YuGiOh: Souls of Shadow

Chapter 3.4

                An invisible avalanche buried me as I watched my life points drop to 0. I was frozen in place, suffocated from the weight of the magnitude of what I had just lost. Every single familiar thing I had come so far to know. The ones I love, my hope, my freedom, my very life.

No. It can't all be gone. At least, not right now. My senses reawakened as my fingers brushed the cold handle of the gun that remained buckled to my waist. As long as I have my gun, I have my hope. My death may still come, but that's just my style—to never go down without a fight. Even when all odds are against me, and the end is inevitable, I will still attack with every breath until my last one. If I'm going to lose, I don't want to regret anything. I remember, that's the way I've always been ever since first opening my eyes.

I grabbed the weapon and raised it, fixing the aim directly at his chest, bracing myself for the impact. Just as the trigger was giving under my finger, my arms were being forced down by an unexpected weight. A thunderous sound filled the room as the weapon dropped from my grasp and hit the floor beside me. I inhaled sharply as my limbs were twisted unnaturally backwards and I was forced to my knees.

A voice told me to stop struggling. I, naturally, disobeyed, deciding to sacrifice my miraculously still-in-socket arm to lunge for my weapon. It was pulled away from me with an invisible force, sliding across the tiles and bumping into a white shoe.

No hands had been laid on me, but yet I was frozen in place. My heart began pounding wildly. I craned my neck up to meet his eyes. He wasn't glaring at me, or pale from fright, but smiling. Smirking. Seeing the look on his face made bile rise in my throat.

With a little tilt of his head, the pressure on me was released. I collapsed onto my hands, gasping for breath. My wiry body had officially exerted all the strength it had for that day, rendering me unable to resist anymore.

"Well, that ended with a bang," Pegasus laughed as he reached down to retrieve the gun. He intentionally made eye contact with me as he began playing with it, twirling it around in his fingers. I couldn't stand the look of him touching my gun, and he heard the angry curses I was mentally shouting at him, which made him laugh more. "You've developed quite a connection to this little thing, haven't you?"

"Put it down!" I growled through the remaining pain.

"Now why should I honor your request when you didn't even honor your promise you made to me? You're not of very noble character, now are you?" Pegasus shook his head at me as if he were scolding a child, running his fingers across the brassy handle of the gun a little just to make my blood boil. "You can't even accept defeat when you know you've missed your shot. For one who spared a poor man's life, I honestly expected more of you."

"I did not spare your life, and I never said I keep to my promises."

"Yes well," he pocketed the gun, exchanging it for a card. My face paled a little as I watched his eyes ice over. The mocking air he had kept about him had vanished into dark solemnness. The golden eye glowed fervently as the space around it darkened, like it was sucking the light out of the room. "You do remember your end of the deal, don't you?"

I took a shaky breath. I had always imagined that when I came to face death, I would do it with quiet bravery and accept it, but I had never been so afraid of someone—of anything—in my life. Still, I forced myself to hold his eyes as he raised the card.

Just as I was about to be pulled into a world of blackness, the resonating darkness stopped. A look flashed across his face, something so quick and subtle I would have missed it if I hadn't been intent on his face. He lowered the card as I sat up, holding my gaze as he put it away and simply looked at me. Whatever was supposed to happen didn't happen, and it looked as if he didn't know why, either.

Through the silence of the air, I heard him call for the guards. They stood on either side of me, awaiting his order.

"Take her down to the cells," he said simply.

With a jerk backwards, I felt cold metal clasp around my wrists. The chains of the handcuffs chimed with a tone like needles as I was lifted up to my feet by the pair of guards. My knees shook with weakness under me as I struggled to move. All I could do was watch helplessly, as if I was out of my body, while I was drug out the room by them.

Just before the door slammed behind us, I saw Pegasus give a final smirk.

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