Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Children of Shadow ❯ Depression ( Chapter 11 )

Me: *sitting cross-legged with Bakura muse in my lap, putting cute little pigtails in his hair*

Isis: Um… *sweatdrop* What are you doing?

Me: What does it look like?

Marik: It looks like you're insane- oh wait, you always look like that.

Me: *klonks him with a jar of relish that was randomly lying nearby* For everyone who wants to know what's up with the pigtails, blame diablodude and his fic, my anime road trip of chaos. Go read it. ^^ I have also adopted "smells like bacon" as my new catchphrase. Again, blame diablodude.

Kaiba: … we don't care…

Me: Oh shaddup. *finishes pigtails* Doesn't he look cuuute?

Bakura: *blinks slowly*

Marik: No- he looks retarded.

Kaiba: He IS retarded! He doesn't do anything!

Isis: Neither do you!

Kaiba: Yes I do! I do the disclaimers!

Me: Only because I make you- which reminds me! DO THE DISCLAIMER!

Kaiba: I had to open my mouth… my baka authoress slave driver owns nothing. Except her OC's.

Me: *klonks Kaiba with relish jar* I have a name you know! It's- oh wait I can't tell you. Oops.

Marik: You're all insane…

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Cassie sat numbly, not paying attention to anything around her. Everything that had just happened seemed blurred and jumbled. This couldn't be real. It couldn't.

She had lost? Her, Cassie, who had been dueling since she was in elementary school, had lost to an overdressed prima donna with her first deck?

Something was wrong here. Cassie felt as though her brain was detached from her body. What happened? Had she messed up? Had she let her guard down? Had fate played a cruel trick at the last moment?

She was losing it. Get a grip Cassie, get a grip. Pull yourself together Cassie, pull yourself-

"Cassie?"

Cassie jerked back into reality. Chrissy was gazing at her, looking concerned. "Is something wrong?"

Shock wore off. Immediately, anger flared up inside Cassie. Yes, something was wrong. What was wrong was that a preppy, egotistical, moronic little girly girl could just waltz into Domino and turn Cassie's life upside down- and then sit there like nothing had happened, like everything was just all fine and dandy, like-

"Cassie?"

Something snapped. Something inside Cassie's head just snapped. She very calmly gathered up her cards and fastened the rubber band around them, stowing her deck in her backpack which was sitting by her foot. She looked up at Chrissy, looked right into her unnaturally large green eyes, and lightly uttered two words. Just two.

"You bitch."

Without a pause, without waiting for anyone's reaction, Cassie picked up her backpack, stood up, turned on her heel, and stalked out of the classroom.

Walking quickly, she headed down the hall, turned the corner, pushed open the double doors, and marched across the blacktop and off the school grounds.

After a few blocks, Cassie slowed her pace. Her face was hot, and so was her temper. How could she have lost? And to that airhead of all people!

Cassie was fuming. Nothing was going her way today. A total cheerleader had wormed her way into the gang, hit on Cassie's cousin, and beaten her at a duel. Could anything possibly get worse?

I need to calm down, Cassie thought. Good things did not happen when Cassie was mad. I need to chill. I'll just head home, turn on the TV, grab some Doritos and Sprite, and blimp out on the couch for an hour or two. Yeah. That's what I'll do.

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Cassie was watching Spongebob Squarepants when Ryou got home. She was sprawled on the couch, eyes glazed over, soda stains on her shirt where she had spilled. An empty Pringles container was lying discarded underneath the coffee table, crumbs spilling from its open top. The afternoon had passed in a haze. Cassie was only dimly aware of the sounds of the door opening and closing, or footsteps behind her.

Ryou walked into the room and stopped. For a while he was silent. Then he said slowly, "Cassie, why did you do that?"

Cassie tried to block him out. She focused very hard on the screen. Mr. Krabs was yelling.

"Cassie-" Ryou paused. "What's wrong with you?" More silence. "Cassie, talk to me."

Cassie stared harder at the screen. Why could she still hear him if she wasn't listening? Her ears were broken. She thought dimly of turning the volume up, but that would mean she would have to move. She was comfortable to lie where she was and watch Nickelodeon the rest of her life.

Ryou took a deep breath. When he spoke again, his voice was colder than Cassie had ever heard it before. "I want you to know that Chrissy is very upset, and she seems like a nice person. She wonders why you don't like her."

Spongebob was doing something stupid. Cassie tried to laugh at him. She couldn't. Not even inside her own head.

Ryou continued. "And I think you're acting very spoiled and immature, and…" he stopped. "You're not even listening, are you?"

Cassie's eyes were stinging. Her throat clenched. Yes, she was listening. She didn't know why. Somehow the TV wasn't making any sound. Maybe its warranty had expired. Maybe she should sue the company.

"What am I going to do with you?" Ryou asked bitterly.

Shoot me, Cassie thought. Burn me. Dig a hole to China and throw me in. Anything to get me away from here. Can't you see it's her fault, all her fault? Not mine. Hers. Can't you see? Can't you…

Ryou turned and walked away. The sound came back on. Cassie stared. Now everything was blurry. She squeezed her eyes shut. Something wet trickled down her face. She opened her eyes again. That was better.

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Cassie didn't go to school next day. Or the next. Or the next. She didn't feel like talking to anyone. They were probably having fun without her anyway. Ryou didn't say anything. Cassie was glad. She was fine to sit home alone, watching Disney or MTV or Turner Classic Movies. Sometimes when nothing was good on, she stared at the blank screen. She only left the couch to get food. One night she stayed up until four in the morning, then slept until two p.m. the next day.

Even as she watched, her mind wandered. She suspected she was in some fit of depression. Maybe she had become a hermit and she didn't know it. Her brain didn't function properly anymore. Time passed in leaps. One minute she was watching Even Stevens and the next she was passed out on the armrest.

Something was wrong with her. She didn't feel like Cassie anymore. She felt like someone who had given up on life. She had read a book once with a character like that. She thought it was a sci-fi book. Maybe she should donate her body to science, and they'd prod her and measure her and saw open her skull to look at her brain. Would they give her anesthetics?

This was ridiculous. What was happening to her? She had become a mindless shell, all because of one stupid girl. Prissy Chrissy, as Cassie had taken to calling her. How could one girl ruin her life like this? It was impossible. It was unthinkable.

Apparently not.

Friday night, Ryou left the house. It was 8:00. Cassie knew because the Disney Channel movie was on. It was Lilo and Stitch. Cassie did what she had become quite good at recently- watched without watching. Her mind drifted along in blank space, while her eyes fogged over like glass on a cold day.

The minutes passed silently. The TV was making less and less sound lately. Cassie was sure it was broken. She didn't care. As long as you had the pictures, you could imagine the words. Sometimes it was more fun that way. Was this how deaf people felt?

The doorbell rang. Cassie ignored it. It was like the phone- ignore it, it'll stop ringing eventually. Someone was pounding on the door now. They were pounding hard. Cassie was annoyed. She was getting distracted. She was reaching for the remote to turn up the volume when she heard a voice.

"Cassie! Oh god, please Cassie, open the door!"

Cassie froze. The voice was urgent. The voice was desperate. But most importantly-

The voice was Chrissy.

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Me: Yes, that was rather short and incredibly unfair of me. But I wanted to see what would happen if I left you hanging like that. God, but it's fun to be evil.

Marik: I can't imagine what sort of warped, sadistic pleasure you get out of that.

Me: The same sort of warped, sadistic pleasure I get out of this. *clobbers him with a plastic lightsaber while adding sound effects for my own amusement*

Kaiba: Um, yeah… r+r, would ya?