Shadows That Bleed

by YamiYugiPuzzleshipper

Pure-Bloods are said to be myths, not even well-known within stories. "A specialized genetic coding of the moon and the dire," their spoken lore proclaims. They are creatures beyond the power of mortality, gifted by the gods themselves. Known as the Eternal Ones, their existence once extinguished, resurrection foretells a powerful omen.

4. The Attack

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh

Update schedule: Every other day (no update on June 2nd)

Chapter warning: Blood and gore, Hallucinations, Night terrors, Ambush/Attack, Predator/Prey mentality, Slight mental breakdown, Character deaths, Descriptions of dead bodies

What can I say? Real life got in the way.

Chapter IV: The Attack

Work Log Entry IV: February, 1992

February 16

Neither wolf seems to be taking to the treatments to help stabilize the transition into their ancient ancestors. But the she-wolf is the only specimen that has shown any possibility of surviving the mutations to her genetic makeup. We have no other wolf that can replace her for the moment.

Maybe it was a night terror mixed with a hallucination.

Yugi shuddered at the thought. That was hardly comforting; those two things should never have been able to blend together like that.

The very idea itself was unnerving and frustrating to consider. They were both hard enough to deal with on their own and both of them together was overwhelming. But what else could it have honestly been? The power and strength and the phantom touch that plagued his senses made his stomach twist painfully. Immediately he wondered if it would grow worse and felt the bile creeping up the back of his throat violently like live fire.

He didn't know if he could possibly handle it if it became worse. It was hard enough dealing with them on such a constant basis. Feeling phantom hands, of strange warmth and chill, and the edge of fingernails like sharp blades passing over his skin was nothing he desired. The single fleeting thought of ingesting the entirety of the bottle of pills in his hands passed through his mind momentarily. His eyes drifted over the label almost blindly, the print almost disconnected in his tired mind. He had woken up hours before and his mind was still terribly groggy and disarrayed. He twisted and rolled the bottle in his palm, still watching it curiously as the contents rattled loudly and nearly left his ears ringing. He narrowed his eyes faintly before putting it back into the cabinet unhappily.

With his luck that wouldn't even work. He would still wake up the next day. He would still be miserable. And the only thing different would b that he would be out of his night terror medication while his mom once again questioned—interrogated—him about whether they were still working, if they should raise the dosage, whether or not they should change his prescription. He was not in the mood to deal with that, not after hearing that very thing be the most common thing that had been happening since he was six. Besides, the inconvenience and total waste of time it would have been, he did not want to die anyways. It was just terrifying to consider it all; especially since he thought he would go insane. He was almost certain that if he did lose his mind his mother would have no choice but to have him institutionalized. And that thought scared him impossibly more than the idea of death.

He shook it off with a violent jerk of his head. He didn't want to even consider the truth of that possibility. It was far too realistic to him in that moment and it was terrifying to know. Truly putting the idea into perspective did nothing but make it more apparent to him as to why she would choose that; in her place he knew that he would be considering. He would also have been looking at ways to get and keep him out of the house and considering boarding schools to ship him off to as he had initially worried about upon seeing the pictures laid out on the table.

Yugi shook his head once more to dispel some of the images that immediately came to mind. He pulled away from the counter, jumping back down and heading for the hallway. He was immediately alerted to the fact that someone was awake as he opened his bedroom door and caught the sound of voices. For a split second he thought it was his mother and grandfather speaking but then he recognized that the female voice was too low to ever possibly be considered familiar. It was strange how gravelly her tone was, how almost nasal a quality it possessed. He could not fully hear it all, the words strange and distorted, telling him that the volume on the TV was at its lowest, giving off crackles at the ends of each word she spoke.

He started forward, listening more closely and narrowing his eyes. The words weren't becoming any clearer when he got into the kitchen but when he looked for the living room, it was almost as if he were standing by a large speaker. His somewhat tired mind lost any hint of grogginess left, attention keen on the screen in the center of the room. He didn't recognize the brunette reporter but he did know the area she stood in.

The Junky Scorpion store that he saw behind her was further into town, well past the mall near where Domino City shared streets with the neighboring city, Obihiro. That particular spot was considered a harsh spot to be in due to a few gangs that had control over it. No one truly spoke of it and oftentimes people avoided it simply by instinct. Rumors were still spread around all of Domino, however, and Yugi had always thought to avoid the entire thing altogether if he had the chance. And yet, he had gone there only once with Jonouchi and Honda for a pair of sneakers sold there exclusively.

"Police are offering one hundred and fifty thousand yen for any information that will help to lead to the arrest of the person responsible for the murder of the sixteen-year-old high school student Nosaka Miho of Domino High," the brunette announced just as the image of the familiar blue-haired girl was shown.

Yugi felt his stomach sink and his shoulders sag as if the strength had just left him. He had known Miho and had enjoyed her company for the most part, though it was Honda that she had been closest to. She had been his crush for months and had made quick but strained friends with Anzu. Jonouchi hadn't been very interested in her but for teasing Honda relentlessly when she was not around. Yugi had had two classes with her and so had gotten more time to get to know her without worrying that Honda might mistake their chitchat for flirtation.

She had recently been named the runner up of a beauty pageant they had held two months before, just barely beaten by another girl. Honda had, of course, leaped at the opportunity to play the role of her campaign manager when she asked. He had never even considered that it might be Miho of all people to be the victim. It made no sense whatsoever. Who would possibly want to harm someone like Miho? She had always been friendly and nice and…would have probably not even have thought about it if someone had her alone with the intention to kill.

He swallowed harshly, voice almost too weak to be heard. "W-when did they identify her?"

His mother jumped violently, eyes wide as she spun around. "They finished identifying her at about six this morning," she answered after a long moment of silence. The corners of her mouth tugged down as they looked at each other. Her fingers twitched where her hands sat in her lap and Yugi swallowed hard once more. He thought she looked almost as if she might jump to her feet and pull him into a hug but instead she remained in her seat and he continued staring at her grimly. He didn't know what to say and it was obvious she was just as lost. What was there to truly even say to each other? Yugi was actually becoming more concerned with what he should say to his friend. Honda would be devastated…

"So they've…ruled out it being an animal then?"

"The owner of Junky Scorpion was killed in a similar manner last night during the storm. They found footprints in the blood so they know it's a person who did it…"

He blinked, stomach twisting though he was unsure whether it was relief that it was not the hybrid or dread that there could possibly be a serial killer in Domino.

"A hundred and fifty thousand yen is a lot of money," he commented quietly, blinking once and frowning. The only time anything like this had happened was when he was fourteen a convict had escaped the local prison. A curfew had been placed immediately and the police had worked for a month and a half without breaks to hunt him down only to arrest someone else from another prefecture entirely.

Domino City had cracked down since the feral dog incident and the news in the area had grown much blunter in all reality. There was a channel of twenty-four hour newscasts in which things such as recent murders and arrests were not at all censored. And he recognized the logo in the very right corner of the screen as that very one.

"What if they're not…in Domino anymore?"

"Even if they're not, someone could have seen something."

They both recognized the doubt in her tone, the way that her voice faltered. Neither of them commented, however, reluctant to acknowledge it.

How could anyone have done something like that? They had obviously not seen anything when they had attacked and killed Miho and left her to be eaten by some animals in the time it took for others to get to school as it started. No one had heard her scream. No one had noticed her wander off, and it was enough to make Yugi want to puke. Had no one been around to notice? Had no one been with her? Regardless of Miho's circumstances, the owner of the Junky Scorpion would never have been seen or heard amidst that storm. No one would have been out there to see, not after the hail started and the darkness, around shots of lightning illuminating the area, would have been too thick to peer through. The thunder had been far too loud to hear anything else and his screams would have been nonexistent. Even if someone had used the small canopy of the building as a tiny, hopeful shelter from the storm, even if they had pressed themselves against the glass of the windows and glanced inside on the off chance of checking that it was open, they would have seen nothing. The owner would have moved into the far back room that served as his office. So even if someone had looked in, it would have seemed as if it were empty and closed despite the lights that would have been on.

So, when it came down to it, Yugi honestly thought that a person nearby wouldn't have noticed anything. A witness to the entire thing would not be found despite the money the police were willing to pay for the information.

"What did they do to him?" he finally asked, glancing at the screen and growing pale. They were showing off some of the crime photos. The aisle he was looking at was completely trashed. Items were tossed about the tiling, some glass broken and shattered into the tiniest of pieces. The ground was littered with pools and droplets of blood, some of it smeared where a sneaker had slipped in and their balance had been caught once more. He could see most of the same sneakers' prints, the blood nearly too immense to miss and keeping the attacker's path almost completely constantly visible. The images painted a clear path through the store that the killer would have taken. They went from the very entrance to the back office where the door was hanging halfway off the hinges that connected it to the left wall.

And then, as soon as the door was opened, the new image that greeted him made his stomach drop violently. His mouth grew dry, bile creeping up the back of his throat and burning the constricted muscles, and his head spun momentarily.

The shop owner was hanging halfway off the center of his desk. The merchandise and paperwork had been scattered across the floor. His clothes had been torn away completely, lying in shreds around the scattered, bloodied papers. The way the body was angled gave the clear indication of a backbone snapped into two, with the split straight in the center. His upper half lay flat against the surface of his desk. The bottom looked disgustingly elongated with the angle it rested against the metal, almost like greasy hair. Yugi had always known him to be only a handful of inches shorter than Jonouchi and Honda, but he felt that if the body had been straightened it would have stood eye to eye with them. He could see the blood all over the floor, the bones across its pelvis exposed in jagged slices of shredded skin. One foot was barely kept from touching the ground, held by a single thin strand of sinew and grizzle. Bones were exposed where flesh had been torn and seemingly eaten along the right shin and ankle. The left leg was broken in multiple places, skin turned nearly black from the bruises that came with the impacts, and the foot looked almost as if it were a club, toes and arch curled inwards towards the other leg.

The next photo was closer, an almost aerial shot but with an obvious slant that showed exactly what it was that would make a viewer want to vomit. The ribs were exposed, popping out of the shredded flesh in three directions. The left collarbone was sticking out of the skin like a massive white-skinned tumor. The throat had an odd, thin light red line across the side tracing what Yugi knew had once been the path of its pulse just hours before. The skin was oddly pale and almost puckered with the long scratch mark, the neck still left completely intact. The left side of the chest cavity had been tunneled into, the heart and lung missing completely, the ribcage slightly sunken and collapsed inward. The shoulders and lengths of the arms were completely bruised and looked almost black with the lighting. The skull had very obviously been split across the right temple and Yugi thought it looked almost as if it had had a violent run in with an ax. It seemed oddly precise and straight in design. And it was so deep, almost severing the top of the skull like a hat. Yet, it was long, thin scratch along the former line of the corpse's pulse that made him truly stare and rendered him unable to look away.

Had they bled him? But what purpose could that possibly serve? And what could they do with it?

The images zoomed in more fully on the gaping hole in his chest and he could hear the reporter explaining, informing the anchors and viewers that the shop owner's heart and left lung had been pulled out and there was no hint of where they might have been.

What could you do with a heart and a lung? Unless they were a cannibal or had some kind of wild animal as a secret pet, then Yugi couldn't understand. He trembled at the thought, a brief shiver, and then wondered for a moment at what it was that was more likely before immediately pushing it away. He didn't need or want to know. All he needed or wanted to know was that they eventually got caught.

That was all he needed to know. It was all he wanted to know.

And yet, of course there was that underlying curiosity that came beneath the disgusted horror. He wanted to know more about it all despite himself. He wanted to theorize and speculate and just wonder about it all.

"—school tomorrow."

Yugi blinked once in a long and slow movement, startled and drawn back into the moment. He felt his lips tug downwards. "What?" he asked in confusion even as realization slowly slipped through him. She didn't want him going to school tomorrow. He could see it in the firm line of her mouth, the slight narrowing of her eyes where they were close to her nose. She looked almost pinched in the way that her jaw muscles twitched faintly.

"I said you're not going to school tomorrow."

Except that wasn't what she had said. Yugi knew that without truly considering it. She had said before that she did not want him to go but now she was attempting to squash any protests he could think of by putting her foot down as immediately as she could. She would not allow him to truly argue with her on this. Already he could see the raw determination and willpower burning in her eyes. She was not about to even give him room to think of arguments needed.

