That was really the last straw.
Bakura ran. That was all he could do after what he had just witnessed. It didn't matter to him how much his feet hurt or how tired he was or how unstable the sand under his feet was, he had to keep going. He knew if he stopped all the memories and images would flood back to him. The image of every single person in his village, everyone he'd known in his entire life, being slaughtered before his very eyes, in the name of… what was that name again? Baset? It was what he had heard the soldiers shouting, anyway. His aunt might have used it in a story when he was small. His aunt whose decapitated corpse was currently feeding the-
"No!" He whispered, barely audible, as he cupped his hands over his ears, trying to drown out the horrible thoughts popping into his head. He felt himself lose his footing as he landed face first in the sand. He told himself that he must not cry, not only was it a pathetic thing for a boy of fourteen years of age, at least that's what his father always said, but it waste the precious little water he had left in his system.
As he tried to stand up, he found himself getting very dizzy and dropped down to his already bleeding knees. He looked up and, through his blurred vision, saw a figure, not too far away in the distance. Maybe it was one of the soldiers coming to finish the task they had started. He could only hope…
Bakura awoke with a blinding pain in his head and a tingling feeling in both his arms and one of his legs, and he was very thirsty. All he could see in front of him was black, and it was cooler than he last remembered. Not as cold as the desert at night, but comfortably cool. He sat up and looked around him. He seemed to be lying on some sort of wooden bench, in a small hut. He looked down at himself, his eyes slow adjusting to the darkness. He was still wearing his clothes. That was a start at least.
Out of nowhere, the door to the hut swung open and the boy was temporarily blinded by the sudden sunlight.
"You're awake!" a voice said to him, as the door was opened fully, letting the sun pour into the room. "I've sent my brother, Sek, to fetch you some you some water, who are you? Where did you come from? Why were you wandering alone on the outskirts of our village?" the voice questioned without pause. Seth blinked, trying to re-adjust his eyes to the new brightness of the room and saw the face of a girl, probably about two or three years his senior, with her face nearly uncomfortably close to his. Her eyes were huge and a deep brown, and her hair was tied up in an uncomplicated style
"I'm Ama, by the way." said "Ama", as she slowly backed up from his face. The boy tried to speak, but all that came out was a dry strangled croak.
"Oh, yes, right, water," the older girl mumbled. As if on cue, a small head, poked its way around the door, and the body of a ten year old boy followed it, holding a bucket filled with water. Seth assumed that this was the younger brother. The boy looked much like his sister, his eyes the same size and the same shade of brown. He was wearing pretty much the same clothing as her as well, just a long sleeved, off-white tunic without shoes.
"I'm sorry, sister I couldn't find where the well was and then you ran off and I couldn't find you either and-" the younger boy stopped in his tracks, looking directly at Bakura. He noticeably paled. His mouth opened as if to say something and then shut again. The ten year old reminded him of a fish. The child started backing away, his eyes widening to a nearly impossible size.
"He- It- It's- I-" Sek stuttered, finally managing to force words out of his mouth. "Demon!" he screamed pointing at Bakura, before making a dash for the door way, and kicking the bucket of water over in the process. Ama was far too quick for her little brother, jumping up, slamming the door and grabbing the child's wrist before he could even get close to it. Unfortunately, Bakura had experienced this sort of treatment before. He had light green eyes, and because light green eyes were not common in Egypt, they were therefore associated with demons*. His village, of course, wasn't exactly superstitious, and those who were superstitious, were terrified of being murdered by his father and three brothers for bothering one of theirs… Bakura had suddenly remembered why and how he had come to be in the care of the strange girl and her irritating younger brother. He felt himself trembling as the memories of the evening before crept into his mind. Of course, Ama and Sek were too wrapped up in their own argument to notice the increasingly distressed boy.
"But sister," Sek whined, "We have to tell grandmother! She can help, we can-"
"That scripture-obsessed old hag won't do anything to help him," his sister interrupted "she'd just have him killed or exiled!"
