DojomistressAmbyChan- Heh, I'm not even taking French. I've just finished my second year of Latin, so y'know. That's why it translates out so badly.
Miss -tress- Kitty- It is AU , sorry for any confusion. And no, it's not being abandoned, I've just had a massive writer's block lately. Thank you for your input!
Okay, so I haven't updated in a while, forgive me.
Once again, I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, nor am I making any money off this work.
Enjoy
Seven Days in Purgatory: Chapter Two – The Second Day
"Damn, girl, I haven't seen you in forever! How've you been?"
Anzu stared at the woman in front of her, debating whether to answer her or not.
"I've been good. How have you been, Mai?"
"I'm getting by." Mai flipped her hair back, clad in a pair of loose jeans and a maternity shirt.
Anzu wondered if she was pregnant. The other woman quickly answered her thoughts.
"I'm not so sure how I'm gonna get by with a baby, but I'll manage." She flashed a quick smile. "What have you been up to all these years?" The unspoken question loomed above them: Has anyone done anything to you?
"Ah, a lot of things. Want to talk over coffee?" Anzu mentally winced as she heard herself speak those words, trying to figure out her motives.
"Sure, that'd be nice." Anzu saw a flicker of sadness in Mai's eyes, but then it was gone just as quickly, replaced with a bright smile. How long had it been since Mai had really talked with some one?
They walked to the cheapest coffee place, a unanimous decision that they had so easily slipped into.
The café smelled of cheap coffee, cheap drugs, and even cheaper women. Anzu curled her lip in disgust and Mai looked uncomfortable, placing a hand on her belly.
They got a table in a corner and Anzu asked the other woman what she wanted. Mia dug around in her purse and pushed a couple dollars into Anzu's hands. "Just a bottle of water…" She murmured quickly, adverting her eyes.
Anzu nodded, realizing that Mai didn't trust this place very much, and Anzu had to agree. She sighed as she got up to the counter and asked for two bottles of water. The man at the counter leered at her and chuckled.
"Two dollars, ma'am." He said, a glint shining maliciously in his eyes. Anzu gave him Mai's two dollars and quickly grabbed the bottles. When she returned to the table she handed Mai her bottle of water and a one-dollar bill out of her wallet.
The blonde who was once brimming with confidence looked wilted, defeated, while staring out into space.
"Mai?" Anzu said softly, breaking the woman out of her reverie.
"Huh? Oh… I'm sorry. I guess I got distracted." She looked down at her hands.
"It's okay…" Anzu murmured in reply. "So… How've you been?"
Mai gave her a bitter smile. "I'm getting by. Barely, but I'm still making it. Things aren't the same as they used to be…" She laughed. "Sometimes I wish I could turn the clock back and pause it on the moments everything was really okay, you know?"
"Yeah, I do know. Let's just say that the 'friendship' group broke apart. Oh, but I suppose that such is life."
Mai glanced past her. "What happened?"
"Yuugi and I had been going out for about a year… I had a key to his apartment – he moved out of the Kame Game Shop when his grandpa died. I had been away at a dance recital in Tokyo and had gotten home early. I was going to surprise him, but when I walked in I heard noises in his bedroom…"
Anzu cleared her throat and looked down at her hands. "He was with Yami. I should have known. I thought it would be different somehow… That he wouldn't want Yami when he was with me."
Mai bit her lip. "You couldn't have known…"
Anzu chuckled humorlessly. "Yeah… I suppose. But I did know it was happening, I saw it with all the other hikaris."
She took a sip of her water bottle, winced and put the cap back on. It smelt heavily of smoke. Mai looked somewhat surprised. "Really?"
"Yeah. Ryou's yami has changed for him; he's positively intoxicated with the light. It's funny, Bakura has killed for him, and Ryou doesn't even care." She rolled her eyes. "Malik and Marik are all over Domino, scaring everyone and I'm not even sure how their relationship works. It brings narcissism to a whole new level."
She sighed and looked out the window. "So, what have you been up to, really?"
