Pairing: Seto/Jou, Yami+Yugi
Beta: JennieB - The best
Notes: Lyrics in italic and between quotes belong to Dream Theater.
Chapter three“Okay,” Jou said to himself as he took a deep breath.
He looked at his watch, setting his alarm for three hours from that moment. He had to reach the end of the corridor before that. He started walking, listening to the strange sounds coming from inside the walls. He strained his ears, and soon could discern what they were saying. Some of them were calling for help, others were shouting obscenities and depraved words. He continued to walk, illuminating the way with his flashlight.
Along the way, the object in his hands began to fail. Jou frowned and shook the flashlight until it worked again, but seconds later it failed again. This time, the battery was completely dead, leaving him in the dark.
“Great, just what I needed,” exclaimed the blond to no one in particular. He put his hand against the wall and started walking again, little goose bumps breaking out across his body.
Hours could have passed, or just minutes; he really couldn’t discern any sense of time. He walked and walked and never reached the end of corridor; in fact, it looked as if it was growing even more distant. The blond could hear the voices, but they were getting softer, until they stopped shouting altogether. Jou stopped too, and the wall started to feel cold against his hand. He breathed silently, feeling the small puffs of air leaving his lungs.
“What the hell?!” the blond murmured to himself. The corridor was starting to get cold as well, sending shivers down his body.
“How dare you?” a voice shouted in the dark, and the blond spun around.
“Who’s there?!” exclaimed Jou, now breathing faster.
Few people knew that Jounouchi Katsuya was afraid of the dark. This was courtesy of his father, of course – when the blond had been eleven, Jounouchi Senior had locked him inside the tiny little closet they had in their home for not making dinner like he had wanted. And, he had left him there for almost two days. Only when he had felt hungry, and had been too drunk to cook something properly himself had he let the blond out.
Over the years, the blond had hidden this phobia from everybody really fucking well. They had believed that when they entered dark places, the teen was just afraid of the unknown; Jou couldn’t care less. It was better for him that they thought that. God forbid if Hirutani had found out about it; it would have only been material to blackmail him with.
Seto had been the first one to find out. It had been around the same time they had started ‘dating’; the gang had agreed to meet at Kaibaland to celebrate the beginning of the summer vacation. The teen could never refuse such a fun request, so he had gone to the theme park that afternoon to meet up with his friends at the entrance to the house of the mirrors. After arriving, he had decided to enter the attraction, which was empty at that time. As he had been walking through the mirrors, the ground had started to shake. Everything had happened pretty quickly; the earthquake had lasted about ten seconds, but it had been enough to send the house of the mirrors to the ground, with Jou inside. He couldn’t really tell how long he had stayed buried in the earth, surrounded by darkness. It was like he was eleven all over again. But, he did remember when the sliver of light had appeared before him. The blond had thought that he had died and gone to heaven – until he heard that voice.
“Puppy, are you alright?”
The amber irises had blinked in shock as the face of Seto Kaiba had taken form. The brunette had extended his hand, and Jounouchi had sobbed hard, feeling the panic attack finally consume him as he had taken Seto’s hand. The young CEO, with the help of the fire brigade, had taken him out of the ruins, and soon he had been breathing the night air. He remembered not wanting anyone near him until he had reached the hospital, not even his friends. The only exception had been the brunette who, much to his surprise, hadn't complained a bit. That had been the turning point for both of them.
“We will kill you,” the voice whispered in his ear, jarring the blond from his memories, to turn around once again.
“How dare you?”
“Traitor!”
“Murderer!”
“We will kill you.”
Jou started to run through the corridor, his breath coming in short, sharp gasps; he was having a panic attack. The words were being repeated over and over again, surrounding him, making him feel as if the walls were closing, threatening to crush him. He could almost feel ghostly hands caressing him, trying to make him stop the frantic run to the end of the corridor.
“We will kill you.”
“You and that priest.”
