Chapter Twenty: Several Dead Ends

So much of my day is useless. School. Work. Doctor visits. All of it has led up to what? Nothing. Nothing at all. I am not at all closer to finding answers than I was a whole month ago.

Still, as I walk through my house and look around at everything, I feel like there is some comfort in staying busy. At least it keeps my mind preoccupied from thinking of the images that constantly barrage me.

Standing back and smirking, Tristan merely watched as Téa turned slowly, examining the walls at this end of the hall. She was so quick to tell him he hadn't known where he was going, but his friend proved no better.

"Guess you aren't such a good leader, after all, Téa. Or could we somehow vaporize through this dead end?"

"Shut up, Tristan!" Angrily, Téa kicked the wall and felt tears spring to her eyes as her shoes pinched her toes. Little spirals of shock rocketed up her leg. But it was more frustration and annoyance that had caused her eyes to water.

Not a single card had they gained, mainly because they were determined to stay away from the potentially dangerous rooms. Plenty of people dressed in grotesque forms and masks had already leaped out at them various times, and so they had allowed themselves to be pursued until all hope of seeing anything familiar had long since faded.

"I just want to find the others!" Téa crossed her arms and leaned against a wall, giving up completely.

A grinding of rock on rock came out through the air, and she tripped backward with a scream of surprise. The darkness swallowed her up.

"Téa?" Tristan poked his head in through the secret passages. He gave a muffled sound of surprise and almost toppled over when a hand had snatched his head and tugged him within.

"It's a secret passage! Do you think this is part of the game Mokuba set up? Or is this a real secret place that the Kaibas don't even know about? Maybe we can get out this way!" Téa pounded a hand on Tristan as she said each syllable.

"Don't kill me, Téa!" He ripped his arm free from her grasp and rubbed it. "But if this isn't part of the game, we can't do it! Mokuba is thinking we're in here. And the kid worked so hard; that's evident. We can't just go wherever we want."

"Come on, Tristan…this is just a little detour before we complete the game. And maybe this is part of the area. Do you really want to go back out there and face all those nasty skittering things and unknown other terrors?"

Putting his hand to his head, Tristan studied the ceiling that was invisible in the inkiness. Sighing deeply, he turned back to Téa.

"All right. We'll see where this goes."

Smiling, her white teeth became the last glint he saw as blackness devoured the two. They tread down the musty corridor where no glimmer of light ever existed. A faint scratching of claws on the floor made Téa moan and Tristan make a face, but they continued walking regardless, feeling their way along the dusty, damp walls, each step carefully felt out before placed.

As the corridor continued on for fifteen minutes, nothing changing, Téa, who was still in the lead, began to change her mind.

"Maybe you're right…we shouldn't follow this route."

Tristan was debating over whether to make a snide comment or just agree and turn around when Téa screamed. She crashed into Tristan, who was beginning to seriously dislike how much that was happening, and tore back down the corridor to the way they had entered.

Digging in his heels, Tristan managed to drag the frantic girl to a stop outside the entrance to the passage, demanding to know what had happened.

"The walls!" she gasped out. "They were—they were fuzzy!"

"Moss? Mold?"

"No! Furry! Like an animal!"

"Maybe that was part of the set-up. I've been in a haunted house where they've put fur on the walls before."

"It was alive! I swear!"

Skeptical, Tristan wasn't foolish enough to think they would be going back in that direction, and he wasn't certain he wanted to, anyway. So they began to backtrack again.

"Aaah! Get off a'me!" Joey struggled and kicked, freeing one arm from his throat so he could refresh on the air he had just blown out.

His right arm jerked back almost in a spasm, punching at whoever had grabbed him. A grunt sounded and the grasp loosened enough that he was completely free. Whirling, Joey raised both fists and faced his attacker.

As the figure's face hid in the shadows of a hood, Joey wound up to stick his hand right into the shadow of the hood. He couldn't wait to hear the anticipated sound of a nose breaking. But before he could get his fist close enough, the figure danced backward, throwing some powder that made Wheeler overtaken completely by sneezes.

"No—achoo—fair! Cheata! Achoo!"

The person trying to imitate Death, no doubt, dashed down the corridor in a less-than-impressive mode of spookily gliding.

Trying to wave a fist after the person at the very least, Joey bended over as the sneezes completely enveloped him. Eyes red and running, nose and throat throbbing, and liquid snot dripping all over him, Joey looked monstrous himself. Straightening when the wracking sneezes finally filtered to an end, he held his arms out from his torso and looked down at himself.

"Dad's jusd nod fair."

Ironic that so much sneezing had only clogged his nose.

