"I don't know why, I'm just not really happy," Duke admitted with a shrug. "Sure, business is good, one-night stands are fun, and I have friends, but I'm not satisfied with anything. I can forget that most of the time, whenever I'm working, in the club, or hanging out with friends, but when I'm alone at the end of the day, I feel like it's all just not enough."

Duke was talking to a bartender he'd been friends with for a few years, and since the bar wasn't busy right now, Duke felt comfortable enough talking through his personal problems.

"You know, someone else was telling me the same thing the other day," the bartender commented thoughtfully while he cleaned a wineglass. "He was sexually active, like you, and he told me his psychologist recommended he go on a sex-strike for a few months so that he could focus on investing emotionally in his relationships with other people, or something like that."

"Do you really think that could work?" Duke asked dubiously.

The bartender shrugged and answered, "I don't know, but if that's what the doctor orders, and you really want to make a change, I would give it a try."

"Thanks for the advice. I'll think about it."

As the month of August drew to a close, Duke was getting worried about Ryou. He hadn't managed to gain back any of the weight he'd lost, although he hadn't lost any more in the past four weeks. The herbal teas were helping, and Ryou'd bought more online in bulk, stocking up because he knew he would need it. He was throwing up a little less often than before, and he was getting more sleep. He'd only had one panic attack since the day he'd confided in Duke, which was a much-needed improvement. He'd even talked Ryou into a daily yoga regimen, since yoga, among other benefits, supposedly reduced anxiety and depression. Ryou, however, was still jittery, still too easily made anxious by the smallest things. He knew that he had a problem. He knew that this wasn't normal. He knew that he needed help. He also knew that he couldn't afford professional help, even though it would greatly benefit him.

To make matters worse, his eighteenth birthday was coming up. All his life, his absent father had been sending him rent checks in the mail. He'd always assumed, though, that the checks would stop when he turned eighteen and his father was no longer legally responsible for his son's wellbeing. Sure, Ryou had a job, and he had always known that he'd need to prepare for the day he was entirely on his own, but he needed his savings to pay rent, and he needed whatever was leftover for sustenance and security.

There was about a week until his birthday when Duke noticed that something was off about Ryou. He seemed more anxious than usual, and if something was causing him distress, Duke made it his business to know.

"Is something bothering you?" Duke asked as he watched Ryou sip his tea. They were in Ryou's apartment because he'd wanted to return Duke's offer of hospitality.

"Yeah," Ryou said softly. "I am worried. I know that my dad's checks will stop coming once I'm eighteen, and I know that, after everything I want through with the Spirit of the Ring, I should have gotten professional help long ago. Things haven't been this bad before, and you are helping me a lot, but it's…" The last thing Ryou wanted to do was insult his friend who'd done so much for him, so he was hesitant to finish his sentence.

"It's not enough," Duke finished, understanding him completely. "I would be the first to admit that I'm not a certified therapist or psychologist or whatever. I agree that you would benefit from professional help more than you would benefit from my help alone. So what's stopping you?"

"I just can't afford it," Ryou answered, looking hopeless. Something occurred to Duke then, and before he could second guess himself, let it come out.

"Move in with me."

"Excuse me?" Ryou seemed shocked by the offer.

"If rent is what's worrying you, then move in with me," Duke said, liking the idea even more the longer he thought about it. "I own the building, because my apartment's above the shop. We can split the cost of utilities, and both of us will pitch in for the cost of groceries. I have an extra bedroom you can stay in, and there's plenty of space for the both of us. That way you don't have to worry about rent, and you can get the help you need." It made perfect sense to him. "We already talk on a daily basis, and that way I'm always close by if you need help."

Ryou was still stunned by his generosity. "A-Are you sure that I won't be in the way?" he asked with a blush, thinking about Duke's frequent habit of engaging in one-night stands.

"Of course you won't be in the way," Duke answered, but a moment later, he understood what Ryou had really meant. "Ah, I see. Well, actually, I have a funny story about that…" And he explained to Ryou that he was on an abstinence kick and why.

"Huh." Ryou looked thoughtful as he considered this new information. "How's that going so far?" he asked, smiling a little.