He considered momentarily that he should argue. He was usually good at being able to make her calm down enough to see things his way. But those were usually mild things and he thought that she might only bunker down further and refuse him more adamantly. And, depending on how he went about it, he might just wind her up and make her lash out and potentially push him. He didn't want to end up even more fully confined to the house like she might see the need to should he fight her.

He was unsure he could deal with the consequences of the argument if he attempted it. He didn't want to wind up even more restless. That was when they were at their worst in his head and he always felt like he wanted to peel his own skin off with desperation. There was not one way that he knew of to truly get rid of such a sensation. It was always there no matter what it was he did. It burned and lingered, all-consuming, and made his sleep nearly nonexistent.

"All right, but you're going to have to let me go back before ten days or they're going to come check on the house," he mumbled, glancing at the image of a close up of the man's crushed skull where the bone showed bright white and half of his face was scratched.

Yugi shook his head, stomach twisting, and then turned away to head for his room again. He was tired enough to try to sleep again.

---

A curfew was placed within two hours of the announcement of the death that had occurred. No one beneath the age of twenty-one was permitted to be on the streets past six o'clock. Had it not been autumn it would have been placed at nine due to the time the sun began to set. Adults were required to be at home with their children before twelve came around. Emergency streetlights would be turned on everywhere they sat on each side of the street.

They were something like a Domino City specialty, Yugi supposed, because after the isolated incident of the escaped convict and the rabid canines they had put up and installed extra streetlamps so that there were less shadows for someone to hide in. All of them were blue lights which showed any trace of shed DNA that would potentially alert someone to drug use or anything that could appear shady to bystanders. He was unsure if this was actually effective or if maybe it was simply a scare tactic. Whichever it was, it seemed to work for the most part. No one ever seemed to act out when they came on, though he had to wonder at that idea as it was. Generally Domino City was one of the safest parts of Japan as a whole.

There were rarely incidents to be spoken of. When it came down to it, the number of things came in the form of those two which was the most abundant.

He found it ironic that Domino City ranked number three as the safest places in Japan. They were not as large or technological as somewhere like Tokyo. Where the capital had vending machines with retina scans to determine age and suggest drinks for potential consumers, his home city really only had the emergency streetlights. Their vending machines were average; they had one video game arcade and scattered movie theaters, and only a handful of clubs in which the bartenders were always sure to check an ID.

But they were rather considerably stricter than surrounding areas when things such as that happened. Curfews were really nothing new to Domino, because any threat to a civilian was nothing to be taken lightly among its inhabitants. The police cracked down immediately and calls put into the station were answered within five minutes. There were six police stations and four fire departments and it was often joked by tourists visiting the national park that they were ridiculously overly cautious about their safety.

He supposed they were right, sitting down on his front porch and narrowing his eyes faintly. The street was empty and silent safe for the hourly police car that slipped by to patrol. He had been watching them for the last two hours, recording their times on his phone. So far, they had gotten there within two minutes of the hour mark, the first one early and the second one later. He was even taking pictures of them to have more of a record that was actually concrete when his word was seen as subjective.

He would stay out there for a handful more minutes so that he could use his pictures to help convince his mom to let him get to school. He could not stand to be in the house any longer. He was restless, to the point that it was exhausting both physically and mentally trying to endure the energy that made his blood hum and his skin tingle. His mind was everywhere with his forced isolation.

---

"What are you doing up?" his mom asked with wide eyes, surprised by his placement in front of a bowl of sugary peanut butter cereal. Yugi looked up, momentarily dumbfounded by her genuine confusion, and then bit back an exasperated sigh. Her eyes were dark as they narrowed, tone annoyed as she shook her head. "School?"

He realized not for the first time the potentially explosive argument this could become in only a few words. He remembered only then, however, that she had failed to agree when he had said he needed to go back. He drew in a deep breath to ready and brace himself for the task.

"Mom, I have to go to school," he said slowly, narrowing his eyes and twirling the spoon between his fingers. "My teachers are starting to ask my friends to check on me. Anzu has texted and called me every period because my teachers have pulled her out of class to know what's been going on. Jonouchi texted me just last night to remind me that I've been absent the last eight days. If I miss two more days they're going to send someone to the house."

"I should have the right, as your parent, to keep you home until I feel it's safe for you to go back," she argued, voice sharp and wary. She looked as if she was a mere second or two away from rolling her eyes and the thought made him want to grin. "Surely they would understand that."

Yugi nearly groaned in frustration as he looked at her for a long moment. "Mom, the only way that they would understand an absence longer than ten days would be if I was in the hospital and in critical condition. They're high school teachers, not people with actual sympathy for that kind of thing. Chono especially would not care. She'd probably have me moved to another class and throw a party to have one less brat to teach," he finally said, calculating his response in order to make sure he did not overstep. "And, besides, Mom, they'll fail my midterms if I don't make them up within a couple of weeks of missing them. If that happens, they're really unlikely to let me pass. I don't want to have to deal with flunking my first year and having colleges see that."

She pursed her lips and he nearly sighed in relief. He had her sole attention now, because she had always been the one to give him a push when it came to academics. Her high standards for him were always something of a slight burden but at the same time a gift as well. He wouldn't have maintained such high marks to get to college and find his way into a veterinary university and eventually follow in her footsteps on his own.

"I still want to graduate and go to college and become a vet later," he pressed, voice firm but his method somewhat delicate. He made his lips pull into a frown, nibbling at the bottom and making his expression hesitant, pleading. "You do still want me to have a successful future…right, Mom?"

She was silent for a moment, and Yugi watched her chew her cheek but couldn't be sure whether this was a good sign or not. Sometimes this hesitation was a sign that he had almost won and needed only push gently once more. Others it meant that she was simply taking a moment to reassess her words and come up a new tactic for her argument, but Yugi was not sure that was what this was. She had yet to do much more than mildly disagree whereas, other times, she got snippy and tended to raise her voice in sheer frustration.

"A lot of good your grades will do you if you're dead."

Yugi blinked stupidly at the comment. It was spoken too softly to be meant for his ears, but he caught it all the same. He frowned at the statement, blinking once more, and then shook his head. He understood that mothers were supposed to worry and that his stature of being small put him at something of a disadvantage, especially considering his history of moderate bullying growing up. But he was smart and he was sure he could outwit—or outrun, if it came to that—someone. He understood, however, that the murders were shocking and the level of brutality horrifying and so he knew exactly why she might fear it more than she would have otherwise.

"Mom, nothing is going to happen to me," Yugi reassured her, giving a small smile that he hoped was more stable than the small ball of fear developing in his stomach. "I promise I'll walk to and from school with the others. And I'll have my phone on me at all times and I'll keep it in my pocket just in case I see something even slightly suspicious."

He could see her bending already. And, while he should have been relieved, he was anything but. He had never enjoyed manipulating her into seeing things his way, and it made his stomach hurt seeing the effects of his words on her.

And, he hated to admit it, but her words had managed to scare him and give him more to think about. He knew better than to truly expect something to happen but he was unable to truly and fully shake it off.

"All right. Just…be careful, Yugi. And you had better be ready to answer your phone if I decide to call."

She waggled her finger at him in an effort to lighten the suffocating weight that the conversation had become. He gave her a smile, praying that it was not as grim as he felt, and nodded once before hurrying to his room to finish his routine. He had not bothered to change out of his pajamas in case he couldn't convince her to let him go. He hurried to dress himself, grabbing his backpack and heading for the living room for his shoes. He did not try a second conversation with her or even entertain the thought, fearful that she might change her mind. She was doing his dishes when he called a farewell and passed into the staircase, speeding for the clinic and then the front door.

His exuberance to escape the house was not lost on him as he drew in a deep, cold breath of frigid autumn air. His cheeks tingled with the gelid atmosphere and he could tell already it was bare to the wind that was slowly beginning to move and make his hair stir slightly. He glanced around, happy with the lack of cars passing by and not having to choke on fumes, but he was more relieved now that he was even out of the house. The fresh air swirled in his lungs with a welcome chill that somehow seemed to make every nerve in his body tingle like live electricity.

"Hey, Yugi!"

He grinned as he recognized Jonouchi's voice, turning around and nearly sighing in relief as he spotted the other two as well. He tried his hardest not to focus on only Anzu in that moment. He was relieved to see all three of them, not just her, but it was hard to remain focused on that thought. His crush on her made her all but the center of his attention for the moment.

But when he glanced at her, her beautiful cerulean blue eyes were relieved and friendly and altogether so warm than he thought it brought a blush to his cheeks. He found himself struggling not to frown, however. Was it just his imagination, or did she look as if she might run towards him? He only truly noticed because she stepped more heavily on her right foot with enough force to nearly fall straight on her face with the throw of balance.

It was Jonouchi that ran up to him rather than the brunette. Yugi immediately pulled his eyes away from her in order to try to figure out what it was he was doing. The blond caught him around the neck in a gentle but firm headlock that pulled him tightly into his chest. Knuckles rubbed against his scalp as soon as he was caught and he squirmed at the tugging burn he received from the rapid scrubbing.

"You finally escaped!"

Yugi rolled his eyes despite the pain in his scalp. He relaxed his body until it was nearly limp and the additional weight to his arm made the blond falter. The smaller teen quickly pulled away, slipping from his grip without resistance. He stepped back twice, grinning widely. He had taught himself to do that when he had first been bullied. When they had tried to drag him along or choke him until he passed out, he'd gone limp until they began to move away. It was, whenever he felt threatened or someone just grabbed him around the neck in general, almost virtually impossible for them to keep him in their grip for any longer than he permitted them.

"Hey, guys," he greeted, stepping away again when the blond attempted to get closer.

Anzu graced him with a familiar, small, friendly smile that she usually gave him in greeting. It was always wordless and laced with something of a gentle warmth that Jonouchi always claimed was a sign that she wanted him. He said that she didn't smile at anyone else like that, but Yugi still did not believe that. And this smile seemed different. She looked slightly troubled as they continued looking at each other. Her eyes were usually very open and allowed anyone looking at her to see just what she was thinking and feeling.

Now all he could see were a few small questions, but he could not tell what they were. Thoughtful, he tilted his head slightly, but could think of no way to ask what it was that she was thinking that moment. He did not have a way to phrase his desire to know and thought he would sound extremely rude if he just asked, "What?" like anyone else might.

Honda and Jonouchi swapped looks and shared a couple of snickers before looking away again when both Yugi and Anzu glanced at them in confusion.

Their nearly effortless silent communication had always been entertaining to the two spectators. It was often one of their constant jokes about how perfect they were for each other. It was also what had led to their bet on who it was that would ask the other out. Honda had a bet that it would be Anzu who finally plucked up the courage to ask Yugi out. He was almost certain that Yugi would never do it, though he was unsure of whether it was their friendship or his own lack of confidence that would hold him back.

Anzu was more courageous than him in that aspect, and she was not one to let things she wanted escape her. She might hesitate and wait until she thought it would be a good time to ask him, but she would do it. Even if she was not given the exact sign she wanted to know what his answer would be, her patience would eventually run out and she would ask.

Her tendency to attempt to gain what she wanted was, at times, considered to be extremely selfish to some. Honda himself thought of it as such at times. Her drive was admirable but sometimes the means were beyond what he himself might have done. She had thrived for perfect grades at one point and thus knocked others out of their places at the top of their classes. He himself had settled for the bottom rank of the ten in each class and called it quits so as not to ruin anyone's scholarships.

The question that Honda considered truly worth being asked was when Anzu would finally do it. He was trying to truly consider whether it would be second or third year that she would ask. Jonouchi was betting a hundred that it would be second or third but Honda was hoping that it would be that same year. He really didn't want to lose a hundred yen. He had a lot of things—most concerning his dog now that he considered it—that he wanted to do with his money. He was hoping to get her dental treats and maybe a surgery to help correct the early on-set hip dysplacia the breed was known for. He had a feeling that if he asked Yugi and his mom for a discount she would do it—she might even go so far as to do it for free—but it seemed like he would be abusing his friendship to do so.

He barely resisted the urge to shake his head as they all started forward and he turned his attention back to them. Yugi and Anzu had long since stopped looking at each other and now Yugi and Jonouchi were racing off. He glanced at Anzu who rolled her eyes at them and watched as they headed for the quad.

