Author's Note: Well, I THOUGHT I wasn't getting anymore of this finished tonight. Funny what a little feedback and inspiration can do. Anywho, here's part seven. Those mysterious teen characters are Tristan/Honda and Bakura/Ryou by the way. Warnings for this chapter: Disturbing themes, mild violence, mild language
The door closed once I had the toy in my hand. I felt the object's simple beauty beneath my fingertips, smiling softly at each intricate image as I explored the top's elegant design. I then noticed something I had not before. There was a small hole running through the base of the toy, as though someone had drilled into it. I took this into account before rolling the object over, and feeling for its spiral tip. The shape was so unique, like nothing I'd ever seen or felt before. An idea came to me quite suddenly, and a tight smirk graced my lips. I shifted around at my feet, following a length of a few inches of chain up to the brace on my ankle; the keyhole was easy to find from there. Believing that these shackles were ancient, and therefore not very difficult to pick the locks on, I moved the top down my leg until meeting with the brace. I dug the tip into the keyhole until I heard a clicking sound. It'd been easier than I thought. I did the same for my other ankle, and freed my wrists as well.
I stretched, standing, now that I was free from the confines of those chains. I paced the tiny cell, until my eyes fell upon the prisoner sleeping against the back wall again. I walked over to them, immediately judging the person to be male. My estimate as far as age had been right; the raven-haired boy appeared to be about 11 or 12, and he was, like the tiny metallic object in my hand, overly familiar. I shook him, and his eyes cracked open. "Are you okay?" I whispered. There was no response from the child. With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I assumed the worst: the man hadn't been lying, and this boy was indeed without a soul. I sighed, slipping the tip of the top into each of his braces, and freed him all the same. I smiled at the toy again; it had quickly become quite a treasure. I ran my fingers over its surface yet another time.
I pressed a fingernail into the tiny hole, and reached down to my jean's pocket with my other hand. As I had thought, there was small length of silver chain protruding from the pocket, designed to be attached to a watch. With a jerk of my wrist, I pulled the chain free from where it had been sewed into the clothing, and felt for its ends. I ran one end through the hole, pulling it through the other, and draped it around my neck. There was no clasp, so I stubbornly knotted the tiny metal links together; the result was a tight necklace, about two inches of chain preventing the thing from becoming a choker. I didn't want to lose the top, and I felt somehow drawn to it, so I assumed this would be a surefire way of keeping it close to me at all times.
The boy was giving no response, still. I cupped a hand around his chin, lifting his head so that I could look into his now-open eyes; they were a bright, vivid violet, though curiously lacking any display of emotion. His skin was ever so slightly tanned, and my fingers fell deftly across his chest, meeting with a locket about halfway down his torso. I did not open it, just examined its exterior: it was in the shape of a Duel Monsters card, complete with bronze-inlaid swirling patterns. I scratched its surface briefly, wondering how the boy had come into possession of it, but dismissed the thought and moved to further search him. Much to my disappointment, his pockets were empty. He wore a long-sleeved shirt, blue in color, a yellow vest, jeans, and sneakers. I poked at the side of his face, urging him to awaken, but he did not.
I felt bad for the child. I couldn't possibly leave him here in the darkness all alone, but I'd resolved to leave his place, with or without my memories. Pegasus could find me somewhere more pleasant than this if he still wished to talk after my escape. I shifted myself beneath the kid, and pulled him up and over my injured shoulder. It hurt, yes, but I was more formidable than that; a little pain was nothing. I turned, carrying his dead weight proving to be quite a task, and slammed into the rusty, weakened metal doorframe of the cell. The door collapsed off of its hinges, banging on the floor as it hit. I wished to cover my ears, but had no option to, since that would involve dropping the child currently occupying a vast space across my back. I started running, much to my surprise, for I would not have thought myself able. It actually was a fairly easy task; my legs were like loaded springs after every step, propelling me forward along the dark hallway.
I reached the door at the end of the corridor at last, and stopped briefly to ensure that its opening was nearly silent. Then, I hauled the child over my shoulders once more, and quietly crept up the dusty stone stairway. I could hear some form of bickering up ahead, and recognized one of the voices to be that of Pegasus. I could not place the other. I slowed my breathing, unintentionally, and found myself sliding along the steps on all fours to be that much more stealth. I reached another door at the top of the staircase, and pressed an ear against its hardwood surface. I listened:
"You're cheating!"
"Ah, surely you jest, Yugi boy." That horrible, awful laughter made my stomach tighten into knots again.
"Pegasus, this is enough! Innocent lives hang in the balance!" So it sounded that my seemingly loving captor was not as kind as he would leave one to believe. Somehow, I had known that before, just hadn't had the resolve until now to turn my back on him until recently. It was sort of like turning my back on the past… in a way. I leaned even closer to the door, but did not dare to even rest an ounce of my own weight against it.
"Oh, just hurry up. I'm growing tired of this game. I told you that you had no chance of winning from the very start." I took pity on whoever that Yugi kid was. I scoffed under my breath, and tried to get a peek through the door, but just as I had focused my vision enough to get a glimpse of whatever was going on out there, a hand fell across my shoulder unoccupied by the boy. I shuddered once, and then turned, swiftly landing a punch in the middle of someone's chest. I heard them tumble down the stairs, though thankfully, they did not make much noise, apart from their exclamation of "bitch" upon reaching the bottom of the stairs. There had been another accompanying him apparently, as a white-haired teen now stood just a few steps down from me, gawking at my action.
"That was a little excessive, don't you think?" he asked, mouth still hanging open awkwardly. I made a motion to hush him before he could say anything else, and grabbed him by the shirt to pull him back down into the dungeons along with my fellow prisoner. When we were out of earshot from Pegasus and his company, Yugi, I set the younger kid down and stared at the white-haired boy. He appeared to be about sixteen, and had discolored eyes. A large, golden talisman hung around his neck, loose pieces dangling from a circular centerpiece. It was curious yes, but I knew better than to touch anything with that sort of aura.
"Who are you?" I found myself asking, though I shortly after realized the irony of my question. I was asking for their names, and they would surely ask for mine in return, but… I had no name to give them. The white-haired teen blinked at me, mouth still hanging open in shock. I was tempted to reach forward and clamp it shut for him. I shortly after came to notice the boy lying at my feet, the one who I'd punched down the stairs. His expression was of greater shock that the other teen's, rubbing his chest with one of his hands, and muttering something about his immense dislike of females. "And who are you?" I said again, pointing at the fallen boy.
"That's not exactly polite after punching someone in the chest," he growled, struggling to stand. "I think you nearly broke a rib." He groaned quite loudly, and I was tempted to hit him again to silence him, but managed to control that urge. Instead, I simply glared, tightening my grip on the small male prisoner I'd dragged along with me. I waited patiently for the brown-haired one's answer, but he said nothing else; he seemed less suspicious than the other one… dressed in simple clothes, black pants and white shirt, and a tan overcoat. He just seemed harmless. As for the other… the aura his ring output was giving me shivers. I gritted my teeth and just stared them down.
"Well… sorry about that," I sighed. They both looked as if they were about to say something, but I didn't give them the chance. "I'm sorry, but it's urgent that we escape. Where did you come from, how did you find your way down here?" I was surprised at the rate my own mind was functioning, surpassing pleasantries and introductions completely: right down to business; I could only hope that these boys would return the mindset.