42Chapter 7: The Cursed Dollhouse Part 2
Akiza stood still, as if to try and understand who the girl was and what she was trying to do. She was just a child after all. Even though she had taken her fellow signers, she didn't want to hurt her. She was clearly upset, but she tried her best not to lose control of her powers. The wind in the room just wasn't letting up. However, the wind didn't even seem to bother the girl as she remained unmoved.
"Who are you? Why are you doing this to us?" Akiza asked her, hoping that it wouldn't come to anything more than just talking.
The girl didn't answer, but a sadistic smile could be seen crawling onto her face. Akiza was taken back as she wasn't expecting her to look so evil. She could sense the power that the girl possessed, but something was wrong. Somehow, it just didn't seem to fit. The little girl narrowed her eyes and slowly raised her right hand towards Akiza. Before she knew it, Akiza could see her shadow monsters appear around her. If she wanted to get out of this, she was going to have to think fast.
Her eyes widened slightly. 'That's it. If these are duel monsters, I should be able to take them out with one of my monsters.' She took a card out of her deck and placed it on her duel disk. "Twilight Rose Knight, come forth!"
Her monster materialized in front of her just in time to stop a shadow monster from getting to her. Twilight Rose Knight stopped any shadow monster that began walking towards her. But no matter how many monsters her knight destroyed, more would keep coming. Akiza sighed in frustration. She knew that if she used more of her powers she could destroy them, but she couldn't risk hurting the girl.
Her knight used his sword to defeat three of the monsters in front of him, but there was a shadow monster approaching quickly, ready to use its claws to destroy him.
"Rose Knight! Watch..." Her cry was cut short as a person came sprinting towards her and slammed her against the wall. Her knight turned around, but he didn't get a chance to understand what was happening because a shadow monster slashed him in the chest, destroying him. He let out a cry of pain as did Akiza because it seemed as though battle damage was real. Her cry was somewhat muffled because the person was holding her against the wall by her neck.
Her hands automatically travelled to her attacker's wrist to try and remove the grasp they had on her, but it was no use. As she struggled to get free, she slowly opened her eyes, but was not prepared for what was in front of her. She expected to see a shadow monster holding her up since she saw no one else in the room, but she was in the hands of a young woman who looked identical to the little girl. If Akiza didn't know better, she could have sworn that the look that she saw in her eyes was the same look that the little girl had.
She looked behind the young woman and at the little girl. She appeared to be nothing but an empty vessel. Somehow, the girl and the young woman was the same person, but it made no sense.
The girl tightened her grip around Akiza's neck. She let out a small squeal before nothing would come out. The girl slowly moved closer to Akiza's face, making it so that they were only inches away. The girl whispered to her something that she hadn't heard in a long time and something that was better left unsaid. It was something that when spoken, changed everything for the worst and Akiza found it impossible to ignore her.
The girl whispered in her ear, knowing exactly how to get to her, "The entrance to the Netherworld is on the witch's island."
(With Luna)
Luna opened her eyes to find herself in a meadow. It didn't take her long to figure out where she was. She sat up and rubbed her head, putting a little pressure on her temples to try and help relieve some of the pain. Looking around, she saw that she wasn't alone. Ancient Fairy Dragon soon approached her to make sure that she was okay.
"Ancient Fairy Dragon! Did you bring me here? What's going on?" She was relieved to see her, but she needed to know what was going on. Last she remembered, she for sure wasn't in the spirit world.
"I'm glad you are safe, Luna. I brought you here to protect you from those shadow monsters that attacked you." She told her.
Luna looked a little surprised. For a second, she completely forgot about what happened back in the house, maybe because she wanted desperately to forget about it.
"What happened to the others?" Luna asked, quickly standing to her feet, thus making her a little dizzy.
"Be careful, young one. Leo and Yusei were also taken by the shadow monsters. Unfortunately, I am unable to pin point where they are."
"What about Akiza?" For some reason, she got a bad feeling. Something just didn't seem right and the look in her dragon's eyes when she asked did not help her to feel any better. Nothing could prepare her for the plot twist that was thrown at her.
"I sense that...the Black Rose Witch is back."
