Savior

Ryou Bakura knew he shouldn't be outside, in the worst part of town in a thunderstorm. Especially not at eleven thirty at night. He also knew it wasn't smart to be in the middle of a dark alley either. Either way, there was no going back now.

Running away wasn't the smartest idea in the world either, but that was exactly what he was doing. He brought his sopping wet jacket around his shoulders. He was shaking violently from being so cold and wet from the rain.

"I'm so stupid," he muttered to himself.

He almost regretted running away from home in the first place. Key word being "almost". He knew he had a good reason for leaving.

His home life used to be perfect. He was an only chile with two parents that loved him with all their hearts. He'd had a normal childhood. Fairly normal at least. He watched all the Disney movies, played almost every sport known to man, and was friends with two of the most lively people he knew. Their names were Malik and Yugi. The three of them were best friends and they did everything together.

But by the time middle school started, Malik started to drift away from the group, making himself more distant. He started to ditch school, saying he was too sick to ever show up. Ryou and Yugi knew that he was anything but sick. Ryou sometimes saw Malik out with the local gang, dressing like them, acting like them, talking like them. He was changing into a different person, and Ryou was force to watch from the sidelines.

After Malik left them in the dust, Yugi started retreating farther and farther babck into his shell. Without Malik, there was no one to push him to do things. He was turning back into the shy and quiet boy he used to be. Ryou couldn't help but feel alone. One of his friends had deserted him and now regarded him with nothing but cold blood. His only other friend had become like an empty shell, talking and acting robotically, no longer talking animatedly like he once did.

It was soon after his friends stopped talking to him, that the accident happened. Ryou had been riding in the car with is mom and dad on his way to his weekly martial arts lesson. It had been pouring rain that night, and it was darker out than it usually was. The studio he had his lessons in was about a half an hour away from his house, so they had to take a highway. That night, however, the highway had been so backed up wih traffic that they had decided to take an off road instead.

It was driving on that deserted street, in the dark and the pouring rain, that his dad had lost control of the wheel and they had been flung off the road and had crashed into a tree. All Ryou could remember was hearing a horrible ripping sound in front of him, a scream, and a flash of white hot pain. He later found out that his mom's seatbelt had been torn off of the car all together and she was flung forward out of the windshield and straight into the tree they had hit. She had died instantly. His dad had been flung forward and hit his head on the steering wheel in an instant before the air bag and come out and had a minor concussion. Ryou had been luckier since he had been in the backseat and hadn't had the most impact. He'd only come out with a sprained wrist and a badly broken leg.

After his mom died in that accident, his dad had acted nothing like himself. He'd started being more and more demanding, piling list after list of chores on Ryou.

After months of brutal chores that made him feel like some sort of slave, and pointless physical abuse, his dad suddenly stopped. Ryou, although welcoming the beneficial change, was confused. What had caused this? His dad had shown no sign of ever changing, or stopping his actions, so the abrupt halt in all mistreatment both excited and terrified Ryou to no end.

It had taken two weeks for Ryou to calm down completely and let his guard down. His dad was acting more like he used to before his mom died, and seemed to finally start to get over Ryou's mom's death. Key word here being "seemed".

It all started in Ryou's freshman year of high school. He had started feeling better once he found a friend in a spunky blonde named Joey Wheeler.

Joey was a loyal friend and a fun person to hang out with, and Ryou couldn't be happier that someone wanted to be friends with him.

Ryou had made himself distant from any person, avoiding contact with another human being at all costs. Joey had been the new kid to the school halfway into the eighth grade year, and he'd taken an immediate nterest in being friends with Ryou. As much as Ryou tried to make it clear that he didn't want any friends, Joey wouldn't give up. Ryou was pretty sure that he was the most persistent people he'd ever met.

They had ended up being best friends and completely inseparable by the time they got to high school. Ryou couldn't be happier that everything was finally working out. But of course, all good things had to eventually come to an end, even this.

The first time it happened was when Ryou left his first math test of the year on the kitchen table. Bad idea. He'd gotten a B on it, and honestly hadn't thought much of it. His dad had always been cool about grades, just pushing him to do his best. Ryou didn't think a B on a test would be a very big deal, especially since it was just the first one. And besides, it wasn't like he failed.

But he was wrong. When his dad had arrived home from work that day, he had called Ryou downstairs. Ryou wasn't worried until he saw his dad's face contorted in fury. He hadn't seen him in this state since two years prior, when he had nothing to look forward to other than being brutally beaten.

"What is this?" His dad had asked, trying to keep his voice even, but not succeeding.

"My math test?" Ryou's voice had risen up an octave at the end nervously, making it sound more like a question rather than a statement.

"And what did you get on it?"

"A B?"

"Exactly."

"And?"

"And? A B is not acceptable Ryou!"

Now Ryou was confused. Since when was a B not acceptable?

That night Ryou had been beaten, and then left in a pile of glass. His dad had thrown a wine bottle at him at some point, but it had narrowly missed slamming into Ryou's head. He had then been punched and kicked until he thought he was going to pass out, or die. He hadn't felt like this for years, and it was a feeling that he didn't welcome back. All Ryou could think when it was over was, All this for a B?

