Chapter Sixteen:
Yugi was almost despairing. Giselle had disappeared some time ago and there'd been no sound or movement since then. If she could transport herself anywhere, what was keeping her getting a bigger ghost to set him free? He didn't want to believe it, but he was beginning to think she'd played him. She was a ghost and the ghosts here were killing people. Even if she didn't do the killing herself, that didn't mean she wouldn't let others.
He'd been lying in the attic room, tied to the pentagram, for a long time, though he didn't know exactly how long. The tiny window near the ceiling remained dark, so it wasn't yet morning, but he didn't even know when he'd been brought up here.
Noise made him lift his head, looking down the length of his body. The attic door was opening and that did not make him relieved. Giselle couldn't affect the door, and even if she or another ghost could, why would they bother using the door? He also didn't think it was one of his friends, either, though he couldn't say why he felt that way.
His natural instincts were right. Abigail stepped into the room, holding an old-fashioned kerosene lamp with a lit wick, but she looked different than she'd ever appeared before. Her long, black hair was down, falling around her shoulders in shiny waves. Her face now bore well-placed make-up and her body was dressed in a rich blood-red gown with silver trim at the wrists, hem, and neckline. Around her neck were twin strands of pearls, and her ears bore pearl dangles. Her appeal had been enhanced greatly, but she was still no real beauty. Instead, she looked more like a versed seductress. Yugi was not comforted, but he couldn't believe what had just come into his head.
"Abigail!" Yugi gasped. "Thank goodness. Untie me, please, we have to get out of here."
Abigail smiled and slowly closed the door, walking slowly over to him, looking down at him. Yugi's weak smiled faded entirely and he knew it was true.
"You're...not going to help me...are you?"
"No, Yugi, dear, I'm not."
Abigail set the lamp on a small table against one wall of the attic, unrelated to the rite circle and altar set up. She then knelt down beside him, reaching down to put her hand on his forehead. Yugi tried to jerk away, but there wasn't much room for him to move, and she kept her hand on his head. Her fingers were cool, light on his skin.
"What are you going to do to me?" Yugi whispered. "What's the pentagram, and the skulls, and everything for?"
"I'll tell you later, sweetie, when we start."
She stood, moving over to the altar, lifting a book of matches from the sill of the window, and lighting all of the six candles on the altar before turning around and lighting the three candles at Yugi's head. She set the matchbook back on the sill before turning back to him again. The petnames she was giving him worried him. Though she was acting like a mother, her manner was sinister in it, and he knew she was going to hurt him, probably kill him.
"As soon as Onfroi is done--"
"Onfroi?" Yugi stared up at her in shock, coming to the conclusion in a sudden burst with the name. "You're Annika and Onfroi?"
"Yes. We've lived all these years. As I was saying, as soon as Onfroi is done with your friends, we'll get started."
"Leave them alone," Yugi said desperately. "You have me, whatever you want me for, you don't need them."
"Oh, we agree. Problem is, they just won't leave us alone. All our attempts to scare them away or force them away have failed and they just keep coming back. Well, the only way to ensure they don't come back again is to kill them."
"No! Please, don't, I'm begging you."
"I might have listened to your pleas if Onfroi wasn't already downstairs killing them. Sorry."
Yugi fought against his restraints, but he couldn't budge them. The ropes were abraiding his skin and the hooks drilled into the floor were solidly anchored. He looked up at her pleadingly.
"Please, Annika. You have me. Please, tell Onfroi to stop."
"Too late, sweetheart, I'm telling you. Now don't make this harder on yourself. Just relax and soon you won't have anything to worry about at all. You wanted to know what's going to happen to you and I always thought it was fair to tell the person. You see, Onfroi and I could not stand the deaths of our babies. We had no choice for a few years, but we began thinking of any possibility of ever seeing them again. The occult has always had popular movements off and on and we began to think that maybe we could contact our children that way. But every seance, every graveyard wake, every consultation with a psychic failed to produce even the slightest hint of our children. Well, every real hint. One woman dared to claim she was channeling Annabelle for us, but described her incorrectly and when we confronted her on it, she told us our money was hers whether she gave us a real visitation or not!"
