Since his limo driver was on vacation for the next month, Seto decided to break in his new 2005 blue Trans Am. When he pulled out of the garage, Mokuba in the passenger seat next to him, he backed out of the driveway and turned right, hoping that that was the way Joey had gone.
"I hope we find Joey soon," Mokuba sighed.
Seto looked over at his brother with unusual caring eyes. "Don't worry Mokie. We'll find him. It just might take awhile because we have no idea where he ran off to." That was the downfall to his plan. Neither of the two brothers knew where Joey lived so that was going to require some heavy thinking.
As they drove through downtown Domino, both brothers kept their eyes wide open for any sign of Joey. When they didn't spot him anywhere, they decided to park the car along the side of the road and get out and look for him.
"Joey!" Mokuba shouted as Seto remained silent. Mokuba folded his arms across his chest as he looked up into Seto's cerulean blue eyes with a cold, hard stare. "Seto! Don't you even care if we find Joey or not? This was your idea after all!" the pre-teen lectured.
"I'm looking Mokuba," Seto replied simply, keeping his tone rather firm.
Mokuba let out a heavy sigh. "Fine. Let's just hope we find him. I'd say finding Joey is a lot more important than standing here on the brink of an argument." With that, both brothers continued down the street, searching high and low for the blonde-haired teen.
Meanwhile, Joey had just arrived at the foot of his doorstep. He tried to work up the courage to open the door, or more specifically, the Gateway to Hell, but could barely move his hands from his sides. Suddenly, he heard the door slowly creak open, but to his surprise, no one was standing in front of him when it swung open all the way. He silently stepped inside, only to realize that the house was dead quiet, perhaps even too quiet. The TV was off and there were bags of open chips and pop cans lying all over the floor and on the furniture. Cigarette smoke and the stench of alcohol filled the air.
Dad must be out drinking again, Joey assumed and then started thinking. But if he's out drinking, then who opened the door? He shuddered, almost afraid to know who was in the house. All of a sudden, he felt a cold hand touch his shoulder. He shivered. When he whisked around, the first sight he saw was…
"Yug!" Joey practically screamed with joy. He was almost ecstatic, knowing full well that his father wasn't in the house…or at least he hoped not. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to see if you wanted to come to the arcade today. Tea, Tristan, Ryou and Duke are all going. We haven't been able to hang out with you the past couple of days and thought that you'd want to make up for it."
"Gee Yug, that sounds like a lot of fun but there's some things I got to do around here first."
"Like what? No one's even here. I'm sure your father won't mind if you go out for a couple of hours."
He doesn't know the half of it, Joey thought to himself. "I really should clean up around here. After all, this is partly my house and I need to keep at least some of it clean." He knew that this was a stupid excuse, but what else was he going to say?
"Are you sure?" Yugi asked again, hoping that Joey would eventually change his mind.
"I'm sure. But if I get done early I'll try and make it, okay?"
"Okay," Yugi said as he took his leave. "Bye Joey," he called out.
"Bye Yug," Joey called back as he shut the door. "Now, where do I start?" He sighed heavily, coughing as he inhaled some of the cigarette smoke.
"You can start by telling me where you've been for the past few days," a voice boomed from the stairway. Joey almost instinctively knew who was speaking to him.
"Who wants to know?" he replied sarcastically.
"The one you ran away from…" it spoke slyly as a male figure stepped out of the shadows. It was Mr. Wheeler all right; there was no mistaking someone like him. He still had his reeking, alcohol smelling clothes on, his hair was a mess and his face was in a class of its own. Let's just say it's something you don't want to meet in a dark alley. He scowled at Joey. "Tell me where you've been you little punk," he demanded.
"Why should I tell you?"
"Because if you don't, you won't live to see another day ever again…" his father threatened menacingly. However, Joey didn't seem afraid of him or his threats.
"You say that every time and what happens? Nothing, that's what. So why should I be afraid of someone who doesn't even back up his own threats?" Joey remarked.
