Authors Note: So long since I last posted a chapter! This chapter isn't how I wanted it to come out. My computer contracted that virus that deletes all your documents, but I didn't realise until I was on my fifth complete rewrite. I lost my favourite version of this chapter and when I got the bright idea to write it out by hand I promptly lost the notebook.

I will probably come back and rewrite this chapter one day. I really don't like it, but I'm too frustrated to deal with this chapter anymore so I just got down all the main plot points and intend to move onto the next bit as soon as possible.


Title: Here Be Monsters; Chapter One
Author/Artist: Inkapability
Rating: Overall story will be rated T. This chapter rated PG.
Focus Character(s): Yuugi and Honda
Paring(s): Implied YY/Y. May or may not end up being Y/H or Y/YY/H
Warnings: Overall story will contain violence, gore and possibly depictions of consensual relationships between two or more males.
Chapter Warnings: None.
Spoilers:N/A
Summary: Yuugi and Honda found themselves with two tickets to a haunted house, with a grand prize waiting for whoever can make it too the top floor. Seemed easy enough, but at what point do the menaces stop being harmless fun, and start to become real?

Prologue



Chapter One

Waking up this early on an extended weekend was not the act of a rational human being. Yuugi stared blearily at his ceiling as the morning sun filtered through his dirty window. He had always believed that despite his mothers insistence to the contrary, mornings didn't exist during holidays. He was currently being proved wrong. Did Honda always get up this early? he wondered. How could anyone live like that?

He tried to will himself to take that first and most difficult step out of bed. It would be rude if he left Honda alone in his house, even if he was, god forbid, a morning person.

He failed magnificently, and let his eyes fall shut once more. Burying his head in his pillow, he attempted to fight the fatigue he was feeling. Technically he had been drifting in and out of consciousness for at least twenty minutes, but he just couldn't find the energy to move. They had gone to bed so late last night, watching movies and while he had the vague idea Honda came from some strict military background, he hadn't expected him to rise at half six in the morning.

His friend hadn't quite mastered the art of espionage though, and had stumbled around Yuugi's bedroom this morning making just enough noise to wake someone sleeping in the vicinity. From what Yuugi could tell even standing in the shower seemed to involve a combination of clunking noises and talking to himself. And Yuugi didn't even want to think about what kind of morning ritual Honda indulged in that necessitated that rhythmic banging.

Okay, he'd only think about for a minute.

If Yuugi were more cynical he would suspect Honda to be one of those people who thought no one had the right to sleep while he was awake. Which wouldn't matter so much if it just wasn't so early! But then, maybe he didn't sleep well. Maybe he was some kind of insomniac and Yuugi was to self involved to notice his plight in favour of his own comfort. And now he was starting to feel guilty over vague speculation. Great.

Stretching as well as he could while lying down and momentarily blacking out as he arched his spine to far the wrong way, he blindly reached for his puzzle hanging on the bedpost. He rolled to the edge of the mattress and collapsed in a semi-controlled fall to the floor. Yuugi forced his gummy eyes open, to a wonderfully intimate view of his other self's teeth. They stared at each other, and when it became clear the spirit did not intend to move back a few paces, Yuugi clambered to his feet and walked straight through him. The other Yuugi cried indignantly and received a grumbled 'Mornin',' in reply. The spirit regained his composure and settled on Yuugi's bed, wearing Yuugi's pyjamas but to his annoyance not Yuugi's sleepy morning squint.

'Yes, it is.' What the spirit was wearing was an expression of amused indulgence, the subtleties of which could only be conveyed in words as 'absolutely, totally infuriating'. Yuugi was struck with a sudden, terrible suspicion he was about to be teased. He stumbled around the room, searching out deodorant and slippers, ignoring his other self as he tried to catch his eye.

A short yelp from the bathroom and the ringing thud of plastic hitting glass indicated Honda must have slipped in the shower. His other self sensed weakness and using intense observational skills and the insightful situational analysis that had led him to many a victory correctly divined, 'Honda is in the shower.'

