NOTE: I'm glad to see you guys are enjoying my "horror" story! And you guys even admit that it is sort of freaky (unless that's a lie….). But I guarantee, even if it isn't the full truth, this fic will get creepier and more gross later. I PROMISE. My thoughts have become slightly….revolting: in my context. Of course, in my context, ANYTHING gory is awful, but oh well. Enjoy!
PS: Hope you like the chapter title!
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!
Chapter 3: I See Dead People
"Oh…my…God," Tea whispered. Her eyes widened over the next few seconds. Suddenly: "Oh my God; oh my God; oh my GOD!" she began hyperventilating. Everyone turned to face her. Yugi ran over to her side, taking her by the arm.
"Tea? What happened!"
Tea spun around to face Kaiba, "I thought you said that this place was deserted!"
"It is, Gardner," Seto sneered.
"Well, I would rethink that statement!" Tea yelled, "There was someone up there!" she pointed towards the top of the stairs. "And-! He HAD A DAGGER!"
"WHAT?" Mai jumped, "A dagger?"
"YES!"
"Tea…hate to break it to ya, but I dun see anyone up der," Joey looked at the stairs.
"But he WAS up there!" Tea shrieked. "His body was…I dunno! He looked human…but…there was a sort of…air to him. I swear he had a sort of…greenish glow…like-"
"A g-ghost!" Mokuba gasped out. Tea nodded. But there was something also about this "ghost." He looked most familiar…. It wasn't that she knew him or anything, but from her quick glance at him, the ghost reminded her of someone….
"Mokuba, listen to yourself!" Seto suddenly interrupted. "Ghosts and goblins? What crap are you freaks talking about? There is nothing "whacked-out" about this house. It's an abandoned mansion. Big deal! Get a load of yourselves and go buy some brains: if any of you can afford them. There is no such thing as the supernatural," he gave his renowned speech.
"But you didn't see him!" Tea shivered. "And him with that…dagger."
"What did he do with the dagger?" Tristan inquired.
"…He threw it."
"WHERE?" Serenity flipped out.
"Behind him – into the wall," Tea pointed at the wall behind the stairs on the second floor.
Seto briefly glanced up, "I see no blade. You all are idiots. Complete and utter morons. Now let's get out of here before you all drive me to the mental hospital."
"How do you suggest we escape, oh great one?" Mai inquired.
"Yeah! If you haven't noticed, the window didn't exactly break!" Tristan spat out.
"…Why not try upstairs?" Ryou tried.
"Yeah," Duke agreed, dazedly.
"Not with Duke in this condition!" Serenity bent down next to him, "We'll split up! Someone has to stay here and look after Duke. The rest of you go on. …I'll stay."
"NO WAY SIS!" Joey bellowed, "IT'S WAYYYYYYYYYYYY TO DANGEROUS!"
"Yeah!" Tristan agreed, "So…I'll stay with you!"
"Wimps," Seto shook his head, walking towards the staircase.
"Wait Kaiba!" Tea ran up next to him. He didn't spare her a glance. "I'm coming with. I want to see if that guy was really-"
"Idiot: there are no such things as ghosts. Get it through your thick skull now," Seto spat, and took a step onto the creaky stairs. Tea scowled.
"Now you listen here, Kaiba!" she stomped her foot on the first step. The stairs rocked. Seto tensed up and stopped, as Tea had wanted.
He turned around, "Quit that."
"No!" she stomped again, "Not until you listen!" again she sent her foot down on the floor. "I don't care how smart you think you are: I don't care if you think you have enough brains to find the cure for cancer! I know what I saw, and you are not going to insult me for that! Tea Gardner doesn't hallucinate!"
"I don't give a crap what "Tea Gardner" does. I don't care what anyone does. I just care that Mokuba and I get out of here," Seto replied, acidly.
"Seto, please stop fighting! It's scary enough in here!" Mokuba ran to his older brother, who was about halfway up the steps.
Seto frowned, "You freaks have manipulated his mind."
"Oh, open your blasted eyes, Kaiba!" Everyone stopped and turned towards the speaker. No way…. They weren't expecting Ryou to flip out….. "This isn't just about you or your brother anymore! We're all in this now! You can't admit that nothing strange has been going on! First, Duke ends up inside, somehow possessed, and now Tea is seeing…dead people!"
"Great use of movie quotes," Seto remarked, sarcastically.
"Shut the bloody crap up!" Ryou tramped over to him. Seto was frozen. Had Ryou Bakura just said that? To him? The Apocalypse was on the horizon… (literally). Ryou tread past Tea, and up to Seto's face. "I demand that you quit it with your "high-and-mighty" attitude this instant! It's driving us to the mental ward!"
"You can't order me around, Bakura," Seto retorted.
"I'd like to disagree," Ryou's voice became deeper. Seto now knew he was talking to the infamous Bakura. But he didn't give squat.
