Chapter Seven

No one knew what to make of the threatening paper being laid on the bed of someone who was now badly hurt. They couldn't even say any longer that a living person had done it. With the house apparently infested with ghosts, it was starting to sound more likely that one of them had decided to leave the paper there to taunt Nesbitt's devastated friends.

"I should have been the one falling down the stairs!" Johnson cried in grief. "This all started because someone was threatening me! They said everyone around me would suffer, and they're starting in with that now!"

"Johnson, calm down!" Gansley sternly told him. "They couldn't have predicted this. Apparently this house has been in this state since at least the 19th Century. You had nothing to do with it!"

Johnson sobbed and sank onto his bed, holding the heels of his hands to his forehead.

"I still don't get why we didn't see or hear him fall!" Crump exclaimed. "We were all right there! We couldn't have been stampeding so bad we drowned out the crash!"

"Maybe the spirits didn't let us hear it or see it," Lector said darkly. "Maybe they made sure we'd leave them locked in there and hoped we wouldn't realize they were missing until it was too late to save them."

"That's sick!" Crump burst out.

"All of this is sick," Lector said. He had carefully laid Nesbitt down once the paper was removed and now was sitting in a chair at the bedside, with no intention of moving until Nesbitt was awake. "And you know something else? Nesbitt would have definitely testified against Raven in court tomorrow because of his involvement in trying to escape the explosion. Unless something changes, he certainly can't now."

"You think he was pushed on purpose to shut him up?!" Crump cried.

"I don't know," Lector said, "but it does make you think, doesn't it?"

"Only why would spirits that have lived in this house for centuries care about that?" Gansley said. "It could be a cruel coincidence."

"All I know for sure is that our dear friend might never wake up because we went in that wing!" Lector suddenly burst out. "And it's my fault we were upstairs!" His voice lowered. "It's all my fault. . . ."

The others jumped. Lector had in common with Nesbitt that he could have sudden bursts of temper and anger, although he didn't tend to commit reckless acts the way Nesbitt did. Now his anger was already fading, revealing the heartbroken man behind it.

Gansley got up and went over to Lector. "It's my fault, really," he retorted. "If I hadn't investigated the strange feeling I woke up with, I wouldn't have learned about the North wing and I wouldn't have encouraged Evangeline to tell everyone about it."

Lector stared at him in disbelief. "But you didn't know," he objected. "You had no idea how it would turn out. . . ."

"And you did?" Gansley countered. "You consciously thought, 'Let's go upstairs so someone can get hurt falling down the stairs when we leave'?"

"Hey, Gansley," Crump said in shock.

Lector shook his head. "Of course not."

Gansley sighed, wearily. "We can point fingers all night and likely find reasons to blame every one of us. But it's not going to help anything." He gripped Lector's shoulder. "This was a tragic accident. None of us could have predicted it."

Lector looked down and finally nodded. He knew Gansley was right.

"And you know too that Nesbitt would never want you to blame yourself," Gansley continued.

"I also know that he would blame himself if the situation were reversed," Lector said.

"I suppose every one of us has a tendency to do that." Gansley walked over to Johnson. "And none of us should do that. It's not needed or necessary."

Johnson looked up at him. "I just feel so helpless! . . ."

"We all do," Gansley said. He paused. "But while we're waiting for the doctor, why don't you tell us about the wardrobe?"

"Oh. Of course." Johnson began the tale, but it was difficult to tell it. Nesbitt had almost been hurt then, but he had grabbed that pipe and saved himself. This time he hadn't been that lucky.

The Big Three were disturbed by the news too.

"The wardrobe has a paper backing and just opens up into nothing?!" Gansley said in disbelief.

"Okay, that is weird," Crump proclaimed. "And what do you wanna bet Evangeline had no idea?!"

"I certainly don't remember anything like that when I was a child," Lector said, "and I liked to play in the wardrobes."

"Well, maybe it's just this one," Crump said. "But that's freaky in any case!"

Everyone concurred.

xxxx

Seto's medical team arrived with state-of-the-art and portable equipment and proceeded to examine Nesbitt as thoroughly or moreso than at a regular hospital. Finally the doctor looked to the worried friends, folding his stethoscope in his hands as he spoke.

