NOTE: There are three notes here:
ONE: There are two reviewers out there whom I would like to give that virtual cookie to: Darkrose 17 and Zimyoucoto. Thank you.
TWO: You all are thinking too deeply about that blood on the wall that Duke read! Care not about the Earl! Just care about the DUKE! Thank you.
THREE: I'm so sorry! I totally forgot about Ryou and Yugi last chapter hits self on head with a hammer Stupid, stupid, stupid…. I remembered them earlier, but forgot them later. Thank you to…that reviewer (you know who you are) who pointed that out. Anywho, to compensate for that: they will stat off! Here we go!
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!
Chapter 7: Mysterious Happenings
"Yugi…this is by far the strangest thing I have ever read," Ryou looked up at the wall.
"Or seen," Yugi added.
"Indeed," Ryou nodded, "You're closet friend –most trusted, yet most dishonest- will be the one to coyly lead you to your untimely demise…." I'm certain it's just full of oxymorons."
"Yeah. How can your closet friend be most trusted yet also dishonest? It doesn't make any sense! And they'll coyly lead you to your demise? Argh! My brain hurts!" Yugi grabbed his head in confusion and started rubbing it.
"Yes," Ryou leaned back against the wall. He was breathing a little harder than usual. "And what's that it's written in?"
"It's still wet, that's for sure. It's dripping," Yugi looked at it. "Just…red ink?"
Ryou looked at it closely, and crawled over to the other wall. He but his finger to the substance and looked at it. "Well…its not colored water: it's thicker than that. Possibly just ink…." He put his finger gently to his tongue and tasted it.
Yugi winced, "Ryou: sometimes I wonder just how much Bakura is influencing you."
"Far too much," Ryou glared at the red liquid on his finger, "I actually know what this is by the taste. And now the smell is coming in. Yugi…this is blood."
"Oh great!" Yugi stood up weakly and threw his hands up into the air, "Great! Just what we need! Blood on the wall! How much more freaky can this mansion get? I'm surprised Kaiba isn't tearing it down this minute…or suing whoever is writing this! …Say…I wonder…who is writing this?"
"Can you think of no one?" Ryou asked.
Yugi turned his head slightly, "…No…not really…."
"Don't you remember what Tea said earlier?"
"Which part? The 'someone is touching me'-" Yugi scowled at the memory, "Or 'there's a ghost in here'?"
"The latter. There is a ghost here, Yugi, I'm sure of it."
"How sure? Like…you've seen it "sure" or…"hunch" sure?"
"What if I told you Bakura was dwelling in delight in this house? …And the fact that he sensed other dead spirits here beside Yami?"
"Then I would totally agree with you," Yugi nodded.
"Good," Ryou replied, getting up with shaky knees. "I just can't understand why I feel so weak at the moment."
Yugi looked back at the wall. He suddenly started feeling his body.
"Yugi: what in the world are you doing?" Ryou asked.
"Ryou…what if that blood…is our blood?"
Ryou's face paled even more than it already was. "You're not serious! It would explain…but…we have no injuries! How?"
"Ghosts are tricky things, aren't they?" Yugi shrugged, "Maybe he didn't need to hurt us."
"Yugi…I too am starting to wonder why the heck Kaiba did not just tear this blasted house down!" Ryou affirmed.
"Well…its official: we're lost," Tristan said.
"I'm gonna agree wit' ya on dis one," Joey nodded, looking back and forth between three different doorways.
"Dang it, this is just like before," Tristan cursed. "Except last time, we had Duke with us."
"Yeah…now we're totally lost! Great!" Joey sighed, slumped to the ground, with Mai on his back.
Tristan sat down too. "I'd say that normally we should split up and go through each door, but with Mai out, we probably shouldn't."
"You would say we should split up? Are ya NUTS!" Joey hollered at Tristan, "This place is a walkin' guillotine!"
"Joey…this house doesn't walk."
"Well…I wouldn't be surprised if it started to. It's creepy an' all dat. I'm just amazed dat we haven't found our way out yet! How hard can it be to find your way outta a mansion! I mean: COME ON!"
"I say we resort to the alternative," Tristan raised his finger.
"Yep," Joey replied, raising his own index finger. They both too a deep breath-
"One potato, two potato, three potato, four!" they both pointed to the door on the far left.
"Dat's where we go," Joey stood up. Tristan stood as well.
"So be it," Tristan walked over to the door and opened it.
Something whizzed by Tristan's head and stuck in the wood of the door, wagging back and forth with an odd clanging to it.
Tristan gulped and looked at what had barely taken an eye out of him.
A dagger.
"JOEY! ON SECOND THOUGHT, I SAY WE TAKE THE DOOR FURTHEST FROM THIS ONE!" Tristan yelled, backtracking clumsily and running through the other door on the far right.