'And you don't even need the millennium necklace to tell.' The other Yuugi engaged his selective hearing as they listened to Honda's swearing fit. He noted Honda had left his shirt on Yuugi's desk chair. They had come straight from school so it was unlikely Honda had brought a spare. That meant a faint hope that Honda would have to return, topless, to retrieve this one. Excellent.

'Maybe you should go and help him out partner.'

'Other Me!' Yuugi scowled and marched to his wardrobe, 'I'm sure Honda-kun doesn't need my help.'

He could see his other shaking his head, thinking along the lines of, 'Oh partner, you and your silly social conventions'. From the knowing expression he was wearing, the other Yuugi was preparing to move in for the metaphorical kill. Yuugi willed himself to stop turning red. It only made him an easier target.

'But he might want it. It's the perfect opportunity!' He grinned slyly, leaning forward like he was sharing a secret, 'Maybe you could show him how to play 'Doctor''

'Auugh, that's it, I'm never letting you watch porn again, ever.' he turned, hiding his embarrassment from the smirking git on the bed. His other self remained smug, confident that that was a blatant lie and triumphant since Yuugi's outburst had left himself open to a barrage of innuendo. Yuugi mentally braced himself and was incredibly grateful when it was prematurely ended by Honda's sudden appearance in the doorway.

His wet, naked but-for-a-clingy-pair-of-boxers-and-a-towel appearance. He hoped his staring wasn't as obvious as his other self's sniggers suggested.

Honda looked surprised. 'Oh, sorry man, didn't realise you were up yet.' He strolled casually into the room picking up his discarded clothing. Like being half naked in front of his closest friends was normal. Maybe he should start inviting Honda-kun round more.

He froze when Honda all but leaned right over him to grab his shirt off the chair Yuugi was pressed against, and in the process granted him an eyeful of chest. His attempts to look at anything but Honda did not mesh well with his attempt to back out of his space and Yuugi almost tripped over his own foot. His other self enthusiastically attempted to elbow him in the ribs. Honda just looked bemused.

Yuugi recovered the situation nicely, coolly leaned against the wall and replied 'Yeah, I've been up for a while. I was just gonna have a shower.' He hoped his voice wasn't as squeaky in reality as it sounded in his sleep-fogged brain. Honda apparently noticed nothing, bending over to rifle through his school bag and giving Yuugi a nice view a leanly muscled back that he definitely didn't look at. 'Before grandpa wakes up and complains about the hot water.'

'All right. I'm gonna have to drop in at home and pick up something I haven't worn every day this week.' Honda grinned up at him, rubbing his thumb over his top lip. 'Won't take long, 'bout an hour tops.'

Yuugi nodded, too tired to carry out such high brow conversation. 'Yeah, okay, um, unless you want to make breakfast first, Honda-kun? Or rather I'll make breakfast for you? If you want.' He bit his lip to stop himself talking. The only positive thing about rambling was he couldn't hear enthusiastic cries of 'Kiss him you fool!'

Honda shook his head. 'Nah, I won't take long. 'Side's, the sooner I'm back the sooner we get to check out that festival.'

To his credit Honda didn't react when Yuugi launched his alarm clock at the empty bed before gathering clothes and a towel and headed to the bathroom. Yuugi opened the door to see his other self poised on the edge of the tub and swinging his legs through the porcelain. He was smirk remained in place.

'What?'

His other self shrugged, and moved to hover over Yuugi's shoulder. He carefully removed the puzzle from his neck, regretting the decision to bring it with him. Pulling off the rest of his clothes he turned to see the spirit still smug. 'Seriously, what?'

Yuugi was not technically able to jab his other self with a finger but that didn't stop him from trying. He was rather surprised when the other cried out and lurched away with a grossly exaggerated movement. Then, one hand clasped to his chest and the other pressed against his forehead he spun on his heel, gasped in a rather insulting falsetto 'Oh! Honda-kun!' and proceeded to collapse in what would have been an excellent imitation of a dead faint if he hadn't gone straight through the floor.

Rolling his eyes and sticking a tongue out at the empty tiles, Yuugi stepped into the shower and tried to ignore the laughter echoing in his head.

Domino Square was filled with stalls and laughing teenagers. Ribbons and balloons hung everywhere, tangled on poles and people and obscuring the clock face above the fountain.

