Fleeing the Shadows

Thank you everyone for all of your support! Looking back, I see that a couple of people have tried to guess our main villain, and nope – he’s not Dartz. Keep trying, there’s another clue in the ritual chapter!

And thanks to Moondalian for betaing this chapter while we were chatting!

Here’s a short chap for you!



Pulling the pilfered miniature four wheel drive carefully into the tall weeds on the side of the road, just out of sight of their intended destination, Atemu reached down to wake his exhausted lover. The boy had to be dead tired, to be able to sleep in that uncomfortable, crunched up position.

Since they hadn’t gotten any real sleep today, or even last night for that matter, Atemu was fairly exhausted himself; he couldn’t even begin to imagine what his small lover felt like. The ruby eyed agent was used to pulling all nighters - his days in college weren’t too far in the past, but even he was feeling the after effects from the night before. It was clear as early as o’ dark thirty this morning that his petite lover wouldn’t have been able to make it for too much longer without rest.

As it was Yugi had tried valiantly to remain awake through their drive, but the constant, monotonous hum of the stolen truck’s engine had lulled him to sleep within a couple of hours on the road, his head dropping softly into Atemu’s lap. And there he stayed, curled up tightly in his seat, his small hands clasped around the agent’s thigh, until Atemu laid a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“Wake up little one, we’re here.” Atemu stated tiredly. “But we must still be cautious. I don’t know if the others made it or not.”

Yugi nodded drowsily, trying to clear the remaining fog from his brain, hissing in discomfort as he tried to sit upright in his seat. His whole body hurt…badly. As much from the previous night’s activities as from the way he curled up in the seat. Stretching his cramped muscles, Yugi glanced blearily up at his formidable lover, to see that the man’s scarlet gaze was still focused intently on something across the field.

Keeping his eyes trained on the house that was barely visible in the distance, Atemu reminded his charge “Keep your thoughts concealed until we know for certain. Just because the people we’ve run up against so far haven’t had any real power doesn’t mean that none of them do. And I don’t want to just walk straight into this. We’ll stick to the field and if I say run – you run.”

Yugi shuddered at the reminder. For all they knew, they could be walking straight into a trap. Stretching slowly, the small teen allowed the world to slowly come into focus, staring at the massive, rundown farmhouse that they had parked a full farm field – almost a mile - away from. Clearly this was their destination. There wasn’t any other shelter in sight.

Getting out of the vehicle, the two approached the house cautiously on foot from the fallow, weed infested field, Atemu scanning the vicinity every so often, expecting a trap. But the area appeared to be completely deserted. At least to the naked eye. It was almost too silent, no birds…no nothing. Not even a breeze ruffled their hair as they moved steadily towards their destination.

The closer they got, the more Yugi began to fear what was in the house, the hair on the back of his neck prickling warningly. The immense colonial farm house looked completely abandoned, a shutter or two hanging at awkward angles from a couple of the tall, pre-civil war era windows.

A broken down barn could be seen in the distance, its roof missing completely, one of its sides completely reduced to rubble. It was amazing that the rickety old structure was still standing. Turning his gaze back to the looming house, the small teen shivered. He could feel something watching him from the vacant windows, but he could sense no conscious thoughts from anywhere.

‘At-Atemu…I don’t like…th-this.’ Even the teen’s mental voice was shaking, a deep shudder passing through his small frame.

Atemu put his arm around the shivering youth as he continued creeping through the tall weeds towards the house. ‘It’ll be okay Aibou. I can’t sense anything either. But Bakura knows how to mask thoughts. I’m hoping that this is his handiwork. If not though, we need to be ready.’

For assurance, the agent touched the gun that he had tucked in the back of his pants. He just hoped it wasn’t needed. He so hated to kill people. But there was literally no way the murderous cult could have found out about this place unless they had a hold of Bakura –and were able to make him talk. It was the only reason he kept walking instead of turning around and taking his little one back to the waiting truck. This just had to be his cousin’s work.

