You Can't Fight Fate

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh. . . it would be nice. . . . but I don't

Sweet angel 505 – Hey!! Thanks to everyone who reviewed!! The support is much appreciated!! Sorry it took me so long to update but here it is – the next chapter!

Chapter 2: Stalker

Tea raced out of her 5 minute shower and threw on a cute pair of white capris with a baby blue v-neck tee that showed off the colour of her ocean blue eyes. She hurriedly brushed her chocolate brown hair and put on some casual makeup. She had to hurry if she wanted to be on time! She sprinted downstairs, nearly knocking Maria over.

"Slow down, Tea! You're going to hurt yourself," chuckled Maria.

"Sorry," answered Tea, grabbing a jean jacket from the coat rack. "I'll be back later, okay? I'm going to hang out with the gang today." And before Maria could even respond Tea was already out the door and running to meet her friends.

Tea ran up to the town square that she was supposed to meet her friends at. As she was looking around trying to spot Yugi's hair in the crowd, Tea accidentally bumped into someone.

"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry," Tea said turning to the person she had rudely crashed into. The man was tall, muscular and surprisingly wearing shades on this overcast day.

"It's no problem," he responded politely. Yet, Tea had no idea why, the tone of his voice and the way he smiled at her unsettled her.

"Do I know. . ." Tea began.

"TEA!!" Yugi yelled and Tea turned, seeing him just a bit off to her right gesturing for her to hurry up. "Come on!"

Tea took this as her chance to leave. She ran to Yugi in her hast to get away, hoping that she would never meet that man again. He got under her skin and she had no idea why. All she knew is that she did not want to be near him.

The man took out his cell phone and hit the speed dial. He could feel his heart pounding as he waited for his boss to pickup. He was so happy that he finally had good news.

Ring. . . Ring. . . Ring. . . "Hello?" a cold voice asked. "This better be good. Have you found her?"

"Yes, Sir. The target has been found. Matches name, description and photo. I think we've found her."

"Don't let her out of your sight and gather more information as too her location. Feel free to inflict pain if the situation calls for it," chuckled the man. "But remember. . . I want her alive. Understand?"

"Yes, Sir. There will be no problems," responded the man.

"Don't screw this up."

Click. . . Beep. . . Beep. . . Beep. . .

Tea ran over to Yugi and gave him a huge hug. He laughed and returned it. They had been best friends forever since Maria had found Tea that awful day and had sent her to the same school as him. They became fast friends and Yugi always looked after and supported Tea.

"Can we get going? I really want to go grab something to eat," whined Joey as he met up with two of his best friends. His blonde hair was in his face like always so he didn't see Tristan until he rammed right into him, knocking him off of his feet.

"Oh, you found her? Well, then let's get going," said Tristan calmly as Joey stared daggers at him. Tea laughed as they headed into the mall. She would really have liked to hang out with Mai and Serenity as well but they both were out of town. She loved hanging out with Yugi, Joey and Tristan; don't get her wrong, they were like her brothers, but it helps to have a girl's point of view when shopping. Especially for clothes. Oh well.

"Hey! Want to hear this awesome joke? Okay well, a duck walks into a bar and says to the bartender 'Got any grapes?' and the bartender's like. . ." Tea stop listening to Joey as this creepy feeling swept over her. It felt like she was being watched but when she looked around she didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Mothers walked there babies along in strollers while groups of girls sat at the food plaza and gossiped about this boy and that girl. Everything seemed normal and yet. . .

"YO!! Tea! You listening?" Joey said, pulling her out of her thoughts. "How could you not listen to me when I'm making a joke? I'm not that bad am I?" The whole group burst out in laughter at this, choosing not to answer. As Tea laughed along, she totally forgot about her worries.

"Come on, Funnyman, let's go get something to eat," Tea said, soothing Joey's feelings with the idea of food. Everyone grabbed a hamburger and started to dig in. As Tea looked around she felt uneasy again. And then, there he was. She saw the man from earlier sitting a couple of tables down and he was staring. . . right at her. There was no mistaking the expensive navy suit he wore or the sadistic smile he directed at her as he continued to stare. Tea knew that he was going to hurt her. Maybe it was the nightmare, but she knew that she had to get away from him.

"Tea, are you alright?" asked Yugi, concerned by her pale face.

"Yah you're awfully quiet," said Tristan.

"Totally unlike you to be like that," agreed Joey. "Usually we have trouble just trying to get you to shut up for two seconds."

Tea turned to her friends. How could she explain how she was feeling? They would think that she was just over reacting. But, she really wanted to get away from that man, even if she was wrong.

"Let's get shopping you guys," Tea said, surprisingly with a calm voice. "How about we hit Bootlegger or something first? I really need a new pair of jeans. Oh and I have to buy a gift for Maria's birthday."