(With Yusei)
Yusei studied his surroundings. He seemed to be in a bedroom, and a boring one at that. The walls were painted a dark grey and the only things that were in the room were a stiff bed and an empty desk. There were no windows and the door seemed to be locked. He tried to find a way out of the room, but he didn't have many escape options. In fact, he couldn't find one. He leaned his head against the wall, allowing his mind to think back to Akiza. He felt bad. He wanted to help her, he wanted to make sure that she was okay, but he had enough faith in her that she knew what she was doing and she would find a way to save them.
He looked towards his arm with the signer mark, hoping to feel something, anything as a little indication that Akiza was okay, but he felt nothing. He tilted his head up and closed his eyes, he prayed to whatever god there was that Akiza would figure out a way to get them out of this mess.
Suddenly, he felt a dark energy in the room. As he was preparing to activate his duel disk, he looked around. He found it hard to believe that he was the only one in the room. Not knowing what to do, he backed himself up against the wall so he could survey the rest of the room.
"Something else is here..." he said quietly. He felt the room shake slightly and became a bit startled as more light entered the room. He covered his eyes until they were able to adjust, but as he moved his arms away, he was completely surprised by what he saw.
The ceiling was removed and staring at him was the young girl they saw when they entered the house. However, there was one thing that Yusei couldn't help but to notice about her; she wasn't just bigger than him, she was huge! She stood there staring down at him, clearly having an advantage over him, but he didn't break eye contact.
She smiled at him. "Now you have to play with me." She said.
He narrowed his eyes slightly. "I don't play with bad kids." His first reaction was to reach for his deck, but there wasn't much that he could do. The girl's smile disappeared.
"I'm not bad." The girl said, almost making it seem like she was offended. "I just don't like to be ignored."
Yusei let out a quiet growl. He knew that their journey wasn't going to be easy, but he, by no means, was expecting this either.
"What do you want?" He tried asking as calmly as possible. He was never the kind of person to let his anger get the best of him, but he had to admit that he was extremely frustrated.
"I want to play with you!" She said, smiling at him. However, Yusei found that hard to believe. She had to be after something else. Then he came to a sudden realization. "Wait! If she is here, then that would mean that Akiza..."
Just then, his signer mark began to burn. He grabbed his arms and fell to his knees. He wasn't sure what his mark was trying to tell him exactly, but he could feel that something bad happened to Akiza. Tears, for the first time in a while, began to sneak up on him. It wasn't fair. Akiza needed him, but there was nothing that he could do.
With his head hung low and his eyes closed, he didn't notice that the girl was reaching down into the room to grab him. She almost had him until a man and a woman stood in front of him.
"Kari! Stop!" The woman in front of Yusei yelled. Yusei and the man stared at the girl, surprised that she stopped.
Kari pulled her hand back and stared at the two adults that stood there. Her face was difficult to read for a moment, and then she began to walk away. Yusei, still holding his arm, stood up and stared at the two people who stood in front of him.
"Thank you..." He managed to get out. He was grateful, but he was still confused on what was going on. The two turned around and gave him a small smile.
"Are you okay, son?" The man asked him as the woman examined him. They were complete strangers, but apparently they seemed to know the young girl who started this mess.
"Yes, I'll be fine." He told them truthfully.
"Who are you? And more importantly, what are you doing here?" She sounded concerned.
He stared at her for a second. He did not think it would be that bad to tell them who he was, but it would probably be safer for them if he didn't disclose any information on the heart crystals and what they were really after. "I'm Yusei Fudo. My friends and I were travelling to Gear Town and got lost along the way. We stopped here to ask for directions, but we were attacked and got separated."
He noticed as they weren't too quick to say anything back. They looked at each other with their eyes full of sorrow. They were making it pretty obvious that they knew something.
"You called that girl Kari," he said tilting his head in the direction she walked away. "I take it you know her?" The woman looked away as though she wanted to cry. The man was the only one brave enough to answer.
"Kari...she's our daughter..." He said looking down, refusing to make eye contact. Yusei's eyes widened, as he could not believe what the man had just revealed to him. Looking at them he could tell that it wasn't something that they were proud of at the moment. Things for him, however, didn't add up, though.
"What happened..." Yusei finally asked. He wasn't certain if that was the best thing to ask at that exact moment, but if he and the others were dragged into this mess, he wanted answers.
"We don't really know..." The woman said softly. He could tell that this was a sensitive subject for her. He could have sworn that she was trying to hide her tears, but they seemed to be very persistent.
