Chapter 1

Crash! First there wasn't any pain, just shock. The next thing that registered was the metallic scent of blood. Then, I felt liquid poor down my abdomen and I forced my eyes opened. And then, there was blood curdling screams. Were they my own? I looked down to see a a steel pole sticking out of my stomach, and though I felt the urge to scream I couldn't help but admire how painless it all felt at this moment. I tilted my head upwards, some glass fell on my lap and I look from left to right, slowly, registering the blood pouring down my mother's face, down my brother Akefia's face. I attempted to look further to the right and noticed the source of the screaming. My twin Ryou, covered in blood he was screaming at me, saying something but I couldn't hear him. Next was my little sister Amane, covered in blood, staining her white dress and turning it a dark red, unconscious and silent.

Next was my ten-year old brother, unbuckling his seat belt and climbing back to attend Ryou and I. His face paled when he looked at me, but his main objective was getting the two of us out of the car since we were the only ones conscious at that time. Ryou was in full-fledged panic mode and tried to fight my brother as he pulled us from the overturned vehicle, my brother was too strong for him and shouted at him to stay 100 feet from the car while he got me next. That's when I first began to feel the heat of the car as it began to start on fire and the pain of my abdomen. Luckily the pole was short enough for me to be pulled from the car without an issue, but that didn't stop the unbearable pain. I remember shouting at Akefia to stop moving, to make the pain go away, to get Amane and mom out of the car. He tried to run back to the car but when the flames began to lick up the metal of the car, it was too late. They were already dead from the impact of that semi. They were gone...forever...and I was the one at fault.

As Akefia slowly pulled the pole out of my stomach, I began to black out from the pain, the last remaining image I saw was the sight of our car burning and our mother and little sister burning to ashes inside.

~Ryou

At first we were yelling at each other, we were fighting over something stupid like all siblings do. Bakura wanted a turn with the gameboy DS we shared, but he already played with it for an hour already. Akefia was listening to music, our mother was driving, and our little sister was asleep. We were coming back home from Akefia's soccer game that afternoon, his team won the game and he was the team's captain. As boys we were expected to be very close to each other, but that wasn't the case with Akefia and Bakura. Bakura could care less about Akefia's soccer games. It's not like they fought with each other on a daily basis, it was just that Bakura wasn't into sports and Akefia was. I on the other hand, didn't like sports as well, but I was more neutral and preferred to help our mother in the kitchen or read.

So we were fighting, Bakura mostly yelling at me which woke up Amane from her nap and made her start to cry. My mother who was driving, left us alone for a few moments, in hopes that we'd solve our problem ourselves which sometimes happened between us. Sadly, this was not one of those times as Bakura ignored my attempts to try and keep the situation calm. Our mother turned around to scold us for waking Amane with our fighting, and as soon as our names left her lips a semi was coming right at

us. She wasn't paying attention as the sleep-deprived driver turned towards our car. And then there was a loud crash, glass shattered around us and we were jolted around painfully as the car flipped a couple times into the ditch and we were suspended upside down. I didn't register much that day, I don't even remember being in pain until I awoke in the hospital, the only thing I registered was looking over at Bakura and seeing a piece of metal sticking out of his abdomen. The pole probably came in through the front windshield from the semi when we collided. That was the only thing I registered completely because at that moment my mind went into a swirling panic. My brother was going to die! He was bleeding! I was bleeding! My sister, my mother, Akefia, was bleeding! Mom wasn't waking up and oh how I wished I could hear Amane crying, just to be sure she was alright.

