Ranko: Whoa, I can't wait for school to be over, then I'll be able to update more frequently.
Yami: You probably still won't be able to update that much since you will probably have AP homework and college visits to do.
Ranko: Do you live to ruin my good mood.
Yuugi: Must you always fight? Can we just answer reviews?
YinYang Moon Dragon: I can't tell you if Yami and Yuugi get together in the end but I am sure that you will like the ending! We all love Yami no matter how much of a jackass he is. Your Yami actually behaves, I'm jealous :( Anyway, please continue to review!
Phantom Luna: Don't you just hate it when that happens? Sorry, I just had to answer this review :)
Dinogirl: Haven't heard from you in a while :) I know, I love how mysterious and creepy Yami is sitting in front of the chess board. Please continue to review!
Great: I think I always look forward to your reviews just because they sound really well thought out. I'm glad that I could bring you this chapter because it seems like you really liked it. Don't worry, the punch Yuugi gives Yami is not one we will all soon forget. Please continue to review!
Temra Asakura: Aw! You should have reviewed sooner, you're so sweet! I feel very honored that you like the previous two stories and this one that you couldn't stop reading them! Makes me feel happy inside =3 Yes, Yami is just not evil, he is a bitch. Please continue to review!
lilpopsplash: Thank you! I thought that adding Mai's curse in the other two stories would have been too much also, it wouldn't have been fully appreciated or as dramatic. Please continue to review!
Tyrant Dragon Knight: Your reviews are always fun to read, its like its own little mini story. And yes, your Yami is more obedient than mine, at least he listens to you, threat or no threat *_* Please continue to review!
Richi the demon: ^^ I plan on it.
Cheshirecat23TheWantedOne: Holy crap! There is a Wonderland park? My mind was just blown! If I can go there once in my life I could die happy! Back on topic, train is going off the track, Bakura likes to pretend he's tough but really, he's a little sweetie pie. Goodness, I really want to put Bakura and Ryou back together right now! I have more in store for our sweet little Mai and my precious little Yuugi. I'm actually afraid to get rid of the Shadow Men, because they are freaking amazing! All of our love goes to the almighty Yuugi and the power of his puppy dog eyes! Yami is just a bitch who can get over himself…I say that with all the love in my heart =3 I hope that you get better, I hate being sick. Thank you for the amazing (long) review!
SincerelyChristina: You are just too nice! I love those moments when you just lose track of time and you read and read and read…anyway, I don't blame you for quitting When Life Gives You Lemons for a little while, it is a pretty heavy story. I can't wait to see how this turns our either, and trust me, there will be revenge ;). Thank you lots for pointing out my mistake; I love the praise I get but I also want someone to point out ALL of those stupid little mistakes I make, so thanks a lot! Please continue to review!
Ranko: Kill me now, I am about to die of exhaustion.
Yami: Ranko twin owns nothing.
Ranko: …
Yuugi: Enjoy?
-/-
Everyone jumped a step back but there was no where for them to go; they were backed up against the hallway wall. Seto struck his head against a picture that was hanging on the wall, causing it to fall and the glass to shatter.
Yuugi had seen many bizarre things the past few weeks, Yami would tend to be the source of those situations, but this was beyond the normal bizarre. Maybe it was because the setting was so ordinary; they were just in a plain house. Or maybe because they were the ones who did it this time…on purpose.
The circle of runes began to flow like the coals of a fire, as bright as fireworks, and then it started spinning. It was dizzying to look at, but Yuugi couldn't seem to look away, it was as if his neck were frozen.
A dull roaring sound began. It reminded Yuugi so much of Ryou's nightmare that he almost had a break down right there. The sound seemed to come from the earth, vibrating the floor under Yuugi's feet. Then with a jolt, Yuugi realized that they had done this to themselves.
Yuugi's heart was beating relentlessly; it felt as if it were going to jump right out of his ribcage. The lights that were shooting from the door were beginning to give him a headache.
One final explosion of light and the roaring became a tearing sound, like paper that was being torn down the side. It was like nails on a chalkboard, it made Yuugi want to cover his ear and go far away from this place.
Then, thankfully, it all stopped.
One moment it was horrible light and a deafening screeching sound, then the next moment—perfect calm. It left a wringing in Yuugi's ears and spots were in his vision. The wheel of runes did not spin against the door.
