Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX or 'At The Sign Of The Sugared Plum'

Chapter 5

The First One

Two weeks had passed since Jaden's visit to Mapleside Manor. He had seen Jesse once in those two weeks, but that was enough for him - just to know that it was indeed not plague that had befallen the butler of Mapleside Manor. Jesse was safe and that was all that mattered to Jaden.

His carefree attitude wasn't tainted by the news that three thousand people died of plague in one week. Aster had decided against visiting any more whorehouses - the ones that remained open - because he feared it would be too easy to catch the plague from the women there. Jaden was half thankful to the plague for getting his elder cousin out of the nasty houses. He didn't much notice the plague, despite the fact that one of his neighbours had contracted the sickness. They were close, only in the next lane from the bakery, but Jaden didn't know the people and so couldn't feel much sorrow. He could only feel the standard sympathy that came for all the people who were suffering and dying of the plague .

The sun was high in the sky - there had been no rain in London for weeks, which may have accounted for the terrible smell of the city - and there were no animals around any more. Cats and dogs had been killed for fear they might have spread the disease, and goats and pigs and chickens had been taken indoors to prevent their fur or skin or feathers picking up the plague germs. The lack of animals was all that disturbed the young brunette as he stared up and down the street, quite at ease, but he was soon disturbed by a long drawn out scream from a nearby house. Jaden thought quickly and gasped as he realised who lived there - that was where the Misawa family lived! Before he could react, Aster had run out of the shop and pulled him back into the shop's doorway. He kept his hand tightly around Jaden's arm to stop him running towards the source of the scream. Jaden was vaguely aware of many of his other neighbours coming to their own doorways to watch - Jim appeared in the house across from him, his red haired wife Jasmine beside him, shielding their two daughters from view. Further down the lane, but still in sight, Hasselberry threw his door open and stared at the Misawa family household.

Then, Bastian's wife Mindy ran from the house. She was screaming - though it hadn't been her who'd screamed before, Jaden was sure - and crying, and pulling at her hair and tearing at her clothes. It looked like the woman was going mad. Bastian then ran out and fell to his knees beside his sobbing wife, wrapping his arms around her, before somebody - a doctor, a man of authority, someone like that - forced the despairing couple into the house, despite their protests. Bastian argued but the door was slammed behind them, and as Jaden watched, horrified, a small paper note was placed on the door - LORD, HAVE MERCY ON US, it read. Jaden's heart stopped.

Plague!

Hasselberry stood at the door with Jim, speaking in hushed tones with the miserable cousins. All four men tactfully kept their eyes away from the house they were speaking of - Bastian's home. The whole street had been told to get inside their homes and remain there for two full hours. Now that the two hours had passed, neighbours were talking in groups, all of them desperate to know what was really happening. Everyone was sadly watching the Misawa home. The door was locked and barred now, painted with a fearful red cross and that damn paper note. A guard sat outside the house to make sure that nothing came out of the house, and anything that went inside had to go through him. The Misawa family had been hit by plague and were shut up for forty days. Aster closed his eyes as if in pain and then turned again to Jim.

"Their son?" he whispered. "This is horrible!"

"You got that right, mate" Jim said solemnly. "They say he was taken ill last night, but Mindy didn't call for a doctor. Said she was afraid someone would call the authorities. They thought it looked like a sweating sickness." He sighed deeply before continuing the story. "This morning, two buboes came up on the kid's body."

"Buboes? What are they?" Jaden asked, puzzled.

"Hard lumps of matter" Hasselberry whispered. "They come up on the neck or in the groin or under the arms. They are … a sure sign of plague."

"They say that the kid was in so much pain he hit his head off a wall to try and knock himself out but it didn't work. Bastian called for a doctor but he arrived too late. They say that by the time he got there, the poor kid couldn't move his legs or head without screaming" Jim continued, his face blank. "Apparently, he screamed out one last time and then died. That was what we all heard."

The four men fell silent for a few moments, before Aster turned and began to walk into the bakery.

"Thanks for the information, boys. Jaden, it's time we went inside. There's plague right beside us and we can't be outside too long."

Jaden nodded, afraid, to Jim and Hasselberry and then hurried inside.

"We've heard nothing of the Misawa family for three days!" Jaden said angrily, pacing unhappily in the back room of their shop. "Bastian hated being stuck indoors, there was always something to be studied outside for him … I can't stand this, Aster, we have to go and see how they're doing."

"Jaden, be rational, will you!" Aster growled. "We can't do anything for them!"

"I know, but … hey, I've got an idea! Let's make some little cakes for them and take them over to the house."

"Cakes?"

"They could cheer them up!" Jaden said, offended by Aster's tone. "Sweet things always cheer me up when I'm sick …"

"You've never been sick with a sickness that could be the end of you, Jaden! We don't even know if they still live!"

"Then we have to go and see!"

After much yelling and arguing, Aster reluctantly agreed to give some small cakes to the guard in front of the house and inquire after the poor enclosed family.

The cakes being made, Aster and Jaden headed down to the nasty house. The red cross on the door warned everyone that there was plague there - and everyone seemed to be avoiding the house, walking past it as quickly as they could. Everyone except the two cousins who approached the guard.

"Hey, were you asleep just there?" Jaden demanded. The guard shook his head and Jaden went on "so how are they doing? Do they need anything?"

"This family give me no trouble. They're quiet as flowers."

"We've brought something for them. Could you give it to them?" Aster said, desperate to leave, and he passed over the basket which contained the cakes. "Right, we should get going now, Jaden."

"Oh no, we're not! When did you last see them?" Jaden persisted.

"I don't know. I threw in food this morning but I saw no people" the guard shrugged. "Maybe they were sleeping."

"No, that's not good enough. We have to see them!"

"You can't go in" the guard said, unenthusiastically. "Hold on. Are you family?"

"Yes! They're our cousins, and we have to know how they are!" Jaden lied, and he handed a few coins over to the guard. "You must open the door and shout for them."

The door was flung open by the bemused guard, who held a cloth over his mouth. Jaden and Aster both copied him using a corner of their shirts.

"How do you keep?" the guard called. "Is there anything you need?"

There was no answer.

"I fear that everything's not well, Jaden" Aster whispered, and then he took a deep breath and braced himself to call. "Hello? Bastian, it's Aster!"

The dark hallway was still. Nobody replied. The guard looked around disgustedly and then pressed the cloth harder to his mouth.

"I smell death" he murmured, and Jaden gasped.

"You must go in! You must go and see who's dead!"

The guard argued viciously for a moment, saying that he wasn't paid to enter houses of death, but Aster handed over a few more coins and the guard dashed into the house, searching the downstairs before running upstairs (the Misawa family had two floors). Jaden and Aster stood silently, moving back a bit from the house so they could breathe without fear of plague. After a short while, the guard reappeared.

"There's a young woman lying dead in a bed upstairs, and a little boy dead on the floor beside her" he informed the worried cousins. "And there's a man lying dead by the kitchen table."

Aster and Jaden returned to their bakery, both looking gloomy and saying nothing. They listened for a while and, as darkness fell, they heard the death cart trundling up the street. They peered out of their shop and saw two ghastly looking men entering the Misawa household. One came out with two corpses flung carelessly over his shoulder, and the last dragged behind him another corpse. They threw the three bodies onto the cart, the sheets they'd used to hide the corpses from view getting tosses carelessly to the side. The corpses of the Misawa family were in view, and Jaden gasped and ran to the back of the shop. He opened the back door and threw up as quietly as he could in the back garden, while Aster stared in horror as the corpses of Bastian, Mindy and their son were taken away.

Please R&R