"RIGHT BEHIND YA!" Joey yelled out, taking after Tristan, and racing with him to be first. Neither one wanted to be in the back where the assassin was.
A ghost boy stepped from the threshold of the left door and smirked, wrenching the dagger from the door with a smooth jerk.
"Very good, my three dumb mice…. Run right into the maze of death….." He smirked. "Soon, my vengeance will be restored. I'll be left alone here again…and I'll have the only company I'll ever want," he smiled. "After I take care of her currently unharmed traveling companion."
Duke was fidgety ever since he had read that message on the wall. Everywhere, he was poking around corners cautiously and looking behind his back at every moment. Death could be around any corner….
"Duke?"
"YAH!" he jumped and put himself flat against the wall.
"Calm down, already!" Serenity reprimanded, coming at him, "This is the fifteenth time you've jumped when I've said your name! What the heck is wrong with you?"
"Oh…Serenity…sorry. Really…its nothing," Duke answered, "Just the aura of the house…it gives me the creeps."
"I'm not taking that answer again. You're lying to me, Duke: I can't trust you anymore! Why won't you tell me the truth!" she stomped her foot on the ground.
Duke sighed, "Alright, alright. Look, Serenity…I'm just…scared."
"Why?" Serenity looked at him calmly and concerned.
"…Remember that message on the wall?"
"The one in blood?" she shivered, "Yeah…why?"
Duke hesitated and looked away. Could he really being himself to voice aloud what he thought would be his fate? To voice aloud was to accept. Was he going to accept this fortune of fate?
"I…I think…I think it was talking about me."
Serenity blinked, "…How?"
"Remember when it said, "The Duke dies at dawn?""
"Yes, but-" Serenity stopped. Realization hit her. "The Duke…. It was capitalized! It…It mean…you! OH MY GOD!" she screamed starting to run around in circles, "WE HAVE TO SAVE YOU! OH MY GO-"
"SERENITY!" Duke stopped her in her tracks. She fell forward into him. He held her by her upper arms, "Serenity, calm down. You're acting more paranoid over this than I am! And I'm the one who's probably going to be killed!"
"Oh…THAT CAN'T HAPPEN! IT JUST CAN'T!" she clutched onto his arm, afraid that if she let go, he would keel over on the spot.
"It's alright, Serenity…I'll be fine," he patted her back. How weird this felt…. Should he be the one getting patted on the back in consolation?
Tea froze as the Kaiba brothers kept walking down the hall, oblivious to her stopping. It couldn't be…. She must be imagining things…. Mokuba having…fangs? No way! Vampires and fangs were all parts of myths and folktales! They weren't real!
Then again…this house seemed anything but real.
"You coming, Tea?" Mokuba had looked back around, with a most innocent expression on his face.
Tea nodded and began walking. After he had turned back around, she shook her head. She was surely just imagining things…. Fangs…ha! Who would believe such a thing!
Seto led them down a few corridors to the bathroom. Mokuba jumped at the chance to get some water and ran to the sink, twisting the knob immediately.
Tea came up next to Seto and watched the boy inside the bathroom drinking. She examined all of his movements, just to make sure she wasn't paranoid.
Seto caught her scrutinizing his brother and immediately protested, "Just what are you looking for, exactly?"
Tea snapped out of her gaze and turned her eyes upon him, "Oh, nothing…nothing. Just a little paranoid…that's all. I swear Mokuba had…oh, never mind," she muttered quickly, turned back away.
"Had what?" Seto pressed on. He fully agreed that Tea was growing paranoid –heck, the observation she had made about him last night was enough to prove that- but how paranoid was she?
"Nothing: you'll just think me to be even crazier than you already think I am."
That was probably true, he reasoned. Nevertheless….
"Tell me," he demanded.
"No."
"Say it."
"No!"
"Out with it!"
"Why must you be so nosy!" Tea snapped back.
"Uh…guys? Is something wrong?" Mokuba had come back and was looking up at the two, confused.
"Nothing is wrong, Mokuba," she stressed, and patted him on the head, before going to get a drink herself.
Mokuba turned around and glared at her. Tea did not notice. Seto, however, did.
He eyed his brother. He had been acting slightly off kilter since his return. What had happened to his brother?
"Mokuba?" he asked.
"Yes, big brother?" Mokuba turned around with a closed smile. Seto's eyes narrowed. Closed smile: the first sign of something being wrong. His brother always held large and open smiles.
"What's up, kid?" Seto knelt down to his brother's height, "Maybe you should tell me exactly what happened while you were away."
"I told you, Seto, I don't remember!" Mokuba flung his arms up into the air. "Will you just leave me alone about it!" his eyes burned with an intense fire. "After all: since when would you care!" Mokuba covered his mouth with his hands immediately.
Tea's head shot up. That did not sound like something Mokuba would say.
