I really want to thank my first reviewers! Thus, I dedicate this chapter to The New Shinigami Hikari, MissesLadyLuck, Ranma Higurashi, and Battygirl! Thanks! Like I said, reviews are my lifeblood. Also, I'll do my best to update fairly often…hopefully at least once a week, but I'm not sure. Alrighty! Onto the story!
"The fate of the Princeton family rests on your shoulders, Chazz! If you screw this up, it ruins our chances at dominating the global market! And if you screw up our chances…" Snarled Jagger, ominously.
"Let's just say that you'll no longer be welcome in this family." Said Jagger, whose normally rather wide eyes were narrowed, showing only the barest slits of the familial grey eyes.
"…I understand." Chazz said softly, turning off the plasma screen T.V. which he had been watching his brother's faces on. He went into his bathroom, and pulled out a bottle of pills, not bothering to look at which one it was. By this point, he didn't care, he just wanted to stop thinking, wanting to take something that would dull his senses until he felt good again, until he could relax once more.
"Hah. Like there's any chance of that happening…" Chazz murmured, looking at the wash of pills in front of him. "It takes ambition, Chazz! No time for fun and games! Look at your brothers, damnit…you'll never be as good as them…" He sobbed, sinking down to the ground, hitting his head against the wall, thumping it back just so that he could feel something.
The world went dark as the pills dissolved on his tongue, in his throat, in his stomach.
The next morning he woke. But it wasn't morning, it was night…and he knew what he had to do. He stole out of his dorm, his footsteps quiet as a cat's, and snuck into the Ra Yellow's dorm. He took Bastion's cards, quietly, making sure no camera's saw him, very careful to avoid being seen.
And then down to the docks, where he threw them everywhere. In hindsight, he should have burned the cards. Just dumping them was so…stupid, so obvious. His brother's never would have done anything like that.
He tore back down the dock, and back to his room. He showered, and slept a few hours, but the hours were fitful and full of nightmares. His brother's howling voices, like demons risen from hell to steal his soul, echoed viciously in his ears, mocking him, teasing him mercilessly.
"No…!" He screamed in his sleep. He was jolted away by his friend, or rather, follower, by that soft Southern accent.
"Chazz?"
He shook the boy off, and got up, tight-lipped. His face was white, and he felt sick. His head was pounding. But he couldn't take anything now; he didn't want to ruin his chances for a good future at Duel Academy as an Obelisk Blue.