Marik gets to play pantomime villain, again. Yugi finally gets to talk to Atem, but it doesn't entirely go to plan.

Warnings for, violence, threats of death, attempted murder, boasting of murdering someone, injuries and blood.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh.

Chapter 7.

Re-living a Nightmare.

That night, neither of them could get to sleep due to thoughts of Atem and what sort of terrible death he might have experienced.

Since sleep was proving so evasive, Yugi though it might be a good idea if he went back to the house, to see if Atem might talk to him.

But Anzu feared for his safety and did not want him to go. "Please, Yugi, don't. Ryou told you not to try and communicate with him," she pleaded.

"Yeah, he did, but…" Yugi still wasn't convinced that he shouldn't at least try. "It's just.. I don't know why, but I feel like I'm the one who can help him."

Anzu sighed. "Yugi!" she groaned. "You always feel like you can help people. But there's not much you can do for someone who's already dead!"

"Why not? He's here for a reason, and I want to find out what that reason is," he said petulantly.

Anzu leaned over and kissed his cheek. "One of the reasons I fell in love with you is because you're so kind, but I won't let you put yourself at risk for a ghost that caused me to break an arm," she said, gesturing at her plaster cast. "That's why I think we should talk to Ryou first, and see what he says," she implored.

"I guess. But Ryou has exams tomorrow and I don't want to bother him." Yugi sighed, he was too impatient to wait a couple of days for Bakura to find the time to help. And he really did believe that he could strike up a rapport with Atem and solve the mystery of what was keeping him here. Deciding not to tell Anzu his plans, he leaned over and kissed her. "Goodnight. Let's stop worrying and try to get some sleep, eh?"

Anzu pouted at him. "Goodnight, Yugi," she said curtly. "And don't even think of sneaking out while I'm asleep."

"I won't," he said sheepishly. Anzu was not convinced.

"I'll handcuff you to the bed if I have to." She realised what she had said the moment he started giggling.

"Now that's an offer I can't refuse," he whispered in her ear naughtily.

Slapping him playfully, Anzu giggled as well.

If only they had a set of handcuffs!

::::::::::::

Marik had made up his mind. Yugi Muto was a threat and had to be stopped from finding out the truth.

Clipping the elaborately decorated golden rod onto his belt, he patted it. Carrying a knife in public was against the law here, but no one was able to tell that the item he had stolen when he was a child back in Egypt, contained a ceremonial dagger once worn by a priest who served a Pharaoh. It made him feel superior.

Going round to the rear of the garage, he was tempted to take his motorbike, but decided to take the car instead as it would attract less attention. He also knew that he might need to keep an eye on the house and wait for an opportunity. Sitting inside a car would be easier for him to do that.

Setting off early, he arrived in Domino at around six thirty in the morning. He parked opposite the house.

Returning to a place he had not been near since that fateful day he had been forced to flee was unnerving. It reminded him of how angry he had been back then, and how much he had hated everyone. He hated his father for putting so much expectation on him and reminding him of his failings, which was made worse because, at the time, his big sister was studying Egyptian history and economics. Even his step brother was doing better than him!

As for himself? He kept getting into trouble, dropped out of college, was diagnosed with a personality disorder, and his only passion in life was motorbikes. His father hated motorbikes. His father hated tattoos as well, so Marik had his whole back tattooed with images of Egyptian Gods, just to spite him.

There were plenty of arguments, and plenty of times where Marik wanted to kill them all, but somehow he always managed to stop himself, until that fateful day, when his stepmother called him a nasty piece of work, a failure and a big disappointment to his father.

Something inside his head had completely snapped, and he would have strangled her with his bare hands and then cut her head off with his dagger, before mounting it on a pole for his father to find when he got home from the hospital. But Atem had to interfere and try to stop him.

Smirking at the memory of the fight that followed, Marik took a sip of coffee from his flask.

His trusty dagger had come in handy that day, and it would hopefully come in handy again now.

::::::::::::

Yugi did not sneak out during the night. Anzu might not have used handcuffs on him, but her female charm had worked just as well. And after his climax had subsided, sleep had finally taken him.

There was no way he could sneak out on her after such wonderful sex anyway.

The following morning, they both struggled to wake up. And even though Yugi was running late, he decided to swing by the house anyway.

