Chapter 11: A Good Friend Gone
Her notebook was flat on the ground, pages flickering as her pen rolled lazily on the concrete path. Without thinking much, I glanced at the writing.
Weighing of the scale
Which one? The Heart or Feather?
Egypt's Justice flies.
It was written over, and over, and over again.
I sprinted as fast as I could to catch up, not even thinking about the group of people I had left behind. He was still in sight, so I could at least follow him.
He was heading fast, but my legs were slightly longer and I was determined to catch up. I did. I got to the side of him and without thinking grabbed his sleeve and pulled him in the direction that just felt right. He dragged for a moment before I growled over my shoulder hard.
"Come on! She went this way!" I felt the same determination flow as he grabbed my wrist hard and sped up. I cut through on coming traffic, my legs doing most of the thinking as my eyes searched for any sight of her. Horns blew up loud and clear, kind of like loud angry dragons, but they were easy to ignore compared to how hot my wrist was getting. That was more distracting.
I ran for five minutes straight before I snagged a glimpse of the ends of her hair flying around the corner of a building and I added to my speed. The wind whistled in my ears, had to narrow my eyes to protect them as we whipped around right after and headed on. I could see her now, and my voice bellowed loud and fierce.
"SILENCE!"
She spun and looked at me with wide eyes.
Crying eyes filled to the brim in cold misery.
November cold dead eyes.
And my breath snagged hard enough to hurt my throat before everything spiraled into chaos. I suppose that's the only way to describe such a thing. How fast everything moved. Too fast to comprehend correctly. Movements and actions happening all at the same time. The only way I can give it any sense it to tell you it in sequence. If you find a better way to give order to chaos, let me know.
Silence clenched the puzzle. Laughter exploded. Yugi got around me and went forward. My head turned. Light fizzed into life behind me. My hand rose. Metal gleamed. Light fizzed to life in front of me. The silhouette of a human took shape behind, hand up. Boom. Smoke rises. A female bellow. The roar of a beast and a blast of hot wind. A shouted word from a male. MIRROR FORCE. Twang. Simple sound of a ricocheting bullet. The explosive shot of white light that went KA BOW. Fresh white hot pain laced into my chest. The expelled shadow of the silhouette. Dark eyes. And then my voice entwined with a shout of agony.
"SHIT!"
I landed hard on my knees as those dark eyes looked at me pleasantly as he laughed, God I should've have recognized him by that god damn laughter. Should have long before now. Why was I such an IDIOT! It should've made sense. The whole DAMN THING!
He laughed again at the startled expression with pleasure, his hand still raised lazily above his head, his dark eyes on me and that echoing chuckle of a stranger in the air. Except I couldn't call him Stranger any more. It should've been plain before. I mean come on? Think hard ladies and gentlemen. Who had the skills? The codes? All that happy computer shit. Who knew the game existed!
Tabber looked quite pleased with himself, or maybe it was the fresh ripping pain that was shredding through me. I was grabbing at it by now, blindly with reddening hands. He put the card at the bottom of the deck, making the mirror disappear before pulling a few more cards, cold sly intelligence in the light of things. Finally.
"Shooting a Mirror Wall was probably the stupidest thing I have ever seen, but I should've expected it from you, Love. Your first instincts are shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later, am I right? Harti was the same way, the idiot." He said it softly, but it still cut like a blade. I clenched, teeth clenched from the throb of the pain lacing itself deeper. Bitch in a can! That really hurt like a son of a bitch, god damn it!
"Yeah…you could probably say that much." I said, wheezing a little. Winced at how it hurt to breath, like little claws ripping you wide open and teeth sinking in. I began to pant, fingers still curled around the butt of the gun. He ignored it completely, and why not? The thing wasn't going to cause any problem. We both knew it.
"It hit an organ. The chances it didn't are slim, Love." We both knew that too.
"Don't call me that." I snarled in a rasp. Tabber brought his hand to his mouth in fake surprise. There was mocking delight burning softly in his eyes.
"Oh yes, I forgot. How rude of me. The tom-boy doesn't like to be called such a sissy word! I'm sorry dear, but you are female. Females are supposed to think love is for them and their partners. The word is supposed to make you gush." I rolled my eyes, leaned against my other arm and struggled to my feet very slowly.
"What are you? Some helpless romantic? That's the biggest load of bullshit I've ever heard." A grimace and buckling legs. I could hear blood splashing onto the road in thick sick swishing thuds. It was running between my fingers freely now, in a dribble down the side of my leg.
