Chapter Thirteen: The Night Begins

Everything in my recent nightmares seems to go back to a certain sleepover my brother insister on having, back to the night where the truth is hidden from me. Always, I relive that night time after time as I struggle to find the beginning of my demise. I know it exists on that night sometime. If only I could remember exactly what happened…

The butler looked over the haunted house one final time, knowing the preparations perfect from what sorts of experiments had been done before. Even Master Seto had surveyed everything and found it satisfactory. Now, it was time to do his little master proud and scare the visitors thoroughly.

Mokuba had raced upstairs, under explicit orders of his brother, and done his homework in another record time. Kaiba found it hard to determine if the prospect of the dragon amulet shop or the sleepover made him work faster.

"You have to eat something, Mokuba. Now."

"I can't take the time to eat now!"

"But you can take the time to argue with me about it."

"I'm working as I argue."

Indeed, it did appear as if Mokuba had the main part of his attention on the papers before him and was only giving his brother the smallest bit of his focus in order to give coherent answers.

"Then you aren't giving your work the best. Or me."

"I don't need to give my full attention to this; it's easy."

"Are you implying that arguing with me takes no skill at all?"

"No! I was talking about my homework being simple."

"That doesn't mean you won't mess up."

"Even with my full attention I could mess up."

"Not as much."

"But enough of a probability that I don't feel the need to make the chance any less."

"But I'm in charge and say that you must. And that'll only be after you eat."

Dejectedly, Mokuba stopped scrawling something and looked at Seto, trying one of his famous sad looks in order to guilt his brother. "But, Seto…Hey, whoever said you were in charge here?" he suddenly chirped, changing his face completely.

Smugly, Seto leaned back against the door frame, saying, "I did."

"Rulers don't put themselves in charge. Or the world would be filled with a bunch of idiotic, self-empowering, sadistic ones."

Kaiba stared at his brother, amused. "It already is."

Face falling once he realized he had lost for a foolish reason, Mokuba stood slowly. "Fine. I guess I'll just have to bolt down something." The boy dashed by his older brother down to the kitchen to find the first thing possible.

"Mokuba! You will not give yourself a stomachache or choke! Slow down!" Just as swiftly, Kaiba pursued his brother down to the kitchen to ensure no Heimlich maneuvers would be necessary.

The gang would be arriving in a few minutes scant of two hours. And then…he'd have to deal with their presence. First, he'd finish that annoying project he was required to do with Bakura, and then he'd monitor the others to make certain nothing he cared for was being carted away or smashed to bits. Maybe he'd have to search Wheeler's backpack and supplies to see if some heavy hammer had been included.

"What in the name of the culinary goddess is that concoction?"

Around a myriad color, size and texture mouthful, Mokuba managed to get out, "Mah dinna."

Closing his eyes and suppressing a shudder, Kaiba replied, "Chew and swallow before speaking next time."

The devilish glint in Mokuba's eyes showed how he was debating disobeying his brother, but he waited long enough that only the residue on his tongue and teeth could disgust the highly hygienic and clean Kaiba.

"Why'd you ask if you didn't want me to answer immediately?" He stuffed his mouth with another bite of what looked like an egg salad sandwich, but there was definitely more color to it than that. From the sharp odor reaching his nostrils, Seto suspected some sort of sauce, and his ears picked out something…crunchy?

Inspecting the counter, Kaiba's stomach heaved. An open bag of candy-coated chocolate, peanut butter, a dish of hastily-made egg salad, a jar of jelly, a Tabasco sauce bottle, and pickles littered the area with their remains.

"And how is this a really quick dinner? Look at all of what you had to put on it."

Giving a big swallow, Mokuba took a moment to catch his breath. "I needed to get my food groups."

"Which are what? Chocolate, salt, cholesterol, oil, and manufactured preserves?"