He did not tell Anzu his plans, but could sense that she was suspicious when she hugged him tightly and kissed him desperately. Her parting word to him were, 'I know what you're planning to do Yugi. Please be careful.'

All he could do was throw her a weak smile and say, "Don't worry, I will. I'll see you this evening, okay?"

"You'd better," she said sternly.

Winking at her with a guilty expression, he mouthed, "Love you," turned away and got in his car.

Seeing himself as a man on a mission, he set off on the ten minute drive to the house.

As he neared the house he started to feel nervous. What if it went wrong and Atem attacked him?

No. He refused to believe that Atem would attack him.

He parked on the driveway, next to the skip that had been delivered a couple of days ago but had yet to be filled. Turning off the engine, he peered through the windscreen at the house. It looked so peaceful.

Steeling himself, he got out of the car and strode up to the front door. Unlocking it, he stepped inside and went through to the kitchen.

Across the street, sat in his car, Marik looked up from his magazine, intrigued by the car that had just parked on the driveway. Who was it? He had no idea what Yugi Muto looked like, so it might not be him.

However, when a man with hair, features and build like Atem got out and went inside the house, he nearly spat out his teeth.

If that was indeed Yugi, he looked almost identical to Atem!

Inside the house, Yugi decided to take a relaxed approach. He put some water on to make himself some tea, in the hope that Atem's spirit would come and find him. He then called his secretary to say he had a couple of things to do and would be a bit late.

Pulling on his baseball cap, Marik checked up, down and across the street, to ensure there was no one about. He got out of the car. He was forty six now, and his hair was greying at the temples and cut much shorter. He also sported a slightly greying beard. He hoped that nosy Mrs Yoshida (if the old bat was still alive) would not spot him and recognise him. However, to be on the safe side he pulled the collar up on his gilet, and kept his head down as he hurried across the road to the house.

He rung the doorbell and waited.

When Yugi heard the doorbell ring, he startled. He was still on the phone to his secretary and the doorbell gave him the perfect excuse for being late. "That must be my delivery now," he said. "Hopefully I'll be in by mid morning." He said goodbye and they hung up.

The doorbell had been good timing, but he wondered who it could be? Half expecting it to be someone trying to sell something, he answered the door. It was a middle aged man with tanned skin and a beard. The man stared at him like he was looking someone he did not want to see, and Yugi began to feel uneasy. "Can I help?" he asked.

"Yugi Muto?" the man asked.

"Yes. That's me," Yugi replied cautiously. The man looked a bit shifty.

Marik grinned, showing off perfectly straight, but slightly stained teeth. "I'm Marik Ishtar. Can I come in? I wish to speak to you," he said, trying to keep any sinister tones from creeping into his voice.

Alarm bells were ringing, and Yugi knew he should probably slam the door shut, but instead he hesitated. "Erm.. yeah, I guess."

Before Yugi could change his mind, Marik barged into him and shoved him backwards along the hallway, The front door slammed shut behind him. It happened so quickly that Yugi barely had time to protest, let alone react.

Marik punched him in hard the stomach, and slammed him sideways against the wall. Dazed and seeing stars, Yugi doubled over and slid down the wall, clutching his middle.

"You interfering little shit!" Marik snarled, grabbing him by his hair and collar and pulling him upright. "You shouldn't have meddled in something that doesn't concern you." He dragged Yugi into the kitchen and shoved him roughly to the floor.

"This is where I gutted him, right where you're laying. You should have seen him writhing in pain! There was so much blood!" Marik laughed maniacally, and Yugi shuddered when he noticed how Marik's expression had become twisted and evil.

"What are you going to do with me?" he asked, wondering if there was any way he could stall for time and talk Marik down.

But Marik drew a long, sharp dagger from a golden sheath attached to his belt and pointed it at him. "I'm going to slice you open and watch your intestines spill out onto the floor as you slowly die."

Yugi's eyes went wide with horror. He couldn't die, not like that! Not here, not now. "You think that murdering me will make your guilt go away?" he stated accusingly.

"Of course I do!" Marik said, grinning.

Yugi knew his only chance was to keep him talking. "Why did you kill him?"

