Yami: Ranko, you liar!
Ranko: What? What did I do? And who said you could be the first one to speak in the introduction?
Yami: You said two chapters ago that you wouldn't be able to update and here we are two chapter later! Are you stringing your readers along?
Ranko: Of course not! I just misjudged my time, I don't know how many more times I'll be able to update before November!
Yami: Whatever you say.
Ranko: Oh, you wanna go? Come at me, bro!
Yuugi: Ranko, calm down! Can we please just answer reviews?
Ranko: Sorry, I guess I've been hanging out with my wannabe gangster friends too long. (holds up list of reviews) I'm so happy and the amount of reviews I got! You guys rock, and all of you are so supportive!
hikari no senshi17: I'm glad that you liked the chapter so much and I'm happy that I didn't disappoint. I'm glad that I could update again, and I hope that this update will last you until the end of November if I don't get another chance to update.
Doragon-chan: You're telling me.
Magi Magi Magician Girl: Your new username sure is a bit to write down now, but what can you do? :) Anyway, I laughed when I got your review because I couldn't help but hear my friends' voices in my head saying "I told you so…" They love to mess with me, the bastards. And answer to your questions (in order): maybe, Ryou is alive but dead (its complicated -_-), and Bakura is just Bakura, he's a bitch.
Dinogirl: You are such a nice reviewer! Two reviews for one chapter! (gives you hug) This is for both of your reviews. I know what you mean, Yuugi's misery is our beloved puzzleshipping moments! Your just make me feel so loved! And you don't have to worry about scarring me, I am related to Yami and Yuugi after all (jk). ;) Anyway, I'm glad I could bring you joy with that one "safe place" bit, Yuugi wasn't happy with me. And here's something for you fangirl mind: that wasn't a dream ;)
raindropdew: I know, right? ;)
Ceaselessfall: Yeah, Yami is a bit nutso in this story O_O
cashirecat1: Breath! Don't die! Stop coughing! Anyway, I'm glad you like the chapter so much. And I understand your madness! We're all mad here, embrace it! I'm probably just as crazy as you. Ranko twin out!
ansolorio1204: Your review made me so happy! I'm glad that one person was inspired to read the actual Forbidden Game books, cause that's how I got hooked :) Anyway, thanks so much, I wish you luck on whatever your doing for NaNoWriMo!
xChaoticDawnx: I know what you mean, I love season 0 Yami! Everyone hates that season but I think it's not that bad.
naomi: Thank you so much!
PomPoms: Thanks so much, I'm glad that you enjoyed the last chapter!
Shaliza's Scarab: I know, what happened to Malik is horrible :( Thank you for the support and I'll try my best to keep everyone posted!
Yuugi: That was a lot of reviews…
Yami: Ranko twin owns nothing!
Ranko: Enjoy!
-/-
Malik lied.
That night, when he and Yuugi were attacked by that thing, he lied. He told Bakura and everyone else that he hadn't seen that beast that attacked the two boys. But the truth is that he did; Malik did see that thing. But maybe it was for the best that everyone thought it was dog. A dog was just a dog, it wasn't him; a dog wasn't that beast Malik saw.
The thing was the size of a large wolf but a small bear. It was wretched and beastly, and what Malik saw hidden in the shadows of the shrub, was him…
Marik.
And the two made eye contact for a quick moment, nearly nonexistent. And the way that Marik looked at him, that smug satisfaction in his eyes, was almost like him telling Malik, "I told you I'd find you."
So yes, it is better that all of his friends thought it was just a dog. It was for the best that no one knew.
Malik was half awake and half asleep when he heard the bedroom door open and then close again. He heard the sound of someone trying to be too quiet and then the creaking of the bed springs as a tiny body settled on the bed. Then all movement stopped and there was harsh breathing.
'That's it,' Malik thought, groggily clearing himself of the small haze of sleep still clouding his mind. He pushed himself up slowly, feeling his joints and muscles realign themselves after the uncomfortable sleep on the floor. He rubbed his tired eyes, trying to clear the blurriness of the night and his temporary blindness.
