Ahhhh SiX mOnThS? No UpDaTe? bLaSpHeMy!

Lol but seriously guys, I'm so sorry you had to wait so long. The story's still the same: limited writing time, other responsibilities, you know the drill.

Buuuuuut I'm here now! Thank you for sticking around and waiting so patiently for an update.

We've got some tea to spill in this chapter, so let's go!

NOTE: Probably not even relevant this far into the story, but there is some "adult" language in this chapter if that sort of stuff bothers you.

Chapter 31

I wasn't going to say it was anxiety that kept me from going to school on Friday, but it was definitely anxiety.

After Thursday night's events and subsequent discoveries, I couldn't bring myself to even be in the classes I shared with my friends. The absence probably wasn't worth it, and I was most likely going to be chewed out by Mom and/or Landon for skipping class, but I honestly felt it was necessary.

So, after eating breakfast, telling Mom goodbye, and dropping a happy Miri off at school, I found myself driving to a small park a few miles away from home. A fleeting thought urged me to go to the museum, but I pushed it away. I just wanted some peace and quiet to figure things out without the distraction of a random vision of my not-so-distant past.

A small bench situated in the shade of a giant weeping willow overlooking a small pond became my station for the day, and as I sat down, I released a breath of hot air. My backpack, heavy with the weight of the amulet inside, was discarded on the grass next to me. I would get to that later.

For now, I focused on taking deep, calming breaths and listening to the occasional splash of water in the pond that lay before me.

An hour passed, but I didn't move. No one disturbed my peace. Not even a single dog walker or jogger interrupted me, which was slightly odd for a weekday morning in a residential district, but I ignored my fleeting suspicions. It felt good to just let everything go and pretend the only things that existed were me and the bench beneath me.

That is, until reality came knocking again.

The first phone call came at about 9:30, around what would be second period at school. I instantly recognized the ringtone I had set for Atem, an old car horn that for some reason he thought was hilarious. Swallowing my guilt, I dismissed it, knowing full well how much he hated calling people on the phone and that if he did, it was important. A few seconds went by before his name once more lit up the screen.

"Not right now, Atem," I murmured, tapping the red button again.

Not telling me the rules of an ancient riddle aside, Atem didn't deserve to be ignored like that, but I knew talking to him wouldn't be a very good idea in my current state.

Once the screen dimmed, I had to stop one more of his calls before they ceased altogether. If Atem was worried enough to call me three times, then that meant Tea wasn't far behind.

Sure enough, not even thirty seconds later, her name and picture flashed across the screen three different times, and I declined each one. But, unlike Atem, she actually left a message on the third try.

I relented and clicked her voicemail to listen to it.

"Hey, I'm really hoping you just overslept or contracted the flu or something and that's why you're not picking up, but my Best Friend Senses are tingling and I'm pretty sure that's not it. You don't have to call me if you don't want to, but please send me a text to let me know you're alive so Atem will leave me alone. Just remember I'm here if there's anything you need to talk about, no Ancient Egyptian grudges attached, okay?" There were distant voices in the background, what I recognized as Joey's lilt and Atem's baritone. "Just...please let us know you're okay."

My jaw was clenched so hard I was almost sure my teeth would crack. Maybe I wasn't willing to talk to Atem, but Tea was the only person in the group who had been one hundred percent honest with me. She'd made it very clear she didn't want a part in what was happening.

So I sent her a text.

Hey, tell the boys I'm fine. Just make something up.

She replied almost immediately. Thank god. Wanna talk about it?

A tear fell onto my screen, and I shook my head even though I knew she couldn't see me. Not right now.

Are you at home?

No. At a park near my house. Needed to get out.

There was a long pause before I got a reply. Be careful, Erin.

I know.

Will you be at the tournament tonight?

At the mention of my personal hell, I stiffened. I'd completely forgotten that the first duels were tonight. My fingers tightened around my phone as I typed my reply. What kind of girlfriend would I be if I don't go support my boyfriend?

He said he wants you to do what's best for you. If you can't make it, it's not a big deal.

But it was a big deal. He was so excited to be able to duel by himself. Atem's love for dueling was equivalent to a child's love for fingerpaints, and if I didn't go and show support, I would feel bad. He'd done so much for me, regardless of what had happened in the last week.

I'm going.

I took a deep, shaky breath, trying to calm my nerves back down. Tea replied, and I'd barely started reading the message when I felt a presence behind me.

I turned. I honestly half-expected it to be Devon or Neferu or someone else I really didn't want to see right now. But it wasn't.

In fact, I wasn't prepared for this one at all.