It was then that Mr. Wheeler sauntered over towards Joey, barely able to keep his balance due to all the alcohol he had consumed. When he was merely inches away from the blonde, he raised his hand and slapped his face hard. Joey hardly flinched as he moved his own hand to cover up the now forming red mark.
"That's for everything you've put me through, you little fuck," the large man sneered as he then pushed Joey into the wall, causing a rather expensive-looking vase to smash into a thousand pieces onto the floor. Mr. Wheeler grumbled. "Good for nothing son…" With that he left the house, leaving Joey in a heap on the floor. The red mark on his face had now begun to turn a bluish-purple colour. He could barely move; all he did was lie on the floor and hope that his father wouldn't return. He tried to reach for the phone, which was sitting on the couch only a few feet away. He crawled over to it and picked it up.
"Maybe I should call Yugi," Joey pondered aloud and then quickly reconsidered his decision when he thought of all the questions he would ask. He couldn't tell him what his father had done to him, even if he was his best friend. It would only worry him and that's something Joey didn't want to do. Suddenly, a thought struck his mind and then vanished almost as quickly as it came. He thought that he could call Seto and then almost immediately remembered what he had said before…
Flashback"Whatever. If you want to go back to your father then so be it. I'm not going to stop you. But if you get hurt again, don't come crawling back here because I won't have any sympathy for you. You've chosen to go back so if anything happens you have nobody to blame but yourself."
End Flashback
"There's no way I can call Kaiba now. He won't care about anything I tell him, unless…" He pulled out something from his pocket and examined it. It was a little slip of paper with something written on it. It was Mokuba's cell phone number. He could call the young pre-teen and not have to talk to Seto Kaiba himself. That way, Mokuba could convince his brother to take Joey in again and everything would be fine…he hoped. He then quickly dialed the number on the cordless phone and waited for an answer.
"Come on, come on. Please be there," Joey kept repeating to himself over and over again.
"Hello?" a voice on the other line answered.
"Hey, is this Mokuba?" Joey asked.
"Yes, who's calling?"
"It's Joey." That response gave Mokuba a shock to the system.
"JOEY!" he practically screamed into the phone. Seto, who was standing next to him, let out a rather annoyed sigh.
"Yah, it's me. Hey, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind coming by my house. I kind of got myself into a little predicament…" Joey chuckled a little.
"Are you okay?" Mokuba asked worriedly.
"I'm doing pretty good. I'm alive, that's a bonus," Joey smirked inwardly.
"That's good and I'm sure it won't be a problem to come and see you. I'm sure Seto won't mind." All Joey could hear in the background was Seto grumbling and muttering a few words of which he didn't hear. Just then, Mokuba started up the conversation again. "Um, Joey? We can come to your house…if we knew where it was, that is…" The raven-haired child scratched his head with a little bit of confusion.
"Oh, heh, heh. Sorry about that. My address is 400 Oak Avenue, Unit #2," Joey informed.
"Okay, thanks Joey! We'll be there as soon as we can!" Mokuba exclaimed and then shut his cell phone.
When Joey had hung up, all he could think about was if Seto and Mokuba would make it in time…before his father came home again…
"So, now that we know where Joey lives, it should be easy to find him," Mokuba stated rather cheerily.
"Mhm…" Seto mumbled as they continued down the street. When they came to the corner, they looked up and saw that they were now on Oak Avenue.
"Well that was easy!" the raven-haired pre-teen smiled gleefully. "Now all we have to do is find his apartment. It shouldn't be that hard."
Seto murmured something under his breath that Mokuba could not make out. Instead of making a fuss, the younger Kaiba just ignored it and started down the sidewalk once again, his brother following closely behind.
"Where are they? I do hope they come soon. Wait a minute. What am I talking about? They? I thought I was just hoping for Mokuba, not that jerk Kaiba. Oh well. I guess I can't have everything my way. I just hope they come soon otherwise my father will beat them here and Ra knows what else he'll do to me…" Joey then trailed off as he started to fall into a deep sleep. However, his mind was not filled with dreams…it was filled with nothing but nightmares, haunting him mercilessly. He curled up into a small ball, waiting, hoping that someone would find him…