"Words, Love. It's just words. No matter how much you try to squirm it will get you. That's just how girls are. They look for their Knight in Shining Armor. There is no escaping. I think you already know, deep, deep down. And you're scared." I leaned against the wall and was slightly pissed at the shivering that was starting. Or how pale I could feel my face getting. He'd think it was fear. He'd think it. And maybe I'd believe it. He grinned all the same.
"I can make it quick, Love. I can end the pain right now. If you do one thing." I was trying to give him a look that seemed amused. I'm not sure if it came out that way.
"Yeah? And what would that be?" Tried to make my voice lazy.
"If you admit it." I was silent for a moment before opening my mouth.
"Go to hell."
"No, that's where you're going." And as if to stress his point he flips another card and points its face towards me. More fizzing lights, ribbons made of stars. The wind stirred from the energy and I felt static dancing hard and wide. That was a new touch. Or maybe it was that the pain gnawing into my chest that made me feel more.
A man in a funny hat. Not the same funny hat from the wall, but the faces were strikingly similar. The get up was interesting. Teal and black face paint made into swirls, dressed in tight leather. And a staff to boot. He looked down at me with dark cold eyes.
"Do you who this is, Love? This is Magician of Black Chaos. The Pharaoh used him to defeat Pegasus. Do you know the power he holds? Wields? It's pretty powerful stuff. And I'm going to use it on you. You should be grateful-"
"Will you shut up?" I said. I expected him to pull a tantrum, start calling me a thousand curses, and yeah maybe even the 'c' word. I hate that word. Really do. Instead, I get the darkest damned look I have ever seen, laced with the cold of space.
"You're going to wish you never said that." He whispered, before pointing his finger at the big bad monster and flicking it.
I saw the staff spin in his skilled hands gloved hands. Maybe he would've brought it down. I don't know. Someone yelled something and I got a blast of wind smelling of sand, hot desert sand that left me frozen. Sand and desert blossoms. It was stupefying. And for a moment it felt like I was somewhere else when a big dark shape blotted out that light and that vision.
A winged woman I've taken for an angle in plain everyday life. Not that it existed any longer. And why should it? Seven winged and that's all I got before my legs stared my wobbling body away. That and desperate grasping fingers were pursuing enough in all. I was in a daze, and the gun more or less dangled in my hand. Desert kept flashing in my eyes. In and out. In and out. God, it was haunting like the tide.
Silence's face was twisted in determined anguish. She looked rocked back on her heels from the blow to the winged angle, like he had struck a blow to her more than the beast. I watched the thing smash into a thousand bits. Silver Coin eyes went wide and skyward for a moment. It hurt to look at. Even worse when they tilted and slid on to me. Sorrow.
"Silence! You pathetic piece of slime, you think you can with stand against my skills? I doubt the Pharaoh himself could stop me, little sister." Tabber was yelling in enjoyment. But that was far away. Her knees banged hard against the pavement, pain flashing deep in her eyes as her body rocked, the puzzle held tightly to her heaving chest. Clearly he was killing her.
I tried to go to her, but those hands, his goddamn hands, held me firmly away. Her head followed her eyes, faced me with wet tearing expression. A weak smile was on her lips. And without really having to think much about it, I knew she was dead. She knew too. It was written in black ink in her mind. There was no other way. And she still continued to smile.
I screamed something wordless. Was it horror or heart wrenching sorrow? I don't think I'll ever know. What I do know is her arms raised slowly over her head, golden pyramid full of cracks, the chain swishing like a tail, and threw it. Threw it hard. Harder than I have ever seen anyone chuck something. It put quarterbacks to shame.
And it sailed like a bird, chain fluttering behind it like some bizarre comet-tail, metal glittering in the sun. It's funny sometimes, how your mind can work. The sun was glinting off of it, gold shine that screamed of dunes as that damned piano song from the park came dancing into my head. My neck craned and I could hear Tabber screaming with rage in that same galaxy, far, far away from this one.
And my hands were suddenly there, out in front of me as the thing came tilting at a downward slant, one hand clean, the other soaked with blood. It came down into my arms with a safe thud, the rough texture of the gloves exploding onto my fingers as I went backwards. Would've fallen if those hands hadn't kept me up right. Would've stayed if they hadn't kept me moving.
They were dragging, and it took me until now to realize it was Yugi that was getting me the hell out of there. Watched in a daze as Tabber's monsters came in my direction and where held off with Silence's cards with a single wave of her hand, determined swing of fingers, still looking at me with her eyes.
And she gave me one last smile as we turned the corner in a lagging sort of jog. Pain was there, but it was also in the distant galaxy with Tabber. I paid it no mind. She smiled with her silver eyes, mysterious I wonder even to herself as they were to me. And her silence never broken. Maybe it is better that way.
That was the last time I saw the one real friend I had ever made.