"Is the sky normally this grey?", Ryou asked.

"No." Akefia answered. "It's normally a lighter shade of it. Looks like we're in for a storm tonight."

Ryou gulped. Bakura just kept walking, groaning every time his foot landed in a wet puddle. "Are the storms you get around here bad?", Ryou continued to ask.

"Not really," Akefia said. "Actually, most of the time, they're just collections of rainfall."

Ryou sighed with relief. He and Akefia both smiled as they approached the desolate, dark, and abandoned house, but Bakura only frowned with uneasiness, and got a nervous feeling in his stomach.

"Is this...", he paused.

Akefia nodded. "My house. This is where the two of you will be staying this month. Don't worry, I have enough guest areas for each of you to have your own room."

Akefia opened the door, and walked in. Ryou, smiling, followed. Bakura remained standing on the doorstep, not moving a muscle.

"Bakura! Bakura, come on!", Ryou yelled, using his hand to gesture for his "brother" to come inside Akefia's house.

The darkness of the front yard and the hallway Akefia and Ryou were standing in were surrounding him. He was trapped in the shadows. He normally wouldn't have minded it, but he was scared now. Somebody from his old home -and they all knew who- wouldn't have passed up the chance to laugh at him, and probably would've done it now, but he wasn't there to stop Bakura.

He took in a deep breath, and fell backwards.

Bakura jolted into a sitting-up position. He gasped upon seeing Ryou on his right side and Akefia on his left. He was laying in a rackety bed, made out of wood that wasn't treated. The bed seemed man-made, with the exception of the mattress and sheets, which were clearly store-bought. The quilt on top of him, however, seemed to be either crocheted or knitted, made out of fine white and pastel pink yarn.

"Where am I?", Bakura asked.

Akefia simply put a hand to Bakura's forehead, and slowly pushed his head back onto the pillow it was originally laying on top of. Bakura went to feel the stuffing of the pillow. Not feathers, or cotton, but probably old clothing scraps sewed into a cloth sack. Bakura could tell because he felt something round and smooth, with stitches in the center.

"You passed out," Ryou said quietly.

"Yeah. You were running a fever, so we brought you in and carried you upstairs. We were worried, Bakura. According to Ryou, you're never sick.", Akefia informed him.

"Well, I was carsick," Bakura lied. "You know, some people throw up, some people get a migraine, and some people pass out."

"But, Bakura, we were walking for almost an hour after we got out of the car! You can't have gotten carsick the second we got here!", Ryou exclaimed.

Bakura sat up, and walked out of the room. Ryou and Akefia scowled, but they ignored him and walked over to the other side of the room. Bakura went down the hallway, which was dark, with the exceptions of the light coming from under the planks that created the floor; the ceiling to downstairs. Bakura tried to distract himself from the floor by observing the photographs on the walls surrounding him.

Akefia was in some of them, but there were some that were different. There was one that showed Ryou sitting on Bakura's lap, with the former smiling, and the latter looking extremely serious, maybe dismayed. The background was dark, as was Bakura's clothing, but Ryou's clothing was bright white in contrast. It showed the difference between the two "brothers" tremendously, and it made Bakura scowl just looking at it.

There was another one a little further down the hallway. This image was a painting instead of a photograph, and it depicted a young girl hiding behind a wall that leaded into a dark hallway, much like the one Bakura was standing in, and the hallway was crowded with all sorts of paranormal creatures; werewolves, vampires, zombies, ghouls, demons, ghosts, and living mummies. Bakura took a closer look at the girl behind the wall. There was a white, furry tail next to her, but it seemed attached to her behind. There were white, fuzzy, cat-like ears protruding from her head. The girl was a neko.

Bakura shuddered, looking at the painting. He wasn't exactly sure why it made him nervous, and it shouldn't have. He, along with Ryou, had a favoring for the occult such as this. Ryou was as excited as Bakura should've been. It was as if, on the car ride there, all of Bakura's excitement had been washed away by the rain pouring down on them as they made their excursion (that's what Akefia called it, but it was a two-day drive) to Akefia's hometown of Wytheville. Bakura didn't even understand why they had to move.

Bakura walked down the remaining area of the hallway, and went down the stairs, ending up in the living room. The living room was dark and dismal, matching with the rest of the house. Bakura grabbed a match out of the box on the coffee table, and lit the fireplace with it, creating warmth, light, and color in the room. It no longer matched the rest of the house, which made Bakura smirk a little. Bakura walked over to a velvet chair in front of the fireplace, and sat down. Bakura took in a deep breath, and closed his eyes to sleep. He didn't get the chance.

There was a knock on the door. Bakura groaned, stood up, and walked toward it. He opened the white oak door, hearing the squeak of the rusty old hinges as it went to the left. Standing in the doorway was a blonde Egyptian, wearing a lavender tunic with gold chains strung across his chest. His pants were black, appearingly denim. He was holding a golden rod in his right hand, which was part of the same set as the bizzare necklace around Bakura's neck, known as the Millennium Ring. The boy's lavender eyes were staring at the Ring, just like Bakura's eyes were focused on the boy's rod.

"Hello," the boy said kindly, taking his gaze off of the Millennium Ring, and looking Bakura in the face, "I'm Marik Ishtar. Would Akefia happen to be home?"

Bakura nodded. Marik grabbed his hand and shook it. "This would be the part where you tell me your name," Marik said, smirking.

"Oh," Bakura said quickly, trying not to stay in front of Marik too long. "I'm Yami Bakura. Just call me Bakura."

"Bakura," Marik said, saying the word slowly to himself. "That's Akefia's last name. Are you related?"

Bakura sighed. "Yes. He's my...", Bakura couldn't find the word.

"Brother? Uncle? Father?", Marik said, bombarding Bakura with answers to the question.

Bakura gulped. "He's my cousin.", he answered briskly.

Marik moved his mouth in an "o" shape, and walked inside.

"Where is he?", Marik asked.

"Upstairs," Bakura whispered.

Marik went over to the rackety, old staircase, and walked up it. Bakura sat back down in front of the fireplace.

"Bakura! Bakura!"

Ryou came running down the stairs, and Marik was with him.

"What's wrong, Ryou?", Bakura asked, running over to him.

"It's Akefia, he's...", Marik began to speak, but Bakura slapped him in the face.

"I asked Ryou, not you!", he yelled, then turned to his "brother".

"Akefia's... gone.", Ryou answered.

Bakura took in a deep breath, and collapsed.