Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Yu-Gi-Oh! Lament of the Condemned Souls ❯ The Masks that Hide us All ( Chapter 2 )

Second chapter is here! Sorry I didn’t update sooner, but I wanted to make sure I wrote up the third chapter before I posted this. Right now I’m on the fourth chapter and it’s going good!..Okay, maybe it’s not going as fast as I planned, but at least I haven’t got writers block on it.

I’m still not sure if I’m going to make any of the major characters die. X-X Some random person dies in this chapter, but he’s just random! *Cough* I know there’s going to be serious injuries ( it’s already started in the end of the third chapter..) but I’m not sure if death is on the agenda yet. I’m just to attached to the characters, which might lead to a corny ending. :( Lets hope that doesn’t happen.

To AMK - *Squeals* Hey girl! I’m surprised you were able to get on the internet! lol On that late? Jeez! I guess that’s a true blue sign that schools out! ^.^ Thank you! *Hugs* I tried so hard to make everything flow, but it’s so hard! >< *Cough* I miss you! *Hugs* Is your computer finally working now?

Disclaimer: I don’t own Yu-Gi-Oh! Or anything else in this story. I’m just responsible for this bad story line. ^^;

Enjoy!

Chapter two: The Masks that Hide us All

People were bustling about hanging various decorations all getting ready for the festival that would take place later that day. Children ran through the streets already in their kimonos ready for the festival, while others went on with their lives eagerly awaiting the event.

Yugi twiddled his fingers. There had been only two costumers in the past three hours and only one of them bought something. Everyone was out getting ready for the festival. Everyone except him.

He sighed and leaned back on his chair, putting his hands behind his neck. He had never gone to one of these kind of events. “I wonder what it’ll be like,” he mumbled out loud.

The door jingled and a man stepped inside carrying various packages that skewed his vision. “Packages for Mr. Muto!”

Yugi’s grandfather hurried out of the house with amazing speed and snatched the boxes out of his hands. “Yugi. Can you take these in the back for me please?”

Yugi nodded and started carrying the packages two at a time to the back room while his grandfather signed the release. After successfully getting all the boxes in the back, he stopped when his eyes fell on a smaller package than the rest. Written on it said ‘Yugi Muto’, with no return address.

Curious, he picked up the box and inspected it some more. It looked like one of the packages his grandfather ordered, but why did it say it was for him?

He quickly picked it up and tucked it under his arm. “I’m going to my room!” he shouted, running up the stairs and enclosing himself in his bedroom.

Walking over to the desk, he set the package down and sat on the chair. He wasn’t sure why he was so jittery. Maybe he just hadn’t gotten over the last time he had received a package in the mail. He grabbed a small pocket knife and slowly pressed the blade down on the tape to open it, body tense.

A shrill sound pierced the air.

“AGH!” Yugi fell on the ground with a thud. “Stupid phone,” he growled, getting up and walking over to the device. He picked it up. “Hello?”

There was only static on the other end.

“Hello?” he called again. “Is anyone there?”

The phone clicked off.

Yugi stared at the phone with wide eyes. It was just like one of those horror movies! He shakily put the phone down and started walking over to the package.

The phone rang again.

He dashed towards the phone and picked it up. “Hello?!”

There was hysterical laughing on the other end of the line. He immediately knew who it was. “That was so hilarious!” Jo cried out in the phone, obviously gasping for breath.

Yugi felt himself flush. “That wasn’t funny guys!” he cried out. “I seriously thought it was someone stalking me to try and kill me or something.”

“I told you it would be good to do that trick after watching that horror movie the other day,” Honda’s voice could be heard.

“Sorry pal,” Jo said, now officially getting a hold of himself. “I couldn’t help it.”

Yugi let out a sigh of relief. “It’s alright. This just means you have to buy me more hamburgers.”

“Hey!”

“There’s actually another reason we called,” Honda could be heard saying again. “We want to know - AH! Quit it out Jo!”

“It’s my phone!” Jo cried out definitely. “So back off!”

“No it isn’t, it’s a pay phone. It’s everyone’s phone.”

“But I paid for it.”

“No, I did.”

“......I called him! So ha!”

Yugi was laughing at this point. His friends could always cheer him up, even when they weren’t trying. “So, what did you want to know?”