"Ryou, come here, stop screaming and come here, we have to get out of the car," Akefia shouted, blood dripping from a gash on his eye. He scrambled into the back seat and grabbed me around my torso, but I didn't want to get out of the car! We had to get Amane out of the car! We had to get mom out of the car and make sure they were alright. There was so much blood...so much blood-

"Ryou, stop fighting me, I have to get Bakura out of the car, do you understand me? Get away from the car, take one hundred footsteps away from the car okay, to that hill up there would be fine. Don't you move until I come back do you understand me?" Akefia said in all seriousness, giving me a small push when I tried to walk back towards the car. I didn't even bother to count, hell I was shaking, I was scared to death! I didn't even know if all this blood on my clothes was mine or Bakura's or even Amane's. I just ran shakily to the hill before collapsing onto the dry, prickly grass. I turned around to see Akefia pulling Bakura out of the car who began to scream out in agony, as he began to walk towards me I noticed the car was catching on fire and I began to scream once more. Akefia quickly set Bakura off on the ground before grabbing me around the torso when I tried to run back to the car.

"Akefia! Amane and Mommy are going to die! We have to get them out of the car!" I screamed

"Ryou, they're already dead, they died when the semi hit them, we have to wait for help," Akefia tried to explain, but I was in total meltdown mode. Our father was somewhere far away digging up artifacts, the only person that could take care of us was my mother and she was gone! She couldn't be gone, I refused to believe that my only little sister and my mother was dead! When the car was totally engulfed in flames, I fell to my knees and I sat there bawling while Akefia went to Bakura's aid who was shaking and seemed completely out of it. When Akefia grabbed the slicked up pole, covered in Bakura's blood, I ran over.

"You're going to kill him! You're going to kill him!" I screamed, trying to stop Akefia from pulling the metal object from his abdomen. We already lost two people, I refused to lose my twin brother along with them. Bakura was screaming with Akefia trying to whisper calming words

"I'm not going to kill him Ryou! Trust me! He's in a lot of pain, it needs to be removed so I can press down on the wound so he won't lose anymore blood!" Akefia shouted back, trying to focus while trying to shove me away at the same time.

"No, no, no you're going to kill him!" I continued to scream above the sound of sirens that kept coming closer and closer, I attempted to once again remove his hands from Bakura who had passed out but he kept shoving me away. Akefia managed to pull the pole out of Bakura's stomach and by that time the ambulance had arrived and two paramedics held me down and gave me sedative. Another two were helping Akefia and Bakura. I started to lose consciousness when they began to carry me away from my brothers and the last thing I saw was the fiery remains of our car and the feeling of dread. Everything that we had known had now changed...forever.

~Akefia

You know, I never expected MY life could be changed so fast. I mean, I heard of it happening to other people in textbooks or on the news, but I never would've expected it to happen to me especially after a nice win against our school's rival The Trojans. I was just staring out the window listening to my music and behaving. My little sister was in her booster seat, asleep. My two brothers were in the back, Ryou was playing on the DS which was practically mine but I shared it with my other brothers. I guess Bakura wanted to pick a fight, probably because he was bored and wanted a turn with the DS so they were fighting in the back. I turned up the volume and ignored them. I wish I would've turned around to keep them quiet, that way Amane wouldn't have gotten woken up by Bakura's yelling, that way my mom wouldn't have had to turn around and miss that semi that was coming our way. Maybe it was fate, I mean it was pretty coincidental that that semi driver happened to fall asleep at that time behind the wheel. Anyways, it just happened so fast. One moment we were driving forward and the next the semi bumped into our car and flipped it a couple times. I think I might've passed out for a few moments because the next thing I knew, I was suspended upside-down and there was screaming.

I looked over to my mother to see her chest no longer moving. Tendrils of red dripped down from her face. She was dead. That's when my instincts took over. Screaming meant someone was alive, I had to get them out and based from how hot the car was getting, it had to be soon. I was aching, my eye stung like hell, but I unbuckled my seat belt and made my way into the back seat, my injured eye was closed. Ryou covered in red, was screaming at Bakura, his eyes wide, I looked over to see what he was screaming at and I felt my heart stop. There was a metal pole sticking out of my baby brother's stomach and he was bleeding pretty bad, but he was alive. His eyes were glazed over and he seemed pretty confused but he was alive. I looked over to Amane, her white dress was stained in blood and her neck seemed to be at a sickening angle. Just by one look at her, I knew she was dead. I ignored the way my chest ached and focused on getting my two brothers out of there, the car was already becoming unbearably hot.