People in costumes wandered to and fro, waving pamphlets and yelling about discounts and two for one deals. Children with squeaky monster toys terrorised each other, much to chagrin of their parents.

Honda had never been to a horror festival before, hadn't ever heard of one even, but this was definitely not what he imagined. Shouldn't it be more... terrifying? Or had he and Yuugi grown so used to freaky monsters that papier mache zombies just weren't scary? He didn't know whether to be disappointed at the organisers or at himself.

They had looked over the video stall and picked up a few cheap films to watch that evening. He had found a weird import about some psychopath who used games to kill of a group of kids stuck in a house in the middle of nowhere. Honda found the concept familiar and comforting. Yuugi had looked askance at it, not impressed by Honda's claims it might come in useful against the next villain they would inevitably face, but he was won over by Honda's hints that there might be hot girls forced to comfort each other in a shower, possibly while wearing ripped t-shirts.

They had gravitated over to the eastern most part of Domino Square. A small number of game booths had been set up, like an arcade or a fairground. Basketball hoops, coconut throws and pinball machines offered the once in a lifetime chance to win huge tacky teddy bears for your embarrassed girlfriend. Yuugi had been drawn like a magnet.

The area was filled with balloons and comical cut-outs of zombies and werewolves and seemed to have been intended for younger groups, middle school kids who needed entertaining whilst big brother and sister looked at the gory stuff. The organisers definitely hadn't done their research.

In true Domino fashion the game booths had been overrun by gangs, and twenty-somethings, and groups of kids to whom winning games was serious business and god help anyone who stood in their way. Men and women who looked old enough to apply for senior discounts at the movies jostled scruffy gang members and a mini fight had broken out over the winner of a penny drop game, both claiming the other had been cheating. The poor stall workers looked utterly bewildered at their popularity. Pausing to watch the impending fight, Honda wondered if one of the guys involved in the punch-up would suddenly reveal a terrible history of abuse and isolation that had driven them to such low actions as to steal another penny-droppers slot.

'That's mine! I was setting that drop up for ages!' A snotty gangly kid all in black wearing a shirt that could only be described as 'poncy' shoved at his opponent. Honda was surprised to recognise him from a couple of years below them at school. At the beginning of the year he had optimistically hit on Anzu, unaware that though her tastes swung towards the dorky, she was also inclined to the biologically challenged. He had pinched her in a place Anzu refused to name and the kid had spent his first few weeks at Domino with a black eye.

'Yeah, well you left it! So it was your own stupid fault!' A skinny guy with three days worth of stubble a scrawly skull tattoo that declared he was 'Born to Die' swung a fist at him. 'I won it fair and square!'

A large crowd was gathering. Games might be Domino's number one spectator sport but fights were the second.

'I only left to get some change,' he gasped out as the guy grabbed him round the neck and made to sucker punch him.

'Well you weren't quick enough!' He was trying to break his neck by the looks of it. Beside him Yuugi wore his 'dispenser of justice' expression, clenched fists shaking at his sides. Whose side Yuugi was on? Or was it just the principle of the matter?

Honda was about to step in before Yuugi did and everyone ended up with third degree burns, but luckily for all involved a baffled man in a slightly rumpled suit stepped in.

'Is there a problem here?' Adjusting his glasses as he squinted down at the boys.

'This guy is stealing my winnings!'

'I am not, I did all the work and he came in at the last moment and stole my winnings! He has no honour!'

'Honour? So there's honour in taking someone's fairly earned prize?' Stubble guy spat on the ground in disgust.

'And there's pride in letting someone do all the hard work and taking the credit at the end?' Flailing his arms he managed to bash the guy right above the tattoo. Stubble guy growled at him. Really, this kid was begging to be beaten up. He felt rather sorry for him.

'Uh,' the man in the suit coughed politely, pointing out the pile of change heaped on the bright plastic, 'This is only about 60 yen, surely it's not so important?'