Yugi nodded, but remained unconvinced. They continued walking, stepping cautiously out of the concealing weeds to cross the gravel driveway at the back of the house. Climbing the broken steps one at a time behind his courageous lover, the diminutive teen almost gave in to his thoughts of taking flight back towards the small Blazer that they had stolen in their hasty retreat from the cabin.

The house was eerie in its total silence, not to mention that its appearance was like something straight out of one of the horror movies that he had been forced to watch with his friends many months ago. What was the name of that movie…? Ah yes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre! Yugi shuddered again at the thought. He didn’t think that he could go through with this…

Atemu turned the handle on the door slowly. He didn’t think they were walking into a trap, the house was entirely too silent for that. Only someone with Bakura’s talent could mask a whole group of people’s thoughts. Though, how his cousin managed to make the house so foreboding, so menacing, was beyond him. This place positively reeked of the threat of violence.

The mistrustful agent ducked behind the door as it creaked open, ready to flee if it was in fact a trap. The voice behind him came so unexpectedly that he jumped in spite of himself.

“What the fuck! It took you long enough.” Bakura drawled from the back corner of the house, taking delight in the way his younger cousin jumped in fright, whirling to face him head on – Yugi tucked behind him as he moved, the gun that was hidden in his pants cocked and aimed straight at the white haired agent.

“Son of a bitch! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?!” Atemu snarled at his prank playing cousin, pulling his trembling lover into a tender embrace before releasing the trigger on the gun and tucking it back in its previous position.

Bakura smirked evilly. “Sorry about that. Everyone else is upstairs sleeping; it was my turn to watch. I didn’t know who was pulling up…I couldn’t sense anything, and I wasn’t taking any chances either. By the way, where’s that two seater penis you usually drive?”

After taking the time to make sure that Yugi didn’t expire from the fright that the white haired agent had given them, Atemu glared at his cousin, his nose in the air. “Christ Bakura, you scared the shit out of us! And my car is not a phallic symbol of any sort! You’re just pissed off that you didn’t get one.”

Bakura snorted as the group made their way into the house. “Am not!”

“You keep telling yourself that O Jealous One. Maybe some day it will be true.” Atemu smirked, returning the favor that Bakura had just done him – knowing full well how much the white haired agent envied him for his car. “Oh, while I’m thinking of it, where the hell did you learn to do that?”

Bakura blinked innocently back at his smaller cousin, the look not quite suiting his harsh features. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Atemu just rolled his eyes as he turned back towards the house. His cousin was a trip. It was good to be back among family. Hopefully everyone had made it safely, and they could sit down and figure out what to do about their ‘little’ problem.

The group made their way into the kitchen of the old house, which, amazingly enough, was warm and inviting. A quick look around told Yugi that although the outside of the dwelling gave the appearance of being broken down and neglected, that wasn’t totally the case, at least from what he could see of the inside.

The old kitchen was worn and welcoming with its peeling antique wall paper, the painted cupboards flaking in spots. And from his place by the door Yugi could see an antique wood stove that sat in the corner of the living room. It was almost glowing with warmth - a small pan of water boiling cheerily on the top of it to help with the dryness. Other than that the small teen couldn’t tell what the rest of the house looked like, and he wasn’t about to venture any further without his guardian at his side.

He didn’t get much more of a chance to look around as his attention was soon taken with the smell that was wafting from the corner of the room. Sitting on top of the ancient stove was a pot of something that was giving off the most delicious aroma. The small teen almost started drooling; suddenly remembering that he hadn’t eaten in almost twenty four hours. His stomach gurgled a protest at the neglect, his face turning a mottled red at the loud noise.

Atemu smirked at his little one, hearing the sound, as he flopped down into one of the thickly padded benches at the long, roughly carved table, pulling out both sides so his starving lover could take a seat next to him. Bakura laughed outright as he turned to the pot that was on the stove, pulling two more dishes out of the well worn cupboard to set beside the one that was already on the chipped counter. Yugi took a seat beside his scarlet eyed lover, scanning the large kitchen.