Annika's Dutch accent was growing as her voice raised in pitch. She was getting angry, beginning to pace.
"The nerve! Conning us, such desperate parents seeking to see their poor children, and she cheats us! Well, we were not happy, not happy. When we could think again, the bitch lay dying on the floor, the shards of her crystal ball piercing her. She promised us she would rise again, promised her gypsy magick would sustain her, but she died and we fled. It was only later that the idea of raising the dead infused us! Could it be possible, to bring our poor babies back?"
Yugi listened not because he was really interested, but because he hoped to distract her from her purpose and find a way to loosen his bonds, even though he had no real belief that he would be able to escape them. And there was something in the pure, unadulterated emotion in her story that was captivating in its horror.
"We searched for twenty years for the source and though we did not find restoration spells, we did find sustaining ones! Eternity to search, that was what we needed. We performed the rites upon ourselves and gained immortal life, so long as we were not killed, of course. And then we began the search anew, crossing oceans, visiting all continents, so many countries, searching! Finally a tiny Voodoo priestess in the deep bayou South of America gave us a possibility. With the right person, his or her life could be used to bring our childrens' lives back! We returned to our home and began our search for the right person, performing our casting spells to find them out."
Annika sighed, then lit three more of the candles before sitting down on the floor of the attic, staring at the row of skulls on the shelf. Yugi continued to squirm, keeping his eye on her so that she wouldn't catch him trying to work his bonds free as well as trying to strain for any possibility of hearing something from downstairs.
"It was so hard. No one seemed right. And eventually we had to abandon our house lest our neighbors realized we no longer aged. But we did not leave entirely. We returned whenever a new family purchased our house and used them in the hopes we had found the right person, but always ended in failure. When the house was purchased by the Marvells, we saw our opportunity to make our search easier. Mr. Marvell wanted to make it into a museum of the macabre once our past in collecting was revealed, searching out all of our old possessions, buying them again and returning them to the house, but I came to him and used my mind-control to turn this into an attraction that would bring less people so that we could perform our rites with less possibility of being discovered. It took a lot of fine-tuning, but we finally got it right and now the house is at as it is.
"And still we have failed! So many lives and not a one has brought back our babies. But you, you are different, Yugi."
She turned her head to look directly at him and smiled. "I felt it the instant you came to the house. Such power, such magickal energy in you! Onfroi agreed with me, you had to be the one with power enough to make the ritual work. Originally, I actually intended to use your brother, but his aura was so dark I was afraid it would warp our spell into something evil."
It took Yugi a second to realize she'd referred to Yami as his brother. He didn't bother correcting her. "He's not evil."
"I know that, but he is dark. His magick is tainted with Shadows and death, whatever his intent when using it. That blackness could corrupt our spell and bring our babies back without their souls. No, never! I could not bear it! And then I turned to you. You have less power than he, but you are far purer. Your energy is nearly white compared to his nearly black. Perhaps you would do and here you are, and I'm sorry you have to die, but I must have back my children!"
She scooted over to him, now on her knees, looking down at him pleadingly.
"I never really wanted to hurt anyone, but don't you see, Yugi, I must have my children! They died so cruelly, so painfully, so young! You must understand!"
Yugi stared at her in disbelief. She was asking him to forgive her for trying to kill him and his friends. And he didn't believe her for a second.
"You never wanted to hurt anyone, did you? What about the Narendras and whoever else you killed. How many people honestly have the magick you're looking for? If you can sense it, I know you know not many people even have a small hint of it in their bodies, but you killed dozens of people! Even in a hundred, whatever years, there couldn't have been that many, could there? You killed them because you wanted to. Look at your collection! You've always been fascinated with death! I'm sorry your children suffered, but I think you brought it on yourself."
She slapped him across the face. "How dare you! How dare you even suggest that our children deserved to die! Oh, but now I wish this rite would cause you pain. Unfortunately you'll merely go to sleep and die." An evil smile graced her face. "But your friends... no, Onfroi can take his time with them. I'll make sure to suggest it."
"Don't take it out on them that you're angry with me," Yugi said quickly.
