10. Scary Shadows (1/2)

title: of the darkness||chapter: scary shadowscharacters: ryou, shou, camulachapters: 10-25||words: 1,138||total: 11,507genre: family, supernatural||rated: pg-13challenge: diversity writing challenge, ygo gx, j6, multi-chapter with 15-25 chaptersnotes: it's an au. it involves vampires.summary: shou invites his

other in after ryou returns from a long trip away. that is his first mistake. it only gets worse from there.

shou's decision on where to search for the vampire came very simply. vampires needed to stay in the dark. only one place in the mansion came close to being dark on a regular basis. so, with the sun still riding high in the sky, he made his way down to the storage areas deep under the mansion. he held a flaming torch in one hand and a lantern in the other.

a tiny part of him wondered exactly how ridiculous he looked like this and if he should wait for kenzan and the others to show up.

i'd like to, but i can't, he mused as he moved along. it's going to take them days to get here and who knows how many people the vampire could attack by then. it could even try to attack ryou, and shou wouldn't stand for that.

all right, ryou had more experience than he did fighting off evil monsters, but shou still wasn't going to let it try anything. for that matter, it might try to attack him, and he really wasn't going to let that happen.

so, taking every step with caution and keeping his attention turned toward dark corners, he proceeded on his search. he hoped he was right about the vampire being down here in the first place. if it had chosen some other place to nest, then he would be wasting his time.

he'd heard stories about vampires and other monsters before and how their lairs could have huge piles of treasure from centuries of hoarding. this monster hadn't been here long at all, so there wouldn't be anything like that there.

not unless it

ought some with it. shou tried hard not to laugh at the thought and managed to stifle most of the giggles it

ought up. he reminded himself that he was on a serious mission to protect everyone in the mansion and he should pay attention to what was going on around him instead of giggling at idiotic thoughts. the scolding didn't work nearly as well as he hoped it would.

ahead of him, something rattled, a pebble racketing across the stone floor. all thoughts of humor vanished out of shou's mind and he

ought himself to attention, staring ahead. lamp and torch caused shadows to flicker and bounce even as he froze where he was, slowly looking around for any signs of where the pebble had come from.

he saw nothing at all, only those shadows cast by the light he

ought with them.

shou cleared his throat and raised his shoulders higher. in the deep depths of his mind, he recalled that he hunted a creature that could be so much stronger than him, that could have decades or centuries of hunting prey behind it, and all he had was a single torch to defend himself.

should i really be doing this?

regardless, he was here, and it needed to be done.

inging a pack of servants or anyone else would've only given the creature time to hide and strike again another day. there was the slim chance that it could be reasoned with, but he honestly didn't know. better to be safe than sorry.

from the deepest darkness there spoke a voice, one that he didn't know if he heard with his ears or with his mind. the same part of him that reminded him that he'd come down here with nothing but a simple torch to defend himself said he knew this voice. most of the rest of him ignored that. he didn't know any vampires.

"what do you down here?"