Woo! I got it up on time this week! *pats myself on the back*

As always, thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter, and to my new readers. You guys all deserve a cookie :P

I spent a lot more time on this one, so hopefully you guys like it. A little bit of fluff here and there, but there are more plot elements in this chapter.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Again, I only own my OCs.

Chapter 11

Atem was held in the hospital overnight, much to his dismay.

The five of us stayed until well past visiting hours, but because we had come in so late, the doctors left us alone. I had called Mom to ask her to pick Miri up for me around ten o'clock so I could stay with the group, telling her that we were still held up at the haunted house and not to worry. I figured at this point, a small lie wouldn't hurt. Tristan came by at ten-thirty, distressed that we had left him, but got over it very quickly when he heard the situation. I stayed near Atem at all times, a strange instinct in the back of my mind urging me to keep him company.

However, around midnight, Mr. Muto asked Tea, Joey, Tristan, and me to head home.

"There's no point in you four losing sleep over Atem. He wouldn't want that, anyway." He said.

"He's right." Atem mumbled from the bed, having woken up from another one of his short, drug-induced naps. He wasn't allowed to sleep for more than a few hours at a time while under observation. "Go home and go to bed. I feel fine."

I sat on the side of his bed, brushing his arm with the tips of my fingers the way I had been for the past two hours. "The last time you said that, you were about to pass out from pain."

His tired eyes focused on me. "But now I'm drugged. I don't feel a thing at the moment." A lazy smile that I had never seen on him turned up one side of his mouth.

Tea put a hand on my shoulder. "Erin, we probably should go. You heard the doctors – he'll be okay."

I looked up at her, then back at Atem. "I know. I guess...Yeah, let's go."

Yugi sat up on the couch, rubbing his eyes. "We'll take good care of him. Don't worry." He yawned.

"Good." I said, then stood. "Then I guess we'll see you guys tomorrow...I mean, today. Or whenever you're feeling better." I said to Atem.

"I look forward to it." Atem murmured before drifting off into another short slumber. The small smile stayed on his face.

I didn't want to leave him, but Tea, Joey, and Tristan had already exited the room. I gave one last glance over my shoulder at Atem, then followed them. "Bye, Yugi. Bye, Mr. Muto." I told the two, who were already settling down to sleep.

They replied with kind goodbyes, and I left.

The cold of the amulet against my chest kept my worried mind awake and reeling. My night was far from over.

"Where did you come from?" I asked the golden eye softly, as if it would answer. I had taken a picture of it and laid it on my desk, where it stared at me as I typed furiously on my laptop.

I had searched everything from Golden Egyptian Eye Amulet to Ancient Egyptian Jewelry. Nothing even resembling the necklace had popped up in any of my searches. Frustration was ebbing away at the back of my mind, but I refused to let this one go.

This had been the first time that I hadn't just seen the strange, realistic Egyptian world in my dreams. I had been wide awake. I still wasn't sure of exactly what had happened in that room, but I was very certain that my loss of consciousness hadn't been natural. And besides sleeping gas, which was doubtful due to the lack of air vents in what I remembered of the room, the only other explanation I could think of was that it had something to do with that necklace.

Maybe I was sleep-deprived and mentally exhausted from the stress of the night, but I wasn't going to stop until I found some answers. I deserved an explanation about what the hell was happening in my head that was causing the visions, and Atem deserved to know why we had been attacked. Especially since he would probably be confined to bedrest and restricted from any kind of normal activity for at least a month or two. I owed him for the trouble I had brought to his plate, and ignoring everything that had been happening to me – both mentally and physically – was stupid at this point.

I gave up on looking for details about the necklace, because that was getting me nowhere, and chose to focus on the visions, which had to be connected to it somehow. Links to crackpot psychic hotlines and horoscope readings were the first to come up in those searches. I elected to wait on those before I actually tried them out, wanting to find more rational ways to get answers first.

Though my family was in no way religious, I was still wary of phony magic acts. Mom had drilled into my head at an early age not to fall for those tricky money-pits that often posed as "clairvoyants." She was a very firm believer in the logical side of life. Only when all other options had been worn out would the supernatural ever become a choice.

