What's that you say? You want another chapter? Well then, here it is in all its *frightening* glory! *evil grin* Melodramatic you say? Over the top, you say? Please, keep the compliments coming! But first, Buki and I have some reviews to take care of, so you'd better get comfy at that computer chair.
Shadow's Girl12 – Oops, sorry we missed your review for the last chapter – you posted shortly after we posted the update. Your dad did a mean stunt like that, eh? Well, he must have been a *big* Shining fan, that's all I gotta say! But don't worry, the only one seeing Redrum in this fic so far is little ol' Mokuba.
Queen-of-Demon-Dragons – Oh yeah, we like crazy Kaiba. See how well that rolls off your tongue? But don't get ahead of the game now, Queen, he's not smashing doors yet (though I have to say it just might be in our plans for the future). And if you're hiding under your desk now, you'd better grab your favorite plushie to keep you company under there, because this next chapter's gonna get kind of scary at the end.
Tornado 666 – Don't worry, to Buki and me, 'scary as hell' is always a complement when referring to our fic. Well written and fantastic plot, you say? You certainly know how to make writers blush, my dear friend. To answer your question as to how this fic is humerous, I've got to warn you that Buki and I have a rather strange definition of funny. Our humor can be dark and disturbing or loony as a fruitcake, so be prepared. :-)
Leland Lancaster – Sexy Pegasus everywhere, dear, and don't fret, he'll be in the fic as a regular soon enough. If you think the bathroom is scary now, just wait and see, I think you'll be surprised. ;-D
Spirit of the Ring – Hey great, so there is somebody in the same boat as us! Buki and I love Yugioh and the Shining too, so you'll probably see a lot of things you recognize from the great SK classic that others might miss, so keep your eyes peeled! Yay, we're on another favorites list! *happy dance*
Lily22 – My but the plot is always thickening at the Overlook, isn't it? And I must say that this next chapter's certainly no exception! Yeah, Joey's situation is only going to get worse in this chapter I'm afraid, but knowing this story you probably figured that. ;-) Oh and Buki's so happy that you enjoyed the Pegasus part – you have no idea how many times she read over it to get it just perfect.
Darklight – Heehee, we like to update, it makes our readers happy! Yeah, some people like Pegasus some people don't, *shrug* that's just the way it goes. I have to deal with things like that with my fav. char Seto as well, so it's no biggie. Well, hate to disappoint, but Seto's not showing in this chapter, but he will be in the next one. That's right, Buki and I have the next one all written out, but we just have to tweak it to our liking still. Does Mokuba warn Seto in time? Well, you know I can't give anything away, though I've got to smile at your overwhelming curiosity. ;-) Thanks for being such a consistent reviewer, hope we live up to your expectations and answer all your questions in the fic!
Angelkohaku – Yaah! Attack of killer plushie, no! Suspense is *not* good? Oh darn, well then this chapter might be kind of a let down. :-) To explain your confusion in how the dogman could get scared away by Seto, you've got to remember that our dear Mr. Kaiba is beginning to have the hotel on his side. You'll understand what I mean the further this fic goes. In a way, he's doing things for the hotel, though it hasn't quite gotten him in their clutches yet. Therefore you can think of him as a chosen favorite, you know, the elevator takes him only where the hotel wants him to be, he happens to find the journal that gets him so interested in the Overlook's past, things like that. Don't get confused, though, if you do just let us know and we'll try to sort it out for ya. *hugs chibi Seto* Don't worry, he's in good hands with me, even though our sexy adult Seto might be takin' a beating in the ficcy!
Rinaidran Warrior - *shakes finger* Thinking our lovely little Yugioh fic is a Lotr fic. For shame! ;-D (Though it would be hilarious to see a gigantic Balrog emerge from the depths of the Overlook basement and watch Seto try to battle it off with nothing more than a spatula he stole from the kitchen!) Yeah, you'll have to yell at silly Seto louder than that for him to realize he's watching a ghost, our silly little bishie, he's just not quick in the supernatural area. ;-) See? Fics are much better than coffee to wake you up. *s* Here's chapter 18 as fast as our little fingers can type!
BlackHoleSun - *nods* Airport coffee does suck, and it's not just because Pegasus is used to all the fancy expensive coffee either! Oh, and Kaiba's *always* in denial! He really needs a shrink or something… You say it *was* your voice in poor little Mokuba's head? Hm. Well that mean's we'll just have to clean out the Overlook air ducts to make sure there aren't any other crazy readers hiding about to scare our chars. Seto! I'll give you the job – oh, and if you see anything, just scream! Seto: O.OU
DarkFoxy – Well of course Pegasus flirts with girls to get his way, how else would you expect him to get Industrial Illusions as his company. *gets hammered with a large toon anvil Buki had hidden in her pocket* Oops, I mean, the girl would have to be crazy not to fall for it, right? *glances at glaring Buki* Right?? You betcha a certain Pegsy-lover had a hand in that section – a very picky hand too. Seto the muscular genius – ah, what else could an obsessed fic writer ask for?
