Me: Wow...I can't believe how long it took to actually finish this! It took me, like, forever and three quarters of a half a millenium

Seto: ...Even I couldn't figure out what you just said meant...

Me: ...Yeah, me neither ...But anyways, readers, this is my first...no, second fic, that I've uploaded on this lovely website of ours. I do not own Yu – Gi – Oh, or any of the characters in the show. And if I did own the show, you'd be able to tell because, first of all, there'd be almost no Tea, NO Serenity, ALL RYOU AND BAKURA AND MARIK AND YAMI MARIK AND NOAH AND JOEY AND...you get the point. On with the fic.

Innocent until proven Guilty

"AMANE!"

Ryou shouted out loud as he bolted upright from his bed.

Oh. It was just a dream. He was just dreaming. What he had just dreamed of his sister, Amane, didn't really happen.

(Quit trying to fool yourself, Ryou. It was not a dream. It was real.)

Ryou tensed up at the voice inside his head and squeezed his eyes shut.

Oh, how he dreaded that voice. He feared it. Whatever the voice was, he didn't like it one bit. All it brought was pain and agony to him. He wanted it to go away. But it wouldn't. No matter what he did, the voice would not go away! Why can't it just leave him alone for once!

(Because, my Ryou, I am you. And you are me. We are one whole. Whatever you do, I do.) A chuckle. (And whatever I do, you do.)

Ryou winced at that last sentence as tears formed up in his brown eyes and ran down his elegant face.

No. No, it wasn't true. It couldn't be true. Why? Why did everything have to happen? It wasn't fair!

"Please," he whispered out loud, more to himself, "just leave me alone. You've tormented me long enough. Just go away."

(Sorry. You're stuck with me.)

"No!" Ryou shouted before grabbing his pillow and throwing it as hard as he could across the bedroom.

How can I pretend that I don't see

What you hide so carelessly?

I saw her bleed

You heard me breath

"Stop it! Stop it! Just leave me alone! I don't want you here! Get out of my mind!"

All of Ryou's pain was now replaced with anger. Such anger.

He grabbed the millenium ring from around his neck, which he couldn't remember putting it on before going to bed, and threw it across the room as hard as he could, just as he had done his pillow. It hit against the mirror hanging against his wall near his door, smashing it to pieces.

A sudden dizziness began screwing around with Ryou's head at the sight of all the broken glass. Of it all falling against the ground. But this dizziness wasn't an ordinary dizziness. It was more like a flashback.

Amane's head getting smashed against the bathroom mirror.

In his "dizziness", Ryou rolled off of his bed and landed on the hard wooden floor. A mixture of a sob and a grunt escaped his lips.

"No..." he spoke softly through a broken voice, "It can't be true..."

(Oh, but it is.)

Frustrated, Ryou slapped a grip on the edge of his mattress to help him get on his feet.

"No! Stop it!" he nearly screamed, "You did it! Not me! It was all your fault! It's your fault that my sister's dead!"

So I froze inside myself

And turned away

I must be dreaming

Silence. Except for Ryou's sobs. A sudden feeling was beginning to overcome Ryou. Something in which he had felt before, but had been forgotten. It was the feeling of fearlessness. For some reason, he was no longer afraid. He began to laugh out loud, not caring what the voice was thinking. He wiped his tears away.

"I know. I know what I can do. That's it. Something that you can't stop me from doing."

He ran out of his door and bolted downstairs to the living room where the cordless phone lay.

"I'm going to call Yugi. And I'm going to tell him what really happened and he's gonna take that dreaded ring away. And I won't ever have to hear you inside my head ever again! You're going to be out of my head and I'm going to be free to think whatever I want without anyone trying to make me think differantly!"

He picked up the phone and began dialing.

If Ryou wasn't so overcome by his fearlessness, he would've realized the huge mistake he had just made by saying what he had just said.

Before he could finish dialing the rest of Yugi's phone number, a sudden, unseen force blew him back, away from the phone, and against the wall. He yelped in surprise. Even though he had lost his footing, he hadn't realized that he was being held up by something until a few seconds later. When he looked up, what he saw wasn't what he expected. There was two deep, dark pools of crimson red staring right back at him. In these pools held bloodlust, sadist, heartlessness, cold-bloodeness. Evil. They were the two blood baths of a spirit who can never die.

We all live

We all die

That does not begin to justify you

Suddenly, all of Ryou's feelings of bravery, the last ounce of his own self-confidence, was stripped from him. Complete fear, fear of this spirit, came crashing down on him so hard, almost like a slap of reality. He then realized just what he was about to do.