And it seemed that all I could find to explain my dreams (besides a scientist's blog that urged me that they were only a phase my brain was going through as I was dealing with new stress in my waking life) was the supernatural. There didn't seem to be another option.

As the first rays of light began to creep across my floor through the blinds on the window, sleep finally caught up to me, and my eyelids began to droop. I reasoned with myself that I would take a short nap for a couple of hours to recharge, and then I was going to call one of the numbers that had consistently shown up in my searches. It was linked to a psychic who was apparently located somewhere in Domino City, and only took appointments over the phone.

I wasn't a skeptic, but if this person truly was psychic, what was the use of making call-ahead appointments with clients? Wasn't that a little...redundant?

I curled up under my comforter and pushed my worries to the back of my mind. A deep, dreamless sleep overtook me within minutes.

My phone rang, jolting me awake, and I checked the screen to find Tea's grinning face flashing behind her number. I groaned tiredly and stretched before putting the device to my ear. "What's up?" I asked, trying to make my flat voice sound at least slightly alert.

"Hey. Did I wake you up?" As always, her chipper manner of speaking kept me from nodding off again.

"That depends. What time is it?" My alarm clock was on the nightstand right next to my bed, but checking it would require turning over, and I didn't really feel like moving.

She snorted. "It's, like, ten-thirty. What time did you go to sleep last night?"

I rubbed one of my eyes and sighed. "Probably around five."

"Erin!"

"I couldn't sleep." Not the whole truth, but enough to get her off my back.

This deterred the concern in her voice, and I heard her take a breath. "He's fine, you know." She sounded like she was comforting a child, like I was more attached to Atem than the rest of them were – like he was a teddy bear I had lost and she was my mother telling me he would be back.

"I know." It wasn't that I was obsessed with Atem – he was my friend, nothing more – but the fact that he had been with me and had been hurt in an attempt to get to me was haunting me. My stomach turned uncomfortably. "I'm just worried about him."

Tea was silent for a moment. I had noticed when we left the hospital that there seemed to be something eating away at her, too, but she never brought it up, so I didn't push it. "Well, that's why I called." She continued, trying to bring the conversation back to tamer grounds. "They released him this morning. Just a concussion, nothing too serious. But he's going to be missing school for a while."

I breathed out a sigh of relief. "Thank god. I mean, I'm glad that he's going to be okay. Not that he won't be at school." Crap. I was rambling again.

Tea chuckled. "I know what you mean. I was calling to ask if you wanted to go visit him with me this afternoon to see how he's feeling."

"That would be great." I said, forcing myself to sit up and swing my legs over the side of the bed. I was still exhausted and sluggish, but at least I had gotten some form of rest. "What time?"

"Is three okay with you? I've got dance lessons from twelve to two-fifteen, but then we could meet up at the train station and head there together."

"Yup." I stood.

"Alright. See you then!"

"Bye." I ended the call and tossed my phone on my bed.

Atem was okay. At the moment, that was exactly what I had wanted to hear. The guilty feeling in my chest receded just a little.

My eyes wandered to my desk, meeting the cold and unchanging stare of the amulet. Next to it, I had stuck a sticky note to the wood, on which I had written the psychic's number. The lapis-lazuli seemed to be calling out to me, drawing me to it.

I realized I had taken two involuntary steps toward it. "No." I scolded myself, tearing my gaze away from the necklace and leaning against one of my bedposts. "That's not natural."

But in that instant, my desire to meet up with the psychic diminished. There was always tomorrow, right? I righted myself and changed clothes to head downstairs. I didn't cast another glance towards the amulet, even as I passed it to leave my room.

I needed fresh air.

Mom was in the living room, indulging in one of her many hobbies – knitting – in front of the TV. An obscure soap opera was playing on the screen, and every once in a while, she would glance up over her glasses to see what was happening.

"Hey," I said as I jingled my keys, "I'm heading out for a while. Do you need anything?"

She set the needles in her lap and turned around to face me. Her light eyes were unreadable. "Where are you going?"

I shrugged. "Just out. I'm visiting a friend later. Figured I'd run some errands beforehand since I'm free."

