Chapter six: The Photo
Mokuba swiftly and successfully entered the mansion without any faults. It appeared that Seto was not home yet which worked in Mokuba's favor, or so he thought. Walking down the hall that lead to his room, the sound of someone approaching echoed from the opposite far end. Mokuba cursed under his breath, and hid in a nearby closet. The sound of a woman's laugh could be heard not too far off from inside his hiding spot. It wasn't strange to have Kisara stay over nights now that she and Seto were dating, but Mokuba couldn't take any chances in getting caught.
The sound of laughter soon faded, indicating that Kisara was far away enough for Mokuba to make his exit. Once in his room, Mokuba stripped down to boxers and left his Shinedown shirt on. Unfortunately, as soon as he became comfortable in bed, the sound of footsteps approaching his room were heard.
Not now, this can't wait until tomorrow? He complained, remembering what his brother mentioned to him earlier that day. Holding his breath, Mokuba prepared himself for the impending lecture that awaited him; the suspense weighing heavy on his chest. Suddenly, the idea of fake sleeping popped into his head. Seto would never wake him up under this guise, unless it was of the upmost importance – in this situation it could go either way, but it was worth a shot.
The footsteps stopped right outside his door, this is it then, he thought, laying perfectly still, and trying make his "fake sleeping," look convincing. However, to his disbelief no one came in, no one knocked, or even voiced their presence. It was as if Seto, or someone was just standing on the other side of the door, but couldn't come to open the door. Just as soon as the footsteps were heard approaching they were heard retreating from their place.
Relieved, yet confused Mokuba tip toed towards his door. With his ear to the door, the teenager waited a full minute before opening the door. Opening the door slowly, Mokuba peered out into the hallway, only to find no one in sight. With his suspicions put aside from no others lurking Mokuba returned to bed, and in a few short minutes fell fast asleep.
…
Mokuba was in his room practicing the new song when he noticed that his room had become incredibly cold. The A/C would cool down his room some, but his room had become so cold that his breath was now visible. Laughter was heard outside, it was the same as what he heard earlier, this time he would not let whoever it was, elude him. To investigate, Mokuba exited his room to see what was happening that was so funny. Mokuba walked to east end of the hall and saw no one.
"This is too weird, where are maids?" he said out loud. The curtains were not drawn back as they usually are, giving off a dark eerie feel to the house.
Walking back, Mokuba went to explore the west end of the hall, and found the source of the laughter. At the end of the hall stood a woman, he had never seen before. The woman was tall with long black wavy hair down to her waist, sadly when questioned about her identity, refused to face Mokuba. In fact, when Mokuba questioned her she ran.
"Wait!" he screamed as he chased after her.
The woman continued to laugh at the now frustrated teen, and kept her distance during the chase. She lead Mokuba down the maze of many hallways and unexpectedly came to an abrupt stop. Shortly after, Mokuba caught up to her and was not going to let her go without an answer.
Panting Mokuba barked, "Enough with the games who are you?"
The woman slowly turned, revealing a beautiful woman of about 30 years old. Her rose colored lips formed another smile as she pointed towards the door. Uncertain of what was to come Mokuba carefully approached her, only to watch her walk straight through a door. Stunned at what he just witnessed, Mokuba blinked a few times in disbelief and then ran up to the door.
"What the hell is this!" Mokuba screamed.
Mokuba stood in place reeling from the sight of the door. Unsure as to what to do, and no sign of the mystery woman returning, Mokuba walked back to his room turning around every few steps to see if she may be following. As he approached his door he noticed that his surroundings were turning white. Panicking, Mokuba ran faster towards his room. As he opened the door he came face to face with the woman!
"The attic my dear sweet boy," her voice so soft. Her face was a mere 2 inches from Mokuba's. He tried to scream as she caressed his face with a pale icy-cold hand...
…
"Oof, NO DON'T! OWWWWUH!" Mokuba yelled as he rubbed his temple.
After his outburst, there was a knock at the door, "mm, yeah!" he shouted.
The door opened and in walked Seto who became concerned when he saw his younger brother on the floor, "Are you okay, what happened?" he inquired.
"I fell off the bed in my sleep I guess," Mokuba answered.
"Hm, must have been quite some dream," Seto joked as he helped Mokuba pick himself up.
Mokuba tried to stand up straight as he mumbled, "You have no idea."
"What was that?" he stared at Mokuba questionably.
"Nothing, what time is it?" he replied.
"Eight. Okay listen, I'm going to be home early tonight, and you and I are going to have a talk then," Seto explained sternly.
"Okay, what time so I know when to come home?" Mokuba asked.
"Seven." Seto informed him as he took his leave for work.
When Seto left, Mokuba took a shower and dressed himself afterwards. His dream still wavering as he texted Kisara, but was even more unnerved from her text messages. As it turns out, Kisara was never at the mansion the previous night, but at Kaiba Corp. with Seto until very late. Now filled with paranoia, Mokuba thought carefully of his next move. Should he talk to Seto, or maybe inform Kisara about these strange dreams?