Jonouchi was a few steps ahead of him and Yugi was about to attempt to speed up, but his legs abruptly locked. His right heel had just touched the sidewalk when an alarm went off in his head. He turned his eyes on several students in the quad, blinking in confusion. His skin had begun to tingle with a low, thrumming energy, his nerves growing hot as if exposed to flame.

The hairs on his body took on a bristle and his head felt a bit lighter, almost dizzy. He stared at them, unable to look away. While it took only moments for this to happen, it seemed to Yugi to take hours. The impact of the sole of his sneaker with the concrete was almost enough to send him tumbling forward.

He caught his balance instinctively. His left foot came to a stop exactly next to his right. A low but keen buzzing began in the center of his skull and his insides twisted painfully. It was almost as if, for one small split second, looking at the other students there, there seemed to be a mist that had come over them.

The chill of it was unnatural as his eyes were continuously ignored. The tension was steadily becoming more, however, confusion and terror combining to form an intense dread in the pit of his stomach. His blood was cold and his heart had somehow slowed. For a moment he truly hoped it was only he who felt it.

He was not unused to that kind of thing. He had always had keen senses, knowing and noticing things that were not completely taken into account by other people. He potentially recognized the signs of a coming storm. He knew the sensation of being watched even if it were only for a moment. And he knew the slightest change in the air when someone was confused or angry, even hurting.

Yugi had never needed to tell anyone about this because he did not spend much time with anyone but his friends. And he had not been willing when he'd confessed to them, either. He had unconsciously shown them when he'd been able to determine Jonouchi lying to them about something. And he'd reluctantly admitted that he could usually detect it, though he was unable to fully articulate the sensation to them as well as he'd wished.

He had been worried about being considered more of a freak than he sometimes heard someone whisper about. He didn't think he could deal with that. The thought always led him down the path of a melancholic isolation brought on by his peers and family. He could not deal with the thought of it so fully.

Yugi was acutely aware of his own strangeness.

He knew exactly what set him apart from the rest.

And it was always painful to think about.

But now that he was truly focused on them, he understood what it was that bugged him in that moment. There was a familiar crowd of students in front of him, a bunch of them all sitting together. And he recognized them, but the usual center of their group was not there.

His eyes flickered around and his body was frozen, rooted to the ground.

He was there, standing a few feet away with a couple of others he had never seen him with before. He knew Kujirada as a sweet but incredibly shy, pudgy boy who was surprisingly one of the most popular students at Domino High. He could usually get along with most everyone, but the group he was standing with—Ushio, Sozoji, Kokurano, Goro, Imori, Koji and Nezumi. He blinked a few times, stunned by the sight of them all together.

In all the time he'd known Kujirada, he had never liked any of the seven of them. He'd purposely avoided them on most occasions, in fact. Those eight had never been together before.

And he'd never seen such nervous glances cast at Kujirada, Kokurano, Imori or Nezumi. His stomach was twisting into violent knots, his blood turning to ice in his veins as their eyes fell on him. It happened in unison. All eight sets of eyes were on Yugi's face at once. His body was locked in place, his spine aching with tension, burning beneath his skin. Every nerve ending was alight. The buzzing in his skull had evolved into a violent throbbing pain that screamed for him to flee.

He did not dare even blink for fear that they might interpret it for something else.

He had no idea what to do at that moment. He very abruptly, in that moment, understood the reasons behind those anxious glances that had been cast on the group before. He saw exactly what it was that had brought them on. The eight of them had willingly isolated themselves from everyone else, and it had not gone unnoticed.

Frozen in place, Yugi continued staring back, unsure of what more to do.

Their stances were too tall, too predatory, and they looked, with everyone giving them such a wide space, like sharks amidst a sea of potential prey. The others in the quad were acting as if they were random fish, swimming out of reach of the sharks but keeping them within sight at all times.

He was confused and his muscles were growing even more terribly knotted beneath his skin, more furiously tense.

Yugi's insides tugged with more abundant confusion, which grew tenfold. He fought away the urge to blink and frustration swept through him slowly. His body was wired to the point that he was almost trembling. He could feel the tension like an elastic band pulled too far. His muscles begged for release but instinct held him completely in place, unable to do anything more. He felt like hours had passed, their eyes locked.

"Yugi?"

He made a noncommittal humming noise and stared at them openly, not bothering to turn away. His blood was beginning to heat again rather than growing colder and the significance of that change in temperature made each of his nerves tingle more ferociously. The tension was mounting further, begging for action, and the potential tremor was like a spring beneath his skin. His bones began to ache.

In any other situation Yugi would have blinked and instantly looked away. He would have lowered his head and scurried away to class or anywhere where he was no longer in sight of the eight of them. He was not in any way prepared to stare at them as he was. On another day he would have prayed to every god he knew of that they had not truly noticed him.

But now…

Now there was no impulse to look away, only to protect himself by staring back.

The eight of them turned away to speak amongst themselves once more, another unified action that made his skin crawl. He quickly turned back to his friends, breathing in and out once in a ragged manner. The three of them were watching him with mirroring looks of concern, eyes wide and mouths turned down in the corners, brows slightly pulled together. He wondered minutely if his cheeks were flushed and his eyes wide and dilated. But he was more concerned with how badly his hands were shaking at his sides. He tucked them quickly into his pockets, flashing his friends a falsely casual smile, and then turned away again.

The movement caused one set of eyes to settle on him again, but Yugi was unwilling to look and see who it was.

---

He ran into each of them throughout the day. Nezumi picked at his locker when he had just gotten out of class and was headed for it. And then he had stood a few feet away, watching him as a cat might a defenseless mouse. He had only finally left when Yugi stared back at him when his patience had run thin and he'd retrieved his books for class. Imori stole his seat and refused to budge until they had spent a full five minutes glaring at one another. It had taken some posturing, in which Yugi had finally gotten to his feet again and loomed over the desk with his hands on the wood, staring until the redhead scurried away. Ushio and the rest of the Disciplinary Committee—which, oddly enough, looked almost terrified and laden with nerves—beat his team in a game of dodge ball and left him standing. He had wound up with Ushio steadily moving forward to the center line to retrieve another ball before tossing it so hard that it knocked him square in the forehead. The pain had dazed him but had not knocked him backwards as Ushio might have been trying to achieve.

But it told him exactly who it had been to stare at him in the quad while he was walking into the building.

Next, he ran into Kujirada in the bathroom in which he recognized him by the expensive sneakers he wore as he paced outside of his stall slowly. He had put an end to that by throwing the door open and glaring at him until he had finally succumbed to nerves and left Yugi with some privacy. Goro simply bumped his shoulder in the hall. Sozoji merely smirked at him when he entered the room but turned away again. Koji was the last to look at him, doing so when he was passing out papers and hovering by his desk as he handed them to everyone but him. Yugi had been forced to open his mouth and ask for the paper, exasperated and lightheaded with confusion towards their hostility.

Kokurano came last, when Yugi had not been expecting it.

Chono had demanded that he stay after school if he wanted the chance to make up the assignments he had missed in her class. He was stuck in the library, completely alone because Chono had run off for one of what she called a "marriage interview" and the librarian had left early because her child was sick. The only sound in the room was the ticking of the clock on the wall and the occasional frustrated huff Yugi released when he didn't understand his worksheets. He was too wired to truly even attempt to do the assignments correctly. The entire day's events were still fresh in his mind, leaving him tense with confusion. The predominant thought in his head was that of both the curfew and, despite the fact that he had seen him leave earlier, that Ushio was still somehow around there, waiting and lurking.

He groaned and pushed his notebook away in frustration. Chono was not even willing to go over what he had missed in class with him. Instead she seemed to think that he would just know it without being taught. She seemed to think that he was far too smart to need help and he was not allowed to leave the library and get his textbook from his locker in the mean time. He was well aware of just how ill prepared he was for it all. He knew for a fact that even if he dug through the math books on the shelves nearby, he was at a disadvantage regardless. He had his phone turned off now that they were not allowed to be turned on while on the premises and he was not even sure what chapter or material they were going over in the meantime.

And, with his luck, she would be wandering into the library again as he was looking and would completely fail his make up assignments on the basis of cheating. She had, after all, told him he was only allowed to use his textbook even if she had failed to say what pages or chapter or anything to that degree. If she saw him scouring other sources for answers, he could—and most importantly, would—pin him for cheating and get him suspended.

She had never liked Anzu and Anzu was one of Yugi's closest friends so he would not have been surprised if she had come to the conclusion that she should set her sights on him. She would most likely try to get him expelled at one point or another. He thought, in all actuality, that this was most likely one of her plans before the end of the year as it was. Chono lived for making her students miserable and what better way was there than to practically destroy any chance they had of getting into a good college?

Yugi sighed and looked away from his papers and towards the clock on the wall. The constant ticking was both comforting and annoying and he could already tell that his right temple was going to begin to ache. His arm moved unconsciously to push the worksheets away and his right leg twitched so that it brushed against his backpack.

Immediately he thought of simply snatching it from its spot on the ground and leaving. His fingers twitched, hand drifting towards the edge of the table where it rested just beneath. It would be so easy to do, especially if he claimed that he needed to get home before curfew. No one could fault him for such a thing. It was personal safety and the general state of his family's well-being if he was going to be technical about it.

But he thought Chono might just figure out some way to pin it on him simply walking out regardless of anything he had to say. He thought that with the right momentum she would find some way to twist the entire situation around to make him seem like an irresponsible student simply wanting and waiting to be thrown out of school. She would be the one taken seriously in a student-teacher situation and she could easily paint him out to be a cheater or a troublemaker. He didn't see it taking too much effort on her behalf, especially with the headmaster seemingly almost enraptured with her.

Curfew was, however, only an hour away so he might be able to stick to that as his excuse if he decided to bolt. But it took only fifteen minutes to walk home and leaving before then would be considered somewhat—if not entirely—ridiculous. For all he knew, however, no one else was at the school and Chono may very well have just ditched him altogether. He did not consider that out of character in the least. In fact, if he were to be truthful with himself, he would know that he was not the first she would have done this with nor would he be the last.

A sound like a book falling from one of the shelves made him glance up. His spine tensed, tingling beneath his skin. Sitting rigidly straight, Yugi turned his head to glance over his shoulder. Instinctively he reached more completely for his bag, drawing it close with his hand tightly clenched around the strap closest to him. He tipped his head, straining his ears for another sound.

Was someone in there with him? And if there was someone else, why had he not heard them before?

Yugi raised his head a bit more, sitting a bit taller, and kept his right ear angled slightly towards the ground. He listened as intently as he possibly could, focused solely on catching anything that was not the rapid beat that his heart had adopted. Extremely slowly, mindful of any noise he might make, the small teen opened his mouth just enough to breath in slowly through his lips.

A musty quality filled his taste buds instantly. He cringed at the stale body odor and foul breath lingering in the air that threatened to suffocate him for a moment. His head felt light for a split second with the chemicals that were always used to clean the tables after school. Dust scratched at the roof of his mouth and nearly made him choke and cough but he smothered the impulse immediately; he would not make noise. The three initial tastes he acquired upon doing so was enough to nearly mask away what the teen had originally been searching for.

Some small, drifting, almost fruity scent crept into his focus. It was soft enough that the idea of chewed gum still fresh from the day but stuck beneath a table was his initial thought. Then he thought of hard candies that had been dissolved on the tongue minutes before and wondered once more. Was there someone in there with him? Had they knocked a book from the shelf while watching him? Or had the book finally toppled down after having been placed precariously?

Yugi blinked once slowly. How did he even know that was what it was? It had not sounded all that heavy initially but now that he had made the assumption it was the only thing his mind wanted to accept. However, there was also the chance that it was from within the computer room in the back or the office near the front. There was the idea that it was a pen or pencil or a cell phone or something of that nature.

It could have also been something like someone stepping heavily. If they weighed a lot and they were limping it would have been something like that. Or so he guessed anyways. There was not exactly any way that he could know for sure when it came to that.

But the thought immediately brought to mind Ushio. He pictured that predatory stare the massive teen had given him while they were playing dodge ball.

He could not resist a shudder. His teeth clicked lightly with the new movement. It ached dully in his ears, almost as pronounced as his racing heart. He tipped his head a small fraction further. His eyes scanned the aisles in front of him. Five minutes passed, his entire body frozen and each of his senses keen on anything out of the ordinary. But, for all of his effort, he came back with nothing.