"Ryou, come here, stop screaming and come here, we have to get out of the car," I said

I went for him, getting the younger out of his seat as gently and quickly as I could. He wouldn't stop screaming and he began to fight me. I don't know why, I mean couldn't he figure out just how dangerous of a situation we were in!? But I couldn't blame him, the more he kicked and screamed, the more I knew he was alive and well. We were lucky that the passenger door was able to open, although with difficulty, and I scrambled out with Ryou before dumping him on the ground.

He tried to run back into the car and I was surprised to find that my reflexes were still as fast as normal, the soccer team didn't appoint me captain for nothing after all.

I locked eyes with him and kept my voice as low and as steady as I could,"Ryou, stop fighting me, I have to get Bakura out of the car, do you understand me? Get away from the car, take one hundred footsteps away from the car okay, to that hill up there would be fine. Don't you move until I come back do you understand me?"

To help the other hopefully snap a little into reality I gave him a small shove towards the hill. I would never forget how fearful his brown doe-eyes looked at me, but he obeyed me and ran up to the hill.

I turned back to grab Bakura who was pale and seemed about ready to pass out.

"Hey buddy, stay with me here okay? Can you hear me Bakura? Bakura? Stay awake okay? Help is on the way, it's okay," I said calmly, trying hard to ignore the amount of blood that seemed to be coming out of his body. It was scarier when he didn't seem to respond to what I was saying to him, I almost thought he had some brain damage or something. When I made the decision to move him however he began to scream out in agony.

"Sorry, sorry, I'm sorry, I have to do this," I tried to apologize as he continued to scream and grasp onto my shirt tightly. His tiny body was beginning to shake violently as tears began to stream down his face. We made it out of the car just as it was beginning to start on fire, and though I wanted to desperately go back to remove my mother and sister's body from the car before they burned, I had to pay attention to my brothers. I made my way over to Ryou who began to scream frantically, his eyes reflecting the light of the fire.

"Akefia! Amane and Mommy are going to die! We have to get them out of the car!" He screamed, tears rolling down his tiny face. His eyes pleaded with me, hoping that by some miracle they would be okay.

"Ryou, they're already dead, they died when the semi hit them, we have to wait for help," I tried to explain, my voice beginning to shake. As much as I wanted to comfort both of them at the same time, I had to focus on Bakura and try to stop the bleeding. I placed him on the ground and knelt beside him which was awkward since he had an iron-like grip on my shirt.

"Kefi...i-it hu-hurts," he choked out.

"It's okay Bakura, you're going to be okay, I promise," I responded as calmly as I could, even if I was beginning to doubt his chances,"I'm going to try to pull this thing out of you okay? Be a good boy for me and hold still."

I grasped the pole that was slicked in his blood in my hands and began to pull, but Ryou began to freak out.

"You're going to kill him! You're going to kill him!" The smaller shouted hysterically as he tried to claw my hands away from the pole.

"I'm not going to kill him Ryou! Trust me! He's in a lot of pain, it needs to be removed so I can press down on the wound so he won't lose anymore blood!" I tried to reason as I tried to focus on keeping Ryou away from Bakura and comforting Bakura at the same time who began to scream bloody murder.

"No, no, no you're going to kill him!" Ryou continued to scream until I gave him a hard eough shove to send up sprawling to the ground. The sirens of ambulances were loud around this time, I couldn't believe I didn't hear them before, but I was busy with my two brothers. In a blur the sound of car doors slamming and shouting was noticeable, I managed to get the pole out of Bakura's abdomen and pressed down as hard as I could against his wound. He was passed out at this point, barely breathing, but with the sound of voices I was allowed to breath a small sigh of relief. Two paramedics sedated Ryou who gave me a look of utter betrayal before his eyes fluttered closed and he was taken away by the paramedics. Another two surrounded Bakura and I, that was the point where I began to start losing my own head because they tried to separate him from me. Yes, I wanted to desperately be there for both of my twin brothers, but Bakura was going to possibly die and I didn't want him to be in the company of strangers if he did! Granted, we were never really close, but after the accident I have never felt closer to my two brothers. Especially when I would soon have to raise both of them in the place of my father.