The boy sighed-slash-yawned and grabbed his glasses from the floor beside him, too lazy to put his contacts in. Everything cleared quite a bit and Malik saw a familiar form curled up in a tight ball on the bed. The form was shaking like an animal and he realized that that must be where the harsh breathing sound was coming from.
Malik realized with a jolt that that form was Yuugi. He jumped to his feet and flicked on the bedside lamp. Both boys blinked rapidly, their eyes trying to adjust to the sudden harsh light.
Yuugi's eyes were bloodshot but there was no evidence that he had been crying. His knuckles were white, clutching the fabric of his pajamas like a lifeline.
"Yuugi, what's wrong? What's the matter?" Malik asked, concern lacing his voice.
"Uh, nothing," Yuugi replied lamely. It was obviously nothing, Yuugi nearly looked as worse as Malik when they went to the police station.
"Then what's…" Malik trailed off when he noticed a glint of gold on Yuugi's finger. "What's that?" Malik asked, already knowing the answer.
Yuugi looked down, wondering what had caught Malik's attention and gasped. The boy looked like he was about to start crying. Malik looked at the ring more closely; it was just a simple gold circlet, there was no design or stones, but Malik recognized it. Malik knew what he would find if he were to look on the inside of the ring.
"Oh God," Malik breathed out. "Mai!" Malik yelled, waking the whole house.
Soon everyone was crowded together in Yuugi's room, their hair in a disarray and their sleep clothes wrinkled. Malik gave a long, hysterical explanation and then Yuugi retold his dream to everyone and then the events taking place after he woke up.
Seto furrowed his eyebrows. "It was probably that psychic," he said promptly.
"Why is that always your response to everything?" Jounouchi snapped. "Trying to disprove the obvious facts?"
"Shut up, you two," Mai snapped. "We're all tired and stressed to the max. That is probably causing us to see and hear things that aren't really there."
"Like that dog?" Honda asked. Malik flinched slightly but it was ignored.
"Yes, like the dog," Mai confirmed.
"The calls weren't hallucinations," Yuugi said, his voice surprising steady. "It could have been a dream, but I seriously doubt that."
Jounouchi shrugged. "Who knows the difference between dreams and reality anymore?"
Honda elbowed the blond in the ribs. "You're not helping," he muttered.
Mai shook her head. "I'm not saying the phone calls were hallucinations, but maybe the voice you heard was. You didn't hear the word vanished in the static until you were told the word, right?"
Yuugi nodded, it did make sense. "I know I heard famished though."
Mai sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose; she became irritable and impatient when she didn't get enough sleep, so that could be why she was fighting with Yuugi on this. "Okay, sweetie, you think whatever you want, just please, talk to me in the morning when I am more awake."
Everyone started to file out of the room, one by one, only Jounouchi stayed with his friend. He sat down beside Yuugi and squeezed his shoulder. "Are you okay, Yuugi?"
Yuugi nodded. "I'm fine, Jounouchi; nothing is wrong with me. I know I heard famished," the boy said desperately.
Jou sighed. "Yuugi, we're all really tired, are you sure that you didn't just hear things? You could have dreamt it up after that last weird phone call."
Yuugi shook his head. "No, that's impossible, it was real. I heard it. And what about meeting Yami on the roof, I know that was real," he said, waving the hand with the ring on it in front of Jounouchi's face to emphasize his point.
Jounouchi took the small hand and put it back on Yuugi's lap. "I have no doubt in my mind that Yami did appear to you on the roof, there is no way to disprove that. But don't you think that with all of the added stress and the incident on the roof that the phone call could have just been a delusion of your mind."
Yuugi stared at his friend in disbelief for a moment. He truly didn't believe Yuugi. Jounouchi must have noticed the look of hurt on his friend's face. "Yuugi, please, we're all tired, I think you just need to rest and all of us will talk about this in the morning."