"It doesn't look like there's any serious injury, and yet, he should have woke up by now." He frowned.

"What does that mean?" Gansley demanded.

"It means that we can't really know anything unless he wakes up," the doctor replied. "We're going to move in on the ground floor. Let us know the instant there's any change."

"We will," Gansley nodded. "Thank you, Doctor."

Yugi and the others, waiting in the hall, overhead enough of the conversation to know things were serious. "He's hurt because of me," Yugi said sadly.

"It feels really awful, doesn't it?" Mokuba said. "People getting hurt trying to help you. . . . I'm sorry you have to feel what it's like, Yugi. . . ."

"I think everyone feels it at some time or another," Téa said softly. She laid a hand on Yugi's shoulder. "But I'm sure he'll be okay. . . ."

"I just don't understand why those spirits would do something so cruel and then mask our eyes and ears so we couldn't even see and help them," Bakura exclaimed.

Yami Bakura didn't speak, but kept petting Oreo and looking away. He had never apologized to Nesbitt for snapping at him when they had been trapped in the Shadow Game based around Bendy and the Ink Machine. And Yugi, of course, had been one of his greatest enemies in the past. Although he said nothing out loud, he wondered if Nesbitt would think that he had ignored him and Yugi on purpose when he had ran past them to leave the wing. He honestly hadn't seen them, just as no one else had either.

"At least we realized they were missing as soon as we got out of there," Atem said.

"But what if he doesn't ever wake up?" Yugi said sorrowfully.

". . . Then his friends will never get over it," Yami Bakura growled. "And you probably won't either."

Yugi looked away, unable to deny that.

Mokuba bit his lip. Once the doctors were out of the room and moving towards the stairs, he ran into the bedroom and over to Lector, who was hunched forward with his clasped hands in front of him. "Lector?" He looked up at his friend. "I'm really sorry. . . ."

Lector straightened, trying to smile. "Nesbitt's a fighter. He won't go down easy."

Mokuba hugged him. "I know you're still worried, though." He looked around the room. "All of you guys are worried. . . ."

"Yes," Gansley said.

Lector drew an arm around Mokuba. "I'm glad that you and the others weren't hurt as well," he said. "But anyone being hurt is too much."

"Especially someone you love so much," Mokuba said.

Lector couldn't deny that.

Nesbitt stirred, groaning under his breath.

"Nesbitt?!" Lector perked up, looking to him. "Are you alright?"

Nesbitt opened his eyes and gave Lector a puzzled look.

"Nesbitt?!" Gansley leaned over, not liking that look. "Do you know us?"

"Of course I know you," Nesbitt grunted.

"And me?!" Crump came over now.

"I hope you remember me," Johnson said, trying to pull himself together and use some of his smooth facade.

"I know all of you. What is this?" Nesbitt started to get up, but winced and laid back down. "Ugh. . . ."

"You fell down the stairs protecting Yugi," Lector said.

"And not just any stairs, but the creepy stairs!" Crump added.

"I remember," Nesbitt said.

"I'll get the doctor," Mokuba volunteered, not wanting any of them to have to leave Nesbitt to find him.

"Thank you, Mokuba," Lector said to him. He looked back to Nesbitt. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"You're a mother hen," Nesbitt snorted. "I'm fine." He hesitated. "But . . . who are you, anyway?"

Lector was thunderstruck. "What?!"

"Nesbitt, you said you remembered us!" Gansley exclaimed.

"I do. Gansley, Crump, and Johnson. But I don't remember him." Nesbitt looked to Lector, who fell back in horror.

"How could someone have such selective amnesia as this?!" Gansley said in disbelief.

In the doorway, Atem paled. "Oh no. It's like what happened to Mai at the hands of Yami Marik. Lector has apparently been erased from Nesbitt's mind!"

Johnson went sheet-white too. "It's some kind of dark magic?!"

Lector couldn't take it. He ran out of the room, grabbing the keys out of Evangeline's pocket as he tore to the stairs.

"Démas?!" Evangeline stared at him.

Lector didn't answer her. He ran down the stairs and over to the closed wing, fumbling with the keys several times before at last getting them to work. "What is this?!" he screamed as he flung the doors wide. "It wasn't enough that you hurt my friend by making him fall?! You hurt him by making him forget me too?! I demand to know who you are and why you would be so sadistic! We didn't do anything to you!" He clenched his fists, shaking. The fire had left his voice when he spoke again. "I can't lose him. . . . I can't. . . ."