"Well, you said our babies earned their fates for our actions. Why shouldn't your friends earn theirs for yours? In fact...I think Onfroi has one right now." Her eyes slid out of focus and he recognized the trance of someone communicating mentally with another. "Oh, look, if it isn't your brother."
"Leave Yami alone! Leave them all alone, let them go! I'm sorry for what I said. Please, let them go, you don't have to hurt them!"
"That's Onfroi's decision."
She stood up, lighting the seventh, eighth, and ninth candles on his pentagram. "This 'gram is upside down for a reason. Even though we're planning to use your good energy to bring our babies back as they were, the magick is evil, of course. We're murdering you. The inverted pentagram is a symbol of the Devil. See? The Goat is present. His horns at arms, his eyes at your back, his snout between your legs. He will take our offering and give us back our children. We have offered him so much over the years! So, yes, Yugi, we did need to kill. To give Lucifer his blood payment."
"You think Satan is going to grant your wish? Whether or not he's real, every religion will tell you not to trust him! Hello, Prince of Darkness, Father of Lies? The Destroyer of Light, the Fallen Angel, Hell's King, any of that ring a bell?"
"You know a lot about his names. Oh, well, common knowledge. He'll grant our wish, he has to. He's received our payments. We've done everything right. One final ritual and we'll have what we want."
"No, you won't." Yugi looked up at her with a mix of pity, disgust, and satisfaction. "This is going to go wrong in a bad way. Even if I die, even if all of my friends die, you won't ever get what you want. And one day, you're going to die bloodily."
She snorted and walked over to the altar, opening some of the jars and beginning to anoint the little skulls with oils, incense, and herbs. "Save your breath. We've done this for decades."
Yugi tried his link to Yami, only serving to come up against the interference. His soft groan of pain as he hastily shut his link drew a laugh from Annika. "Don't bother doing that, either. You have no power here. I can't stop you from trying to call your brother, but I can make it painful for you. And it comes to the same thing."
She suddenly frowned and turned away from the altar, still holding Giselle's skull in her hands. Her eyes went to the door, her upset expression deepening. "How did he--?"
The door flew open. Annika gave a little shriek and set Giselle's skull down as Seto came rushing into the room, gripping a magnificent axe. Yugi was overjoyed to see him.
"Seto! Oh, thank goodness! She's--"
"Annika, I know."
Seto's eyes fixed on Annika after one short sweep of Yugi. He raised up his axe and brandished it at her. His blue eyes narrowed to angry slits.
"Bitch, get away from my lover."
Yugi was hysterically amused at Seto's threat, but he definitely was not in the mood to laugh. He watched in trepidation as Annika moved away from the altar, sneering at him.
"Please, child. Stop waving that thing around before you hurt yourself. I don't fear you. You're just a little boy in my mind."
"Then I'll have to prove how wrong you are by chopping you in half. Woman or not, you're dead."
"Hm. What a gentleman."
She raised her hand. The room's air was suddenly frigid. Seto blinked, then scowled, his face scrunching up like he was having a headache. Yugi recognized that Annika was trying to take over his mind.
"Oh, gods! Seto, fight her, fight her! Don't let her control you! Fight her!"
Seto's face contorted into a crazy smile. Yugi moaned in dismay. Annika laughed in delight and triumph, her chin coming up.
"There. You weren't so hard. Well, I can't have you killing Yugi, since I need him. Why don't you go and finish off the another annoying insect running around downstairs? Onfroi has--" Her voice suddenly stopped and her expression turned appalled. "What did that bastard do to him! Oh, my husband!" She turned back to commanding Seto. "Go and kill that blond airhead. Make sure you chop him up starting at his feet, so he can watch while he dies. Go!"
Seto turned right around and headed down the attic stairs, ignoring Yugi's screams for him to stop. Annika cackled as he disappeared from view. She took the matchbook and lit all but the last one of the candles situated at the bottom point between Yugi's legs.
"Your friends are so easy to control, yet I know from their minds it's supposed to be hard! Even that airhead is supposed to have immunity. He threw off the spells of those funny, little Millennium Items. I guess I should just enjoy the stroke to my ego."
