Hello everyone! Wow, didn't know how fast the days went by. Planned on updating this earlier, but… Woah. Anyways, glad to see that people are interested in reading the story! Now, tell me your thoughts. Things get kind of interesting and serious this chapter because a bit of Yami's past is revealed. Or, reference to it. Hope you guys figure it out! A big thank you to all of you for your continuous support. Please do stay interested.

Enjoy!

The Ghost of Yami Atem

Chapter 7

Three weeks later, Yugi was finally free to do as he pleased. He was no longer grounded, thank goodness, because Yami had proved himself during the three weeks that he was not a good entertainer. All he did was sleep, and then disappear, so Yugi had obviously been bored out of his skull where he spent his time thinking about how he got into the mess. Overall, he decided to never play with Yami again. The spirit was just too boring! So now he was free and that was all that mattered. He could do whatever he wanted, except watching TV since a new one still had to be bought. But, he was fine with that. There were other ways to amuse himself after all.

It was a bright Saturday afternoon, and the sun shone down on everything and everyone. Yugi stood on the balcony enjoying the fresh and crisp morning with an old game. He was still trying to hit that baseball. The routine though did not change. Every time he threw it up, he missed. Luckily Yami wasn't there to tease him endlessly about it. He might have just thrown the bat at the spirit.

"Why can't I get this right?!" he yelled, as he threw the ball up and swung.

Yugi's eyes went wide as he felt a pressure against the bat, a smacking sound being heard, and the sight of the ball flying into the distance. He continued to gape until the ball fell to the ground on the bottom floor. After the moment sunk in, it didn't take him too long to begin rejoicing.

"I did it! I did it!" he shouted excitedly, jumping up and down and running around on the balcony. "I did it!"

His joy was short lived when another thought crossed his mind. As soon as he did, his movement stilled because now he had to go all the way downstairs and retrieve the fallen ball. Sighing as he looked at the small sphere down below, he shouted.

"Grandpa! Ball overboard!" he called out, hoping that his Grandpa would throw it back up to him. However, he saw the ball bounce right back on to the balcony a few seconds later, and it bounced up and down in front of Yugi without stopping.

"Yami..." he sighed, shaking his head. It was pretty obvious to him now that the spirit was somewhere around. Only he could make the ball hop all the way up to the second floor just like that.

He tried to hit the bouncing ball that bounced in one place before him, but he missed. So, he decided to just go after it as it began to slowly hop away. The ball bounced into the house and down the hallway. Slightly frustrated, Yugi followed the ball, refusing to give up. Leave it up to Yami to know exactly what annoyed him.

The ball continued its journey down the hallway, then stopped at the top of the stairs as it bounced up and down as if it was waiting for Yugi. Throwing away the bat and just wanting to catch the ball, Yugi marched up to the ball and tried to grab it. The ball bounced on to the other stair, so Yugi tried again. He swung his arm out to catch it, but missed yet again. After a few more tries and the ball just getting farther and farther, he pulled back and sighed.

"Stupid ball..." he grumbled. Fed up, he decided to just yell at Yami to give him his ball back. However, just as he turned around to yell for Yami…

"HA!" a voice yelled.

Yami was right behind Yugi, and he laughed at Yugi's scared and shocked expression. Little did he know that he scared the boy at the wrong time, because Yugi was so surprised that he let go of the railing and lost his balance on the stairs, causing him to tip back and fall. Yami's eyes widened. He tried to grab the younger boy's hand as quick as possible, but he lost his focus and concentration to his panic and worry, and he watched in shock as Yugi's outstretched hand passed right through his transparent ones, the little boy tumbling down the hard, wooden stairs, headfirst. As he fell, Yugi smashed his forehead against the edge of a stair, then fell the rest of the way down to land at the ground with a limp thud.

"Yugi!" Yami cried, rushing down, Grandpa running towards them too since he heard the noise.

"Yugi!" Grandpa cried, rushing over he stared at Yugi's unconscious body on the floor. Turning him over, Grandpa gasped as Yami watched, wide-eyed at the blood pouring out of Yugi's head.

"Y-Yugi? Yugi! Wh-What happened? Oh my gosh, wake up!" Grandpa cried, cradling his grandson.

"I-I'm sorry! It was an a-accident! I didn't m-mean to..." Yami tried to explain frantically, but Grandpa didn't hear him or see him for that matter.

