Chapter 8: Horror
Normal POV
Atem stood rooted to the spot, not truly believing what he was seeing. His Yugi, his Hikari, was hanging from his wrists which were above him bound and chained to the wall.
"Yugi!" Atem cried running to Yugi.
"Atem, wait!" Malik shouted, but Atem ignored him and kept running to Yugi even when threads of darkness suddenly appeared and started rushing at him for entering uninvited. "Damn it! Rasfira! Se apara!" The darkness vanished for a moment before coming back to attack Atem, but now thanks to Malik they just bounced off him.
"Yugi." Atem said placing his hands on either side of Yugi's cheeks and raised his head so that Atem could see Yugi's face. "Wake up. I'm here now Hikari, we can go home now." Atem said softly when he saw that Yugi was unconscious.
"Eliberare!" Malik said when he reached Atem's side and the chains released Yugi and he fell into Atem's arms.
"Yugi." Atem whispered falling to the ground with Yugi in his lap. "Please my Hikari, open your eyes."
"He's not going to wake up." Atem looked up and gasped when he saw Shadow and the way that he looked now. Shadow still looked like Yugi, but more deformed and creature-like. Shadow's hair was a mess, he had long black claws, pointed teeth so long they were stabbing into his bottom lip, dark circles under his eyes, and eyes that were wide and crazed. "I broke him."
"What do you mean you broke him?" Malik growled.
"I BROKE HIM!" Shadow screamed, then he began to laugh. "I showed him a vision in his room while you all were talking. What he saw was his precious pharaoh saying that he didn't care for the boy and that he never did." Atem paled and shook his head in denial. "Oh yes, and now he doesn't want to wake up. You were his reason for living and I took that reason away from him."
"Stop!" Atem yelled, not wanting to hear any of this.
"I destroyed him. He doesn't want to live without you and I never let him believe in a world with you in it, but I'm not done yet, oh no, I'm keeping him alive so he can watch as I kill each and every one of you."
"Shut up!" Atem snarled, wanting to cover his ears, but also not wanting to let go of Yugi.
"No, I don't think I will." Shadow said smugly when he saw how upset Atem was becoming. "I want to feel your pain again, just like in the brat's room. Hey, you remember when I told you that you would go mad if I were to tell when and how Yugi broke?" Shadow smiled wide, showing all his teeth. "He broke the night before you showed up," Atem's gasp came out choked and broken, "when I showed him you telling Tea that you loved her."
"Taci din gura!" The force of the light from Malik's power threw Shadow backwards. "Yugi's still trying to fight back, but he doesn't have any strength left." Atem looked down to see that Yugi had begun sweating and he looked like he was in pain.
Suddenly a black blur rushed at them, but Malik quickly stood in front of where Atem sat with Yugi and held up his hand. "Opreste-te!" Atem watched wide eyed as Shadow was forced to a stop. "I infrana!" Gold chains burst out of the ground and yanked Shadow down to his knees. Shadow snarled at Malik, but was unable to speak because of the restraints placed on him. "I can send you to where Yugi's consciousness is," Malik told Atem, turning to face him, "but I cannot go with you for I do not share such a strong link with Yugi like you do. Only you can bring Yugi back and repel the horrors Shadow has been showing him."
"I'll do anything to bring him back." Atem told Malik, while looking back down at Yugi.
"I will never understand." Malik whispered and Atem looked back up at him questioningly, but Malik just placed a hand on Yugi's and Atem's foreheads. "L permite in." Atem's eyes closed and he fell forward on top of Yugi. Malik moved Atem so that he was lying on his back next to Yugi. "I will never understand why you, Bakura, and Marik left." Malik said sadly. "You wanted us to live normal lives, but we never asked or even wanted that. We wanted to live our lives with the ones we loved, but instead all of you chose to leave us behind. This mess never would have happened if you had all stayed."
Shadow's POV
Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!Shadow thought in frustration. I've been silenced and restrained again! I hate them! I hate them all!
Shadow suddenly cut off his internal ranting when he could sense the pain coming off the boy in front of him. This is perfect. Shadow laughed silently. The language speaking brat still has some pain in him that I can use to my advantage.
Shadow silently commanded his threads of darkness to curl around the Speaker without being noticed and by the time the Speaker did notice what was happening, it was too late and he was bound in chains. This allowed Shadow to break the hold that the gold chains had on him and rush to the pharaoh and his brat. But before Shadow could reach them, the Speaker gasped out one more phrase before the darkness dragged him into unconsciousness. "LE PROTEJA!"
Shadow roared when a barrier went up around the pharaoh and Yugi, not allowing him or his darkness to touch them. "You bastard!" He snarled at the now unconscious Speaker. "I'll make you pay for that!" The threads of darkness that were wrapped around the Speaker yanked him back and chained him to the wall like Yugi had been. "I'll make you all pay!" The darkness then rushed away and began seeking out the ones who came uninvited, even the one that was waiting outside the door to Yugi's mind. When the darkness came back, it brought three unconscious people with it and chained them to the wall like the other one. "Now I have the Speakers, the Searchers, and the Seers will soon be mine as well." Shadow said triumphantly, turning to the two laying on the floor. "Will you have the strength to free your friends I wonder? No, you can't, because you will always be the same little host I possessed when you were too weak to fight off your pain. Your pharaoh might have the strength to bring you back, but you will never have the strength to defy your own fear."
Rasfira - disperse
Se apara - protect
Eliberare - release
Taci din gura - shut up
Opreste-te - stop
I infrana - restrain him
L permite in - allow him in
Le proteja - protect them