"We always knew that Kari would be a power psychic...even now the power she has is incredible..." The man began as he lowered his head. He then ran his hand through his black hair. He didn't look that old, yet Yusei noticed that he had already begun to grow grey hair. There is no doubt that they were going through a lot.
"..But she was upset...because we were always too busy at work." He said looking up to where she once stood, as if he was in deep thought. His wife moved closer to hold on to him, so he lifted his arm to embrace her. With sorrowful eyes, she stared at Yusei.
"She turned on us." She said finally crying a little.
Yusei couldn't help but to feel sad about their situation. 'They are going through kind of what Akiza and her family have been through..' It was true that he was somewhat familiar with their situation, however, it seemed like it was going to be a little harder to get Kari back to normal.
The man seemed to be able to calm his wife down a little, though it was clear she was still very upset. "We are positive that she is acting like this because she is angry with us, but we don't know how to reach her. She won't listen to us!"
The man sighed. "So to show her how sorry we were, we bought her the dollhouse that we knew she wanted, but our gesture backfired. Kari used her psychic ability to turn us into dolls and trap us into the very dollhouse that we bought her."
It was easy to read the sadness in Yusei's face. "How long have you two been stuck here?"
"3 weeks yesterday." The woman said. Yusei could definitely feel for them, but he did feel a little better because at least he knew what Kari did to them.
"I'm sorry that this happened to you. Everyone makes mistakes, but no one should have to live like this. There has to be some way to get to her." Yusei proposed.
When Yusei looked at the woman, she slowly shook her head. When he looked at her husband, his eyes darted to the floor. Any hope they had seemed like it was long gone.
"There is always a way." Yusei told him. He had to put emphasis on what he said because he had to let them know that hope was not lost, but he couldn't sit around and wait for them to figure it out.
He walked towards the door which was now open and looked back at them. It was evident that they wanted their daughter back, and they wanted to change things, but they just did not know how. However, Yusei couldn't just stand there and wait for them to decide. His fellow signers needed him, and they were his priority.
(With Akiza)
Kari walked into her bedroom. The walls were a dark purple, but the curtains and her furniture were black. There certainly wasn't any good vibe coming from the room. The only light in the room was a light on her desk that was on the other side of her room. It wasn't as bright as it should have been, but was dimmed to her liking. Illuminating just several feet around, there was no way that Kari could see where she was going, but she was so used to the lack of light that she knew where everything was.
She walked past family pictures that were in shattered picture frames and walked to her bed. Sitting down, she looked over towards the light. A small smile set on her face as she looked at Akiza staring back at her.
"What's wrong Akiza? You don't look too happy." She told her while playing with the ears of a stuffed animal that sat on her bed. Akiza, however, did not say a word in response. Kari let out a small laugh. She knew that she wasn't going to say a word; it was like she had trained her not to.
Kari moved to lie down on her back and closed her eyes. Everything was working according to plan. Ever since she used her powers to turn her parents into dolls, it seemed like she was a lot happier. She no longer had to listen to their excuses. They never spent time with her, and it always made her feel lonely. Her parents made an attempt to hire someone to watch over her while they were away, but she ran them off. She knew that her psychic ability was powerful, so she figured out a way to use to her advantage to get what she wanted.
"Good job, Kari." A male voice was heard in the room. Kari, however, was not startled. She remained unmoved, as if she knew someone else was there all along. "I have Akiza right where I want her."
"Did you get what you wanted?" Kari asked without looking up.
"Not yet. It's true that Akiza is close to unlocking her true potential, but there is something else that I am missing."
"Hm?" Kari looked towards his direction, still unable to see him through the shadows. "And what's that?" she asked him. With her question, he finally took a few small steps forward, revealing himself to her.
"You," She did not immediately respond to his request. In fact, she stared at him for several moments before looking away. Seeing that she was going to need more convincing, he continued. "If you join me, I'll give you everything you ever wanted...a true family, true friends, you will never have to be alone."
Her eyes darted to the ground. It was like he knew her like the back of his hand. All she wanted was for her parents to be around more and for people to play with. However, she could never shake the feeling of being lonely.
"I don't know, Sayer.." She said as firm as a 6 year old could sound. He then walked a couple more steps in her direction. He knew of the power that she holds, and what she is capable of. He was able to see it firsthand based on her ability to trap the signers.
