Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Eidolon ❯ First Nightmare ( Chapter 1 )

Eidolon

 

A Seto/Joey fanfic by Katsuya Kaiba (subaruxkamui4ever)

 

AN: Yes, I'm going to start using my real pen name here on ff.net, as well. It was hard having to remember to type subaruxkamui4ever on everything before I posted it, so why? So, now you know, and that's that. Yes, it's another really long, really sad, really epic Seto and Joey romance, this time with a slight twist: Seto and Joey are already together when this story opens. Thank god. That'll save about 20,000 words, eh?

Well, I hope you all like it, and I'll say this much- if you liked Clear Vision or The Urgency of Life, then you are SO in luck. Here begins the sadness…

 

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I awoke in a pool of blood.

 

I sat up suddenly from the ground I lay on and looked up, hoping to find some sort of reason before me. All that I could see was that the place I now found myself in was not the same place that I had fallen asleep in. Expecting to wake in the bed that Seto and I shared, instead I had somehow come to be in this empty and seemingly endless field steeped in snow, far off from any sort of city or civilization entirely. Nothing but flat land stretched out for miles, as far as I could see in the early morning hour that I assumed was the harbinger of the unnatural darkness that swept the landscape. The purest white blanketed the untouched wilderness, and there were no hills or trees within sight, only an even and level ground that I knew would take far more than days to cross.

 

I found, after a few minutes of shocked silence, that I was not cold at all, and the thought frightened me just a bit, but I shook the fear away, indeed I was grateful for it because I was still in the casual attire that I had fallen asleep wearing, a simple shirt and sweatpants. Finding at least this fact in my favor, I stood up from the snow slowly, and upon placing my hand to the ground to steady me as I stood, I remembered my initial thought upon waking in this very unfamiliar world. My hand was submerged in the blood that I had slept in.

 

Gasping suddenly, I threw my body upwards so quickly that I nearly toppled over in my haste to put some distance between the terrible image and I. I realized that where I had lain in my sleep there was not one single flake of snow, instead I had been lying in a slightly sunken in spot in the dirt, and where there should realistically have been snow, there was nothing but a good few inches of blood. Looking down at myself I saw that it had soaked through everything that I wore, and my hands and skin as well were stained with a terrible shade that betrayed my resting place. I felt ill at the sight.

 

I knew that I was in no way injured, at least to the extent that would elicit such an awful amount of bleeding, and with a growing horror in the pit of my stomach I realized that this blood was not mine. Whose was it? Glancing around at the desolate scene, I saw no one at all, no life existed here, and I looked up to the sky in defeat. What was happening to me?

 

As if in a perfectly timed response, tiny flakes of snow began to scatter in the air, falling from the overcast skies above and melting on my face and in my hair. The tiny droplets that formed from the dissolving snow trickled slowly down my cheeks, and I must have looked upset, as if I were crying, because at that moment, I heard a low whispering that came from a place not more than an inch away from my left ear.

 

“Don't cry, Joey…”

 

I whipped my entire body around immediately and gaped at the place where I was positive the voice had originated, there was no one at all, just as before. All that I could see was the same pool of blood that had always been there. Feeling more than terrified, I placed my hand on my chest and breathed in deep, trying to calm my now frantic heartbeat. That voice had been real, I was sure of it. And not only that, but it had been so very close to me…I could have sworn I just felt his breath on my ear, that familiar frozen touch of air that almost hurt the delicate skin that suffered beneath. That had been, without a doubt, the voice of Seto Kaiba. I knew his voice better than I knew myself, he and I had been living together for over two years. And that voice I heard moments ago was unmistakably the very same voice that I heard so often, and was so very fond of. But why was Seto here? Was he here at all?

 

As the thoughts made their paths throughout my mind, I found myself unable to pull my eyes from the crimson pool that made such beautiful stains on the surrounding snow. Wait a second…was that a footprint? Noticing it for the first time, I looked down and studied the snow beneath my bare feet, and was surprised to find that there was nothing but the purest white powder, even though I had just stepped out of the puddle minutes ago. Frowning in confusion, I looked back to where I had seen the footprint and I gasped aloud. Not only was the footprint still there and even more pronounced than earlier, but there were so many more than before. Where I had seen only one before was now completely littered with bloody prints, all lined up in an obvious trail that led away from my waking place. As my eyes slowly followed the violent path that had truly come from nowhere at all, I saw that the trail wound away and left my line of vision, fading into the darkness that swept the land. I had to follow it. There was nothing else here for me.