“Oh!” Jo paused and there was some grunts that Yugi assumed were from Honda trying to get to the phone. “We want to know if you want to meet up with us at the park. Supposedly there’s this guy who’s doing all these magic tricks there right now. Want to go?”

“Sure!” Yugi said. “I’ll meet you guys there in a few minutes. Bye!” He pushed the off button and put the phone back where it was supposed to be.

His eyes drifted towards the unopened package. “I guess I’ll have to save you for later.” He dashed out of his room to meet his friends.

It didn’t take Yugi long to find his friends cheering and egging a man on. The man was juggling all sorts of fruits from apples to bananas to oranges. Jo and Honda were currently trying to get him to juggle a watermelon while the man was adamant.

“I thought you said he does magic,” Yugi said, walking up to his friends.

“Yeah, well apparently he juggles too,” Honda replied. “This bozo head over here decided to see how many things he could juggle by throwing stuff at him. So technically he had no choice.”

Yugi shook his head with a smile. “Jo, stop trying to throw the watermelon at him.”

Jo stopped trying to lift up the abnormally heavy fruit and looked up at Yugi. “But Yugi, he might be able to do it.”

“No more!” the man cried, letting all the fruits fall to the ground. “Never before have I met people such as you.” He picked up his stuff. “I hope I never see you again!” He grabbed his stuff and stormed off.

“What?” Jo cried out. “No smoke you disappear in? Nothing?! What a rip off! And that guy said he could do magic.”

Yugi laughed.

“Sorry,” Honda apologized. “We scared him off before you got here. Maybe we can find someone else to harass? I mean watch,” he quickly fixed.

“You know, there’s this girl who looks into your future through this orb down the street,” Jo said with an evil grin.

Honda mimicked that grin. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

Yugi shook his head. He knew this was going to be a disaster.

Thirty-one days : Sixteen hours : Fifty-nine seconds

“You will leave this place in five minutes,” the fortune teller said with an annoyed look.

“What kind of a fortune is that?” Jo cried out. “What happened to the ‘you will die in seven days’ crap?”

“Jo, that was just a movie,” Yugi stated.

“Still,” Jo continued. “You’d expect something like ‘you will find a quarter in a trash can’, or ‘don’t eat the yellow stuff’.”

“What kind of fortunes are those?” Honda questioned, eyeing his friend suspiciously.

“Better!” Jo stated. “That’s what they are. Much better than ‘you will leave in five minutes’!”

“Three minutes now,” the woman stated. “You took so long talking you wasted two of your minutes.”

“I don’t waste minutes by talking, I use them,” Jo said matter-of-factly.

“Uh, Jo?” Honda questioned. “That didn’t make any sense what so ever.”

Yugi laughed and sat down on the stool in front of the fortune teller. “So, what’s my fortune going to be like?”

The woman twisted her hands in grotesque positions over the orb, eyes locked on its shiny exterior. Or maybe she was seeing into the orb.

She let out a small gasp and jerked back a little, but never lost her gaze on the ball. “My, my,” she whispered, shaking her head.

“What is it?” Yugi questioned, finding himself to be unable to focus on anything else other than her and her magic orb.

“You’ve been through much in the past few years,” she whispered, twisting her hands some more. “You’re strength and courage were tested and you passed the test. But,” she paused, “there’s something amiss. I’ve never seen this in my ball. Clouds are covering my vision. Dark ones foretelling danger and a-a box? Is that what I see?” She peered closer.

Yugi’s heart was pounding now and he unconsciously leaned forward. What was she seeing?

She let out a screech and shoved her chair backwards, eyes wide at the orb.

Yugi jumped back with surprise. “What happened?” he asked, violet eyes finding the womans’. “What did you see?”

“I saw blood,” she whispered, voice shaking. “Lots and lots of blood. It-it was horrible.”

Jo frowned. “Come on Yugi. Lets get out of here. She’s probably trying to give you a better fortune after giving me such a sucky one.”

“Yeah, Jo’s right for once,” Honda agreed.

Yugi nodded and started walking off with his friends, sparing almost a moments glance to look back at the lady.

“One,” she whispered. “You’re five minutes are up.”

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The man smiled as the children ‘ewed’ and ‘awed’ at his marvelous magic tricks. Okay, so they weren’t all that ‘marvelous’, but to the children they defied the laws of the world. Seeing the childrens’ face light up after every trick made everything worth while.

