Ranko: Hello all you lovely readers out there!

Yuugi: Ranko? What are you doing? Shouldn't you be preparing for NaNoWriMo?

Ranko: Well I couldn't leave all my readers in suspense for long, so I decided that I should update as frequently as I can. And technically I can't start writing my novel until November 1st so everything between now and then is filler.

Yami: You were just bored.

Ranko: That too! So I should probably answer some reviews, huh?

xChaoticDawnx: Thank you so much, your so nice. And I know what you mean, little Ryou was so cute! Your wish will be granted! Please continue to review!

raindropdew: You are so awesome and such a nice reviewer too! I know what you mean, Jou needs to get his head out of his arse and realize his feeling already! Thanks for the review!

hikari no senshi17: I know I'm mean, I'm sorry, here is an update for you if that will make you feel better.

Dinogirl: Thanks so much, you are awesome! I know what you mean about the reincarnation business, but Ryou isn't dead (Yay!) but he technically isn't alive…im confusing myself! That is a scary picture of Yami…that has scarred me for the rest of my life. Thank I try my best. Please continue to review!

PomPoms: Oh I'm sorry. I'm here and I bring an update!

Yami: Ranko twin owns nothing!

Ranko: Enjoy!

-/-

Yuugi screamed…or at least got out half a scream. The rest was cut off as something knocked him to the ground. It was the dark figure that was in front of him, and it was shouting something.

"Yuugi, get down!"

Yuugi's brain processed all of this slowly; it almost made him dizzy. There was a dull crashing and a thudding that might have been running, or was that the blood in his ears? Then the crashing stopped.

The small boy was pushing himself to his elbows but a firm hand on his shoulder stopped him. He turned his head up slowly to see who it was that pushed him out of the way and was greeted by a familiar sight.

"Bakura?"

But the white haired boy wasn't looking at him, he was looking into the darkness of the night to try and make out what exactly that thing was that was chasing him and Malik. Wait…

"Oh, my God! Malik!" Yuugi nearly jumped to his feet but Bakura still had a firm hand on his shoulder keeping him down on his side.

"Stay down until I see if it's gone; Malik's fine," Bakura said. Suddenly, the back door to the Game Shop burst open; the light was spilling out from inside and the small group of friends came rushing out to see what the commotion was. That would have scared off that thing if it were still there.

Mai was the first one out and quickly analyzed the situation. She saw her cousin pinned to the ground under Bakura and Malik a short distance away without his shoes on and looking like he had just seen a ghost.

Yep, definitely a bad situation.

"Yuugi!" Mai cried, rushing over to her cousin. Bakura swiped his hand away before the older, more protective woman bit it off. The blond woman patted down her cousin and checked him for injuries. "Are you okay? What happened?"

Yuugi opened his mouth to speak and then snapped it shut again; what did happen? Yuugi didn't even know.

"Yuugi and Malik were chased by someone, or something," Bakura answered for the smaller boy. "I'm not sure what it was, I didn't really see it, but I did hear it and then I—"

"—knocked me down," Yuugi finished, a hint of irritation in his voice. "What about you, Malik?"

Everyone stared at the blond who was sitting there, completely unnoticed until that moment. After a few seconds of silence, Malik shook his head slowly. "N-no, I didn't see anything, I was too busy trying to get the door open."

Yuugi stared at the keys that were still clutched tightly in his hands and wondered why Malik would try and get the door open if he knew it was hopeless.

Those thoughts were quickly forgotten when Mai asked her next question. "Do you know what it could have been?"

"It wasn't a person," Bakura answered in a low voice. "I think—"

"Hey, what's that?" Jounouchi asked, pointing to something down the street under a street light.

It was a dog.

It was a black lab; black enough to blend into the night—or the hedges. It stared at the group curiously and then started wagging its tail furiously.

'The rusting in the bushes,' Yuugi thought. 'The tail wagging and the panting breath.'

"Dog breath," Yuugi whispered aloud; relief was clear in his voice.

Malik nearly sobbed in relief but what came out was a watery chuckle. "Oh God; Oh my, God!"

Bakura huffed and said, "That was a waste of my time! A stupid dog for God's sake! Damn it!"

Malik spun around to face Bakura; he gave him a nasty look and put his hands on his hips. "Where have you been all day, Bakura? Do have any idea what all of us have been through!"

Bakura snarled and clenched his fist at his sides. "You told me to stay away from you, didn't you? That's what you said!"

"Wait a minute!" Mai cried over the yelling between the two teens. "What the hell is going on?"

Bakura was speechless for a moment and then looked down at his feet. "Nothing," he mumbled.

"Nothing?" Malik fumed. "Bullshit! You've been avoiding us all day! What the hell are we supposed to think?"

"What is going on?" Honda asked, completely lost.

Bakura shook his head and without looking up, said, "I don't want to talk about it."

