just when you thought someone's day couldn't get any worse...

I take it all back. The hospital, the break in, what happened at Battle City. I'd go back and relive them all again if tonight wouldn't have happened!

I decided to take a walk to clear my mind, after trying to clean up my trashed apartment, and I ran into Malik in the park. We talked for a little while, and then I suggested we go get ice cream. Malik had never had it before, having lived underground for 16 years of his life. So I ordered him a strawberry ice cream cone. I ordered a bowl of apple cinnamon crisp ice cream. It's one of my new favorites! We talked about a lot of things over ice cream - our yamis, our friendship, how much I had missed during my time in the hospital, my now lingering cough, and how to win friends and influence people. He invited me to Otogi's party next week.

He even agreed to walk me home. That's when all the trouble started. We were almost to my apartment when I spotted a strange shadowy figure climbing out of a fourth story window on the apartment complex across the street from mine. And before we could run or even duck out of the way, he spotted us!

Malik pulled me into a nearby alley, hoping we could hide. That he would just run away. But he didn't. He came looking for us... either to make sure there weren't any witnesses... or maybe he just had something against me... either way I don't really care... I just didn't want him to see us there.

But he did... only because I accidently knocked the lid off a trashcan when I peeked over it to see if he was gone... and when I saw his shadow... I knew he had a gun... I clung to Malik with everything I had...

He fired it once in the air, to scare us so we'd scream. Then he'd know right where we were. I wish his plan didn't work... but it did. I screamed at the sound of the gunshot... and again at the one that flew right over our heads into the dead end wall of the alley. And the phrase 'dead end' never sounded so ironically appropriate...

The next thing I knew, he was standing directly over us, pointing his gun at my face. I wish I could have gotten a good look at him... but he was covered in the shadow, and I was downright terrified... I could barely breathe. Malik pulled me up, but he followed us with the gun. I don't know why he didn't shoot us right then. Malik pulled out his millennium rod, but when the burglar caught the slightest hint of movement behind me, he pulled the trigger! I pushed Malik to the ground, and he activated the rod just in time to pull me away from the path of the bullet. I... I could feel it race past my hair... And that was too close...

We took off running. I thought we'd be safe in my apartment, since it was so close by. I hoped that maybe we could lose him by ducking inside... that was the worst mistake I've made all day.

I peeked out the window, only to have a bullet fly up and shatter the glass around me. It cut me several times as I fell back into the pile of glass already surrounding the window. But I didn't feel it at the time... I was too worried about the burglar by the side of the building to notice anything else.

And the next thing we knew, someone was pounding on the door. Malik prayed that it was someone else, anybody else. I crawled over to the door, and peeked through the tiny hole... and directly into the barrel of a gun... I fell back into the middle of the room. This was not good. Not good at all...

The only way out of the apartment was how the burglar broke in to begin with... through the window, and out the fire escape. But he broke the fire escape coming in. Yugi's yami already noticed that when he was here earlier. The burglar climbed down a stepladder of knives he took from my kitchen, and then must have scaled part of the wall, or jumped to the drainpipe a couple of stories below.

We had to do the same thing. Malik said since I was lighter than him, I had to go first. And he had the rod, just in case the man actually succeeded in breaking down my door. I made it down two stories before the ladder of knives ended. I was just about to jump to the drainpipe, with Malik's reassurance of course, when the knife under my foot broke loose.

I fell down at least three stories before I was able to grab part of the broken fire escape. Malik must have jumped down after me, because when I looked up, he had latched onto a window ledge about one story higher than me. He was able to reach the fire escape without too much difficulty. We climbed the rest of the way down, finally collapsing down onto the ground below.

And we thought for a moment we had escaped him.

But by this point, he obviously broke down my door. A bullet struck the ground right next to where we were sitting. I shrieked, jumped into Malik, and we both rolled across the ground.

Knowing that it would take him just as long to climb down, Malik pulled me to my feet and insisted that we run. We took off running towards his apartment. I tried to keep up, but given my time in the hospital and a bad lingering cough, I couldn't run as fast as I wanted to. In all honesty, I thought I was going to collapse.

Malik stopped, and told me to get on his back, that I shouldn't be running like this... I didn't have the energy to argue, even if I wanted to... I could barely stay awake on his back, yet alone run...

It felt like hours before we got to his family's apartment. But in reality, it was only a few minutes. Maybe ten at most. We got inside, finally escaping from the burglar, and he let me into his apartment. Isis must have already been asleep. I thanked him... and collapsed right on the floor. He had to carry me, coughing, and only semi-conscious, to a couch.

He said I could stay the night there... and that we were safe. He gave me a long hug, and I fell asleep right there, in his arms.

... I don't want to relive this night... ever...