Mai, who had followed him down along with the rest of the group, looked from him to Atem in horror. "What's going on?! Why would these ghosts do something like this?!"

"I'm starting to fear that it truly was to keep Nesbitt from testifying," Atem said. "He can't participate in either trial in this condition. But maybe it was also to make Lector suffer. And then Johnson will suffer in turn. It's a cruel game of dominoes. What happens to one happens to all."

"Dr. Raven must have done it then," Mai said. "Who else could have?!"

"Our family." Evangeline had come up from behind Mai, her voice dark. "Everyone but our father and Démas practices vodun to some extent. Maybe one of them decided to corrupt it and use it to hurt instead of to help."

"But why?!" Serenity cried.

"They don't want Father to be convicted," Evangeline said, "so they're willing to do anything, even enlist the help of these unfriendly spirits and make Démas suffer by taking away one of his precious friends." She stormed to the door. "This is the last straw. I'm going to confront all of them right now!"

"It's the middle of the night," Angelique gasped.

"I don't care!" Evangeline flung the front door wide, similar to how Lector had thrown open the North wing doors. She ran outside with a purpose, hardly caring that she was in her nightgown as she leaped in her car and drove off.

"Lector?" Johnson had come down now too and was standing by the North wing. His facade was gone again and his eyes and voice were filled with worry. "You'd better come out of there before they hurt you too. . . ."

Defeated, Lector finally turned and came out from the wing when he realized there would be no answers. "They've already hurt me," he said as he closed and locked the doors.

"I'm so sorry," Johnson said in anguish. "Whoever's stalking me must have done this. . . ."

"Right now, I don't think Evangeline is so far off the mark that it might be someone in our family doing it," Lector said. "They have motive, means, and opportunity. I doubt whoever is stalking you knows this kind of dark magic."

"We don't know who it is, so who can say?" Johnson sighed.

Everyone headed back up the stairs, dejected and bewildered. The doctor met them in the hall after examining Nesbitt. "I don't know how to explain this," he frowned. "Is there any psychological reason why Mr. Nesbitt would want to forget you?" He looked to Lector.

"Of course not!" Lector snapped. "This isn't his fault!"

"I don't think it is," Seto growled.

The doctor stared at him. "Then, Mr. Kaiba, does that mean you think there's a . . . supernatural reason for this?"

"I don't know," Seto admitted. "But I know Nesbitt would never want to forget Lector, consciously or unconsciously."

Gansley came to the doorway now. "Lector? He's asking for you."

Lector looked over with a start, but from Gansley's eyes Nesbitt still didn't remember. With a heavy heart Lector went back in the room, Johnson trailing after him.

Nesbitt was still laying in the bed, looking miserable. He gestured for Lector to come closer. "Gansley and the others are telling me you're one of us," he said uncomfortably.

"Yes, that's right," Lector said. He was barely keeping his emotions in check. To see Nesbitt looking at him so blankly and talking to him like he was a stranger was almost more than he could bear. "Don't you remember anything at all? We're the Big Five. . . ."

"Four," Nesbitt interjected. "The Big Four. . . ."

Lector's expression shattered. Crump got up, drawing an arm around his shoulders. "Oh Buddy. . . ."

"Nesbitt, don't you feel anything when you look at him?" Gansley asked. "Why did you call him here?"

Nesbitt looked away, uncomfortable. "Well . . . he was so worried about me . . . and you say he's one of us . . . and he says he's one of us . . . and I don't remember him, and yet . . . it feels . . . right for him to be here. That doesn't seem logical, but I can't deny it."

Lector slowly looked up. "Then you remember something," he said, a bit of hope finally coming back to his voice.

"Yes . . . I suppose so," Nesbitt said. "I trust Gansley, Crump, and Johnson, so if they say you're supposed to be here, it must be true. . . . Unless they're the ones remembering things wrong, instead of me. . . ."