"Doctor? I should call a doctor, an ambulance!" Grandpa panicked feverishly to himself as he laid Yugi back on to the floor and rushed off to get a phone. While he was gone, Yami dropped to his knees and grazed his thumb against the young boy's cold and bloodied cheek.

"Y-Yugi. I'm so sorry..." he said softly, tears falling from his eyes in regret. It was all his fault. If he hadn't played so rough with the boy, none of this would have happened. He was a curse. Everything goes wrong because of him. Everyone he loved, were going away because of his stupid decisions. Everyone! Now, now Yugi… Yami sobbed and watched helplessly as Grandpa rushed back after making the phone call, and watched heartbroken as paramedics arrived to take the bleeding boy away.

The ambulance arrived at the hospital in a few minutes, and they rushed through the cold, white hallway with Yugi on a gurney, doctors surrounding him. Yami jogged to keep up with them as Grandpa remained right by Yugi's side as the doctor examined Yugi's injury.

"What happened?" the Doctor asked, checking Yugi over.

"I-I don't know. I was in the kitchen and then I h-heard him fall," Grandpa stuttered out, very much confused. Yami felt like screaming and ripping his tongue out to shout to them that he was the culprit. He did it to Yugi. Yet, he couldn't. He wouldn't say a word. He'll have to suffer in silence and pray that the boy would be alright.

"Okay. Take him to the ICU," the Doctor ordered a nurse. "If we don't hurry, he might fall have a blood clot and will probably fall into coma. He's losing too much blood."

"Coma!" Grandpa cried out, trying to follow them as they rushed off towards the Intensive Care Unit. Yami tried to follow too, but was held back and frozen to the spot when he overheard someone's conversation.

"Hey, isn't that the man who lives in the haunted house?" a lady asked the man sitting next to her.

"Yeah..." the man said, eyes widening in recognition. "It is!"

Yami trembled.

"Looks like the ghost did his job," the man said, shaking his head sadly.

Yami's eyes misted over with tears.

"Poor boy," the lady said. "The ghost struck again. What did that innocent boy ever do?"

Unable to hear any more, Yami ran down the hallway, making it just in time to see the nurses roll Yugi through the big double doors. The doctor was trying to convince Grandpa to stay outside and let them take care of his grandson. It seemed that the old man would have none of it.

"No, stay here," the doctor said, trying to calm the frantic man. "We will take care of him. You cannot enter this room."

"I have to be with him! Please," Grandpa pleaded, but the Doctor shook his head.

"I understand, but I am sorry. It is all for precaution reasons. Just rest assure that we will do everything in our power to make sure Yugi gets better."

Grandpa hesitated, but stayed, sobbing quietly as he flopped down on the empty waiting chair. Yami stood, leaning against the wall as he watched everything that went on. Sighing, he slid to the bottom of the wall, drowning his regret and worry, having no choice but to listen to Grandpa's fretful sobs, agony, and immense worry.

A few hours later, footsteps were heard as they walked down the tiled floor. Immediately the two people waiting looked up to see that the doctor was coming towards them. Grandpa stood up and rushed forward, waiting to hear the results. Yami stood and watched from a distance, too ashamed of himself to go anywhere near Yugi's results in fear that his bad luck will only bring bad news.

"Don't worry. Thankfully there was no blood clot. He's okay now and in stable condition. He might be able to go home tomorrow," the doctor explained with a relieved and comforting smile.

Grandpa gave a sigh of relief. "Can I see him?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure," the doctor said enthusiastically. "When he awakes, just let me know. I want to see how he's doing, okay."

"Yes, absolutely, Doctor," Grandpa said before he rushed off to the room where Yugi was being kept in. Yami followed silently, his boots not making a sound on the tiled floors. There were no "clicks" like the doctor's shoes, nor a "shuffle" sound like Yugi's grandpa. Just utter silence.

They arrived at the room, and as soon as they stepped in they saw that Yugi was indeed asleep, but with various machines beeping around him and a bandage wrapped around his head. Grandpa looked at the bandage before he took Yugi's hand as he sat down on the chair, waiting for him to wake up. Yami stood off in the corner watching as he was unable to do anything to help the matter.

Grandpa fell asleep by Yugi's side, still holding his hand. Seeing no need to fear any more, Yami stepped closer and he too inspected Yugi's bandage, then touch the wound on his own. Memories flooded back as he remembered that day clearly, but he was then snapped out of his thoughts when he saw Yugi's finger move.

Yami's eyes widened, and he yelled at Grandpa.

