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Hikari Menagerie	By : anacsadder Category: Yu-Gi-Oh > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 4568 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 3
- 4
- 5
Much later, once Yugi had managed to regain some of his composure, he pulled away from Ryou and wiped his eyes on the back of his arm. “We should-” his voice hitched. “Check on Marik...” He didn't know what he could do. He could barely talk. Barely think without his brain turning over to his last memory of his grandpa's face. He tried not to think of how Melvin had done it, but the ambiguous hints weighed heavily on his mind. 'Completely.' Nothing left. Obliterated. Messy... 'Quickly.' Abrupt. Sudden. A sudden and messy death... More tears threatened. It didn't feel like they would ever stop. With two simple words, Melvin had reached into his chest and crushed his heart.
Ryou was familiar with loss. Loss of family. Loss of friends. Loss of freedom. But the pharaoh had given him hope when he'd defeated the Ring Spirit in their first shadow game. He hadn't realized that until he'd had it taken away again. The Ring Spirit... the one time the arrogant parasite could've actually benefited Ryou, he'd had to lose to bloody Melvin. “I hope he has enough air...” There was something Ryou wasn't familiar with. Suffering together. At least he wasn't completely alone.
Marik had stopped screaming. That was the first thing they'd noticed. At first Ryou panicked, hurrying to the slab and pressing his ear against it. The sound of muffled sobbing assured him that Marik was still alive and conscious. “Can you hear me?” Ryou called.
There was a pause, and then a weak, scratchy, “Where is he?”
“He left,” Yugi said.
Marik groaned and squirmed. He felt sticky and foggy. The air felt hot on his skin and heavy in his lungs. In a distant way, he realized his hands, knees, head, and elbows all hurt. He wondered how long the madman intended to leave him like this.
Up top, Ryou and Yugi both grabbed the ring and pulled. Whether it was secured somehow or just too heavy, moving it was beyond their ability. Melvin had lifted it with one hand.
They tried to make small talk with Marik through the slab to distract him, but it was hard to hear him. He'd screamed his throat raw, and he sounded pretty dazed. “He won't let him suffocate, right?” Yugi whispered to Ryou. “He said he wanted us alive... right?”
“We should have time. There's five hours worth of air in a coffin...” Ryou said.
Yugi blinked. “How do you know that?”
Ryou hunched his shoulders. “I used to watch a lot of horror films, before I moved to Domino and the Spirit started dominating our- my body all the time. I've even memorized a couple of my favorites.”
Yugi was trying to think of something else to say to Marik when the sound of the door interrupted him. The pair of hikaris instinctively scooted away from the silhouette moving around the other room. Eventually it approached and Melvin breezed through a gap between the curtains. A tight-lipped smile spread slowly across his face, but he mostly ignored Ryou and Yugi. Instead, he went straight to the ring in the floor and effortlessly lifted the stone panel.
Marik's hand appeared through the gap as soon as it was available. His fingernails were torn and bloody from panicked scratching. His elbows were scratched and bruised from panicked thrashing. Sweat glittered on his skin as he dragged his upper body into the light and gasped in lungfuls of fresh air.
Melvin discard the slab to one side and put a foot on Marik's back. “What's the password, tartlet?”
“Th- thank you...” Marik croaked.
“For what?” Melvin pressed, grinding his heal into one of the bloodier lash marks.
Marik winced. “For saving me from the darkness...”
“And?”
“And...” Marik struggled to think. “Killing my father...?”
Melvin chuckled. “Yes. It was very nice of me to help you with that, wasn't it?” He brought his foot down hard on Marik's back. “Don't forget.” Then he stepped back and surveyed all three of them with an almost pleasant smile, except that it didn't match the chilling madness in his eyes. “Now...” He cocked his head. “Who's hungry?”
Yugi and Ryou stared at the bronze hikari panting at the madman's feet. Yugi wanted to go to him, but he felt paralyzed.
