Chapter 40: Darkness and Sacrifice

Over the last few hours, Yugi, Honda, Pharaoh and I had taken turns sitting with Joey, rotating an hour or so at a time in pairs. None of us wanted to be alone when the machines went quiet.

Pharaoh and I sat beside Joey's bed. We had placed two extra blankets over him because he was shivering in his sleep. I was beyond tears. Pharaoh had stopped praying.

Joey groaned and we both looked up. He winced. He had requested that we reduce the amount of pain medication he was receiving and that had improved his lucidity, but each time he woke he was in more pain than the last. "Oh fuck." He sighed. He turned his head and his eyes fluttered open. He smiled lazily. Any other time that smile would have thrilled me; now I could feel new tears forming.

"I don't think I'm gonna get that three-way." He said. "Ow. That was a joke guys." I couldn't speak and, apparently, Pharaoh was equally as distraught. "Guys, come on, talk to me. I – I –" he swallowed hard, "I feel like I'm alone here."

"You are never alone, Dragon." Pharaoh gasped. "We will follow you to the Afterlife, I promise."

"Soon." I added.

"Hey, Tak." Joey's eyes searched for me for a moment and I touched his hand so he could feel my presence. "Don't be like that. You gotta be here for Tut, right? Someone's gotta look after him."

"It would not be for long." Pharaoh said, putting his hand over both of ours. "A matter of minutes."

"Don't talk like that, guys. I don't want to hear it." He winced again.

"Do you need more medication?" Pharaoh asked.

"Naw. Stuff puts me out." He smiled again. "Rather see you right now. Ok?"

"Of course, Joey." I was weeping again. "Anything you want."

"I want a steak and the two of you in bed." He teased. "But I don't think I'm gonna get it."

"No." I agreed. "The bed's far too narrow."

He laughed then winced again. "Yeah. We'd do better on the floor." He sighed. "Pity we can't do that Shadow thing. Just one last time."

"You would not survive the calling." Pharaoh said. His voice sounded virtually clogged with tears. "If only I had –"

"Hey, hey Tut! Come on, don't. I'm glad we had that time together. We'd have never been together otherwise." He sighed and tried to get comfortable. "I just wish we'd had more time." His eyes fluttered shut again.

Pharaoh leaned forward, weeping, and I found myself weeping with him.

A woman softly cleared her throat behind us. "Gentlemen, I'm sorry, but Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler are here. They'd like a moment with their grandson."

I nodded and tried to pull myself together. "Pharaoh, come. She's right. They are his family; they must both want..." I nearly broke down again. They both must want to say goodbye.

We left the room and managed to hold some semblance of calm. Mai had two cups of tea waiting for us. She served them with red eyes.

"Last time I saw him, I was so angry." Her voice trembled. "He told me to trust him, but I –" she covered her face and her shoulders began to shake.

Pharaoh put his hands on her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. "He knows, sister, he knows. It's all right."

She took a harsh breath and wiped her face. "It's not all right. I should have trusted him."

Suddenly Pharaoh stood up. "The Shadow Realm!"

"What?" Mai's brow knit.

He ignored her. "Priest, come. We must speak now." He strode away.

Confused and reluctant, I followed him to a vacant room. He closed the door behind us. "You must believe, Priest, for magic is the only thing that can save our Joseph now."

Magic did not exist. It was false hope to pursue it. And yet Pharaoh believed. Joey believed. "What must I believe?"

"The Shadow Realm! Dragon's life could be saved there."

"In this dream world of yours?" I shook my head. "Even if it existed, you said he would not survive the trip."

He nodded. "He would not. But we could revive him. It would be a Dark Act – it may damn us for eternity – but we could save him there." He gripped my arm. "But, my Prince, you must believe you are the Priest you were. And you must trust."

I wanted to. I wanted to believe in anything that would save Joey's life. But magic was faith in fantasy.

"What risk could it be to believe this one small thing now?" He coaxed, placing his hand on my chest. "Here, in your heart, do you trust me?"

He had been having a long-distance affair with Joey for a year. Yet beyond logic and reason, I did trust him. When we were apart, even when I was angriest with him, I still trusted him. It was foolish, but...

Magic, like dueling, was nothing but a series of rules and rituals. Even science could seem like magic if you are unaware of the possibilities. I could believe in science. I could follow rules and rituals. I nodded. "What must be done?"

"We must take Dragon to the Shadow Realm and allow his aspect to take host of his mortal body." It sounded like utter crap, but Pharaoh went on before I could disparage the idea. "There is a complication. In order to bring him back, life must be exchanged for life."

"A sacrifice."

"Yes. It must be living and it must be a human soul."

"I will do it."

He smiled sadly and stroked my cheek. "As would I, but neither of us can. We will need all of our power and skill to perform the spell to bind Dragon's soul to the new energy."

"Then this is irrelevant without a willing soul."

"It need not be willing," he pointed out, "just living."

A Dark Act he called it. I nodded. For Joey's life, there was no act too dark.

"How do we begin?"