He was going to call Yugi, the one person whom the spirit hates more than anything else in the world – well, second from Yami – and tell him that he killed Amane. Tell Yugi that he killed his own sister.

Well, Ryou knew that it was the spirit inside the millenium ring who mainly did it, but still. All Ryou did was sit there and watch it all happen. What could he do to stop the spirit? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Ryou found himself beginning to whimper.

"Oh, God. I'm sorry. I-I'm so sorry. I won't do it again. J-Just, please, d-d-d-don't hurt me. I-I wasn't really going to call Yugi."

It's not what it seems

Not what you think

No, I must be dreaming

"Face it, Ryou," the spirit spoke, still not taking his deadly gaze off of him, "your sister is dead. She's dead. She was killed. You killed her."

Ryou's eyes widened in horror. He began shaking his head back and forth.

"No. No. It's not true. It's not true. I didn't kill her. I didn't. In fact, she's not even dead." he grinned a little as he let out a small laugh, "Yeah, that's it. She's not dead. Amane's fine. She's...just not here at the moment. She's just out...getting that new Guns 'N' Roses C.D and she'll be back any minute now." he gasped, "I better get to bed before she catches me not sleeping."

He made an attempt to get back his own footing and go upstairs, but it was only then that he noticed that the spirit was holding him up against the wall by a grip on his neck. The spirit squeezed a little harder on his neck, giving Ryou enough room in his airpipe to breath but it was still difficult.

"Ryou," the spirit said with an icy calmness, " you have to face the reality of Amane. You are going to face it." he whispered the next sentence, the one thing that brought terror into Ryou's self, "You're a murderer. You killed her."

A sob came out of Ryou. No, it couldn't be true.

It's only in my mind

Not in real life

No, I must be dreaming

That night, Ryou lay in his bed, staring at the framed picture of Amane that sat on his dresser beside his bed, blankly, until the sun came up and his alarm clock went off at the seven o'clock hour; neither knowing, nor caring, that the spirit of the millenium ring was watching him with those two deep, crimson eyes.

The event that had occurred the previous night never left Ryou's mind. Not even during Mr. Cowan's boring lectures in social studies class. And it just so happened that Ryou had been the chosen one for his questioning.

"Tell me, Ryou, when did the first world war start and how long did it last until it ended?" Mr. Cowan asked him.

Ryou didn't even hear him. He just sat there, his head laying in the small bed that his arms had created. To everyone around him, he was in the classroom. In his own mind, it was a completely different story.

A look of impatience planted itself on Mr. Cowan's face.

"Ryou, when did World War I start and how long did it last until it ended?"

Still nothing from Ryou, not a single move.

"Ryou, answer my question this instant."

Nothing.

"Ryou!" the teacher yelled out as he slapped the textbook he was holding shut.

This definitely got Ryou's attention, but the only reaction that came out of him was a small jolt of surprise and a surprised and confused expression looking up at the the social studies teacher.

"What is it?" he asked innocently at the look of frustration and what seemed to be anger on his teacher.

"Ryou, you know the rules of this classroom. No daydreaming during class time. Go straight to that office. Now."

Not really caring if he was in trouble or not, Ryou quickly put his binder in his backpack and went to the office.

At lunch time, Ryou sat alone at his usual lunch table in the corner of the lunch room closest to one of the windows. His lunch tray was full of food, but, at this point in time, eating was the last thing that Ryou wanted to do. Anything but eating. He didn't even look at the food. All he did was stare out the window. Outside, the sun was shining down on the earth with a cloudless sky. The complete opposite of what Ryou was feeling.

He sighed sadly to himself before looking down on his tray and let his head rest on his hands shading his eyes from the sun and stopping everyone else from seeing what he was feeling, all the while holding back tears.

He was screaming inside! The secret that he held, the secret that the spirit inside the millenium ring had tried to hide, even though he knew that Ryou knew all along, was picking him apart! It was like something was eating away at his heart, at his insides. The pain! Oh, the pain was just too much! It had to stop. He wanted it to stop! Why couldn't it!

Mabye talking to someone would make it go away. Yeah, that's it! Someone whom he could trust, and someone who could trust him. Yugi! Yugi was the perfect person to talk to.

But where was he?

Ryou looked around the entire lunch room.

There he was! Sitting with Joey, Tristan, and Téa at the table near the stairs! Now, all he had to do was get up on his feet, walk up to them, sit down beside Yugi, and tell him that he needs to speak with him. Then Yugi will listen to everything he'll have to say and everything will be allright. All the pain will go away.

He only got up about four inches when a booming, fierce voice rang inside his head.

