Of course you would. Like a King.

Like a Pharaoh.

I stood there surprised as the chorus girls finally calmed down and began to sing there music from the school. It hung like a haunting melody as I stood there, staring blankly at the place where Yugi had been walking, now looking over his head.

A gold glimmer reflecting off the sunlight into my eyes woke me. His face showed a touch of concern. Uneasiness. Painted dark in his purple eyes. I stared at them for a blank interested moment, before shaking it off. My hands slipped into my pockets like second nature, and I smirked at the two of them. More at Yugi though.

"What's up, bud?" He gave me a startled look. It looked strange with the reddish tinge the setting sun created. Everything was turning a more orangey red. He looked at me, a weak sheepish smile on his face, glanced at the crowd behind me. I took a careful step in front of them, blocking him from their view on a wimp I didn't understand. It was just like instinct. I was creeped out a little.

"Never mind these idiots," I said, flicking a thumb behind me, "From what I can tell, they're big fans and can't be polite enough to save their lives… or their dignity. Those part of a set?" I asked, pointing at Bakura's ring and the pendent around Yugi's neck. They both looked down at them. Yugi smiled again, looking at me with a tiny flicker of caution in his eyes.

"Er…You could say that."

The piano started again like rain drops when a light winds blew by us. His hair fluttered in it for a moment, strangely pleasing to see with the combined female voices singing incoherent words. It was a warm wind and tickled my cheeks. I furrowed at it, a little unsettled at these things I was noticing.

I saw Silence's hand pressed hard and jerking around worse than an Earthquake measuring machine, you know, the one with the line of paper and the little hooked line that makes a straight line until it's shaken. I couldn't see her face, but her neck seemed to tense and bulge.

It was alarming in a dreamy sort of way. I looked behind me at the crowd. They're eyes seemed to have gone vague and their hands had twisted into tight fists. Green and Dark eyes were completely gone. It looked like Sibby was fighting it. She could flicker them. I could feel the strain behind me, like they were being stretched or forced back very forcibly.

I found I could almost feel my gloves. They seemed to hover, just out of reach, around my hands. Know when someone is inches from your skin, floating over you, and it almost feels like their touching you? You seem to feel it even when you can't see them doing it? My hands felt like that. I glanced at them and found them the same.

I looked back at him and could see the uneasiness growing, but he seemed to be staring blankly into space. But his eyes were focused to the side of us, almost like he was looking at someone. There was no one there. No one I could see. I wondered dimly what the chances of us just running into each other like this. Very slim, but possible.

The cold stoniness returned at the thought of that. Back to business. I looked at him without really looking at him.

"I found the tablet." I said. The music was humming hauntingly in the background. I have never seen anyone look at me so alarmed in my life. Purple eyes flicked brightly on, the nerves increased ten fold. Bakura furrowed his eyes confused.

"What tablet?" He asked, bewildered. His voice sounded nicer, but I had to ignore him. I was looking at Yugi, just sort of looking at me as sternness entered his eyes. Hard bravery filled that small space. I admired it as he opened his mouth and spoke.

"Are you here for the puzzle?" Interesting question. I felt a wave of stress wash over me like static, but not enter. It wasn't mine to begin with, after all. Silence's pen was stabbing and flying at her page. I could see a drop of sweat travel down into view from the bottom of the brim of her hat.

Could feel strained unheard thoughts behind me. Could see the started horror on the real Bakura's face, his ring chiming as his body swayed slightly. Hard Purple eyes. I wanted to enter them and search those thoughts, but all I've got is a vague shadowed window, to which, I am left helplessly looking in. Don't even have a visitor badge. No clearance at all.

Somehow I was able to crack a smile.

"No. I'm here to talk to the Pharaoh. Simple and clean." Did they change? Was there a flicker of light in those purple eyes? Did they grow deeper? I studied, growing more and more confused as they seemed to grow darker before my waking eyes. Almost older with the wisdom of malice and pain. Simply knowing it can change men's hearts.

"Then speak." A deeper and darker voice says. And all at once my tunnel vision is shattered by it, and as a whole Yugi's friendly eyes are completely gone and replaced with dark cryptic ancient eyes. His voice sings familiar and I realize I have heard him speak like this before. I felt suddenly distanced from him, though neither of us moved an inch.

In this moment, I realize I haven't the slightest clue in what to ask. It had all been experimental. I had chased after something that had the vaguest relation to any part of why I was here, caught it, and now could ask my question I was suppose to have thought of by now!

I opened my mouth to speak, to say something, anything, when Silence's form cut his face off from my view. A quick flash. The hat was tipped back enough so I could catch a glimpse of her face for a second. A second only. The sweat trail stretched not from her forehead but the bottom of her eye. I had mistaken the drop. It had been a tear.

And in the next she was running as fast as she could down the street, her hat flapping until it finally flew off in the wind, making her hair fly up now released from its prison. I turned back to the Pharaoh, as if to ask why she had done that, when Yugi's innocent young eyes were back and scared.

He had his hands to his chest, and for a minute I was sure he was having a heart attack. Then I saw his fingers curled around the empty chain around his neck and knew. I don't know how she took the thing, but she did.

"The puzzle." He whispered in a quiet voice, frightened terror, before he turned and ran after her.