Mai frowned. "Well, besides getting raped?" She grimaced at her words. "I apologize. I didn't mean to snap."
"It's fine. I think you deserve some time to let everything out." Anzu felt like she was in a haze. Her old self was peeking though, trying to help the other woman. She didn't stop it.
"Yeah… Well, where should I start? Well, a year or so ago I packed up my Duel Deck and I decided to move on. I got a job as a waitress and things were going okay for a while. Or, so I thought." Her eyes widened as she stared past Anzu towards the door. "Oh, God."
"What?" Anzu murmured as she swiveled around in her chair. She felt her mouth go dry. Three thugs, all armed with crowbars, swaggered into the coffee house and walked straight towards Mai. She quickly turned back around to look at the other woman. "What's going on?"
"T-the one in the middle!" She stammered franticly. "That's the one w-who…"
Anzu understood immediately. She grasped the other's hand under the table trying to calm her down.
However, her efforts were not needed. The thugs stalked right past the two women, in favor of the men at a table near them.
Anzu quickly stood up and motioned for Mai to follow.
"Hey bastard, you owe us some money…"
Anzu quickly pushed Mai out of the door before the woman could hear the crack of metal against skull.
----
The two women had parted ways, both promising to call the other. Mai had asked Anzu to be there when the baby was born. Anzu agreed, because she knew Mai didn't have anyone else to be with her.
"We can go baby shopping together." Anzu had murmured.
Mai had smiled, hope shining in her eyes. "Yeah. I'd like that."
Anzu nodded. "Do you know what gender?" She had asked.
Mai's face fell at that point. "Yeah. It's a girl."
Anzu understood immediately, but Mai went on, "I hope she's a beautiful fool."(1)
Anzu didn't say anything, but she silently agreed. The baby's only hope was to be a little fool.
----
Anzu pulled the curtains shut to her apartment and slipped on her nightclothes. She brushed her teeth and turned on the television.
She sat down on her bed and flipped to the local news program. The newscaster was a woman, her pearly teeth glinting in the light and a crisp new suit ironed perfectly. The woman, her name – Diana Sedgwick – proudly displayed at the bottom of the screen, smiled and began to speak.
"In other news, the annual Duel Monsters competition has finally ended. Out of the one hundred-fifty competitors, only fifteen made it into the semi-finals and out of that number only five made it into the finals. Those competitors were Jounouchi Katsuya, Bakura Ryou, Ishtar Isis, Otogi Ryuuji, and the King of Games himself – Mutou Yuugi! Kaiba Seto announced the winner earlier…"
After each of their names were called, a picture of the duelist flashed on the screen. Anzu froze when she saw Yuugi's picture. She quickly turned the television off – she knew who had won the competition.
She flopped back on her bed, the spring cutting into her side once more. Resituating herself, she quickly fell into a restless sleep.
----
"Anzu, mon chéri, regard au lac! N'est-il pas simplement magnifique? Le coucher du soleil se reflète outre de lui admirablement!"
"Anzu, my darling, look…!"
"Enfant, se rappellent, même après que je suis allé, je sera toujours avec vous. Je toujours vous observerai et prendrai soin de vous. Ne vous inquiétez pas, mon enfant, pour moi suis toujours ici."
"…I am always here…"
"Rappelez-vous l'enfant, je suis toujours avec vous. Je suis toujours avec vous... que je suis toujours... "
"Remember child…"
'Je suis toujours avec vous... '
----
Anzu jerk up out of her sleep and a desperate sob escaped her throat.
"Mama…"
She struggled out of the sheets wrapped around her legs and stumbled to bathroom. She fumbled with the light switch for a moment before the light finally buzzed itself on. She turned on the water, sticking her hands beneath it even as it sputtered to release good water.
Anzu splashed the lukewarm water on her face, wincing when she realized she had a large bleeding cut on her face. She looked at her hands for the first time, her stomach repulsed at the red residue that the water had failed to completely rinse off.