Chibi Arwen – Aw come on, I'm sure your eyes can get a bit wider! *evil smile* Hey and Kaiba did have it coming! Just wait till you read the next chapter! *maniacal laughter and demonic flash of lightening* Oh but we just gotta have our cliffhangers! *bats eyelashes* They're just so much fun! Besides, this wouldn't be a horror fic if ya didn't have the cliffhangers, right?
Dark-Koomrie – Oh don't worry! We continue pretty regularly now, about once a week if our muse is nice. It's great to see a new reviewer! Hope you enjoy the show!
Lena allows Buki to take the computer for a bit while she rests her tired fingertips.
Hirotani – By the gods, Lena saved the high complementary review for li'l old me? Aww, how sweet! Your praise does not fall on deaf ears, my friend. As a firm Pegasus fanatic I can indeed attest that he is the most misunderstood of all Yugioh characters aside from Bandit Keith – jeez, the two guys can never get a break with the fans it seems! He does have a growing fanbase, however (Pegsy, not Keith), and it seems that soon enough the guy will have defenders all around. C'mon, who can hate the guy that created the game? At least he deserves that much credit, right? *g* Thanks for the super high praise, I'm glad we inspire you to keep reading. We wouldn't say the writing is *flawless*,but thanks so much for saying so. *blush* Hope we see you around more often as the fic progresses -- we always encourage our readers when they're dying to read it. *wicked laughter*
*Kabuki glances around wide-eyed* You mean she answered all of them? Wow, that's some speedy typing! All those classes came in handy I suppose.*shrugs* Anyhoo, I suppose its time to get on with the show. Remember, multiple responses make happy writers and happy writers don't kill chara— err, I mean, don't delay in posting new chapters.*g*
Let the screams begin!
Kabuki & Lena
Chapter 18:
The elevator dinged and the doors slid open with a long drawn out squeak, revealing the hallway of the third floor to Yugi and Tea. As far as they knew, no one had explored the uppermost level yet, and both were surprised by the cleanliness of the hallway despite the vague scent of dust and animal droppings too long in the sun. Tea wrinkled her nose and looked pointedly at the ceiling, her eyes roving over the water stains that had spread and dried in a continuing process over the years during which the hotel had been vacant, leaving large rings of darkening stains in the ceiling which resembled cross sections of some great tree. "It smells like something died up there. Do you smell it?"
Yugi nodded, "This is a pretty old hotel, after all Tea. I'll bet the attic has a hole in it or something." He looked down the hallway glumly, the comforting weight of the Millennium Puzzle about his neck not quite as soothing as the low voice of Yami might have been. "Shouldn't we be looking for Yami? I'm really worried about him."
"I am too, Yugi, but trust me. If we don't get some work done today, we may never get even half of the chores done that Ms Sweeney assigned us." She smiled brightly at him. "Besides, I'm sure Yami just got confused."
Yugi cocked his head to the side. "What do you mean? Yami never gets confused."
Tea gave him a patient smile. "Well, you told me once that he can leave the Puzzle. You didn't lie to me now, did you?"
"Well, no. He can leave sometimes, but he doesn't get confused and he's still kind of transparent."
"Everyone gets confused, Yugi, even an ancient spirit like Yami. I mean, he can't even remember his real name, now can he? I'll bet he just got disoriented when he was knocked away from you. He'll come back, Yugi. He has to. You're the one with the Puzzle after all. I don't think even Yami can forget where he lives and where his friends are. I had a dog once that ran away from home, he was always a bit too curious for his own good, you know?"
Yugi nodded completely at a loss. It was hard to explain the relationship he and Yami shared. Sure they occupied the same body and drew on the Millennium Puzzle for – well, Yugi didn't quite understand the way the ancient item worked himself. He'd tried to describe the way it all worked to his friends, especially Tea who'd been so understanding of it all, but it was hard to explain something when even he didn't know how the process worked. He'd spent many nights lying awake trying to sort through the endless maze of Yami's mental barricades, but ultimately gave up. Sometimes it was best to simply trust in the Millennium Puzzle.
At first he'd been afraid of the spirit and of the strange magic Yami possessed, but they'd gained each other's trust in the final battle with Pegasus when the final card, the card Yugi barely remembered drawing after all the pressure on his mind, had turned out to be the mighty Black Luster Ritual. It had saved them all, but more importantly, the trust between Yugi and Yami had been cemented.
Yugi couldn't understand why Yami would have vanished. There was no way he could just be hiding in the hotel. Yugi didn't sense the other spirit anywhere, and that knowledge worried him all the more. Looking up into Tea's eyes, though, Yugi realized he didn't know how to explain it to her. There was something he and Yami shared that was just too awkward for anyone to be able to understand. It wasn't that Yugi didn't trust her, Tea had been his best friend even before he'd come to know Joey and Tristan as friends instead of school-yard bullies. He'd learned that she would try to believe anything he told her – no matter how crazy it sounded or if it made no sense to her. Yugi sighed. "Tea, I don't know what to do. Sure I have the Puzzle, but I don't know if it works like that. Yami … he may be dead, Tea."