"Hey, wake up, he's waking up!" he cried, waving his hands in front of the sleeping man. But that didn't help at all so Yami just turned his attention back on Yugi. Slowly, Yugi's eyes opened and looked around. Grandpa finally noticed because his eyes opened and saw Yugi awake. He broke into a wide, relieved smile.

"Doctor! Doctor, he's awake!" Grandpa called, rushing out the door. The doctor soon walked in and he went straight up to Yugi.

"How are you feeling?" the doctor asked, checking Yugi's heartbeat.

"Okay," Yugi replied quietly.

"Good. Now, can you tell us how you fell down?" the doctor asked.

Yami's eyes widened as he looked at Yugi. Yugi met his eyes at that moment, and Yami was unable to make out the blank look on the young boy's face. Yugi turned away, and went back to answering the Doctor's question.

"I was playing with the ball on the stairs, and I wasn't paying attention to where I was stepping, so I slipped," Yugi simply explained.

Yami gave a soft glance at Yugi, sadness welling up inside of him. Now the boy was lying because of him? No, that was just wrong. It was his fault, not Yugi's. "Oh Yugi..." Yami said to himself, and he watched worriedly as Yugi just smiled back softly at him.

"I told you to not play on the stairs. You see what happened?!" Grandpa said in a worried, yet scolding voice as he also tried not to cry.

"Yugi that was a very reckless mistake. You could have seriously hurt yourself. Be careful next time, okay," the doctor said. Yugi nodded. "Good. I'll be going now. I have other patients to tend to," the doctor said before leaving the room. Yugi then turned to Grandpa.

"Grandpa... I'm sorry. I caused a lot of trouble, haven't I?" Yugi said quietly. Grandpa shook his head.

"Of course not. You just had me extremely worried about you."

"I worry you too much," Yugi said softly. "Grandpa... Were you scared?" he then asked.

Grandpa chuckled nervously. "Of course I was. After all, I only have one grandson." Yugi smiled. "I'll get you some water, okay?" Grandpa said and he got up and left the room.

Yugi nodded and he watched as Grandpa walked out the door, closing it behind him. Yugi then turned his head towards Yami who was shaking slightly as he dropped to his knees beside the bed.

"Yugi, I-I'm so sorry..." Yami said, his voice cracking.

Yugi smiled. "Yami, it's okay. It's not your fault," he said.

"If only I caught you, none of this would've happened," Yami continued to rant, refusing to meet Yugi's gaze.

"Yami..." Yugi threatened.

"I shouldn't have tried to scare you!" Yami sighed deeply, clenching his fists against his knees. "What was I thinking? Now look what I've done," Yami said to himself.

"Yami! Stop!" Yugi exclaimed. "None of this is your fault, okay. But if it helps, I forgive you. You don't have to say sorry," Yugi said.

"You could have died!" Yami cried.

"No, I wouldn't, because I have my big brother protecting me," Yugi said.

"Brother?" Yami questioned.

"Yeah, that's right. Yami, you're like the brother I never had but always wanted. I always felt like I was missing part of me. Part of my soul was missing. But I met you, and now I feel complete. Now, I truly feel happy," Yugi said.

Yami smiled. "Thanks Yugi," he said, giving Yugi a hug.

"Hey, watch out! You're going to freeze me!" Yugi said, laughing.

"Whoops! Sorry," Yami chuckled nervously as he stepped away from the boy and then stood up. Yugi shook his head sadly as Yami sat on the bed.

"What?" Yami asked, noticing Yugi staring at him.

"Oh nothing," Yugi admitted. "Just, wondering how I can have a special friend like you."

Yami smiled. "Yugi, I'm the one who's supposed to be saying that. Besides, I was the one who scared poor civilians for four years, making them think that the house was haunted, okay," Yami said matter-of-factly.

"Really?" Yugi said with a raised eye brow.

Yami nodded.

"Well then, guess you'll have to tell me all the mean things you've done!"

Yami laughed, and he jumped right into his pool of stories that he had piled up over the years. Yugi giggled as Yami told him about the crazy things that people had done when he broke into his home. However, while Yami was telling the stories, Yugi couldn't help but frown a little as a thought came into his mind when he stared at the wound against Yami's forehead which was very alike to his own wound.

"What's your story, Yami?"

There! So, how do you all like it? It's not one of my bests, but I hoped it was fine. Please review and tell me what you think! Oh, and there are 19 chapters to this story, so just 12 more chapters to go until the end!

Bye! Until later. Pleas review!