Chapter Two
Tea gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. Yugi suddenly felt like someone had dumped a bucket of cold water on him. Triston was dead? But how? He hadn't been sick or ill or anything. Had there been an accident?
"Triston Taylor was discovered in his room this morning," the second police man began. "It appears that he was murdered,"
"W-what?" Tea choked out. "Murdered? But—who would do that?"
The first police man pulled out a photo and handed it to Yugi. "This is the murder weapon. Do you recognize it?"
Yugi looked down at the photo. The item looked like a rod and it was made of pure gold, with an Egyptian-style eye carved into it. "Yeah," Yugi said. "This is one of the seven Millennium Items…four of them are stored in the museum, but only myself, Atem and Ishizu Ishtar knew that …,"
"The millennium Rod, yes?" the police man asked. "We've spoken with Ishizu and we've taken the five items from the safe, along with the rod. "
"Why?" Tea asked. "Do you think there's going to be another murder?"
"There are seven items," Atem said. "This killing might be symbolic of all the people who died to create the items, so it'd only make sense to kill seven people,"
"We need the remaining three," the second police man said.
Yugi looked at Atem. "Did you find the puzzle?" Atem shook his head.
"I also got a call from Bakura earlier. He can't find the ring. And obviously Marik doesn't have the rod," Atem added.
"So the last three are missing?" the police man asked. "Who has access to these items?"
"Me, Atem and all of our friends, basically," Yugi said. "Do you think one of us is the culprit?"
"Not at all," the first police man said. "You're only teenagers … And the only one of you that shows a past that might lead to homicide or murder is your friend Joseph Wheeler. The murderer is most likely an adult,"
"But the second most possible is Joey?" Tea asked. "I can't imagine Joey killing anyone … ,"
"Like I said, you aren't suspects," the police man reassured. "But I ask that you all are very cautious in the next few days. We'll try to track down the culprit … they left no finger prints or any clue at the scene of the crime, and the only handprints are Triston's,"
Yugi handed the police men the photo back. "If this happens again, we'll be moving you and all possible suspects to some dorms in the police department," the first police man said. "Please be prepared for it, just in case,"
Yugi sat down on his bed and leg his school bag fall to the ground. Atem walked over and sat down next to his hikari, who was still in shock.
"I just … I don't believe it …," Yugi said. "Who would do this…?"
"I know …," Atem wrapped his arms around Yugi and pulled him closer. "But the police are going to do everything they can to find this guy,"
"I hope they find him…I hope no-one else gets hurt…,"
The details of Triston's murder were later revealed to Yugi and his other friends, after much pestering. The police finally caved in. It turns out that Triston has been beaten over the head with the Millennium Rod and then the beating continued until Triston died of blood loss.
The attacked hit Triston from behind at first, and then continued his assault. It was a very violent death, and the police said that if the killings did continue, that they would continue to be this violent.
They mentioned very lightly that they only expected one person in the room to be capable of such violence. Of course, none of them believed that Joey was be responsible for any of this—Triston had been his friend too, and he had no reason to murder him.
Yugi could barely sleep that night. Who would the murderer go after next; if he went after anyone at all? What if it was Atem? Yugi rolled onto his side and looked at the sleeping Pharaoh beside him. Yugi knew that he wouldn't be able to stand that loss at all.
Yugi had been completely broken when he heard that one of his best friends had been killed. He couldn't imagine how he'd feel if he lost the one person he loved the most. It wouldn't just break him; it'd completely shatter him.
Yugi sighed and snuggled closer to Atem, wrapping his arms around his Yami's waist.