"Oh, Yugi…" Tea knelt and swept Yugi up in a big hug, rubbing his back with such comfort that Yugi almost felt he would cry. It was like a piece of his soul had been ripped out when Yami left him. Although he could go on as if it hadn't really happened and that Yami wasn't in danger, Tea's unconditional comfort made him more aware of how precarious he felt, how off-center he was without Yami nearby. The warm glow in his mind was gone, and Yugi regretted those desperate cries on Duelist Kingdom for the spirit to leave him alone. He'd been afraid then, of the foreign presence in his mind and the sway it held over him, how it had refused to call back the Celtic Guardian in the duel against Seto Kaiba. The spirit had been determined to win regardless of who got hurt, and in the ensuing battle of wills, Yugi had barely triumphed, ordering the Celtic Guardian to halt with a desperate, urgent cry. Yami had promised never to disobey him again, to never go against the grain of the boy's convictions, and in the final battle for the stolen souls of Grandpa and the Kaiba brothers, Yugi had come to believe him. He trusted Yami. Yami was his closest friend, and despite the fact that everyone depended on him for support, Yugi felt the urge to crumple beneath the fact that Yami, his darkness, was gone.
Tea bestowed a feathery kiss on his forehead. "Yugi, it's ok. My puppy came back, and I'm sure Yami will too. He's alright, don't worry, we'll find him. I just thought maybe we could come up here and get some work done."
Yugi gave the taller girl an exasperated look. He'd heard of this tactic before, and it always disturbed him how low and dirty it was. His Grandpa would always try to distract him from his worries by offering him chores to complete around the comic shop, as though that would actually accomplish anything besides a cleaner store.
Tea's face remained passive, but Yugi could imagine the deceptive mind beneath the friendly façade. "I thought it might be good for you and Joey to do something besides worry for a little while, that's all." She sighed then, her sea foam eyes darting back to the elevator as though certain the blond duelist would step through at any moment, teeth chattering and soaked to the bone in melted snow. "I just wish Joey could find a better way to deal with his responsibilities. I can't believe he'd be so stupid, going out in the snow like that -- and to trim hedge animals for Pegasus of all people!"
The boy felt his eyes heating, the tears that threatened to form as he thought of poor Joey out in the freezing blizzard, and he pulled away a little, lowering his head. "It's ok, Tea. I know you mean well. You're right," he managed a small smile, looking into her eyes hopefully. "I don't want you to feel I was useless this entire detention. Yami can probably take care of himself. And I ought to do something anyway, to think about something else." Yugi kicked himself mentally for falling into her trap. It was always so much easier to avoid traps when they were played in Duel Monsters.
Tea grinned, her worry for Joey momentarily forgotten in the glow of Yugi's smile. "That's the spirit, Yugi." She stood, smoothing her skirt and staring down the hallway. "Now, let's get going. Maybe you'll think of a way to get Yami back while we work, right? I always get my best ideas at work, so maybe it'll help you too."
Yugi rolled his eyes and lifted the bucket of cleaning supplies; following as Tea lead the way. It wasn't that he was ungrateful to have Tea as a friend, it was more that he didn't like the way she could get him to do what she wanted. He knew that some people made fun of her, but she really was a loyal companion. She genuinely cared about people, and even though Yugi was only in high school, life had already taught him that such emotiveness was a rare quality. Her enthusiasm and optimistic nature never failed to give strength to those around her whom she cared about. Yugi still felt the threat of tears in his eyes, but the moisture was receding, drying as he followed Tea down the brightly lit hallway.
The electric lights were on for the most part, those that hadn't long ago lost the ability to conduct electricity buzzed softly. The windows on the third floor resembled those of the lobby, large and inviting it was obvious that they had been constructed to encourage the sun to pour abundantly into the otherwise dark hallways. If not for the blizzard, the setting sun might have still cast the same dragon's breath hue about the room. Now the dusty windows were frosted over in strange patterns reminiscent of fairytales. There were no water stains on the carpet, no indication of a trespasser as Duke and Tristan had seemed to infer in their strange visit to the second floor and the unexplored corridor leading to Room 217. By comparison, the third floor was bright and cheerful. The wallpaper was red and gold, in an unending pattern of French fleurs and medallions rising up toward the stained ceiling. Even though patches of the ceiling retained heavy water damage, the carpeting and walls were luxurious. The carpet was a lush ruby hue and reminded Yugi of the red carpets thrown out for movie stars, the rich, and the famous. The ceiling was patterned with crumbling ceramic tiles depicting images Yugi couldn't make out for all the dust, and from that high point large wrought-iron chandeliers dotted with tiny buzzing electric lights were suspended, their chains springing from the darkness like tangled vines.
