Chapter Eighteen:

The rest of the week passed easily. By Friday, they had all of Act One complete. The group of six had made it to the Inn, found out it was abandoned, and decided to spend the night before heading in to town three hours away. Adam had loudly declared that three hours more was nothing to him, but as a storm was brewing-Yugi kept his opinion that this was a terrible cliché to himself-Jason and Nicole argued that it was much safer to stay the night than brave the dark in the rain in a Camaro that was still damaged. Jason's level-headedness won out over Adam's hotheadedness and they all unloaded their luggage and prepared to camp.

Having a "rain machine," which was exactly what it sounded like, throwing cold water on them for the scene involving them scrambling to get their luggage and make the front door, was far from pleasant, which was probably why they all managed to do it perfectly on only the second take.

Once in the Inn, Akihito started trying to spook Nicole and Yuki and the Act ended.

"All right, Sunday, come out to the hotel and we'll get you your second Acts," Erica said at the end of the day. "No filming that day. We'll be going over some preparations for the scenes, answering any questions, handing out new costumes. Though me and Kevin have so much to do to get set up that it'll be a short day. I expect to have you all gone by noon."

"Can we see some of the finished scenes?" Joey asked. "Please?"

"Maybe. If we have time."

At the hotel, Nadia hung up her cell phone and looked disappointed. Tea saw and asked what was wrong.

"Daisy. I've never been able to get a hold of her."

"How'd you find her number?" Joey asked. "Cara sure didn't tell you."

Cara was entering their punch-out info into her computer and didn't so much as look up at Joey's words.

The group left the office and headed down the hall to the front doors. "I found my paper scrap. I really wanted to be friends. I've left a couple of messages, but she's never called me back."

"You and me could do something," Tea said. "Leave all these boys for a while."

Nadia laughed. "Want to see the new Sweethearts?"

"Oh, ugh," Sota groaned. "Please tell me you don't like that."

"I wouldn't have asked her to see it if I didn't."

"I love that series," Tea said.

"I'd've asked Rin if she'd stuck around."

Rin and Ishio had both left the instant they punched out.

"How can you like Sweethearts?" Sota asked. "It's the cheesiest-"

"It's cute!"

"It's cheesy romance!"

"Have you even seen any of them?" Nadia challenged.

"No."

"Then how can-"

"Seen the trailers. Tell me it's not cheese. Enough for a whole…cauldron of macaroni!"

As everyone laughed, Mark shook his head. "They're not that bad."

"You've seen them?!"

"You'll be seeing plenty of rom-coms yourself when you get a girlfriend."

"No way. No." Sota shook his head forcefully. "Never. Rom-coms? Not even for a girlfriend. Any girlfriend of mine's got to like action movies and horror."

"Good luck getting a girl with no expectation of compromise," Mark said, with maybe a touch of condescension.

"What compromise? I'll find me a girl who doesn't like rom-coms. I bet they exist."

"Yeah, in your imagination."

"Serenity doesn't like rom-coms," Joey said.

Yugi didn't miss the stiffness of Tristan's smile at the mention of Serenity. Sota insisted that trying to date a woman who had a brother was just asking for trouble, Mark told him that his list of requirements meant he wouldn't find a woman outside of comic books, Tea and Nadia headed off to make the movie, and Mark and Sota were still arguing when Joey, Tristan, and Yugi headed for Tristan's car to go home. Yami wasn't with them that time. He was in Tokyo with Kaiba, who had gone to the capitol for some sort of convention of Japanese businessmen.

"How is Serenity?" Tristan asked as he drove. His voice was probably not as off-hand as he thought it was.

"Taking photography classes," Joey said. "I'm supposed to meet her next weekend. We're going to go bowling. Yug's going. Come along."

Yugi, sitting in the backseat, held his tongue against telling Joey what a bad idea that was. Serenity had made it pretty clear that she wasn't interested in Tristan. Or Duke. Why, he didn't know, but it had been made clear. Setting up what was almost a double-date could be a disaster.

"I'll think about it," Tristan said.

