Chapter 16

Joey couldn't believe it when she'd appeared before him. Within seconds he had his arms around her and, before either of them had breathed so much as a word, their lips were locked together in a passionate kiss. Everything about the mysterious blonde filled Joey with a sense of longing. In was unbearable just how little resistance he had to her. He wanted her. He needed her. He had to have her and nothing and no one was going to stop him from getting her.

As their kiss ended, she pulled away from him and he found himself feverishly studying her. She was so beautiful he was almost certain it was unnatural and the fact half of her face remained permanently hidden behind her hair only made her more alluring. She made his body ache, his heart ache, his whole being ache with how much he wanted her. No one had ever made him feel like this before and there was just no way he wanted it to stop.

'Who are you?' He breathed. 'What are you?'

She made no attempt at a reply. Instead her visible eye studied him as her lips remained almost fixed in a permanent smile.

'Who are you?' Joey lightly ran his fingers through her hair. 'Why can't I get you out of my head?'

Again she said nothing.

'What are you? Why won't you answer me?'

Continuing in her silence, she lightly ran her fingers over his lips and, despite himself, he began kissing them. She then wrapped her arms round the back of his neck and pulled him in close to her. They began to kiss again and suddenly nothing else mattered to him anymore. Nothing but the feeling of being with her. He had to be with her.

'Are you aware of what you're doing to me?' The words were out of Joey's mouth as soon as the kiss ended. 'I think I love you.'

She nodded slowly, before pulling herself away from him. She then took him by the hand and began to lead him across the garden.

'Where are we going?'

Almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth he stopped caring about the answer. She wouldn't tell him anyway; he'd stopped expecting her too. But it didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Not so long as she was with him. If she was with him how could anything else matter ever again?

Téa hadn't wanted to leave Tristan behind, but she hadn't really been left with much of a choice. He might have had no memory and acted a lot like a petulant child, but unfortunately he was still a lot stronger than she was. His lack of memory hadn't affected his stubbornness either. With the two things conspiring against her there was just no way she was going to be able to get him out of that house on her own.

It was why she decided reinforcements were needed; namely Tristan's parents. If Kaiba thought he had them fooled into thinking he was some kind of decent human being, then he had another thing coming. She was going to prove to everybody the only thing Kaiba was motivated by was his own selfish need for power and control. Breaking apart her friendship group was just his latest way of doing it and he was not going to get away with it. Especially not if he was seriously hurting Tristan in the process.

'I can sense your misguided anger from here,' the sound of a voice at once familiar and yet so strangely dark came from behind her, bringing her to a stop. 'Are you so idiotically blind to the notion you might be the one driving your friends away, that you have to keep finding someone else to blame?'

His words made her take a sharp, sob like breath in. The suggestion was beyond cruel and certainly not something she would have expected from him.

'What's the matter Téa, did I hit a nerve?'

'Why are you being so cruel?'

She turned to face him and almost instantly wished she hadn't. In his hands he was holding the most beautiful weapon she'd ever seen, but his face was twisted and contorted into a dark expression which terrified her.

'Please... please tell me this is some kind of joke,' she backed away.

'What's the matter Téa, didn't you see this coming?' He chuckled. 'I'm guessing from your expression you didn't. Or at least you didn't want to. What a bad friend you are.'

'I...' she shook her head, 'I'm not a bad friend, I...'

'Oh please, you couldn't convince anyone of that right now. Your precious little friendship circle has crumbled away from you and it's all your fault. Because you were so concerned with keeping everything the same, you wouldn't let anyone change. Naughty, naughty Téa, don't you understand people need to change? Change is a good thing and everyone around you is happily embracing that concept, so why can't you?'

'It's not... it's not that... I...'

'It's okay Téa,' he cut her off, 'I understand why you don't want people to change. Change equals growth, growth makes people stronger, strong people drift apart and you don't want that. Because the truth is you're terrified of being alone,' he pointed the weapon towards her. 'It's your worst fear, isn't it? A fear which is slowly becoming reality as your friends leave you one by one.'

'No...' she shook her head, 'no...'

'Well guess what Téa, I'm in the nightmare making business now,' a cruel smirk pulled at his lips, 'and I think it's time you experienced what true loneliness feels like.'

'No... no please... you can't...'

'Oh, now see that's where you're wrong,' he laughed, 'I can do anything I want. And right now the one thing I want more than anything is to hurt you.'

He knew it was going to be fun, but he'd never imagined it would be that much fun. As he walked away all he could think about was doing the same thing again to someone else. He knew right then he could spend all day just torturing people and never get tired of it. Just as he was thinking that he spotted a phone booth and some semblance of an amused idea crept through his head. Walking over to it he picked up the handset and dialled. After a few rings a voice on the other end answered.

'Hello, emergency services, what can I do for you?'

'I need an ambulance,' he couldn't keep the cruel notes of amusement out of his voice if he tried, 'some poor girl's just been brutally attacked.'

'Where am I?' Mai's voice was more than a little groggy as she finally started to rouse.

'You're in the hospital.'

'What?' She instantly wrapped her arms around her stomach as her eyes flew open. 'Is there something wrong… is there something wrong with my baby?'

'Don't worry,' Ahna's face filled with a tense smile, 'the doctors say she's fine.'

'Then what... what happened?'

'You fainted. The doctors think it might be down to the sheer lack of sleep you've had lately, but... there's still a few more tests they want to run.'

'What... what kinds of tests?'

'I don't know. They said they'd explain it to you when you woke up,' Ahna placed a hand on her arm. 'But... they want to keep you in here for a few days in order to monitor your condition.'

'Okay,' Mai nodded tensely, 'where's Joey?'

Ahna didn't reply, instead she just shifted her gaze away.

'Ahna is something wrong?' She stared at her. 'Where's Joey?'

'He… he's not here.'

'Why not? I mean, he does know that I'm in the hospital, right?'

Ahna pressed her lips together and said nothing.

'Ahna what's going on?' Mai felt herself starting to panic. 'Why isn't Joey here?'

For a few long moments Ahna remained silent. She turned her eyes towards Mai, opened and closed her mouth a few times, before shaking her head and turning away again.

'Ahna you're scaring me,' Mai could hear the trembling in her own voice. 'Where's Joey?'

'I... I don't...' Ahna's voice sounded strange, 'I don't want to tell you because I don't want to believe it's true.'

'Please... please... please don't tell me his dead,' Mai's stomach clenched with fear.

'No,' she shook her head, 'no, he's very much alive.'

'Then what is it?' Her voice began to break. 'Why won't you tell me? Why isn't he here?'

'I... I can't... I can't tell you what I don't believe is true.'

'Ahna you're really scaring me now. Is he hurt? Has he been kidnapped? What?'

'When we... when we found you collapsed in the kitchen, Covo... Covo went to look for Veronie and...'

'He didn't find him?' Mai stared at her. 'Is that it?'

'I wish... I wish that were it, believe me, because I don't want to believe Covo saw what he saw. But I know... I know Covo wouldn't lie about something like this.'

'Something like what? Ahna?'

'Covo... Covo saw Veronie... Covo... Covo saw Veronie cheating on you.'