1) Should I bring Malik into this? I have a good idea how, without moving the focus off of Ryou-chan. ^^v Hey, we've got Ryou angst, last chapter and a few more in the future feature Yugi angst... Why not throw in some Malik angst too?

2) Yes, for those of you asking, suggesting, and down-right pleading, Yami and Bakura will be back. ^~ But watch out, cuz it's not in the way you think...

3) This is most probably not going to be a happily-ever-after type of fic. :p I know, most of my other angst fics ended happily, one way or another, but this one probably won't. I've always wanted to write a full-blown tragety, and this is it. ^~ So, while there may be a few bright, or even humerous spots along the way, don't expect a happy ending on this.

4) THANK YOU READERS!!! *hug hug* Only four chapters, and this thing already has over 100 reviews!!! I'm so happy you all like this! Thanks much!!

;P Thanks especially to Eruantale, who had such a strong reaction to my initial plan for next chapter (chapter 6) that I'm going to write it as angstily as possible. ^__^ Thanks also to Hikari NoTenshi & High Crystal Guardian, and everyone who has me or this story on their favs list.

Disclaimer: Don't own it. :p Never will.

Correction: Last chapter I refered to Yugi twice as 'Yugi-tachi' when I shouldn't have. ^^;; I didn't find out the real meaning of the suffix -tachi until after I'd posted it. Sorry! (The meaning of -tachi is plural. Used to refer to Yugi when he's melded with Yami, ie, "both Yugis". Last chapter, obviously, Yami wasn't there, so I shouldn't have refered to Yugi in the plural.)

()()()()()

Every child is scared of the dark. Whether it's only when they are very young, or they have to sleep with a night light in high school, everyone is scared of the dark at one point or another. Oh, there's lots of different reasons for it, even I can see that, though I don't claim to be any sort of psychiatrist. Some fear burglers, some fear that something will steal away their families in the night. Some fear monsters under the bed.

Unlike every other child, I am not scared of the dark.

I'm scared of the shadows.

Even before I got that acursed Sennen Ring, I was scared of the shadows. The earliest memory I have is of running down the hall and climbing into bed with my sister Amane, because mom and dad's door was shut and I was too little to reach the doorknob. I can remember being terrified of every bit of darkness in that long, long hall, and when our cat Osirus jumped out and scared me I nearly wet my pants.

Mommy never believed me when I said that there were faces in the shadows. She just laughed and patted my head and told me what a big imagination I had.

Dad didn't believe me either. He pretended like he did, and told me to talk to them, maybe make friends so that they wouldn't scare me any more. That's how I could tell he didn't believe me. If he'd known what I was talking about, he wouldn't have told me to make friends with the faces.

Amane-chan believed me though. She always believed everything I said, of course, because I was her big brother. But she believed in the shadow-faces not just because I told her, but because she could see them too.

She and I, even at the young ages of seven and five, respectively, would sit on either her bed or mine, wide awake and terrified all night, because the faces in the shadows were watching us. Looking back on it now, I realize that our parents got pretty exhasperated with us. But we couldn't sleep, not with them watching us. The shadows, I mean, not our parents.

We, the two of us, would make up stories, to try and make the faces less scarry. But somehow, it never quite worked. The stories that immerged were sometimes more terrible then the faces themselves. One that sticks in my mind was the one that Amane and I called the Mummy. We decided that he was an ancient Egyptian spirit, looking for the tomb robber who had killed him, so he could get his revenge.

Ironic, huh? Me being mistaken for my yami, before I even knew my yami existed.

The Mummy went away just after I got the Sennen Ring, and I wonder sometimes what Bakura did to him.

Another one, one that I can still see in the shadows if I look hard enough, is the Seer. He looks like me, but his eyes are blank, and they look like they're staring right through your soul. He's the only one that I actually look for, that I actually want to see. I don't know why, but he doesn't feel threatening or scarry, like the others do. He gives off an aura of calm.

I sudder from my place crouched behind the boxes as the laughter starts. I look around me, shying back from the faces all around me, some I have seen and known all my life, some new. One in particular, one with vicious brown eyes and unruly hair that's only been around for a half-year at most, makes my heart shudder and my breath catch in my throat.

"Please..." I whisper to the empty alleyway as I tremble in my boots. "Make them stop laughing..."

()()()()()

WSJ: :p Heehee... Poor Ryou-kun. ^^ I'm so mean to him... *snick* Can anyone spot the cameo I stuck in? Anyone? There's actually two, but I doubt anyone will get the second one...

God bless minna-san!