 

The snow on the ground, while still strangely not at all cold to the touch, retained the same texture as I remembered and I could heard it crunching underneath my bare feet as I reluctantly set off in the direction that the owner of the footprints had taken. I knew that, while the situation before me was becoming more and more confusing, I had to find my way out of…wherever I was. But before all else, I had to know how it was that I was able to hear Seto's voice so clearly, and so close to me at that. The more I thought about it, the more upset and anxious that I got, picturing Seto lost in this awful place with no way back home. With that extra burden on my mind, my feet lifted slightly higher with each step and I pushed at the snow underfoot, anxious to finally be done with this journey that was taking much longer than I had expected. The trail had not come to a close and it didn't look as though it would be any time soon, still stretching out endlessly before my eyes and showing no sign of relenting. Pressing on anyway, I let my eyes fall to the ground, resigning myself to the task and losing interest in watching the horizon, instead watching the progress immediately before me, the rise and fall of my feet in the snow mesmerizing me slowly.

 

I stopped suddenly when my steps brought me, after many long minutes of trudging through the growing snowdrifts, to the end of the blood stained path at long last. There, just under my gaze, was the body of the boy that I loved so much. Seto Kaiba lay there in the snow and faced the sky above, nearly half covered by the flakes that had begun to fall from the sky so long ago. He was dead. The blood that had led me to this place was everywhere, the snow for few feet in all directions completely devoid of even a spot of it's natural ivory. Seto had terrible gashes in his head and chest, and I realized that all of this blood was his, even the pool that I had awoken in. The tears began to fall before I could even grasp what was happening, and in the moment that I woke from my shock I found that I had already thrown myself upon the snow beside Seto, and I clutched at his shoulders, shaking him as if he would awaken as he always had before. He never moved once. He was dead, as I knew he was the moment I laid eyes on his lifeless form.

 

Burying my face in his chest, I cried harder than I ever felt was possible, and it seemed that the entire world had fallen from underneath my feet. Without Seto, there was nothing left for me here. I didn't care if I was lost in a world I didn't know. No matter where I was, if I did not have Seto beside me, I would be lost regardless. The intensity of the sorrow that engulfed me so swiftly cast a terrible dark shadow over my soul, and the feeling weighed on my heart so heavily that I simply couldn't hold myself together under the pressure. Lying on his body, I fell asleep once again, and this time I woke up in my own bed. The bed that Seto and I shared.

 

Opening my eyes, I heaved an incredible sigh of relief at the sight of our familiar room, the feel of the familiar sheets and pillows, and the familiar way that the sunlight seemed to find that one little crevice of space between the drapes, letting in a few familiar sunbeams that fell close to my face. Looking over at them, I saw that the sunlight and I were alone, and Seto was nowhere to be seen. That wasn't at all right, and I immediately thought back to the awful nightmare that I had just escaped. Sitting up in our bed, I could see from the way that the sheets fell that Seto had not been to bed. Perhaps it was residual terror from the dream, or maybe I just knew in my heart that something was wrong, but either way I was stricken with terror. I leapt up from the bed and ran down the staircase, all the way to the entrance to our home.

 

I knew that if Seto had come home, then I would find his keys on the small table that sat just beside the front door, he always tossed them there on his way in from working late as he so loved to do. I hated that about him, he rarely came home before midnight if not later, especially on those nights when he was working on a new project or a project that he was due to finish soon. However, every single morning since the very first night I came to live with Seto, he would without fail be there in our bed when I awoke the next morning. Waking from such a dream, and then finding Seto missing upon my return, had thrown my mind into turmoil, and I rushed as quickly as I could to the front door. I slowed my pace as I approached, and I could see from far away that there were no keys there, the table held nothing at all.

 

Seto had not been home last night.