"Now you see here-" Seto stopped. Something was creaking.
"What the-" Mai started. Joey grabbed her arm to shut her up. Yugi was trying to figure out what was creaking. An open door or window possibly? Floorboards? Maybe someone was…coming? He didn't like the idea. Wait. Floorboards…. The answer suddenly hit Yugi.
"Tea! Get off the stairs!" Yugi ran over to her.
"Yugi, what-AH!" she yelped, as the stairs beneath her gave way. Yugi reached her just as the floor was collapsing. With ever softening yells, as if they were falling thousands of feet, instead of to a basement floor or whatnot, the two disappeared. All that remained was a large and gaping hole at the bottom of the stairs, with splintered edges of wooden floorboards.
Everyone was silent. No one could even shout out Yugi or Tea's name. It had been that quick…that surprising…that horrendous.
"N-No," Mai managed to whisper, falling to her knees, "W-Where did they go? T-They didn't d-d-d-" she couldn't bring herself to say what was on her mind.
"Of course they didn't die," Duke replied softly, "T-They couldn't have."
"They're probably just a floor below us," Seto suddenly threw out, stepping slightly closer to the hole.
The stairs creaked once more. Seto stepped back, and saw that more and more of the stairs were giving way. He trotted up the stairs quickly, backwards, avoiding each new fall.
"You two: move back!" Seto ordered. They didn't need any motivation. Mokuba and Bakura…now having changed back into Ryou, backed up along the stairs.
"Seto!" Mokuba cried out, seeing his brother narrowly miss falling down into oblivion. The young Kaiba stopped, not wanting to leave his brother.
"Mokuba, go!" Seto ordered.
"No!"
"Come on, young one!" Ryou tried tugging at the boy's sleeve. Mokuba ripped his arm away from the Brit.
Seto reached the last step of the stairs, Mokuba and Ryou right beside him. None of them dared to breathe. The audience downstairs was panicking.
"Don't worry up there!" Joey shouted up, "we'll get y'all down!"
"Shut it, Wheeler!" Seto threw back. Slowly, the man turned his body, still staring at the gaping hole. He then turned his head, sighing in relief to face the top of the stairs.
Seto froze instantly. His eyes quivered, and turned dark in fear. No way in he- His mind stopped working as the translucent figure holding the dagger smirked wickedly and thrust it nearer Seto's throat. Seto stumbled backwards in survival instincts, immediately forgetting the consequences.
His arms flailed as he fell backwards into the stair-less stairwell. Not a sound escaped his lips, which were still frozen in sudden fear.
That figure…. He was there…. Tea had seen him….
"SETO!" Mokuba yelled, reaching out his hand to try to grab his brother's. But it was out of reach for him. Seto was enveloped into the darkness below.
"NO!" he yelled, leaning forward.
"Mokuba!" Ryou yelled, hearing the others do the same down below. The Brit grabbed the boy by the waist. But it did not stop fate.
The stairs suddenly collapsed under the two's weight changed. Among a mass of splinters and wood, Ryou and Mokuba fell down into the same darkness.
Joey ran to the beginning of the stairs instinctively. He peered over the edge, and bellowed loudly, "GUYS! GUYS! CAN YOU HERE ME!" The others listened as they heard Joey's shouts reverberate off the walls of what seemed to be a long corridor down which Yugi, Tea, Ryou, Mokuba and Seto had fallen.
"They're…they're all gone," Serenity shivered, "Just like that…down into that abyss…."
"Something just doesn't make sense though," Tristan barely dared to whisper, "Why did Kaiba fall in? Didn't you all see him? He practically…purposely backed up and off the stairs."
"He looked really…freaked-out, from what I was able to see…which isn't saying much," Duke held his dizzy head.
"Yeah…you're right," Mai nodded, "What could scare Kaiba like that? I didn't think anything could scare him-"
"Except for losing his littl' bro," Joey came back over to them, his head hanging down.
"Do you think-" Tristan started.
"That he saw that ghost?" Mai finished for him.
"Yeah," Tristan said.
"It's possible," Duke replied. "After all, having your own theory proved wrong right in front of your face could scare anyone to death."
Joey winced, "Don' say 'death.'"
Duke frowned, "Sorry."
"What are we supposed to do now?" Tristan crossed his arms impatiently, "We can't just jump in after them. God knows what happened to them."
"We'll just hafta search the whole dang mansion den," Joey looked around. He spotted the flashlight Seto had dropped, and picked it up. "Dis'll help."
"Should we really explore?" Serenity inquired, "I mean, remember what Tea said? That guy with the dagger? Call me crazy, but I really do believe her. This house is strange enough."
"I believe 'er too, Serenity. Question is…who is he? And what's he want?" Joey pointed the flashlight around the room.
"Wait a minute," Duke looked at Joey, confused. "Where'd you get that flashlight?"
"Kaiba dropped it, dumbo," Joey retorted.