Tea turned a corner, her blue skirt swishing as she winked out of sight. Then she gasped, "Oh wow!"
"What! Tea, what happened!" Yugi ran down the rest of the hallway, skidding around the corner and nearly colliding with Tea in his haste. He looked her up and down, making sure she was alright, and noticing not for the first time how short her skirt was. "What is it?"
"There. Oh, Yugi, isn't it beautiful!"
Yugi turned, and felt his jaw literally drop. No one had thought to seek out the massive glass room they'd all spied on the topmost floor of the Overlook the first day. Now, though, Yugi saw it all up close. The room was massive, made up in shimmering gold and red to fully capture all effects of the sunlight which would normally have streamed inside. The carpet ended abruptly as the room began, careening into a parquet floor faded with sun and time but closely resembling the floor of the lobby. The window was enormous, framing what would normally have been a view of the mountains and snow-covered landscape that would have made Monet swoon, but now the ferocity of the storm left only a feeling of dread in the back of Yugi's mind. The play of light and shadow created a strange surrealistic effect, only heightened by the fact that the window was adorned with stained glass images in each of the four corners depicting strange figures. The squares of glass were unidentifiable from a distance but beautiful as the electric light illuminated them, and cast strange shapes against the white wall of the shifting snow outside. With all the movement on the other side of the glass, Yugi had the strange disorienting feeling that he was staring at a giant television screen forever put on a nonexistent channel. It was a bit overwhelming.
For an instant the weather slackened, as though the gods themselves had sensed an audience, and for a moment Yugi was able to make out the hulking shapes of shadowed mountains in the distance. Miles away, the sky was grey and overcast, already almost dark as the sparse winter daylight wavered and faded. In the distance something like a large bird struggled on the sharp currents of air from the Overlook itself. The scene was hauntingly beautiful, and for a moment Yugi could easily imagine the wealthy guests which might have enjoyed the hotel's splendor, sipping sherry and gazing upon the land as though they owned it all. It was cold and vast and impressive. The sight gave Yugi the chills as the vague sense of power the room was designed to give nagged at his young mind. "It's kind of creepy, Tea."
"Yeah, but can you imagine? The people who came here when this was really a hotel? They must have been so refined, so elegant! It's like living in a romantic fairy castle." Tea walked further into the room.
Yugi followed the taller girl reluctantly, glancing at the covered furniture and the gilded portraits which hung on the far walls before turning his attention back to the giant windows. "I guess so." He gaze outside, fascinated by the dark shape of the bird. He squinted as the winter storm resumed as though it had never paused, the wind seeming to come more fiercely than before. The bird struggled, flapping in the wind, and Yugi thought for a minute he heard it's terrified squawk as it was pushed toward the giant window. It hit the glass with a sickening thump. Tea screamed, and Yugi sensed her move backwards from the dreadful sight. Yugi, however, stared in awe as he examined the bloody neck that had snapped in two on the collision. The tiny body sat for a few moments, the bird's beak opening and closing as though in terror before it fell to the snowy ground below, lost in the swirling white sea.
Yugi glanced to the terrified form of Tea, who had backed up almost exiting the room with a covered buffet table behind her. "Tea, are you okay?"
The girl's voice was broken and she seemed on the verge of tears. "That poor bird, Yugi, that was awful!"
Yugi sighed, agreeing with his friend but unable to do much about it. "Well, it's a pretty bad storm, Tea."
"Do you think Joey's alright out there? I mean, should we go get him? What if that line broke, what if he needs our help and we're way up here?" Tea leaned back, placing one of her hands on the buffet table and gripping the starched white sheet. She placed her other hand to her forehead and closed her eyes, "Maybe we should go back, Yugi. I don't know if we really need to worry about these stupid chores if Joey's in trouble."
"I'm sure he's alright, Tea. You know him, he'd hate for us to go out there and baby him like that. He'd be mad if we were even in the lobby when we got inside. I hate leaving him out there as much as you do, but we really don't have a choice. He chose to go out there, Tea, and we have to trust that Joey knows what he's doing."
Tea nodded dully, "I guess you're right." She picked herself up from the table and began wandering around the room, her eyes carefully avoiding the large bay windows and the small cracks left by the fallen bird.
As Yugi watched his friend, he was suddenly aware of the numerous large portraits on the walls. He peered at them curiously; they were all of young men and women. There were four smaller ones flanking a greater painting, a full body pose of a seemingly important man. Hoping that knowing the history of the hotel might help him in his quest to find Yami, he approached them. He noted the way his footfalls echoed on the wooden floor. It occurred to him that he was on the highest level of the building and that, were the floor to give way as the stairs had for Duke and Seto, the fall would be fatal.
"Where are you going?" Tea's question was almost urgent and Yugi was reminded of how jumpy she'd suddenly become.