"Tayir," came the warm, rumbling voice of my father. Not Calvin Stephenson, the lawyer from the Midwest - this was Osaze, the ancient Egyptian scribe.

"Yt?" I murmured, half in shock.

His deep brown eyes smiled at me, the lines at their corners growing deeper. "You've grown so much, my child."

Something in the back of my mind told me there was something fishy about this, but I ignored it. Instead, I stood, leaving my phone abandoned on the bench. It buzzed against the wood with a new message. "How are you...How did you find me?"

His smile spread to his lips as his hand reached up to cup the side of my face. It was rough and warm just the way I remembered. "Did you think I lost you?"

"You've just been gone for so long…" I put my hand over his, unable to tear my gaze from his face. This was my father. The man who had raised me, held me, protected me - and I had forgotten what he looked like.

He chuckled, a deep rumble that shook away a few loose memories: him teaching me to write, taking me to a temple outside our village, telling me tales of the gods and their plans for humanity. "I never left you, tayir. You just didn't know how to look for me." He glanced somewhere to my right, to the bench behind me.

I opened my mouth to answer, then paused as suspicion began creeping up my spine. The world had gone quiet. There was no breeze in the trees, no sound of water lapping against the stone edges of the pond. Even the sound of my phone, which I thought had been buzzing on the bench with new messages, was gone.

When I moved to examine our surroundings for an explanation, my father's hand grew firm against my face, holding it in place. I could look nowhere but at him. "Do not be afraid, my child. You've done beautifully."

"What...What're you talking about?" My words were beginning to slur. My body had gone numb, my eyelids heavy. "What's happ..ning t'me?"

"I love you," he replied, brushing my hair from my face as I began to lose my balance. "Everything I have done, I have done for you." His face started to blur, like a lens going out of focus.

"Yt…" I mumbled, trying to tighten my grip on his hand as it faded away. "Yt, come back!"

"You will see me again," he said, voice echoing farther and farther away. I could no longer see his face.

I finally collapsed. The last thing I saw before nothingness consumed me was the silhouette of a hooded man, face obscured. A new voice rang in my ears.

"See you soon, Sagira."

And then there was nothing.

I woke up in my bed, fully clothed. The only thing I had taken off were my shoes, which were neatly placed next to my dresser.

"What…?" I whispered, looking around me. I didn't remember coming home.

As I swung my legs over the side of the bed, the sound of the front door opening and closing downstairs caught my attention. There were muffled voices, one I could recognize as my mother's, but the other…

Footsteps came up the stairs, and within seconds, there was a soft knock at my door. "Erin?" It was Tea.

"Come in," I said, standing on wobbly legs. My head began to pound, and I winced.

The door opened to reveal my friend, a stern, worried look on her face. "You scared the living shit out of me, you know that?"

Hand to my head, I braced myself against my nightstand. "Sorry. I don't -"

"What happened to your face?"

I forgot my headache for a moment. "What do you mean?"

She closed the door behind her and rushed up to me, rubbing a finger over the left side of my jaw. "That's definitely not makeup."

"What are you talking about?" I stumbled past her and to the mirror on my wall. "What the fuck...?"

A long, dark patch of...something ran down the left side of my face from my temple to my jaw. I felt fear bubble up in my chest.

It was shaped like a hand.

And as I stared at it in the mirror, it began to fade. Already it was lighter, and growing less visible by the second. Tea watched my reflection from behind me, the same look of horror and confusion in her features. We were silent until it was completely gone.

It took a long moment for either of us to react. What could we have said or done to make the last thirty seconds less weird?

Finally, Tea spoke. "What was that?"

I turned to her, unable to find the right words to describe the faint feeling of terror that was growing stronger in the bottom of my chest with each passing second. "I...I don't know."

"You don't know?"

I shook my head. The pounding returned to remind me it was still there. "I don't know how I got here."

Tea's eyebrows drew together, and the stern look left her face to be replaced entirely by worry. "What do you mean?"

I all but fell on the edge of my bed, hands to my temples to try and relieve the awful pain in my head. "I think I'm going insane, Tea. I think I'm crazy."

"You're not crazy, Erin. I promise." She sat next to me and put a gentle hand on my arm. "Tell me what happened."

"That's the problem. I can't remember." Everything in my mind was so jumbled and spotty and I couldn't even think past the ache, which was only growing more intense. "One minute I was at the park texting you, and then the next I woke up here. I don't remember coming home."

Her voice was gentle, calming, though it was obvious she was trying to mask the fear in it. "Your mom said you were home when she got back. Your car was parked in the driveway and you were asleep in your bed. She assumed you weren't feeling well."

