Chapter Ten:

Seto glanced down Yugi as they stood outside. Yugi had wanted some fresh air and he hadn't no problem with following him. The air was warm, but not unpleasantly so, smelling of flowers from the front walk and desert dust.

"It's a nice night," Yugi said.

Seto nodded in agreement. He glanced up into the sky, watching the nearly-full moon in the sky. A cloud was making its way across it, obliterating a small portion. Yugi abruptly leaned against his arm, resting his head against him. Seto let him, going through all that had happened in his mind.

Yugi would never lie about seeing a ghost and Seto didn't believe he was mistaken in what he thought he saw. He still wasn't sure that the possibility that this was a set-up could be ruled out, but Yugi knew what he'd seen. Despite all his protests, he didn't really not believe in the possibility of real ghosts. After all, Yami was real enough and he'd been for all practical purposes a ghost when he'd been living in the Puzzle. And Seto had seen a lot of crazy stuff since he'd become involved with Yugi in high school.

"It's a nice night," Yugi repeated.

Seto looked down at him. Yugi was looking up at him expectantly. Smiling at his ploy, Seto allowed him to embrace him, putting his own arms around him as well. He bent and pressed his lips to Yugi's, keeping the kisses light and soft for now. He was just as into sex in generally public places, but as Yugi had said, not with an audience. That was going to have to wait until they got back up to their room.

Yugi sighed happily as Seto slowly pulled back. He stepped closer and rested his head against his chest, closing his eyes. Though Seto wasn't as fond of cuddling as Yugi was, he didn't push him away. They stood like that in silence for several minutes before he began to contemplate the idea of calling it a night and heading upstairs. And possibly letting events take their own turn.

Seto started as Yugi suddenly cried out, clutching his head. He staggered away a couple of paces, then sank to his knees. Seto hurried forward and knelt down beside him, putting his hand on his shoulder.

"What? Yugi, what's the matter?"

"Yami! Something's wrong, he's so scared." Yugi looked up at him, eyes wide. He leapt to his feet and turned for the mansion.

Seto jumped up and ran after him as he grabbed the front door and darted inside. It was immediately clear why Yami was afraid. Wheeler was dragging him across the floor by the collars of his shirt and jacket, nearly at the door of the torture room. Wheeler's face was frightening, he looked completely insane. His eyes were wide and wild, his mouth open but smiling in a feral grin that bared his teeth, dragging Yami with moderate ease across the flagged marble floor.

"Joey!" Yugi shrieked. "What are you doing?!"

"Joey, let go of me! Please, gods, Joey!" Yami yelled. Seto had never heard him so frightened.

Wheeler didn't even pause. He used his free hand to grab the door handle and yank it open. That was right, it was unlocked because the lock was broken. Yugi suddenly broke free of his horror and ran forward. Seto ran after him, his longer legs catching up just as Yugi reached the open doorway Wheeler had pulled Yami through.

Yugi cried out as they saw that Wheeler had opened the Iron Maiden. He was trying to push Yami into it. Yami had grabbed the edges of one of the halves and was trying to brace against being shoved in. He was losing against the bigger man's strength, inches from having six dozen metal spikes sunk into him.

"JOEY!" Yami screeched something in Egyptian.

Wheeler laughed wickedly, and Seto realized he was taking his time. He could have slammed all his weight into Yami and ended it, but he was pushing him slowly to increase the torment, emotional first and physical next.

Seto didn't pause, pushing Yugi to the side so that he wouldn't put himself in harm's way and ran forward and around the displays of torture implements, coming up on Wheeler and Yami. Well, he finally got to do what he'd wanted to for some time. As Wheeler automatically glanced at him, Seto drew back his fist and punched him as hard as he could in the face.

Wheeler staggered back, his hand still gripping Yami's collars, yanking him back with him. He went down, Yami crashing down onto him.

Wheeler's grip went limp as he lost consciousness. Yami scrambled away from him, breathing hard. Yugi had come around and now he grabbed him, pulling him into his arms as Yami grabbed him back reflexively. He was clearly half out of his mind, petrified and confused by this sudden attack and the fact he'd nearly been killed in a gruesome manner by his own lover.

"Oh, Yami. Are you okay? Gods, what happened?"