Yugi picked up the phone as it rang, glancing at the clock. Ten pm.

He wasn't surprised to feel a sense of dread as he answered. There had been no other calls or anything from whatever creep had broken in, but that could change.

Only it was Joey.

"Hey, Spiky." Joey's voice sounded sullen.

"Hi, Joey. What's wrong?"

Joey sighed heavily over the phone. "Brandon got his dumb ass fired, finally, and Akira asked me to help pick up the slack."

For a second, Yugi stupidly thought he meant Ishio's character, then remembered Akira was one of the two foremen in the warehouse and Joey's boss.

"He wants me to stay until six."

"In the morning?!"

"Yes, obviously in the morning, Yug'."

Yugi didn't even care about Joey's tone. He sounded harassed and temperamental and Yugi knew he hadn't meant it. "Oh, Joey, you're going to be so tired."

"I'll be fine. Sorry I snapped. I just wanted to let you know."

"Are you going to be safe coming home? If you need me to come get you, you let me know."

Joey chuckled thinly over the phone. "I promise. Don't wait up all night worrying about me. Go to bed."

"Okay. I love you."

"Love you, too, Yug'. I gotta go. See you in the morning."

When Yugi woke, faint dawn light was filtering in from the open window and a chilly breeze ruffled the curtains. Yugi hugged himself and shivered. It had been unseasonably warm over the weekend and he'd left the window open when he went to bed, enjoying the fresh air, but apparently the predicted cold front for Monday had arrived a day early.

Yugi climbed out of bed, glancing at the clock as he did so. Six twenty-eight am. Joey would be home in just a few minutes. How he was going to be able to stay awake for their day at the hotel going over the second Act at nine was beyond Yugi. He decided to put on a pot of strong coffee. At least it was a short day, thankfully.

Drawing down the window, he latched it, then started as he saw movement in the reflection of the glass.

"Hi, Joey, I'm glad you're ho-"

His voice died in his throat as he turned around.

It wasn't Joey standing at the foot of the bed.

A thin man in what looked like a ski mask grinned at him. As Yugi opened his mouth to yell, the man ran at him around the bed. Yugi tried to scramble across it, but he was much too slow. He was tackled, shoved into the mattress. He tried again to yell and a gloved hand clamped over his face. Instantly he couldn't breathe and started to struggle. The man's other hand pressed against his upper back, forcing him down into the mattress while he sat on Yugi's legs. The hand left his back and seized his left wrist, wrenching his arm behind his back. He tried to push against the mattress with the other that was caught beneath his breastbone, but he had no leverage as the assailant leaned on him.

Yugi's lungs burned. The hand over his face was cruelly compressed over his mouth and pinching his nose shut. He thrashed, shaking his head, trying to dislodge the hand enough to breathe. He managed to free his other hand from between his body and the mattress, then reached up and grabbed the thumb, wrenching it back as hard as he could. There was a cry of pain and the hand loosened. Yugi sucked in a sweet breath of fresh air.

The fist slammed into the side of his head, causing light to flash behind his eyes, but the blow had been more glancing than it could have been. Yugi reached out with his free hand and grabbed the edge of the mattress, trying to pull himself out from under his attacker. And then just as the man leaned forward to grab his wrist, Yugi took the opportunity to elbow him in the head.

His own blow hit the man's ear and he yelled again, clutching his ear and leaning to the side. Yugi managed to buck him off and wrench his arm from his grasp. He scrambled across the bed, falling right off and landing on the floor. He made his feet as the man came after him and got to the doorway, but the man had longer legs. He caught Yugi on the landing. Yugi's scream was cut off as the man shoved him into the wall. His nose struck the drywall and began to bleed. Brighter lights flashed in front of his eyes and his consciousness slanted.

The attacker twisted Yugi around. He was able to gain himself back enough to kick, which missed, but pissed the attacker off. Holding both of his arms and crushing him to him, the man dragged Yugi across the landing. Yugi saw just a quarter of the man's bared-teeth grin.

Then the attacker threw him down the stairs.

tbc...