Chapter Sixteen:

At supper the next day, Kaiba surprised Yugi by turning up with Yami. He greeted him genuinely happily, pleased that he'd come to spend social time. Joey was quite obviously less than enthusiastic, but he handed Kaiba a drink politely. Yugi had a roast in the oven and potatoes boiling to be mashed, but he had little hors d'oeuvres to serve, which he hadn't been able to keep Joey out of prior to their company even showing up. The four sat in the living room for a bit, Kaiba mostly just staring while the other three chatted about inane things.

"There's a cat on the window sill," Yami said as he came into the kitchen when Yugi went and got the roast out of the oven.

Yugi looked up. Sure enough, wide yellow eyes were staring in through the screen. The cat that had scared Yugi on Wednesday was sitting on the sill of the window over the kitchen sink, peering in with evident hope. Yugi sighed, knowing that he'd brought this on himself.

"I fed it on Wednesday. I guess it's coming to see if I'll do it again."

"May I?"

Surprised, Yugi nodded to the refrigerator. "There's still some ham left."

Yami got the container and then opened the kitchen door that led out back. Yugi watched the cat turn its head to view Yami while he set the roast on the counter and then turned off the burner under the potatoes. The cat looked back at him as he came closer to the window by going to the sink to drain the potatoes, then looked at Yami again, though Yugi couldn't see him from the angle.

With the door still open, Yugi could hear him. He was speaking in Egyptian, sounding to be coaxing the cat down to him. It sat on the windowsill without moving. It was as skinny as before and now that he was closer to it by virtue of being right on the other side of the window, he could see that there were scars on the side of its face, thin pink lines of hairless skin and a nick in the ear on that side.

Yami was still crooning to it. It evidently decided it could trust him, for it jumped off the sill in his direction. Yugi put the drained potatoes back into the pot, but didn't turn on the mixer. He didn't want to scare the cat off with the noise. Instead, he tiptoed to the door and peered out.

Yami was settled down on the bottom of the steps, leaning forward, a slice of ham in one hand, a piece torn off from that slice in the other, outstretched to the cat, who was sniffing at it cautiously. As Yugi watched, it delicately took it from Yami's hand and wolfed it down. Yami tore another piece off and held it out. The cat didn't come any closer, but it took the ham more readily. Yami fed it all of the slice, then simply held out his empty hand. The cat sniffed at it, then looked up at him accusatorily. Yami laughed and said something in Egyptian.

Yugi couldn't understand what he said. For whatever reason, he hadn't inherited the ability to understand it the way Kaiba had. He wondered about that, and sometimes guiltily wondered if he should show more interest than he did in his dark half's past. Yami had given it all up to stay in the future, but it was still who he was, and Yugi knew only the most basic things. Because Yami was not forthcoming by nature, Yugi didn't know if that meant he was unwilling to delve into what had been a short and painful history.

There was one more slice of ham in the packet. Yami fed it to the cat, then held out his hand again. By this point, the cat had come right up to in front of his shoes. It sniffed his empty fingers again, then rubbed against them. Yami started petting it, saying something else to it. It's purr was loud and it was now twining back and forth, rubbing against Yami's legs and arching into his scratching fingers.

Yugi smiled and stepped back into the apartment. He dumped butter and milk into the potatoes, but still didn't start the mixer, instead popping the rolls into the oven, then went to see how Joey and Kaiba were faring.

Kaiba was up and was staring at the collection of DVDs Joey had aligned on a shelf. "You like this stuff?" he asked in a way that wasn't really a question as he sneered at the array of horror movies interspersed with action and comedies.

"Yes," Joey said coldly.

Kaiba snorted and pulled one of the DVDs from the shelf, turning it over to read the description on the back. He was holding his drink glass in his other hand. Joey was still sitting on the couch and glaring silently at Kaiba's back, the hors d'oeuvres tray in front of him completely empty.

"Dinner's almost ready," Yugi said. "Would you help me in the kitchen, Joey?"

Joey grunted and got to his feet, snagging the tray and coming to the kitchen. "Jerk," he said under his breath as he passed Yugi.

Kaiba returned the DVD, then grabbed another. Yugi went out to him.

"Would you like another drink, Kaiba?"

Kaiba held his empty glass out to Yugi without a word. Yugi took it and went into the kitchen. Yes, definitely a jerk.

