Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Trials of Life ❯ Confrontation ( Chapter 5 )

Confrontation

AN: The next chapter already! Yeah!

New warning: slight (non-graphic mind you) mentions of rape and abuse. Only a few sentences and none of those describing it. So don't be scared off `cause of that.

I've gotten one suggestion for the genre of this story, angst/romance. What do you all think? I think it might fit, but I want more opinions too.

Thanks to all my reviewer, I can NEVER tell you quite how much I appreciate you. Thanks to:

cat

Crystal D. Starlit Aka Dark_fox

Tjay Motou

Rain and Styorm

Sarah Harvey

Silver Mist4

Loanwolf

For those who were wondering what "muirn beatha dan" meant, it means "soul mate" and I got it from the "Sweep" series. I'll have to double check which language it's in though. I thought that it would be a nice touch since technically Yami has lived for a few millennia so he might know several different languages.

And this chapter will not involve Anzu bashing as I got a review asking for it not to be here. I don't really have an opinion my self, it mainly depends on how she acts in the fic. I'm currently reading. I'll just not use her much so no one can get pissed at me for NOT doing some bashing and no one CAN get pissed for me doing any bashing.

~*~…..~*~ will change POV, though the whole thing is in third person. Sorry if that confuses you, but you'll get it when you read the story.

You know the drill…..

~*~*~*~Last time~*~*~*~

`Tomorrow before we leave I will confront his "friends" about what happened and leave them to stew over it for the rest of their lives.' Selene thought before turning over and falling into a light sleep.

~*~*~

If only he could bring his hikari back. If only he could tell him how he felt. If only he hadn't been so blind to his own feelings before. If only he'd realized this sooner, maybe this wouldn't have happened. These thoughts chased each other through Yami's mind until, exhausted, he fell asleep right where he was, in the doorway of his light's room. Only to have his thoughts follow him in the form of nightmares.

~*~*~*~On with the story~*~*~*~

Yami woke up from his realm of nightmare that morning hoping to find that the previous night had been a dream, a very bad and scary dream. But that hope was crushed when he felt the hard floor underneath him instead of his bed. He choked back another sob as he headed to the bathroom to clean himself up.

When he came out he looked at the clock and found it to be noon. Then he heard a knock at the door. He ran over to open it, hoping beyond hope that it was Yugi, only to find a very confused Jonouchi, Honda, Anzu, Ryou, and, though he refused to show it, Bakura.

"Yami, what happened to you?" Honda said. "We were supposed to meet over at the arcade half an hour ago."

Yami listlessly gestured for them to come inside and, after they had all taken a seat, proceeded to tell them what he'd come home to find last night. When he finished everyone sat in a stunned silence. None of them would've thought that Yugi'd run away, much less why he might want to. As far as any of them knew he was perfectly fine.

Suddenly the doorbell rang, startling each of them out of their morbid thoughts. Jonouchi, seeing that Yami was in no shape to get the door, answered it for him. When he opened the door he was saw a young, sixteenish looking girl standing on the front porch, her tan colored hair shining in the sun and her emerald eyes flashing.

~*~Selene~*~

Selene had left around noon for Yugi's house. Yugi himself was still asleep and she had left it to Damien to tell the others, except Yugi, when he woke them up. She didn't want him to tell Yugi `cause she had a feeling that he'd try to stop her.

Selene arrived at Yugi's house after twenty minutes of walking and thinking, though all the latter did was get her temper up even more. She was ready to barge up the steps, get inside the house, and give them a big and very painful piece of her mind. And she would've done just that as the door opened, that is until she saw the person answering it. Her eyes caught the form of an extremely devastated look Jonouchi.

`Hmm, maybe I should try a different approach than just flat out yelling at the first person I see. If Jonouchi answered the door then the others are probably here too. I'll just use that to my advantage.' Selene quickly changed the scream she'd been about to throw into a pleasant smile.

~*~General~*~

"Hello, is Yugi home?" the girl said.