Yuugi silently nodded, keeping his lips sealed as he felt the overwhelming urge to scream and cry at the same time. Jounouchi smiled weakly and gave his friend a half hug before getting up and going back to bed.
After Jounouchi left, Malik took the blond's place next to Yuugi. He took Yuugi's left hand which had the ring on it and started playing with the gold. He tugged and just as Yuugi had figured out, the ring would not come off. Malik's eyes widened and without missing a beat, he hugged the smaller boy. No words were needed, just the presence of another person.
"I believe you," Malik mumbled as he and Yuugi drifted off to sleep on the boy's bed.
Unknown to any one else in the house, Mai was down the hall in her room typing away on her laptop. She was recording all the days events, including what had just happened in Yuugi's room.
It wasn't that she didn't believe her cousin, she did actually, it was just so much to take in. After what Yuugi had told her about what happened on the roof, she wanted to find Yami and beat him, like she should have done in the Game but she was too much of a coward to do so.
So she recorded all of her thoughts and events that went on her life so she could keep track of everything. It was comforting.
She was in typing Yuugi's name when the Y key got stuck. She had barely touched it with her right index finger, but the Ys went on and on across the line. They got to the right margin and went on; got to the edge of the screen and went on.
The screen scanned right and the rest of Mai's document moved jerkily to the left, disappearing. She stared in horror, Mai's first thought being that she broke the computer. Now her eyes widened as the Ys went on without end. They just kept going. The letters didn't even fall down to the next line.
The letters hit the end of the screen and then ebbing back as the screen scanned right, then surging to the edge again.
Mai continued to press Escape but that didn't work. Next she tapped at the Enter to put in a hard return, to break the line. Nothing happened.
Mai tried every key that would stop the long line of letters. Biting her lower lip, she next tried Control/Alt/Delete; that should reboot the computer.
Nothing.
The Ys continued.
Next, Mai went for the power button on her laptop and held it down, pressing it until the tip of her finger turned white. That should have shut down the computer completely, but still nothing happened.
Mai stared wide eyed and gaped. This was unbelievable.
Mai pulled the charger out of the computer and tossed it to the ground. When Mai first got her laptop, she would keep it on the charger for too long so now her computer lived off of it. It would die and unable to work again without it.
Still, the Ys sailed on.
Then everything happened so fast, there was a flash of light and the monitor went black. Mai sighed in relief. She may never be able to use her laptop again but at least that was over.
Then something made Mai's breath catch in her throat. A noise that made her blood run cold in her veins, sending a shiver up her spine; warning bells went off in Mai's head.
A moving sound, like a rope being dragged. Like something sliding across the floor. It was something underneath her bed. And it was crawling out…towards her. Mai quickly pulled her feet up onto her bed and leaned over the edge to see what it was.
She didn't want poke her head out to far, in fear of whatever might be there.
There was a hiss and then a glow of yellowish green. Mai shrieked and darted across the room to flick to light on.
She dropped to the floor and looked under the bed. The woman sighed in relief as she realized that it was just the charger cable the she had tossed on the floor and the battery's light showing that her laptop was unable to use.
Nothing to worry about…right?
Elsewhere ~
As Jounouchi walked down the hall back to the guest room, he felt the strange feeling of being watched. He stopped in the middle of the dark hall and swiveled around. There was nothing there but more darkness.
Of course there was nothing there, Jounouchi sighed in relief and continued to walking down the hall to his temporary room. It was just an empty hall, no windows, there was no way he could be peeked on.
So why did he feel so uneasy.
Meanwhile, Seto was sleeping on the floor of the guest room. Though, he wasn't sleeping, he couldn't sleep. He couldn't close his eyes and drift off. Too much was happening. He squeezed his eyes shut once again and sighed when he couldn't relax.
He rolled onto his back and popped his eyes open. He came face to face with a pair of yellow, cat like eyes. He shouted in surprise and his whole body jerked; he struck out at whatever the thing was. He shut up and fumbled for the lamp.
Light illuminated the room the same time Honda jerked awake as well. The brunet and sat up and was breathing raggedly.