"I don't know," Yami gasped. His breathing was still panicky and he was visibly trembling, but Seto could see he was getting control of himself. He took a deep breath and let it out. "Joey and I were upstairs on the third floor. We thought we'd look into the attic, but we didn't get up there. Abigail and Oscar were still awake, so we came back down here. Joey said he wanted some more of the cherry pie in the kitchen, but before we got to there, he suddenly fell down. When I tried to help him up, asked what was wrong, he suddenly grabbed me. He was dragging me into here, he didn't say anything, and--"

Yami broke off, clearly unable to finish. Seto thought he was going to lose it for a second, but he didn't. He merely continued to hold onto Yugi, looking down at Wheeler lying on the floor. Yugi reached up and stroked his hair, resting his forehead against the side of his own head. Yami closed his eyes, and Seto was sure they were talking in their minds. He turned away and looked down at Wheeler, who hadn't moved. He'd hit him damn hard.

Yami opened his eyes again and pulled away from Yugi. He knelt down by Wheeler's side. "Is he okay?"

"I guess," Seto said shortly.

Wheeler suddenly groaned. Seto tensed and Yugi stepped forward, looking like he was ready to pull Yami back at a second's notice. Wheeler opened his eyes, reaching up to finger his jaw.

"What the hell?"

"Joey? Are you okay now?" Yugi asked, looking over Yami's shoulder.

Wheeler looked up at them, then his eyes widened. "Oh, gods! Yami, are you okay? I couldn't stop myself, it was like something was pulling my strings like I was a puppet. I saw, I heard you, gods, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

Wheeler sat up, reaching for Yami. Seto expected him to shrink back, but he didn't. Wheeler looked almost like he was about to cry as he wrapped his arms around Yami, hugging him tightly.

"I felt like I was being doused in ice water and then I blacked out for a second. When I came to, I had no control of my body. It was different than being under Marik's control, because when that happened, I was gone. I didn't come to until Yugi and I were already dueling, but this time I could see and hear everything, but I couldn't break the hold."

Wheeler held Yami even tighter, then lightly pushed him back, looking into his face. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine."

"I'm so sorry."

"Joey, you were possessed. I don't blame you. Everyone is fine now."

Wheeler suddenly leaned in and kissed him hard, holding on to him like a drowning man. He drew back and stood up, pulling Yami up with him. Still holding Yami like he was afraid to let go of him, Wheeler looked at Yugi and Seto.

"We're going. Now. We're not staying in this place another second."

"I agree," Seto said, ignoring for the moment the fact he was agreeing with the Mutt. "Forget all our stuff. Come on, Yugi."

Yugi nodded and hurried around the table of torture items to come to him. Wheeler took Yami's hand, clearly not about to let go of him any time soon. Seto turned back to the open doorway, making sure Yugi was right beside him as they all started to leave the room. Yugi suddenly stopped, grabbing Seto's sleeve.

"Look, something's missing!"

He was pointing to another one of the other tables in the room. Sure enough, labels indicated spots that were now empty. But Seto wasn't interested in what wasn't there or not. He started for the door again.

"Who cares? Let's go!"

"What about the other people?" Yugi asked as they came out into the front hall. "We can't leave them here!"

Seto sighed. Yugi was too altruistic not to leave the other people to fend for themselves. "Yugi, it's getting dangerous."

"All the more reason. Let's just go up to the second floor and shout for everyone to get out. We'll explain later."

Seto reluctantly agreed. Yami nodded to Yugi and the four of them went upstairs, not daring to separate. At the top of the stairs, Wheeler suddenly sucked in a large breath and bellowed up the stairs for everyone to get their asses downstairs.

The echoes of his shout were answered by silence. They glanced at each other. Then Yugi shook his head.

"We can't leave it to chance. Come on."

He took off up the stairs. Cursing, Seto ran after him, followed by Wheeler and Yami. Yugi reached the door to the Narendras, knocking hard on the heavy wooden door. When there was still no more answer, he grabbed the knob and twisted it.

Yugi's horrified gasp made Seto look in over his shoulder. The sight was not a pleasant one.

Mrs. Narendra lay spread-eagle on the center of the bed, a large serrated knife sticking out of the middle of her chest. She stared up at the ceiling with blank eyes, seeing nothing. Mr. Narendra was laying face-down on the floor in a pool of blood.

Or he would have been if he'd had a head.

"Oh, gods, oh, gods," Yugi chanted. "Where's his head?!"

Seto grabbed Yugi's shoulder and yanked him back. "Out. NOW!"

Wheeler whipped around, still holding on tight to Yami's hand. "Come on!"

Seto pushed Yugi in front of him, heading down the hall towards the stairs. This was getting way out of hand. Whether this was the work of ghosts or a serial killer, they had to get out of here.

