Title: Pulse
Theme: 85 – Diary
Summary: Hello. I've never told anyone this before, but sometimes, when I lie awake and trace the grooves and cracks of the Puzzle, I can almost feel a heartbeat.
Rating: K+
Genre: General

Hello,

I've never had a diary before, or even a journal, but I figured now might be a good time to start. I'm sorry if I'm not doing things correctly, but it's just easier for me to write this as if it's a letter, as if somebody will eventually read it someday… even if it's just me.

I can't say what it is. But I'm so confused and I don't know where to turn to. Maybe you'll listen.

I… Look, something's happening. I don't even know what it is, I'm that confused. I have these blackouts, just all across town, usually when I'm being cornered by some big guy because I didn't do what he wanted me to or something… I just pass out, I suppose, because one minute I'll be looking up at the guy and the next I'll be on the ground, waking up, and he'll be unconscious next to me. Unconscious or dead. Sometimes even just gone.

There's been blood, a few times, though never my own. I suppose I'm scared.

Also, there's… this Puzzle. It comes from Ancient Egypt and when my grandfather (He used to be a big-time archeologist, went into pharaohs' tombs and everything, until he got tired of that and settled down here in Domino City) gave it to me, when I was a kid, it was still broken. It was in forty-nine pieces, I remember, I used to count them all the time. It took me seven years to finish the puzzle, and it ended up looking like an upside-down pyramid… I wear it around my neck now, which most people might think is kind of show-offy considering that it's bright gold, too (And another thing: it doesn't weigh as much as I thought gold would, but I'm not complaining).

Anyway, the Puzzle – I'm capitalizing it because it has an official title, the "Millennium Puzzle," just so you don't get confused – the Puzzle, ever since I've finished it last month, it's… I feel so attatched to it. Which is to be expected since I spent half my life working on the thing, but I don't want to leave the house without it. I don't like taking it off. I've become so used to it being there, like another limb, except it doesn't do anything.

Sometimes, at night, when I lie awake and trace some of the grooves in the corners and cracks, I can almost feel a heartbeat.

I've never told anyone this before. I don't know if I'll tell anyone ever again. I think… well, there's something magical about the Puzzle, I've never doubted that… but I've always thought it was a metaphorical kind of magic, like, you place a wish in it and the thing will come true, if you want it hard enough – and it's not because the Puzzle granted your wish, but it's because your strong will allowed the thing to happen in the first place. Does that make sense?

I think the Puzzle isn't just a metaphorical kind of magic. I think it's the real deal. My wish… I'm not going to tell you what I wished for, because for now, it's something I just want to keep to myself, but my wish came true. I know it did. And I'm happier than I have ever been, for it, I really am.

But I know it's magic. There's so much more to this Puzzle than I originally gave it credit for. I mean, sure, Grandpa has told me all sorts of stories about how it holds the key to all of this dark power that a pharaoh sealed away three thousand years ago – and I believed it when I was a kid, and I used it as motivation to keep working on it… but now that it's done, I find myself hoping none of that is true. Dark power isn't something you wish for. I don't want horrible things to happen. I just became happy. I don't want this Puzzle to take it away.

There, I felt it. As I'm writing this I have one hand with the pen and the other is resting on the Puzzle – and I felt another… thump. Like a pulse, kind of. That's the closest I can come to describing it. Pulse. It's not just physical; for a second it'll get really warm too, then cool, then warm again, and so on. Eventually it fades away. But it also feels more than just a change in temperature. It feels like… it's alive, or something. Which is crazy. I know it is. But that's what it feels like.

I don't know what this means. I don't know why I'm not terrified out of my wits. I think I'm going crazy. Which might be the most logical explanation, because after all, I'm happy. I've never been able to truly, honestly say that in fifteen years. Something's very right and something's very wrong.

I don't want to tell anybody about all of this because I don't want them worrying. And then they'll ask me if I'm okay, which they don't want an honest answer to, and they won't expect the truth. If I was okay, they wouldn't have to wonder.

But I am okay. For the most part, I'm doing just fine, I really am. I suppose you may disagree, since I feel the need to write this in the first place, but I'm managing. I'm dealing with all of this madness, and I'm hoping that someday I won't have to anymore.

I guess that's it. I don't know if I'll write back to you, but thank you for reading.

Yugi

Words: 936
A/N: Their relationship might be a little hard to pinpoint in this one, but I want to leave it to your interpretation. It's vague, but it's in there. Sort of. Eh.