Ranko: So sorry I am late on the update, at least it feels like I'm late. School life has been really crappy lately but it is almost over and then I will be updating a lot more frequently instead of every other week.
Yami: Okay, stop your bitching and let's answer some reviews.
Yuugi: Since she is tired, Ranko doesn't think she will answer that many reviews today.
SincerelyChristina: I know, I felt bad for Soren too. By the end I was like, "Hell! Why did I do that?" But anyway, every little correction counts so I thank you for that, please continue to review!
hikari no senshi17: Where have you been?! I have been wondering where you have gone! …I'm kidding, sorry if that freaked you out. Anyway, thank you so much! What do you mean by monotone? When have I become monotone? Oh well, please continue to review!
Phantom Luna: Thank you :)
Kyo lover with little sanity: Yes, I believe Yami went off the deep end a long time ago :) Thank you and please continue to review!
CandyFiend: Very good point (about the cliffhanger). Please continue to review :)
lilpopsplash: You make me feel so loved, thank you; you are going to give me a big head oiuaogubnasloiuboibsgosudb (head became top heavy and fell on key board) Oh man, I need sleep :) Please continue to review!
Cheshirecat23TheWantedOne: You know, I have to give Yuugi credit. He may have been freaking out but considering everything he has been through, he is staying strong. I think he has the right to freak out and have a melt down every once in a while, you know ;) Yes, that was Soren, sorry :( But on a happy note, your right, no one got sucked in a toilet…Malik will never live that down. They be gettin' them weapons to fight them bitches (too much time hanging out with my friends who think they are black…am I racist?). I hate writing these freaky chapters at night because they always scare me! Thank you once again for making my day and please continue to review!
Great: Your reviews always make me happy :) I'm glad you liked this chapter because I didn't think it was the best, thank you though. Was last chapter a cliffhanger? I don't know, oh well. Please continue to review!
Yami: Ranko twin owns nothing!
Ranko: Enjoy!
-/-
"…ou. Ryou? Ryou, can you hear me?"
Ryou groaned as a soft voice awoke him from his blissful state of unconsciousness. He wanted to keep his eyes closed; he wanted to continue to be in the place he knew was safe and secure. But the voice was so soft and worried he couldn't do anything but answer it's call.
Ryou cracked one eye open and squinted it shut immediately whenever his vision was met by a bright light. He put his hand in front of his face and peeled both eyes open. What he saw was a figure leaning over him; all Ryou could make out was the white hair and burgundy eyes.
The boy gasped. "Bakura!" he cried and launched up, attaching himself to the person. He squeezed the man tightly and became alarmed when the man did not respond to Ryou's embrace. "Bakura…?" he said hesitantly, and then he noticed the tan skin under his pale hands.
Ryou gasped and quickly jumped away. Before him sat Akefia, a very solemn expression on his face. Ryou felt his heart ache at the sight. Ryou was no longer afraid of Akefia now that he actually knew the man for who he really was; he was a lost little boy whose family and brother had been taken from him when he was very young.
He was homeless for years until a gang of thieves took him in and used Akefia as their slave. They used him to cook and clean and for the men's own sick pleasures. Whenever the thieves first tried to use Akefia for his body, the boy lashed out and a thief took a knife and sliced his face. That is how Akefia got his scar.
Ryou knew all of this for a very long time, what he didn't know was that before Marik was Akefia's Shadow Man brother, he was also his blood brother. Though Ryou did not know Marik's story and what happened to him after he was taken from his home, and he couldn't ask Malik since the boy had taken a vow of silence and refused to utter a word about it.
Now that Ryou knew who Akefia really was, instead of the scary Shadow Man that stalked him in the paper house, Ryou tried to be a little more sensitive with Akefia's feelings. Akefia wanted Ryou to stay with him forever though Ryou told him countless times that Yuugi and Bakura would save him and he would leave this place forever. After Ryou said that, Akefia would become sad and refuse to talk to him for days. This made it hard on Ryou since Akefia was the only person he could actually talk to here.
Sometimes Ryou wondered if he was Akefia's only friend…ever.