"No, n-n I need to be with him, he's dying!" I shouted, as one held me away and tried to drag me off to a nearby ambulance.

"Your brothers will be fine, but we have to take a look at your eye. You'll see them again in the hospital," the paramedic said as they shoved me in the back of the ambulance and forced me to lay down on a stretcher.

"You don't understand! He's dying, I need to be with him!" I shouted as I bolted back up to get a nice view of Bakura being laid down on another stretcher and taken into an ambulance. I also got a good look at the firefighters beginning to try and stop the burning, black wreckage of our car. As the paramedic signaled the driver to speed off, I was shoved against the stretcher again and was threatened to be sedated if I couldn't calm down. How could I calm down!? I lost my mother and sister in one fell swoop! One of my brothers was knocking on death's door, and the other was going to wake up alone with no idea where he was or where his brothers were! To make matters worse our father was miles upon miles away in Egypt on an archaeological dig!

The rest was a blur, I can remember events here and there though. I remember I couldn't see Bakura at all when we got to hospital, I had to get my eye checked out by a doctor and stitched up before I got to see Ryou. The doctor was amazed at our injuries. Ryou had gotten a broken arm and a few deep scratches along with a concussion. I for one had a scarred up eyes, a few deep scars and a sprained wrist along with a concussion. We were both pretty lucky. Bakura on the other hand wasn't so

lucky. His heart had stopped once during the ride to the hospital, but luckily they were able to resuscitate him and he was currently in the ICU in critical, but stable condition.

When I walked to Ryou's room, the little one had tried to run up to me but I forced him to lay back in bed and instead got into the little bed with him. We laid like that for awhile. We were just too shocked at what happened and worried about our future. All we could do was stay there together and wait, but it was enough for that moment.

We both fell asleep at some point, but I don't remember how long we were asleep. A nurse woke us up to tell us our father is coming back from Egypt and our grandmother was going to come up from a faraway town to take care of us while our father planned the funeral out. She also told us that we were allowed to finally see Bakura, but what met me was something I was not prepared for whatsoever.

He was connected to so many tubes and machines. The way he breathed seemed so inhuman, and he looked so pale and small in that hospital bed. They said he was doing better, but it sure as hell didn't look like it. Ryou seemed just as freaked out.

"Kefi, why does he have so many tubes on his body? Does it hurt? Is he gonna die?"

"I don't know sweetheart, but these tubes are keeping him alive for the time being," I could only respond. I wasn't used to being the adult at this point in my life, in fact I thought once our father got here everything would be somehow okay. But it wasn't okay, because after the funeral our father detached from us. He wasn't the type of father to abuse us, but after mom and Amane died he seemed to forget he had three children to support. That's when I became a father at a young age, that's when I started to learn how to steal, that's how I got my name The Thief King and how I began to teach my "sons" how to steal as well.

~Bakura

When I came to it was to white walls...well white everything to be exact. Was it all a bad dream?

"B-Bakura?" A familiar voice, tinged with hope questioned,"A-Are you awake?"

I tried to choke out a response but what ensued was a painful coughing fit. Strong arms wrapped around me amidst all the tubes and gently patted my back until the coughs subsided. What met me next was a straw poking at my nose at a failed attempt at aiming at my mouth.

"Drink it. It's water," the voice said. After blinking my eyes a few times I registered that amidst all the white there was a figure in front of me. Ryou. He had a cast on his left arm. Usually Ryou always had a small smile on his face, this time though there wasn't a trace of a smile on his lips as the straw poked at my cracked lips, prompting me to take a sip.

I obeyed, starting to wake up a bit more although I wished I really didn't because it felt like I was ran over by a car. The arms that were around me slowly guided me back against a strong chest after I took a few sips which I soon figured out was Akefia.

"Where am I?" I asked, my voice sounding like I gargled on nails.

"The hospital. Do you remember what happened, anything at all?" Akefia questioned, he had a bandage over his right eye.