Mom shrugged. "I don't think we need anything at the moment. But it wouldn't hurt to grab some more fruit. You and Miri are horrible about your food choices."

I scoffed in mock offense. "No we're not."

"Please," Mom said, holding back a smirk. "If you were stuck in a room full of vegetables, you'd starve to death."

"I like green beans. And peppers. And corn." I said, folding my arms. "Those are vegetables."

She held her hands up. "Whoops. I forgot that you like three vegetables. You're so healthy."

"Healthier than most teenagers." I said, putting my nose in the air.

There was a minute of silence, but then she broke the charade, snorting and throwing a ball of yarn at me. "You're such a pain."

I caught it and tossed it back, laughing with her. "That's the price of having the perfect child."

This caused her laughter to grow in volume. "Yeah, but Miri's not here right now. You're just one of the test dummies that I'm stuck with."

I gasped, clutching my chest like I had been wounded. "My own mother doesn't love me!"

Mom shook her head at my antics, sobering up much more quickly than usual. "Get out of here, Accident Number Two. Have fun."

I stuck my tongue out at her and opened the door. "Bye."

The first thing Tea and I heard upon entering the game shop was Joey's loud laughter from upstairs. There were no customers today, though Mr. Muto was still behind the counter to greet us.

"Good afternoon, ladies." He said as we approached the register.

"Hello, Mr. Muto." Tea replied. "I'm judging by the noises coming from the apartment that Joey beat us here?"

He chuckled. "Sure did. He and Yugi have been keeping Atem company since Atem's not allowed to watch TV. By the sound of it, I think they've resorted to playing Duel Monsters."

"Do those three do anything else?" Tea asked, shaking her head and smiling.

"On occasion." Mr. Muto said fondly. He gestured to the stairs. "Go ahead. I'm sure they'd all be happy to see you."

We nodded and thanked him, then began climbing the steps. Joey's voice grew louder and louder as we ascended.

We found the three in the living room, Joey and Yugi on the floor, and Atem on the couch. As Mr. Muto had predicted, a game of Duel Monsters was laid out on the coffee table between Joey and Atem. Both were deep in concentration, planning out their next move.

"I activate Graceful Dice." Joey announced, flipping a card over on the field. He grabbed a die from the floor next to him and rolled it. When the die stopped on a number, he continued. "Now Swordsman of Landstar gains 500 attack and defense points, which makes him more than able to withstand your Magnet Warrior's attack."

Atem smiled and discarded his Magnet Warrior. "Nice, Joey."

"Who's winning?" I asked. Yugi, Atem, and Joey looked up sharply at Tea and me, not having realized we had come in. I gave Atem a small smile, which he returned.

"They're tied right now." Yugi answered my question. "Pretty much at a stalemate, really."

I nodded, then looked back to Atem. "How's your head?"

Atem shrugged. "Not sure. The medication numbs it a lot."

Tea seated herself on the floor next to Yugi. "So, what're the doctor's orders?"

Yugi sighed. "No video games, no TV, no reading, no strenuous activities..."

"So Atem's basically not allowed to do anything remotely fun." Joey concluded, giving Atem a sympathetic look.

"That sucks." I said, moving over to the only spot open for me at the moment: the couch next to Atem. I kept a respectful distance from him, making sure our legs didn't touch. When I settled in, I leaned my elbows on my knees to watch the duel, avoiding Atem's eyes. "Whose move is it?"

Atem ripped his gaze from me. "Still mine, but I think I'm going to end my turn here." And with three facedown cards on his side of the field, I didn't think it was a bad idea for him to do so.

Joey grinned mischievously at this, his brown eyes shining. "That was your first mistake."

The rest of the duel lasted about ten minutes, the boys neck-in-neck the whole time. With only fifty life points left, Atem emerged as the winner, and he and Joey sent playful quips back and forth in a mock argument about how Joey was going to beat him again someday. Tristan showed up a few minutes later, complaining about how no one had invited him.

"Come on, Tristan," Joey said, shoving his friend lightheartedly, "how long have we been friends with Yugi and Atem? Invitations aren't even necessary at this point."

