Valued Readers,

The idea for this fanfiction hit me when I first listened to Lake Pontchartrain by Ludo. Very good band. I would very much recommend listening to the song along with reading this fic. There is somewhat more of an adult-like themes to this fanfic.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, nor the song.

Yamis: Atemu, Bakura, Marik

Hikiris: Yuugi, Ryou, Malik

Lake Pontchartrain

"Kura! Kura, oh my god. . . Are you okay? All we got was a phone call about you and the other yamis. What happened?" Ryou was frantically trying to comfort a shivering Bakura, who was sitting on the back of an ambulance, soaking wet and wrapped in a large blanket. His eyes were wide with a mix of emotions that were foreign to his face: terror, emptiness and sorrow.

In the past few years a great deal has changed in the lives of the hikiris and yamis. The yamis were able to acquire their own bodies, which allowed for them to travel around without their hikiris. The biggest change had to be, though, the relationship between the yamis. After multiple attempts by the three hikiris, the yamis came to a truce that eventually lead to a somewhat strange form of "friendship." A few months ago, the three pairs decided to go on a trip to Jackson, Mississippi.

A few weeks into the trip, Bakura suggested that the darks go on a few day long road trip down to see New Orleans. After convincing Atem and Marik, they begged their lights. And "obtained" a nice car. And a few hundred dollars. The lights decided to just not ask where they got the goods from and the yamis were on their way.

A few hours after the darks had left, a dark ominous storm was beginning to come in. The hikiris were sitting in their hotel room when suddenly a horror filled, empty feeling struck Yuugi and Malik. Their panic reached a peak when Ryou's phone rang. A police officer was calling about a problem. They needed to come down to the southern shore of Lake Pontchartrain, because Bakura refused to talk without his light there and he was not allowed to leave the crime scene. The trio immediately rushed out into the storm and drove the three hours down to the shore of Lake Pontchartrain to find Bakura in the back of an ambulance crying, shivering, and unable to talk.

"Kura, please. Tell us what happened. Where are Atem and Marik?" Ryou questioned gently as Yuugi and Malik were impatiently waiting behind him.

"I need your statement, son." The officer quietly stated while the thunderstorm raged.

Bakura looked up with soulless eyes and nodded. With a shuddering voice he began his tale.

"I'll tell it like it happened, it was Atem and Marik and me.
Just a few po' boys trying to get up outta Missouri."

He looked over at Ryou, whom nodded encouragingly.

"Took 55 to Louisiana, stopped by the highway to eat.
They both had crayfish, strictly chicken for me."

At this he made a small face. Bakura never did like fish.

"Back out under thunderheads, the radio was Southern soul.
They interrupted Clarence Carter with a strange-ass local show,
They were sayin'…"

Here he stopped and shuddered at the unpleasant memory.

"Come down to Lake Pontchartrain
Rest your soul and feed your brain
That's where you will get to see
Everything the water can be."

A flash of lightening and burst of thunder caused the lights to jump slightly. The very weather seemed furious and ominous as Bakura continued his story.

"The rain was comin' down, the wind was howlin' outside of Slidell.
It was the kinda night that makes you think the whole world's goin' to hell."

Bakura snorted hauntingly. I thought I knew what hell was like…

"We got off on an exit 'cause we couldn't read the map so great.
Near the Choctaw Motel, we parked to deliberate.
When out of the bayou came a man like the lake had a tongue
He was right up on the glass, all yellow-eyed, black teeth, bangin' on the
windshield screamin' like a demon at the top of his lungs,"

Malik and Yuugi stood slightly closer to each other and Ryou, spooked out by the retelling of these haunted occurrences. As Bakura continued with his story, it seemed like you could hear the man yelling the chant with Bakura.

"Come down to Lake Pontchartrain
Rest your soul and feed your brain
Free for you and all your friends!
Crayfish 'til the bitter end.
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain.
Wade to where the shallows break.
That's where you will get to see
Everything the water can be."

Bakura stopped and took a shuddering breath. He looked at Yuugi and Malik with tear-stained eyes, filled with regret.

"I was driving out of there as fast as a Camry could.
But the interstate was flooded and I had to take the road through the woods.
Bad move in retrospect, the road disappeared in the rain.
And I stood on the brakes when I saw the sign: 'Lake Pontchartrain'"

Bakura's eyes became distant and he seemed to be reliving the entire experience.

"Atem was yelling that he saw somebody out in the swells.
He jumped out runnin' and Marik was goin' as well.
'Come back!' Why the hell would they leave the car?"

He looked around desperately, as if trying to ask Yuugi and Malik why their darks would do something like that. Bakura took a deep breath in an attempt to calm down. Looking at the lake, he whispered with hesitation.

"And that's when I heard it, make no mistake
the voices were calling them from under the lake."

The police officer looked at him speculatively. Ryou followed Bakura's line of sight to the lake, which seemed to rage in the thunderstorm. Yuugi, Malik and the officer turned as a disconcerting howl came from the lake. It even appeared to echo the call to come to its depths as Bakura continued.

"Come down to Lake Pontchartrain...
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain...
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain...
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain..."

Bakura's face became darker and more terrified as he finished his narrative.

"The crayfish were screaming, the waves danced in time.
My friends went in deeper, the water, it climbed!
I watched in terror, the lake opened wide
And horribly roaring, it pulled them inside."

Yuugi started yelling at Bakura. "No! You're lying! Yami would never ever do something like that! What did you do to him?" As Malik began to scream "He isn't! He can't be! Where are they?"

Bakura looked at them with dead eyes.

"That's how it happened, why would I lie?
There were no bodies; I've got none to hide."

Yuugi and Malik stopped their yelling and looked at him, startled by his monotone response to their violent accusations. Bakura turned to the police officer.

"I'm just a boy, lost his friends in the rain,
Any more questions, just go and ask Lake Pontchartrain."

The officer looked at Bakura and then at the lake, before leaving to order his fellow officers to go home and come back to search the lake after the storm cleared for the bodies of two young men.

As Ryou turned to comfort his fellow lights, he missed the evil smirk that crossed Bakura's face. The lightning flashed across the sky, and Bakura chuckled sinisterly before returning to his emotionally tortured victim face as Ryou turned to get him into their car and back to the hotel.

I appreciate reviews, but if you are going to criticize, please do it constructively.