Yugi blinked and allowed some of the tension to leave his muscles. His spine unlocked from its stiff position but did not completely lose its rigid stance. He straightened his head and blinked slowly once more. What had that smell been? He hoped it was chewed gum that had been placed beneath one of the tables a little while before. If it had been dissolved hard candy then that meant there truly was someone in there with him.

But if there was, then why did he not feel himself being watched? Why was he not aware of them before such a moment? He should have known, especially with how paranoid and alert he had been all day due to those eight in the quad that morning. He had been on high alert all day, paranoid and unsure of himself, and he should have known if someone was actually there with him. Especially if they had been there that whole time.

Instantly every hair on his body rose in an alarmed bristle and his stomach clenched as his heart skyrocketed. What if they had just gotten there? Had they known he was going to be stuck doing make up assignments with Chono? Did they know she was gone? How did they know that? Had they watched and waited until they were sure she wasn't coming back?

Maybe they just didn't care. Maybe Chono's presence would not have made a difference.

He forced the thought away with a glance towards the clock. He only needed to wait fifteen more minutes and then he could make a run for it.

His hand clenched the strap of his bag violently as he waited. Perhaps if he focused on the clock and the steady tick of the second hand he would be able to smother his wild imagination and growing panic. It should not have been too difficult in theory. He had managed to work himself up so efficiently that calming himself should have been just as easy.

Yugi ignored the impulse to roll his eyes at himself at that very thought. Calmness and panic were on opposite sides of a rather extreme spectrum. Going from a calm state to that of one of fear and anxiety was rather easily done. The reverse, however, was by far more challenging a task.

The visual and auditory confirmation of the idea was enough to make his stomach ease somewhat from its former twisted knot of anxiety. The pulse of his heart did not slow, however, and it continued pounding violently in his ears. His grip on his bag loosened somewhat and a small, momentary ache greeted each finger. The blood was rushing through them once more, painting them bright red to get rid of the ghostly white they had been moments before. He kept his hand posed to snatch the small nylon backpack the second the clock displayed 5:45. He stroked the glossy material with his middle finger impatiently and barely managed not to sigh or hum in annoyance.

He stopped himself from tapping on the table, feeling very abruptly overwhelmed with the idea that he was not alone. He ground his teeth together in annoyance at his returned paranoia. It was growing steadily stronger and much more pronounced. The muscles in his body were tightening beneath his skin and his heart had leaped into his throat. He tasted the blood with each beat, burning his mouth violently. His nerve endings took on a steady, vicious tingle. Alarms went off in his lightening head. His hand jerked almost mechanically and he jumped when his bag fell.

Yugi's head snapped toward it and he breathed out roughly as the clock's ticking grew deafening in his mind. The blood in his mouth began to burn more noticeably. His hand shook as he looked at the clock and then snatched the strap in his hand again. The chair toppled over violently with a loud thud and he jumped at the sound. His body froze up as he realized he would have to turn around to place it upright again.

He could hear them behind him now, and he was not in a hurry to look at whoever it was whose exhales kept making his heart pound even harder.

The zippers on his backpack were shaking when he pulled it off the floor. A shudder ran through him as he stared at the exit. He could bolt. He could race off for his house. But his curiosity was at war with his fight-or-flight instinct. He had no idea if he should look back or run, but he knew standing there immobilized was no longer an option. There was someone behind him…

Unless he was hallucinating again.

The thought made him stop short.

Was he hallucinating? That could explain why there was no source for the noise that he had heard. It could explain why he had not heard them approach until they were right behind him, rasping like this. He may not have been having auditory hallucinations before but he had also never had ones like the one he had suffered through during that thunderstorm. They were getting worse so perhaps that also involved auditory now.

But what could he use to identify such a thing? The visual had telltale signs and he could name nothing at that moment.

Terror crept through him immediately as he wondered if there might not be one. Everything sounded as it should have safe for the breathing. And now he knew that he could not run without looking back. He had to know if he was experiencing them now as well. He had this chance—something that he did not see presenting itself another time—to see and not risk someone noticing.

Yugi drew in a deep breath and turned around. He was unsure of what he had been expecting but what greeted him there had not been in the realm of possibilities.

He blinked stupidly once, unsure of himself, and then choked on an inhale. He let out a soft whimper of a noise. His lungs ached when he breathed again. His head was too light. A buzzing sensation was making his eyes throb in his skull. He blinked again slowly, staring blankly as his mind tried to connect the dots. His spine began to ache as he took the other boy in slowly.

His first impulse was both to flee and then to hide away. The eyes he was staring into could normally be described as dark brown, almost black. One could go as far as to say that they were beady like a rat's, because his irises and pupils were almost too small to match the size of his eyes. Yugi had often said himself that they were pathetically small and he always thought of bugs when he looked at him.

"Kokurano…" He was unsure for a moment whether the boy was truly the arrogant psychic he saw almost every day. He certainly looked like him by all means, dressed in that strange aqua green cloak that bordered on neon in shade. He wore the same gray shirt with the blue and purple-beaded necklace that was rumored to have something to do with voodoo magic. He even had the purple-starred gray band sitting on his forehead where it rested just beneath his light-colored hair that bordered on an ashy white. He had the same rather thick build and chubby face.

The only difference, however, was that those eyes were blue and not muddy brown. A milky sheen covered the pupils as well and the very edges of both glowed a deep midnight blue. The color spread out halfway through his irises and stopped there.

"The shadows…"

Yugi instinctively backed up into the table. Pain slammed through his hip. His bones seemed to rattle beneath his skin at the contact. His teeth ground together. His mind echoed that terrible hissing quality that the other boy's voice possessed. The sound reminded him of voices bleeding and layering with one another. He felt his spine lock slowly. There was some kind of ungodly strength in that voice that made every nerve in his body feel alight. Whether it was two voices or even more or simply one he couldn't be sure. But its message slithered like snakes and burned the air like a struck match as it found its way into his ears.

"The shadows are bleeding…"

He shook his head slowly, unsure of what to say or think. He did not understand the statement, but then who possibly could? Shadows were inanimate. They were nothing more than the absence of light when an object blocked the rays from touching the ground. They could not bleed. Was he trying to give him some kind of ridiculous fortune?

Yugi began to open his mouth but stopped short. Something was slowly coming from the other boy's mouth. At first it looked merely like drool. The smaller teen instantly smelled that light and fruity scent and thought for a moment about gum once more. But then he spotted it growing bubbly almost like toothpaste before it was spat into the skin. It was a pure white froth, swelling up slowly but surely from the boy's mouth. It drizzled down both corners of his mouth as if he were choking on something like sea foam. A gurgling noise met his ears after a moment and his stomach clenched. It was an extremely unsteady noise and he thought of bubbles rising from beneath the water. He pictured mouth wash in commercials and trembled violently.

Why couldn't it have been something so simple?

But as he continued watching him almost blindly, he could see small flecks of red. A mass of froth hit the ground, dripping from the right side of his chin. The red flecks were rapidly becoming more abundant, becoming a sea of crimson.

Yugi was frozen in place. That sweet smell was growing stronger but the properties had changed. He now caught the sharp metallic heat that came like a drifting breeze. He had smelled Kokurano's blood that entire time and he had never even realized. For whatever reason, his own instincts had allowed him to misidentify and underestimate the importance of the smell. He had foolishly thoguht it was candy…

His stomach twisted violently and he felt his esophagus twitch as he attempted to suppress his instinct to bolt once more. He was stupidly unable to so much as look away, stuck and staring as if he might learn something from the sight before him.

"The shadows are bleeding…"

The voice had grown lower, guttural and deep like that of an enraged dog's snarl. A shudder passed through the larger teen and Yugi watched blindly, still immobilized and rooted to the spot. Kokurano's eyes rolled back into his skull, the veins a bright glaring red as they seemed to burst and turn the whites a pink like calamine lotion. His body jerked and went through a violent spasm as if he had been electrocuted. His head fell back with a terrible cracking sound. His knees buckled. He fell forward and Yugi realized with a startling clarity that his neck had snapped and he could no longer hear him gurgling.

His hand shook violently as the life seemed to return to his limbs. He snatched his bag, the zippers almost like three new pulses as they jingled, and took off.

He burst through the double doors. He scrambled, trying to turn, and slammed into the wall instead. He yelped as his shoulder and hip absorbed the impact. His legs buckled beneath him. He slid down the painted white brick and crumbled against the floor in a heap. He let out a choked noise. His lungs constricted painfully. His head began to pound. That strangled noise left him once more.

Someone had just died in front of him.

Someone who he, Honda and Jonouchi had joked about being the serial killer's first victim.

He trembled violently. His mouth tasted of blood and stomach acid. He clenched his eyes shut. That choked breath left him once more. He shuddered with the effort to keep his lungs working. His shoulders rose and fell stiffly. His spine began to adopt a low, dull ache. His temple began to pound. He wasn't sure if his eyes were watering or if maybe he was just blind with disbelief.

How was this even possible? How was it possible that Kokurano would seek him out like this? Had he been waiting around for him so that he could scare him? And if that was the case, why would he have waited there for so long?

But even if that had been the case, had he had some idea about what he was going to say to him when he did confront him? Surely "The shadows are bleeding" had not been his first choice. And dying while relaying the fortune was something that Yugi knew would never have been a choice to make in the first place.

And what was it that had just happened? What had killed him?

Had he been poisoned? Had someone somehow put poison in his food or drink during lunch?

Was that even how poison worked? He was far from an expert on something like that but he did wonder and poison seemed logical.

But who would want to poison Kokurano? He had never hurt anyone. He was just a pest—or he had been, Yugi supposed.

He trembled pitifully as a new thought occurred to him. What if he was not dead yet? What if he was still alive, but slowly choking to death on his own bloodied saliva? What if he was still trying to talk?

Was he still saying that same nonsensical phrase?

He pictured it for a moment. He saw Kokurano lying there, choking as more bloodied froth escaped his lips. He heard him choking and gurgling harder.

His neck broke, Yugi snarled to himself angrily. When his head fell back his neck broke. It snapped. He is dead.

He had to be. That noise had been too loud and violent for him to have survived. And he had dropped immediately after, dead weight. He had been silence after that and another dead body would be found in the morning. And Chono would most likely find a way to blame him. He had been there, he had watched him as he died, and Chono had placed him there because of his make up assignments.

He let out another choked breath and clenched his eyes shut as tightly as possible. That voice was in his head again, hissing and echoing madly. His skull felt entirely too small and his brain too full. He could not focus or understand as he let out a small wail-like noise.

"The shadows are bleeding…"

He shuddered and tossed his head violently to one side. He only resisted the urge to sink his nails into his scalp due to his hands feeling numb. The words were repeating themselves and he jerked his head the other way. Why would that voice not leave him alone? Why would those words not cease? He shook as violently as a plucked bowstring and tossed his head once more. Dear gods, it needed to stop.

A whimper bubbled out of his throat.

Someone had just died in front of him and their voice wouldn't stop echoing in his head.

What did that even mean? Was it just some kind of attempt at scaring him? If it was then it had worked but unless Kokurano had taken acting lessons recently then it could not have simply been a prank. But if he had been poisoned or something along those lines, why had it taken so long for it to kill him? And how was it possible for a person to make his eyes glow or his voice sound like that?

Yugi's thoughts stopped immediately at that idea. Could it have been a hallucination somehow? Was that even possible?

Instantly he thought to get to his feet and check. His curiosity bit at his fear with overwhelming force and he blinked slowly. Was it possible? He didn't truly think that it all matched up, but his hallucinations did somehow seem to be evolving. They almost seemed to be somehow—possibly—adapting. The idea sent his head spinning as his stomach clenched.

Was it possible for something like that—a mental illness, he supposed—to evolve and adapt? He knew of viruses doing that kind of thing, which was why it was always important not to miss a dose of medicine when it was prescribed. The illness would strengthen itself and no longer respond to the medicine. It would change and alter itself as needed in order to survive.

He blinked and then shook his head to scatter his thoughts. If he went in there and it was not just some hallucination, he didn't know what he would do. He had no idea if he could even handle a truth like that. No, if Kokurano had really died and it was not simply his mind playing tricks, then one of the staff and the police could handle the discovery. He wanted nothing to do with it.

Yugi slowly turned his head towards his backpack. He wondered momentarily if perhaps he would find blood or sprays of spittle across it and the idea made him quake violently. His hands shook when he reached out to pull it towards him. How long would it take them to connect him to the death? He had no doubt that they could—and he guessed it would be quickly—but he had to at least hope that it did not happen.