"I never got back in my car."

She folded her arms over her chest more out of not knowing what to do with them than anger. "You had to. How else would you and it be here?" When I didn't answer, she sighed and put a gentle hand on my arm. "What's the last thing you remember?"

I was beginning to grow frustrated. As if it would help illustrate what I'd already repeated twice, I threw my hands around with each point. "I dropped Miri off, went to the park instead of school, and then I woke up here. I know for a fact I was texting you while I was there. I told you I was still going to the tournament -"

"Erin, the tournament's already started. We're late."

"What?"

She nodded gravely, then gestured to the clock on my nightstand. "It's five-thirty."

A series of expletives left my mouth as I shot up from my bed, wincing again from the headache. "I'm supposed to take Miri! I'm not even packed for the hotel!"

"Your mom also said that your brother ended up going early and taking Miri with him, so don't worry about her." She stood with me, face twitching as she tried to suppress the very apparent concern on her face. "Let's pack. I'll help."

And then we were rushing to throw clothes, electronics, and various toiletries into a suitcase. When we were done, she gave me another one of her troubling looks as she zipped it up. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"No," I said, "But let's go."

I'd been on my fair share of awkward car rides, but the tense trip to Kaibaland with Tea was agonizing. We were silent the entire way there. I assumed she got the hint that I was at a complete loss for what had happened in the past twelve hours, and was just leaving me to my thoughts. She'd given me some aspirin from her dance bag to help my headache.

By the time we rolled into the gates of Kaibaland, it was mostly gone.

After pulling into the same private garage as before, she shut the car off and turned to me. "Erin, I want you to promise that you'll tell me if something's wrong. Can you do that?"

I sucked in a deep breath, then nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I can do that. I promise."

"Okay, good," she said, opening her door. Once we'd gotten out of the car and made our way to the arena (a Kaibaland official relieved me of my bags on the way, telling me he would take them up to my room), she took my arm. "Atem's been freaking out all evening, but he's not allowed to leave, which is making things doubly worse. I apologize in advance if he tackles you and doesn't let you go for the rest of the tournament."

I smiled painfully at her. "Think he'll drag me up to the dueling platform with him?"

"Or station Joey and Tristan at your sides."

We got to the arena well into Joey's duel, which I felt guilty for missing the first half of. He was ahead of Mona Luna by a thousand life points, and she only had five hundred left. The place was packed - if we hadn't been given VIP seating with the other duelists and their friends and family, I didn't know if we would have found a place to sit.

As soon as we got to the row of seats at the front, my eyes locked with a pair of familiar purple ones.

Atem sprang from his seat so quickly that he scared Mai, who'd been behind him, and about ten other people around him. He had a frantic, relieved look in his eyes that hurt me to my core.

I did that to him. Again.

Tea helped me step over everyone else to get to where Atem was, a section of seats also occupied by Yugi, Tristan, Serenity, Bakura, and Duke. As soon as I got close enough for him to grab my arms, he did.

Atem wasn't much of a hugger, but he nearly crushed me.

"Thank the gods you're okay," he murmured in my ear.

I patted his back awkwardly. "Sorry I didn't tell you where I was."

"Hey, lovebirds," Mai's voice came from behind us. "I know you guys are reuniting for the first time in two hours, but some of us are trying to watch a duel."

We sat down, Atem's hand gripping mine. "Are you alright?" He asked. The craziness had left his face for the most part, replacing itself with relief.

I nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine."

"Sorry I jumped on you."

"You're fine. I get it. You were worried."

He squeezed my hand. "I'm just glad you're here."

I gave him the ghost of a smile, then turned to the duel.

Joey won with a combination of Time Wizard and Baby Dragon, earning an uproarious cheer from the crowd. After shaking hands with Mona Luna and signing a few autographs, he approached us with a puff in his chest.

"An' that's the way Joey Wheeler does it!" He said, high-fiving Tristan.

We all shook our head at his cockiness, but congratulated him nonetheless.

When he saw me, he pulled me into a bear hug, and I couldn't help but smile. "And there's Blue, fashionably late! Did ya see me kick butt?"

"All the butt," I replied, giving him a good-natured pat on the back.

He released me, but he was no longer looking at me.

"What's wrong?" Tea asked.

Atem was looking in the same direction. "Erin, isn't that Landon?"