Yugi glared at her in hatred, feeling tears of rage stinging his eyes. He trashed on his bonds, hoping to upset the pentagram, knock over a candle, anything to throw her off her plan, but she didn't seem concerned. Sudden pounding footsteps made him stop and look at the stairwell.
Onfroi came rushing into the room, gushing blood from wounds in his face. His shirt was soaked. Annika shrieked again and was immediately at his side, trying to inspect the damage, using her sleeve to dab at the blood.
"Oh, my husband, are you hurt bad? Don't worry, I sent that Kaiba kid to destroy him for cutting you. Quick! If we are fast, you may not scar."
"Don't worry about my face. We have to do this ritual now. These brats are proving even harder to kill than I thought. You won't not love me if I'm scarred, will you?"
Annika laughed and kissed his bloody lips. "I don't love you just for your looks. Yes, let's bring our children now! We've waited too long already. Now--"
She raised her head as more footsteps came from the stairs. Yugi's hope returned as Seto suddenly came back into view, smirking. He had a red patch on his forehead above his left eye.
"Well, I'm glad your husband is such a fool. Or did you not realize what you did?" Seto looked at Onfroi, holding the axe up again. "In your rush, you pushed me, didn't you? I hit the wall. It hurt. But it gave me back myself. That's the key isn't it, Annika? A hit, or pain, something sudden to jerk the person out of a trance and undo your spell? One smack in the face seemed enough to snap Joey out of it."
"Pain, yes," Annika growled, trembling with rage. "No matter, I can redo it!"
Seto slid one hand up the axe's handle. Yugi gasped as Seto deliberately pushed up against the bottom-most edge of the blade above the handle. Blood began to run down his arm, his expression tightening, but his smirk never leaving.
"Pain clears the mind," Seto said as he stepped forward. "It brings every into focus on that one point. Plus, I'll fight whatever you bring, Annika. Give it up, I've got you."
"You have us?" Onfroi sneered. "So you're consciously fighting Annika's mental strike, so what? What's the counter-point to mental?" He raised his hand. A gust of icy wind exploded from his hand. "Physical!"
The blast struck Seto in the chest. Yugi screamed as Seto was lifted off his feet as if he'd been hit with a sledgehammer. He struck the wall with a terrible thump, so hard that the plaster cracked and sifted dust down.
Seto slid to the floor, a trail of blood leading from where his head had struck to where he crumpled in a heap. The axe lay on the floor; Seto had let go of it on impact with the wind, but it was out of Yugi's reach and no help.
"Seto, Seto!"
"Don't bother, he can't hear you anymore."
"Onfroi, I'm glad you came," Annika said, looking down at Seto. "He is stronger mentally than I was actually admitting. My hold was tenuous and he was right, a simple jerk would have brought him back. He would have killed me."
Onfroi shushed her, gathering her into his arms. "He's no threat now. Come on, my love. Bring back our children!"
"Seto! SETO!"
"Shut up, or I'll stuff a rag in your mouth!" Onfroi yelled at Yugi.
Annika grabbed the matchbook and lit the last black candle between Yugi's feet. She threw the matchbook into the corner. Standing up, she began to chant in a foreign language, not seeming to care about Yugi's continued struggles and shouts. Onfroi joined her, the same language but a sentence behind her, counter-pointing her like they were singing a Voodoo version of Row, Row, Row Your Boat.
More pounding footsteps made them both stop. Yami and Joey came pelting up the stairs, holding swords, Joey an additional knife. Joey glanced down at Seto and cursed while Yami kept his eyes on Annika and Onfroi. He touched his Puzzle with his free hand.
"How did you get that?" Onfroi snapped.
"Anglien was kind enough to return it to me," Yami said. "While we were bashing down the door you sealed, she came into the hallway with it. I'll have to thank her later."
His Sennen Eye opened on his forehead. Annika screamed, falling to her knees and clutching her head. Onfroi shouted in rage, raising his hand towards Yami.
"Oh, no you don't."
Joey lunged at him, swinging the sword. Onfroi was forced to block his blow with whatever power his possessed. He attempted to make the sword lunge back at Joey, but the blond merely let go of the handle and hit the floor. The sword sailed over his head and clattered to the floor.