Joey was standing at the edge of the counter and looking outside at where Yami was still petting the cat that couldn't seem to get enough. He was smiling fondly. Yugi set Kaiba's glass on the counter and starting pouring another measure of Scotch in it.

"Should take it home," Joey said to Yami.

Yami picked up the empty ham container and stood. The cat looked up at him questioningly and Yugi took the opportunity to turn on the mixer. As expected, the noise made the cat run.

"Hey, why'd you do that?" Joey asked Yugi as Yami came up the steps and into the kitchen.

"To make it easier for Yami to say goodbye," Yugi said as he started mashing the potatoes.

Yami shut the door and threw the empty ham container in the trash. He went to the sink and started thoroughly washing his hands. "Seto is allergic, Joey."

"So?" Joey asked challengingly.

Yugi elbowed him and gave him a warning look. He rolled his eyes and then went to start setting the table. Yami took the Scotch Yugi had poured and went into the living room. Yugi finishing mashing the potatoes and then took the rolls out of the oven and turned it off. He got out the pre-made salad and he and Joey transferred the food. Yugi went to the doorway to the living room, intending to call the other two to supper. He found the pair of them by the shelves, Kaiba still holding a DVD in his hand. He was saying something low to Yami and whatever it was he said actually made Yami laugh.

Yugi felt Joey come up behind him and he saw him peering over his shoulder into the living room.

"That's why so," Yugi said softly.

Joey made a face, but turned back into the dining room without a word. Yugi told the others supper was ready and the four of them settled in the dining room. Kaiba immediately went silent, simply eating his salad without really looking at anyone, while Yami asked after Yugi's mother and then Joey's sister. Yugi then asked Kaiba about Mokuba and got about a three word reply.

After dinner, Joey talked Yami into playing a three-way duel with himself and Yugi, while Kaiba sipped his Scotch and watched. The three of them were kneeling on the floor around the coffee table while Kaiba sat on the couch. Yugi had invited him to join, but he'd merely said there was no reason to. Figuring Joey would be about to try to goad Kaiba, Yugi immediately began the duel to distract him.

Joey held his own pretty good for a bit, but Yugi and Yami were both playing to win and he was knocked out, leaving the pair in a long back and forth. Joey good naturedly cheered them both on, and for a moment it seemed like Yugi had Yami's back against the wall, but then Yami pulled a complicated card maneuver that destroyed Yugi's defense and left him open for a life-point stealing trouncing. As Yami gathered up his cards, Yugi saw Kaiba smirking behind him.

"You changed your deck," Yugi said as he gathered up his own.

"Yes," Yami said simply as he put his new deck into his jacket. He settled back onto the couch beside Kaiba. "Seto gave me some new cards."

Abruptly, Kaiba sneezed. He pulled a handkerchief out of his trench coat and sneezed again. Yami's mouth opened in horror and he leaned back from Kaiba.

"When did you get a cat?" Kaiba asked Yugi with surprising calmness.

"Um, I didn't. There's a stray out back."

"I was petting it," Yami said as he scooted further down the couch from Kaiba, making Joey have to get up. "But I washed my hands."

Kaiba sneezed again. "I bet it was rubbing on you." Sneeze. "It's on your clothes."

"I'm sorry, Seto."

Kaiba sneezed yet again, then jerked to his feet. He went out the front door where Yugi heard him sneeze on the porch. Yami had also gotten to his feet and pulled on his jacket.

"I need to get him home," he said as Yugi went with him to the door.

"Is he going to be okay?" Yugi asked worriedly.

"He'll be fine. Thank you for dinner."

Yami went outside with Kaiba, who was now down by the Ferrari parked on the street. As Yugi watched, Kaiba sneezed again. Yami went up to him and asked for the keys to drive home, as Kaiba was sneezing too much. Kaiba held the keys out to him angrily and got into the passenger seat. Yami gave Yugi a rueful look over the top of the car as he went around to the driver's side, then got in and they drove off.

Yugi turned back into the apartment and shut the door. Joey was cleaning up the drinks glasses from the coffee table and Yugi was surprised to see he wasn't laughing. He would have thought Joey would have found the situation hilarious.

"I hope he'll be okay," Yugi said as he started doing the dishes.

Joey grunted. "You heard Yami, he'll be fine. I'm more worried about him tearing Yami's head off. Kaiba knows he likes cats."