The white haired agent sauntered over to the table, both bowls brimming with the luscious smelling stew. Setting one in front of Yugi and another in front of Atemu, he walked back for the third bowl. “I was making dinner when I heard the car door. So I hid around the back of the house until I could make sure that it wasn’t anyone that didn’t need to be finding this place.”

“And you just decided to scare the hell out of us when you saw that it was us and not someone else?” Atemu arched a brow at Bakura when he came back to the table. Seeing the shit eating grin that was forming on the white haired agent’s face, he started to reprimand the man. “You should be…”

“Chill cousin.” Bakura said, biting back laughter. “Apparently the two of you are good enough at masking your thoughts. I didn’t even know it was you until you were at the door. You - I would love to scare the hell out of. Him…” He jerked a thumb at Yugi, who in turn gave the agent a glare of his own from beneath the blonde hair that was hiding his face. “I would do no such thing to. Speaking of…so you’re the cause of this shit storm we’re currently caught in the middle of...”

His words caused the petite teen to gasp in outrage, and the boy’s guardian to tsk.

“Ignore him little one. He’s always been like this.” Atemu laid a warm hand over Yugi’s, squeezing lightly. The exhausted teen glanced up at his lover, flashing a tired smile.

Bakura ignored the comment as he gave the petite teenager the once over, mentally comparing him to a younger Atemu. In an aggrieved voice he commented. “Damn…and I thought Shadi was joking. I don’t need this shit!”

Atemu chose not to comment on Bakura’s remark, knowing that the white haired agent would tell him when he was ready. Quietly they began to eat, each lost in their own thoughts for the moment. There was so much that needed to be said, so much they needed to learn from each other. But neither Atemu nor Yugi were mentally up to processing any information of importance.

“So what happened?” Atemu questioned after a lengthy silence.

“I woke up to Ryou screaming his fool head off…” Bakura began to recount the events from the night before.

The two agents’ continued their discussion, leaving Yugi to quietly eat his stew. The teen’s attention wandered around the kitchen, his wide eyes lighting on anything of interest. This house was even bigger than he had thought from the outside. And even though it was showing its age, it seemed to have weathered the time well, with only the occasional cracks in the plaster on the ceiling and slight chipping of the floor tile. The small teen yawned widely; setting his spoon down, his stomach finally satisfied enough for other needs that still had to be met.

“Have you heard from Malik or Marik yet?” Atemu questioned his cousin.

“No and I haven’t…” Bakura started.

“I thought I smelled food.” Another voice came from the living room, cutting off the white haired agent’s comment. Bakura shook his head; he was hoping that the irritating teen would’ve remained sleeping.

Yugi perked up quickly. He had been really close to falling asleep over his food. He was up and off the bench so fast that he almost tripped over it in his haste, heading towards the living room. “Jou?!”

Said blonde walked into the kitchen, his jaw dropping at the sight of his small friend. “Yug!? Oh god Yug!” He broke into a run, picking up the smaller teen the moment he was within range, to swing him around. “Oh god Yugi! I thought I’d never see you again!”

Tears of joy appeared in the smaller teen’s eyes as he held tightly to his friend. “I missed you so much! I thought you were dead too! A-and then…oh god! I’m so glad you’re alive!!!”

Dropping to the floor, both teens promptly burst into tears, clinging to each other as they grieved for their lost friends and family. Bakura looked almost disturbed at the sight, preferring to make his way out of the kitchen for fear of shedding a tear of his own at the reunion. It was time to wake the others.

After giving the two friends a moment to themselves, Atemu spoke up softly. “As much as I love seeing reunions like this, I think Yugi needs some sleep. The two of you can catch up after he’s rested.”

That was if they didn’t need to run before then. Damn, they needed more information on this cult that was chasing them! As it was, they knew absolutely nothing. Atemu ran over their options in his mind. They needed some way to find out what this group’s next move was, before they found themselves caught up in it. But it was so hard to even think; he was so drained.