"But…didn't he take it with him…up the stairs? And if he dropped…didn't it fall too?" Duke explained. Everyone stopped.
"Crap yeah…" Mai replied, "I did see that light disappear down there."
"Ah!" Joey dropped the flashlight, as if it was poisoned. "Dis place is cursed!"
"Nah," Tristan dragged out. He bent down and picked up the flashlight. "It looks the same as Kaiba's…but a little different too. Sorta…rusty, dusty and worn out," he shined it around, "But otherwise in perfect condition."
"Well, it's better than nothing," Mai stated.
"Yeah. Let's get going then," Duke started trying to stand.
"Duke, are you sure?" Serenity helped him up nonetheless.
"Positive," Duke smiled and held up a shaky thumb.
"Well, should we try ta go up then?" Joey looked at the irreparable staircase.
"I don't think that's possible," Mai rolled her eyes, "Obviously."
"We can climb the banisters!" Tristan pointed. They were still in tact.
"I don't know," Serenity left Duke for a moment to go to inspect them, "We could very easily fall off and-" she didn't need to finish.
"Then should we just explore the first floor? After all, we have a better chance of finding a door down here to lead into whatever basement-room those five fell in, than we do upstairs," Mai explained.
"True," Duke nodded.
"Hold on a sec," Joey squinted in the dim light, "I wanna see somethin'." He shined the flashlight up on the wall opposite the stairs. The light landed on-
"A dagger!" Serenity squeaked.
"N-Not just a dagga'," Joey replied shakily, shining the flashlight elsewhere. "When Tea said the ghost had threw it into the wall behind him, he didn't just to dat. He wrote a message. A nasty soundin' one at dat," Joey explained in a hushed voice.
"What's it say," Duke inquired, "I can't exactly read at the moment."
"Darkness and Death await you around every corner," Mai read off. "Oh, that's pleasant. I feel SO much better now."
"But…it's right, Mai," Tristan put in, "After all, Yugi, Tea, Ryou, Mokuba and Kaiba could all be-"
"Dead. We know," Serenity interrupted.
"Well, let's hope not. And let's hope we find them…alive," Duke inserted.
"In the least," Mai added.
"Which way from here?" Joey shined the light to the right and left, "Each way looks just as invitin': they don't," he stated flatly.
"You know," Duke started, "something went on when I was…did Ryou say 'possessed'?" Everyone turned to look at him.
"Well, go on," Tristan urged.
"I sorta had the feeling that…I had been in this place all my life. I felt like I knew every passage; every twist and turn of this whole mansion. I don't remember much of anything now: it's all fuzzy. But I think I do remember something. I do believe there's some sort of garage that way," Duke pointed to the right. "Maybe we can get out that way."
"You sure?" Joey shined his light down that way, "It looks kinda creepy."
"Joey, everything here looks creepy," Mai sighed. "Let's just take his word for it. After all, possessed means 'taken over.' Maybe it was that ghost that had occupied Duke's body. And if the ghost has been here forever, as ghosts usually do, then I would trust it.
"I've talked about magical items, magic itself, mind-and-soul-eating Shadow Realms, ancient pharaohs and sorcerers, and ten-thousand year old Atlantis curse and crap, but never, in my whole life, would I have thought to be talking about real live ghosts. Living spirits that inhabit two of my friends' bodies, but bodiless ghosts? No," Tristan shook his head.
"I agree, it is all very strange," Serenity affirmed. "Ghosts…. It sounds like we're in some sort of horror movie.
"Well, this is by far the scariest horror flick I've ever seen," Duke stated.
"That's because we're in it. Everything is much freakier when it happens to you," Mai retorted.
"Amen," Joey agreed. "Now, if we're done arguin', let's get started den. The sooner we find Yug and the others and get outta here, the safer we'll all be," Joey started walking in the direction Duke had pointed out. Serenity and Tristan helped Duke along, and Mai walked right behind Joey. This was all too freaky.
They had been walking for about two minutes, when the divided gang found themselves in a room with many branching corridors.
"You remember any o' dis, Duke?" Joey squeaked out.
"Nothing whatsoever," Duke replied.
"Gee, great help you are," Tristan replied. Duke glared at him.
"Which way now?" Joey looked at the six halls they could take. "I'm just surprised even a mansion would have this sort of zing to it: with the branched corridors. It looks more like a castle-"
"Or a pyramid," Serenity suddenly spoke up. "A pyramid with many false passages leading robbers and crooks to dead ends, and sometimes…." she paused, "their doom.
A low laugh suddenly started and echoed through every corridor choice the five had.
Well? I know it's a little slow, but is it still going well? Should I still keep going? I hope I've got at least some of you in some sort of suspense? What happened to the five that fell through the stairs? Who is this ghost? What are the other five going to do? Who laughed? All mysterious questions waiting for equally mysterious answers! Later! PLEASE REVIEW!