"Damn good thing you can't make those fly," Joey said, jumping to his feet and lunging at Onfroi.
The knife in his hand sunk into Onfroi's arm when he raised it to block being stabbed in the chest. He screamed, kicking Joey in the stomach. Joey fell down, gasping, but not incapacitated. As Onfroi ripped the dagger from his arm and tried to stab him back, he caught Onfroi's right ankle and hauled, knocking him off balance.
Yami and Annika were still fighting each other, but Yami was clearly winning. He was walking over to her while she remained kneeling, watching him approach without being able to defend herself. Yami raised his sword, about to strike her while Joey had gotten the knife back and he was leaning all of his weight against Onfroi, who was attempting to keep him from driving it into his chest again.
Iciness filled the room again, but it had nothing to do with either Annika or Onfroi's powers. Five child ghosts appeared in the attic quite suddenly. The twin boys grabbed both of Joey's arms and yanked him off of Onfroi while all three girls swarmed around Yami, the two eldest smacking at him while Giselle plunged her hands into his stomach, which made Yami double-up.
Annika jumped to her feet and ran back as Onfroi got to his, grabbing her and pulling her close. They both began to laugh, expressions triumphant and elated.
The twins had let go of Joey after throwing him back and now the girls stopped battering Yami. The five ghosts floated over to the far side of the attic, near the table with the kerosene lamp, surveying the scene silently.
"Do you see?" Annika gasped in joy. "Our children will not allow you to kill us! They know we will bring them back and they embrace it! Yes, darlings, yes! Mommy will have you back in just moments!"
"Oh, my beautiful girls, my boys!" Onfroi exclaimed. "Such good children. Be patient, and you will live again!"
"Fuck," Joey muttered, still crouched where the boys had shoved him, watching. Yami was still sitting on the floor, but he had recovered from whatever Giselle had done to him, also watching. Yugi was still tied to the floor, worried for the still Seto, but unable to tear his eyes away from the scene.
"We trusted you," Yami said to the ghosts.
"Hah!" Annika sneered. "They are our children! Why would they listen to you? Darlings, your parents have had to do some bad things, but it's all for you! Don't you worry about it, don't think about it, just wait. We'll bring you back to life and then we'll be a family again!"
The ghosts looked at them. They glanced at one another, then turned back to the parents and, as one, frowned. Annika and Onfroi, about to turn back to Yami and Joey, stopped and blinked at them.
"What, babies?" Annika asked. "Why do you look like that? Don't worry, they won't hurt. We'll, we'll make it quick. Just don't look."
The ghosts' expressions hardened further. Yami suddenly got to his feet and backed away, moving further away from where Annika and Onfroi stood together near the altar. Annika let go of Onfroi and stepped forward a couple of paces, looking ecstatic.
Yugi felt a strange draining sensation and he panicked, certain that the ritual to kill him had somehow been enacted anyway. However, that didn't seem to be the case. Annabelle suddenly reached out, put her hand to the kerosene lamp, and toppled it over.
The glass shattered, but rather than go out, the small flame on the wick suddenly whooshed as if helped by lighter fluid, spreading across the floor in hyper motion. It engulfed the floor at the ghosts' feet, but they didn't flinch, standing in the flames. The fire raced forward, but moved like a living thing. It bisected the attic room in seconds, detouring around Yugi's feet like a winding snake, far enough away that he could feel the heat, but was not endangered.
It cut across the floor entirely, placing Annika, Onfroi, and the altar on one side with Yugi, Yami, Joey, and Seto on the other. The door was on their side.
"What, what are you doing?" Onfroi gasped.
"My babies!" Annika squealed.
The ghosts' expressions suddenly turned terrifying. Their eyes blazed an eerie yellow, their hair began to twist like the flames at their feet, and their mouths stretched open far beyond human capacity, revealing rows of triangular teeth, like sharks. These demon expressions were aimed only at their parents.
"But we did it for you!" Annika wailed as she and Onfroi stepped back from the slowly creeping flames, which only moved towards one side of the attic, staying clear of Yugi and the others. "We did it for you, my darlings!"