'It's not about money!' Poncy gasped out. His throat looked a horrible shade of purple from his near strangling. Wiping his lip he smeared red gloss over his cheek. His opponent flexed his arms and skull grimaced a warning at Honda. Poncy was at the wrong angle to catch it. 'I warn you, if you lay a hand on me my demonic guardians will-'

Giggles rippled through the crowd, to the irritation of both warring parties. Honda joined them. Three years ago he would have been beating this kid up after school. Of course now he expressed his contempt in healthier ways. He turned to roll his eyes at Yuugi, but his friend was intently focused on the argument. His eyes were narrowed and the slight change in his demeanour worried Honda. Had he noticed something? Honda wasn't too sure how this magic stuff worked, but maybe one of the Yuugi's had spotted something. His interest on the fight renewed, although for slightly different reasons.

'Stubble guy rolled his eyes, and with a hard shove knocked his opponent to the floor, swiping his winnings in one easy motion and sauntering off into the crowd. With an outraged cry, the kid launched himself of the ground ready to chase the guy down.

'Enough! All right?' The suit made violent gesture of negation with his hands and stepped between him and certain death. 'I am Mr Sato, the director of this event and I extend my apologies for your troubles. We'll reimburse you.' He shoved a hand into his greasy coat pocket and produced two grubby, creased bits of paper.

'Wassat?' He peered at the paper and that flippy feeling in Honda's stomach returned.

Please, he thought, Please don't be what I think. I don't need this clown screwing around.

'Tickets to the opening night of our world class haunted house!'

'Oh no!' People turned to look at Honda, confused by his outburst.

Yuugi peered up at him, 'Honda-kun?'

Self-conscious, Honda shrugged him off. 'Lets go get some burgers or something, yeah?' Without waiting for an answer he strode away from the scene with his hands firmly wedged in his pockets. He Almost knocked into some college kid in a leather jacket and dark glasses who was striding irately towards the goth high-schooler. Looked like his brother or something.

Yuugi was held back slightly as he pushed his way through the group, and Honda slowed his pace. Hopefully some food would settle his stomach.

It was only a frickin' haunted house. What the hell was wrong with him?

Six painstaking weeks and god knew how much effort and finally they were ready. Yamato traversed the correct path out of the labyrinth like it was second nature. Perhaps it was considering how much time he had poured over the blueprints for it.

He, exited through the wonky door, strolling past the small group of actors running through their routines and artists perfecting their work for the final time. Most of them were kids he'd found in this hellholes local university, eager for paying work and, he suspected, the chance to scare the crap out of the townsfolk.

Only a few of his loyal workers had followed him this far to Domino City. Friends, really, they'd met as undergrads and decided to stage a horror show one year. It was so successful they did it again the next year, and the one after that. His parents had been horrified when he'd announced his intentions to devote himself full time to his horror festival, but the rewards had been too great. They'd upped their game, more risks, more frights, more fun. Until the lawsuit that had sent him scurrying to this cultural wasteland and forced them to introduce The Waiver.

He stepped elegantly over one of the many plastic zombies in what he thought of as the Gross Out Room. Buckets of blood splashed around in here, always guaranteed to get the girls squealing. Though he would guess it was more the work of over enthusiastic teenagers than his art director Sato Joben. He tended to be rather conservative for someone who designed latex corpses for a living.

The book he carried was heavy in his arms, made awkward by sheer size of it. He would've have gotten a paper back, but the soft spoken boy who had helped him out in the library had turned rather insulting when he'd suggested looking for some simpler text, helping him with nothing but his impression that Domino was populated by maniacs.

The psycho necromancer boy had been right though, this book had some wicked designs.

Detouring through the hall of mirrors, carefully wiping away some excess eye makeup as he passed he bounded through the employee only door and up what had been the main stairs when the Haunted House was still used as apartment blocks for those who lived on the edge of Domino's vast industrial complex.

Here at the very top was the prize room. The one that made all dreams come true. Shifting his book open without dropping it was a difficult task, and was not accomplished without disturbing the cracked glasses that rested on the tip of his nose. They clattered into a soft pile of fake bats.

Squinting at the wide circle laid out before him, he rifled through the weighty vellum pages to one he'd marked with a Hello Kitty post-it note. With one finger tracing the swooping curves and swirls he made sure the art students had copied it out as carefully as possible. Didn't want anything going wrong for this one.