"Awful," Duke groaned, rolling his eyes as he flopped onto his back on the couch, making Ryou chuckle. "I didn't realize that it would feel like some kind of drug withdrawal."

Ryou laughed again, looking merry as he retorted, "You'll get used to it after a little while."

"How do you know?" Duke asked, continuing in a dramatic fashion. "I have needs that must be satisfied."

Ryou started laughing again, and replied, "I'm sorry, Your Highness. The agony must be unbearable."

"I am entitled to my pleasure!" Duke declared, continuing with his facetious drama when he saw how much it made Ryou laugh. Soon, Duke was making Ryou laugh so hard that he was begging for mercy.

"I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard," Ryou admitted, his cheek still pink and his smile wide.

Duke smiled back at him and held out his hand, saying, "So, do we have a deal? You'll come to live with me so that you can afford professional help?"

"Deal," Ryou answered, shaking Duke's hand, feeling truly hopeful for the first time in too long.

Duke helped Ryou pack up his things over the course of that week, moving Ryou and his small collection of possessions into the extra bedroom in Duke's apartment. They finished moving him in that first day of September, which gave them the leisure of properly celebrating Ryou's birthday together.

Seto Kaiba was not crazy. No way was he crazy. He was too young to be going insane. Ghosts didn't exist, either. He definitely didn't believe in those, and the idea of ghosts could only have power over you if you believed in them. Which he didn't. Definitely not.

So why was he starting to hallucinate? He'd thought that he'd hallucinated in the past, but he'd grudgingly accepted the ancient Egyptian spirits and the Millennium Items as the causes of those visions. Now, though, he had no explanation at all, and it was starting to mess with his head. He did some research on hallucinations, but he was left dissatisfied. Apparently, the only significant causes of hallucinations were the use of hallucinogenic drugs, experiencing withdrawal from those drugs, and intense exhaustion. He'd tried getting more sleep after that, but his sleep was too disturbed to be restful. Nightmares and night terrors plagued him, he began to feel like a helpless child too afraid of the darkness and what it brought. After a couple weeks of stubbornly attempting sleep, even using sleep aids, his hallucinations hadn't gotten any better.

He always saw the same thing every time: Gozaburo, standing there like a flesh-and-blood man, leaning against furniture, talking to him, and otherwise interacting with Seto's surroundings as if he were physical. He'd left behind footprints, turned off the lights, moved objects. He'd even spilled Seto's coffee once. None of it made any sense.

After a month of trying to get more sleep as a remedy and finding himself even more miserable than before, he turned to a different solution. He didn't want to go through proper channels to obtain prescription-strength medications, so he instead pursued over-the-counter antipsychotic drugs. Of course, he did research on them first, and ended up even more frustrated than ever. The possible side effects were too great a risk for him to take. Brain shrinkage? Delusional thinking? Weight gain? Muscle spasms? No thank you. No matter how slim the chances of those side effects may or may not be, he couldn't afford to take that risk.

"I told you that you would never be able to get rid of me." Seto looked up from his computer screen to see Gozaburo sitting on the edge of his desk, shrouded in shadows just as he should be, given that Seto had waited until after midnight to do this research. He couldn't take the risk of Mokuba seeing him do this.

"You're dead." Seto glared at the image of his step-father before pointedly turning his gaze back to the screen.

"Ignoring me doesn't make me go away." Gozaburo smirked and stood, walking closer to his step-son, which made him look up sharply.

"Don't you dare take another step." Seto fixed Gozaburo with a harsh glare. "Get out."

Gozaburo laughed at him. "Saying that never worked before, why do you think it'll work now?" he smirked again, and took another step closer to his step-son. Seto's breathing became shallow as a long-dormant feeling reawakened within him: fear. Pure, untainted terror. "You should be afraid of me," Gozaburo growled as he stepped even closer, closer than he'd ever gotten before. Seto gulped as he felt an old, familiar tightening around his neck. He reached up to touch his neck, eyes still fixed on the unexpainable figure that stood only a few feet away from him. He didn't feel anything touching him, but he would swear that he felt the collar being put around his neck.