What was he supposed to say? If he told them the truth, they would think he was insane. No one would believe that his eyes had been glowing and he had snapped his neck like that when he had tossed his head back. And should he mention his voice? That would get him thrown into an insane asylum almost immediately.

A laugh bubbled up out of his mouth.

At least that would be better than jail.

He drew his bag closer to him, entire body still shaking, and looking at it blankly. He needed to just take off for his house. He needed to pretend he did not know anything about Kokurano or that anything was out of the ordinary. He needed to get back before curfew. His mother would have the police out searching for him within five minutes of six…

Yugi shook his head at the idea, wondering how worried she might be if she knew the situation. Would she think he had somehow done this, hallucinating and knowingly killing him? He had lost two animals already and, while that didn't merit killing someone, he had to wonder if it was possible. And he thought his mother might have that same idea to be taken into account.

The police would find out that he was the only one there with Kokurano and that would be enough to name him the prime suspect. It didn't matter that he was small and did not have the strength to kill or even hurt him in any way. All that would matter would be where he was and when. And he knew that at least someone must have seen how they had been staring at each other that morning or how all of them safe for the psychic had messed with him at least once throughout the day. He had no alibi whatsoever when it came down to it and Yugi had to admit that he was not even surprised in the least. Things never truly seemed to go his way as it was so he was not even knocked off his feet by this realization.

He shook his head firmly. Now was not the time to become melancholic. Now was the time for him to make a run for his house or somehow attempt to establish an alibi of some kind. Or, really, he guessed, now was the time to just get home so that his mom did not call the police and make them waste their time searching for him. He was still considered a minor according to Domino City's standards, and the police always searched for them whenever it was reported they were missing.

Yugi pulled himself up on shaky legs, using the wall as support to draw himself to a full stand. His bag swung and rattled due to the force of his quaking limbs. He glanced down at them, studying, and his stomach dropped as he continued staring. He expected to find blood or spittle, and the clean beige of his backpack made him want to sob with relief. He shuddered once and then let out another choked noise as he quaked a second time. A soft, bark-like noise left his throat and he was reminded of trying to smother a cough by keeping his mouth shut. The normalcy of such a thought was enough to ease a small bit of tension in his rigid spine.

His legs were weaker than a newborn calf's when he finally took a step away from the wall. His right leg buckled beneath him, bending inwards towards his left. He scrabbled for a firm grip on the wall though the smoothed surface nearly allowed him to fall altogether. He forced himself not to look at the window of the doors he was facing. The moment he did that was the moment that one of his extremely unwanted realities became an absolute truth. He could not handle it.

The bag felt as if it weighed a ton as he took another step, careful to keep his eyes averted in order to avoid any chance of seeing the glass. Instead he focused on the white tiled flooring and tried to remember which way would take him the least time to get home. He doubted—with an extreme certainty—that he would be able to make himself move his legs and run. He also realized that he was not capable of calling, let alone texting.

If he was lucky, she would be caught up in a surgery or taking care of one of the animals. His grandpa was—he could hope—either asleep or too wrapped up in a show on TV for him to even notice he was not home on time.

A small smile threatened to tug at his lips due to the familiar image that sprang to his mind. His grandpa would be on the couch with the TV blaring, either learned forward completely to watch with growing interested and excitement or slouched back, fast asleep. His jaws would be half-opened and he would let out a small whistling snore. Yugi had often walked in on him like that and had covered him with a blanket when he seemed cold. Then he would sit nearby and watch to make sure he was okay and nothing happened because of his age. Those were possibly the only times he was thankful for his insomnia.

He didn't glance over his shoulder as he continued for the door to make his way to the parking lot. If he could make it out there he thought it might be easier to run. Maybe out there it would not feel so terribly suffocating. Maybe his limbs would not feel so terribly heavy. Maybe if he could just make it out the door to the parking lot and towards the quad he would be able to get home before curfew even became an issue.

The moment he drew in a breath of outside air, he was running. He was unsure of how he had even managed it. He was racing as fast as he could. He could hear nothing but his sneakers against the ground. There was only the wind against his face when it stirred. His backpack felt heavy where he was holding it with his right arm as he ran. His mind was becoming light again, like a drifting feather.

He didn't slow as he made it past the parking lot. He didn't pause as the street came into view. He welcomed the sight of the asphalt. He almost swore with happiness. He was running like a dog with its tail between its legs but he couldn't care less. He was nearly mindless with joy. He was outside. He was running. He was—would be—okay.

He could just outrun his thoughts of Kokurano. He could race away from that new reality. He would make it home, see his mom and grandpa, and it would all be okay. Whatever happened after that…well, maybe he could outrun that too.

He let out a hysterical little noise almost like a laugh. Dizziness swept through him. His vision blurred. His feet skipped a step. His legs tangled. He dropped his bag as he fell face first. He was shaking again. He didn't want to try to get up. He did not even want to open his eyes.

Kokurano had just died in front of him. There was no way to outrun that reality. He could put distance between himself and the body but he could escape. That stupid voice in his head would never let him forget. It would drive him insane.

"The shadows are bleeding…"

What the hell did that even mean?

A noise of pure distress crept out of his throat. It sounded, he thought, like one of the animals at the clinic when they had just woken from anesthesia and wanted their owners by their side.

The anguished fear in the noise as it clawed its way up his throat once more made him tremble. His entire body was racked with the shudder and his mouth felt caked with metallic blood. His ears were throbbing with the height of the keen noise as it seemed to surge through him like electricity. His entire body was waking as if it were a phone on vibrate. When he finally moved enough to draw his limbs toward him and pull himself to his hands and knees his fingers felt too numb to be of any use. His spine tightened beneath the skin of his back and he nearly puked.

He should have been calling the police. He should have been checking on him to make sure he was truly dead.

Another animalistic whimper curled through the air. In all actuality, he didn't think it mattered what he did. If it was a hallucination he would have to be put in an asylum. If it was reality then he had just witnessed someone die. And if he hadn't truly died before Yugi had fled then he might as well have killed him himself because he had not checked or thought to call for help.

His vision was blurred and flickering as he stared at the pavement. He couldn't focus on anything but he thought he could see everything. Even with the growing winter darkness he could see ever contour of the asphalt. He caught ever fleck and shard of mixed rock where the colors blended. He saw where some of it was dislodged by the wind. A tiny beetle scuttled along in a mazy of dark blue. Grains of sand shifted with a breeze.

He was stupidly fascinated with the sight of it all. It was almost as if he were looking through a microscope. Everything was in perfect focus like a camera with a zoon lens. He could hear everything around him without straining his ears. There was the gentle, nearly inaudible stir of the wind. There was a mouse scampering across cold dying grass. The crickets were playing symphonies. A car was rumbling to life. A cat was stalking its prey. A dog was pacing the length of its fence, its chain rattling almost like a ghost's.

There was a heavy set of footfalls somewhere behind him.

Yugi tilted his head, angling his right ear toward the ground. The sound was rapidly growing louder and more pronounced. His blood hummed violently in his veins, burning him. His head began to buzz and the small teen was on his feet before he had thought it through. He took off running without a glance back. But he was extremely aware of the fact that he had left his backpack there in his hurry.

What alarmed him more was that he had come to recognize the person behind him through the amount of weight they put into each step. The name came to him without much provocation, drifting into his mind like a fallen leaf. He was unsure and more than a little unnerved that he could recognize a person like that.

Then again, he supposed he had been in class with him long enough to know it. He also knew without a semblance of doubt that he could outrun Ushio. He was much lighter and faster than the other teen with his massive bulk. Yugi had always been able to run quickly with his small frame. It was almost like a gift to make up for his shortness which had always been a point potential bullies latched onto.

He could hear Ushio steadily behind him. He was neither gaining nor falling back. Yugi blinked at the realization. He was keeping pace with him. He was making him run at his leisure and would match his speed with his stamina. Ushio had wanted him to bolt like he had. The small teen had fallen into some kind of cat and mouse game without even realizing it. But he had had no other options. Ushio would have mutilated him even if he had just gotten up and turned around. Running was really the only option he had in the first place. Standing his ground would have been a huge mistake.

Yugi faltered slightly. He was thinking about them in a simplistic, animalistic way. He was proclaiming Ushio a predator and himself his prey. He was looking at it like a dog hunting a serow. He was in such a state of fear that he had almost forgotten himself.

Ushio chased him a quarter of the way to his house before he veered off to the left. Yugi realized immediately that back roads were his only hope. He sprinted for the right towards some of the older apartment complexes. The growing darkness did nothing to slow him down. It seemingly failed to even stunt his acute vision. When he got into the back alleyway he felt that he could see almost everything.

The little bumps in the concrete looked like the black pinpricks of a gray static television screen. The fire escapes to his right were worn down and rust coated much of the metal. One of the dumpsters had been carved into and said that life sucked. A small black beetle rested on one of the railings. Water had pooled into the lids of the dumpsters. The very corner of the building opposite of him had a small gutter sticking out. The area around it was stained and scratched where it had shaken in the wind. The bolts connected it looked ready to give out. A single water droplet had collected at the bottom of the gutter and was swollen enough that he thought it might drop at any moment.

Yugi slowed his pace, trying to listen past the dull roar of his blood pounding in his ears. If Ushio was around and had doubled back to follow hi instead then he needed to know. He could not afford to be caught unaware. He was unsure as to why he was so certain that Ushio had the intent to kill him but it was ingrained in his head. Instinct screamed at him to stay away and out of the other boy's range altogether. Every alarm in his body said that he would not make it out alive if they were to have a true run-in.

So he moved briskly but did not run. Running made his blood pound harder and roar louder. It also meant he had to listen to his own steps when they echoed. Moving like this made it easier to listen. It made it less likely that Ushio might hear him moving around as well. Even if he had to give up some potential distance if he could hear him ahead of time and not have to worry, then speed be damned. He needed to be able to get out of the way if it was necessary. He could not—and would not—allow Ushio to be able to sneak up on him.

Where had Ushio gone as it was? Why had he veered off like that? Had he planned to corner him somehow? Maybe he had thought to herd him into a dead end and then kill him while he struggled to find some way out.

He shuddered. It sounded like a canine's hunting technique. They would chase their prey until it was tired or they had wounded it too much for it to recover. Unlike cats they used the terrain rather than brute force to prevent injuries. They split up herds of prey and went for the weakest.

He was the weakest.

The thought made him stumble and then stop altogether. How had Ushio come up with that idea? Was it his small stature? Was it the slight slouch in his shoulders? Whenever they had interacted before then, Yugi may not have fought back when he teased but Ushio had oddly seemed to respect that. He always seemed to be trying to get a reaction rather than actually trying to hurt him.

Yugi flinched and looked back over his shoulder with a grimace as he gnawed on his bottom lip. He had messed up that morning in the quad when he had turned away and had failed to look back when he felt them watching again. That was why Ushio had pelted him in gym class while he was on his way to sit on the benches on the sidelines. When he had not turned around to look he had sent him a message that he was weaker. When he had first been staring it must have seemed like a challenge of some kind. That must have been why his instinctive response had been to stare back without so much as a blink. They had all looked away first, but now he remembered that they had all looked up at the same time—completely in unison—and Yugi had not when Ushio had stared.

And now Ushio seemed to be hunting him.

The air bit at his lungs. His heartbeat pulsed beneath his skin too noticeably. His mouth began to feel dry. He swallowed and his throat seemed to close. He stood completely still. His eyes darted around wildly. His mind buzzed as it took in his surroundings. He thought of and catalogued each possible escape route. He opened his mouth to draw in a deep breath. He forced himself to move forward slowly.

His vision was still keen. Beneath the roar of the blood in his ears he could catch only his own breathing. He strained his ears but there was nothing to greet his efforts. He did not catch even crickets or cars coming to life. There were no heavy footfalls. There was no distribution of weight to be heard. There were no animals.

And that scared him more than even Ushio. His night terrors had turned the quiet into something to always fear. When silence came into his dreams it almost certainly meant death. He knew that far too well after one in particular. He had always been too terrified to truly even think about that dream. He never even wanted to remember it. But it had refused to leave him, sticking like gum to the bottom of a shoe.