But there was something that wasn't right. Dagaz, which had been in the twelve o'clock position was now at the two o'clock position and the runes burned likes coals just out of the fire in the wood.
Yuugi was breathing hard as if he had just run a race.
Mai's chest was rising and falling as she breathed hard. "We did it," she whispered, her mouth was pursed.
Bakura looked at the door and then at Mai. "Did we?"
Yuugi looked at the door just as warily and bit his bottom lip. Yuugi forced one foot to move in front of the other and he slowly reached for doorknob. He expected the metal to be hot, to singe his hand, but the metal wasn't even warm.
He twisted the doorknob and pulled the door open. He felt the tension in the room press against his back as his friends waited to see what was behind the closed door.
Instead of seeing the stairs down to the basement, there was utter blackness beyond the open doorway. Yuugi scrambled for his flashlight and switched it on. He took a step past the threshold and there was a little resistance. It was like he was walking through thick syrup. It made him stumble and hit the ground.
As he pushed himself up, he felt the ground. It was like asphalt; little rocks pressed into the skin of his palm and it felt rough. Yuugi's flashlight had caught a small yellow flower that was smashed. Yuugi squinted his eyes and shined his flashlight on it directly. It wasn't a flower, it was…popcorn?
As Yuugi continued to try and figure out why a smashed piece of popcorn was on the ground, his friends flicked on their flashlights and walked up behind him. Mai helped her cousin up as beams of light scanned the area.
"The hell?" Seto said in disbelief.
There was the sound of a door slamming behind them that made Yuugi flinch. It reminded him too much of the Shadow Game. He quickly turned around and saw that the door was no longer there, like it never existed.
"I don't believe this," Anzu said. The flashlight beams did little in the thick darkness, but it showed them enough to be left flabbergasted.
It was finally Honda who said something. "It didn't work! After all that and…it didn't even work! We're not even in the Shadow Realm."
Honda was right, they weren't in the Shadow Realm, they were in Wonderland Park.
Yuugi had a bad feeling about this.
"Attention, park-goers," a hauntingly familiar voice said through the megaphone. It was shocking to hear any sound in the thick silence and that voice was not one that Yuugi wanted to hear. It couldn't be…
"This is your friendly Shadow Man speaking. I ask that you have fun in Wonderland Park and explore!"
Anzu whimpered and looked around everywhere for where the source of the voice may be coming from.
Before the voice could say anything more, Yuugi yelled, "Enough of this, show yourself Yami and let's play your stupid little Game! And I want my friends back! That's the whole reason we're here, right?"
There was a slight pause before the voice said, "All in good time, little one." And then the transmitter clicked off and they were left alone again in silence.
"This can't be happening," Honda said under his breath. "I can't believe this, it looks just like Wonderland Park."
It did look exactly like Wonderland Park. The same wrought iron fences. The same brightly colored benches. The same plastic flowers that were all over the place. But Yuugi just couldn't accept it. It looked like Wonderland, but there was something off about it. It just felt wrong.
"Yami can make anything look like anything," Yuugi told Honda.
"I feel like it's just like the Shadow Game," Mai said thoughtfully. "Who has all had nightmares about amusement parks?" Hesitantly, everyone raised one of their hands.
"So what are we supposed to do?" Bakura asked. "Defeat this nightmare like we did the rest of them?"
Mai shook her head. "I don't think this Game is going to be like that."
"So what do we do now?" Anzu asked, her face a pale white from terror.
"What Yami said we should do," Yuugi spoke up. "Explore."
Everyone seemed hesitant of that idea but after a few beats they all nodded and started to walk around the park. It certainly did look authentic. They crept through the silent park, though it was once full of life and children were running around and crying their excitement.
Suddenly Anzu stopped and she started to shine her flashlight around. "Do you guys hear that? It sounds like water running?"
It looked as if Seto were about to comment that it wasn't possible and she was just hearing things, but then they all heard it. It was a soft and gently sloshing sound.
Then Yuugi realized what it was. "It's the pond in the Mad Hatter's Tea Party." It was just up ahead. It was dark, like all the other attractions but Yuugi recognized the slanted entrance and the bright green and yellow sign.
When they reached the little pond that they had visited earlier that day, the water was running and swirling around its circular channel. Yuugi felt his heart beat erratically in his chest.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Honda said, shining his flashlight on the artificially blue colored water.