"Well, maybe that's for the best!" her brother retorted "Just look at him, for Ra's sake! Look at his eyes! Look at his hair!" Seth, who was barely listening at this point in the argument, snapped out of his grief for a moment. What was wrong with his hair? He grabbed a fistful of his shaggy locks, and pulled it down in front of his eyes. What he saw made a shiver run down his spine. Somehow, his hair had gone from being a sooty black, to a nearly translucent shade of ivory white. Light coloured hair was even worse than having light coloured eyes. He could even see his hair in the dark of the hut!
"This is your fault; if you weren't such a sinner, the gods would never have sent this demon!" The young boy said, triumphantly. That was the last straw. Bakura was getting tired of this arguing.
"Would you both please shut up and leave me alone!" he shouted. Ama looked shocked for a moment, and then nodded, as she dragged Sek out of the hut.
Despite waking up less than twenty minutes ago, he could feel waves of exhaustion washing over him. He decided to put his head down and rest his eyes for a while.
Bakura wasn't sure if he was dreaming or not. He was standing on floor that was stone, but it was soft stone. He couldn't see more than about ten feet in front of him, it was foggy, but it was also indoors. This day was getting rather confusing.
"Bakura…" he heard a sing-song voice call out his name. He spun around in every direction, but saw nothing. The voice called out again, it sounded louder this time. It is needless to say that Seth was beginning to get very frightened. He heard the voice laugh, but it wasn't the sort of laugh you would want to hear when in a mysterious, indoor fogbank.
"It's no use looking, you can't see me. I can see you clearly, though. So clearly." The voice said. The voice was child-like and familiar.
"Show yourself!" Bakura shouted trying to mask any fear in his voice. The voice gave a low chuckle.
"As you wish…"
Like many the many events that had occurred recently, he wasn't as prepared as he'd have liked to be for what happened next. He spun around, making himself dizzy in process, and his face met with a nearly exact replica of himself. It was like looking in a slightly distorted mirror. His twin had his hair, but it was one or two shades off, and the he had to be a fraction of an inch taller than himself. But it was his eyes that really made the difference. They were different. Like his eyes, but… scarier was the only way to really describe them. Seth could only gape at him. One word came to his mind: demon.
The thing seemed able to read what he was thinking and grinned.
"Who-?" the boy started, only to be cut off by whatever was standing in front of him.
"I have no official name, but I suppose I could be called Bakura." The being said Bakura as a cat would say mouse, with same grin on its face as it had before.
"I'm going to get straight to the point, little boy," the replica said, completely losing the child-like voice of earlier. "I'm going to help you."
Bakura was in shock for a moment or two.
"H-help me?" he cursed himself for stuttering. "Why?"
"Well, if you don't want my help, I could always leave you trapped in your own nightmare." The boy's eyes widened. "Oh, I'm sorry; did I not mention I could do that? Let me give you an example." He reached out and grabbed the boys shoulder, almost immediately Bakura was thrown back into his village. Surprisingly, everything was peaceful; he could see all his friends and his family. Just seeing their faces again made him the happiest he had been in days. This didn't last long. Suddenly, the village was plunged into flame; corpses of everyone he had seen beforehand littered the path ways of the burning village. He could see soldiers pointing at him, but he couldn't move. The soldiers came closer and closer as they raised their weapons to him and-
The stranger took his hand off of his shoulder. Bakura fell down onto the ground.
"Now, you may want to think about this. Do you want my help as an ally," the things eyes darkened, "or am I your enemy?"
*Hooray! Historical canon!
A/N: Right so, I handed this in as an essay to my english teacher, though I had to change canon arond a wee bit (Bakuras name changed to Seth. Baset instead of millenium items.) so it wasnt really plagurism. Not really, since I didnt use the names of the characters, the millenium items or kul elna (But if Takahashi owns ancient Egypt or albinos, I'm totally screwed...) So, I'm still waiting on my grade... I love school.