Marik raised an eyebrow. Since Yugi was about to die anyway, he might as well tell him. "Because he tried to stop me from killing my bitch of a step mother. If he had kept out of it he might still be alive! You should have seen the look on my father's face when he walked in, just as I twisted the knife, slicing through his Aorta." The pupils in Marik's eyes dilated and he looked genuinely excited, as he bragged about what he had done all those years ago,

The evil laughter sickened Yugi. He wondered if there was any way for him to escape or fight back. He was crap at physical fighting, so he kept Marik talking. "What did you do with his body?"

Marik raised an eyebrow. "My stupid father tried in vain to save him, while my step mother stood there crying and whimpering like the pathetic whore she is. I should have killed them as well, but I needed them to help me bury the body and clean up the blood, so I faked my remorse and pleaded for their help. We buried the body in the basement and then I changed out of my bloodstained clothing and left them to finish cleaning up the blood." He glared down at Yugi, who was kneeling on the floor. "For twenty five years I got away with it, but then you came along…." He raised his dagger to strike.

Knowing he had to be quick, Yugi made a lunge for Marik's legs, tackling them out from underneath him. He felt Marik's dagger slice through the back of his jacket, but thanks to the adrenalin had no idea if it had sliced into his left shoulder blade.

Marik swore and fell sideways, banging the side of his head on the corner of the counter and dropping his dagger, which went clattering across the kitchen floor. His baseball cap fell off as well.

"Fuck!" he snarled, rolling over onto his knees and holding his hand to his head. He pulled his hand away and saw it was covered in blood. "You'll pay for this, you little shit!" Yugi felt repulsed when Marik raised his hand and licked the blood off.

For a moment, Yugi's repulsion caused him to hesitate, but when Marik smirked and went for the dagger, he threw himself at Marik and tried to pin him. Unfortunately Marik was stronger and shoved him away with ease. Marik then made another lunge for the dagger, Yugi grabbed him by the feet to try and stop him from reaching it. Marik lashed out with his feet, kicking Yugi in the face and causing him to let go.

Letting out a sinister laugh, Marik glared at him, one side of his face now sticky with blood from the cut. "Quite the little fighter, aren't you, Yugi?"

Yugi could feel blood trickling down his own face from where Marik had kicked him, and his shoulder blade was starting to sting and his ribs hurt.

"But you might as well give in, Yugi, because I'm still going to kill you!" Marik snarled.

"I won't let you!" shouted Yugi. Even though his efforts were futile, he refused to give up fighting. "I'm going to make you pay for murdering Atem Sennen."

Up until now, Atem's spirit had been hiding deep within the shadows. He was aware that someone had entered the house, but could barely be bothered to go and investigate.

However, upon hearing a name, his name, he moved out of the shadows and into the realm of the living. How long was it since he had heard his name spoken?

He realised that there were two people in the house. The one who had spoken his name was Yugi, but who was the second person? He hoped it was Anzu. But as his shadow began to materialise, he saw Marik scrabbling for the dagger that ended his life.

For a moment, terror gripped him at the sight of the murder weapon, and the man who murdered him with it. The wound in his midriff throbbed.

But when he saw Yugi, bloodied and bruised, scrabbling to stop Marik from reaching it, the pain in his soul became even worse and he let out a roar.

The blood curdling scream caused Yugi and Marik to both freeze.

Yugi gasped, hope replacing hopelessness, when he realised who was here.

"What was that?" asked Marik, eyes nervously scanning the room.

The pain Atem felt was fleeting, and was quickly replaced by a rage so fierce that it filled the whole room with his desire for vengeance.

Yugi saw it first, from the corner of his eye, a dark shadow extending up the wall.

The room started to grow dark and the air was becoming thick, heavy and cold, making it hard to breathe. The shadow grew and grew until it filled the room.

Gasping for air, Marik's hand trembled as he tried to grab hold of the dagger. "What have you done?" he snarled at Yugi accusingly, his face now contorted with fear.

Yugi smirked. "The man you murdered, he's here, and he's come for you," he said coldly, using the kitchen unit for support as he staggered to his feet.

"Get away from me!" Marik yelled, gripping the dagger and slicing at the shadow now bearing down on him.

The shadow of Atem just laughed; a laughter so deep and so sinister it could freeze blood.