Jou looked up at the comment and found himself staring up at an older, more exotic version of his little friend. Jaw still hanging open in shock, he picked himself up off the ground to stutter “I-I…huh? I always thought you’d be taller than that.”

Atemu stiffened at the comment, ruby eyes flashing as he regarded his lover’s friend. What the hell was this all about? Did the boy not think he was good enough for his friend? A dark eyebrow rose in inquiry as he stared down the taller youth.

“I mean who’d ‘av thought that superman was so short? I was kinda expectin’ ten foot tall and bullet proof!” The blonde continued, not noticing the death look that the tricolor haired agent was currently giving him.

Atemu looked up at the blonde, shock written all over his face.

“Jou!” Yugi whined as he hid his head in his hands. Leave it to Jou to come up with an outrageous comment like that. Brushing the tears from his face, the small teen gave a chuckle.

Slightly hysterical laughter sounded from the living room, letting the three of them know that they were not alone; as Seto and Bakura laughed themselves to tears over the remark. There was no way they were going to let their little cousin ever live this down!

Atemu crossed his arms over his chest as he regarded his family members with a dark glare. “Fuck you both…and the horses you rode in on!”

Jou turned to look at Yugi, who was, by now, laughing just as hard as the rest of them. He didn’t think he had said anything that funny. After all, Atemu’s name was all he heard out of Yugi’s mouth since the small teen had first come in contact with him. And with all the man could supposedly do, it was a fair enough assumption. “Wha’d I say?”

The small amethyst eyed teen just shook his head. He was so happy to have his best friend back, even if he was embarrassing to be around. He happily wrapped his arms around the blonde as he laughed at the affronted look on his lover’s regal face.

Finally Atemu gave a small chuckle, rolling his eyes and shaking his head at the group. The scarlet eyed agent knew that although the group was laughing at his expense, it was more that they needed to blow off steam than anything else, so he didn’t take it to heart. “I don’t think I would look all that good in tights. They just don’t do my gorgeous body justice.”

Yugi snorted, the noise causing the group yet another round of laughter. After a long period of time where any small thing would set the group to laughing again, they each calmed down, wondering what they had found so funny in the first place - much the same way a person who is placed under so much stress laughs at absolutely nothing and then finds himself the center of attention. The small teen wiped tears of hilarity from his eyes as he gazed around at the group of people clustered in the kitchen, and then turned his gaze to his lover.

Giving Yugi a meaningful glance, Atemu nodded towards the stairs in the corner of the living room. It was past time for them to rest. Especially if they wanted to try to stay one step ahead of their pursuers. It was safe here, for now. The others would watch over them while they slept.

Yugi nodded happily, just relieved that Jou was okay. The small teen grabbed Atemu’s hand as he bid goodnight to the group that had gathered, and pulled the agent up the noisy, sloping stairs for some much needed rest. Once on the second floor, they wandered the long, uneven corridor, searching for a room that wasn’t already occupied. It took them a few moments, for most of the rooms already spoken for – clothing scattered over floors and unmade beds telling signs of their ownership. Eventually, at the end of the carpeted hall, they found what they were searching for - a room all to themselves.

The room was spacious, filled with antiques and decorated in faded earth tones, looking like the owner of the house was just out for a walk and due back at any minute, but the already made bed was the only thing on the duo’s minds. Yugi walked over to investigate the view from one of the tall windows as he readied himself for bed.

He could just barely make out the shape of the Blazer hidden in the concealing weeds from where he was standing. If nothing else, the windows offered a clear view of the surrounding area, making a surprise attack all but impossible. But that was only if someone were to stand watch constantly.

“How long till they find us?” Yugi asked in a small voice as Atemu shut the door.

“I don’t know. I’m still trying to figure out how they knew where we were, and how they found out about Bakura.” Atemu answered as he snuggled up next to the teen.