I looked where Atem was pointing, and immediately felt my blood run cold. My brother was there all right, a few rows away from us, with his Baby Dragon t-shirt and his messy hair and his lopsided smile. I'd known he was going to be there to cheer on a friend, but I hoped beyond hope that the two pieces my mind was trying to put together wouldn't snap, because -

Yugi voiced my thoughts before I could even process them. "Is he talking to Devon?"

My fists clenched at my sides. "It would appear so."

"Didn't he say he was coming here to watch a friend duel?"

I gave Atem a warning look. "Don't you dare finish that thought."

Tristan's eyes were wide. "Don't tell me your brother's pals with -"

"'Rin!" The sound of my brother's voice calling my name over the retreating crowd had the same physical capabilities of a knife being plunged straight down my esophagus.

Everyone in our group turned to greet him, and simultaneously, each person's body language tensed as they saw the menace who had come to stand next to him.

"Told you she'd be here," Landon told Devon, promptly grabbing me in noogie formation and messing up my hair.

I took it with about as much grace as one would expect, batting his arms away and mumbling a half-hearted "stop."

Landon just laughed in response, completely unaware that the antichrist was within spitting distance of his person. Once he'd released me, he gestured to said demonspawn. "Erin, this is Devon. Devon, this is my other baby sister, Erin."

Devon was smirking. Smirking.

I wanted to destroy him. It seemed he'd met Miri already, and I could only hope she'd had enough sense to find Mokuba. The last thing I wanted was for him to be near any more of my family members.

He held a hand out like he hadn't already met me in the worst of ways.

Clearly, my glare told Landon all he needed to know about my feelings toward his friend. "Whoa, there, Schwarzenegger. What's with the stink eye?"

"We've already met," I said, voice poisonous.

"Oh." The look of confusion on Landon's face didn't subside.

Luckily for us all, Devon swooped in, turning his sickly charm up to the max. "We go to school together. I'm afraid we haven't exactly gotten off to the best start." Then he directed his smile at me. "I'm sorry if I've done anything to upset you."

No you're not. I felt Atem hovering right over my shoulder, and this time I appreciated his presence. "I guess you'll just have to make up for it." I didn't even try to hide the venom in my voice.

"I guess I will," he said, winking at me.

I swallowed the bile in my throat as a tense silence threw itself over the group. Then I turned to Landon. "Where's Miri?"

"She ran off with Mokuba Kaiba as soon as we got here, so probably down in the other VIP box with the rich people." He tried for a joke, nudging me in the arm. "Funny that I've played Duel Monsters my whole life and never met anyone of consequence, but my sisters spend a few months in Domino City and suddenly they're shacking up with famous duelists' brothers."

"Yeah, hilarious," I mumbled.

Surprisingly, it was Joey who turned the subject, deciding to ignore Devon and the awkwardness he'd created for the time being. "Baby Dragon, huh? I guess ya saw my winnin' move, eh?" He gestured to Landon's shirt.

"You bet I did," Landon said, shoulders relaxing slightly. "That was a great duel for both of you."

With that, Joey and my brother began a short, passionate conversation about the ups and downs of the duel he'd just played. Landon was absolutely ecstatic to be meeting a top duelist. It showed in every exaggerated arm motion he threw into his words.

My brother was a dork, and I loved him. But Devon's presence just feet away was really starting to bug me. I could feel his eyes on me like two razors moving up and down my spine.

Eventually, Landon realized Yugi was there too, and the excitement on his face only multiplied. "Two top duelists in one place! I'm the luckiest guy alive!"

As they fell into another animated conversation, this time including Yugi and, for some reason, Tristan, I turned the full hatred of my gaze back to Devon.

"So, how do you know my brother?" My tone was verging on psychotic.

He smirked again, seeming to take note of the fact that Atem had taken my hand and was gripping it tightly. "Oh, you know. Duelist circles. He's a regular, as you're probably aware. I had no idea you were related."

"What were you doing talking to duelists that only participate in tournaments in Missouri? A little far outside your region, don't you think?"

"Erin, Erin, Erin," Devon tutted. "Always so suspicious. Look at him. He's happy. Can't you just let things be?"

"Not when you're involved," I growled.

When our staring contest only grew more intense, Tea put a hand on my shoulder. "Erin, let's go get some fresh air. Come with me to the bathroom."

I didn't break my glare with Devon as she began pulling me away.

Atem tried to follow, but she only shook her head and gestured to the field below, where preparations were being made for the next round. "Mai and Mako's duel is going to start soon. You should be here so you can scope out their strategies."

He reluctantly let go of my hand, shooting me another concerned look. "Be careful."

I nodded to him, and Tea and I left the main stadium.

