Chapter 1
Something is standing between me and my sanity
They say my witch is just a dream, morbid fantasy
I say wake the dead, wake the dead, wake 'em!
In a dry valley in Egypt surrounded by petrous hills and mountains the only thing that broke the silence was the sound of a pickax smashing rocks.
A man was digging. He was wearing rags and was dirty. It seemed that he had been there for days, even weeks, to dig such a long passage to a crypt were the treasure he was looking for was kept.
"Finally" he said gasping when the last plinth broke. He laid his tools aside and with quick, impatient moves he entered the crypt crawling.
As soon as he was inside he got up trembling by the fatigue. He looked around and spotted many treasures, Egyptian masterpieces. There was a sarcophagus in the centre. He walked to it wearily. He looked at the man depicted and his eyes narrowed. He put one hand on the coffin.
He raised his eyes and spotted his most desirable treasure. The thing he had been looking for. A stone tablet with a carved dragon on it.
He picked a golden bracelet from the place the valuable items were and put it on his left arm.
He then spoke:
"I call the Blue Eyes White Dragon."
The outline of the beast on the tablet radiated for a while, but no dragon appeared to the man's evocation.
He frowned. 'What's going on? Could it be...'
"No..." a hoarse whisper echoed in the walls of the crypt.
All eyes in Domino City's College fell on a girl that had just entered the schoolyard, trying to look confident and keep her white hair out of her face. Sara White felt sociable and full of energy today. She had decided to make new friends in her new college. 'As if I have old friends,' she thought sarcastically, however never losing her good mood.
She was sure that since she had moved recently in this big city, there would be people that had the same interests as she. In the small town where she lived previously, she was always alone. Fortunately, some of her teachers there encouraged her to give exams for a good college, saying that her potential was wasted. Thankfully, she had gotten herself a scholarship and finally, she was in one of the best -and most expensive- schools in the country. She was hoping that her life would change.
She observed shyly the people around her as she walked. She soon found out frustrated that all of them dressed in fancy, expensive clothes, and, from what she could hear, were babbling about new clothes, cars and parties.
'They must be dying to hang out with me'. She entered the classroom and sat in the second desk next to a window. She turned to look at the window. She saw in the glass the reflection of a group of people that stood out of the crowd-they must have been the celebrities of the college. They had really snobby looks and looked at her with disdain, then whispered something and laughed gaudily.
This was going to be one hell of a year.
In a while, a young man came in carrying a briefcase and a lot of paperwork. He must have been the professor, although he could pass for a student. Instead of starting the lesson, he took his time preparing the things that he needed for his teaching. Actions that looked unnecessary and were done awkwardly, while he was throwing swift glances at the students, hoping that they would at least acknowledge his presence.
He was really young, not older than 30-32 years. He was handsome as well. How come no one seemed to pay attention to him? Maybe, judging by his simple styling, he was not in the same social class as the students were.
He turned to look at Sara who was watching him absentmindedly. "You're the new student, right? Welcome."
"Yes, I am. Thank you." Sara said waking from her daydreaming.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Daniel Graham, history teacher. In class you may call me Mr. Graham." He said smiling.
"Nice to meet you too Mr Graham. I'm Sara White."
"I know, I read your profile. You got 100 on the entrance exams. You're our new genius."
Sara blushed. "I guess I was lucky. After all, I'm sure that most students here are geniuses."
"You'll soon change your mind." The professor told her in low voice, frustrated.
He went to the door to call the students. "Alright everybody. Lets get in class to get the lesson started," he said, obviously not loud enough, since no one seemed to listen to him. He seemed to feel really uneasy.
Sara smiled. Mr Graham was shy. But why did he choose to be a teacher since he was sweating every time he was talking in front of an audience?
A limo stopped in front of Domino City's College. A young brown-haired man got off the vehicle bearing a tired –yet piercing- gaze.
Seto Kaiba had just finished uploading a programme while editing his essay when he had gotten there. He headed towards the class where he was attending a lesson that morning.
It wasn't like he couldn't escape the lesson and generally the boring process of schooling – he had made sure the management knew damn well who he was and the power he had, simply by stating that he could buy the fucking school and replace everybody who worked there.
Nor that he enjoyed socialising – especially with those morons who attended lessons there, all kids of the competitors of his company, let alone the fangirls. And, of course, there wasn't much he could be taught about business, programming, management etc, being the youngest CEO and the genius he was.
He just wanted to keep himself occupied with something. He couldn't remember how many years there'd been since he had some free time, but it seemed that work was not enough for him right now. He needed to do more things in order not to think… stuff… that could be even dangerous. For his company, career and mental health.
He closed his eyes tight for a moment to rest them from the radiation they'd been receiving for... he couldn't remember how many hours there 'd been since he had woken up. 'Woken up…those who wake up get some sleep, too…' he thought with chagrin.