"Okay," Yugi said, still a bit suspicious as to why Tea was acting strange. Yugi wasn't one to push so the gang threw out its garbage and started walking around. After 3 hours of non-stop shopping, Tea was laden down with a ton of bags but she didn't feel any better. Every time she looked, she had no trouble spotting the man, following at a distance. It was like his eyes burned a hole in her back. She felt his presence everywhere she went. She had tried to tell the gang but they reacted as she had suspected. Yugi promised to keep a look out while Joey and Tristan spouted off lies about protecting her but no one really took her seriously. They decided to go and catch a movie before going home.

"Come on, let's see SAW III. What, are you guys chicken?" Joey asked, laughing.

"I don't feel in the mood for it sorry, bro," replied Tristan. Tea was more than okay with the decision to not watch SAW III. She wasn't sure she would be able to keep her lunch down if she saw it. The gang decided to see Man of the Year, a comedy they could all enjoy. Tea volunteered to wait in line for the treats.

"That will be $20.75, dear" said the cashier kindly. Tea smiled as she handed her some money. The price wasn't that bad for three large bags of popcorn (one for Tristan, one for Joey and one for Tea and Yugi to share), two large Cokes, an orange juice, a blue slushie and two bags of Smarties. "Here's your change dear."

Tea took her change and as she was about to pick up her food she froze. Beside her was the man that was following her. She dropped her change in shock and then scrambled to pick it up. The man knelt down to help her. She managed to scoop the rest up into her hand before he said a word to her. Tea grabbed her food and hurried to her theatre.

The man watched the movie with little interest. He couldn't take his eyes off of his target. She had sure gotten awfully pretty after all these years. He pulled out a pink wallet from his jacket pocket. When Tea had dropped her change she hadn't even noticed him steal her wallet. As he opened it, he couldn't help but chuckle at the pictures she kept in there. Ones of her and Yugi finger painting when they were younger, the gang at camp and lastly a picture of an older woman with a wrinkled, kind smile. The man pulled it out of the wallet to examine it. As he flipped it over he read 'To my lovely Tea, From Maria'. "Must be the person who's been taking care of her all these years," thought the man. He replaced the photo and removed her personal information card. As he began copying it down, he thought to himself "You won't be disappearing anytime soon, Ms. Gardner".

Tea hadn't really enjoyed the movie that much knowing that the man was probably in there too, but she was happy that she found her wallet. She had noticed it missing near the end of the movie. The cashier had actually found it in the girl's bathroom and returned it to her. "Must have left it in there when I went to the washroom," thought Tea.

"You seem a little preoccupied, Tea" said Yugi, breaking her out of her reverie. Yugi had been kind enough to walk Tea part of the way home. He could tell she was uncomfortable. He even carried her bags for her, hoping that she'd start to open up to him when it was just the two of them.

"Sorry about that Yugi," Tea sighed. "I guess I just need more sleep or something. I'm getting so darn jumpy these days. Hey could you talk those bags to the shop for me? Maria's birthday is coming up and I don't want her to see the gift I got her. I'll swing by and pick them up on Monday, okay?"

"Sure, no problem, Tea. See you later!" Yugi called to her as she began to cross the street.

"Bye, Yugi!" Tea said. She kept walking and tried to take her mind off of this afternoon. She turned on her MP3 and tuned out her worries to the beat of her favourite songs. She was starting to feel better as 'I Don't Need a Man' came on and she was dancing down the street humming the tune to herself.

She didn't even have time to react when the man grabbed her from behind. He squeezed so hard that Tea could hardly breathe. She started screaming as she flailed her arms around, trying to hit her attacker. She was roughly pushed into an alley as the man smirked at her terror.

"It sure was hard to track you down, Tea but now that I have, I'm not letting you out of my sight. Ever," the man said, his eyes crawling all over her body. She had managed to knock off his sunglasses and his piercing brown eyes were much worse than looking at sunglasses. He was enjoying the power he held over her. Tea shivered at the sickening look in his eyes. As he advanced towards Tea, she did something he totally did not expect. She ran at him, intending to fight. The man laughed and struck out, just as Tea thought he would.

Dancing had made her light on her feet so she easily avoided him. She managed to get a direct hit to his face. He swore at her as his nose began to bleed from her left hook. The man didn't know but Tea had taken a self defense course every year since she was old enough to handle it. She kicked him in the crotch and ran away as he doubled over in unbelievable pain. She ran and ran, not totally sure where she was going. She realized she was close to her house so she kept running. She had to tell Maria what had happened. She would know what to do. Tea glanced at her watch as she kept up her rapid pace. It was nearing 7 o'clock. "Maria would be cooking supper," thought Tea randomly, trying anything to keep herself calm. As she neared the little cottage on the outskirts of town, Tea couldn't help but look back every 5 seconds. Yet, no one was following her. . .

Tea stepped up towards the house and noticed the door was propped open. "We didn't have company did we?" Tea thought. Tea stepped over the threshold and met a sight that stopped her heart.

Sweet angel 505 – hehehe I hope you liked it and it was worth the wait. Review please!!!! Thanks for reading my 2nd chapter. LOL I am so excited for the next chapter! But you'll just have to wait and see what it's about, won't you (winks). Hope you'll like it. I'll try to update soon. Thanks again!!