Mai's flashlight caught something leaning against the booth. "Well, well, what do we have here?" It was a fishing rod; Mai took it.
"Okay, now I have a very bad feeling about this," Honda said; Bakura elbowed him in the ribs to tell him to be quiet.
Yuugi just couldn't shake the feeling that this was just too obvious, even for Yami; it was too inviting, like he was asking them to play a friendly…game.
"Shall I?" Mai asked. "Or shall I?"
"You're finding some enjoyment in this, aren't you?" Seto asked humorlessly.
Mai rolled her eyes. "Listen guys, this was obviously set up by the Shadow Men so this is the only way to find out what kind of Game they are playing here."
As much as everyone hated to admit, Mai did have a good point. When everyone didn't say anything, she smiled in triumph and lowered the rod into the dark, rushing water. Everyone braced themselves; they weren't stupid, they knew to expect the worse when it came to the Shadow Men.
The line remained slack; Mai jiggled the pole a little bit as Yuugi came up with the worst possible things that could be pulled out of that pond. Dead kittens. Severed hands. Mutant marine life. Yuugi quickly shook his head to rid himself of those thoughts, he didn't want to give Yami any ideas.
Finally, the line was pulled taunt as it snagged something. "A bite," Mai said, she tugged and pulled, but it seemed to be caught on something.
"Mai—" Yuugi said.
"Come on," Mai muttered under her breath, not paying any attention to Yuugi's warning tone. "What's wrong with this thing?"
"Mai, stop," Yuugi tried again.
Then the water erupted like a geyser and Anzu screamed. The water splashed all over them and then when their vision was cleared of the murky water, they all saw it and Anzu screamed again.
There was a man that was holding Mai from behind, with his hands wrapped around her throat. But there was one difference between a normal man and the man that was holding Mai.
The thing had no head.
Its body ended at its shoulder, with a stump of a neck and it was trying to drag Mai under the water. Mai was kicking with all her might and trying to get the thing off of her.
All of these thoughts passed through Yuugi's head in a second, but that was long enough for that thing to get Mai near the edge of the pond and towards the murky water. Before Yuugi even knew what he was doing, he was rushing towards the headless man and grabbed the thing's arm with both hands.
To his horror, Yuugi's fingers sunk into the flesh as if it were nothing more than sponge. It was sticky, like bread dough and Yuugi was so astonished that he couldn't even find it in his mind to be terrified. All he could think was how much it stunk.
When Yuugi pulled his hand around, the gunk was under his fingernails like mud.
All around him, people were shouting and he heard Anzu screaming again. After a while, Yuugi recognized that he was shouting too. The thing now had Mai by her collar and Bakura was fumbling for his pocket knife. During the struggle to get Mai out of the monster's grip, his knife splashed into the dark water.
Mai was struggling to get her first layer of clothing off that was what the thing was holding on to, but the bottoms were holding. Yuugi didn't want to touch the headless creature's rubbery arm again but Yuugi soon found himself lunging forward and latching on.
The creature was in the water and was currently pulling Mai down to follow him, her head dunked in the water and Yuugi was staring at its neck-stump. Nothing about this creature was pretty to look at. The flesh that was seen past the rags of clothing were swollen and bloated.
The screaming and shouting was still going on and none of their shouting was doing any good. Without thinking, Yuugi jumped over the booth and over the channel, one leg dangling into the rushing water and standing behind the headless thing. He grabbed the thing from behind and shouted, "Pull!"
He grabbed the thing around its waist and felt things squashing and shifting around through the thin layer of clothing the thing was wearing. He honestly didn't want to think about what he was touching, or the fact that his cheek was pressed against its wet back, or the smell. Good God, the smell.
He just focused on pulling it away from Mai while his friends tried to pull Mai away from it. But this thing was rooted into the water and it wasn't going to budge. Then he felt something give. The headless body lurched forward and landed on Yuugi. Mai was free.
Yuugi pushed the thing off of him and scrambled as far away from it as possible. The arms flailed for a moment, as if the thing didn't know what to do now, and then as if someone had tugged at its feet, it disappeared back into the water.
There was a moment of silence, all that was heard was their ragged breathing.
Once Yuugi was sure he could feel his legs again, he jumped over the channel and towards his cousin, who was leaning against Honda's shoulder, almost in his lap. Everyone else was gathered around them on their knees.