(Don't be an idiot, you fool!) It was the spirit. (You really think that Yugi will listen to you? You, out of all people? ) Ryou nodded weakly a couple times in desperation. A chuckle was heard that sent shivers down his spine. (Ryou, there is no way in this pathetic little world that Yugi will listen to someone like you. Just look at him. He's happy. He's so happy with his friends and that damn pharoah by his side. He doesn't need you there if all you're going to do is break his happiness; If you're gonna lay your own burdens on his shoulders.)

Ryou blinked as he continued looking at Yugi's table. At Yugi and his friends.

The spirit was right. They were happy. Yugi was happy. And to tell him the truth of Amane would be to disrupt him and, perhaps, even sadden him. And that was something that Ryou didn't want to be responsible for.

But, if he couldn't tell Yugi, then who could he talk to? Yugi was the absolute only person that he can tell. Everyone else would think he's crazy. Oh, wouldn't that be lovely.

"Help, you gotta help me! There's a spirit inside this millenium ring that my father sent me from ancient Egypt who took over my body and killed my sister! Yeah, I was able to see everything as it happened, but there wasn't anything that I could do! Not even as I was frozen on the floor, holding my dieing sister in my arms!"

At all these thoughts, Ryou quickly threw away his food, grabbed his backpack, ran into the bathroom, and locked himself in one of the stalls. There, he began to cry. He cried, trying as hard as he could to ignore the chuckles ringing in his head. He didn't really care what the spirit thought of him as tears wetted his face.

If only he could talk to Yugi. Then everything would be okay. But that wasn't going to happen. Nothing will ever be okay. Nothing will ever be fine again.

Help, you know I've got to tell someone

Tell them what I know you've done

A tune was then suddenly heard in Ryou's head. First a humming, then the words.

"You fear me. But there is so much more that you fear."

Ryou choked back a sob at those words.

It was true. There was a lot of things in this world that he feared, things that he wished never existed. But this spirit, this voice, was what he feared the most. And it was something which he was going to be stuck with for the rest of his life.

I fear you

But spoken fears can come true

Not bothering to wipe away his river of tears on his face, Ryou reached down his shirt and pulled something out. It was the millenium ring.

We all live

We all die

That does not begin to justify you

The age of six. The age where you're just starting to learn about the world around you, and some of the people in it. The age where your curiosity about every little detail around you starts to kick in. The age where you know nothing about all the war, fighting, and killing in your neighborhood; nothing about how much blood gets spilled down the roads and sewers each day.

This was the age that the millenium ring had arrived in young, innocent, Ryou Bakura's mailbox. This was the age where the abosolute truth about everything around him was reveiled to him; the age where the last drop of Ryou's sweet, inspiring innocence was drained from him.

The ring was supposed to be a late birthday present. The week, before and after, Ryou's father had been one another one of his digs at the other side of the earth in Egypt. Ryou's sister, Amane Bakura, had been taking care of Ryou during the time. Ryou was so full of joy and happiness when Amane had opened the package containing the millenium ring. It was so beautiful and shiny. He couldn't believe that his father had actually sent this all the way from Egypt! He loved it!

"One day," he said, hugging the ring, "you and me are going to go to Egypt with Daddy. And I'm going to dig up something from the sand just as shiny as this. And I'm going to give one to Daddy, and one to you, Amane."

Amane laughed and hugged him tightly in her arms.

"Yeah. Yeah, mabye you will, squirt." she kissed him on the cheek, "I promise you, Ryou. You, me, and Dad will go to Egypt together. One big happy family."

"Yeah." Ryou replied with a wide grin.

The next mourning, Ryou had tied a long, thick string of leather he had found in his closet to the hole ontop the millenium ring. He had proudly worn it to his kindergarten class.

Ryou thought that it was going to be a normal, fun day for him. He thought it was going to be another good day; a day to show off his new ring.

He thought wrong.

It was only the calm before the storm.

I Must Be Dreaming by Evanescence

How can I pretend that I don't see

What you hide so carelessly

I saw her bleed

You heard me breathe

So I froze inside myself

And turned away

I must be dreaming

We all live

We all die

That does not begin to justify you

It's not what it seems

Not what you think

No, I must be dreaming

It's only in my mind

Not in real life

No, I must be dreaming

Help, you know I've got to tell someone

Tell them what I know you've done

I fear you

But spoken fears can come true

We all live

We all die

That does not begin to justify you

It's not what it seems

Not what you think

No, I must be dreaming

It's only in my mind

Not in real life

No, I must be dreaming

uhhhh...so, uh...what do you think? Is it too long for you readers? Yes, no, baby toe?

There will be a second chapter coming up soon. It probably won't be as long as this, but it goes on from where you left off here.

So please do what almost everyone else wants on this site...Review, please!