Yugi shrugged, moving closer to the painting. The man was tall, in riding boots and pale brown breeches with a black waistcoat and wide-brimmed hat. A red curtain was swathed across a good portion of the portrait, running from the center of the top to the lower right corner to pool on the floor decadently. Though the rest of the Overlook had been ravaged by time and disuse, somehow the curtain had escaped the moths and mildew which would normally have decimated it. "I just want to look at the paintings, that's all. You ought to calm down some, Tea, this room is really amazing." Yugi turned to smile at his friend, pointing in the direction of the painting he indicated. "See that guy in the center, the one with the funny moustache? His eyes are kind of… haunting."
Tea watched him for a moment, eventually turning her light blue eyes to the giant oil portrait, but she didn't see anything strange about the paintings. She tentatively turned her gaze to the window, pressing close against it to look outside. She couldn't quite see the hedge animals that Joey was trimming though she knew they were below along with the lifeless form of the poor bird that had been devastated by the blizzard. It was such a small thing for a bird to be killed in a harsh wind, but watching it happen had somehow triggered a protectiveness that Tea had been holding at bay. So much had happened, it seemed they'd come to the hotel ages ago. Every day was more tiresome than the last, and Tea had to admit that she was worried for her friends. She'd seen some strange things in the hotel, but nothing unexplainable. She didn't believe a place could be evil or manipulative, but as she searched through the whirling snowy abyss below for the lifeless bird, she began to toy with the idea that something dangerous was happening.
Of course she agreed that someone had harmed Mokuba. No ghost could be blamed for such a thing, and Tea agreed with Kaiba and Duke that only someone outside of their group, someone who had been hiding all along, could have been the person behind everything that had happened. It was all well and good to accuse ghosts of making a room cold or of misplacing random household objects, but when it came to hurting a child Tea could only envision a person of flesh and blood having been the cause of such a crime. Deep down, she had to wonder if Pegasus had somehow planned the entire ordeal. She could think of no one else who had known that the group would be in the hotel, and she doubted that Ms. Sweeney held any serious grudges against the band of students.
"Yugi, do you think Mokuba will be alright?" Tea hated to be the voice of despair, but suddenly it was the only feeling to permeate her thoughts. She clutched her arms as a shiver rippled through her that wasn't brought on by the chill. "I'm worried about him. Do you think he'll ever come out of that … state?"
Yugi turned to her, smiling sadly, his eyes more lost than she had ever seen despite the optimistic tone of his voice. "Look, Tea, you can't keep thinking in circles like this. Mokuba's got Seto, Tristan, and Duke to take care of him. I'm sure they won't leave him alone. And if anybody can pull him back to the real world, it'll be Seto. You know he'd do anything to help Mokuba, so try not to worry about them. I thought we came up here to get our minds off that sort of thing. Lets get out of this weird room and start cleaning!"
Tea paused and glanced at her shorter friend out of the corner of one blue eye. "Are you sure, Yugi?"
"You shouldn't worry about them so much, Tea. I know Kaiba, and no matter how mean he might be to us, Mokuba is everything to him. He'd never let anything happen to his brother."
"It sure looked like he was hurting the kid to me." Tea rubbed her arms; the chill only deepened by her apprehension. "I don't like it. You blame the hotel, and I understand how you and Joey feel, but … don't you think that real people are involved? If there really is no one else in the Overlook, then who does that leave as the person who hurt Mokuba?"
"Tea," Yugi sighed, pausing to shuffle his feet on the edge of the red carpet, tracing the unending squares of the wood in the parquet floor. "This is a very old hotel, over a century from the looks of it." He sighed, and looked up, meeting the girl's questioning gaze. "Don't you think that, even though most of the people who came here probably had fun, that some of them, maybe a lot of them were sad? Really sad, I mean, and upset about something."
"Yugi, people get upset all the time. That doesn't mean they die and become ghosts."
"Yeah, but I don't think this is a normal hotel. I think it kind of," his eyes narrowed, and he seemed to be fishing for the best way to phrase some difficult thought. "… pushes people."
"What do you mean?" Tea could see where the conversation was headed, but she refused to allow herself to believe it. All she could think of was the bird against the window, its beak opening and closing as though in a hideous scream no one could hear. "Yugi, don't be ridiculous. It's only a hotel!"
"I think this place finds a weakness, a sadness, and pushes on it until the person dies or does something worse." Yugi raised his eyes to gaze steadily into Tea's concerned face. "I saw some awful things in that meat locker, Tea."
"Yugi, don't –"
"Somebody skinned a lot of people in there and … and put them on hooks. Don't look at me like that! You know I wouldn't make that up."
Tea sighed, closing her eyes for a moment. "I know, Yugi, it's just that … well, why would someone do that?"