We made it to the concessions area before she sat me down at a bench. "Devon's not as innocent as he's making himself out to be, is he?"

I shook my head. "There's no way he could possibly know my brother. Their paths would have never crossed before now."

"And you're sure they didn't just meet online? Internet duels? Kaiba's new DuelLinks program?"

"Maybe, but that's still one hell of a coincidence, isn't it?"

She sighed and nodded. We fell into another tense silence as we watched people begin to file back into the stadium for the next duel.

After another few minutes, she broke it. "Do you want to talk about what happened at your house? You haven't been yourself."

I fumbled with the zipper of my jacket. "There's nothing to talk about. I don't know what happened. Any explanation we come up with is just going to make things worse. Atem already knows something's wrong, and I don't want him to be any more distracted from his duel than he already is."

She sighed again. "Do you want to go back in?"

"No. Give me a few minutes."

So she waited with me as we watched Mako and Mai begin their duel on one of the TVs nearby. I didn't need to ask if she would rather be inside - she and I had never been particularly interested in duels that didn't include one of our friends.

About halfway through, she broke the silence again. "Are you going to tell him?"

I gave a halfhearted shrug. "I haven't decided yet."

She clenched her jaw, then took a long, deep breath. Her expression seemed conflicted. "Look," she said, and visibly hesitated before continuing. "I know I'm the one who told you they were going behind your back, but that's only part of the story." At my look of confusion, she put a hand up. "You know Atem and the gang well enough at this point to know that they wouldn't purposely do anything to hurt you. We've already had plenty of arguments about this whole thing, trust me."

I raised an eyebrow. "I assumed."

"But Atem also loves you. You've seen him; he's crazy for you. If there's one of us who has been absolutely destroyed by what's happening, it's him. He knows you're going through a lot, and he knows most of it is his fault. He would spit in the face of Ra for you if you asked him to."

"I know," I mumbled, looking down at my hands in my lap.

She put a hand on my arm, knowing there was nothing more to say.

I blew out a frustrated breath. "This whole thing just sucks."

"We'll find another way, Erin. I'm sure we will. Especially with Atem in the mix - he's more stubborn than anyone else I've ever met. Things will work out, I promise."

Nodding, I patted her hand on my arm as I blinked back tears. "Thank you, Tea. You're a godsend."

She smiled. "Rhymes with 'best friend.'"

After another few minutes of sitting in silence, we decided to head back into the arena at the tail end of Mai and Mako's duel. Atem didn't say anything when I sat down, but he took my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. For a few fleeting minutes, I rested my head on his shoulder, feeling it rise and fall with his breaths.

Mai won the duel with three hundred life points to spare. In the midst of the cheering from the crowd, she waved and blew kisses, giving a wink I had no doubt was directed right at Joey. The crowd once again began moving about their seats for the intermission.

"Still doing alright?" Atem's voice was close to my ear when we stood.

I looked up at him. His expression was fighting for neutrality, but I saw the worry in his eyes. The familiar pang of guilt sounded in my chest. How much longer could I keep lying to him? "Just peachy. I'm more worried about Landon."

He nodded and looked a few rows back, where my brother had joined a group composed of Devon, Astrid, and various fans. I wondered where Astrid had been before. "We'll keep an eye on him. Devon can't do anything while he's in public, anyway."

That hasn't stopped him before, the cynical voice in my head whispered. A change of subject was needed. "Excited for your duel?"

"A bit," he said nonchalantly, throwing a glance at Soga Kei, who was surrounded by a small group of fangirls. "It's going to be different, that's for sure."

I brushed his bangs, still wild as ever, out of his face. "You'll do great. I believe in you."

"Thanks," he said, smiling slightly. Then his lips turned back to a frown. "So I take it that you're not going to tell me what's really bothering you."

Part of me was surprised, but honestly, I had seen the question coming. Atem was far too perceptive to hide something like this from him. It also didn't help that he'd known me very intimately for a long time, and he could interpret any minute change in my expression with little effort.

God, that was annoying.

"It's nothing to work yourself up over," I gave him a feigned smile, but knew he wasn't buying it. "We can talk about it after your duel. I promise."

His frown didn't go away, though he brushed his lips over my forehead before leaning his own against it. "Don't shut me out this time, Erin. Please."

I didn't answer.

We stayed like that for what only felt like seconds before an announcement came on the speaker calling Atem and Soga Kei down to the platform to prepare for their duel.

I could see the reluctance written all over his face as he pulled away from me. He didn't let go of my hands, which seemed to be the only things anchoring him in place. With the way he was grasping them, it seemed he didn't particularly want to go anywhere without them.