Six soft, rhythmic thumps were playing in his skull now. He tossed his head violently to the side. His nose filled with the bitter-edged sweetness of decaying flesh. A sour, wet smell made his head feel light and stuffy. He trembled, a whimper passing through him once more. Yugi ducked his head, squeezing his eyes shut. He didn't want to relive this night terror. The pain that came with it had never failed to make his knees buckle and his eyes flood with tears. He had woken up each time shaking and choking on sobs.

No, no, no…

Now was not the time for him to have a relapse. He needed to keep a grip on reality.

But he knew he had already ruined himself. He had closed his eyes. In the night terror he was blind. He heard the six little beats and he felt them. He smelled the rot, just as he had the original sweet warmth before it. It had always made him snuggle into some kind of mass in front of him that he had no name for. And there was the sixth beat that was so much louder when he was there. But it had a shakiness too, one that always made him flinch when he was awake because it would not leave his ears.

That mass would move and something warm and soft would pass over his back. Then it would leave him but he could still hear it. It would run over the back of the other forms around him, comforting them.

Yugi shook. A comforting phantom touch passed over his back slowly. A soft little thumping in his skull came in time with the faltering pulse in his ears. It skipped and stopped for a long minute but very slowly began again. It was like a baby's hiccup with a watery noise following immediately after. It did not become steady again and, as always, only five of the soft heartbeats remained for him to draw comfort from.

There was a soft but very recognizable cracking and popping noise that followed its silence soon enough. Bones were being broken and limbs torn.

There were only five left and the loudest one sounded broken. It echoed with a shattered edge like a soft sob. The sweetened scent was changing with everything else. A new, slight touch of something almost bitter made him flinch once more.

The second failing heart did not begin to pump again. The cracking noise began again only five minutes after it had grown silent. The bitter scent became only the smallest bit more noticeable but even without becoming overbearing it burned his nose.

Yugi tossed his head once more, trying to hear something other than the four remaining pulses. He tried to take a step forward but caught only the sounds echoing in his skull, drawing him into an unshakably frozen position. He could not move and he doubted in that moment that even the presence of Ushio would change that.

The warmth of the body pressed against his left flank was enough to make him want to push further into it in a vain attempt to snuggle. It was so pronounced that he felt it was its life waned. He had no need to listen in order to realize that they would be the next to leave him. The steady warmth it possessed slowly seemed to become nothing more than a blank space between him where no heat was conceivable.

Not even a sliver of warmth came from the small body he knew existed only a few inches away. The heat that had come with the comforting mass that had seemed almost like a pillar in the beginning was distant. The temperature had not changed but Yugi felt as if something had come between them somehow, almost like a slide of glass. The bitter twinge had not grown any stronger but neither had that somewhat watery and broken heartbeat that made his skull pound violently.

It took what felt like forever for Yugi to regain the sensation of touch. The warmth had seemingly left this place altogether. Long, coarse hairs brushed over the top of his nose. The bitter smell had become something entirely different. It stung and burned and fierce sourness seemed to have enveloped his senses. His nose felt as if it might burst with blood due to the harsh sting. A sickeningly sweet and nearly cancerous smell made him shudder.

The sound of bones being crushed did not meet his ears. Instead, as if summoned by his movement, that phantom touch swept over him once more. His back was warmed with it but a chill came as well. Intense fear began to course through him. A low rumbling noise almost akin a purring cat met his ears. There was no heartbeat but the shaky one. He was unsure of when the final small one had passed.

He tensed, praying with everything inside of him that he would not suffer through to the end of this terrible nightmare. The smell had grown so much stronger, unavoidable, and even as blind as he was, he knew that it was not natural. He understood instinctually that all of this was not normal.

He prepared himself for the oncoming horror that would bring about the sight of it all.

But the disgusting reality that awaited him there in that moment was not there to welcome him as he had expected. Something caught him around the neck just as his eyes snapped open. He let out a rough terrified cry almost akin a bark. The meaty palm around the back of his neck tightened. He was yanked off his feet almost effortlessly. He kicked, squirming, but knew he wouldn't get anywhere.

The collar of his shirt burned his throat. His choker pulled roughly. Nails dug into his throat. His body went limp by instinct but the grip did not loosen. Yugi stared blankly ahead of him. His vision blurred slightly at the edges due to the pain.

He didn't have to look to know that it was Ushio doing this. He did not even have to think to recognize it. He felt as if he might be tossed aside at any moment. He thought Ushio might toss him first and then slaughter him when he landed. He fought away a furious tremble, spine rigid beneath his skin.

The nails dug further into his flesh. Yugi bit back a whimper. His eyes burned. His mouth grew dry and uncomfortable, his tongue thick. The sour-edged sweet scent still made his nose ache violently. The grip tightened after a moment, pulling harshly at his clothes. A twist of his wrist made him want to struggle again. He did not kick but he knew he needed to do something that did not involve this instinctive reaction. He was running out of air due to growing panic and his throat was closing from the force of his hold.

He clenched his eyes shut after a few moments. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't shake the idea of staying limp. Ushio was killing him and he had yet to try to save himself. The thought was not appealing in the least. He reached up to try to pull his hand away without even truly considering it. The movement made Ushio let out a noise mixed between an animalistic snarl and a human laugh.

Yugi froze in place, hands still trying to push Ushio's away. He should have stayed still, he realized with sudden clarity. Ushio would have dropped him. He would have done as he always had before and eventually grown bored. For whatever reason, he had not attacked him like he could. He had been waiting like an animal might had its prey been playing dead. He clamped his teeth down on his tongue.

He should have listened to his instincts. He should not have stupidly questioned them.

But now they told him to kick and squirm and struggle until Ushio dropped him. Yugi admitted, however, that he was unsure of whether they were truly his instincts or just blind panic that came with his blunder. Either way, he listened, and his heel pressed hard into Ushio's shin. The taller teen let out a grunt and then another of those snarling laughs of noise. He did not even flinch as he pulled him higher off the ground.

Yugi opened his eyes into slits, staring straight ahead. He was unsure of what he was seeing. His eyes wouldn't focus. But he thought it looked like a dog, only a small bit bigger than a German shepherd. He kicked harder and was rewarded with a lazy flicker of Ushio's wrist. The movement sent his ninety-two-pound frame through the air and across the little alleyway as if he were nothing more than a tennis ball. He thought of frisbees thrown across the yard for Blankey to chase and nearly laughed hysterically at the disjointed image in his terrified head.

His back hit the asphalt so hard that it knocked the air from his lungs. A loud cracking noise came with it. Pain erupted in his spine and shoulders. Spots like shining stars burst behind his eyes. He tasted blood burning on his tongue like spice. It was layered like mud and caked every inch of his mouth. He went to draw in a breath. The ache in his skull was too violent for him to think straight. His vision was still unfocused. Spots were still disappearing in rapid bursts of pain.

He swallowed a whimper and clenched his eyes shut once more. A disgusting, horrifying thought swept through him as the dog growled viciously.

What if this was how those murders had happened? What if Ushio had a dog? He could easily murder someone with his immense build. And then he could feed the dog those missing organs. He didn't think anyone would suspect such a thing, especially when killers were not known for keeping pets. Animals were always the first step, from what he had understood anyways.

The canine let out another furious noise. Yugi slowly peeled an eye open. Small bursts of white like scattered drops of paint burst across his vision. His head ached violently. For a moment everything seemed drowned like water in intense sunlight and then he saw it.

The animal stood a few small feet away from him and Ushio. Its ears were erect and pricked forward. Its lips were pulled back to show off gleaming white teeth and gums darkened by shadows. Its fur was raised in long jagged lines like mountain ridges. He stared stupidly at the sight of it. It was focused completely on Ushio, as if it did not even realize he was there. The massive teen stood frozen and watching. It stepped forward and its tongue flashed like a warning signal as it touched the dog's nose. Its lips pulled back further and, for a moment, the fur around its eyes wrinkled angrily.

They were staring at each other. The dog's tail slowly began to rise, unnaturally straight and long.

The hybrid flitted through his mind momentarily. It had had a similarly long and straight tails, but their builds were too different. The hybrid had been larger but with a robust body and slender legs. This animal was lean and muscular, with a longer muzzle as well. And its fur was light and glimmered with the dim glow of an apartment overhead. The hybrid's had not always seemed to do that.

Another snarl echoed in the air. Yugi froze. Ushio was now baring his teeth as well. His eyes looked momentarily bright and keen. His jaw opened. The skin around his nose and towards his eyes bunched and twitched. The raised folds of pulled flesh seemed to spread up and outwards. The small teen's eyes became completely focused on the image before him, disgusted and horrified. They were expanding, growing outwards to begin tracing his veins like peaks of flesh. They swept downwards to his jaw, bulging and twisting like snakes, and his neck seemed to grow twice as thick with the addition.

The dog lunged forward once, propelling itself a small inch. The hairs along the back of its neck had grown rigid in its bristle. Its teeth chomped together loudly enough that Yugi flinched violently. He scrambled back against the wall and fought away a whimper. Another snarl came from Ushio and the small teen nearly puked upon looking at him.

His back was arched upwards like a cat's, hunched over jaggedly. His mouth was beginning to pull forward. His jaw crunched and popped loudly. His canines glinted and thickened. They pulled outwards almost like gleaming knives. Long strings of saliva began to drip from the edge of his top jaw. His brown eyes had taken on a lighter, almost golden hue. And they seemed to be pulsating with each pop.

His stomach heaved again more violently this time. But his body was still frozen in place. Bile slid its way up his throat in a path like fire. The acidic taste scorched his senses. He was choking on it as he continued staring. It swamped everything else. He could not focus on anything else. His eyes were almost blind with the terrible taste in his mouth and he was unsure of what was happening in front of him.

The hairs on Ushio's arms were growing thick and sprouting. Yugi felt the bile push through his lips. His skin tingled and burned as it crept downwards towards his chin. He blinked stupidly at the sensation and the sight before him. Ushio's fingers were becoming thicker, his nails darkening and taking on an unnatural gloss. They curved downwards in sharp edges like immense talons. The bile in his mouth continued sputtering outwards in thick rivulets of acid. He heard the distinct sloppy impact almost like spilling water and chunks of food hitting the asphalt.

Yugi remained frozen. The popping and grinding noises escalated. The dog chomped its teeth once more. The sound echoed as violently as gunfire. The other, massive teen's spine arched to an unnatural height. His shirt was beginning to strain and tear where his back seemed to be pushing through it all.

Yugi's heart pounded viciously in his chest, loud and overpowering in his skull. His throat burned more violently and his stomach lurched in a way that made his lungs clamp up forcefully.

Ushio's head dropped, making him appear even more fully hunched over. He looked almost as if he might fall to his hands and knees at any moment. His skin began to ripple almost like a mound of maggots. His spine began to jut more harshly upwards. A low, guttural snarl began to tear through the air. The noise sent tremors through the air, soft vibrations that made Yugi's skin itch.

Yugi choked on more vomit. The sound of it hitting the ground was dull beneath the hideous noise Ushio was producing. Vision still disgustingly keen, the small teen found himself unable to look away. The tendons were bulging along Ushio's hands. He could see his fingers beginning to darken, turning red. It appeared almost as if his pores were opening, excreting something long, thin and dark. The hairs on his arms were twitching and dancing, not at all related to the muscle spasms he seemed to be going through. He recognized it after a moment, shaking at the realization. The hairs on his arms were multiplying, growing larger and then receding and growing thicker.

The knobs of his spine were pinching together beneath his skin. They pressed tightly. Then the popped and cackled. They pulled apart again. His shoulder blades shifted beneath his skin like tectonic plates. The muscles became bunched and thick, hunched almost. His shoulders rose like the jagged peaks of mountains. Then they twisted and arched and pulled apart. They were settled parallel to his spine. His jaw was stretching father but the bone was growing thinner, too long to support the teen's immense mouth. His neck was thickening and almost seemed to be growing like his mouth. His brow began receding, his jaws opening wide to show off teeth that looked as sharp as a knife's blade.

His head turned sharply, immediately. The canine had leaped forward with a beauty and grace which defied logic. What it collided with was not Ushio. It was a similarly built canine. It was darker in fur color and looked a small bit larger, but it was a similar dog.

A dog.

Ushio had…turned into…a dog?

Yugi shook his head slowly, struggling to understand. The panic and uncertainty made his ears ring. He could not comprehend what it was that he was seeing.