"I don't know. I only know that a lot of suffering happened here. I might have stopped it for a while. I tried to reach out to the ghosts there but they shoved me away. They didn't want sympathy, only to cause fear and … something worse, I think." He shook his head. "Tea, I don't know why they took Yami, but I'm afraid that if we don't find out soon something terrible will happen. We have to find him."
"But we don't even know where to start. This place is huge! We've barely covered the second floor!"
"I know but he's the key to all of this, Tea. They kidnapped him to use him for something or make him do something, but he won't. Yami won't let them do anything evil. We just … we have to find him soon." He looked up at Tea and his eyes brightened, his lips pulling into a heartbreaking smile capable only of the King of Games. "We'll find him, Tea, and then everything will be alright. Yami will know what to do."
"I hope you're right, Yugi," Tea turned to look back into the room as she left, her eyes unintentionally lingering on the odd portrait that Yugi had pointed out. For a moment, she wasn't certain if it was the shadow or just how creepy the hotel was making her feel, but she could have sworn the finely-dressed man was smiling at her. Her heart leapt into her throat for a moment and she moved her legs faster to escape the beautiful but somehow deadly room, poor Yugi had to move his legs twice as quick to keep up with the nimble dancer.
"Hey, wait up! Tea, are you ok?"
The girl slowed, remembering her composure. She looked at Yugi sadly, noting his heightened concern for her and wondering if he would be so worried if he hadn't just lost Yami. She thought about mentioning the strange feeling she'd gotten from the painting, how it had seemed to leer lecherously at her bare legs, her short skirt, then decided against it. There was no point in worrying Yugi any more. Besides, she'd probably just imagined it. So much talk of ghosts was probably getting to her, making her jump at shadows. "I'm fine. I just wanted to get started on our work, that's all." She nodded and compulsively smoothed her skirt, avoiding Yugi's inquisitive gaze. "Don't worry about me. I'm fine. Really."
"Are you sure? You'd tell me, wouldn't you?"
She managed a weak smile. "Of course I would, silly!"
Yugi eyed her suspiciously, but let it go. He had so many things on his mind already. It wasn't that he thought Tea's problems were unimportant, but the weight of the hotel was pressing in all around him. It had begun as a dull ache, but had only grown more painful as his companions had split up. It was something akin to his experience in the Shadow Realm in the final duel against Pegasus. Something foreign and unnatural was pressing on his mind – something he couldn't quite identify. When he and Yami had been together, the power of the Millennium Puzzle had been great enough to ward off any unwanted encounters, but now that Yami was gone …
He hefted the bucket of cleaning supplies, shifting it to his other hand. He didn't know how much help he would be under present circumstances, but he would help the others as much as possible. He and his friends had sworn to always stick together, and Yugi was determined to keep on helping them even though Yami could be anywhere.
It was the warm weight of Tea's fingers on his arm that drew Yugi from his thoughts. He glanced down, the sight of their entwined hands instantly warming his soul as from the corner of his eye he saw her smile. "It'll be alright, Yugi, you'll see. Now wipe that frown off your face! Let's see what we've got to work with, ok?"
Yugi nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Besides, I haven't seen what any of these rooms look like. They could be in terrible shape."
"If they are, then we'll do less work on them. We're not a remodeling service, you know?"
There were many doors, but Tea and Yugi were in no hurry to finish their job. It had been a long day, and even if they returned to the guest room for the night, sleep would still elude them. Too many strange and unexplainable things had happened, and with the violence of the storm outside mimicking the clash between Joey and Kaiba earlier, there would be little room for sleep in their overactive imaginations. The third floor contained far fewer rooms, yet the cleaning was likely to take a long time. The suites were probably more spacious and therefore offered more places for dust bunnies and the ravages of time to take hold. The pair approached the first door on their right, Room 308 according to the brass knocker which Tea proudly scrubbed with her newly-acquired dust rag. She beamed at the gleaming brass; the flickering lights making the metal seem to wink in response. "Well, I guess we have to start somewhere."
Yugi nodded, and tried the doorknob. He hadn't expected it to be unlocked, and for a moment he had wondered how they would manage to get inside; yet his worries were dispersed as the knob turned and the walnut door swung wide, revealing a darkened interior. Though Yugi stared warily into the room with memories of the meat locker experience frolicking through his brain, Tea was nonplussed and snapped on the light.
The two stared at the room first in awe but then in growing despair. Tea sighed, rubbing the dust rag between her fingers thoughtfully. "This could take a while."
Suite 308 was spacious indeed, containing enough room for a group of guests. There was a sitting room with a large picture window that looked out over the hedge maze and other grounds in the front of the hotel. The furniture had been covered in sheets, giving everything a ghostly feel. Two doors flanked either side of the room, leading to bedrooms with the slick edges of plastic-wrapped mattresses barely visible beyond the doorframes. Yugi could only assume that there were two bathrooms adjoining the separate bedrooms as well. The wallpaper had once been rose red, but decades of bleaching sunlight had sucked the color into a sickly pastel shade, the original hue only visible behind a mahogany armoire and behind the opened bedroom doors. The curtains which flanked the windows were shredded, as though several vengeful cats had attacked them.