"No! The chocolate is dairy, the peanut butter protein, the egg salad is protein, too, and fats, the bread carbohydrates, the pickles vegetables, and the jelly fruit."

"And the Tabasco sauce?" he asked, wondering just where and when his brother had started this downhill descent into madness.

"So I cahn ea' it," he said around another mouthful. Seeing his brother turning slightly green, Mokuba chewed rapidly and took a gulp of water. "So I can eat it. It masks the rest of the flavor."

Shaking his head, Kaiba went to the refrigerator to find something truly edible. After Wheeler arrived, after all, the food would be gone. As he was managing something much healthier and edible than Mokuba's mixture, the doorbell echoed throughout the place. Someone was early.

Eyes frozen wide, the boy leaped to his feet. "I didn't get my work finished!"

"You have more time to do it, you know. You don't have to complete it the first day you're out of school on the weekend." Not knowing why he was encouraging procrastination, Seto silenced himself abruptly with a bite of his carrot.

The butler came from another room, bowing before saying, "Master Seto, Master Mokuba, the guests have arrived for your sleepover."

The servants indeed had prepared everything. A large room was ready to hold the hyper souls if they ever planned on sleeping at the mansion, and plenty of snacks were set out in the room as well. Kaiba had allowed all that food, but anything more was under guard to ensure Wheeler didn't get carried away.

Immediately upon seeing the room, Wheeler did the expected and turned to Tristan with an excited, greedy look on his face.

Together, they shouted, "FEEDING FRENZY!"

Then, they raced over to the table to see how much they could cram down their throats in the shortest amount of time possible without choking or hurling on the floor. The winner was, naturally, the greater man. If you asked Kaiba, the winner was by far the stupidest man ever born on the earth. Stomachs signaled they were full for a good reason, and why anyone would want to do something guaranteed to make them ill—especially when at another person's house they were invited to be at for a party—meant they were extremely dull-witted in the head. And Joey Wheeler never proved Kaiba wrong in the slightest.

Mokuba was chuckling, however, and helping throw the bags in a corner as he welcomed the other guests. He showed Bakura over to his brother right away, recognizing the foreign boy's nervousness for what it was.

"Don't worry; we won't go downstairs until you're finished working on that project with my brother."

"Oh…I'm very grateful."

All the gang turned their heads to the younger adolescent who was smirking smugly with his hands in his pockets.

"Mokuba, what is down there?" Téa unconsciously shivered and took one step closer to Yugi. "I mean, you never explained what it was yet."

"Yeah, dell ush!" Through his mouthful of food, doing a worse job of keeping it all inside than Mokuba had been minutes before, Tristan prodded Mokuba for answers.

"Nope, I'm not tellin'. It's a surprise, guys! But I'm sure you'll love it! Now, just stay put for a minute…I need to bring Bakura to my brother."

"No need," came a quiet voice from the other side of the door. "Do you think I'd actually let you leave these people to come find me, allowing our home the chance to be completely demolished in your absence?"

"Come on, Seto. They're not that bad."

"Hmph." Kaiba turned to Bakura, who had been trying not to look like he was listening or even aware of the CEO's presence. "Let's go to my office and get this thing completed."

"Uh…all right. I've got my things." Hefting his bag onto his shoulder, Bakura left, feeling more like he was walking a plank than finally being able to do as he desired and finishing the project the proper way.

"Hope to see you again!" Tristan called with a laugh before he realized that his empty mouth meant Joey was beating him and that he needed to dive back into the snacks.

Happily, Mokuba surveyed his guests and began to plan what they'd do first. He took a glance down at the dragon sitting arrogantly on his chest, and figured that the story of the cursed pendant would make a great start to the evening's entertainment. But until they could go to the basement, they'd have to settle for the boring board games and card games that Yugi was sure to win and that Joey was certain to have near-win attempts through luck alone.

And in a far distant room, Bakura settled uneasily across from Kaiba and the two began the laborious process of holding a conversation and completing a school project together.