Ryou tried to find his voice to comfort the Shadow Man; Akefia was probably the most sensitive of the brothers. Akefia looked hurt and Ryou just couldn't bear to see him like that, mostly because his face was so similar to Bakura's and Ryou just kept imagining Bakura's face looking so defenseless and alone.
Finally he opened his mouth and spoke, "I thought you were someone else." He said it meekly and flinched when the words came out, knowing they sounded wrong and he saw how Akefia's eyes became even more dim at his words.
"Yeah, I know," Akefia said with a sad smile.
Elsewhere ~
The music seemed to be coming from a far corner of the park and Yuugi could make out a faint glimmer of multi-colored lights shine through the trees, about where the arcade was. The music had about the same tune as "A Very, Very Un-Birthday to You" from the animated version of Alice in Wonderland.
Yuugi had noticed that all the other rides and stores were dark and lifeless, after a while Yuugi had gotten used to the silence and found comfort in it. Now there was life and light; normally, someone would be happy if they found something that was active and alive in a place where they were lost. But then again, most people didn't get lost in the Shadow Realm either.
The fact that this one attraction was the only one that was lit gave Yuugi an uneasy feeling.
Everyone stopped and just listened for a while; Yuugi vaguely wondered if they also saw the lights in the distance that seemed to be coming from the arcade. Before he had much time to dwell on it, another sound reached his ears.
It was a sound that was closer than the distant music that was playing from across the park, but this sound was slowly growing distant, as if someone was running away from them. But then Yuugi realized that it was someone running away from them.
It was the sound of footsteps as someone ran away, child-like footsteps, or dwarf-like footsteps. Everyone else seemed to register what the sound was at the same time and they all whirled in the direction where it was coming from, shining their flashlights in that direction.
They caught plastic, human-sized flowers that appeared to have faces of human quality; yet another reference from the animated version of Alice in Wonderland.
Then someone shouted, "There!" Yuugi didn't know who, and they all turned and looked. They tried to catch the running object with their flashlights but it was so fast that they couldn't keep the light trained on it. Despite the size, the thing, whatever it was, could move fast.
Finally, it disappeared behind the gate of the Caterpillar roller coaster ride.
There was a moment of silence as everyone tried to register the strange occurrence, then Seto scratched his head. "Um…" Yuugi had never heard the man use fillers before in his sentences, his words always came out smooth and confident, but this situation obviously left him confused and at a loss for words. "You think we should go after it?"
Mai shook her head. "No, it wasn't bothering us and we aren't armed yet. Let's go to the mine ride and then we can investigate."
"But what the hell was that thing?" Bakura asked, frazzled.
"Kinda looked like a monkey," Honda said thoughtfully, to no one in particular. "I mean, it was really little, what else could it be?"
Suddenly Yuugi thought of the dream he had on the train; he was in the elevator and there was a dwarf-man in a mask holding his arms out to Yuugi.
Can we take you? We can carry you.
It sounds like the kind of thing a Shadow Man might say but there was no way that little thing could be one of those creatures of the night. Shadow Man were hauntingly, otherworldly beautiful.
"Well whatever it was, we should watch out for more of them; we don't know if they are dangerous or not," Mai said.
When they got to the mine ride they shined their flashlights around to check out the scene and what they could use. They saw the control box and a miniature train car that was sitting by the platform, waiting to be boarded.
They made a quick decision that they would just walk and follow the tracks; they still didn't know what Game the Shadow Men were playing and they didn't want to walk into a trap.
They shined their flashlights in through the mouth of the cave before entering and the light barely got through the darkness of the ride. Going into the cave was a lot like being swallowed; Yuugi watched as the circle of the night that came from the mouth of the cave was slowly growing distant and finally disappeared. Yuugi felt trapped and that Yami could easily get to them now.
Yuugi saw the outline of small chubby bodies in the darkness and quickly turned their flashlight on the image. There were three giant, fat mice with sledgehammers and fake dynamite, at least Yuugi hoped it was fake.
"We could use the sledgehammers," Anzu suggested.