Pharaoh hesitated. "We must find a soul, and then we must take it and Joey to the Shadow Realm."

"And then?"

"You, my Priest, are the only one who knows what needs to be done from there. You must have faith and believe this is so."

The idea was absurd. Find a victim, take them to a magical dreamland, and then trust that I will remember how to do something I have never done. But now, I wanted to believe it. I had to believe it. Medical science would not save Joey. Only hope, faith and magic could do that.

We may be damned for eternity. I nodded, more to myself than to Pharaoh. If that was the price, the cost was cheap.

"Can you take us to this Shadow Realm?" I asked him.

"I believe so." He sounded unsure for once. "I must retrieve my deck; I left it in my haste."

"Then that is first." I thought of the old man. "I may know our sacrifice."

We left the room. Honda and Yugi were in the waiting area looking miserable.

"Status." I said.

Yugi sighed heavily. "He slipped into a coma. The doctors don't know if he will come out."

Pharaoh and I looked at each other. Time was short.

"I will find what I need." He told me. "Go to the one you were thinking of. Be ready for my call." He paused then took a step closer to me and whispered. "You must touch him for me to be able to take you both. I will not have time to summon an unknown."

He hurried down the hall and I turned toward the unit where I met the old man and his granddaughter. He was ready to end his life; maybe he'd be willing to give it.

I had to pause and clear my mind before I could remember where I had seen them, but when I arrived, I knew I was too late. His granddaughter was cradling a weeping woman. I left them to their grief.

My mind spun. I needed a soul and I needed it now. It was impossible and bizarre and if it held even a mythic chance of saving Joey, I was willing to try it.

Then I saw the door. Before it, sat an American police officer. Two Kaiba Security officers stood nearby. There was only one room under that much security.

I calmed myself and approached the group. The American stood up as soon as it became apparent that I was moving toward them. When I was close enough, my security snapped to attention.

"Status." I said calmly.

"He was awake, sir, but there has been no change in his condition."

"Fine." I started for the door, but the American moved to stop me.

"You can't go in there." He blocked the door.

"Henson!" One of my security team snapped. "This is Kaiba-sama. We do not bar his path."

"Hey, my orders are nobody but my CO, the suspect's mother, and maybe his girlfriend goes in there."

I seized the obvious opening. "Boyfriend."

"What?"

"Hirutani has a boyfriend." I looked at him rather pointedly. "Do I need to spell this out for you?" The man flushed, looked at the Kaiba security men and, apparently, received some kind of confirmation. He stepped aside and I entered the hospital room. I paused to give the men a coy look. "I'll try to keep the noise down, you try not to peek." My men bowed respectfully; the American looked slightly sick. I closed the door firmly.

Hirutani was sleeping, a car magazine on his chest. I could see some of what attracted Joey to this man. He looked like a criminal – like the ultimate bad boy. As I approached the bed, I wondered about the ritual we were about to subject him to.

I hoped it would hurt.

He had the same pain medication IV drip that Joey had. I stopped it; he would not need it. He continued to sleep as I tossed his magazine on the floor and pulled the bed covers down. He was in impressive physical shape – apart from the extra wide bandages covering the wounds where I shot him. He shifted in his sleep. He seemed cold.

Then he should appreciate the fires of hell.

As I climbed on the bed, I realized that I was aroused. Not by Hirutani himself, but by the rush of knowing that this man would not get away with killing Joey. If, by some miracle, Pharaoh's magic worked, this creature would give his life for Joey's. If the magic failed, Hirutani would die in the process.

I had no idea how long it would take for Pharaoh to contact me – I had no idea, even how he would contact me. But sex had been a large part of this dream Shadow world. Pharaoh and Joey had used it to consummate their relationship. It would certainly qualify as touching.

I opened my pants, crawling over him. He moaned and stirred as if he was about to wake. The hospital robe offered him no protection as I pushed open his legs and smoothly slid my cock into his rectum.

The sudden intercourse or the no doubt excruciating pain of my body crushing his abdominal injury woke him and he cried out before I placed my hand over his mouth.

"Did you think I would let you get away with touching that which is mine?" I whispered. I heard the door open and then quickly shut again. I smiled. "My merchandise." I pulled back and shoved in hard, causing him to groan in agony. "My lover." I stroked again, harder. Hirutani convulsed under me.

I nearly came.

I stroked again and maintained a slow pace. "I promise you," I hissed in his ear, "if you survive this – which I sincerely doubt you will – this pain will be nothing to the hours of agony you will endure if Joey dies." I kept drilling him slowly. "Tell me, do you love the way I fuck as much as you loved it when Joey fucked you? Am I in deep enough? You let him fuck you, you claimed you loved him, and yet you shot him – in the back, no less. I'm just reversing the order. I shot you, now I'm fucking you. Perhaps, when you scream for mercy, I'll make you say you love me, just as he did. Say it. Maybe I'll come for you, too."

I sped up my strokes as Hirutani moaned under my hand. His eyes were wide with fear. There were even tears leaking from them.