Jou stumbled over a stone and fell to the ground, hurting his arm on the process. As he heard the last sentence, he frowned. They were talking about the brunette now? The blond attempted to calm his breathing, trying hard to not be overwhelmed by his fears as he thought about the last words uttered by the strange voices.
When Yami had said that he had helped the brunette to kill those who had harmed him, he hadn't understood why. Then, when the former pharaoh had told him what had happened, he had understood even less. Apparently, he had been the captain of the personal guard assigned to the high priest, Seth. And, they had been renowned for detesting each other. Amusing, to say the least. But, how and why he had helped the priest to kill those men was still beyond him.
“Die.”
“Die.”
“Feel our wrath.”
Jou blinked, running over the first riddle in his mind again. He narrowed his eyes and got to his feet, holding onto his bruised arm. His right hand touched the wall again, and he felt the cold stone steal the warmth from his fingers.
“Show your faces, assholes! I know it was all of you that were killed by me and Seto!”
The voices stopped. Jou held his breath, waiting to see what would happen next. He didn't have long to wait. The ground started to shake violently, and pieces of stone started to fall from the ceiling. The blond's eyes widened as he remembered that distant day from Kaibaland all over again.
“No…” Jou whispered in fear, walking quickly along the corridor, trying to repress his phobia as best he could. It was not the time to come apart and act like a girl!
“Fool.”
“Idiot.”
“Scum.”
He started running again, determined to find the exit to that place and find his lover. He looked at his watch. It had been two hours since he had entered the temple. The voices were becoming a crescendo, cursing him and threatening him even more.
“It’s only my imagination, there’s no one here…I will not be afraid of the dark…I will not,” the blond repeated to himself as he ran non-stop.
Jou avoided the rocks falling from the roof as best he could, his arm now aching with a numbing pain. He gritted his teeth, still running as fast as he could, bumping into the walls and scraping his skin in the process. But, he didn't even think about that; his instincts were telling him that if he stopped, he would be crushed right there.
“Die!”
“Die!”
“Die!”
The blond was trying to ignore those shouts, the pain in his arm getting worse by the second. He couldn’t stop, he wouldn't stop; it was all he could think about. Suddenly, he looked ahead and saw a flash of light.
“Please, let it be the end of this damned corridor!” muttered Jou.
The ground started to shake even more, larger pieces of stone now falling on him. The blond cursed when one of those cut his already wounded arm, but he still didn’t stop.
“Feel our wrath.”
“Be removed from our path.”
The blond breathed harshly, his lungs aching from the running he was doing. He now realized what the first riddle had been about: he was the ultimate obstacle to those souls who wished to destroy Seto. He needed to be killed. That was why…
“I will beat the shit out of you before you can stop me from saving him!” screamed Jou between gasps.
The light became brighter and brighter until it finally blinded the blond. He ran headlong through it, growling defiantly. Those motherfuckers would soon find out who they had messed with. As soon as he crossed into the bright light, he felt to his knees, holding his arm, and panting.
“I did it,” was all he could say to himself.
A cold wind blew through the room and made his body shiver. Jou looked up and found himself in a large room, like an old senate house, made of black marble. He got to his feet slowly, still recovering his breath. Sighing heavily, he tore a strip of cloth from his t-shirt and made an arm sling. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, his looked at his watch; he had made it on time. In five minutes, the second gate would open. It had felt like so much more time had passed inside that corridor. And if the other places were like that at all, he would have to be prepared.
“Looks like you screwed us both, Seto,” Jou said to himself with a trace of bitter amusement.
The five minutes passed quite quickly, and soon a gate appeared where the senators would have been seated. The stony gates opened slowly, and a flash of blue light drew the blonde’s attention. He looked to his left, and saw it.
There, written on the walls, was the next riddle.
“Second…Asking questions
Search for clues,
The answer’s been right in front of you.”
Jou memorized those words and a few moments later, he walked through the second gate.
TBC