"You've tried to forget about me, haven't you?" the menace chuckled, watching the brunette's face transform into panic. As he stepped even closer to Seto's chair, the chair's occupant pushed away from the desk and stumbled away from the unwelcome visitor. He couldn't breathe, too tight…

"Stop," Seto snapped, trying to hide his fear. "Stop this now."

"You need to learn how to show your father some respect." The invisible grip on Seto's throat tightened, and he fell to his knees. No less than ten seconds later, his vision was filling with stars.

"Maybe if you begged me, I'd be willing to let you go," Gozaburo said thoughtfully. He felt absolutely nothing of the teen struggling for air several feet away.

"Never," Set choked out, starting to lose his grip on consciousness.

"Then suffer." Gozaburo watched coldly as Seto was strangled on the floor. Seto wouldn't have given in to the demand under normal circumstances, but even since his nightmares had started, he'd come to fear that darkness that flooded his consciousness from somewhere behind his eyes. He was afraid of being unaware, of losing consciousness and being subject to the torturous caprice of his own subconscious mind.

"Please, stop." He actually humbled himself to the point of begging as he dropped his hands to the floor as well, struggling to support himself as he grew increasingly unsteady.

"That's a good boy," Gozaburo praised in the cruelest, most condescending tone he possessed. The grip on Seto's neck eased, and he gasped for air as soon as it became available. The sensation of the collar around his neck, though, didn't leave. Gozaburo walked closer to Seto again, and the brunette wary of what else his step-father might do, started to get up off the floor.

"Get down!" Gozaburo snarled, and Seto dropped to the floor again, landing on his hands and knees as he began to choke back a sob. "You've been very bad while I was gone, my boy."

Seto cowered, eyes fixed to the floor. What else could he do? No matter how much he told himself that this was just a hallucination, he couldn't remove the fear that the image and voice of his step-father inspired. It was visceral. It was something he'd been conditioned to feel during the years he had spent abused and suppressed under Gozaburo's heel. Gozaburo walked around Seto, moving behind him, where Seto couldn't see him. He squeezed his eyes shut, knowing that seeing wouldn't make any of this better.

"I'm going to punish you so that you can't forget about me ever again." He let his hand caress Seto's ass for a few moments before bringing his hand down in a hard spanking, making Seto cry out.

It shouldn't have hurt that badly, Seto thought to himself, blinking away the tears that had sprung to his eyes out of pain. Gozaburo's hands didn't leave his posterior, though, and Seto quickly began to feel sick.

"Please stop," Seto whimpered, feeling deeply violated. "Just… stop."

"Humph. Fine, since you begged so nicely," Gozaburo sneered, withdrawing his hands as Seto shrunk back in shame. "I will be back, though. When you least wish it." And just like that, he was gone, and Seto was starting to sob on the floor. Even his own hallucinations hated and hurt him.

He was so greatly tempted to break his promise to Mokuba, but he forced himself to manage without it. He couldn't stand the thought of disappointing his brother again and causing him more pain.

The last thing he wanted to do after that was sleep, because he knew his terror would follow him into his dreams, but he hadn't slept in three days and deep down beneath the caffeine induced alertness, he was drop-dead exhausted. He left his home office, skittish and dazed, and shoved off his clothes before curling up under the covers of his large bed. Despite his fear and his desire to stay awake, he still sank into sleep after a little while.

He woke up three hours later in a cold sweat, shivering as panic seized him in a temporary paralysis. He couldn't move, he could hardly breath, and that terrified him even more. The moment he regained control over his limbs, he threw back the covers and went to the shower, hoping that the shock of water would help him wake up fully and get control of himself. All of this was a nightmare, just one big nightmare.

Wake up, Seto. Wake up, he ordered himself as he leaned against the wall of the shower, feeling breathless. It's just a trick of your mind. You weren't in pain. It was all just a trick. He's dead. He's not real. You don't feel pain.

Author Notes: So, where do you think Gozaburo came from? Hallucination, ghost, delusion, Seto's personal demon pretending to be Gozaburo? Okay, that last one was a joke, but I'm curious to see what you think. PLEASE REVIEW! Reviews are to me what blood is to vampires and what brains are to zombies. Except I don't kill you for them. XD