"Gardner! Get over here!" Seto demanded. She was going to tell him now what she thought was wrong with Mokuba, because it was most obvious now.
Tea stood and sighed, looking into the mirror.
She screamed.
There was that face again! That boy with the knife! He was…smirking at her!
Tea stumbled backwards in an effort to get away. However, due to the recent fishing for water –and the three not being as neat as they normally might have been- water was slopped all over the floor. She slipped on the slick tile, flipped backwards and landed on the small of her back. A sharp pain seared up her back before she felt her head knock into the hard tile.
Darkness immediately took hold on her sight.
"Tea!" Seto suddenly exclaimed, quite forgetting himself, and coming forward. He nay not act nicely towards her or her friends, but that didn't mean he could put her life in jeopardy by just leaving her there without any attention. Heck, Seto Kaiba had some morals about him! As long as they didn't concern money….
Seto stooped towards Tea, and was sitting her up, when he suddenly felt a sharp pain on the back of his neck.
His eyes went wide and his struggled for breath. He stood there, frozen for a moment, before he too passed out cold on the side of the floor.
Mokuba stood, heaving behind him, staring down at the two knocked-out teens. His stone cold glare riveted over their motionless bodies.
A droplet of precious blood dripped from one of Mokuba's protruded fangs. He cursed and licked up the rest of it that was still on his teeth. He wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his shirt. Looking back, Seto's blood lay smeared across it.
"What a waste…" he murmured. He looked back and saw more blood dripping from the back of Seto's neck as he lay on the floor next to a still Tea –his arm fallen across her middle in a protective-like fashion.
The blood was dripping down onto the teen's collar.
"What a waste…" Mokuba sighed, shaking his head.
"D-Do you think w-we lost him y-yet?" Tristan panted heavily, supporting himself on the side of the wall.
"I-I t-t'ink so," Joey gasped. Running with Mai on his back sure had been quite the workout. Why couldn't she just wake up!
"Guys…what are you all out of breath for?"
"THANK GOD!" Joey proclaimed, forgetting Mai on his back and raising his hands high up into the air to praise the Lord, "SHE LIVES!"
"OW! JOEY, YOU MORON!" Mai rubbed her back, having fallen from his back.
"Mai! You're up!" Tristan cried out.
"Well, yeah…after that bumpy ride," Mai rubbed her head, "Great…I have a headache now…." They paused for a minute, while the boys caught their breath and Mai helped her aching limbs. "So…what were you guys running from anyway?"
"The ghost with the dagger! He's real! I swear to God!" Tristan exclaimed, "Tea wasn't seeing stuff! She was telling the truth! She was right, right down to the Pollock socks!" (1)
"Pollock socks?" Joey asked, "What's dat supposed ta mean?"
"Never mind, Joey," Mai sighed.
"So…where are we going from here?" Tristan asked.
"How about down the hallway?" Mai stated in a "duh" type of voice, "That's the only way to go!"
"Oh…right. I'm just so used to having to choose doors," Tristan laughed.
"True," Joey smirked.
"Come on, you lazy bums, let's go then. I have a feeling that we're quite close," Mai got up and started walking.
"What makes you say that?" Tristan inquired.
"A gut feeling," Mai replied. Of course…the tickly feeling in her gut also could have been telling her that something bad was going to happen….
"Very good, Mokuba."
Mokuba turned his head around and watched the ghost boy materialize and walk up next to him. "Thanks. But…er…do we have to waste all of that blood? I mean…it's just…wasting away on the floor…without someone to drink it…like me…who really wants it…who's dying for a thirst-"
"You're dying alright, that's for sure," the ghost laughed. "Many are…."
Mokuba glared at him, "What's that supposed to mean?"
The blue-eyed ghost laughed once more, "Why don't you come join me and see? And then, Mokie…" he put his ghostly arm around the boy, "You can have all the blood you want…."
Mokuba smiled, "That sounds grand."
"But first," the other boy replied, gesturing to the two bodies on the floor, "we have some small business to take care of."
"Oh yeah…" Mokuba sighed. "Seto always comes first…."
The ghost narrowed his eyes, "So I've noticed…. Come now. You grab your brother. I'll…retrieve Tea…."
"You're just looking for a good chance to lay your hands on her," Mokuba retorted, picking his brother up with inhuman strength. Or at least un-age-like strength (for a twelve-year-old).
"Very good…" the ghost replied, picking Tea up. He looked down at her. "Soon, Tea…. Soon…you'll be just like me…."
Bakura and Yami walked into a living room. In fact, this seemed to be the main living room. It had pictures hung up all over the walls and placed on the tables. Couches littered the area, along with a large television, fireplace and grand piano.
"Just look at this rat-hole," Bakura commented, "Everything was left here…. I could sell this stuff and become rich!"
"By stealing it first," Yami reprimanded. "Still, five-thousand years later, you are a thief. It's despicable."