Tristan shoved him back, the anger on his face mostly fake. "Well, unlike some people, I like to be polite before I show up on their doorstep expecting to be let in."

"Some people are just cooler than you, then." Joey smirked and folded his arms over his chest.

"Oh god," Tea muttered, putting her forehead in her hand, "here we go."

I bit back a smile and shook my head. Indeed.

"Cooler?" Tristan asked, voice raising. "Cooler? I'll show you cooler, Wheeler!"

And thus began a small wrestling match that knocked Joey's deck off the coffee table and sent cards flying everywhere. The boys fought on, grunting and shouting and laughing when they landed in a heap on the floor.

"Are you two done?" Tea asked, trying to make her voice sound stern despite the smile on her face. Joey and Tristan's play-fights were never not amusing to watch, even if they had started as a small argument. I had noticed that this was one of the trademarks about hanging around with these guys: tensions didn't last long between the friends.

Joey rubbed his head and gave Tristan one last shove as they sat up, earning one in return. "For the moment."

"Good." At this, all of the amity left Tea's voice. Everyone hushed at her serious tone, and Joey and Tristan exchanged confused glances. Tea gave me a hard look, eyes edging between worry and solemnness. "Because I have something I wanted to tell you guys. Specifically you, Erin."

I raised my eyebrows. It was uncommon for Tea to look so grown-up in her concern, especially after having just been laughing only moments ago. There was definitely something up. "What's wrong?" I asked, trying to search her expression for some hint of what she was thinking. Could this possibly have something to do with the strange, feuding looks she had been giving me the last couple of days? Was she finally going to open up about whatever was bothering her?

Tea took a deep breath, and it seemed she was the only one in the room who had actually been able to breathe. When I looked around the room, everyone appeared to be holding their breaths.

Apparently, I was missing something here. Why did they look like she was about to confess to a murder they had committed and then successfully covered up?

But her eyes never left mine. "I was watching the news last night. They had a story on about Death Dungeon."

Atem and I glanced at each other before I returned my gaze to hers. "Oh?" I urged her to continue like it was nothing, though my heartbeat quickened just a tad.

This couldn't be good.

"They said that the people who broke in weren't just teenagers playing a practical joke on Halloween." Her expression was dark, and her fear was plastered all over her face.

"Yeah, we kind of got that from the fact that they kidnapped Erin and knocked Atem on the head." Tristan said dryly, scooting closer like a little kid at a campfire story. "Who were these freaks, then?"

Tea's voice lowered considerably, just in case Mr. Muto just so happened to be listening in from his perch behind the front counter downstairs. Somehow. "They said something about a cult." We all drew in sharp breaths, and she tacked on more explanation. "Not one that anyone's heard of before. The people drew some sort of marking on the walls of an old control room not too far from the main part of the maze. But – get this – the symbol was drawn in cat blood."

"Poor kitty." Joey murmured.

"That's just sick." Tristan added, distaste clear in his voice. "Who would do that?"

"The police don't know. They haven't found much evidence about these people yet, but it turns out that this cult has been active for hundreds of years. Their symbol has popped up in random cities around the globe every fifteen years or so, only to go dormant soon after. There's no pattern to their path. Except, get this" – she quieted her voice even more, and we all leaned in closer to her – "every time they show up, teenage girls go missing."

My blood turned cold. Had these people tried to abduct me?

But that didn't make sense. All they had done was lock me in a room only to remove me when I was unconscious, leaving me where I could easily be found by my friends. They hadn't actually taken me. Just left me with a strange Illuminati-type amulet that gave me funky visions.

Probably seeing my rigid position on the couch, Atem put a ginger hand on my arm. "Erin?"

I snapped back to reality, turning my eyes to his. He brought his eyebrows together, obviously concerned about what was going through my mind. His amethyst orbs drilled into mine, trying to see past the barriers I put up to hide my alarm. Everyone else was watching me, as well, like I knew something I wasn't telling them.

Which I did. Not that I was about to divulge about the creepy necklace that somehow knocked me out and caused me to see into the life of an ancient Egyptian.

Because, let's be honest – no one was going to believe that.