Melvin rolled his eyes and cupped the top of the Rod with his free hand. “Don't everyone jump up at once,” he muttered. The Rod glowed, and all three of them cried out in pain as they clutched at their collars. “I said,” he repeated louder as the glow faded, “Who's hungry?”
Fixing his gaze on Melvin, Ryou grabbed Yugi's wrist and raised both their hands. After a moment, Marik lifted his hand and let it fall again.
“That's what I thought,” Melvin nodded. “Come on.” He gestured over his shoulder as he headed toward the main part of the room.
Ryou and Yugi helped Marik to his feet and hurried to keep up. They all knew it was bad. There was never anything good about Melvin's appearances. Even the tentative promise of food couldn't fix that. But if they didn't play along, he'd hurt them some other way.
The madman had stopped at the opposite side of the gilded table and turned to face them. The contents of the table weren't very reassuring; a lumpy burlap sack about the size of a grocery bag, a small rope loop, and three daggers. Melvin braced his hands on the table and leaned forward slightly. “We're going to play a game,” he announced, grinning. “The winner,” he reached into the bag and pulled out an apple, “gets to eat.”
The three captives exchanged nervous glances.
Melvin laughed. “Don't look so worried. It's really very simple.” He put the apple down and picked up the rope. “Each of you will hold onto this with one hand. Each of you gets a knife. All you have to do is fight each other, until two of you decide you've had enough and let go.”
Yugi's eyes widened incredulously. Attacking anyone, least of all his friends, with a knife was not something he could do. Before he could say anything, Marik pulled away from them and walked up to the table. He glanced from Melvin, to the knives, and back again. Watching the madman carefully, he slowly picked up a blade.
Marik looked over his shoulder at the other two. Then he lunged across the table, sweeping the Rod and other knives onto the floor as he climbed. Melvin grabbed Marik's cocked arm. Marik tried to get the knife into his other hand, but that arm was summarily immobilized as well. In spite of the attempt on his life, Melvin looked more amused than anything else.
“You realize I wasn't being facetious when I told you that you can't kill a god, right?” Melvin asked.
Marik struggled, but the psycho remained as still and stable as an iron statue.
The madman actually laughed a little. “You'd never take me at my word, though, would you. Fine. I'll give you a freebie before I punish you. Just to satisfy your curiosity.” He released Marik's wrists and put his arms out to his sides. Lifting his chin slightly, he said, “Pick a good place. This is the last chance you'll get.”
Marik glared at the smug smirk. Odion's face. All he could think about was Odion's face. He jammed the knife into Melvin's left eye, driving it deep into the socket. Dark stuff spilled out, too black and thick to be blood. Ryou and Yugi cried out in shock. Marik wrenched the knife free and raised it again. He didn't get the chance to bring it down. Before he registered what was happening, he was belly down on the table with his arm twisted behind his back and Melvin leaning over him.
“I said 'one,'” Melvin said calmly. He pried the knife out of Marik's fingers. Then he wiped the thick gunk off his face and blinked his apparently undamaged eye to clear it. He looked at the other two. “This one is disqualified. Lucky for you.”
Yugi shuddered. “I- I want to forfeit.”
Melvin narrowed his eyes, and then laughed. “Let me guess. You'd rather starve than hurt anybody.”
Yugi stared at the ground. It wasn't a question, so he didn't answer.
“You think you're so brave, suffering for your friends,” Melvin sneered. “Well, I've got a conundrum for you, chibi. What if you had to choose?”
Heart thudding harder, Yugi hazarded a peek at the maniac. “Choose?” He asked, his voice thick.
Melvin pressed a palm between Marik's shoulders and pulled the arm he'd pinned straight out behind Marik. The bronze hikari groaned as his shoulder protested being bent that way. A warm mouth licked and sucked at the tips of his fingers. With their protective shell cracked and torn, the saliva stung the sensitive skin.
“I still have to punish this little bitch for biting,” Melvin finally said. “I was thinking I'd finish removing all of his fingernails.”
Marik shuddered and tried to wriggle free, but the psycho only pinned him harder, curling his fingers so that claws dug into one of the bloody gashes.