"You don't want to talk about it?" Malik cried, near tears at this point. "God, Bakura! I understand that your sad because you lost Ryou, but you've completely changed! I'm your best friend and I love you—"

"Wait, what?" everyone shouted nearly simultaneously.

Bakura and Malik ignored them. Bakura looked up and his eyes were narrowed into slits. "I'm not the one who's changed Malik, you have. Before we played the Game, you were this strong, independent guy that was my best friend. You were someone that I knew would always be supportive even if I did something stupid. But now you're just this complete, jumpy, scared wreck that is always looking over his shoulder for Shadow Men!"

Everyone gaped at Bakura's outburst.

"I don't even know who you are anymore! You're just some weak, stuttering mess; you are not the same Malik that I have known for years, you are not my best friend," Bakura finished. He turned on his heel and started walked away. "I'm going home."

Malik sunk to his knees; his eyes were hollow and lifeless. He was shaking violently and hugged himself tightly; tears were starting to collect in his eyes. "Oh God," he sobbed. "Oh God, I want to die. It feels like I'm dying."

Yuugi went over to Malik and hugged him, rubbing his back in a comforting manner.

A gust of wind blew past them and Mai shivered. "Come on, let's get back inside."

Yuugi half led, half carried Malik inside the Game Shop and up the stairs to the apartment.

Once everyone was inside, Yuugi and Mai assigned everyone a room to sleep in during their stay. Seto and Honda had to sleep on the floor because there weren't enough beds and the two boys refused to share a bed with anyone else.

Everyone put on their sleepwear and tried to loosen the tension in the room by watching a few comedies in the living room. Mai and Yuugi stayed in Yuugi's bedroom, where he and Malik were going to sleep. Yuugi curled up against his cousin's side and sighed.

"Everything is changing, Mai."

The woman rubbed her cousin's back. "I know, hun."

Suddenly the phone rang from the kitchen. Mai moved to pick it up, but Yuugi stopped her and hopped to his feet. "I've got it."

Yuugi walked out of his room and across the living room to get to the kitchen. Everyone was watching the movie with bleary eyes; no one seemed to be paying attention. Yuugi shook his head and ran into the kitchen before the phone stopped ringing. He picked it up right in time and answered.

"Hello?"

Shhshhshhshhshhshhshhshhshhs hh.

A shiver ran up Yuugi's spine and sent off warning bells in his head.

The shushing noise went on, but over it was a whispering.

"A…ishhshhshht."

"Can you guys turn the TV down?" Yuugi called into the living room; his response was the decrease in volume of Adam Sandler's loud voice.

The breathy whisper was in Yuugi's ear and the physical voice was in his head: Vanished…

"Van-ishhshhshhshhed," the voice whispered.

Yuugi clutched the phone until his fingers hurt and his knuckled turned white. "Who is this?" he asked harshly into the receiver.

The voice sounded like a man's, and it had a distorted quality to it that went beyond foreign. The word sounded like vanished, but…

The phone clicked, and then there was a dial tone.

Mai was in the doorway, staring at her cousin with worried eyes. "Who was it, Yuugi?" She was suddenly standing in front of him, her hands cupping his face. "Are you okay? You look pale."

Yuugi swatted her hands away and put on a fake smile. "It's nothing; I'm fine, just really tired. I think I'm going to go to bed." He walked past Mai quickly, he barely heard her say goodnight to him.

He closed his bedroom door behind him and flicked off the lights before falling onto his bed. He pulled the covers over his head and curled himself into a tight ball. Soon everyone went to bed too and the house was quiet. Yuugi heard Malik approaching his room and closed his eyes, pretending to be asleep.

The door creaked open a crack and then swung open fully, light flooding into the dark room.

"Yuugi?" Malik asked quietly. "Are you awake?"

Yuugi didn't answer.

He heard Malik sigh and then say, "Alright then." The blond then laid down on the sleeping bag and was soon asleep.

Yuugi felt bad. Malik wanted to sleep with Yuugi in his bed because he was scared. After all of the day's events, it had shaken Malik up pretty bad. And what happened that night with Bakura didn't help things either.

Yuugi laid there for a long time, just listening to Malik's even breathing, signifying that he was asleep. Yuugi just couldn't relax enough to go to sleep.

It was the phone call, he just knew it.

Without thinking, Yuugi carefully climbed out of bed without making a noise. He stepped over Malik's sleeping body and climbed onto his desk. He slowly opened his skylight window and flinched when it made a terrible squeaking sound. Yuugi looked over his shoulder to see if Malik woke up but the boy still slept soundly.

Yuugi silently sighed in relief and climbed out of the window and onto the roof. It was chilly up on the roof, but the crispness of the air and the icy wind helped to clear Yuugi's mind.

It had been a long day. He couldn't believe that going to the police department and finding out the Shadow Men were free, to running in to Soren, and then the incident in the park, and then what happened with Bakura only a few hours ago all happened in one day.

It felt like a lifetime.

Yuugi didn't know why, but up here, where he was exposed to all eyes, where he could see the bright lights of the city, was where he felt safest. Safe from the Shadow Men, the Game, and all the emotional baggage his friends carried. This is where he felt like he was untouchable.

