Night Devils

Yugi looked up at Elizabeth again.

“Is Anzu going to die?” he asked. The kamimortal looked down at him.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I keep having weird dreams about her,” he confessed. Elizabeth paused.

“What kind of dreams?” she asked.

“It’s kind of hard to explain,” Yugi said. His new companion started to get nervous.

“Let’s talk about this inside,” she whispered. “Come on.” Elizabeth pulled Yugi to his feet and over the ledge. The whole time, she had her own theories as to what was happening. Once inside the empty building, the pair sat down on the steps. The door closed behind them, placing them in the dark.

“Tell me everything,” Elizabeth said. “What did you dream?”

“I don’t fully remember all of it,” Yugi said.

“Well tell me what you remember,” she said. He took a moment to think.

“It was cold and very dark,” he said.

“Uh-huh,” Elizabeth said. Yugi tried to draw up the rest of the images in his head.

“It looked like I was underwater,” he said. “I can see the bubbles forming in front of me.” Yugi closed his eyes to try and get the images in his head just right. He held out his hand.

“I can see here there,” Yugi said.

“Who?” Elizabeth asked.

“Anzu,” he said.

“What is she doing?”

“She’s just… floating there. Unconscious.” Yugi reached out as if to touch his cheating girlfriend. “She doesn’t seem awake.”

“Is that because of her being in the water?”

Yugi shook his head. Elizabeth raised her eyebrow.

“No?” she asked. He shook his head again.

“So… what happened?” she asked. Yugi shivered and began to speak again.

“She was just floating there, mouth and eyes opened,” he said. “And then…

“And then?”

“She started to scream.”

Elizabeth looked confused. “What?”

“I couldn’t hear her voice. But she looked like she was in so much pain. She was crying as she screamed. I wanted to reach out to her but I couldn’t.” Yugi lowered his hand. “It tore me up inside to see her like that.”

“And what happened next?” the kamimortal woman asked. The boy opened his eyes. All of the color drained from his face.

“Her body was tearing from the inside out,” Yugi said in a low voice. “It all happened so fast.” His eyes darted around. “Is she going to die?” Elizabeth clenched her fists at her sides.

“No!” she said in a stern voice. “I won’t let that happen!” Yugi fell to his knees, trembling.

“Thank you,” he said in a whisper. “Thank you.”

“Right,” Elizabeth said. She knew what she needed to do now.