Like building a haunted house, success with dark magic came from attention to details.

The haunted house turned out to be a dilapidated block of flats, standing eight stories off the ground. It was in the bad part of Domino, which to the untrained eye looked no different to the good part of Domino. Honda, however, was a connoisseur of unsavoury hangouts. He had managed to forget the fluttery feeling in his stomach as they had wandered around the Square looking at cheap videos, but now as he and Yuugi walked past the littered alleys and vandalised warehouses it was back in full force. He was both relieved and disturbed by it.

Duh. You aren't psychic idiot, you just recognised the address as being right at the edge of gang territory.

Actually, he wasn't at all relieved by it. No respectable citizen set up shop here. Honda didn't care if it had more atmosphere or whatever excuse they were officially using. Death T had had atmosphere and that had taken place right in the middle of a crowd of snotty ten year old boys. Nothing legal happened back here, where a single flickering street lamp to light your way was as rare and lucky as a shooting star.

Not that he was too worried. Honda and Jounouchi had built their reputation in middle school, and his was confident that he could at least give as good as he got if anyone decided to bother them. And who knew what freaky penalty games the other Yuugi could dream up amongst the twisted metal and abandoned pointy objects. But that didn't stop the shudder that ran down his spine at the sight of the house.

It hadn't been marked in any way and they would have walked right past it if not for the small crowd that had gathered outside it. There was nothing to distinguish it to passers by. He caught Yuugi watching the house with an uneasy gaze, which evaporated into a cheerful smile the instant he realised Honda was watching him.

They spied the kid from earlier, hanging at the edge of the crowd with a sullen expression and wearing a blood red jacket and trousers with enough straps to restrain the entirety of Domino Prisons' Inmates. He glared at anyone who came to close to him. Honda thought he should be more excited, a haunted house seemed right up his street. A crowd of rowdy kids Honda vaguely recognised from Rintama school had taken up post right in front of the door, keeping the other customers well away. Just the mix of people you wanted to see down a dark alley.

Squeezing past some lovey dovey couple cooing at each other Yuugi looked around him, mystified.

'I would have thought there'd be more people.' He eyed one of the boys from school, who was tormenting a giggling girl, chasing her and grabbing her round the waist. 'Didn't the guy say they had twenty tickets?'

'Maybe they decided it wasn't worth risking their necks tonight twice over.' Honda rubbed the back of his own neck, willing the chills to go away.

Yuugi scuffed his toe against the ground as he nodded in agreement. 'Well, they said they were new in town, maybe they didn't realise not many people were going to want to come out here.'

'Then they aren't gonna get many customers are they?'

The house had attracted an odd bunch, lots of people around their age, swilling cheap beer and passing cigarettes back and forth, and a rather snobby looking couple who probably thought they were daring for wandering out of the part of the city where they kept the mansions. Most surprising was a guy who looked looked horribly like their gym teacher would in twenty years, wearing a stained grey shirt with stubble spread unevenly over his chin.

'What's an old man like him doing here?' He whispered loudly to Yuugi. He received a shrug in reply. The man caught them watching him and frowned imperiously, and they huddled away from him, striking up a conversation about what could be in the house. Honda had never seen one before, except in movies. And Death T, but Honda didn't count that as a real haunted house. Serial killers weren't supernatural after all and he doubted an outfit like this could afford a roller coaster through a holographic graveyard.

Honda felt impatient, standing out here in the cold and the dark amongst weirdo's. He half heartedly punched the door, 'When are they gonna let us in, huh? This is bad customer service.'

'Maybe they have to prepare first? I'm not sure, I've never been to a Haunted House either.' He paused thoughtfully. 'A not-real one anyway.'

Well, if this is what they're all like maybe we won't come again! Honda didn't say out loud. Yuugi had won the tickets and invited him along, he didn't want him to go all paranoid and think Honda didn't want to be there with him.

'Foolish children.' The freaky old man they'd been trying not to stare at laughed at them. 'This is all part of the drama. The building of suspense before the revelation of horrors, the heightening of tension! It is wasted on ignorant infants like yourselves!'