The two animals were within inches of each other. Tails were raised high. Shoulders were stiffened. Ears were pricked forward. Lips were drawn back. Teeth were gleaming. Eyes were boring into each other. Hackles were squared. Their muscles were braced. Low, deep guttural noises of pure aggression made the air stuffy.

His heart pounded violently and his stomach twisted. Yugi swallowed harshly once more. The acidic taste in his mouth made him salivate and he spat onto the asphalt. The shock was weighing down on his senses and his head pounded. He needed to get out. He needed to run. He needed to get home and—and then what? He would be leading them to his home, his mom and grandpa. But there was not much else he could do.

Maybe the two animals would kill each other. Maybe he should hope for such a thing seeing how well-matched they appeared to be at the moment. The lighter one seemed like the perfect distraction to keep Ushio away and he thanked the gods for its appearance now. Maybe it could wound Ushio to the point that all he would be able to smell afterwards would be blood.

Yugi shivered but held his ground. He wouldn't move until they did. He had to make sure they were distracting each other, locked in combat, and would not even pay him mind when he ran.

As if reading his thoughts, the lighter-furred canine lunged. Its teeth caught Ushio's brow. The larger dog snarled low in its throat and tossed his head. The movement was followed by them both rising up on their hindquarters. Yugi took off immediately afterwards. He turned wildly, the movement somehow graceful and calculated. The two canines snarled angrily behind him.

The small teen's legs pumped faster than he had ever known. The snarls echoed in his head. He heard one of them collide violently with the ground. The blood roared in his ears until it threatened to drown out everything else. His sneakers hitting the pavement sent his head spinning in a harsh downward spiral. He could feel the aching burn of his scorched throat. His stomach lurched and quivered.

A loud, even clicking noise burst through the dull roar in his ears. His eyes widened, lungs constricting. His spine tingled. He pictured Kokurano's head snapping back. He heard five heartbeats fade in his ears. He thought of Miho and the shop owner's broken bodies. His nerve endings began to spark with energy. His blood burned in his veins.

Something softer, almost silent, followed each click. The clicking noise doubled. Yugi trembled when they collided.

Teeth chomped and cut through fur and skin. A snarl of pure rage made Yugi stumble.

His muscles locked immediately. For a split second he was balanced precariously on his right leg. Then he found himself toppling forward. The force of his falter, of his immobilized body, sent his limbs into nothing more than a limp knot of clothed muscle and bone. His palms skidded against the pavement. Blood seeped from torn skin.

His wrists burned, aching violently with the fall. Instinctively he tipped his head upwards. His chin scraped and tingled. When his head beat each ache became something like a pit of lava beneath his skin. He trembled, breathing raggedly.

Hot rivulets of blood seeped from the torn skin of his chin, drizzling around the lodged stones. His neck tingled and itched with the sensation. His collarbone felt as if it had been lit with fire. His chest ached and felt suddenly weighted. He pulled his knees up under him, movements feeling oddly slow and sluggish. He felt as if he had just woken in the middle of the night.

He realized a moment later that getting up and even drawing himself into this position had been rather useless. He felt every bone in his body seemingly harden in an effort to brace itself.

His lower back and right side hit the pavement harshly. For a moment everything seemed to dissolve into darkness. Excruciating pain exploded across his right side. Pinpricks of bright white like bursting stars made his head spin. His eyes opened wide with pain when its full weight immediately pressed him to the ground. The impact sent the breath from his lungs. He cried out in pain as stones ground into the skin on his face. A paw, hot and perspiring, crushed his temple. Another pinned his throbbing spine. Its breath fanned over his neck for a moment. Blinking and trying to focus his vision, Yugi felt his face alleviated of the immense pressure of its weight.

It came back down so suddenly and with such great force that his eyes vibrated in their sockets. His lungs collapsed in on themselves. His heart stuttered, skipping before finally finding its pulse again. His vision exploded with stars. His brain seemed to almost shut down altogether.

The bulking mass was tossed aside and away from him suddenly. He had been deaf to the other canine's approach. But now his sense of hearing seemed to come back with a vengeance. He could hear them locked together, teeth tearing through fur. He caught the sound of droplets of blood hitting the ground.

His mind was screaming with the need to get away. He had to at least try if nothing else.

He dragged his limbs under him. Adrenaline made his head spin. He needed to run. He needed to hide, more than anything. He needed distance and a place where he could find shelter. Maybe one of the apartments would do well enough. But he was unsure of just how far back they were now that he had run.

He shuddered and ignored the impulse to look around. The two canines were still tearing into each other. They snarled angrily and violently. He could hear them throwing each other to the ground. Bones were cracking with the impacts. Yugi continued forward, stumbling and swallowing a whimper at the pain. He forced himself to take a step and then drag the other to match it. The progress was too slow but his back hurt. He could not move any faster.

A bone must have broken in his right side somewhere but he couldn't tell. The adrenaline and panic were doing well to numb everywhere but his back.

The fighting ceased for a moment. Yugi heard him as he came at him once more.

His body locked once more instinctively. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly, waiting.

Yugi hit the wall of the building beside him so hard that his skull cracked upon impact. The weight against his side pushed him further into it. His ribcage felt shattered on his right side as Ushio threw himself at him once more. His left shoulder let out a sickening pop and cracking noise where it was pinned against the wall.

Claws, thick and unnaturally sharp, tore through his clothing. His skin felt as if it were being lit on fire as it was ripped open effortlessly. The long black hooked grooves of keratin carved their way from his shoulder to the very bottom of his wrist. He screamed loudly enough that the dog actually flinched away. He watched Ushio back up a step. The other dog took advantage of the moment. Ushio was thrown with the attack. He saw them go rolling, only existing in his peripheral where his vision was darkening to nothingness.

His body slumped unnaturally, stumbling so that he found himself pressed back against the wall. A streak of bright red tainted the white of the paint in a sloppy smear. His vision swelled and danced, the edges swimming inwards. His head felt weighted and yet oddly light all at once, sagging until his chin was pressed against his chest. His body throbbed violently with pain and his pulse seemed to slow. Shivers began to rack his frame as his body seemed to grow heavier.

There were no dramatic flashes of his life. There was only the darkness which weighed on him with a chill not too unlike the winter air. The blackness was thick and inky, draping itself around him completely. His mind was blank beneath its lull and he was unsure of what it was he felt. It was almost as if he was drifting and yet held in place all at once.

Something about the darkness had changed, however. It was lighter and colder, making his skin tingle, but now he felt a strange and steady undercurrent of slight warmth. An odd sense of serenity crept over him slowly, pushing at the blankness that had made up his being only moments before. He did not understand this new development, nor the slow awareness that seemed to creep through him. Small shards of memory and impulse, of instinct and emotion, came upon him tentatively and his first real thought was to open his eyes.

He did so without hesitation. Then he blinked and slowly tipped his head up to pull his chin from his chest.

Tendrils of silver mist gathered his attention first, and then the sky, a dark blue like sapphire with stars in abundance and a wide full moon of pure silver that made his heart skip a beat. The trees seemed to stretch for miles, branches extended wildly overhead like a net of wood and leaves painted silver and white and green with tints of red as if autumn had blended with winter and summer. The tree over his head was white and silver, thin but with far more branches than he saw on the others scattered around him. The entire landscape was painted with drizzles of gold and cobalt blue around him, the frost of the forest making him feel perfectly content and oddly warm.

The tree branches above his head made him stare, the silver frost at least an inch or two thick. It somehow failed to block out the light of the moon and the stars overhead, making him tip his chin up to stare in surprise.

No matter the way the branches cut into the sky, they did not block out the light of the stars and the moon. Instead they seemed almost to amplify it, the mist making it sparkle more so, causing his eyes to gleam beautifully.

Welcome, young one.

The words were a gentle whisper of a deep baritone voice, drifting through his mind like a benign breeze. He blinked, startled by the idea that he was not alone in this place, and turned his head curiously to see if he could determine the source. Instead he found himself staring at what seemed to be an endlessly large expanse of water, a rippling river of white and silver. The waters were so clear even with the shimmering gleam of color that he could see the multicolored stones beneath its surface. They were smooth and mesmerizing in their beautiful reddish, gold and orange gleams. The ripples were gentle where they should have been roaring and harsh in speed and his fingers itched to reach out and touch the glimmering surface.

Beautiful, isn't it?

It sounded as it had in his head moments before but this time it also seemed to be projected outward, like a spoken thought. He turned as the last word faded, eyes wide and confused. Was there truly someone there with him or was he only imagining it?

At first he found nothing but mist. It was thicker now and unnaturally so. He thought it looked like both something out of a horror more or possibly a silver sheer curtain that was just a little too thick and so not as transparent. He could see them, however, three shapes amidst the silver. They did not appear fully solid as he looked at them, almost as if they were part of the mist itself but with something like shadows that give it clear defined lines. He thought vaguely of reflections in a mirror when it was turned in a way that made the image on its smooth surface break in the middle. He could see through them but he also saw the thin illusion of three bodies, all of them canine. The ears were erect, their limbs were long, their builds were lean and narrow as he faced them, their legs perfectly aligned so that it looked as if they had only two. Their paws were hidden away by an inch, maybe two, so that only the joints of their wrists showed. It was a clear indicator of just how much frost truly existed on the forest floor, how thick the undergrowth could possibly be beneath it.

The eyes were what truly held his attention, however. Three pairs of narrow, almond-shaped eyes stared back at him. The center of the trio of canines had bright green almost the shade of aquamarine but bordering a deep forest color or possibly emerald. To its left was a dark, almost frosty blue with a small hint of something like sky and to its right was a pair of deep golden that was flecked with a shade of color close to cinnamon. All three were focused entirely upon him, glowing in the mist like a car's headlights. They cast a small gleam against the thick fog around them and Yugi found himself almost mesmerized by the strange beauty of it.

What's the matter? Don't you know how to talk?

Yugi blinked, eyes on the pair of blue eyes which, even with the unusual glare, seemed to shine with amusement. The voice bordered on a deeper edge than the first, almost with a bass pitch which made his skin tingle momentarily. It echoed in his head strangely, not at all displeasing, but like the first it also seemed as if it had been projected outwards so that all four of them could hear his words.

He opened and closed his mouth once, unsure of how to answer, and felt his nerves grow tangled. His tongue felt as if it had just grown knotted and he bit his lip. "I…" His voice came out strangled and he cut himself off immediately. A small heat entered his cheeks and his eyes widened drastically in surprise as three rich timbres of light chuckles met his ears and echoed melodiously in his head.

There was no mockery in the laughter, only pure amusement and friendliness. A small sense of warm familiarity and security swept through him at the realization and an easy grin tugged at his lips.

You need to rest, young one. Yugi looked towards the shadow-like canine in the middle, blinking at the fondness in the soft-spoken voice. He recognized it from somewhere, he realized, and a small ache tugged at his chest. Everything will be okay when you awaken.

He opened and closed his mouth once, unsure of what to say or how to phrase the question. It was a strange concept, and it seemed almost foreign. Why should he rest? And what was it that was not okay? The thought that anything was unsafe while he was in this place of mist and frost and silver moonlight and blue shadows was strange and confusing.

It's best you don't bring it to attention, a somewhat higher voice said in a clearly concerned tone, which then lowered into something of a snarl. Yugi looked towards the golden-eyed wolf but his gaze looked almost red now. Doing so will only bring you harm.

"Bring me…?" Yugi trailed off with a confused shake of his head. What was that supposed to mean? Bring him harm? What could possibly bring him harm in a place like this? He could not fathom such a thing.

There is a reason you don't remember, the green-eyed canine stated softly in his head. Yugi blinked wide eyes at the statement, confused. He sounded sad and almost wistful as he watched him. He watched it shake its head slowly and for a moment its ears pulled back. You must keep it that way in order to heal.

"But…" He fell silent again, pulling his lip between his teeth and watching them with a confused and thoughtful expression. His eyes flickered between each of theirs and he tilted his head slowly as he considered his words. He could think of and imagine nothing harmful in these woods or of anything that he might be forgetting. He also didn't know what it was that needed to heal exactly. But what reason could they possibly have to lie to him?

With such a calm and safe atmosphere, he could not even begin to believe that a lie could ever be spoken in this forest. He wondered about it for only a moment, curiosity pricking at his insides. But if it would bring harm to him, why should he wonder any more? He decided to take their advice. He had no reason not to and they probably knew better than he did anyways. His eyes flickered upwards towards the sapphire-colored sky and then down to the river again.

