Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ House of Cards ❯ Circles ( Chapter 3 )

        & nbsp;   Twenty minutes after his encounter with Joey, Seto Kaiba was starting to feel just a little bit frustrated

          & nbsp; “This is ridiculous!” he growled, coming to a halt at a junction he had passed through countless times already. The pastel walls and plush carpets grated at his nerves with their cheerful colours, the portraits hanging on said walls seeming to mock him with their blithe smiles. On his right was the same blonde woman that haunted the walls of the whole castle, beneath her, on the frame, was inscribed the name: Cecilia. He spared her a cursory, vaguely hostile glance before turning his back on her.

            With clenched fists he surveyed his options once again. Blank hallways stretched off to his left and right, with a third corridor extending in front of him, the walls broken at intervals with dark wooden doors. He had arrived here before, and tried each of the three ways time and again, yet each time he found his way either back to this very spot, or to the entrance hall. The latter was now completely empty, Wheeler having disappeared, presumably to find someone of his own level to duel with. What Seto found most unnerving was that he had yet to meet another duellist wandering the castle. Not that Seto Kaiba ever got unnerved, as he would hasten to add. He just thought that it was strange. “Some tournament,” he muttered. “Looks like I win, by default of being the only one here.”

           ;  A soft laugh behind him made him flinch, before quickly turning, trying to cover the fact that he had been surprised. Narrowing his eyes he searched the hall for whoever had been spying on him, but found himself just as alone as before.

          &nbs p; “Who…?”

       &nbs p;    “Over here,” said the voice, followed by a sugary giggle. An unexpected movement drew his eyes to the painting ahead of him. His head and that of the blonde woman’s were at roughly the same level, and Seto realised with a start that she was smiling. As he stared at her, her smile widened into a catlike grin, and from those pearly pink lips emanated the same musical voice. “You silly,” she cooed, waggling her slim fingers at him in a girlish wave.

            It only took Seto a moment to recover from his shock and gain proper hold of his senses. So a painting was talking to him. Hadn’t he eexperienced stranger things before? Still… he looked at her closely; for a hologram she was quite impressive. He could even see the delicate brushstrokes covering her skin and dress.

            ; The woman in the painting leaned forward, showing off plump cleavage, tendrils of pale hair tumbling forward over her shoulders. “Good morning, Mr. Kaiba,” she said, blue eyes twinkling.

          & nbsp; Seto frowned in reply. “It’s afternoon,” he said.

            Her eyes widened in feigned shock, and she brought a hand to her mouth. “Is it? Goodness! …Ha, not that it matters. There’s no time here.”

           ;  “No duellists either,” Seto commented.

          & nbsp; “I’m not so sure about that,” the woman pouted, her hand moving to comb absently through her hair. “You’re here, aren’t you?” When he didn’t reply she went on, “But yes, I suppose it takes two to tango, as they say.” She gave a small sigh. “It’s too bad my dear Maximillion can’t be here; he would have so loved to duel you again, I know it.”

          & nbsp; “Why can’t h-”

          &n bsp; “Do you know who I am?” she interrupted, gazing inquiringly at him and twirling her hair around her index finger.

          &nbs p; Kaiba snorted. “Of course I do.” He hadn’t at first, but a smart boy like him was able to put two and two together. “You’re his wife, right?” He paused to sneer slightly. “Beyond tasteless, installing a hologram of his dead wife to haunt passing duellists.”

             She gave him another winning smile. “And what makes you think I’m not real?”
         &nbs p;  Seto merely shot her a cynical, disapproving glance. “Whatever,” he said. “…Pegasus always was mad.”

             “Now!” Cecilia held up one dainty finger to admonish him. “That is my husband you’re talking about! Besides…” She relaxed, girlish grin slipping back into place. “We’re all mad here.”

           ;  “Oh, don’t look so shocked,” Cecilia cooed when she saw Seto’s expression. “You didn’t know? No one’s told you? I’ll tell you another secret.” And she beckoned with one finger for him to move closer. Kaiba, unaware that his afternoon could get any stranger, cautiously complied, leaning close to the portrait. He felt a cold clanging shock when, as she also leaned towards him, the tips of her fingers actually touched the shell of his ear, and he felt her warm breath on his skin as she prepared to whisper her “secret”. He glanced her way, eyes widening when he saw her upper body extending out of her picture’s frame. “I’m mad too, you know,” she said, with the air of one divulging some scandalous chunk of little-known information.

           ;  Seto, despite himself, found himself laughing. “I believe you.”

             Cecilia leaned back, her hands resting on the lower ledge of her frame, and laughed. She was smiling. “I’m mad. You’re mad.”

             Seto shook his head. “You’re wrong,” he said. “I’m the only sane one here.” Now it was Cecilia’s turn to shake her head, and she made a kind of motherly tutting noise.

            ; “Oh, Seto, dear,” she said fondly. “You’ll soon find out how much you truly belong here.”

           ;  Kaiba bristled at being called “dear”, but let it slide. “So which way do you think I should go?” he said, wanting to change the subject.

          &nb sp; “I’m sorry,” she said, holding one hand to her ear. “Was that…? I think it was! Seto Kaiba asking for help?”

           ;  Kaiba frowned. “I wasn’t asking for your help.”

           ;  “Oh, but you were.”

           ;  “No, I wasn’t,” Seto stressed through gritted teeth. “I was just-”

           ;  “Well, I shouldn’t think it matters awfully.”

         &n bsp;  “…What?”

       &nb sp;    “Which way you go,” Cecilia said. She put one hand on her waist, and the other she twirled in an abstract manner as she continued to speak, “All these paths… they all lead somewhere. The question is: where do you want to go? You don’t know, do you?”

             “Actually-”

             “Maybe they all lead to the same place?”

         &nbs p;  Seto clenched his fists. “So far they all lead here,” he remarked.

          &n bsp; “You’d get along swimmingly with them…” Cecilia said idly, now inspecting her immaculately painted nails.

            ; “Who?” Seto shot. She glanced up at him with wide eyes before pointing with one lazy finger along the corridor to his left.

            “Down there, the door at the end. They came by some time ago. Lovely boys. A little, you know…” and she pointed one finger at the side of her head and twirled it in a loose circle.

          &nbs p; “Mad?” Seto pre-empted, one eyebrow raised.

          &nbs p; She grinned at him. “Completely loony.”