With some discomposure, Yuugi hefted himself onto tiptoes and whispered, 'Is he part of the act?'

'Act? Act! I would be honoured to be part of such an esteemed tradition, but alas, no.' He clasped his hands to his pudgy breast. 'I am a mere observer of such mastery.' He had gathered a few observers himself, Honda noted. The goth kid had gravitated towards them, listening in.

'Have you been to other houses then?' Yuugi asked, maybe out of politeness, maybe out of habit of asking crazies for their personal history.

'Other houses? Other houses! I have been to them all! Every house worthy of attention has been host to my own two feet,' Honda and Yuugi gave into the irresistible urge and glanced at his sandals and pop socks, 'I, Matsumoya Shigeru, have travelled over Japan, America, Europe in a quest for the ultimate house, and there are none more horrific or terror filled than this one you lay your unworthy eyes upon!' Indicating the house with a flourish he smirked imperiously.

The goth kid piped up now, voice thin and wavery, 'My brother works in here doing scenery and he says its boring, just gimmicks and kiddie stuff.'

'Well your brother can not be truly dedicated to the cause! If the house should fail the blame will rest squarely on his sceptical shoulders.'

'Nuh-uh! My brother could have made this really scary, he knows lots of ways, but the stupid manager was all ''No no mediocrity is best!''' His shaggy dark hair flew wildly about his face as he defended his brother and Honda was uncomfortably reminded of Mokuba Kaiba. And hey, that waiver they had to sign, this kid surely couldn't be sixteen could he? There was no opportunity to question him though, the kid was determined to work up to his second major argument of the day.

'The Uchika Travelling Horror Festival needs no help from some low class decorator to achieve ultimate scariness!' Shigeru sniffed dismissively.

'He's not just a decorator! He knows lots of stuff! Lots of dark stuff! He can summon things and everything!'

His declarations fell on deaf ears as Shigeru ignored him. The boy whirled away. Honda admired the swishyness of his jacket. It could almost rival Kaiba's coat tails.

'Summon stuff?' Yuugi frowned gripping his item, 'He said that earlier, didn't he? About demons.' His head was bowed, intent on his puzzle and Honda wondered if Yuugi was talking to him.

Any movements he would have made to reassure Yuugi that crazy didn't necessarily equal servant of the dark forces was cut off as the metal apartment door swung open on hinges that made Honda want to pierce his eardrums, they were so squeaky.

Heavy footsteps could be heard on the metal grating of the stairs inside and the group gave a wide berth to the gaping hole of the entrance.

From the house a deep, grating voice boomed 'ENTER'.

Surging forward into the hall of the apartment whilst avoiding elbows from eager Rintama students proved to be a difficult affair which should really have been better planned. After some nifty footwork Anzu would have been proud to pull off they manoeuvred neatly into a space where he wouldn't have to hold Yuugi up so he could see the stairs.

Honda had been expecting the typical graffitied and soiled Domino apartment foyer to have been completely replaced, perhaps by a fireplace and one of those uncomfortable looking chairs and some bats, or maybe a freaky dining hall of some sort, but it didn't look all that different from the one Jounouchi had lived in when he was younger. Only with more light bulbs that needed replacing and scribbles on the walls that were more artistic than your average school drop-out thug could manage.

Waiting at the foot of the stairs was a man draped in a mismatching jumble of outdated clothes. From his well-groomed, falling apart at the seams look and the lack of any sweaty worn monster outfit most of his employees around the fair had been stuffed into, Honda guessed he was the host of this thing.

He watched them crowd in front of him, a languid expression seemed to have been stuck onto his gloopy face. When the shuffling had quieted he clasped his hands and gloomily intoned 'Welcome.'

Glancing about to be sure he had their full attention their host began what was probably a well rehearsed speech.

'Forty years ago in this very spot, a young girl was brutally slaughtered. Cut down by her lover who let his jealousy range out of control she was eighteen years old.

'Her brother discovered her, and in anger swore his soul would never rest until his sisters lover was brought to justice. He stalked through this apartment block, unwilling to let the murderer escape.

'The lover could not escape and tried to hide in the room at the very top of this building. When the family who lived there discovered him, he killed them too, and hid their bodies in stairwell. But he could not hide forever.'

