Hey, guys! Been a while. :P sorry, I've been busy with school work and such. Hope you understand. Anyway, please review/follow/favorite! THANK YOU!
Oh, just a warning, there are a bit of disturbing images in this chapter. Just be prepared. Though, I don't think they're too bad...
Chapter 5
Violet eyes fluttered open as they slowly took in their surroundings. As he opened his eyes, the wind whipped wildly around him, stirring up the sand beneath him. The tiny sand particles caught in his untamed hair and cut his pale skin causing him to wince at the stinging pain. Shouting could be heard through the violent roar of the wind and Yugi lifted his arms to block the sand and harsh winds. Slowly, he walked forward and was nearly trampled upon by a horse, had he not dodged it in time, leaping out of the way to tuck and roll to the side.
He pushed himself up to his knees and tried to see ahead of him but there was too much sand, too much chaos going on and then suddenly everything went still. He panted slightly as he looked around him, sand particles remained suspended in the air, unmoving, men dressed in strange robes lay still as statues. What is going on? Yugi thought.
And then a shadow caught his attention, closer to the cliffs. He slowly got stood up and walked towards that shadow and gasped when he saw a clone version of himself, but tanned and dressed in exotic purple robes, wearing a golden crown with the eye of Horus engraved at the center. His look-a-like remained frozen in mid-air, on the brink of falling off the cliffs to his death. Yugi took another step forward but shivered as he felt something pass through him.
He blinked and suddenly there was a shadowy figure in front of him, a literal shadow walking toward the frozen prince. Yugi's jaw nearly dropped to the ground as the figured solidified into a boy he knew all too well. Y-Yami? Instead of the teen's usual leather ensemble, he wore a pale shirt and skirt, along with a tattered brown cape draped upon his shoulders. His hair was even more unruly and untamed than usual.
Yugi watched in awe as 'Yami' reached out for the prince and pulled him away from the cliffs, before closing his eyes and inhaling deeply. In that moment, everything returned back to normal again and Yami quickly wrapped his cape around the prince, shielding him from the harsh winds before they stopped all together. The prince looked up at Yami, his breath shaky and eyes glistening with tears. And Yugi's heart nearly did somersaults as Yami spoke in a voice he'd never heard from the disturbed teen before; in such a calm, warm, soothing manner.
"Are you alright, my Prince?" His piercing ruby eyes gazed intensely at the young prince.
"I-I am fine. Y-you saved me. Th-thank you. I-I owe you my life."
Yami chuckled and shook his head, "You need not worry,My Prince, as the Pharaoh's Loyal Servant it is my duty to protect him as well as all that belongs to him."
The prince blushed, "I-I see you around the palace sometimes. You're like a shadow, always hiding from the view of others and sneaking around."
"I do not sneak around. I am simply curious and-" Yami stopped at the prince raised a brow at him. He chuckled, "Okay, maybe I do sneak around. Just a bit."
Yami stood and extended his hand towards the prince, who took it with a smile and rose to his feet. He immediately bowed his head at Yami, "Again, thank you for saving me-" The prince was cut short as pale fingers lifted his chin.
"You need not thank me nor bow to me, my Prince. 'Tis unnecessary to bow to someone of such low status as me." Crimson eyes flickered as they seemed to note the small scratch on the prince's cheek.
Yugi watched on, his heart beating faster as Yami leaned in closer towards the prince. His trailed upward and his fingers brushed gently across the prince's cheek. Yugi's eyes widen as small wisps of shadows spilled from Yami's fingers, his eyes widening further as he watched the cut slowly fade until it was nothing more than a pale scar.
"Thank-" Two fingers pressed against the prince's lips to stop him from speaking.
"As I said, you need not thank me, My Prince. It is my duty to protect you."
The prince's brows furrowed a bit before he nodded slowly, a smile smile gracing his lips, "Very well. Though, I wish to know my savior's name. I'm sure you can spare that much."
"It is Yami, My Prince."
"Yami? That's a strange name. What does it mean?" The Prince's eyes lit up with the same curious spark as Yugi's and that made Yugi all the more uncomfortable about this situation.
"It matters not. Now I wish to know what is My Prince's name, if you do not mind me asking. The Pharaoh never spared me such details."
"Heba. Prince Heba."