“However, I'm willing to let one slide for each cut you land on each other.” Half-lidded eyes leered at Ryou. “You have such exciting skin. I love watching you bleed.”
The short hikari cringed. It wasn't a choice he wanted to make. But he couldn't let Melvin rip off Marik's finger nails!
Ryou moved first, stepping forward and kneeling to pick up the fallen knives. His eyes remained averted from both Marik and Melvin as he snagged the rope from the table. With his back to the their captor, he held a knife out to Yugi and whispered, “Five each isn't so bad.”
Yugi's lips trembled as Ryou made him close his fingers around the handle.
“It'll be okay,” he whispered as he wrapped the loop of roped once around his hand. “Just get through it.” He wrapped another part of the loop around Yugi's hand and wrist, and then stepped back. His eyes were sad, but resigned.
Yugi took a deep breath and took a stance as well, trying to look into it. Ryou gritted his teeth and swung at him. The short hikari yelped and shrank away. The blade barely knicked the upper part of his left arm. Deep purple eyes darted between Ryou and Melvin.
Melvin casually twisted Marik's arm behind his back and picked up the third knife. It was still sticky with whatever stuff passed for his blood. He traced the tip of the blade across the tips of Marik's fingers.
Yugi squeezed his eyes shut and lashed out randomly, sort of hoping he'd just missed. The sound Ryou made quickly squashed that dream. Yugi opened one eye to see Ryou wincing at a three-inch cut along his forearm. It wasn't deep, but the sight of it almost startled Yugi into dropping the knife. Both eyes open now, Yugi opened his mouth to apologize, but stopped when Ryou gave him a stern look. Behind him, Melvin chuckled and lowered his knife back to the table.
The 'fight' went on like that for several more strokes, with Yugi lashing out blindly because he couldn't make himself look and Ryou carefully pulling each punch. After the first 'lucky' strike, Yugi missed a couple in his hesitation, but eventually the two of them together managed to total ten. The short hikari dropped his knife and disentangled his hand immediately, too relieved for the end to feel the sting in his arms and hands.
Melvin finally released Marik and approached, clapping slowly. “That was a pathetic display, chibi thing, but it will have to do...” he trailed off to lean down to Yugi's level and whisper, “this time.” Then he straightened and grabbed Ryou's upper arm. “Claim your prize, panda bear. You may eat until the blank one finishes cleaning up the tartlet's mess.” He moved to drag Ryou to the bath.
“But I surrendered first,” Yugi protested. “I landed fewer hits... I...”
Melvin regarded him with a bored expression and tugged at Ryou's arm. “This one obviously can't eat. He's going to be too busy bathing me.”
Yugi opened his mouth, and then shut it.
A golden brow arched. “Are you implying no one should eat?”
“No...” Yugi whispered. “I just...”
Muscular shoulders rose and fell. “Eat, don't eat. Either way I'm taking any leftovers with me when I leave.” He dragged Ryou to the water, apparently losing interest in the conversation.
Approaching the bag cautiously, Yugi reached inside and pulled out the apple. His stomach growled at just the feel of it on his finger tips.
Marik watched him from a kneeling position, with his chin on his forearms and his forearms on the table. “I swear if you don't eat that I'm going to slap you myself.”
Yugi turned to him, startled.
“Knock it off with the self-martyring charade. The only reason he declared you the winner is because he knew it would hurt you more. Stop buying into his game.”
Yugi shuddered. “I hate violence...”
“I noticed, but don't tell him that.” Marik rested his cheek on his arms, watching Ryou clean the 'blood' from Melvin's face and neck.
Feeling slightly less guilty without Marik watching him, Yugi turned his back to everyone else and ate as much of the fruit as he could. It felt great in his stomach. After the two or three days of going hungry, his stomach had almost forgotten that being full was a thing. He tried to detach and enjoy it, but he couldn't quite stop worrying about Ryou and Marik.
- 3
- 4
- 5
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Hikari Menagerie