Honda leant forward, expectant. The story had caught him off guard, and he found himself getting surprisingly into it. A part of his brain knew this story was utter crap and were these apartments even here forty years ago? But he was secretly delighted by the thrill of being let in on a dark secret, no matter how unrealistic.

'The longer he hid, the madder the brother became and his anger grew so strong it attracted dark and twisted monsters. They offered him vengeance if he would give them his soul, and he readily agreed.

'But demons are not to be trusted and they trapped his angry soul in this stairwell and then butchered every family who lived in these twelve rooms above me.' He waved a gnarled hand to the top of the stairwell.

'Terrified of being caught by the demons the murderer threw himself down the stairwell, and impaled himself on the tines of the banister. The demons ate their fill.' Yuugi grimaced, and Honda nudged him companionably. It was ridiculous and far fetched, but then Honda would have said freaky spirits who possessed people and watched bugs eat people and clans that lived underground for thousands of years were ridiculous and farfetched and look how that had turned out. This suspension of disbelief thing was easier than he thought.

'The bodies were discovered and announced the work of a madman, but the next generation of families that moved in fell prey to the lingering demons. And the next and the next. This building was soon overflowing with the malevolent spirits of the violently deceased. The demons spurred on their anger, and they were trapped in an unending cycle of violence. The spirit of the poor murdered girl was so distressed by the evil she had started, she made every effort to stand guard in this very hallway and prevent anyone from returning here. And so she has for forty years, until you curious visitors happened upon this place, determined to beat the demons at their own game and make your way to the prize that awaits you high above us.

'If you can make it to the top of the house you may even be able to reunite the jealous murderer with his love.

'But be careful... she might not let you get that far...'

The calming lull of his voice was disrupted by a BANG. Smoke rose up out of no where and slimy hands suddenly grabbed Honda's arms. They had a strangle hold on his arms as he struggled forward, trying to loosen them. A thin voice hissed in his ear, 'Leave this place.'

Then the smoke cleared and they were gone. He rubbed his arms, sore where the hands had gripped far harder than he thought necessary. They came away red and goopy. Whoever it was had stained his shirt. Spinning on his heel, determined to give the culprit a piece of his mind, waiver or no waiver, he found no one there. Even the guy on the stairs had vanished out some secret trapdoor.

Yuugi let out a shaky laugh. 'That was actually kinda cool, don't you think Honda-kun?' His face fell when he saw Honda's ruined apparel. 'Your shirt!'

Determined that Yuugi should enjoy being horrified without having to worry about other people, Honda shook his irritation off. 'It was, wasn't it?' He waved his arms up and down, trying to rid his sleeves of as much slime as he could. The hush that had fallen in the wake of the attack was now disturbed by burbled laughter as they waited nervously for the next surprise. He looked around, expecting similar complaints to his, but no one else seemed to have gotten slimed. Bastards.

The front door slammed shut behind them, followed by the grating of locks and bolts sliding into place. Plucking at his ruined shirt he groaned inwardly. No going back now. Tossing a hopefully carefree smirk to Yuugi he declared 'Sounds like that's our cue to move on huh?'

'Yup!' Yuugi agreed. Honda caught the eye of the poncy kid, guiltily realising he hadn't found out his name. He nodded in acknowledgement, and the gloomy expression on the kids face lightened somewhat. He looked away, ready to start exploring but the guy began making his way over to them. Crap. He elbowed Yuugi as gently as he could.

'After you!' Mock bowing he herded a chuckling Yuugi up the stairs before he noticed the kid trailing them. Dealing with the pricks of guilt that would plague him for abandoning the boy would be easy compared to dealing with a whiny jerk who was wearing more makeup than Yuugi.

Yuugi was taking the stairs two at a time, one hand gripping onto the puzzle to stop the pointy bits from bouncing into his stomach. Honda followed him upr. Yuugi waited patiently, one hand resting on the rusting metal door splattered with substances meant to simulate their far more unpleasant cousins, and one on the puzzle.

Honda raised his left hand to match Yuugi's, threw him a smile, and together they pushed the door open and made their way deeper into the house.