After the incident, Ryou started to close himself up again. He refused to talk to anyone or do anything except focus on his studies. He made sure to get A's, or at least a passing grade, on every test, quiz, worksheet, and assignment just to keep his dad at bay. Joey had tried to talk Ryou, and had looked crushed when Ryou had said no more than a few words to him. It had hurt to distance himself from Joey, hurt a lot. His best friend, his only friend. But he knew he had to, because he couldn't have any sort of distraction. He guessed he expected Joey to keep trying, to not stop trying to get Ryou to come out of the little shelter he'd made around himself, but he didn't. Even the most persistent person he knew was giving up.

The last straw for Ryou was the day of his math final. He'd been terrified to take it, and despite all his studying, it was one of the hardest tests he'd ever taken in his life. To make things worse, his school had a policy to give out phone calls on the night of the final explaining to the parents what grades the kids had gotten. Why they did that, they had no idea, but he just knew he'd never hated the school administration as much as he did that night.

The moment Ryou arrived home, he knew that something was terribly wrong. If the livid look on his dad's face was anything to go by, at least. He'd gotten the worst beating he'd ever had in his life in that one night.

He'd apparently gotten an F on his final—which he was crushed about, since he'd crammed for it—and that set his dad over the edge. So bleeding and broken, Ryou decided to run away.

He'd gotten out that night, with a backpack over his shoulder, and a jacket on. Getting out hadn't been easy, as his dad had set up all kinds of a alarms to stop this kind of thing from happening. But Ryou was able to get his window open, although he'd hesitated to jump out.

They had always lived in the same house, a large three story house with many rooms. But he only hesitated a moment before holding his breath and jumping. The freefall felt amazing, almost freeing, before he hit the ground hard and had to bit his lip so hard that it bled just to keep from crying out.

He'd stood up shakily and grabbed his backpack, all while trying not to acknowledge the pain in his leg. That was two days ago. Ryou had made it two cities over by catching multiple buses and walking most of the way.

He was currently shivering in both cold and fright while walking through the torrential downpour. He'd been terrified of thunderstorms ever since the accident, and was even more afraid now that he was in the worst part of this almost vacant town, in an alley that was almost completely dark.

He shivered, bringing his jacket tighter around his shoulders. He had no idea where he was going to sleep, and didn't have any money to rent a room in the local Inn he'd passed by. He was starting to feel hopeless. He should've planned more before running away, packed more clothes, brought more money. He'd initially run away in the spur of the moment, in a rush of adrenaline and emotion.

Ryou felt his legs begin to shake. He was wet, exhausted, hungry, and scared. He knew that if he went much farther, he'd end up collapsing. It was times like those that he found himself missing home. He supposed he really just missed how things used to be. Happy and carefree. Now everything was just messed up.

"Hey!" A voice called in the distance.

Ryou didn't turn around, both because it was so faint that it was probably just his imagination, and there waqs no one who would have the need to talk to him.

"Hey sweetheart," Another voice said, closer to him this time.

Ryou looked around in sudden alarm, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up. He was startled to see two men, one behind him, and the other a couple yards away to his right. Turning, he saw to others, one in front of him and one to his left. Ryou was surrounded.

He was starting to panic. Who were these people? What could they possibly want with him? Ryou had an idea, and it scared the hell out of him.

"Aw, are you scared?" Ryou froze when he heard the voice of the man on his right, and when the man came around to stand directly in front of him.

"Sweetheart," the man said, running a finger across Ryou's chin, which Ryou flinched away from.

"You don't have to be afraid of us."

I beg to differ, Ryou thought, not trusting his voice enough to speak.

The man began to play with his hair, twirling a strand around his finger. Ryou cursed himself for keeping it so long.

"You're very pretty," the man said.

Ryou scowled. Scared or not, he wasn't pretty.

"No I'm not," he snapped.

"Oh a feisty one," the man said, before leaning too close to Ryou's face for comfort. "Good. I like them feisty."

Ryou involuntarily flinched, causing the man to smirk.

"My name is Marik. What's yours?"

"Like I'd tell you."

"Aw c'mon, I'm just asking your name. It's not like I'm hurting you."

Ryou recognized the unspoken word in his sentence. Yet.

"Ryou."

Better to not show them he was scared.

"Ah. Well, Ryou, what are you doing out here alone? It's not exactly… safe."

Ryou shivered. Marik smirked again.

"I… I was going to meet someone." Ryou slapped himself internally for stuttering. He'd always stuttered when he lied.

"Oh, I don't think you were. You see," Marik scratched his chin thoughtfully. "We've been watching you since you came into town, and I don't think you're here to meet someone at all."

He started walking towards Ryou, who hastily stumbled backwards and found himself up against a wall. Now he was really panicking. What would happen to him? Was Marik going to kidnap him? Rape him? Make him a slave?

Thankfully, he didn't have to find out.

"Hey!" A voice said. "Leave him alone."

Okay I'm ending this here, cause I just want to know what people think of this before I continue. I personally don't think it's all that great, it's just a little story I'm writing on vacation, so I honestly don't think it's very accomplished or amazing, but it's all right I guess. xD Please review, I'd love it!