"No, don't do this!" Onfroi begged, holding his hands out in supplication. "Don't make those faces! Anglien, Annabelle, Frederick, Henri, little Giselle, don't look at us like that! Please, don't do this!"
Yugi's arms suddenly came free and he looked up from his fascination to see that Yami was hacking his ropes free with the knife Joey had been holding. He got his ankles and Yugi scrambled to his feet, unsteady from the kinks of the long-held position. Yami caught and braced him.
"Seto!"
"I've got him, Yug'." Joey grunted with the effort, but hauled Seto up and over his shoulder. "We've got to blow this place!"
Yugi knew they had to, knew he should be tending to Seto, but not a one of them actually turned to the door. They were all watching the drama unfolding before them. The flames did creep towards them, but only enough to eat the pentagram on the floor, stopping before it came too close to the watching teenagers.
The children continued to sport their demon faces at their parents, who were both sobbing by now, still pleading with them. The fire had formed a complete circle around them, eating at the altar, climbing up the wall towards the ceiling, now on slow-motion. Annika and Onfroi were cut off from escape, their entreaties ignored by their children.
Suddenly they turned to each other and their tormented expressions cleared after a moment of staring at one another. A weird sort of peace enveloped them both.
"We will join them," Annika whispered almost too soft for Yugi to catch.
"Together in the end," Onfroi agreed. "In death, if not in life."
They stepped forward and embraced each other. The childrens' faces returned to normal, but they didn't stop the fire. It closed in and Yugi turned away as it began climbing up the parents' legs.
"Let's go," he gasped.
The three of them turned to the stairs and started down, Yugi and Yami first, helping Joey navigate the stairs with the awkward weight of Seto slung over his shoulder. They made it to the third floor, then down to the second, and finally to the first, unmolested by anything. The fire could be heard now, roaring as it began to consume the house.
The four of them made it outside, moving yards away before turning and watching in silence as the fire began to eat the house in earnest, spreading down the floors until the entire structure was in flames. Joey had laid Seto down in the softest patch of grass he could find and Yugi sat with his head in his lap, holding one of his hands. He'd already checked his pulse, nearly fainting with relief that his heart was still beating and he was still breathing. He'd taken off his shirt and was gently pressing it to Seto's head-wound, but there was nothing else they could do for him.
The three of them just watched as the house blazed. Not a single scream of pain came from the depths of the fire, even though the parents were burning alive.
It took over an hour for the house to burn enough for it to collapse. The gush of cinders and smoke billowed around the structure, but didn't reach them from their distant post. Yugi worried that the fire would spread and catch the free trees and grass around, but it didn't. It abruptly went out all on its own, leaving a pile of rubble and ashes.
Silence fell. Yugi was waiting for the ghosts to appear. He hoped to see the family of seven all together, but not a single supernatural being could be seen anywhere. He guessed they'd already passed on.
"Wow," Joey said after a long time of silence.
He had put his arm around Yami some time ago. Yami was resting his head on his shoulder. The sun was beginning to rise in the East. Morning was coming, bringing with it a true sense of safety. Light always made most people feel secure.
"I don't get it. I mean, what the fuck? If the kids could just end it all, why didn't they do it?"
"I don't think they had the courage," Yugi said sadly. "I mean, they were their parents! How could you just kill your parents?"
"They may not have had the courage," Yami said. "And they may not have had the ability. Aibou, did you not feel the energy being sucked from you?"
"Oh, yeah! Did you feel it, too?"
"Is that what that was?" Joey demanded. "I thought I was just tired. What, they used our energy to do it?"
"Ghosts need energy," Yugi said. "That's why rooms always get cold when they're about. But I guess, to make the fire move like that, they needed a boost from us. Annika did say they were waiting for someone with a lot of magick to do their spell. I guess the ghosts had to wait, too."
"Yes, that is my guess," Yami said. "They were not living and so were very limited. And I think you were right, Aibou. They probably had to summon the strength emotionally as well as physically to bring about their parents' deaths."
"I guess so," Joey said.
"I feel sorry for them," Yugi added. "I mean, all of them. The children, because they had to die that way, then watch their parents kill people before they had kill them themselves. The people who died. But the parents, too. They lost all of their children in horrible ways one right after another. They just...snapped."