"Yami knows Kaiba is allergic," Yugi pointed out. He sighed. "Yami didn't mean any harm. Kaiba will know that."

Joey snorted derisively.

The pair of them did the dishes and then Yugi got on the phone and called the manor while Joey headed into the bathroom for a shower.

"Seto is fine," Yami said when the butler had given the phone to him. "He took his medication and will soon stop sneezing."

"Is he upset at you?" Yugi asked tentatively.

"He's Seto, of course he is. It'll be fine, Yugi."

Yugi hesitated, but knew that Yami knew Kaiba better than he did. His darkness seemed entirely unconcerned with Kaiba's temper and, knowing Yami, that was entirely the case. So, he said good night and then prepared for bed.

Yugi was walking down a gloomy hallway, lit only by moonlight streaming in through a window at the far end. It was partially open, night wind stirring the almost gossamer curtains. The wallpaper was vertical stripes of maroon or brown surrounded by thinner stripes of some lighter color that might have been yellow. The carpet below his feet might have been green. Every few feet in the ceiling was a glass-globe light fixture, but there were all off. All along the walls were doors, but they were shut. Something was written on them, but he couldn't make it out.

There was one door that was open. It was at the far end of the hallway, on the right, next to the open window. Indirect light was glowing faintly, as white as the moonlight, but from a manmade source.

Yugi slowly approached the door. Inside, he could hear voices and what sounded like machinery of some kind. Whatever was being said was muffled and distorted in a way that wasn't just distance.

Yugi reached out and tried to push the door open all the way, but something heavy was blocking it. Another door with a full length mirror was against the left-hand wall, giving him almost a full reflection of the room within. What was blocking the door appeared to be a double-sized bed pushed at a careless angle. A nightstand with an unlit lamp still stood against the wall where the head of the bed was now canted at a forty-five degree angle to it. Just the edge of another doorway was visible in the mirror, but Yugi could see enough of rounded porcelain and white tile to assume it was a bathroom. The indirect white electric lighting was spilling out of there.

In the center of the bedroom was some strange something that looked like a dentist's chair, complete with the articulated arm that ended on a mirrored light, the rinsing station, and a tray for tools. It was dirty and stained and part of the headrest padding was ripped.

A feature that didn't come standard was a set of buckled straps on the arm rests and what looked like a camera having replaced the mirrored light. Strapped in to the chair was a woman who was mostly back-to the mirror Yugi was looking at, her black hair spilling over the headrest. She was kicking wildly, her screams strangely distorted. In front of her was a man in a dental surgeon's outfit, his face obscured by cap and mask. Gloved hands were holding a dentist's drill and the smock of his surgeon's gown was stained with something dark.

"Now, now," he said in a teasing voice. "Hold still. This is a very delicate procedure."

The whine of the drill competed with the girl's screams as it was lowered to her face. Yugi found himself frozen in horror as the drill made contact and the pitch of screams changed from fright to pain.

"Stop!" Yugi cried.

The dentist didn't react. The drill was withdrawn, turned off, and laid on the tray, the drill bit smeared with blood. The dentist picked up what looked like a hooked pair of pliers.

"Such a stubborn cavity," he said as he turned back. "I'm afraid the tooth is going to have to come out."

The girl's distorted screams were garbled further as she started sobbing. The dentist grabbed her chin with one gloved hand, then lowered the pliers. A vicious twist and yank heralded the tooth coming out with a fresh screech from the victim.

"Stop! Leave her alone! Stop!"

Again, the dentist paid no attention to Yugi. He didn't seem to hear him.

Yugi looked wildly along the hall, but there was no one to help. He tried to push the door open enough to get in, but the bed was jammed between the door and the right-hand wall.

The drill was taken up again. "Now for the next one," the dentist said. "Maybe this upper one will be more cooperative."

The screaming girl was still trying to kick, but the narrow seat of the dentist's chair and the straps pinning her wrists gave her no ability to twist and the dentist at her side was out of range. The dentist held the drill with both hands and angled it at her upper jaw.

The drill went into her mouth. Yugi cringed at the pitch-change as it hit tooth.