Mokuba instead decided he would wait until later to confront Seto about his recent dreams, and would instead just focus on the current situation at hand – his band. He texted all of his members about getting together, and doing some work on the new song. Everyone replied, and agreed to meet at the studio conveniently set up at the Kaiba mansion.
Mae and Shikaku were the first to arrive and naturally sparked up a conversation with their host/bandmate.
"Akiko texted me on my way here, she said she's going be a late – got held up at work," Mae informed.
"No prob," both boys replied.
"So Shik, how was visiting your grandparents this weekend?" Mokuba asked casually.
"What do you mean?" Shikaku replied perplexed.
"Akiko told me you were visiting your grandparents, and Mae was busy," he explained.
The other two stared at each other in bewilderment, "We weren't busy," they spoke in unison.
"That's so weird of Akiko, why would she lie about that?" Mae wondered.
"What were you two doing?" Shikaku slyly trying to imply something.
"Worked on a new song," Mokuba said sounding annoyed by his friend's interrogations.
"YOU WORKED ON A NEW SONG WITHOUT US!" Mae screeched.
"Mae focus, one situation at a time," Shikaku reprimanded, "Okay so you worked on a song together, alone, what did you do after that?"
"Umm, just watched a movie, then I left when it was over."
Shikaku pondered over the information he was just given, but instead of offering any helpful advice decided it would be funnier if he let his friend squirm over his dilemma.
"Do you want me to talk to her?" Mae jumped up, causing her blue and pink hair to bounce.
"No thanks, I rather talk to her myself, it's probably nothing," Mokuba voiced, "and until then please keep this between us."
"DEAL," they all spoke.
As soon as their conversation was over, Akiko walked in all flustered. It was obvious that she was wearing more make up than she usually did, and her hair was done up rather than let down so she can head bang. When questioned by Mae about her appearance Akiko told her she had a date later and didn't want to rush getting ready.
"Ooo you have to tell me everything later!" Mae cooed, which prompted Mokuba to give her the don't you dare say anything look, we all know. Conversely, Mae winked back and zipped her lips, so to speak.
The band worked on writing the drum and bass music to the new song Mokuba wrote. It was also unanimously decided that the name of the song would be called, "I'm Here," and the rest was all practice and working together. Practiced finished at 6, which left Mokuba with an hour left until Seto came home.
In the last few days it had become a habit of Mokuba's to just walk around the mansion aimlessly, just thinking. Roland took noticed and decided to follow the teen. Unbeknownst to him, Mokuba had walked down a strange hallway that he did not recognize, but also felt somewhat familiar. The curtains were not drawn, which made sense since it was now dark, but nevertheless did not help the atmosphere. All of a sudden, Mokuba came to a stop. In front of him the door from his dream, beige, square carvings for design, and locked!
"Do you need any help, master Kaiba?"
"Holy s#*t!" Mokuba yelped grabbing his chest.
The old man chuckled, "I'm sorry sir, but I was beginning to grow concerned about you, as well as I am sorry to tell you that I could not find a photo of your parents. It seems that your aunt and uncle have also passed away and didn't not have any mementos of them."
Dismayed about his parents Mokuba frowned at the news. However, was not swayed over how his great aunt and uncle had died with nothing of his parents. Not caring that is only other family was now gone brought him back to reality, "Could you tell me what is behind this door?"
"The attic sir."
"Why is it locked?"
"Gozoburo's orders, I don't know the specifics sadly,"
"Unlock it." He commanded
"what sir?"
"Unlock it, he didn't want anyone up there and I'm going to find out why," Mokuba demanded.
The old guard followed his orders, and opened the door. Behind the door showed a dark steep staircase. Checking the time, Mokuba saw it was 20 minutes until 7pm, plenty of time, he thought. Roland stood guard just in case Seto came that way. Climbing the 15 steps into the attic Mokuba found himself in a room surrounded by boxes of all shapes and sizes. Finding the light switch, Mokuba began his search for answers. Digging through a dozen boxes that were mostly old decorations and oddly papers Mokuba was about to give up until he saw a box labeled, "adoption crap," eerily in Gozoburo's hand writing. A shiver ran down his spine unfortunately, he did not have time to peruse its contents.
"Master Mokuba, Mr. Kaiba has just pulled up to the mansion," Roland called up the stairs.
Rushing down the stairs with the medium sized box in hand Mokuba ran passed Roland, "Thanks Roland, lock it up, and don't say anything!"
Roland sighed happily at the young teen's change of character, and did as he was told. Mokuba ran so fast into his room that he actually broke a sweat, his hair sticking to the back of his neck, and his hands shaking as he held the box for dear life, almost too afraid to open it. Unfortunately, for the first time in Kaiba household history, Seto was home on time which put his prowling on hiatus until further notice.
