Chapter Twelve:
Yugi had no idea what was happening. One second Seto had been pushing him along the second floor hallway and the next something struck him and flung him into the Johnstons' bedroom. He hit the brass foot-board and for a second couldn't move from the pain lancing up his side. It felt like one or more of his ribs had broken.
The door had slammed shut with a final snap. Yugi shoved aside the pain and jumped to his feet, running over to the door and pounding on it, trying the handle with no luck. It turned, but the door remained stuck. He couldn't hear any of the others and his calls went unanswered.
Yugi tried to open his link with Yami. Instantly his head spun and felt like a spike was being driven into it. The house was filled with psychic energy, perhaps because of the presence of the ghosts now active, and he couldn't stand it. Like speaking across a bad phone line, nothing could be heard over the psychic white noise and he shut the link again, relieving his head. Yami had probably experienced the same thing. There would be no talking to him that way.
Yugi felt very alone, but he had to keep calm. That's what Seto and Yami would do and though he was sure Joey would be as impatient and impulsive as usual, the two of them would keep him from running head-on into something dangerous. Yugi was on his own and if he lost his head, he was done for.
He turned around and inspected the room. Where were the Johnstons? The bedroom, originally Angelien's, was empty and there was no sign of violence. It looked eerily undisturbed. He'd rather there was a mess. Their silent disappearance was somehow scarier than their having been dragged out kicking and screaming.
Shuddering, Yugi sought out something to help him. The room was an 1800s young woman's room and had an 1800s young woman's things. The furniture was made of white-painted wood except for the brass bed, decorated with painted wild flowers. The curtains were gauzy and also white and the wall paper was white with tiny pink roses. The Johnstons' belongings were strewn about. There were certainly no weapons.
Yugi sorely wished one of his friends was with him. He felt so helpless. What was happening to them, right now?
Yugi tried the door again out of desperation, calling out for one of his friends. There was absolutely no sound, and he knew that couldn't be possible normally. The rooms weren't soundproof. The ghosts in this house were really serious now.
"If anyone is here to hear me, I want to apologize," Yugi said, looking around the room in general. "If you think we're trespassing, we'll be happy to leave. No one hear meant to hurt your feelings or disrespect you. We merely wanted to have some contact with ghosts and we really--heh--got our wish. Please, I'm begging you, please let us leave."
There was a long silence. Yugi looked around despondently, trying again. "Please, anyone who is here, please be merciful. If there was anything I could do for you, I would. If there's anything I can, I will! All you have to do is tell me. But please, don't hurt my friends." Another pause. "Giselle? You let me see you for a reason. Please, sweetheart, let us leave. Don't hurt us."
To his shock, the door suddenly swung open. And peeking through the doorway was Giselle. She was looking at him like she had there in the graveyard, half-hidden, large brown eyes peering at him solemnly. Rather than rush forward and risk startling her and becoming imprisoned again, he did his best to give her a winning smile. He crouched down on his heels, bringing himself to her height.
"Hi, sweetheart. Are you going to let me out of here?"
He didn't expect a response, but to his surprise, she nodded and stepped back. Yugi slowly straightened up and stepped forward, wary of the door. It didn't slam on him and he stepped into the hallway. But to his dismay, none of his friends were there. He turned back to the silent little pink-dressed ghost. Thanks to his mother, he thought he knew how to talk gently to a child.
"Giselle? Dear, where are my friends? Can you tell me?"
Giselle raised her hand and pointed, upstairs to the third floor, then downstairs towards the first floor. He hesitated, wondering if that meant they had split up for some reason or she really didn't know. He decided to take the chance on the former.
"Who's upstairs?"
She didn't talk. He wasn't sure if she could. None of the ghosts so far had. Giving her another smile, he decided to go upstairs. Whoever was up there could then return with him downstairs for the others. Something had happened to split them up. Something bad.
"I'm going upstairs," he told the little ghost. "Thank you so much for letting me out, Giselle."
She didn't smile or disappear. Yugi smiled at her before turning and hurrying down the hallway to the staircase leading up to the third floor. He wanted to call out for his friends, but wasn't sure if that was a good idea.
Giselle came with him, following him silently down the hallway. In a way, Yugi felt better with her company. Maybe the little girl could help him again. But as they started up the stairs, she suddenly stopped. Yugi did as well, looking at her. She was looking up at the end of the stairs above them and suddenly disappeared without warning. Yugi stared where she'd been, trepidation washing over him. What could scare a dead person?
But she had said one of his friends was up there, hadn't she? He had to know.
Turning back to the stairs, he raced up the last few and into the third floor hallway. The lights were all off except for two tiny night lights situated along the floor, casting inadequate illumination. He suddenly realized he could see a shape at the far end of the long hallway, no features, but definitely one with spiky hair.
"Yami!"
Gladly Yugi started to hurry towards him but stopped dead before he'd even taken a step. Another figure had suddenly entered the hallway behind his dark, far too tall to be Kaiba. He walked forwards slowly, clearly sneaking up on Yami.
"Yami! Look out, behind you!"
It was far too late that Yugi realized he was not looking at Yami at all. There was a mirror at the end of the hallway and he was looking at himself. And the man was not sneaking up on Yami, but on him.
Hands seized him roughly, lifting him right off his feet. He screamed in surprise and began to fight, kicking, attempting to reach back and punch, claw whoever had him. He once again instinctively opened his link to scream to Yami for help and was struck with the psychic wall. Disoriented, his head hurting, he continued to try to struggle while at the same time trying to close his link again.
Whoever had him was not gentle. Yugi was literally thrown into one of the walls of the hallway, striking face-first. He collapsed onto the carpet, succeeding in cracking the back of his head against the far wall. His consciousness spun crazily while sharp pain speared through his head, followed by nausea and dizziness. Through the fog he looked up at his attacker, but it was too dark to see his face.