Yugi's eyes flashed open and he found himself staring at the black ceiling in his room. He twisted a bit in his bed and glanced at the alarm clock, seeing that it was exactly 3:30 AM. He groaned and turned over towards the window. His heart nearly lurched out of his chest and a silent scream ripped through his throat as he saw his mother's mangled corpse sitting upon the window sill, bleeding out; blood spilling onto the floor and dripped from the parted, torn lips of his opened his mouth and a loud, ear splitting scream tore through the early morning.
He scrambled away and fell off the bed with a loud thud. He shut his eyes tightly and gripped onto his hair, a half-scream, half sob finding it's way through his parted lips. Frantic footsteps were heard before his bedroom door was ripped open and an elderly man flicked on the lights and ran into the room to kneel beside the screaming Yugi.
"Yugi! YUGI! What's wrong? YUGI!" The elderly man shook him slightly but Yugi just shook his head, sobbing and crying violently. "Yugi, you're scaring me. What's wrong, my boy?"
Yugi whimpered and lifted his head to glance at the window but sighed in relief when he saw his mother's corpse was no longer there. He calmed down a bit and wiped his tears with the back of his sleeve, settling into his grandfather's arms.
"Yugi, what happened? Why did you scream like that?"
"S-sorry, Grandpa. I-I guess I just had a nightmare."
The elderly man sighed and rubbed his grandson's back in a soothing manner, "Goodness, Yugi. I thought you were being murdered or something horrible happened to you."
"S-sorry…y-you can go back to sleep now. I'm fine." Yugi stood and walked over to sit at the edge of his bed, running his fingers through his messy tri-colored locks.
"Alright. But no more sugar before bedtime for you, young man. All that ice cream you ate before bed probably gave you nightmares."
Yugi just nodded. Grandpa sighed and reached out to turn off the light but Yugi made a sound of protest and stared at him in panic, "Don't! J-just leave it on."
The elder gave him a strange look but said nothing of it as he left the room, closing the door behind him. Yugi flopped back against his bed and sighed, staring at the blank ceiling above him. His mind was scattered, his thoughts disoriented and running wild. First, he was a hit disgruntled from his "nightmare", seeing his mother's bloodied corpse resting upon his window sill and he kept thinking about his dream.
He tried to shake it all off but everything seemed so real. Or maybe it was just Atem's stories messing with his head. Or maybe all that post trauma he should've felt years ago was finally catching up to him. Yugi groaned and flipped over onto his stomach, burying his face in his pillow.
After a few moments of trying to gather his thoughts together, a tapping sound was heard against his window. Yugi stiffened before slowly lifting his head. He was slightly startled to find a large Raven perched upon his window. The bird stared at him with gleaming crimson eyes that should have been sinister and yet Yugi wasn't afraid.
He glanced at the bird for another second before wrapping the blankets around himself and drifting off to sleep.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Yugi groaned and slammed his palm down on his alarm clock to shut it up. He yawned and sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep away from his eyes. He picked up his phone to check for any new messages and smile when he received a 'good morning' text from Atem.
He quickly typed his reply and got out of bed to get ready for the day. After following his daily routine, he hopped down stairs to find his grandfather busying himself in the kitchen. "Morning, Grandpa!"
"Ah, good morning, Yugi! How are you feeling this morning?"
Yugi smiled slightly as he took out a box of cereal from his kitchen cabinet, "I'm better. It was just a silly nightmare."
"It seemed more severe than just a silly nightmare. You were screaming as if you were being murdered! Look, Yugi, if you need to, I'll be more than willing to send you to seek help-"
Yugi slammed his bowl down and hung his head, "Grandpa, I don't need help. I don't need a Psychiatrist to tell me how I feel. I know how I feel. No amount of therapy is going to change that."
The elder sighed, "Very well. Anyway, I forgot to give you a present yesterday. I'm sure you'll like it."
"What is it?"
"It's in my bag in the living room."
Yugi ate a bite of his cereal before wandering into the living room to retrieve his grandpa's bag. He unzipped it and gasped as he pulled out a golden box with ancient hieroglyphics inscribed on the box. Carefully, he opened the top, his eyes widening as he found a bunch of solid gold pieces. "It's a puzzle."
"Ah, good, you found it! Yes, it seems to be a type of puzzle. It was found in one of the tombs that had collapsed. This was the only thing salvageable."
"What do these symbols mean?"
"I believe it says, 'Only the one worthy of possessing my power shall complete the Puzzle'' or something along those lines. But look at the top of the box, Yugi."
Yugi frowned. "What does this say?"
His grandfather chuckled, "It says 'Heba'. It means 'game' in Egyptian."