It was a cloudy day, but even this shadow of a sunlight made things worse for him. The lack of sleep or, better, the weird dreams that had been haunting him since his trip in Egypt a few weeks ago… He quickly brushed off this thought almost enraged at the memory of what had happened there.
The first days after he had returned from Egypt, there weren't any dreams, and his visions had disappeared. He had convinced himself that everything was a mind trick, however weird it may was. And then, everything came back.
What angered him the most was that it wasn't simple visions this time. It was actually he in the place of his… past self-well, the Egyptian guy that looked like him. They were more like the one he had seen when he dueled with Bakura, rather than what he had experienced in Egypt.
He wouldn't give so much attention to stupid dreams that were probably the result from his subconscious that had been influenced by all this nonsense he had to go through, if there wasn't such emotional pressure.
Because he found himself waking up in tears of rage and pain at the loss of… her. He wouldn't pronounce her name not even in his thoughts. And yet he heard her name escape from his lips –from the lips of his past grieving self– every night.
Every single fucking night.
'Maybe I am losing it after all. Serves me right for hanging around with the geek squad.'
As he entered the building of the university all eyes feel on him. He received several greetings from people who tried to approach him. He ignored them all and headed for his class. He was late.
Finally professor Graham got everybody to sit down.
"Class, I want you to welcome your new colleague, Ms Sara White." Sara turned a bit to face the class.
Nobody spoke in the classroom.
Suddenly the door burst open and came in a tall man, a cold and tired look on his face. He slammed the door and headed to the back seats.
"You're late again Mr Kaiba."
"I was busy." Said Seto coldly.
"I was just announcing the arrival of a new student."
"You didn't have to wait for me, you know." Snapped Kaiba in an indifferent tone as he sat, which caused some students to giggle.
"You should be careful Mr Kaiba, your new colleague is a worthy competitor of yours. You and Ms Sara White were the only ones to score 100 in the entrance exams."
Seto raised his eyebrows apathetically.
The professor seeing that he wouldn't get anywhere with Kaiba, started the lesson. He asked several questions that no one bothered to answer. Sara was sure that they knew everything, they were ignoring him intentionally.
"C'mon class. This is an easy one." Graham's voice woke the students up. The professor was looking around for an answer. "C'mon, we're gonna answer this question and you're free."
Seto raised his had, fed up with this whole thing. What was this loser trying to prove by insisting on this last question? Seto had to go to the company.
At the same time Sara raised her hand to answer.
"Yes…" said Graham looking at Kaiba, who put his hand down bored and opened his mouth to talk.
"…Ms White."
And he stayed with his mouth open.
She gave a good answer, admittedly better than the one the young CEO would have given. Seto observed the new girl with the corner of his eye. He couldn't see he face as she was sitting several seats in front of him, but he noticed that she was dressed differently from the rest of the class.
He saw Brian Hannigan –the son of one of his richest company competitors- and his lot looking at her and hissing something in a low voice threateningly. Seto raised an eyebrow and a slight sardonic smirk appeared on his face. She wouldn't last long in this college.
As soon as the lesson was over, the classroom emptied within seconds.
"Why didn't you answer all of my questions? I know you knew them." Mr Graham told Sara before she left.
"Well, Mr Graham … from my experience, students don't seem to like those you are… you know, know-it-alls."
"Don't care about what people will say about you. If people expect from you not to show your abilities to like you, then they don't deserve to be your friends."
Sara stood for a moment, taken aback.
"You did well. I'll see you later." He smiled and left.
Sara left the classroom after him. As she was walking through the corridors most people looked at her and whispered to their company, and surely not in a good way.
The door at Kaiba mansion slammed loudly. Mokuba knew his older brother wasn't in the best mood.
"Hey Seto! How're you?"
"Fine, Mokuba" he lied. He threw his briefcase on the sofa and then sat down heavily next to his little brother. "What are you watching?"
"The news. A new pharaoh tomb has been discovered. And guess what his name is! Seto!" The kid burst out laughing.
The older boy felt as if he got a kick in the stomach. "You do look like the mummy, too."
Seto threw him a pillow. "I know I'm sleepless and tired but do I resemble a mummy so much?" he joked, tried to ignore the anxiety rising in him.
"I mean the sarcophagus. Look."
"The empty sarcophagus of the pharaoh Seto the 1st has been discovered by an illicit dealer of antiquities. Archaeologists are going through a research to find out when the tomb was desecrated and if there are ancient items sold…" said the journalist.
The report went on showing pictures from the tomb and the items found. Suddenly, the camera zoomed on a stone tablet with a dragon carving on it.
Seto's eyes widened. 'Fuck.'
"This carving looks like your Blue Eyes White Dragon, doesn't it?" said Mokuba but Seto had stopped listening.
So much for hoping to get some decent sleep tonight.
The lyrics are from the song The Witch by ICP