A tendril of shadow curled around Marik's wrist, crushing it until he let go of the dagger. Another tendril of shadow lifted him off the floor and slammed him against the wall, holding him there.

Both Marik and Yugi watched in horror as the dagger floated and danced in the air, as if Atem was toying with it while deciding what to do. After a few moments, the dagger came to hover in front of Marik's face, preparing to strike.

Very slowly and deliberately, the dagger sliced a thin line across Marik's forehead.

Marik screamed.

Rooted to the spot, Yugi gasped, as a curtain of blood dribbled down Marik's face. Marik deserved whatever punishment he received, so he did not really feel any great urge to stop Atem.

But, when the dagger moved, poised over Marik's chest, preparing for whatever gory revenge the spirit had in mind to inflict upon his helpless victim, Yugi snapped to his senses. "Atem! No! Stop! You're better than this, don't do it!"

As if stung by the sound of Yugi shouting his name, the tendril of shadow flinched back slightly, his human conscience at war with his shadow's desire for blood and vengeance.

The desire for vengeance was winning. "He deserves to die," the mass of shadow rumbled, deep and low and sinister. He had lost too much of his humanity to feel any sympathy for his murderous scum.

"No! Atem! Please... don't kill him!" Yugi pleaded. He had to make Atem see that this was not the right thing to do. "I know what he did to you was terrible, but killing him won't make you feel any better. It might satisfy you in the moment, but long term it won't help. Let me call the police, and I'll tell them the truth, so that he can be punished for his crime in a court of law."

"Go on, Atem, kill Me! I dare you," Marik taunted. There was no way he wanted to go to prison.

"He should die like the vermin he is," the mass of shadow growled.

But Yugi was not giving up on saving Atem's soul from being consumed by vengeance. "If you kill him, it will make you a murderer like him! You're not a killer, you're Atem Sennen! You're human."

The word 'human' struck a chord. Hearing his name spoken alongside it made the spirit think about who he had once been:

He pictured a small boy, with spiky hair and a cute cheeky face, laughing, playing games in the sand with his grandfather on the backstreets of Luxor, the hot bright sun beating down on them. He saw his mother calling him in for tea, and then kissing his forehead as she tucked him into bed at night. He heard the early morning call to prayer from the nearby mosque. He then saw his teenage self hanging out with friends he had long forgotten: Mahad, Mana, Karim. He wondered where they were now – did they still remember him?

Yes, he had been human once, but it had all been taken away from him by the monster in front of him.

Would killing this worthless slime make him a monster too? Was he so angry, and so far removed from the boy in his vision, that he was unable to defeat the darkness that had grown in his soul?

He did not want to be a monster. He did not want the darkness in his heart to overwhelm him.

Yugi was right, he was Atem Sennen; the young man from Egypt, who had come here looking for something that was important to him.

He was NOT a murderer.

::::::::::::

Yugi breathed a sigh of relief when the dark mass of shadow covering the room receded and released Marik. Spared of any further harm, Marik dropped to the floor.

The shadow receded further, dissipating to reveal a young man, with strikingly similar hair and features to Yugi's. He was casually dressed, in dark blue denim jeans, a black cap-sleeved tee-shirt and with black socks on his feet. But what struck Yugi, was the gash in the front of his black shirt, and the slick of dark red blood that covered it.

"Yes. I am Atem," the young man said sadly, staring at the dagger still gripped in a tendril of shadow extending from his hand. He placed the dagger on the kitchen table, far from Marik's reach, and extended a hand towards Yugi. "You're bleeding," he said.

Yugi smiled warmly. He wanted to say, 'so are you', but instead said, "I'm okay. Thank you for saving me Atem. It's nice to finally meet you properly." He attempted to shake Atem's hand, but his hand passed straight through, emphasising only to clearly that Atem was dead.

On the floor, Marik huffed. "You just made a big mistake letting me live," he said, making a futile attempt to run across the room and lunge for the dagger. He was easily thwarted by Atem, who reached out his hand, using an invisible force to throw Marik back against the wall and hold him there.

Marik continued to taunt and make venomous threats, even while Yugi was making phone calls for help.

And... we now know what happened to Atem, but it's far from over and he still does not have what he needs to move on.

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