Heba? As in the Heba in my dreams, Heba? "Wait, did you say it means 'game' in Egyptian? So that means-"
His grandpa nodded, "Yes, it's your Egyptian name. How coincidental, don't you think? Perhaps you were destined to have it."
Yugi stared at the gold box in his hands, suddenly weighing five pounds heavier. He forced a smile and semi bowed to his grandfather, "Thanks, Grandpa. I'll put it together as soon as possible."
He gripped onto the box tightly and slowly made his way upstairs. In the back of his mind, he felt the need to tell Atem but at same time, felt he shouldn't-at least, not until the Puzzle was complete. He carefully sat the Puzzle on his bedside table and stared at it for a long moment. Heba… that's my name in Egyptian… and my dream...what did it mean? Thousands of unanswered questions buzzed around in Yugi's head and served to only spark his curiosity and at the same time caused him to feel uneasy.
It seemed there were many things Yugi did not understand these days; so many puzzle pieces to a puzzle that grew more and more complex as the days went by. With a sigh, he set the golden box upon his bed before returning back downstairs to finish his breakfast.
Yugi hated the mall. He hated shopping with a passion but when you had a friend like Anzu, you couldn't exactly get out of it. And so here he was, being dragged around an unnecessarily large shoe store by his overly enthusiastic friend, who by now, had three LARGE bags full of merchandise.
"Oh, this are cute! What do you think, Yugi?" Anzu held up a pair of pink pumps with bows on the top.
"They look great, Anzu." He replied for the umpteenth time. They'd been walking around the mall for the past two hours and to say he was bored and damn tired was an understatement. He was just about ready to collapse on the cold hard floor of the department store, using Anzu's bags as cushions. He'd much rather be at the arcade or doing something more entertaining, maybe even reading a good book.
As Anzu strolled away to another shoe rack, Yugi sat down on a small bright orange cylindrical sofa, placing his elbows on his knees and resting his chin in them. Why did I even agree to come here? I should've just stayed home or something. Man, I need to find Anzu more girlfriends to hang around with.
Just then, a sudden buzz broke him out of his daze and he casually pulled his phone out of his pocket; a smile immediately spreading across his features seeing it was Atem. Surprisingly, it was easy to smile with him.
'So, what is the Little Hikari doing today?'
Yugi snorted, 'Little Hikari? A new nickname?' I'm not doing much really. Just following Anzu around the mall like a pack mule. It's loads of fun.'
'Oh, I can imagine. On the bright side, you must be building quite a lot of muscle from carrying those bags around.'
'Haha. I guess that's true. Anyway, what are you doing today?'
'Ah, just dealing with some family stuff. It's pretty boring. I'd much rather be spending time with you.'
Pink soon flooded Yugi's pale cheeks, 'There you go again, flirting!'
'Is it working?'
'Hah, as if! I'm not that easy!'
'Aw, shucks! So, then I guess a booty call is out of the question?'
Yugi chuckled and shook his head. Atem was such a breath of fresh air and just what Yugi needed in his life now. Atem was so warm and he had this amazing ability to make Yugi feel so carefree and happy. He was grateful to have a friend like him. At that moment, Anzu returned and grinned at seeing the smile on Yugi's face. "Let be guess, Prince Charming is texting you again, isn't he?"
Yugi rolled his eyes, knowing where his discussion was headed, "I know what you're thinking but it's nothing, Anzu. We're just friends."
"Ah, friends with benefits? I didn't realize you were like that Yugi."
"Anzu!" Yugi flushed bright crimson as he stuffed his phone into his pocket and stood up, his lip jutted out as he pouted in defiance, "We are not friends with benefits."
"Damn, and here I was hoping I'd be able to write steamy fanfiction about you two. Make 'em juicy."
"You're such a pervert! Geez, why am I even friends with you?"
Anzu laughed and wrapped an arm around Yugi's shoulders, "Because you know you love me! And because I bring rainbows and sunshine to what, without me, would be a boring dull life!"
"Rainbows and sunshine? Huh, is that what the kids are calling drugs these days?"
"Oh, shut it, Mutou. You know you love me." She grinned smugly and Yugi could only roll his eyes on mock annoyance before a small smile curled upon his lips.
The pair soon decided to take a rest and sat at one of the table in the middle of the mall, the skylight allowing a dull, gray light into the mall. The sun didn't shine much these days. As Yugi took a sip of his Coke, a chill ran down his spine, which did not go unnoticed by Anzu. "Yugi, what's wrong?"