Honda shook his head. "There too heavy, we wouldn't be able to use them properly."
As they followed the tracks, the scenes became more frequent and Yuugi noticed that even though this was a child-friendly ride, it still mimicked an authentic mine. There was one scene that showed a tiny mouse paw that was squeezed through boulders after a mouse had been trapped under the debris of an explosion. Yuugi didn't remember it being this dark.
He couldn't help but think that Yami had something to do with this.
Yuugi started to hate the scenes more and more as they became more graphic and disturbing. It made him uncomfortable that they may start moving at any moment.
Snapping him out of his thoughts, Bakura shouted, "Look, picks!" It reverberated throughout the whole cave and made Yuugi flinch; it gave him the urge to look behind him.
Bakura was already jumping onto the scene with a bunch of mice leaning against picks and other mining equipment. He started to wiggle one out of the one of the mice's grip. The one Bakura chose was blunt on both sides but heavy and still had a small point of one end.
Yuugi was a little afraid of letting Bakura have that, knowing the damage the rebel could do with that tool.
Everyone else jumped on and picked up a weapon…or pic and started swinging them around for practice. Yuugi picked up a hammer sized pic and swung it left to right. He felt the ground give a slight tremor under him and he wondered if it was real or if he was just off balance.
"Did anyone else feel that?" he asked warily.
Everyone exchanged glances with one another and Mai stomped her foot on the platform they were standing on to test it. "I don't think this thing is sturdy enough."
They quickly hopped off and Honda shined his flashlight in the direction they came. "Follow the yellow brick road."
Honda took the lead with Anzu as Honda whistled, "I've been working on the railroad," the sound bouncing of the walls of the fiberglass cave.
Yuugi kept repeating in his mind, 'We can't get lost,' to reassure himself and calm his nerves. For some reason, he felt a pressure on his back, like he was being watched and he did not like it one bit.
Suddenly the whistling stopped from ahead of him and Yuugi snapped his head up in alarm. Honda and Anzu had stopped and were staring at the ground, perplexed.
"Um, I think we have a problem here," Honda said.
Everyone rushed forwards to meet Honda and Anzu. Yuugi looked past the two and gasped.
The tracks split into two ways.
"What the hell?" Bakura said in frustration. "This was not here before…was it?" He turned towards Yuugi who shook his head, just as confused and frightened as everyone else.
Mai shook her head as well. "Yeah, I would have noticed if it had split."
Anzu furrowed her eyebrows together and turned towards Mai. "But from our direction, it wouldn't have looked like it was splitting. It would just be two tracks joining."
Mai sighed. "Joining, splitting, it doesn't matter. I would have noticed."
Anzu was starting to get red from frustration. "But it was behind us in the dark!" she yelled.
"I would have noticed!"
"Guys, calm down," Honda said.
"I am not a guy!" both girls said at once.
Honda huffed. "Okay, fine then! Fucking yell at me too when I did nothing wrong!"
"Do you want to start with me?" Mai said, turning an evil eye towards Honda.
"Hey, Miss High-and-Mighty," Bakura said in a low and sharp tone. "Shut up and quit acting like you know everything and that you are so high above us that we are just dirt."
Mai spluttered. "Okay, your saying that to me? What about mister Kaiba over there who is always stomping on you guys with the heel of his boot. Are you getting on to me just because I am a girl?"
Seto scowled. "What the hell do you mean by that? I actually treat others with respect!"
"You know what—?"
"SHUT UP!"
Everyone jumped and shut their mouths, turning towards the source of the shout; Yuugi. "Are you all fucking crazy!" Yuugi shouted in frustration. "We don't have time to argue, we don't have time for anything! Maybe the track split before or maybe it didn't, that doesn't matter! Yami is doing this just to screw with us, he wants us to fight! So quit acting like children and let's figure this out!"
There was a moment of silence as everyone just stared at Yuugi's red face as the boy tried to regain his breath from shouting. They were flabbergasted by Yuugi's sudden charge over the situation.