A door right in front of the stairwell suddenly opened just as Wheeler and Yami passed it. It clipped Wheeler's shoulder, sending him crashing sideways into the wall. The door had opened right in front of Yugi, who crashed into it. Before he could even fall down, a gust of wind seemed to blow out of the wall itself, smashed into Yugi, who was lifted off his feet and thrown into the room. Seto lunged for him as the door slammed shut.

"Aibou!" Yami cried, yanking Wheeler to his feet before pounding on the closed door as Seto tried to open it. Though the knob turned, it was like the door was glued shut. He hauled on it, tried to pry it open from the seam, trying to kick it open, but nothing worked.

"Yug'! Yug', can you hear us?" Wheeler hollered.

Yugi didn't answer any of their calls. Seto pressed his ear to the door, but heard no sound from the other side. Wheeler and Yami started pounding on the door again as he stepped back, searching for another way.

"We'll put a hole in the wall," he said. "We have to grab something heavy."

Wheeler turned right around and grabbed the handle to the door across the hall. Yami looked at him worriedly.

"Joey, be careful."

The door opened easily, revealing the Millers' old room. There didn't appear to be any disturbances in it. Yami crossed the hall and stood in the doorway as if to try and stop it from closing it if made to do so while Wheeler entered, looking from something to bash in the wall.

The room was the children's old toy room. Wheeler snatched up a metal toy train and a wooden horse, tossing each to Yami, who passed them on to Seto. Wheeler snatched up a wooden baseball bat and came out of the room, which had shown no hostility. Together they lined up at the room's outer wall and went to town on it. However, the house was built in the 1800s, before plaster, drywall, and sheetrock. The walls were made out of hard wood, expertly nailed together before being chinked, painted with whitewash, and wall-papered. Some renovations probably had been done since then, but that didn't help them any.

"Shit!" Wheeler yelled, throwing down the baseball bat, which had splintered so much it was one swing away from snapping in half.

"We'd need something like an axe or a big kitchen knife," Seto said, trying to remain calm. No one thought clearly when they panicked. "Stay up here. I'm going to look in the kitchen."

"Kaiba, that's crazy," Yami said. "You don't know what'll happen to you."

"There's no other choice. You want to follow me around? And leave Yugi up here alone?"

Yami glanced at the closed door and shook his head. Wheeler was looking at him closely, but he said nothing. Without waiting for more useless conversation, Seto turned on his heel and headed down the stairs. The front hall was still empty. He didn't bother trying to call for anyone. He doubted he'd want to see whoever might answer.

The Narendras were dead, and what about the Maxwells? Suddenly their disappearance didn't seem innocent. Mr. Maxwell had been a class-A bastard, a peer of Seto in temperament. Only Seto doubted he'd take a loved one's suffering into account. If it had really been a migraine onslaught, he probably would have made his wife stay so he wouldn't waste the money spent.

Abigail had said a cook had told her that the Maxwells were gone. She and Oscar had accompanied them all day, so it must have been the cook who was going on this killing spree. Unless it really was supernatural.

Seto shoved open the swinging door to the kitchen. Like the bathrooms upstairs, it was a completely modern affair. Everything was shining marble counters, glossy stainless steel appliances, and stone floors. On the stove sat a gigantic roast pot, which had something cooking in it beneath the covered lid. The smell of boiling meat stung Seto's nostrils. Dread he wouldn't call ESP washed over him as he approached the pot. Grabbing a potholder, he reluctantly lifted up the lid.

The juice swollen, blood-red head of Mr. Narendra stared up at him, eyes bulging out of his face, murky with being boiled. Seto slammed the lid back down.

Bile rose up in his throat and no amount of poise could stop him from turning and relieving himself of what remained of his dinner. Coughing and spitting, he turned away from the stove and to the sink, hoping he wouldn't see more grisly pieces. The sink was empty and Seto turned on the tap, half-expecting bloody water, but it appeared clear. He quickly washed out his mouth, then turned away from the sink, not even taking the time to turn it off.

He had to find something to free Yugi from the room. He could only imagine what was happening to him. The Narendras had died brutally, the Maxwells and Johnstons most likely suffering similar fates, and possibly Abigail and Oscar. Yugi could not suffer the same way.

He opened drawer after drawer, but nothing seemed large enough. With great lack of enthusiasm, he turned back to the hall and crossed it to the torture room. The door remained open.

Seto paused for a second, knowing there was a great possibility he was going to die in pieces once he entered the room.

He stepped through the threshold.