"N-nothing's wrong. Just the chills. Probably just a draft or something." Yugi took another sip of his drink, his eyes darting away to a small jewelry store across the way. "Anyway, what do you want to do next-" Yugi stopped abruptly as he turned back to face Anzu, noticing her frozen worried expression.
He leaned over and waved his hand but Anzu remained unblinking. That's strange… Yugi frowned and looked around the mall, only now noticing just how eerily quiet it got and that everyone had stopped moving. Panic began to set into Yugi's system as he stood up from the table and looked around, his eyes scanning his surroundings frantically. What the-am I dreaming? He pinched himself and flinched before rubbing his arm. Nope, he wasn't dreaming.
As he made a grab for his drink he turned back and quickly withdrew his hand when he saw a black furry spider sitting on top the lid. Now, normally, this wouldn't have phased Yugi. He could've brushed the spider off and be done with it but absolute horror shot through his system when a large swarm of spiders crawled out from the cup, spilling onto the table. Yugi staggered backwards and nearly screamed when spiders began to crawl out from Anzu's mouth and ears.
Not wasting another second, Yugi ran past the still-moving people and was just about to reach the exit when something wrapped around his leg, tripping him and causing him to land hard on his hands and knees. He turned around only to find a large black viper slithering towards him. This time he did scream as he shuffled backwards, watching in sheer terror as two more snakes materialized before his eyes, their sinister crimson eyes glaring at him.
Yugi shut his eyes tightly as the snakes drew in closer, lashing out, their fangs extended towards him.
"Get the fuck away from him!"
Yugi cracked open an eye, just a peek, in time to see Yami glaring dangerously at the snakes. He watched in shock as the teen stormed up to the snakes and wrapped his hand around their necks, squeezing them tightly before they burst into flames and disintegrated. He then whirled around to face Yugi, his eyes blazing like that of fire, causing Yugi to gulp. "Y-Yami, what are you-"
"Don't move!" In the blink of an eye, Yami whipped out a small thin blade and threw it. Yugi whimpered and shut his eyes, waiting for it to pierce him but it never did. Instead, he heard a loud, agonized snarl from behind him and he turned just in time to see a dark, shadow figure crumbling to dust.
Yugi stood up shakily and stared at Yami for a moment before a gasp escaped his lips. His eyes widening at the dark figure materializing behind Yami. "Yami, look out-"
Before he was able to give his warning, the figure was tackled to the ground. Yugi blinked and there was Atem, pinning the figure to the ground, a dagger held above it. Yugi's jaw dropped as he watched Atem bring the blade down, slamming it into the figure's smoky body. It let out a shrill shriek before suffering the same fate as the other.
Yugi glanced back and forth between the two identical looking teens in front of him before he slowly started to move backward. What the heck just happened? Atem's expression changed from being hostile-an expression Yugi was not familiar with on the boy-to that of worry and concern. "Yugi…" Atem spoke calmly.
"Wh-what-" He shook his head, "No, this has to be a dream. It has to be a dream."
Yugi's head was spinning. Between the snakes, the spiders, and Yami and Atem showing up out of thin air and killing a bunch of shadow things, Yugi's head was in a whirl. He didn't know what was real, what was fake. Reality and fantasy seemed to collide and blur together, disorienting him and confusing. He couldn't breathe.
Yami's brows furrowed as he took a step forward. Yugi tried to speak, to tell them to stay away but all too quickly, his world turned dark and he was suddenly falling. Before Atem even had the chance to move, Yami was already there, catching Yugi gracefully in his arms. "Yami…."
"What?"
"We have a lot of explaining to do…"
Yami clenched his jaw and held onto Yugi tightly, "Fuck."
How it Ends By Beth Crowley
There's a darkness that plays behind your wicked smile
Aching sadness as you cradle me like I'm a child
This is madness
We're descending into madness
And it chills me to the bone
Even you're gone I'm not alone
I'm never alone
I'm searching, desperate for a fracture in your shell
With every passing day it gets harder to tell
Where the demon stops and where you begin
But I promise you this isn't how it ends
I'm frightened as we tumble down the rabbit hole
My grip tightens, I'm clinging to your missing soul
You can fight them
Together we can fight them
Tell me you're not too far gone
That I'm not a fool for holding on
I have to hold on
Deep within your twisted truth
You've made yourself a home
Bu it's a place I can't follow you
Don't leave me on my own
I can't do this on my own