"No!" Lector cried, desperate not to lose the smidgen of hope. "They're not! Please, if you can't believe me, believe them! Please believe them. . . ." His shoulders slumped and he stepped back, defeated. He just wanted to get away, to run as far away from this nightmare as possible, and then to wake up and find it really was just a nightmare and not real. . . .

"Alright, alright!" Nesbitt exclaimed. He sighed and looked away. "I'm . . . honestly sorry I don't remember you. You were so worried about me, it seems a cruel slap in the face to do this to you."

"It certainly does," Lector couldn't refrain from saying. But he quickly added, "It's not your fault, though. I know you never wanted this, and I know you'll feel horrible when you remember the truth. You're as much a victim here as I am."

"That's a generous way to put it," Nesbitt said. ". . . But if someone really did this to me on purpose, why?!" His eyes flashed with a bit of the old familiar fire.

"To torture both of us," Lector said.

"And maybe to keep you from testifying in a couple of high-level court cases," Johnson added. "You won't be able to now; we'll have to notify the judge and the district attorney in the morning and have the doctor verify our words."

Nesbitt frowned. "If I don't testify, does that mean the people will walk?"

"I hope not," Johnson sighed.

Lector abruptly looked to him with a jerk. "That's right; Evangeline went out to confront our family!" he exclaimed. "I heard it in the back of my mind, but I wasn't really processing it."

"You don't think they'd hurt her, do you?!" Crump gasped.

"I don't know!" Lector ran out of the room. "I'd better call her right now!"

"She might not have her phone with her," Crump called after him. "She went running out in her nightgown!"

Lector froze in the hall. "Then I had better go after her," he said.

"You can't go alone," Gansley objected. "You're too upset to drive! I'll come with you."

Lector didn't deny it or forbid him.

Nesbitt sighed as they hurried off. ". . . What is he like?" he asked Crump and Johnson, feeling awkward. "Do we get along? Are we close?"

"You guys are a couple of hotheads," Crump said. "No, you don't always get along. But . . . you couldn't be closer."

Nesbitt looked away. ". . . I wish I remembered."

"You will," Crump insisted. "You've gotta!"

Johnson couldn't bring himself to speak. He turned away instead. "Why?" he whispered. "If I'm the real target, why are you going after the others? Just come after me! I can't stand seeing everyone else suffering when you really want me!"

And yet he knew that this was the most effective way of tormenting someone—harming their loved ones rather than them. He was drawing very close to his own breaking point by now, but he forced himself not to shatter. He had to get back to his old self, the smooth, obnoxious self. Everyone had too much to deal with as it was; they couldn't have to deal with him losing control now too.

In the hall, Yugi was still standing close enough to overhear all that was going on. "I still feel responsible," he said in chagrin. "I just wish there was something I could do!"

"If we could find out who did this to him and how they did it, we'd have a better chance of reversing it," Atem said. "I feel a certain amount of responsibility too." He clenched a fist. "I encouraged us to go upstairs even after Crump worried that someone might deliberately get thrown down the stairs! You were almost hurt. It's only because of Nesbitt that you're alright, and he and Lector both paid a great price. So did you, Yugi, as I know you feel horrible even though you were not at fault. Somehow we have to find a way to fix this!"

"Well, Lector and Evangeline and Gansley are going to confront the family," Yugi said slowly, "but whatever happened must have happened because the ghosts here agreed to help whoever wanted to do this. If we could only make contact with them! . . ."

"Unfortunately, they have made it clear that they do not want to talk," Atem said. "I think our best bet is to focus on the more benign ghost who walks the halls and looks in the trunk. She might be willing to talk to us, and she might be able to tell us what's going on."

"You don't think she's the voyeur, do you?" Yugi asked uneasily.

"I don't know," Atem sighed. He looked to the third floor stairs. "And Angelique and her group are certainly taking a long time finding that cot. . . ."

"Evangeline said that there were weird feelings up there too," Yugi remembered. "Maybe we should go help. . . ."

"She also said it only happened if she was alone," Atem said. "Yugi, I'm going to stand out here for a while and see if I start feeling the sensation of being watched. Why don't you go upstairs and see what's happening with Angelique's group?"

"Well, okay," Yugi said slowly. "If you're sure. . . ."

"I'm sure," Atem said firmly. "We must do whatever we can to reach a solution without anyone else being hurt!"

Yugi thoroughly agreed.