Tea and Yugi exchanged weary glances and sighed in unison. It was going to be a long night.
******
His breath was coming in cloudy puffs of smoke that condensed in the breeze and swept backwards over his shoulders. Joey had decided to ignore the chattering of his teeth long ago, though the biting wind had an annoying tendency to sweep up beneath his jacket and chill his sweaty back. The blond dropped the hedge clippers down to the snowy ground with a grunt, leaning back against the wall of the hedge maze in exhaustion. His shoulders ached and the muscles in his arms were tight from the length of time he'd been trimming the bushes. "W-well, I g-guess this is what I get for havin' a b-big mouth."
He rubbed his gloved hands briskly, trying to get the blood to circulate to the freezing fingertips. As the last few streams of sunlight had lit the front yard of the Overlook, Joey had finished up the hedge animals in the front without a problem. It had been slightly more difficult and a hell of a lot more boring than it had been with Mokuba's help, but Joey was bound to his promise to finish up the work. He'd made slow time in getting to the hedge maze, the snowshoes seemed to get heavier by the minute, and Joey had fallen to his knees multiple times, getting his pant legs wet and cold in the heavy snow. Visibility had plummeted as the sunlight had faded, and though Joey could make out the hulking dark shapes of the bulky hedge walls, the blinding snow swirled and danced in his line of sight. It was surrealistic enough to have been dreamy, and had Joey not been so damn cold he would probably have succumbed to the hypnotic spell.
The hedge maze had stood before him mockingly once he'd reached it, and Joey had toyed with the idea that it was much larger than he had thought it had been in the daylight. The night had come quickly, the freezing winds and shortage of moonlight only adding to the foul mood that had taken hold of him. Despite how vigorously he'd wanted to get the trimming done, he was already regretting his enthusiasm. He raised his reddened eyes upwards in the direction he knew the ominous Overlook stood; but regardless of how hard he strained he couldn't quite make out the hotel through the thick snowy curtain surrounding him. He massaged his upper arm absently to relieve the cramped muscle as he sighed in frustration. At least he wouldn't be out here tomorrow, he told himself optimistically. Even though the cold stung his skin like a viper's bite and his eyes were sore with the cold furious wind, he was determined to finish his work. It was only a blizzard, right? He'd been in much more painful situations; faced more dangerous foes than a little bad weather. He picked up the cold metal hedge clippers again, gritting his teeth against the flare of pain that gripped his arms. "Just a little b-bit more, Joey. You're almost d-done."
Joey had moved a good distance into the maze. He knew that there was no way he would be able to finish the giant monstrosity in a single night, and had resigned himself to finishing the front half – whatever he could reach at least. Joey wasn't enough of a fool to expect to find his way out of a hedge maze without knowing the layout. He'd finished an entire wall of the maze on the inside and had almost reached the halfway mark he'd made for himself. As he reached up a final time to clip off the remaining frosty overgrown foliage from the top of the bush, he felt a sharp tug on the rope that wrapped around his waist. "Huh?"
He looked down in confusion – Joey had forgotten that the life line only had so much slack. He glared down at the white rope in annoyance, and then shrugged as he saw the white puffs of smoke that escaped his lips with each heavy breath. "M-maybe it is t-time t-to quit." He attempted to swing the hedge clippers over his shoulder, but his muscles were so sore from the long day of clipping and fighting that he couldn't lift the weight up to his head without his biceps screaming in pain. Defeated, he put the clippers down into the snow again, dropping his head between his knees and realizing just how tired he'd become. The snow continued to fall from the bleak sky around him as his snowshoes gripped the firm powder with determination despite the shakiness of his legs and arms.
When he first heard the noise, Joey didn't quite register it as strange. The sound of the blood rushing in his ears and the ache of his body took precedence over a few odd noises. The wind made strange sounds anyway, and as big and old as the Overlook was, Joey had become accustomed to the creaks and groans; it rather reminded him of his own weariness. But when the low throated snarl met his ears again, Joey felt the hairs rise on the back of his neck and knew that he hadn't imagined it the first time. His first thought was that a wild animal had approached. Had a pack of wolves come down from the mountains? Joey might have been a city kid, but he'd seen enough movies to know that a hotel in the middle of a snowy mountain region was an apt place to be attacked by starving animals. He pulled himself up, eyes darting up and down the narrow path he'd been trimming, the thick snow refusing to reveal much to his tired eyes. He swallowed hard, gripping the heavy hedge clippers tighter and began the tedious process of leaving the maze. The snowshoes were heavy with the thick snowy carpet beneath his feet and his legs and arms ached with overexertion; but Joey knew enough about wild animals to know that with a pack of hungry wolves around him, there was no time to delay with the maze any longer. He approached the arched evergreen portal of the maze cautiously, hoping that his strength hadn't left him entirely as he gripped his single weapon close. He wasn't sure if he could scare away any desperate animals with nothing more than rusty hedge clippers, but he was sure as hell ready to try. He took a glance to his feet and realized that the footprints that he'd made upon first entering the maze had long since been filled with fresh snow. It was a frightening reminder of how long he'd been outside and he knew he had to return to the Overlook quickly.