What happened? I looked away and stared down at my hands as I tried to recollect anything that happened before I passed out. The car accident...but wasn't that just a dream? In a rush the pain kept flooding back, the high pitched squealing, the flames growing higher, the fear in my brother's eyes. The blood, oh god the smell of the it, the way it was painted on my brother's face, like some sick, really early Halloween prank. It was all my fault, the blood, the pain, the fire.

"W-Where are they?" I stammered, my body beginning to shake, hoping desperately that it was just a lie, just a dream, that they were still alive.

"Who?" Akefia questioned

"M-Mom a-and Amane."

"They're gone Bakura," Ryou said quietly, his already red-rimmed eyes beginning to fill again with tears. Gone. My fault. All gone, I couldn't even apologize, to tell them I loved them, to hug them one last time. God I was such a fucking idiot, a fucking idiotic seven year old going on eight! My chest began to hurt, my body began to shake and I think blood began to pour down my cheeks. It was getting hard to breath...it was all my fault...all my fault, all my fault. We were fucked, I fucked up everything, who was going to watch us now!? Mom was the one who watched us while Dad was at work. My darling, innocent sister was killed by me! I was a criminal! I should be dead!

"Bakura? Bakura!? Hey bud, it's okay, it's okay you didn't mean it, it's not your fault," Akefia soothed as my face was pressed against his chest as he gently rubbed at my head. I felt something break within my chest and a strangled sob broke past my lips. Ryou must've joined us at some point because soft, tired crying joined the violent sobbing of my own. I tried to choke out apologies but all that broke through were more strangled sobs. It hurt. It hurt so fucking much it nearly drove me insane. In fact I was surprised that I was still alive, still breathing once the sobs began to subside only to be replaced by exhaustion.

When I opened my swollen and burning eyes the sleepy face of my twin met me, one tan, protective hand on his shoulder and the other on mine. I sleepily looked up at my brother Akefia whose purple eyes shimmered as he fixed me with a tired, but comforting smile as if to say that everything would be okay. Everything would be okay as long as we were together.

~Bakura

The service was surprisingly short, with a small group of people ranging from relatives, to friends, to classmates mostly from Akefia's class. Ryou and I usually stuck together, and after the accident we

stuck even closer, away from our peers. Ryou actually got along with everyone else, but he always stuck around me because I was less sociable and he didn't want me to feel lonely. As I looked around at the other gravestones I couldn't help but remember how we'd use to come here to run around and play. We'd play hide and seek behind the gravestones, we'd try to find the oldest one or the newest one. Sometimes Akefia would bring along crayons and paper so we could document our favorite ones by coloring over them. It was especially useful for the really old ones where it was sometimes hard to tell the name and dates due to erosion.

There was no question as to what the two newest gravestones would be this time around and where they would be located. Under an oak tree I stood with my two brothers, my father behind us, but distant. I looked down at the gravestones, at the names etched in them. Amane Touzoku, Birth: April 1 2000, Death: August 20 2004. Then the one right beside it. Raven Touzoku, Birth: February 12 1978, Death: August 20 2004. Akefia and I stood, numb, one of our arms around Ryou who was sniffling quietly as two coffins were placed underneath the ground and a prayer was said by the priest. Afterwards, the group dispersed, some to the reception, some back to their homes. We were forced to go to the reception, even though I really could care less about how sorry everyone else was of my losses. It was my fault anyways.

Our father remained supportive and around us when I was still recovering in the hospital and during the funeral. After the reception, he started a new job with working at the local museum now that he was the only suitable guardian to take care of us since our grandmother lived far away. That was when he began to grow even more distant, to the point that he forgot he had three sons left to feed. That was when we had to fend for ourselves, to support each other, to make sure the other was ready for school, that the other was fed and clothed. That was when my big brother became the Thief King and I, his student.

~Hiii, it's been awhile since I've updated this, but I wanted to redo it because I realized that not only was the format crap, so was my writing back then. So, enjoy this updated version and the rest of the chapter