Jonouchi, confused, took a good look at the girl. She had long tan colored hair that was tied into a ponytail a little below the base of her neck and emerald green eyes. She was wearing what appeared to be black blue jean hip huggers and a tight black shirt with a short-sleeved, black leather jacket on top of that. She also wore a leather choker with a silver crescent moon pendent hanging off of it, a pair of ankh earrings, and a pair of sunglasses resting atop her head. He took a few seconds, trying to place where he'd seen her before, before recognizing her as one of the five new students from three months ago.

"Why're you askin'?" Jonouchi said.

Selene sighed. "Because he was supposed to meet me and my friends about forty-five minutes ago." She lied smoothly, she'd had a lot of practice from all the times they'd almost been caught in the very beginning.

Jonouchi sighed and invited the girl in. Who knows, she might have some clue as to where Yugi'd gone. Or, for that matter, why he'd gone in the first place.

Selene followed the blonde into a room and she saw exactly who she was hoping to see: Yami, Honda, Ryou, Bakura, and Anzu. Much as she was jumping for joy on the inside to have all her prey gathered in one place, she kept a slightly confused look on her face.

"Who was in Jonouchi?" Anzu asked, not yet seeing Selene.

"One of the new kids in school. Yugi was supposed to meet her and her friends today." Jonouchi said, stepping aside to reveal Selene.

"Would one of you mind telling me what's going on?" Selene said, though she knew very well exactly what was going on.

"Yugi's gone, he ran away." Yami said.

Selene kept her face carefully devoid of any emotion as she said, "Really? Well, to be honest I'm not really that surprised."

This simple statement had just the effect Selene was hoping for. Everyone's attention instantly snapped to her.

"What do you mean you're not surprised?" Yami said, as he was the first to get over his shock.

"If you were actually paying attention it would be obvious to you too." Selene said, deciding to torture them a bit.

"What do you mean?" Ryou said.

"Well," she said, turning to Jonouchi, "Jonouchi tell me, when was the last time you talked to Yugi?"

"What do you mean?" Jonouchi said, wondering why the hell she would ask such a question.

Selene's eyes hardened in anger as she said in a voice colder than ice, "Just answer the question. When was the last time you talked to Yugi?"

Jonouchi opened his mouth to answer her when he realized that, to his horror, he couldn't remember the last time he'd talked to the tri-haired hikari.

"Can't answer?" Selene said, voice as cold as ever, before turning to stare each of them in the eyes, asking the same question of each of them. No one, not even Bakura or Yami, could answer her nor meet her gaze for more than a few seconds.

"You want to know why he left? Well, to be honest I'm shocked that he hadn't left sooner. YOU all have been ignoring him for the past NINE MONTHS! THAT is why he left!" Selene shouted at them, shocking each of them into silence. "I only thank the gods that he had somewhere to turn to otherwise he might've taken a more PERMANENT way out."

"What do you mean a more permanent way out?" Yami asked, dreading the answer he was sure to come.

"You know exactly what I mean! I mean suicide!" she shouted at them. "After all, what would you expect. He's been living in HELL for the past nine months!! He'd been through enough before now and NOW YOU ALL go and do THIS!!!! You forgot his DAMN BIRTHDAY for heaven's sake!!!! When my friends and I knew and they've only known him for THREE FREAKIN' MONTHS!!!!"

Everyone fell silent for a moment, all but Selene caught up in his or her guilt. How could they have not noticed this? Weren't they supposed to be Yugi's friends?

Suddenly Bakura spoke up. "What do you mean he's been through enough before now?" This caught the attention of everyone who instantly turned their eyes to Selene.

Selene, for her part, was shocked. They didn't know. Well, that explained some of it but still. "You don't know? You don't know?! You don't damn well know?!?! Tell me then, do any of you have ANY idea why Yugi's living with his grandfather instead of his parents?" she said.

Yami was the first to speak this time. "He never told us. I just assumed that they were dead."