Atemu had caught a glimpse of the small white haired teen curled up on the couch when they passed the living room. Now he understood Bakura’s earlier comment. And he couldn’t have agreed more. None of them needed this shit. But now was not the time to dwell on all the questions that he had. His body desperately needed sleep. There would be time enough to jot down his questions, and think about possible answers when he was more alert. He hoped.

Once in bed, they both dropped off into a deep sleep, their bodies all but drained from their hellish experience the night before.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“What the hell?” Atemu was startled into wakefulness by all the commotion from the floor below.

The agent jumped out of bed, snatching his gun off the table beside their bed and sneaking towards the door, fully intending on doing someone bodily harm. He had been hoping for more time to figure out their next move, but as he heard another pained shout come from down the stairs, he didn’t think they were going to be granted a reprieve. It was time to face this head on, and hope that everything would be okay in the end. Why didn’t anyone warn him?

With a warning glance back at his frightened lover, he whispered “get under the bed and wait for me, I’m gonna find out what’s going on.”

Yugi nodded shakily and dropped out of sight, sliding up under the heavy bed.

Once he was certain that the small teen was well hidden, Atemu cautiously opened the door, glancing in both directions to see that the hallway was clear. He edged his way down the stairs towards the living room, where noises had come from. A white haired blur streaked past him, headed towards one of the empty rooms on the upper floor. Atemu ignored the frightened teen, his attention drawn to the scene unfolding below. It was not quite what he was expecting.

“God damn it! I told you I was fine! LEAVE ME ALONE!” Marik snarled, raising his fists threateningly at the group that had surrounded him.

“You are not fine! You’re still bleeding! Jesus H. Christ you’re a stubborn son of a bitch!” Bakura snarled back at the taller blonde.

Seto circled the blonde from one side, drawing his attention from Bakura for a moment, as Malik and Isis snuck up on the tall blonde from behind. It was all over in a second, as the white haired agent drew back his fist. And punched the man square in the jaw, dropping him to the ground. The group quickly fell onto the unconscious man, each securing a limb to drag him to the one unoccupied couch.

‘Marik? Malik?? When the hell did they get here?’ Atemu thought, watching the fight in progress from his vantage point on the stairs, absentmindedly tucking his gun back into his jeans so he could greet the newcomers. As soon as the group dragged the unconscious Marik away from the center of the room, the ruby eyed agent spied the motionless body that had been left on the couch in the corner.

“Shadi!!!!” He yelled as he tripped the rest of the way down the stairs in his haste to make it over to the couch where his adoptive father lay

Atemu raced across the expanse of the living room, dropping to his knees in front of the pale, almost lifeless man. Shakily, he reached out to touch the man he’d come to think of as a father, tears leaking from his eyes. The man was so still, so cold. Just like his birth parents when he saw them in their caskets. Why did this always happen to the people he cared about? His sister, his parents…was this to be the fate of Marik? Of his Aibou?? Would he be able to stop it? What if he couldn’t? He couldn’t help Shadi…Why???

“He’s not dead. At least not yet.” Malik sighed, making his way from his unconscious lover to catch hold of Atemu who was shaking in his rage, his fists clenched tightly as blue veins stood out prominently in his arms. Dark shadows were beginning to slither across the floor, searching for their intended target as they slowly sucked the light out of the room.

“Malik!” Isis reprimanded, turning to give her youngest brother a tearful glare.

“Well, it’s true sis. I did the best I could, but he’s lost so much blood!” Malik defended himself with a sob. “I don’t want to lose him either, but he’s so weak right now, I don’t know if he’ll recover.”

“He’ll recover!” Isis stated, making her way across the room. “Right now I need you to help your other half before he loses any more blood! Atemu! Stop it!!! He’ll recover!”

The lady made her way over to where Malik was struggling to restrain his smaller nephew, not having much success. She tipped Atemu’s head up to meet her eyes, eerily blank ruby clashing with brown velvet for an instant before Atemu jerked his head away, his chest heaving, lost in his memories. “He will make it Atemu…come back to us little flame. It will be okay.”