"I can give you everything you could ever want. Psychics like us have to stick together. Your parents never cared about you, but I do. You don't deserve to be neglected." He told her. Sayer tried his best to be sincere, but he wasn't sure how well it was working. However, it was no bother; he was going to do whatever he had to do to get her.
Kari sighed. "I need time to think."
He growled under his breath. 'She's a lot smarter than she looks...'
After several moments, he responded, "Very well then...I'll give you the time that you desire." With his last words, he walked back into the darkness, but not before using his right hand to touch the side of Akiza's face. Coincidentally, she turned her head in his direction, looking him straight in the face. Sayer looked into her eyes. He saw the only things that he was hoping to see, darkness and hatred. He smirked because he knew that his Akiza was back, and it was easier to get her now that Yusei wasn't in his way.
(With Luna)
The young girl gasped. There was a lot of bad news that Ancient Fairy Dragon could have given her, but she didn't think the news would be this bad.
"What do you mean The Black Rose Witch is back?" Luna was almost too scared to ask, but she knew she had to.
"The small girl is controlling her." She told her. She felt bad for not only Akiza, but Luna as well. Luna had a big heart, and Ancient Fairy Dragon knew that this news was going to kill her. She noticed that tears threatened to fall from her eyes. "It's okay, Luna."
"How?" She asked a little more aggressive than she intended. "I don't want to lose Akiza!"
"There may be a chance to get her back, little one." Luna turned to look at her, waiting for her to continue. "Since the girl is the one controlling her, then maybe there is a way to get her to turn Akiza back to normal."
"It's a lot easier said than done...just how are we supposed to do that?" Luna asked her.
"I'm not sure, but I know for a fact that if there is any way to get the girl to listen to you, you need to do it after you find Yusei and your brother." She was right, they all needed to be on the same page. It was true that Luna needed the guys, but Akiza needed all of them. She had to find a way to get back to them.
With her eyes were now determined, she nodded. "Okay. Can you get me back?"
"Yes, however, I will be forced to use all of my energy to get you there." Luna then immediately felt bad.
"But how?"
"There is a way for me to not only take you back to your body, but transport your body to another place. I can take you to where Leo is." The girl gasped. She was unaware that her dragon had that kind of power.
"Are you sure about this? I don't want to risk your health..." Ancient Fairy Dragon could see the worry in her eyes.
"I promise you I will be okay. It will take a while for my powers to regenerate, but I'll be back at 100 percent before you know it."
Luna didn't have much of a choice. It was the only way.
"Then let's do this."
(With Leo)
The green haired boy was in a room similar to Yusei's. He was searching for ways to get out, but so far he was unsuccessful.
"Luna!" He yelled, but he heard no reply. He walked over to the door and tried to listen to anything that could be on the other side. Hearing nothing, he used all his force to bang on the door.
"Help! Let me out of here!" He yelled as loud as his voice would let him, but still no answer. He leaned against the door and stared hard at the wall. He had to get out so he could save his sister, but he couldn't even figure out how to get out of this room. He balled his fists. Luna needed him, but how could he get to her when he didn't even know where he was. He did notice, however, that he still had his duel disk on. He placed his hand on his deck showing that he was grateful to still have it, but he couldn't help but to sigh.
"If only I was a psychic duelist...then my monsters could get me out of here no problem..." He said to himself. He dropped to floor. He needed his sister more than anything right now. "Luna..."
Moments later, a bright light filled the room. Leo brought his hands to cover his eyes. He also backed himself all the way to the wall. He was unsure what was going on, but he needed to be ready to defend himself. Just as he began to reach for his deck, the light dimmed, and he didn't hesitate to jump up when he saw his sister.
"Leo!" She yelled, running in his arms. He made sure he caught her and hugged her tight. Words could not describe the relief he felt. Even though they were still stuck in a room with no way out, it didn't matter to Leo anymore. He had his sister back, and he knew that with her, they could find the others and make it out alive.
I'm so sorry it took so long! Since December, I finished my last semester of undergrad and graduated college! And since then, I have decided to go back to school and get my MBA. I already finished one and class 3 weeks ago and I'll be finishing up another one in a week! So you can see how busy I've been.
I'm sorry about any typos in this chapter, and I'm sorry if it felt rushed, but I was really trying my hardest to get you guys this chapter as soon as I could. I hope I haven't lost any of my reviewers/fans and I hope this chapter did not disappoint. Please Read and Review!