They all just sat on the asphalt for a few moments, still trying to process everything that had happened so quickly.
"Whatever that thing was…" Seto said, taking a pause to take a deep breath. "I don't think it was human."
Anzu shook her head. "No, that's what happens to the human flesh after its been underwater for a long time. It's like soap. My dad had a mask like that once but he got rid of it because is scared me."
Bakura tried to look annoyed but he was too tired and couldn't muster the energy to work up a proper glare. "So that was your fault, it was your nightmare."
Anzu thought about that for a moment. "You think so? If that's the case, the worse is over now, for me anyway."
"If your dad had a mask like that, it couldn't have been headless," Yuugi said to himself.
Anzu stared at her friend confusedly. "What?"
"That monster wasn't exactly what you had nightmares about, I think Yami is putting his own little twist on things this time," Yuugi said. "And he said he practiced good gamesmanship."
But still, Yuugi couldn't shake that feeling that that thing was familiar to him. Sure it was soaked and stinky and gross, but there was something about its clothing that was familiar. Its tall frame and pale skin, he wore sleek black clothes and…Oh God.
"Oh my, God…" Yuugi said just under his breath.
"What?" Mai said. "What's wrong?"
"Soren," Yuugi said. "That was Soren."
Everyone stared at Yuugi in shock for a moment, almost as if he had lost his mind. It couldn't be Soren. The last time they had seen him was in his apartment, tied to a chair and telling them to leave, to afraid to even speak Yami's name. The one who was controlled by the Shadow Man, the shy boy who didn't want to hurt them but ended up kidnapping Anzu.
"That wasn't Soren," Honda said, almost to himself.
"But it was!" Yuugi shouted, beginning to hyperventilate. "It was him without a head! In Honda's dream, he saw Jounouchi without a head! What if we find his body like that? What if we find all of our friends like that? They might be here, in this park! Oh my, God, what if Ryou—!"
Bakura slapped Yuugi.
Yuugi looked at Bakura in shock, it was clearly meant to calm him down and snap him out of his panic attack, it didn't even hurt, but Bakura had slapped him. Yuugi gave a small hiccup and felt his heart rate go back down to normal.
"Yuugi, we understand that it is bad," Bakura said in a soothing calm voice. "It's a bad situation and none of us are saying that it isn't. But we have to stay calm or we'll all be dead. Yami will win this sick new Game he has dreamt up for us and we will all be goners. Do you understand me? We have to keep our cool and stick together."
Yuugi nodded numbly.
Bakura put his hands on Yuugi's shoulders to still them, Yuugi hadn't even realized they were shaking. "Right?"
Yuugi nodded again, this time more firmly. "Right."
"We have to stay calm, for our friends' sake, so we can bring them back home safe," Bakura said. He turned towards the rest of the group and said, "We need weapons, just in case any more freaks show up. I lost my knife and we have nothing else."
"Weren't there picks and axes, and stuff like that in the mine ride today. I saw them this afternoon, we could use those," Honda suggested.
Before they decided to travel to the mine ride, they all decided to wash up first. They took turns guarding the bathrooms while others got cleaned up. As Yuugi stood guard with Bakura and Seto he noticed a squashed cigarette butt on the ground.
He admired it for a few moments; he couldn't help but praise Yami for making this place as realistic and life-like as possible, like he was a painter and this was his canvas, down to the very last detail.
Though, that didn't mean there weren't nasty surprises waiting around every corner. A half an hour here and one of them nearly died. This was Yami's playing field and there were a new set of rules here. Yuugi hadn't realized how nice Yami was being when it came to making the other Games' rules.
In Yami's world, illusions were real, real enough that no amount of disbelief could make them disappear.
And they haven't really seen any of the Shadow Men yet, so that was a plus.
As they headed towards the mine ride, Mai stopped suddenly and tilted her head to the side as if she were catching sound. "I hear music."
-/-
Ranko: So sorry for updating late, you guys! There is only one explanation: my life hates me right now. At least I didn't leave you with a cliffhanger.
Yami: Yeah, she was thinking of ending it when Yuugi realized it was Soren who was headless.
Yuugi: So if anyone was wondering where Soren went, now you know. Sorry Inspiration's Wonderer, we still love you!
Ranko: Please leave nice long reviews and please point out any spelling or grammatical errors that you may spot. Constructive criticism is welcome!