Yugi struggled to get up but the change in elevation did not help him and he was unconsciousness before he had even sat up.
******
Yugi came to slowly, his head throbbing from the strike to the wall. He started to sit up to rub his head before realizing with panic that he couldn't. His arms were tied above his head and his ankles were bound as well, putting his body into a five-point star shape. From the ache in his limbs, he'd been out for some time.
He looked around wildly, searching for anything to help him. He had never seen this place before, but the slanted and raftered look of the ceiling above him, along with the all-wood look to the walls and a single high window made him sure he was upstairs in the attic.
His limbs were bound with thick rope, held down by cast-iron hooks drilled into the floor. But that was not all. Yugi could see, by straining his neck, that he was lying across a painted pentagram, one whose top point lay down between his spread legs, the hooks holding his limbs attached to the other four points. The star had a circle drawn around it and thirteen, thick black candles stood along the circle at perfectly placed points. Along one wall, beneath the only window, was what looked like an altar with two shelfs. On the top one was more black candles and a series of jars. Worse, on the second shelf lay a series of five skulls.
Horrified, Yugi looked around the room again, but there was no one else in here. Who had attacked him, tied him down? What was the pentagram for? He knew plenty enough about black magick to know what a sacrifice looked like.
Giselle suddenly popped into existence beside him, making him jump. She was sitting with her legs tucked under her next to his head. She reached out with one little see-through hand and stroked his hair. To Yugi it felt like having icy wind rushing through the strands and he couldn't stop himself from shivering. She was looking down at him with a sad sort of expression, still petting his hair. Yugi was given the impression she was trying to comfort him.
"Giselle. What's going on?"
She only looked at him. Yugi was sure she couldn't talk or she probably would have already. Yugi looked back at the altar with the skulls, focusing on the smallest of the bunch.
"That's yours. Isn't it?"
Her own eyes glanced up at the altar and she seemed to waver in visibility, as if she had shuddered. She nodded her head, looking back down at him. Yes, it was hers.
"The others are your siblings, right?"
She nodded again. Yugi licked his lips and looked up into her face.
"Where are they?"
She waved her arm in a catch-all gesture. Yugi looked at the row of skulls again, before trying once more to free his hands or legs. Giselle sat there beside his head without moving and when Yugi relaxed again in failure, she went back to petting his hair. As he watched, a chrystalline tear ran down her see-through cheek. It evaporated into thin air as soon as it left her chin. Yugi was not reassured by the fact that a ghost was crying for him.
"Giselle, can't you untie me? Please?"
She shook her head and reached for the rope wound around his wrist. Her fingers passed through the rope as well as his skin. All was left was a horrible chill. He realized his hair was not actually being moved by her fingers, it just felt like cold wind. She couldn't actually affect anything real.
Disappointed, Yugi tried not to let her know. She couldn't help it and upsetting her was not going to help him. He tried a different tactic.
"You know what's going on, sweetheart? What's happening to the people who come here?"
She nodded wildly and suddenly started flickering like a badly tuned TV set. Yugi had upset her anyway.
"Wait! Wait, please don't go, I need your help." When she solidified again, he breathed more easily. "Thank you. So you know what happens. Where are they? The people that died, are they ghosts, too?"
She nodded her head, both of her hands now in her lap where she studied them. She raised one hand and waved it around again, indicating the ghosts were all over.
"Are they doing the killing? Or one of them doing it?"
She shook her head, which surprised him. If the ghosts weren't killing people, then what was? Something had attacked and tied him here.
"Giselle, can any of you ghosts affect real things? Can you move anything at all?"
She nodded, looking into his eyes again. She raised her hand above her head in a gesture that meant height. A ghost either bigger or older than her could do it. He supposed that made sense. Anyone who had read things about ghosts knew that it took energy to move objects. Maybe she wasn't big enough to make that sort of energy, but the ghost of an adult could. Odd, but supernatural things had their own laws, he knew that.
"Do you know who attacked me?"
She nodded again, then surprised him by pointing at him. He knew she didn't mean he had attacked himself, so what--
"A human, I mean, a real person, attacked me? Not a ghost?"
She nodded and he remembered seeing a reflection behind him in the mirror when he'd thought he was looking at Yami. Some people said ghosts could cast reflections in mirrors, but maybe they couldn't. Either way, she was telling him a real person had attacked him. But who? The Narendras were dead, the Millers had left. Though they'd already been shown that they could be taken over and made to attack their loved ones, Yugi didn't suspect any of his friends. The reflection ruled out Yami, and Yugi was sure the person had been too tall for either Joey or Kaiba. And he was sure it was a man, the person had been far too strong for a woman. Yugi would have been able to overpower a woman; even as short as he was, he was a grown man.
That left a living man and the only two unaccounted for were Mr. Maxwell and Oscar. Unless there was someone completely unassociated with the house, but that was unlikely. How probable was it that some stranger was using this funhouse for murder? Something was happening within. But that didn't mean there wasn't a male employee unaccounted for. It was hard to believe that only two people kept this house in good shape and he'd already seen two female cooks.
He glanced over at the altar one more time. Someone was dealing in black magick and he knew, at least from hearing theories, that more women used magick than men. Wiccans and real witches were more often women than men. But he knew the person who had attacked him was a man. Did that mean he was dealing with a male witch or were there two people? He still didn't know why he was here.
"Giselle, do you know who could untie me? Is there a ghost who could untie me?"
She nodded eagerly, standing up. She made a wild waving motion.
"Can you find them? Please, Giselle, bring them here."
She nodded again and disappeared. Yugi relaxed against the floor, knowing he was helpless for now and hoping that Giselle could find a ghost who could and would help him in time. But more than that, he hoped all of his friends were safe.