"Listen, I know we passed by this wall," Yuugi said in a calmer tone, pointing to his right. "So if we follow that path it should take us out." Yuugi kept to himself that when Yami was involved, nothing was as it seemed. That tremor from earlier, maybe the ground had moved.
They all started towards the right path and Mai said, "If this is the right way then we should see the mouse trapped under the boulders soon."
They didn't.
There was a knot in Yuugi's stomach that had formed when they came across the split path; that not was getting tighter and tighter as they walked down the tunnel of the cave. The right-hand wall was blank and it felt to Yuugi that the walls were slowly closing in on them.
He felt like he was back in the paper house; he had wished that he would never have to have that feeling of being lost like this ever again.
Yuugi was relieved when they ran into the proof. They rounded a slight curve and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw something in the path ahead of them. He quickly shined his flashlight on it and saw…an ore car. It was just sitting there, like it was waiting for them and it gave Yuugi the chills.
It was a real ore car as far as Yuugi could tell. He studied it from afar as his heart rate slowed down back to a normal pace. It had rounded corners and four solid wheels set under it close to its center. It smelt of rusty iron.
"I don't think this is a part of the ride," Honda observed.
No one even bothered to comment.
Bakura, along with Seto and Mai, tried to push it along the track but it didn't budge, it just clanged.
Yuugi had the wild impulse to jump in, curl up in a ball, and never come out.
Seto sighed. "Okay, who's nightmare is this?" he asked after a couple more tries pushing the car along the tracks.
Everyone waited until Bakura raised his hand sheepishly. "I guess its mine, I'm not a big fan of enclosed spaces. I mean, I'm just a little claustrophobic but I have never had nightmares about it. But I guess if I had to come up with the worst way to die, I would say cave-in."
"Alright, we should probably go back and follow the other path," Mai suggested, beginning to backtrack.
Considering they were retracing their steps, the shaft should have opened up again, but it didn't. Now Yuugi knew that the walls were closing in on them and the ceiling started to get lower until it was brushing the top hairs of Seto's head.
Seto ran his hand along the cold, stone wall. "Definitely not fiberglass." It wasn't fiberglass, it was beautiful rock with veins of milky white and a soft orange, like the setting sun. Imbedded deep in the rock was a small glimmer of different colored stones. They were in a real gem mine and it was getting cold.
Bakura was walking beside Yuugi and the shorter boy saw Bakura's jaw was set tightly and his shoulders were square. His eyes were not focused though.
It was dam now and the walls felt icy and dirty. When Yuugi touched them, his hands came away dirty.
They came to a place where the roof opened up into a sudden cavern, a horizontal shaft that was about thirty feet up. Judging by the smoothness of the rock along the walls of this shaft, it looked as if water had once run through it.
"We could climb it…" Bakura said more to himself than any one else.
Yuugi quickly shook his head. "No, we'd break our necks and there could be anything, or anybody, up there." Something cold struck Yuugi's cheek as he said that; it was cold and icy and wet. Then another drop in his hair.
"Does anyone hear that?" Anzu suddenly said.
At first, Yuugi didn't hear anything and then it came. It was the sound of water dripping musically onto rock. They were slow drops with a steady rhythm that seemed to echo from so far away.
"Shit, we really are lost," Mai said.
Bakura's eyes suddenly went wide. "Uh-oh."
Everyone turned towards him and Mai narrowed her eyes. "What is 'uh-oh?'"
Instead of snapping back at Mai, Bakura said, "Well, I just remembered a nightmare I did have in a cave once."
"It didn't flood did it?" Honda asked.
Bakura shook his head. "No, it just collapsed."
Mai snorted. "Well, if that's all we have to worry about. I don't think this is the right time to talk about this Bakura. Yami or the other Shadow Man could be tapping into our thoughts."
"Bakura," Yuugi said desperately. "Did it collapse on you or were you just trapped?"
Before Bakura could answer the ground started to rumble. But it wasn't the ground, it was the ceiling, the walls, everything was shaking violently. Loose pebbles and debris were bouncing and falling from the ceiling because of the vibrations.
"Where is it coming from?" Bakura asked, shining his flashlight in every direction.