Selene turned her back on them and said, "I wish. His mother is dead, but his father, oh you could never understand how much I want to kill his bastard of a father with my bare hands. Do you want to know exactly what happened where Yugi and I used to live, in Siaka city?" She turned back to them and her gaze frightened each and every one of them. While just a few seconds ago her emerald eyes were blazing in anger, now they looked dead, haunted.

With quite a bit of trepidation, they each nodded. Suddenly a smile colder than anything they had yet seen graced her lips.

"Okay then. Imagine this. You live in the worst part of a city. This is the area that rapists, muggers, gangsters, and those sort absolutely love to live. You live with your abusive father for three long years and with no friends before finally meeting one, and only one. No one seems to notice the new bruises that appear on you everyday, or if they do they either don't care or are too afraid to say anything. Meanwhile both you and your friend are perfect targets for bullies and get a beating from them every day. Imagine living this way for eight long years. Then one night your father comes home piss-ass drunk and pissed as hell. You try to hide but that just gets you beat worse than before. Suddenly, as you lay half-unconscious on the floor, he does the unthinkable. He rapes you. The next day you awaken in the hospital and are told you are to be taken away from him forever to live with a family member you'd been told was dead ever since your mother died and your father moved with you at the age of three. Can you imagine what kind of hell that would be? Well, that's what Yugi had to go through and I had to sit by and watch the whole damn thing because I was a child and no one was going to believe me over the adults. Absolutely no one."

The others stared in shock as Selene's story came to a close. Yugi had had to live through that. How had he managed to stay as pure as he had?

Suddenly Selene's eyes lost the dead look and she turned around to leave. But she stopped at the doorway and said, "When you figure out where Yugi is, come to my apartment. It's in the phone book under Selene Chousen." And with that said she walked out, slamming the door behind her.

~*~*~

It was now about six, five hours after Selene had left, and Yami was lying on his bed. Everyone else had left shortly after Selene had, each still in shock over finding out about Yugi's past. To think that the tri-haired tenshi had had to deal with so much. Selene had been right, it was amazing that Yugi was still alive, much less sane. To think that because of his ignorance Yugi might've killed himself.

`I only thank the gods that he had somewhere to turn to otherwise he might've taken a more PERMANENT way out.' Selene's words ran through Yami's head again as they had been since she'd first said them, but this time something clicked.

`It sounded like she knew where he was. She also said when we found him. Oh gods, Selene knows where Yugi is!' with that thought Yami shot out of bed.

He ran downstairs and quickly called Jonouchi and told him what he'd just realized. Jonouchi, though shocked, said that he'd call Honda and meet over at Yami's house in ten minutes. In the mean time Yami called Ryou and Anzu who both said that they were coming, and Ryou promised to bring his yami along.

As soon as they all got there they set off for the address that Yami had found in the phone book. The twenty-minute walk seemed to take forever. When they arrived at the apartment building they quickly took the elevator to the fifth floor and went to room 522.

They knocked on the door for a few minutes until a passing janitor said, "If your looking for the people who used to live there they left a couple hours ago, all six of them and it didn't seem like they were coming back."

"One of the boys," Yami said, stepping forward in desperation, "did he look a lot like me?"

The janitor studied him for a moment before snapping his fingers and saying, "Yeah, the shortest one of the group. He had a very odd hairstyle. Just a moment, I have a note here that the young lady of the group told me to give to a man who looked like the kid." The janitor rummaged through his pocket for a moment before extracting a piece of notebook paper and walking off.

The six of them leaned in to read the note. The writing was very elegant and the note read, `It seems you figured it out, but by the time your reading this we'll be gone. Don't even try to find us as it is impossible. Come Monday all the school records of Damien, Jake, Jason, Derek, and myself will have disappeared as if they never existed and as you know Yugi is missing. Let this be a lesson to you, you always reap what you sow. ~Selene'

TBC…..

AN: What did you think? Please review and tell me, all reviews will be appreciated.