This time the dentist didn't grab her chin. The girl shook her head wildly back and forth and drill appeared to slip off the tooth. Blood sprayed across the dentist's face and neck and the girl's scream was the worse yet. The drill skidded up, then abruptly sank forward, jerking the dentist down. The girl's scream cut off into a choking gurgle, then quit. The dentist turned off the drill and pulled it back. It was clotted with gore.

The girl was still.

"Well, now, see what you did?" the dentist asked as he tossed the drill onto the table. "We were going for an extraction of a tooth, not an eyeball."

Harrumphing to himself, the dentist took off the gloves and tossed them indifferently into the sink. As Yugi watched, helpless, the dentist reached up to the arm mounted camera and pulled it down, getting a close-up shot of his victim. Then he turned around towards the one corner of the room Yugi couldn't see, removing his mask as he did so.

"Ready for her close up, Mr. Deville," the dentist said, then uttered an insane giggle.

He pulled something into view. It looked like a TV on wheels.

"Well? What do you think?"

He turned the TV as if he was having his victim review her own mangled face. The TV was now in view of the mirror's reflection and Yugi saw that the drill had skidded up from the girl's upper jaw, chewing through her lip and up her cheek until it had sunk into her eye socket. Gore slid sluggishly down her face, blood dripping into her mouth that was still forced open by a jaw clamp, her other eye staring sightlessly up at the camera above.

It was Daisy.

Yugi started screaming.

"Yug'! Yugi! Wake up!"

Hands grasped Yugi's shoulders. He thrashed, screaming as the terrible vision in front of him suddenly broke apart and vanished into black. His eyes were closed. He opened them.

Onto Joey's worried face. Joey was leaning over him in bed, shaking his shoulders, the nightstand lamp on behind him.

Yugi cut his scream into panicked gasps, sitting up. He was in bed, his pajamas sticking to his body with sweat, his legs tangled in the sheets.

"You were having a nightmare," Joey said. "Shhh, it's okay, you're at home."

Yugi was beginning to get his breathing under control. He raised his hand to his face and realized he was crying. He sniffled and bent over his legs, clutching the twisted sheets. Joey put his arm around him, his other hand pushing Yugi's bangs back, though they just fell back into position.

"Yug', it was just a nightmare," Joey said soothingly.

"It was Daisy," Yugi said shakily.

"What?"

Yugi told him the nightmare. Joey hummed sympathetically and pulled Yugi more into his arms, stroking his back.

"Just a nightmare," he repeated. He sighed and said, "I never should have made you do this."

"Wh-What?" Yugi was completely lost by that train of thought.

"The movie. You hate horror movies, now you're in one. And it's giving you nightmares. Yugi, I'm sorry, I never should have-"

"But you didn't do anything."

"I made a promise to Erica without even asking you. Then I made a big deal of it. Come on, you didn't say yes for any reason other than to make me happy. It's my fault. Tomorrow, we'll go down to the set and tell Erica you need out. She's had people not make it through before and so she'll have to rewrite it, so what? Done that before-"

"No."

"What?"

Yugi pulled back and looked up at him. "Joey, I made a promise. I signed a contract."

"Well, yeah, but-"

"I won't let Erica, you, and everyone else down just because I hate horror movies. You said it yourself, it was just a nightmare." Yugi sucked in a breath and let it out. Just sitting here talking to Joey, safe beside him in their bed, had already calmed him down. "It's fine, Joey, really. You didn't make me do anything. I don't want to ruin the movie just because I have nightmares. I'll be fine."

Joey looked at him intently for a few minutes, then smiled. "If you're sure."

"Yes."

Joey pulled Yugi into his arms and laid back down. He reached over and turned off the lamp, then started stroking Yugi's hair. "You know what's weird? That nightmare was Daisy having a spike in her eye, just like you said on the bus."

Yugi winced slightly at the mention reminding him of how it had looked. How real it had looked. But all he said was, "You know dreams are just mixes of what you see and hear."

"Yeah, but maybe that'll be the way the movie is. You know you have prophetic dreams sometimes, Yug'."

That was true. Yugi did sometimes have dreams that predicted the future, or told him something he couldn't know, like when he had dreamed of Grandpa and the Kaiba brothers in their soul cards, or Alexander's Seven-Armed Fiend hurting Yami before they'd ever knew they were going to India, or Anubis possessing Kaiba. The idea had bad associations and this didn't make him feel better.

"Yeah, maybe so."

tbc...