Today, however, was quite different. He was not thoroughly enjoying his job today for there was someone else present among the innocent children and their parents.

A boy stood next to the childrens’ parents, watching his tricks. ‘It’s just a boy’, the man kept on telling himself, but every time he looked up, he shuddered. It couldn’t be a boy. There was just something inhuman about him. All of his senses were screaming that the boy was going to do something bad for he was evil. Pure evil.

A small bead of sweat found its way down his face as he wrapped up his show. All the children were happily chatting to their parents, happy and content. The man saw non of this; only the boy.

After everyone had left, the boy walked over to him a smirk set upon his features. “Nice magic tricks,” he said calmly.

The hairs on the back of the mans neck rose and a chill went down his spine. His mouth was to dry to say anything so he just nodded his head.

“Would you like to see a magic trick of my own?” the boy questioned, smoothly. “I must admit, what you did was impressive...for a mortal.”

His eyes widened and he opened his mouth to scream, but the sound never came out. The last thing he heard before everything gave way was the boy’s manic laugh.

His body landed on the soft grass, unmoving. His wide eyes dull and lifeless.

“I think you’ll have fun where you’re at,” the boy whispered, a deranged grin upon his face. “After all, the shadow realm is just full of magic!” More laughter filled the air, resounding within the park.

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 &n bsp;           

& ldquo;Bye guys!” Yugi called over his shoulder. “See you in a half hour!” He took a right and headed towards the park. It was the quickest route to the Game shop and he needed all the time he could to get his costume for the festival ready.

He was surprised to see a bunch of people huddled around an area in the park with a few paramedic’s on the scene. It was out of his way, but he decided to check it out anyway.

Walking over to the scene, he pushed himself forward until he was the first person. He gasped in shock at what he saw.

Paramedic people were picking up the same man that was doing the juggling. Blood scattered across the ground where the police were currently taking pictures.

Yugi gulped and walked over to one of the police men that were trying to keep the crowd back. “Um, excuse me sir. What happened here?”

The man turned towards Yugi, dark circles under his eyes. “Another homicide is what it looks like. We assume that the cause of death is loss of blood.”

“Did someone shoot him?” Yugi asked, watching as the people covered the body with white blanket.

“That’s the odd thing,” the police man said, running his hand through his hair. “Something was carved into his chest with a knife.”

Yugi looked up at him with surprise. “What?”

“Strange huh?”

“Erh, yeah.” Yugi shifted his eyes back to the blood on the floor. What had that fortune teller said? Oh yeah. Lots of blood... “Do you know what was carved into the guy?”

The man’s eyes darkened. “Yes. That’s the weirdest part. We know what is says, but we don’t know why it was written. We think a cult might have done things.”

“What did it say?”

“The darkness can never die.”

A chill went down Yugi’s spine as he stared intently at the blood. “That was it? Nothing else?”

“That’s it,” the man shook his head. “You should get going now.” He turned toward the rest of the crowd, shooing them off.

Yugi didn’t spare a second glance at the crime scene. He walked away from the place feeling displaced. His head was swimming with thoughts and ideas, unaware of what was going on around him. What could this all mean?

He was surprised when he heard the familiar jingle of the bell that signaled he was back at the shop. Pausing, he just stood there for several minutes staring into the shop. He gulped and shook his head. He wouldn’t let this bother him. It couldn’t have to do with him. It was all over, right?

He walked into the house and up the stairs. Trying to clear his mind, he opened the door to his room and looked at the desk where the package lay untouched.

A box and blood.

The fortune teller couldn’t be right. It was all bogus. She had given Jo such a bad fortune anyway. Who’s to say that she didn’t make up his?

He walked over to the package and stuffed it into the drawer. He wouldn’t deal with it yet. The festival was starting soon and he promised his friends to be there. No matter what.

He dug into his closet and threw his socks around in attempt to find his costume. It lay in plastic bag off to the corner. Grabbing it, he put it on the bed and took out the contents.

“Alright. Lets do this.”

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Everyone was walking around talking and laughing. Balls full of light lined the rims of houses and stores providing the only light. Occasionally there would be someone who was carrying a small light stick but only a few had those.