"Oh, just because you have always had everything handed to you by countless servants, makes my way of living despicable," Bakura snapped, "Go shove something up your-"
"Enough!" Yami threw out. "What vile language you speak. This age puts a radical mouth upon you."
"I rather like this new world better," Bakura crossed his arms, "I don't have to make a living. I have Ryou here do it for me," he smirked.
"Only because we are helpless spirits," Yami responded, tracing a picture frame with his finger. The dust clung to his finger as he wiped it.
Bakura shook his head, "No, we are not the helpless spirits here."
"What are you saying?" Yami spun around, knocking the picture from the table. It clattered to the ground, and the glass broke. "Crap," Yami muttered, bending to pick up the undamaged frame and picture within.
"I'm saying that we at least have bodies. The souls roaming around this mansion –and so help me Ra if there are not at least three here- have no body to return to…that I know of. Their aura has the stench of freedom. They are not bound to a body…though I'm sure they long for that binding, as most do."
"Like you, you mean?" Yami replied, pulling out the picture from the back of the frame. Something had caught his eye in the picture.
"Do you not desire a body yourself? And of course, only the right body would do for you," Bakura sneered. "Making that stupid puzzle that only one person could solve was who you regarded as the right person to serve as host. I, on the other hand, was fine with whomever I got."
"Yet you treat him like trash," Yami replied, scanning the picture.
"You-"
"Bakura…look at this. Does any of this ring a bell?" Yami handed the photo to Bakura. Bakura snatched it up and looked at it. "I cannot remember quite clearly…but sifting through Yugi's memories…I've seen that face before."
"Who? The old man's? Well, yes. It's been in the newspaper several times. I would know. Ryou here dies for the newspaper, the nerd," Bakura threw the picture back to Yami, who caught it swiftly.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Who is it?"
"A man named Gozaburo Kaiba –the old geezer, that is. I have no idea who the brat next to him might be."
"Kaiba…. Could this be Seto Kaiba's stepfather? We do know that he was adopted…" Yami stated.
"How should I know? Kaiba's a secluded idiot," Bakura replied, walking around the room, admiring the many pricey items.
"Yes…and that boy there looks…just like Kaiba…" Yami remarked.
"Except for the dorky European look and green hair," Bakura replied from the other side of the room, looking up at the large frame above the fireplace.
"Ryou's from Europe, you know," Yami replied. "You're insulting him. However…Yugi said once there was a joke about this kind of attire…. What was it? Some sort of nationality…."
"What, like the Nubians?" Bakura inquired.
"Yes…but not in Africa. Europe…."
"Like I said: he looks like a dorky European," Bakura said, "There and in this portrait too."
Yami looked up and walked over to Bakura, "By the gods…he's all over the place! Along with Gozaburo."
"Yeah…and there's quite the pretty lady in this one though," Bakura admired.
"Probably Gozaburo's wife," Yami retorted. Bakura's face fell. "That must make the kid their son," Yami added.
"Good detective work," Bakura laughed. "Come on…if you won't let me pocket anything, I have no more business here. Let's move on!"
"Fine," Yami sighed, replacing the picture. Something was tugging at his mind though. Something told him he should have stayed here to investigate this….
Serenity suddenly snapped out of a reverie in the middle of a hallway. She practically jumped out of her skin when she saw where she was. How did she get here?
The last thing she remembered was falling asleep with Duke in some sitting room some where. How had she ended up here?
This was starting to scare her. She had never known herself to sleepwalk. Then again…anything was possible.
She looked around for a clue as to where she was. She then snapped. She remembered now! They had passed through this hallway not long ago. It was only a few away from the sitting room where they had camped out for the night. Surprisingly, yes, they had still been roaming around for an exit by the time the next night had come. And although they had not eaten in a couple days, she really wasn't all that hungry. She was a bit thirsty, yes, but not so much.
She began walking back to the room. According to the rays of sunlight starting to come through the windows from other rooms and the hall windows, she was judging that it was about dawn.
She froze. Something about dawn…. What was it…?
Oh no! Duke! He was in danger!
Serenity broke into a run to get back to the sitting room. She rounded two corners and flew to the doorway of the sitting room and stopped at its threshold.
Serenity could not even gasp. Her breath had caught in her throat. Her eyes widened in terror at what she was witnessing.
No….
Duke Devlin lay on his stomach with a dagger sticking vertically out of his back; and plunged about a third of the way in.
And worse than that…
Someone was bent over Duke, licking up the blood that leaked from his wound.
Muwhahaha! The fun begins! I've been waiting for this point for a while! Let the onslaught begin…. PLEASE REVIEW!
(1) In reference to the Polish/Pollock thing. No offense to any Poles (I myself am of half Polish origin): it's just a joke about the socks being pulled up to the knees thing. Heck, my mom and I make fun of myself all of the time when I wear socks like that!