I gave his hands a gentle squeeze, then pulled mine from his grip. With a chaste kiss on his cheek, I smiled softly. "Good luck."

He took a deep breath, then inclined his head in thanks. "We'll talk later." The sentence was somewhere between a question and a command, uncertain and assertive. Then he left.

I felt Tea come up next to me and put a hand on my shoulder, murmuring that everything would be fine.

But she couldn't possibly have known that.

Atem's duel was nothing short of exciting. It ended up lasting much longer than the others had, as Soga Kei ended up being far more competent than anyone expected. His strategy wasn't unheard of - his deck was made up of mostly spell and trap cards that cooperated with some very balanced monsters - but with the way he employed it, he always had some surprise up his sleeve. With every hundred lifepoints Atem managed to scrape away from him, he brought Atem's down just as much.

It was hard to watch at the beginning. Atem was still reeling from the fact that I'd openly admitted there was something I wasn't telling him, and it showed in his behavior. He was stoic, his poker face cracked, and he spoke with far less conviction than he normally would have. I could practically see Kaiba seething that one of his greatest rivals was so dispassionate about his duel.

However, as the duel went on, he finally relaxed into the game he loved so much. His moves became more consistent and his signature smirk returned. His trash talk improved as his voice regained its intensity. This was his game. I found myself falling into the same rhythm as the crowd, cheering and ooh'ing and looking on in tense anticipation.

I nearly cried from relief when he won, life points so close to zero I could almost see them dangling from a string. Upon stepping down from his podium, he gave Soga a firm handshake.

"Attention!" Came the voice over the speakers, only slightly quieting the crowd. "With the conclusion of the final duel of the night, tomorrow's first two duels have been scheduled. At eleven thirty a.m., we will open with a treat, as up-and-coming rookie Devon Reisinger will face the King of Games, Yugi Muto!"

The crowd cheered, and I heard various bets already being placed. The only joy I got from the announcement was that all of the bets were against Devon.

"After their duel, we will see Joey Wheeler duel Mai Valentine!"

Slightly less cheering, but still loud enough to ring in my ears. I imagined it was going to be a very interesting duel to watch, what with the sexual tension between the two.

"The final duel of the day will be determined by the outcome of the first two, as the winner with the lower life points at the end of their duel will go up against Atem Muto!"

More cheering, a bit higher-pitched than before. It seemed Atem had won himself quite a few female fans.

Wonderful.

After the announcements, we filed out of the stadium with the crowd and found Atem in the lobby, nearly being smothered by fans and duel reporters. He wasn't alone; I spotted Mai a ways down answering the paparazzi's questions while cameras continuously flashed in her face. However, unlike Atem, she was very used to the attention, winking and shooting flirty glances at the people around her.

Atem just looked like he was drowning.

"Poor guy," I said, scanning the crowd around him for a way to get to the center. There wasn't an opening big enough for me to even stick my hand through, much less my entire body.

"You think Atem's crowd is bad," Tea said, jerking her thumb behind us where the boys had been trailing. "Get a load of Yugi and Joey's."

Just as she'd pointed out, the two boys had seemingly compounded their fans together (probably because they had been walking next to each other, which was a big mistake), and were caught in the middle of a massive crowd way behind us. I hadn't even noticed they'd been stopped.

"This place is a snake pit," came Tristan's voice from my other side. He had been walking with them, too, and must have been pushed aside in the scramble to get to Yugi and Joey.

I laughed halfheartedly. "Hopefully Kaiba clears them out soon."

"Erin," a soft voice pulled our attention from the unyielding crowd. We turned to find Ishizu and Marik a few feet away from us, Ishizu's head bowed in greeting. "Tristan, Tea. We've been looking for you."

"Hey, guys," Tea said. Something in her words was tense, though she was trying very hard to hide it. "Did you see the duels?"

The siblings nodded. Marik spoke up, eyes directed right at me. "Atem dueled well. Of course, no one was expecting anything different."

I nodded in agreement. "He's had lots of practice."

There was a short silence, in which the Ishtars demonstrated their uncanny ability to stare right into one's soul. "Erin, are you feeling well?" Ishizu asked.

The polite smile I'd donned for them withered away. I felt Tea look at me in worry. "I'm fine. Just tired, is all."

Ishizu opened her mouth to argue, but Marik took her arm. The look exchanged between the two of them told me there was definitely something up. Marik gave me a not-so-convincing smile and said, "I see why. It's getting late, and tomorrow's a big day. We should be getting to our rooms."