Whole roads were closed down for the festival and little stands were set up to keep people preoccupied. Then there were all the masks. Everyone was in a kimono and mask making it hard to find people he recognized.

Yugi felt a little out of place. He was so easy to spot even with the mask on. His hair stuck out like a sore thumb. Thankfully, no one seemed to care about his abnormal hair.

He looked around to try and find his friends, but found no dragon in sight. “I’ll just meet up with them later,” he mumbled to himself. Looking around, he spotted a small booth where one could play games.

He grinned. He always loved games and this was the perfect opportunity to win a prize. Walking over, he was surprised to find that there were quite a bit of people there. He looked at the game and his grin progressed to a smile. It was a card game.

“Step right up!” the man shouted, beckoning people over. “Step right up and try your luck! See of lady luck is on your side. Step right up!”

Yugi sat down on one of the chairs and looked around. There were two people to his right and one to his left. Many people hung out behind them, trying to see how the game was played before attempting to win.

The man looked down at them, his mask covering his actual face. “Are you ready? I’m going to shuffle the deck. Now I’m going to give you seven cards face down. You will each take turn putting a card down in the middle without looking at the cards. Whoever has the highest card gets the pile. The object is to get the most cards. If I win no one gets anything. Ready?”

There was a variety of yells as the game started. It was quite obvious who was going to win even from the beginning. Yugi dominated the entire time. No one else had a chance.

Yugi grinned sheepishly as he brought the last bunch of cards towards him. The other people had long since left, replaced by other people. “I think I won.”

The man growled. “How did you do that? That’s just impossible!”

“I guess I just got lucky,” Yugi said, scratching the back of his neck.

There was hot breath on the back of his neck making him freeze. A soft, raspy voice whispered in his ear, “Is that so? King of Games.”

Yugi jerked around to try and locate the voice but whoever it was had disappeared. Jumping off his seat he ran out of the booth, ignoring the yells of ‘you forgot your prize!’ from the man. He stood in the middle of the street, eyes straining for anything.

He found it. A small glimpse of white. He turned around just in time so see someone in a fox mask turn a corner, white hair billowing in the air.

“Bakura!” Yugi cried, running after his friend. It had to be his friend. After all, who else had white hair? He turned the corner and continued to run, turning his head this way and that in attempt to find his friend again.

Masks upon masks went by and occasionally he would bump into someone. He was starting to become disoriented, and he slowed down slightly. Where was that person?

He turned around to try a different direction when he came face to face with a giant dragon. He let out a scream and stepped back. His foot slipped out from underneath him and he fell onto the ground, cushioned by his butt.

“Yugi!” the front of the dragon cried. “Are you alright?”

Yugi took deep breaths and stood up shakily. “Y-yeah. You scared me!”

“I told you we would!” the front of the dragon said again. Yugi realized that the voice was Jo’s.

“Shut up!” Honda growled. “You’re moving to much. It’s not easy being the butt of the dragon you know!”

“That’s not my problem,” Jo retorted. “Hey, nice costume pal.”

“Same to you,” Yugi said, patting his hand over his heart. “I was looking for you. Where were you guys?”

“Ah, we had some hold up because Honda wasn’t being a very good butt,” Jo stated. “So, what were you doing? Looks like you were looking for someone?”

Yugi looked back towards the crowd through the slanted eyes in his mask. “No. I wasn’t.”

“Alright! Lets get some hamburgers!”

“Is that all you care about?”

Yugi stared at the area, wind picking up slightly. First the package, the attack, now Bakura’s back? But why didn’t he come when he called? A shiver went down his spine. Something wasn’t right.

“Yugi? You alright?”

“Yeah guys. Everything’s fine.”

ThIirty-one days : Twelve hours : Twenty-nine seconds

Huh? So! What did you think? I tried my best to make everything flow, but it just gets hard sometimes! As for the box, you’ll find out what’s in it in the next chapter.

I wasn’t sure on what card game to do so I just made one up. I hope it wasn’t too bad. O.o’ It was actually kind of funny with the whole ‘magic orb’ thing. I was going to make it the magic ball, but when the sentence ‘finding himself to be unable to focus on anything else other than her and her magic ball’ came, I realized I had to change it to orb. It was just...wrong on so many levels...

Anyway, I hope it wasn’t all that bad! If it was, please feel free to send criticisms, but no flames. Please review!

Thanks!