Seto realized, slightly relieved and horrified, that it was only he and Honda in the room. Nothing with cat like eyes.
The two boys shared a terrified look as they realized what had just happened.
They were being stalked.
"I had a dream…" Honda said; he gulped. "Something was hanging over my head, watching me from the wall; it was looking at me through the wall," he corrected.
Seto nodded, not bothering to recount what he had experienced. There was no need.
This must be what Yuugi always felt.
Meanwhile, across town, in Bakura's home, he was experiencing something similar to everyone else.
He was sleeping restlessly, tossing and turning in his bed. He was huffing from exertion and his body was gleaming with sweat. His eyes were screwed shut, his legs tangled in the mess of his sheets, and his hands clenched and unclenched.
Finally, the restless boy calmed and laid still as he felt warm hands on his chest in his dreams. There was a vision of white and the sound of beautiful laughter.
"Bakura!"
But that voice didn't match the beautiful image. The voice was mingled with pain and desperation. The voice was pleading and scared.
"Help me!"
Bakura awoke with a start. He quickly sat up in bad and grasped for the mirage before it disappeared.
"Ryou!" he cried, trying to catch the ghost of the boy before he left him again; he couldn't leave him again. But it was no use; Bakura hugged himself tightly and sobbed.
Elsewhere ~
"Nightmares are a beautiful thing, aren't they?" Yami asked as he stared up at the starry sky and full moon. He stood on Domino docks, the night sky reflected on the clear water. The man closed his eyes and breathed in the crisp night air mixed with the salty sea air. He looked over her shoulder to another boy standing there lifelessly, just watching him.
"Don't you agree?" Yami asked again, a false, misleading smile on his lips. Yami didn't smile, he only smirked and grinned. The boy with piercing green eyes stepped out of the shadows and into the light of the full moon with Yami, his black hair shining.
"Soren?"
The boy's eyes which were usually as bright and luminous as emeralds had lost all of their luster and light. They were blank and lifeless, with a sheen of ruby coloring. "Yes, Yami, I agree."
Yami smirked and then turned back around to look up at the night sky. He reached up, as if he could reach the moon. "They say that eyes are windows to the soul and dreams are a way to show someone's true desires. But what does that leave for nightmares?" Yami clenched his fist. "Are nightmares a way to show people what they really want through their fears?"
"Yes, Yami, I agree."
Yami scowled and his hand dropped to his side, his hand still clenched into a fist. He walked up to the tall boy and slapped him across the face. "You useless boy."
"Yes, Yami, I agree."
Yami kneed him in the gut and Soren fell to his knees. "Enough of this, the Game is about to begin and soon you will be of no more use to me. But not yet, first we have to set it up and wait for the opportune time to strike."
Soren looked up at Yami through his bangs. His eyes cleared and he scowled up at Yami. "Bastard," he mumbled, spitting on the docks; Yami chose to ignore the comment. Soren hated the man standing over him. He possessed him, he was using him, and he was going to hurt the person he cared about: Yuugi. But he couldn't do anything, he was powerless against Yami. At least the son of a bitch had his own body now so he didn't have to take Soren's over when he had to do his dirty work.
Yami looked back up at the night sky. "Prepare yourself, Yuugi, the new Game will soon begin."
Marik and Akefia came up behind Soren, flanking the boy, who was still on his knees. Crouching at Marik's side was what looked like a large wolf but a small bear and a large, thick snake wound up Akefia's arm and rested its head on the man's shoulder, hissing softly; it had yellow green eyes.
"Ready or not, here I come."
-/-
Ranko: And cut! I am sure this is not what you guys expected and I apologize. I hope I didn't bore you guys to death and I'm sorry that this chapter is shorter. Thanks for being so supportive guys and continuing to read.
Yami: You're so sappy, Ranko.
Ranko: Shut up! This update may actually be my last before November!
Yuugi: It's going to be okay, Ranko.
Ranko: Thanks guys and I'll see you next time! Please make sure to give me nice, long reviews!