She hurried back to her bed and let out a cry at the bloody spring. She must have moved around during her dream and caught her cheek on the spring. She quickly stripped the bed of the bloody sheets, wincing again as they got caught on the spring. She piled the dirty sheets in a corner and pulled a suitcase out of the closet.
"I can't take this anymore!" She all-but yelled, pulling her clothes out of the closet and drawers, getting her toiletries, and all her personal things and throwing them into her suitcase. "I've got to get out of here… got to get out of here…" She kept murmuring this under her breath like a mantra.
She zipped up the suitcase and left that month's rent on the table. She wrote a quick note to the landlord alerting him that she was leaving for good. She taped the note to the door and put the key under the doormat.
Taking one last look at the hell hole that she used to call home, she fled out the door into the cool night air.
She would call her father in the morning.
----
The hotel's red vacancy sign blinked forlornly. The 'e' and the 'l' had burnt out, and all was left was 'h-o-t.'
Anzu let out a sigh, and quietly made her way to the entrance of the decrepit hotel. Suddenly, she heard her name being called out.
"Anzu?"
She turned around and scanned the area for the person calling her voice. She faltered as she saw who it was – Kaiba Seto. Why was he on this side of town?
"Hello." She said politely.
Kaiba gave her an odd look. "What are you doing on this side of town?"
She shrugged, looking at the hotel. "I had an early midlife crisis." Anzu had never particularly gotten to know Kaiba Seto particularly well.
"Please tell me you're not going to stay at this shack." He muttered.
"That was the plan." She said back. "It's better than my old place, at any rate."
To her surprise, Kaiba didn't say anything negative to her. "Do you need a place to stay?"
Anzu's eyebrows shot up to her hairline. Now, this was new. Since when, exactly, had Kaiba become so… nice? She hadn't been out of the scene that long. "I was planning on getting a room here for the night."
"Oh. I was going to offer you a room at the mansion, but if you already have plans…" He made to stalk off.
"N-no! Wait!" Since when had she stuttered? Oh yeah – since she needed a place to sleep. "I just need a couch to crash on," she finished, lamely.
He raised an eyebrow. "How about a room? You look like shit…" He murmured as an afterthought, eyes grazing over the wound on her cheek.
She let out a dry chuckle. "Yeah, I do don't I?" She sobered up quickly.
Anzu Mazaki let out another grating laugh, wishing she had enough money to get piss drunk.
----
Anzu stared in awe at the Kaiba mansion for all of about two seconds. Moving her thought process on, she quickly thought back to Mai. Now that she had left her apartment, the phone number she gave the other woman was faulty.
She made a note to call Mai as soon as possible. First thing in the morning, right after she got up, she would call her.
Kaiba showed her to her room and pointed out the bathroom. After he had left she slipped out of her clothes and flopped on the spacious bed. Noticing a television by her bed, she reached over and flipped it on.
----
Anzu woke up to the sun hitting her face. She hadn't remembered falling asleep. The television was still on, Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake humming over the speakers. She looked up, watching the ballerinas glide across the screen, jumping and turning gracefully.
Anzu stared at the screen, long and hard, and thought of what she had missed.
----
(1) This follows a quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. The lead female character hopes her unborn baby will be a beautiful little fool so she becomes oblivious to the degradation of women in that time period. Well, atleast, that's what I inferred from the book.
A/N: Hmm… this chapter turned out interesting. This wasn't where I was planning to take it, but I think this works too. It's also shorter than I'd like it to be, but I felt that I had kept those who have been following this story in the dark too long. But! I have a poll type thing for you readers. Which would you rather have: longer chapters or faster updates?
I can do either, but faster updates mean short chapters. Short means 1500 to 3000 words. Faster updates would also mean more chapters. Longer chapters means that the story wouldn't be updated as often, but they would be full of content and the story would probably have less chapters.
Therefore, it's up to you, tell me which you'd like and I'll go by popular vote.
Also, if you'd like to badger me further, my new email is