Disclaimer: I do not own YGO. I don't even own the computer I am writing this on.
A/N: part one of a rather trippy Malik exploration…no clue where this puppy is going…goes in search of leash
PEEL THIS
Part One: Yellow
In the early days, there were nightmares: spikes of nameless shadow that spilled over my eyes; four hands growing from the stumps of my arms; a face that was my face but terrible. And a distant sun that I was certain could save me, if only I could reach it. If only my feet were not melting into the stone beneath me. If only those four hands would obey me and reach. If only the shadow did not open its mouth to swallow me whole…
My own screams woke me.
Ishizu was already there.
"Shh. Shh. Shh,' she whispered and because she was Big Sister and shone like the moon, I believed her. Eyes trembling, I believed her. Clutching her long long fingers…I believed her.
I told her my nightmare.
She listened, troubled. "It was a dream," she finally said, voice silk in the dark. "But you must be patient, brother. Father knows the time is nearing." I looked up at her and she wrapped one narrow arm around my shoulders. She smelled of insense and dust, her breath of ancient things. "Soon you will walk freely in the sunlight with me."
"Soon sister?" My voice, worn thin from crying, broke.
"Yes." She smiled and enfolded me. A willow thin body, breastless, nothing but angles and hard edges. Her body, then, what mine would become. I clung to her with baby fat hands and laughed into her hair.
The promise of the sun, that mythological thing, the golden beast that hovered at the edges of my dreams, was enough to quell my fear. A torch flickered and I laughed again. The flame teased me because I knew the truth now: the sconces of light that flickered against the walls here were playthings. The imitation of Day.
Soon, I would leap into reality and grasp the light with my own two hands.
---
The monster of my age began cutting its teeth at age eleven.
And I, feeling the incomprehensible urge to bite into the world, begged Big Sister Ishizu to take me to the surface. Begged her five times a day. Cried twice. Groveled once. Offered to carry her across the sand on my back. Offered Rishid's favorite sandals. Offered my own sandals. Threatened her. Hurt myself. Refused to eat. Whispered into her ear as she slept. Stared silently, despondently, at the ceiling.
In the end, she took me. After all, she had promised.
---
We left in secret.
And I discovered that the sun thickened the world. Outside, air became wine, warm in my throat. I tilted my head back in my own childish ecstasy and felt my skin expand. My eyes drank the sky. Painful blue. And all around me: men, women, golden skin, quick hands and eyes, pale robes that curled into impossible shades of green, yellow, pearl.
Did my sister see this?
"Ishizu!" I cried.
The sand was a new creature, blinding, ferocious, grinning. No torches here, no small illicit shadows. I laughed, delighted, and tugged on my sister's hand. But she seemed frightened; the moon knowing the perils of her path, knowing that when she crosses the sun, it will destroy her.
I, certain that I was not so fragile, rushed into it all.
"Brother!" Ishizu called, belatedly, her narrow fingers outstretched, wide eyes darker for the sunlight.
I danced, a circle, a private ceremony to honor this new, intoxicating religion. "Ishizu, come with me!"
But she only stood. Ancient goddess, body forever young, already crumbling.
I did not yet understand. This world had already taken her.
/reviews always welcome/