Giving a shake like the dog Kaiba enjoyed calling him, the street fighter realized how futile it all was. And he hadn't brought a change of clothes at all.

"Oh…I hobe id dries quiggly."

Who was that attacker? Someone hired to do the work? And why had the person had a sneezing powder? Protection just in case someone attacked them like Joey just had? All of it was becoming vastly confusing to the blond.

"And I wanna card!"

Joey wiped his hands on the fur carpet before the fireplace. Then he straightened and resumed his search of the room, looking behind him quickly, once, just to be sure. Then, sniffing deeply to clear his breathing, he paced the room in his search for another piece of Exodia the Forbidden One.

That suit of armor…that was right! The armor had been where he was heading when that cloaked figure attacked him. Most likely, something important rested in it, which was why the person had tried to throttle him.

Anxiously, Joey opened the visor. Everything inside appeared as blank and void as the lowest depths of an ocean cave. So Joey did what was next required: placing an arm through the open visor, he felt around just to be certain nothing hid within.

"A room widout any cards! Dat's dumb!" Suddenly, a thought reached the distant contours of his vague mind. "Or maybe someone already got de card! I'm too slow! Argh!"

With a furious kick right where it ought to have hurt any man, or woman, for that matter, Joey turned around, leaving the armor in a clattered pile behind him, the firelight still flaring and dancing on the walls, beckoning the next sucker to arrive within.

At least four of the rooms they had found hadn't been raided yet. And those servants stationed at various places were encouraged for their efforts and thanked once more. A few even enjoyed themselves immensely; after all, working for the Kaibas seldom had perks like this.

Though the servant had told him already, the younger Kaiba's face fell when they entered one dimly-lit room. "The spider's been defeated! My Shelob impersonator has been vanquished like the real one!"

Mokuba pointed sadly to the balloon eyes that had been broken, and he dragged its sorry piece of machinery off to the side where it could still ominously preside over any people finding the area. No need to restart it, though, because that would nearly be the same as cheating.

"What other kinds of surprises do you have waiting for everyone?" Kaiba asked, observing the spider machine he had made a long time ago.

Giving a smile up to his brother, Mokuba said, "Oh, this and that…just enough to creep the bejiggins out of them."

"'Bejiggins?' That's not one of your vocabulary words. That's not a word at all."

"If you can use 'geniusness,' I can use 'bejiggins.' It just means as much as possible for whatever you use it to represent. The way I used it, I was referring to the fact that they're going to be as scared as much as possible."

"Hmm," Seto replied noncommittally.

"Come on…it's a good word."

Snorting, Kaiba continued walking toward the door. "I think, if you were to make up a word, it ought to be one people would more likely believe. One that sounds…well, not so obviously made up."

"Oh? Like what?"

"Geniusness."

Mokuba debated arguing with his brother for that, but decided Seto would be expecting it. So, the boy merely made a sound of scorn as he took the lead once more, heading to the next closest room to check on the participants' progress. Maybe they'd finally see one of his friends within.

Where could they all have gotten lost? Perhaps the Kaibas would have to take another route from the very beginning of the maze. After all, a few of those places didn't intersect with the rest, and the others could have gone back through after they had left.

"Seto, are these going to run out of batteries?"

Kaiba glanced down at his brother where the boy was tapping the rim of the glasses.

"They don't run on regular batteries. They take some high-voltage ones that ought to last for several hours even with constant use."

"Oh, should I turn them off, then?"

"No, go ahead; document your Kaiba Mansion Haunted House and see if you can sell it for some money. The idiots out in the world will buy anything."

"…We don't need any more money."

Shrugging, Kaiba replied, "Well, those fools almost deserve to lose it. But fine, if you want me to be the only one earning money in this household…"

Mokuba could tell his brother was teasing him, but he immediately turned toward him. "Hey! You pay me for some of the things I do for the company!"

"No, I give you an allowance. There's a difference."

"But I do things to earn the allowance. I do work at the company. I make copies and print things out! I've made graphs for you!"

Keeping his stern lips from curling into a smile, Seto shrugged again. "Sure. But now you could have done some real work and gotten paid for it."

"Hmph. What I've done is real work.

"Whatever you say, little brother. Want a raise? It'll—"

"What about that hacking I've helped you with?" Mokuba broke in, determined to get some adequate respect.

Seto fell silent. "That was something you thought was fun."

"So did you. But you still considered it work for you."

"Fine; you had one real job. Congratulations. Want a party to celebrate it?"

"I'm already having one. And we have to find the others!"

Mokuba dashed down the hall, missing seeing his brother's small grin, but his eyes saw it anyway. He always held Seto's smile in his mind where it would live forever.