"You're staying at the Kaibaland hotel?" Tea asked, glad for a change of subject.

Marik nodded. "Just for the tournament. If you need us, we'll be in 304 and 305."

The three of us voiced our goodbyes as they left. Tea took my hand, noticing my body tensing up. "Come on. Let's go save your boyfriend."

"Are you finally going to tell me what's bothering you?" Atem's voice interrupted my thoughts as I sat awkwardly on his hotel bed. After another hour weaving in and out of crowds, we'd finally gotten his fans off his back long enough to sneak up to the hotel. Tea and Tristan had split off to save Yugi and Joey, leaving us alone in Atem and Yugi's room to, as Tea had said, "work things out."

I stared at my hands in my lap. "Something happened today."

With how quickly he rushed to my side, you'd think I told him I'd been assaulted. He knelt in front of me so I had to look him in the eye, taking my hands in his. The worried glint was back. "What? Did someone hurt you?"

"Not that I know of," I said. At his confused look, I rushed to explain. "The problem is, I don't remember what exactly happened. I decided to skip school to figure things out, and then I went to a park to cool my head. All I know is that I was texting Tea before things went fuzzy. I woke up in my bed four hours later with my shoes still on and my car parked in the driveway."

His frown deepened. "That's not good news."

"Not really, no," I said, then gave his hands a squeeze. "But I'm fine now. No scratches or anything."

"You sure?" He asked, pulling me closer to him so he could over-examine my arms. I barely caught on to what he was doing before he was leaving butterfly kisses from the insides of my elbows to my wrists. His lips brushed over my knuckles, and his eyes turned back to me, since I'd slowly slid down to the floor with him.

I gave him a small smile. "Very."

He sat there for a very long time, just staring at me with his soul-piercing eyes, and there was nothing I could do but stare back. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he sighed. "We need to sort this out."

"Sort what out?"

"You're still lying to me."

I didn't even have to fake the shock on my face. "What?"

"Kaiba mentioned that he saw you talking to a man by the bar last night, and you seemed upset. From the description he gave me, that man was rather Egyptian-looking. Who was he?"

My stomach about fell to the floor. "I didn't realize you and Kaiba were pals now."

"He just wanted to let me know in case there was a problem. You're avoiding the question."

I closed my eyes to avoid the fire in his. The words left my mouth with far more hesitation than they should have. "Do you remember Neferu?"

"Who?" His voice had turned to confusion.

My eyes opened, and I took a deep breath. "He was one of Mahad's apprentices. I don't think you two ever crossed paths, but I saw him a lot when I worked with Mahad on writing spells. We became good friends during his stay at the palace. He's…" I hesitated again, but decided getting the words out would be better than keeping them silent. "He's the one who gave me the amulet in Egypt. It was a parting gift when he left for a temple in the south to further his studies."

"He's from our past." It wasn't a question or a statement; I wasn't sure how to respond to the strange tone in his voice.

"I was going to tell you, Atem, but everything was so crazy and I was so overwhelmed -"

"Don't apologize. I understand." He took a moment to seemingly compose himself, then inclined his head. "And what did Neferu say to you?"

"He knows about the cult. He meant to explain it to me, but then Joey interrupted us and he didn't want to look suspicious, so he vanished. But he told me to keep my amulet close."

Atem took a few moments to respond as he mulled the situation over in his head. "And you trust him?"

My eyebrows furrowed. In the back of my mind, Sagira stirred at his suspicion of her old friend. "Yes, I do."

A war seemed to rage in his eyes. "Why?"

"Because he's been more honest than you." The words slipped from my mouth before I could stop them, and I was immediately filled with regret.

His jaw dropped in shock. "What?"

And then all at once, Sagira and I became the same pissed-off, nearly-dead person. "Do you have any idea how horrible it feels to find out that not only am I an ancient Egyptian scribe who's been cursed for eternity, but I also made some shitty deal right before I died that would continue my exact birth and death cycle for three thousand years, and the only way to stop me from dying in four months is if my old boyfriend shows up and whisks me off into the afterlife, where apparently everyone is super pissed at me for whatever it is I've done? And how doubly shitty it is that I had to learn about all of this not from my old boyfriend - who knew about it from the moment he met me in this life - but from other people who were afraid for my well-being?"

He opened his mouth again to respond, but nothing came out. For once, I could see just how much I'd surprised him.