"That's...scary." I managed to say evenly, though my pulse was racing.

"That's it? That's all you're going to say?" Tristan asked, hysterical. "You almost got abducted by some obscure cult, and all you're going to say is, 'That's scary'?"

I huffed at him, mildly annoyed that he wanted me to have a bigger reaction. Though, to tell the truth, I knew that when I was hiding things from people, I often came off as uncaring about my current situation. I needed to work on that.

"Tristan!" Tea hissed, sending him a glare.

I shook my head at her, then gave Tristan an apologetic look. "It's okay. I guess I'm just...shocked, is all. I mean, holy crap, that's terrifying."

"That's what I would say." Tea said. "This stuff is for real."

Yugi cocked his head at me. I could see the gears in his head turning. He spoke up. "But you didn't get kidnapped kidnapped. You were only held up for about half an hour. That doesn't technically qualify as an abduction."

"Exactly." I said, glad he had put the pieces together so I didn't have to say it.

"But that doesn't make any sense." Tea said, repeating the words that had echoed in my head just moments ago. "Why did they let you go?"

I shrugged like the question perplexed me, which it did, somewhat. However, I also had one more detail that they didn't: the amulet. And for the moment, I wanted to keep it that way, at least until I could find out a little more about the necklace. "I don't know." This was a serious matter – I knew that – but I didn't want them to freak out about me. Heck, even I wasn't entirely sure about what was going on here.

"Well," Joey said, trying to fill the silence that formed between us, "you're still here, so I say we shouldn't worry too much about it. It could've been a fluke."

"Maybe," Tea said, still watching me warily, "but just in case, I think we should find out more about these people. So we can know for sure that they won't come back for her. Right, Erin?"

I didn't like the way Atem was studying me. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see his suspicion. And for good reason – I was beating around the bush quite a lot about this topic. I nodded a bit too enthusiastically. "Right."

Research would be good. It might even help me figure out what the amulet was, and why they gave it to me.

But a nagging feeling told me that I wasn't going to like what we found.

Two hours later, a sorry Mr. Muto asked us to clear out so the three of them could have dinner, assuring us that we would be welcome tomorrow after school. He didn't want Atem to overexert himself, especially so soon after leaving the hospital. None of us said a word to him about the cult as we left. It was enough that he had to worry about Atem's well-being on top of managing the game shop without thrusting this new threat on his shoulders. We figured it was best to keep him out of it for the time being.

That didn't stop Atem from grabbing my wrist as the others filed out, saying their goodbyes, and holding me on the couch next to him. There were no fireworks at his touch anymore (thank god), but it still made me nervous.

"What?" I asked, eyes darting to the now-empty doorway through which everyone had disappeared. Yugi and Mr. Muto had gone to the kitchen to set the table.

Atem gave me a meaningful look, one that I knew very well even though he had never made that face at me before. "There's something else, isn't there?"

I bit my lip. I had pinned Atem and his brother as the intelligent, analyzing type, but unlike Yugi, Atem seemed to see right through my charade. He could read me like a book, and he'd only known me for about two weeks. "Not if we ignore it." I said, looking down at his fingers, which were still wrapped around my wrist.

He didn't seem bothered with touching me for prolonged periods of time. Instead of letting go, he used his thumb to stroke the inside of my wrist, were I was sensitive. I cringed, and he nodded as if in affirmation of something. "Erin, I know you don't know us that well, and this might all be very overwhelming for you, but you need to trust us. Don't bear this weight on your own." Trust me. His eyes pleaded.

I sighed. Something about those violet eyes broke through my barriers. If I was going to tell someone, it had to be Atem. He had been with me when it happened, after all. "I didn't just randomly lose consciousness in that room." I said bluntly.

"Sleeping gas." He breathed. That had been Tea's explanation when we had discussed it on the way back from Death Dungeon, and we all kind of just accepted it.

Well, if by we I was talking about Joey, Tristan, Atem, Tea, and Yugi.

"It wasn't sleeping gas, was it?" Atem asked, fingers tightening on my wrist.