He had the impulse to reach out and touch it, curious about the temperature. He imagined the rippling water would be as comfortable to the touch as warm, drawn bath water and he was surprised by the thought. Immediately following it was a dull roar in his ears, the water in front of him crashing as it raced forward to chase the course of its banks. His vision flashed with bursts of white and then violent crackles of red like spilled blood. He let out a low, keen whimper that reminded him of an animal coming out of anesthesia.

Do not fight it, the green-eyed canine whispered in his head, voice gently and oddly wistful once more. It will take you home, young one.

His lower back was throbbing painfully in time with a heartbeat he had not noticed was missing. His blood pounding within his veins seemed white-hot and searing, threatening to burn away his skin without effort. His chest ached and flared as his lungs expanded painfully. His head pulsed and danced with hideous pain. He drew his hands up to grasp at his hair and he whimpered again. If he was not already on his knees he would have fallen to them immediately. His heart twisted and gave a shallow stutter of movement as if he had somehow managed to avoid using it for years and had suddenly thought to try utilizing it again.

The right side of his ribcage burned and threatened to make him scream. He whimpered and his entire right arm felt as if claws had been raked through the raw skin of that first wound. His vision danced with darkness and then a furious red and he could see his entire limb slick with blood. He whimpered again, the sound almost loud enough to be considered a scream. His blue-violet eyes snapped open wide, colors exploding violently behind his vision.

Relax. You must relax. If you cannot the entire process will be too much and you won't wake up.

He felt it more strongly this time, something pulling for his attention as the pain skyrocketed. He clenched his jaw, swallowing a miserable scream, and tasted both blood and acid in his mouth. Images passed through his head at a breakneck speed but his mind understood them without question. He saw Kokurano, the beige dog, Ushio changing physically into another dog, their fight, his blood and his…his crumpled limp body.

His stomach lurched violently. His throat tingled, raw and aching. He could feel his entire body again but it seemed larger, heavier, weighted down. It was empty and vast and he could feel nothing but a horrifying panic creep through him. For that brief, suffocating moment, he realized there was only his consciousness, empty within the smothering silence of his vast corpse. He was nothing but a carcass, somehow newly aware and alive. Then his heart stuttered to a start once more, more powerfully than before, pumping blood through his veins to fill his body.

It takes longer for some. Let it take you and it will guide you home…

Yugi felt as if he were drowning in a sea of inky darkness. His vision flashed a bright, terrifying red once more where the forest had originally been white and silver. Eyes wide open and staring, he saw the colors swirl and bleed together, appearing to him almost like water going down the sink. A phantom tug pulled at his consciousness but he was not drawn back into the hollowness of his corpse once more.

Instead the red abruptly split away from its lighter counterparts and gave the illusion of the mist dancing through the air before him. It dissipated for a single split second and then darkened and grew thicker like the smoke of a campfire. It swept over him, taking away all hints of vision he owned, and Yugi knew instinctively that he would not open his eyes to that forest once more.

Everything was weaving in and out of focus around him. The sounds were wrong in his ears. The low rumble of a passing car or the movement of an animal was drifting from an intense loudness to dullness and then nonexistence. The latter was his favorite by far, because he did not want those noises to take residence in his light head.

Everything ached as he drew in a small breath. He could not differentiate between any of them as he had moments before. He was unsure whether it was a blessing or a sign that he wouldn't recover. But he could not bring himself to care either as he slowly drew himself together long enough to open his eyes into narrow, gleaming slits of blown pupils and slender rings of blue-speckled violet.

He was not surprised to see that tranquil forest missing, instead rather despaired by its peaceful disappearance. The pavement was harsh but cold beneath his hands where his palms were pressed lightly against it. His clothing had adopted the temperature rather readily, as if he had had no body heat to offer. He twitched a finger at the reminder and then looked down at his hand. Every ounce of his skin was bright red and shiny with blood. His arm flared briefly with a pain that seemed oddly dulled as he looked it over. The appendage trembled almost as if in reaction to caffeine and he watched with momentary bewilderment.

Very slowly he looked over his shoulder, eyes widening drastically. A familiar maroon colored door greeted him like a gift and he nearly sobbed in relief. He was home, propped up against the wood of the entrance to the house. He trembled and the movement made him flinch. The action made him lose what little air existed in the lungs. He held as still as possible, trying his hardest not to make his ribs ache anymore. There wasn't enough air, every indrawn breath making him fight off more tremors of pain. He ached viciously and it felt almost like a knife had been lodged between his bones. Every attempt at an inhale made his head spin and his vision darken.

His next breath made brilliant patterns of vivid red and nauseating, endless black explode behind his eyes. He clenched his eyes shut, gritting his teeth, and drew in an excruciatingly slow and steady breath. Frozen in place to attempt getting used to the pain associated with the task of breathing, he tried to remember something nagging gently at the back of his mind. He tried to pull it forward, clutching at it in the darkness, but it slipped through his fingers without pause.

New thoughts raced forward to make up for its absence. They trickled in like a running stream and his head raced with them for a moment.

Had his mom called the police?

How had he wound up at home?

What had happened with those two wolves?

What would happen when Kokurano's body was found?

What was he going to do with his ruined school uniform?

How was he still alive?

He swallowed thickly and winced at the pain it brought but easily licked his lips, tasting blood. If his mom or grandpa had called the police, he wouldn't have been dumped at his front door like a half-dead offering, right? And surely he would see their telltale lights, wouldn't he? He thought he might hear them inside as well but he was unsure. He didn't even know that he was hearing anything as it was. But, if they were there, then there was no way that someone might have dragged him all the way to prop him up against the front door. There would have been questions and especially if they were involved and had been harmed. So perhaps he had somehow blacked out during the pain but had gotten himself to the house? But he thought if that had happened the police would have been called and an ambulance as well. No one would have allowed him to just wander home like that—especially not with the curfew in place.

He opened his eyes slowly. He would never have been able to just get up and walk like he was thinking anyways. He remembered his collision with the wall vividly and a cracked skull was nothing that someone could just walk away with. And he had to take into consideration the two wolves that had been tearing into each other as well. He shivered as the new name that had crossed his mind to describe them but that was what they had been. They were wolves. Ushio had turned into a w olf. Ushio was—or, had been, if he was dead—either a werewolf or a hallucination gone horribly wrong.

A small bubble of hysterical laughter burst through his lips and his ribs choked under his skin. The lighter-furred one must have been a werewolf too. It must have had some issue with Ushio beforehand to go after him, because Yugi didn't believe in guardian angles. Maybe it was a classmate and that was why it had gone after him. He had been nothing but an inconvenience for it and a piece of prey for Ushio.

A bloody hiccup left his mouth, a bright red bubble bursting in front of his face. He watched it almost blindly, smiling for a moment. Another laugh escaped him and then another hiccup and Yugi felt tears stinging the back of his eyes briefly. Ushio had bitten him. There was no way that only his claws had severed his skin like this. He had to have bitten and torn the flesh open and his canines had trailed down his arms and…

No. Why would he have merely torn his skin when all he had to do was clamp his jaws? He could have very well ripped his arm entirely out of its socket. He could have eaten him. If he had used his teeth, then he would have. No, he must have used his claws then. But what did it matter? He was sure even without a bite he could have easily infected him. There could have been spittle from his jaws, maybe blood. It could have been the other wolf as well now that he thought about it. Maybe it had challenged Ushio because it had been hungry and that was why they had fought.

He let out another laugh and then choked on a cough. He had almost been very literally eaten just earlier that day. He had gotten bones broken and skin shredded. He had yet to see police cars or hear his mom or grandpa moving around looking for him. Those facts were just enough to make him draw in a deep breath. He winced at the pain in his right side and then moved to draw his legs towards him. He stared ahead of him for a moment, expecting to see the streetlight on.

Instead only darkness greeted him. When he blinked and turned his head enough to look, he could see the faint outline of a medium-sized rock beneath it. His perception of distance was momentarily scattered as he looked at it. With his vision so undone he had thought at first that it had been directly beneath it. It took a moment for his mind to slowly work this sight into something more comprehendible. The rock was lying several feet away and large shards of glass were all around it, in front and behind.

So either the person who had brought him home had broken the streetlight with a rock or…someone was planning to finish what Ushio had begun. The thought made him tremble once before he reached out for the doorknob to pull himself onto shaky legs. They immediately buckled but, by some miracle, straightened and held his weight before he could collapse. He glanced downwards at his hand and nearly puked. He would have to clean it before his mom or grandpa noticed all the blood he was smearing across it.

---

"This could have been you!" his mother shrieked angrily. Yugi barely had time to look up from his cereal. The newspaper smacked into the wooden table loudly enough to make him cringe and lose his breath altogether. His side seared but he did not reach over to rub it, too stunned to even truly consider it. His eyes settled on the article, wide and shocked as he took in the sight of it.

Yes, that truly could have been him. If something hadn't seemingly scared the two canines off. If someone hadn't known to bring him home. If he hadn't finally dragged himself into the house and immediately forced himself to take a shower.

That also could have been him on the front page as a surviving victim instead had they seen him before. He had managed to clean himself completely despite the pain, ignoring the way the water ran red. He had hidden the bloodied and torn uniform behind his chest of drawers where he would be able to reach in and pull it out from where it was pressed against the wall. He had changed into clothes with a loser fit, layering them so that he looked lazy and cold. He would have to pull the uniform out to look it over and determine if it was wearable. If it was he knew perfectly well enough how to get the blood out and he'd figure out how to sew it back. If not he would be down to two uniforms in his closet instead of three.

He had to find out where his bag was and if it was still at the school. Then he would have access to his phone again. After that he would be able to use it to look up as much as possible about further wound care without his mom finding out. She used his laptop frequently, because she thought it would be a waste to buy another for herself when all she had to do was look up any newer veterinary methods that had developed.

Staring at the paper now made him sick. In black and white before him was the photo of his classmate, Hanasaki Tomoya. He recognized the innocently shy smile the other boy always wore on photo days. He knew the wide circular cut of his glasses. He was familiar with the wavy blond hair that he always had pushed back with gel. He recognized the kind brown eyes painted black in the photo. His eyes slowly drifted to the caption which only told of his name, age and the grade he had been in.

Yugi blinked stupidly at himself. He was already thinking of him in past tense, mindlessly reacting to the article in front of him. A small pain gnawed at his insides and he almost wanted to let out a sob at the reality of the situation. He had hung out with Tomoya on several occasions and he may not have been best friends with him but he had always like to think they were good ones. He could spend countless hours talking to him about figurines and games of any kind and Tomoya always had a new comic book from America because his dad—like Yugi's—worked overseas. Tomoya had clicked with his friends as well and, for a while, Yugi remembered they had all gone to his house after school.

He felt his mouth slowly open, eyes widening drastically in horror and despair. He had not hung out with the other boy in months and yet somehow Tomoya had seen him as a good enough friend to fight Ushio. He had gone up against him despite the obvious disadvantage. And he had died in that alleyway trying to save him.

He choked on the noise and bile that threatened to travel up his throat. His grip on his spoon began to tighten, fingers nearly shaking as he stared at it. Tomoya had been killed in the same terrible fashion as Miho and the shop owner. His heart, like the others', had been ripped out, limbs pulled and quartered. His neck had been nearly ripped straight through. His face had been horribly disfigured and his entrails had been half-eaten. The wound that had killed him had been an extremely clean one, however; the article claimed it was actually benign and merciful compared to what came afterwards.

The neck would have been the original death blow. It had been a bite to the throat that had almost completely severed his head, so vicious that the tips of their teeth had left harsh indentations of scrapes in his spine.

He knew without thought that they had ruled it as an animal kill. He had no doubt that they would try to use the fractured bone to attempt to make a cast. They would find that it was canine but he doubted they would believe in their findings. Wolves were extinct in Japan—or at least the natural ones were. And werewolves did not exist as far as everyone else would be concerned. It would fall on rabid dogs until they found the rabies strand was absent. Then they would turn their attention to dogs like the German shepherd or rottwielers, anything that could kill efficiently with training, could knock a person over.

Yugi turned away finally, awkwardly shifting his soggy cereal around before narrowing his eyes.

All three of them had died ruthlessly horrible deaths.

But why would Ushio want to kill the Junky Scorpion's owner?

Updates should be back on schedule from this point on.