Little flame, it was a nickname she had given to a defiant twelve year old Atemu when he first entered their family. It fit him in so many ways, his looks, his rebellious attitude, and his unusual gifts. And right now, if she couldn’t get him to calm down, someone was going to get hurt.

Isis skimmed her hands down the younger agent’s face, trying to soothe him with her touch. Sometimes this was all she could do to calm her youngest son down, he would get so worked up that he didn’t even realize what he was doing. It had been this way ever since they rescued him from foster care many years ago.

Something awful must have happened in his past to make him withdraw from reality when he was faced with any type of tragedy, but what the brunette had no idea. Atemu had remained decidedly closed mouthed about his time in foster care. And even his records made no mention of any incident that could have caused his hair trigger temper to flare up dangerously whenever someone close to him was in peril – only that he was transferred from one place to the next every couple of months.

Isis had hoped that time alone with his light might help with his temper, and it had – a little. The last time this happened, there had been people injured within the first couple of moments of his loss of control. Maybe this time they could avert the disaster completely. But they needed him back in the present, and right now he was resisting all of her efforts to bring him out of his memories.

Seto was standing in the corner of the room, watching the scene unfold with wide blue eyes, his breath caught in his throat. The shadows were sucking the light out of the room, taking on a physical presence, and they seemed to be coming from Atemu. Never before had he seen anything like this. Shaking his head wildly, the tall brunette backed cautiously out of the room. The only thing that stopped his departure was Jou, as the blonde came in from the kitchen after ditching the Blazer behind the barn like Bakura had told him to do earlier.

“What the hell?!” Jou’s eyes went wide as he noticed the creeping shadows that were forming on the floor. It seemed as though the darkness in the room was beginning to take form, take shape around the person kneeling by the couch. The blonde couldn’t even make out who it was on the floor, they were enveloped in such blackness, as it was Isis’s form was barely visible through the inky gloom.

“I-I don’t know…” Seto replied, not taking his eyes off the threatening phenomenon.

For once, the blue eyed agent was almost shocked speechless, his brain on overload. For all that he had heard about his cousin’s unusual abilities, this was the first time he had ever seen them. And he was frightened for his life. He grabbed a hold of Jou and began to push him out of the room, not wanting the teen he had a crush on to get caught up in this nightmare of darkness.

“Hey! Knock it off! My friend’s in there!” Jou pushed back against his protector, intent on making it into the room to help the person caught in the shadows.

“Both of you hush!” Isis spared a glare at the duo, stopping them in their tracks, before turning her attention back to Atemu. “It is okay little flame. He’s not going to die. Come out of the past…come back to us. We’re waiting for you.” She repeated soothingly, running her hand over his arm, hoping that the soft words and gentle touch could bring him back from his past.

Yugi had had enough. No one had even noticed him when he peeked down the stairs to see what was going on. The small teen had heard Atemu’s anguished cry, and he knew that he couldn’t just hide under the bed like a coward, leaving his lover alone to face down their enemies. So he grabbed what was available – an antique lamp that was sitting on the bedside table – and hurried down the hall to his lover’s aid.

The first thing he noticed as he peeked around the banister was the amount of people in the living room. The next thing he noticed was the shadows deepening. Watching as everyone in the room froze when they saw the shadows extending, lengthening, threatening to suck all the light out of the room, he decided that it was time to end this before someone got hurt.

“Atemu stop!” Yugi yelled, dropping the lamp as he ran down the stairs and straight into his lover’s arms, wrapping the man in his embrace. His lover felt cold, the normally soft skin clammy. Was this another one of his gifts? And if so what could it do?

‘Someone do something! I can’t save them…please don’t let them die’

Yugi heard his lover’s anguished thought the instant before a brilliant white light lit up the room…

Has it come to anyone else’s attention that AFF does not have italics? If what I’m seeing is right…Please review?! Feed the plot bunny!