At his silence, I continued, unable to stop the ancient part of my soul from ranting to him for the first time in millennia. "Do you know how much it hurts to find out that you've known all about it this whole time and you've just sat by and watched me slowly lose my grasp on my sanity and said nothing?" My sitting position was abandoned in favor of pacing, and though Atem stood with me - albeit carefully - he didn't stop me. "At least Neferu has actually given me solid, useful information. You don't get to be suspicious of him. He helped me so much after you -"

My words stopped abruptly. I saw the pain ripple across Atem's face in unison with the guilt through my chest.

There was a long, heavy moment of stifling quiet.

"Atem, I'm -"

"Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?"

The guilt disappeared. "Did you not listen to anything else I just said? Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Because it felt wrong!"

I froze. Atem had never raised his voice at me before, had never spoken to me in anything above a fond timbre. The fire in his eyes had grown into a steady violet blaze.

I'd just hit the Pharaoh's breaking point.

"What did you want me to say, Erin? What way could I possibly have told you that without making things worse? You've had a hard enough time trusting me with little pieces of the past; how much farther would you have pushed me away if you knew the rest?"

"I -"

"I know it was selfish of me to keep it from you, but I saw no other way. How else would you have let us - let me - get close to you? You do the same, you know. You hold everyone at arm's length and give out advice like fresh dates and then turn around and pretend none of it applies to you. It's excruciating, watching you stumble between trusting me and shutting me out, knowing I have no say on the matter. Neferu may have helped you back then, but I'm trying to help you now. Why can't you see that?"

I recoiled at his outburst, a little afraid now that I'd made Atem snap. Sagira had no such reservations. "We had so many conversations about this, Atem. There were so many times you could've dropped it in there, and it would've been fine. The fact that I had to hear about it from Tea - who, by the way, has been absolutely torn apart from keeping secrets - and then Neferu, while you still sit there and act like it's my fault, is ridiculous. I'm going to die soon, and my only two options are being reborn for the millionth time or riding off into the afterlife with you and facing some hella pissed-off gods because I fucked up three thousand goddamn years ago.

"And for what? So we can be ripped apart again, just like we were back then?" Tears stung the corners of my eyes, and my voice had grown hoarse as I tried to talk past the lump in my throat. "The gods don't give a shit about me; you'll probably never see me again. All your talk of destiny and the gods' will and you think they'll just let me go scot-free after the shit I pulled? I'm fucked either way. Why can't you see that?"

He didn't respond to this. Conflict raged in his eyes and across his face, but I knew he was doing his best to recompose himself. Atem wasn't a fighter, not when it was his loved ones he was fighting with. He hated this just as much as I did.

But I was too angry to feel guilty. My blood was on fire, a heat spreading through my body like poison. Any reluctance I normally would have had to argue with him was gone. It was all I could do to not full-out scream.

I needed to get out of that room.

I made a beeline for the door. Atem was slow to react, confused about my sudden one-eighty.

"Erin, where are you going?" His voice was back to normal, back to a calm hum that almost stopped me in my tracks.

Almost.

"Away," I said, yanking the door open before he could stop me. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him moving to do so. I stepped out into the hallway and slammed the door behind me as quickly as I could, to the sound of him calling my name in alarm.

And then I ran. I ran until I'd turned enough corners and scared enough hotel guests to be sure he wouldn't find me. I didn't stop until something made me.

Or, rather, someone.

"What a rush you're in, pulchra," came the poisonous voice I knew far too well as two strong hands wrapped firmly around my upper arms. "Why not slow down with me for a while?"

And that's the tea.

What did the beginning mean? Was it real, or a hallucination?

And now Devon's going to duel Yugi? Will he have some tricks up his sleeve?

We finally saw both Erin and Atem snap. What's going to happen for them next?

And now she's in the clutches of our favorite person. What's he planning?

Writing Atem yelling at Erin was hard, not gonna lie. He's just so protective of everyone he loves and it's so difficult to imagine him ever throwing in a dig to argue with them. But, like I said, he and Erin are both frustrated and scared, and they're human. It had to happen sometime. Hopefully I did his character justice.

We're nearing the climax, my dudes. What do you think is going to happen?

(Also, note on the scene with Osaze: Due to the lack of a reliable source of Ancient Egyptian translations, I did end up using Arabic instead. He affectionately calls her tayir, "bird.")

This was my longest chapter yet at nearly 8,000 words, and I almost wrote MORE. But, alas, that will have to wait for the next chapter. Hopefully this one keeps you satisfied until then!

Once again, thank you to everyone who's stuck by this story through my crazy update schedule. Every review, favorite, follow, and read means the world to me. It's been, what, FOUR YEARS now? Thank you guys so much for your continued support.

See you next time!

-creativelybored