Yuugi happened to look up and saw rocks the size of soccer balls fall from the horizontal shaft. "Run!" He tripped over his feet as he and everyone else quickly ran from standing under the shaft.
"Come on!" Seto shouted. "We have to go!"
"It's all coming down!" Mai shouted over the rumble.
Yuugi started forward to follow his friends who had ran in the opposite direction from the shaft but then the floor started to shake, causing Yuugi to lose his balance and fall against a far wall; he couldn't see straight. He hit his hand against the rock wall and his vision blurred.
He saw the images of his friends grow blurry and rocks falling between them. He heard the faint sound of shouting that sounded a lot like Mai's. Yuugi pushed himself to his feet, the floor still shaking and his legs trembling. Then the stone floor collapsed under his feet and he fell down a vertical shaft a lot like the one he saw earlier.
"Yuugi!" was the last thing he heard before his mind went blank.
He was alone, all alone in complete darkness with only the sound of silence to keep him company. His throat was dry, like he had just swallowed dust. And he was terrified.
All of this went through his head before he even remembered who he was or where he was. It was like he had just woken up from a life-like nightmare and he didn't know what was real and what wasn't. It was like those times when he felt someone was watching him from the dark shadows of his room but when he flicked the lights on, nothing was there.
But this wasn't a dream he could wake up from and there was no bedside light; he didn't have Mai or grandpa to comfort him. He was all alone.
"Mai!" The shout came out scratchy and pathetic. It didn't echo like it did in the tunnels and there was no air current to cool his hot forehead. He was in an enclosed place. The opening of the shaft he fell down must have been blocked off by some of the other falling rocks.
"Mai! Bakura! Seto! Honda! Anzu!" Yuugi shouted, his already raw throat aching. "Anyone?"
Then he sat perfectly still. He didn't know where he was and he was afraid to move from this spot.
'If I don't move, it won't get me,' he thought. It was a ridiculous thought, of course, but whether it was or wasn't, his muscles were locked, so tense that they were shaking. He wished that he was brave like Mai or Bakura, even Honda was brave.
Yuugi couldn't hear a sound, not even a rumble or a pebble falling, just the sound of his breathing.
Now he was panicking.
'Come on, just think of something, Yuugi. What would Mai or Bakura do if they were in this situation?' a confident and strong voice in his head spoke. Then another more meek and timid voice responded, 'But I'm scared.'
Yuugi couldn't think, he couldn't move. He was too afraid. It was so dark; he could feel his eyes widened as they tried to adjust to the light, or lack of.
Anyone could be in the shadows; anyone could be hiding in plain sight right in front of Yuugi, he just couldn't see that person because of the blinding darkness. Anyone could come at Yuugi from any direction; all Yuugi knew was that he was surrounded by darkness. Yuugi had learned not to trust things he couldn't see.
The panic was now a full out riot in his mind. It was to the point that Yuugi thought he could hear someone else in the vicinity with him. He completely forgot where he was, though; the Shadow Realm.
'But I fell in alone; this is a small place, I can feel the walls around me. I'm alone, nothing's in here with me. Nothing can get in. I'm safe.' Yuugi didn't know who he was trying to convince.
Then he heard it. It was the sound of a boot scraping against rock and a small pebble skidding across the stone floor.
Yuugi shot up on his knees, twisting around to face where the noise had come from. The faint sound was lost past the blood rushing in his ears and his frantic heartbeat.
Oh, God, there was no way…
"Ragnarok," said a musical voice, like water running against stone, "means both a rain of dust and the end of the world. To the people who discovered the runes, I mean. Don't you think that is interesting?"
-/-
Ranko: Now that's what I call a cliffhanger!
Yami: Oh, God, why do I have to be a jackass?
Ranko: You know I was thinking the same thing.
Yami: What is that supposed to mean?
Ranko: Want me to spell it out?
Yami: (quickly silenced by hand-to-mouth from Yuugi)
Yuugi: Please review and tell Ranko what you thought of this chapter. Your favorite part, your least favorite part, general comments, constructive criticism! Thank you!