Yuugi rose to his feet and spread his arms out wide as a gust of wind blew past him. His baggy clothes fluttered around his tiny body and his bangs smacked his face.

Here, he wasn't afraid of Yami.

"Beautiful night, isn't it?"

Scratch that.

Yuugi's breath caught in his throat and his blood ran cold, like ice in his veins. He didn't want to turn around, he didn't want to face him. This was his safe place, he wasn't aloud here. Why was he here?

Ignoring his mind's warning, his body disobeyed and turned around. It was like everything was in slow motion. And then the two were facing each other like that day in the game shop when Yuugi first met him.

The gothic punk. The cute salesman. The boy with the predator gleam in his eyes. The mysterious boy that sold him the Game. The one who said, "At nine."

Yami.

Yuugi nearly screamed but he didn't have any breath to do it. He was afraid that he would fall off the roof but he knew that even he wasn't that clumsy.

Yami looked exactly like he did when Yuugi first met him at the game shop. All leather and, of course, good looking; Yuugi couldn't deny that fact. He was smirking and had a hand resting on his hip. He had that predatorily gleam in his eyes that made Yuugi want to run and hide.

Finally, he found his voice.

"Yami? Wha-what are you…?"

"Surprised?" he asked, taking a step towards Yuugi. "You should be considering that you trapped me in that damn closet."

"H-how did you get out?" Yuugi cursed himself for stuttering.

Yami was now in front of him, their chests nearly touching. Yuugi thought that he might fall off the edge, but Yami held the boy's thin biceps.

"Those two imbeciles played the game and somehow made it to your parents' basement and released me. I thanked them by killing them both."

Yuugi furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Who…?" But Yuugi didn't even have to complete that thought he knew exactly who Yami was talking about.

"Y-you killed Haga and Ryuzaki?" Yuugi asked, his eyes widening in horror. He shouldn't be surprised, Yami did kill Ryou but Haga and Ryuzaki were just innocent bystanders; they had nothing to do with Yuugi or the Game. "You monster," he spit out.

Yami smirked and licked his lips. "If that's what it takes to be with you, my little one."

Yuugi cringed and it felt like bugs were crawling over his skin. "I will never give myself to you! Do you understand? I would rather die than let you have me."

Yami's smirked stretched wider across his face. "But my love, you already do."

"Wha—?" Before Yuugi could finish that sentence, he felt cool metal against the skin of his finger. He looked down and gasped in shock. Sitting peacefully on his left ring finger was the gold band that Yami gave to him at the end of the Game. He still remembered the engraving on the inside of the band.

All I refuse & And thee I chuse

Yuugi looked back up at Yami; horror was clear on the younger boy's face. He tried tugging on the ring but it wouldn't budge. "It won't come off!"

Yami's eyes glowed red in the night and he was grinning. He released Yuugi and the boy went falling from the roof.

"Game start."

Yuugi awoke with a start; he was sweating and his whole body was shaking. He shot up in bed and clutched his sheets to his chest, feeling horribly exposed.

"It was just a dream, it was just a dream, it was just a dream…" Yuugi repeated like a mantra, rocking back and forth on his bed.

He looked at his left hand and saw the gold band glittering in the low light.

Nope, definitely not a dream.

The phone rang from the kitchen, making Yuugi nearly jump ten feet in the air. He checked his clock and saw that it was only three in the morning. He checked if Malik was awake and saw the boy sleeping soundly. Yuugi got up on shaky legs and walked across the dark house to answer the phone.

"H-hello?"

"A…isht…"

Yuugi froze and he started shaking again; he was afraid that his legs wouldn't support him so he sat down at the kitchen table.

"A…isht…"

Yuugi wanted to speak, but he couldn't; it was impossible to.

"A…isht…"

'Damaged,' Yuugi guessed. No, that wasn't right. What was the voice saying? A-isht. Am-ish. Amished.

Yuugi froze; he couldn't breathe. "Oh God," he whispered.

It wasn't vanished. It sounded like vanished but it was something completely different.

"And then she just wondered off mumbling something about vowel sounds."

It wasn't vanished, not at all, it was something much more sinister and evil. And that damn voice wouldn't stop whispering it!

Yuugi threw the phone as hard as he could across the room and ran to his room to hide under the covers.

Famished.

That is what that damn voice was saying.

Famished.

The eyes in the closet. The Shadow Men. They were famished.

Those evil, ravenous eyes…

The better to eat you with, my dear.

-/-

Ranko: And cut! I know you guys are going to love this chapter! I can feel it in my bones! I was so excited about this chapter I wrote it in a day!

Yami: Uh-oh…Ranko is using a lot of exclamation points, that means that she's had caffeine.

Yuugi: We hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and make sure to leave long reviews! Ranko needs some support right now with her going into NaNoWriMo.

Yami: Review!

Ranko: For Sparta!