Seto's mood as he entered the room was difficult to decipher, he wasn't annoyed, but he wasn't thrilled either. The older male walked over to the bed, removed his long black and blue trench coat and sat down. The two brothers sat in awkward silence until Seto finally spoke.
"Okay, what is this wanting a picture about?" Seto began.
Mokuba shifted in his spot, "Like I said, we both have pictures of each other, so why not of mom and dad?" Mokuba proclaimed.
Seto squinted his eyes at his younger brother, "Mom and dad," he emphasized, "What suddenly brought this up?"
"Nothing!" his voiced raised, "Is it so wrong to want to see the people I came from, even if it is just a photo?"
"In this case, yes," Seto stated bluntly, "I know you better than this, and I know there's something you're not telling me, so save the dramatics and spit it out already."
"You-," he paused, "If I tell you, would you believe me? Mokuba now stared away.
Seto became concerned, yet intrigued at what his brother was holding back, "You've never given me any reason not to," he replied.
"Okay," Mokuba bit his lip over how to properly explain this, "So I recently had a dream about dad, our dad, and we talked a bit, well sorda. At first, I didn't recognize him, he looked so much like you, and then he-oh."
Seto held a hand up, "You. Expect. Me. To believe this cockamamie dream of yours?" Seto questioned mockingly.
Mokuba sighed in defeat, his shoulders sinking as an added sign, "I dreamt of dad, just thought you'd like to know."
"If that's all, we're done here," Seto declared as he stood.
Feeling brave, Mokuba spoke up, "Ya know it wouldn't hurt you to show I don't know, show emotion, and to open your up mind SETO!"
"Hmph, you've read one too many fairy tales in your time. Ghosts don't exist, and they certainly cannot reach us in our sleep."
Mokuba now infuriated at Seto's arrogance went off on a tangent, "Even so, you can't tell me you don't miss them. I mean the way dad's eyes would always beam when he looked at us, his 5 o'clock shadow, and the weird way how he always had his sleeves rolled up," Mokuba laugh a little at his one memory of his father, "Ya know, one of these days you're going to have to stop being so damn arrogant and headstrong!" Mokuba was red in the face, and out of breath as well.
Seto was taken back, not from the tantrum happening before him, but from the realization that that was how their father looked most days, and he had forgotten about it. Of course, his usual stoic expression was left un-phased, he watched as Mokuba ranted on and pulled a box out from under his bed.
Mokuba took two steps toward Seto and chucked the box at his chest, "Here, I found this in the attic, and thought we could look through it together," he hissed as exited his room.
Seto stood there in silence, lost, and confused. Mokuba never spoke to Seto like that before, and had he been anyone else he'd be picking his teeth up off the floor. In order to clear his head, Seto did what he always did, he went to back to work. In his office, Seto did his best to work on the latest computer module, sadly, to his dismay, the box he brought with him and settled on the couch was now taunting me.
Giving into the provocation from the box, Seto sat beside the box and delved into the wonders it held inside. The first thing to catch his eye was an old teddy bear. The memory of when his mother had bought it for the baby she was carrying came up in his memory, amongst a few others that flooded back. Similar to Mokuba, Seto noticed a few files, and unlike him had the time to examine its contents.
The files were of no importance, they held their health documents, their orphanage information, and adoption papers. Unexpectedly, at the bottom of the box was something that stuck out from the rest of the paperwork. It was grimy with old dust, very disgusting. Nonetheless, Seto wasn't going to let this article go unseen, and was going to make it happen.
With the aid of a paper towel and warm water, the grime was eventually removed. Under the grime revealed a photo – a photo of Seto and Mokuba's family. His mother was wearing a sky-blue sun dress with two doves near the bottom. Her hand held gently on her very apparent bump, and her other the arm wrapped around the man next to her. The man to her right was in black dress pants, navy blue dress shirt, and the sleeves – rolled up.
Seto smiled at how happy his parents looked, he even laughed at how he and his mother were looking at the camera, but his father was fixed on his mother.
"This was taken just a month before Mokuba was born," he finally said with a somber smile.
Seto ran his hand over his mouth as he admired his father, "hehe, I really do look like him," he muttered as he began to cry.
This was the first time in years that Seto allowed himself to really feel something, and broke down. The fierce beatings, and ridicule that Seto was subjected to was nothing compared to pain he felt in his heart. Gozoburo always said that a man who cries is no man at all. Luckily, Gozoburo was long gone now, and Seto reminded himself that his step father was no man compared to his real father. Gozoburo was a monster – a relentless beast bent on the idea of perfection, and power.
Seto cried himself to sleep. Thoughts of how compassionate his parents were filled his head. Feeling vulnerable, Seto held the old distorted photo close, and longed for the advice that only a true parent could offer. Just before he fell asleep, Seto whispered, "I miss you."