Joey stopped to listen, hoping he could figure out exactly where the wolves were coming from, but all he could hear was the rustling of leaves and shrubbery in the wind. He heard the snarl again, this time more of a growl and much closer than it had been before. His heart leapt into his throat in panic, and he wondered if maybe he could escape into the maze, leaving his pursuers lost amid the tangling hedges. But Joey knew that he couldn't last the night outside. Hypothermia was definitely a danger and he'd rather fight and be mauled to death than freeze in Pegasus' goddamned hedge maze of all things. If he had to die out here, he'd rather go down fighting.
His resolve made up, Joey made a lunge for it, working his legs with an intense vigor as his arms pulled, hand over hand in a continuous pattern on the life line and toward the front door of the Overlook. As soon as he cleared the imposing archway, he heard a ferocious howl that sounded nothing like a wolf at all from directly behind him. He turned around just in time to see a strange green monstrosity glittering with frozen ice close at his heels, large oval head thrusting forward accompanied by the strange smell of pine needles. He cried out as he urged his legs faster, the snowshoes getting bogged down in the thick snow. Joey turned again as his memory suddenly flickered with remembrance – the thing chasing him was no wolf at all, but the same deformed bear that Mokuba had trimmed early that morning. He squinted into the snowy darkness and his suspicions were confirmed when he saw the galloping hedge bear had a limp from the thin right leg that the young Kaiba had cut a bit short. Further behind the squat bear he saw the two lions he'd trimmed earlier, bounding quickly across the field of snow, their legs perfectly shaped from Joey's long hours of trimming. "Aw no, that's impossible! You're … I just trimmed you! Damn it, is nothing safe in this hellhole?!"
His mind whirled with the confusion of it all – bushes didn't just come to life and chase you! If that were the case, you'd have specials on TV of evil hedge animals mauling their respectable caretakers on prime time. He wondered for a moment how much money he would make if this was caught on a local station back home. A short new clip ran in his mind, a dark-haired woman in a low cut blouse reading lines from a pad of paper: And in other news, a young student from Domino High was killed by a pack of ferocious bushes this last week. It seemed to detectives that he simply didn't see it coming. A case of maul-and-run, officers informed us, and hopefully we'll all keep a better eye on our dear plant friends. Joey shook his head as he vaulted over a large pile of snow, barely catching his balance as he continued his flight, "You're really crackin', Joey. You're soundin' more like a loony every day, you know that? Even Yugi's gonna wonder what I was smokin'!"
Joey turned his head, gripping the line with all his might as he frantically searched the grey world and swirling snow around him for the familiar lights of the Overlook Hotel. It was as if it had vanished and that Joey had fallen into another world, another dimension and he wondered briefly if he would ever see his friends again. Suddenly, the bear pounced knocking the wind out of the blond as its thick branches, sharp from the recent pruning, ripped through the jacket and dug into his back. Joey cried out in pain, his eyes tearing and freezing in the snow. The hedge bear's frigid breath should have smelled of decayed meat but instead Joey was hit with a cold gust of pine. An odd thought struck him that these hedge animals would make taxis smell really nice.
Summoning every ounce of strength he had left, Joey rolled onto his back, knocking the bear aside momentarily. It gave him enough time to brandish the hedge clippers and slice viciously at the thin leg – the monster's only weakness. The bear threw back his head and howled into the charcoal sky and Joey smiled despite the cold. "Gotcha, you bastard!" He stumbled to his feet, having to rebalance himself on the snowshoes and pulled back a balled fist to punch the bear squarely in its green jaw.
The bear was knocked backwards and just as Joey began to think he'd gotten the upper hand, he saw with growing fear the two lions advancing with remarkable speed only yards behind the bear. "Oh great, that's just what I need! What'd I ever do to you guys?!" But the monsters only let out low rustling snarls in response, advancing with their blackened eye sockets trained on their prey. The blond began his waddling race again, gripping the life line with white knuckles as he continued his desperate flee to the hotel, hedge clippers dangerously secured in his armpit. The sound of their massive paws thumping against the frozen landscape grew louder, their snarls reverberating against the thin air and silent trees. He could feel the cold wind of what must have been their breath hit the wound on his back and he heard the faint crunch of snow beneath their evergreen paws. Joey wondered if he would be able to reach the hotel in time or if he should turn and fight them in battle. His decision was delayed however by two blinding lights that shone out in the general direction of what must have been the dirt pathway – he couldn't tell for the thick blanket of snow.
"What the hell?" He panted out through gritted teeth, "What now?!"