I shook my head. "No." I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, preparing to tell him what I believed had happened. Here's to the boy who will think I'm crazy in about five seconds. "There was this necklace. Some kind of amulet. I was feeling fine until I saw it, but then I was drawn to it like a moth to a flame. The second I touched it, I was out." My words were rushed. I wanted to get the crazy explanation out of the way so we could move on. I waited for him to laugh at me, or give me that strange look that people give patients in an asylum.

But Atem didn't do that. He clenched his jaw, and I could tell he was thinking long and hard about this. After a few moments, he said, "What did this amulet look like? Do you have it?"

"It's at home. I realized I was wearing it while we were at the hospital. It's this weird eye-shape. Kind of like the Egyptian Eye of Horus, but not quite the same. It's definitely made of gold – like, actual gold – and the pupil of the eye is done in lapis-lazuli. It's on a leather cord. I could bring it tomorrow if you want to look at it." With every word I said, his expression grew tighter and tighter. By the time I was finished, he looked like he had just sucked on a particularly sour lemon. "What? Do you know what it is?"

He nodded. "I think I do. But just to be sure, I want to see it."

There was no way that Atem was by any means an expert on this necklace, but Yugi had mentioned that their grandfather used to be an Egyptologist when he was younger. Maybe Atem had seen something in a book of Mr. Muto's.

I glanced down at his hand again, and he released my wrist. The skin he had touched tingled with the new cold, already missing his warmth.

My body needed to stop that.

We sat there for a few minutes, thinking. The only sounds that permeated the quiet atmosphere were the clinks and clatter of dishes in the kitchen and the ticking of the grandfather clock in the hallway. I looked back to Atem. He was staring at his hands in his lap, still contemplating what I had just told him.

"Atem?" I asked softly. He brought his gaze to me. "I think I should go."

He pursed his lips – which made him look like a seven-year-old who was contemplating whether or not to steal the cookie out of the cookie jar and that made him look immensely cuter – and then stood. "Yeah. You probably should."

I took a step towards the stairs, and he took one with me. "Um, where are you going, mister?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"I was going to walk you down to the front door." He said, cocking his head at me.

"Uh, no. You're staying up here." I mock-commanded, pointing to the couch.

He smirked at me, a familiar light in his eyes that I couldn't quite place. "I would, but there are these nasty things called potential kidnappers possibly waiting for you outside that door."

"Please," I guffawed, "those jerks have nothing on me. This time I'm armed." I held up my keys, showing him the pocket knife I had hooked on the key chain.

"Then let it be my pleasure to witness you defeat them first hand."

A sly grin slid across my face. It was weird – Atem and I had never bantered like this before – yet I wasn't surprised. "Only if you can make it down there, oh-kind-and-considerate-witness."

He beat me to the doorway in three long, easy strides. "I assure you, I can."

"Very well." I slid past him to head down the stairs in front of him. I felt him right behind me the entire time, all the way across the shop and to the door. When we reached the front entrance to the game shop, I stopped and turned to him. "This will be your post while you watch my epic battle." I said, finishing the charade. He nodded once and watched me with a half-smile as I opened the door. "Bye, Atem. Thank you."

"Anytime." He said, his voice sincere again.

I spent a little too long looking into his eyes while I stood there, staring up at him. Realizing this moment had just gotten a little too awkward for my liking, I cleared my throat and shook my head. "Okay, seriously, bye."

"Bye."

The door closed behind me, and I got into my car safely and without anyone trying to kidnap me. I rolled down my window to find Atem still standing at the door, watching me. I gave him a thumbs-up and pulled away, ridding my head of the images that my mind had conjured up of what I could've done in those few seconds we had stared at each other.

Stupid hormonal teenage mind.

Got some banter in there. I feel like this was a trademark in Atem and Sagira's relationship. Because Atem couldn't be serious all the time. I mean, the guy was friends with Mana, for Ra's sake. (Not hating on Mana. I love her. She is the epitome of awesome. But I'm just saying...) Hopefully he stayed in character enough throughout this, though.

And now there's a cult! Enter Bakura. (Ha!) I wonder how this will turn out...

Hope you liked it!

Don't forget to leave a review to tell me how I did!