"Trust you to feel sorry for murderous psychos, Yug'."
Seto suddenly shifted. Gasping in relief, Yugi bent over him, looking at him upside down. He gently squeezed his hand.
"Seto, are you all right? Say something."
"What happened?" Seto mumbled.
His eyes opened groggily. Yugi raised his hand to his mouth and kissed his knuckles, overwhelmed with joy. Seto had been knocked unconscious, but he didn't seem hurt. At least not that he could tell.
"You got hit on the head. I'll tell you later."
"Where's Annika and Onfroi?" Seto demanded. His voice was slightly slurred and weak, but he was talking and was coherent.
"Dead," Yugi said. "It's over."
"How are we going to get home?" Joey asked resignedly.
"Do I have to do...everything...Mutt?" Seto mumbled, reaching up with his free hand towards the collar of his trenchcoat. He pressed something, then tried to sit up. Yugi put his hands on his shoulders and made him stay down.
"Don't move."
"What did you do?" Joey asked.
"I have a tracking device in my lapel...for emergencies. Mokuba will be here...sometime."
Seto was losing lucidity, clearly about to faint again. Yugi rubbed the hand he was again holding between his.
"Uh-uh, stay with me. Stay awake, Seto."
They had no choice but to stay sitting there until help arrived. In reality, it wasn't actually Mokuba, as that would take hours. Instead, a black helicopter approached before landing a distance away, a pair of suit-clad people hopping out and running forward. They identified themselves as some of the people who ran the American KaibaLand, helping all of them into the helicopter. In the two hours it had taken them to arrive, Seto had gained strength and was now sitting up despite Yugi's protests, though he did lean back against him.
Yugi held his arms around him, resting his chin on his shoulder, just so glad to have him safe that he couldn't even say anything. Yami and Joey were now sitting against one another, talking in low voices about what had happened. When the 'copter came, they all stood.
Seto greeted his American subordinates with his usual friendliness and they all boarded. A doctor was on board, apparently there just in case, since Seto's summons was an emergency button. He checked Seto over, pronouncing he had a concussion and telling him to remain awake while it was being treated.
They were taken back to Las Vegas, admitted to a hospital, where they were all treated for their various bumps, cuts, and bruises. Seto refused being kept overnight and they returned to their previous hotel, even to the same suites as before.
Seto had to remain awake for twenty-four hours after being hit, which meant for a very long night for him, as they'd all been awake throughout the past night dodging all of the murder attempts. Yugi insisted staying awake with him, despite his protests that there was no reason for him to.
"There is reason, just to make sure you're all right."
Seto looked up at him as he sat at the desk chair with Yugi hovering over him. After a moment, a smile spread across his face. Yugi loved it when he smiled. Seto had an utterly devastating smile, which was one of the reasons why it was a shame he didn't smile often.
Yami and Joey had crashed in their bedroom, Yugi reassuring Yami that there was nothing he could do and that Yugi would feel better if he and Joey got some sleep. After a few protests of his own, Yami agreed and they retired. Now it was just he and Seto who were still awake.
Yugi reached out and cupped Seto's face gently. "I'm so relieved you're okay," he whispered.
"Don't get mushy, Yugi."
"I'm not."
"Good."
Seto smiled again, reaching up to rest his hand against Yugi's cheek. His other hand came up and pulled his head down, the hand on his cheek moving to curl fingers lightly in Yugi's silver collar. Their lips met and Yugi sighed in pleasure, carefully wrapping his arms around his neck.
They broke apart and Yugi tugged Seto up, moving to the bed. They couldn't fall asleep, but that didn't mean they couldn't cuddle. Seto would just have to deal with it right now. They leaned the pillows against the headboard and Seto sat against them, with Yugi leaning against his chest, wrapped up in Seto's arms.
"I'm only doing this because we got hurt," Seto muttered.
Yugi smiled to himself, rubbing Seto's knuckles. Seto would always have to act tough, pretend he didn't like doing anything affectionate. But Yugi was feeling pretty raw right then. He'd nearly lost everyone dear to him. Seto could stand some snuggling for him.
"I love you, Seto."