Adelianna: Here is chapter one. Anyway, I saw on my hit list that approximately 60 people visited the prologue, but only one person reviewed. So thanks firebird for reviewing. Also, readers, if you can, read my other story, Passed Down Through Time. And please, people, if you read please review. Please *makes puppy dog eyes*

Chapter One

Dangerous First Encounter




"We're here! We're here!" shouted Janessa's younger brother, Kevin, as the plane they were on flew over Egypt. Janessa glanced up from the book she was reading and looked out the window of the plane, leaning over Kevin. The desert stretched out before them, sand as far as the eye could see. The sky was a brilliant shade of blue, the sun combing through the cerulean with its rays, thermals rising up from the dunes to aid birds in flight.

Janessa twisted her hair around her finger while she stared again at her book, a childish grin forming on her face at the prospect that they were almost at their destination. A girl in her late teens, Janessa had long, curly red hair and startling emerald green eyes. Her skin was lightly tanned, thanks to a tanning cream she had rubbed on her skin before her mother, brother, and she left Japan. A few freckles splashed across her nose, refusing to be hid by the bronze lotion. Her lips and cheeks matched the color of her hair, caused by the make-up Janessa had applied. Dark blue kapris covered her thighs, and a tight, green spaghetti strapped shirt brought out her already noticeable eyes.

Next to her, at the tender age of eleven, was her brother. Short, wavy black hair covered his head, while his light brown irises magnified his skin which was almost the same color. Kevin wore a red shirt, and light-blue shorts that shared the same color as his sandals. He was practically jumping out off his seat in anticipation, Janessa feeling the exact same way. It was always her dream to visit Egypt, not that she actually thought that she would live there one day.

"Excuse me, sweetie," Janessa's mom, Victoria asked from behind her, interrupting Janessa's thoughts. Victoria had went to the restroom to freshen up before they landed.

Janessa stood up from her seat by the aisle, and let her mother sit in the middle, next to Kevin who was seated by the window. Janessa sat back down and buckled herself, but couldn't concentrate on her book. She was too excited. Janessa listened to her brother, who was talking a mile a minute, pointing out things to his mother. Victoria, at the age of 38, looked almost identical to Janessa, except, of course, that she was older and had thin, blond highlights mixed into her straight strawberry colored hair. A white blouse with small, black buttons, and an ebony skirt made up Victoria's attire.

The plane was mostly full, people either sleeping on the blue seats or talking animatedly with each other. Victoria's and Kevin's words soon blended in with the hum of other conversations, as exhaustion suddenly overwhelmed Janessa. She barely slept a wink since they boarded the plane, and soon fell into a deep slumber.

Too shortly, it seemed, she was being shook awake. "Janessa, wake up. We've landed." She looked around dumbly, taking the information slowly in with her sleep deprived brain. Janessa stood up, stretched, then sat back down as the captain said a few last words over the intercom.

As people stood to walk down the ramp that extended from the plane to the hot, Egyptian ground, excitement filled Janessa's very being. They were here at last. Janessa had the whole summer ahead of her to explore Egypt and its many mysterious. She quickly put her book into the backpack she had taken with on the plane, slung it over her shoulder, and joined the throngs of people exiting the plane.

All too soon, Janessa and her family were on the ground wishing they were back on the air-conditioned plane. Kevin fanned himself with his hand and panted, "It's burning hot here! It's hotter than it was in Domino!" Dirty yellow sand dunes rose in the distance, heat shimmering in the air. The pale blue sky hung high over head, so smooth it looked like liquid. The sun was a blazing, yellow sphere sending large amounts of heated rays to Egypt, baking the occupants.

"Duh, silly. Dad told us that it would be. Why do you think we're not wearing very much?" Janessa pointed to her green spaghetti strapped shirt and blue kapris.

"Speaking of your father, he said he'd meet us at the baggage counter," Victoria said, pulling Janessa and Kevin by the hands into the nice, cool airport.

The aerodrome looked like any other airport Janessa had been in. The hum of mingling conversations filled her ears. The ringing of cell phones, and the cooing of babies could be heard also. Neon yellow signs high over head pointed out what plane would leave where, and when it would leave. Clerks, and flight attendants in blue uniforms hurried about, occasionally stopping to help some lost pedestrian. Grey chairs where planted in the waiting area, housing immense, glass windows, allowing viewers to watch planes landing and taking off. Mostly everything was sapphire and silver, with televisions sets spotted across the airport, left on news channels, and lush, green potted plants standing in corners.

Janessa giggled in excitement as she looked around. Besides being mixed with tourists from all over the world, there were Egyptian people with turbans and robes milling about. Beyond the window Janessa saw sand, and perhaps in the distance something that she could only hope was a pyramid.

"Daddy!" Kevin suddenly shouted and ran forward out of his mother's grip toward a figure with brown hair, and deeply tanned skin. He wore American clothing, a dark blue shirt with black shorts, eyes hidden by tinted sunglasses.

"Kiddo," Jared said happily, lifting his son up in a warm embrace. Victoria and Janessa walked up to them. Jared spotted them and smiled. He gently put Kevin down on the ground and hugged his wife. "I missed you Victoria," he whispered into her shoulders.

"And I you," she said just as quietly, embracing him back. They parted and Jared looked down at his daughter. "Hey Jenna." He called Janessa by her nickname, opening his tanned arms wide. Janessa squirmed slightly as she walked forward into her dad's hug.

Her father and she were never very close, but Janessa liked the fact that he had gotten them to Egypt. Jared was laid off from work a few months back, forcing Victoria to be the only provider. Many of Janessa's luxuries had been lost, replaced by a sinking feeling of the heart whenever her parent's mentioned their financial situations. Then, from out of the blue, Jared announced that he had found a job in Egypt that pays well and that he would be heading there to make arrangements for all of them. Now here they were, joined in the throngs of tourists and residents, in mysterious Egypt.

Janessa pulled out of her father's embrace, looking at the baggage counter a few feet behind them. "Perhaps we should get our luggage?" she suggested, green eyes searching for their suitcases.

"I'll get 'em!" Kevin shouted, running over to the baggage.

"Kevin, come back here!" yelled Victoria, afraid something would happen to him if she didn't keep constant watch on Kevin. She jogged after her son, who was busy looking through the myriads of luggage that littered the area. Multitude of people where gathered around the suitcases, searching for theirs as the bags slowly went down the conveyor belt.

As Janessa went over to aid Victoria and Kevin in their quest, her father grabbed her shoulder. Janessa peered up at him, asking with her facial features what he wanted.

"So," he said slowly, taking of his sunglasses to reveal brown eyes. He stuffed the tinted sunglasses into his shirt's front pocket. "Did you ever find that card of yours?"

Janessa frowned. "You mean Slifer The Sky Dragon?"

Jared nodded. "Yeah, you were very disappointed when you couldn't find it. I was just wondering if you did."

Janessa arched an eyebrow. When she had alerted her family to the cards disappearance, Jared didn't seem to care at all, saying it would turn up eventually. Janessa wondered why he was so interested in knowing now. "No, I haven't found it yet. I think someone from school stole it."

Relief passed momentarily on Jared's face, replaced by a look of anger. "Yeah, those children. You can never trust them. In fact, you can't really trust anyone."

"Quite right," a voice agreed behind Janessa's father. Janessa inched sideways to see who spoke, and came face to face with a boy her age. The boy had shoulder length, platinum blond hair, with bangs that covered a portion of his deeply tanned face. Gold earrings dangled from his ears, while his pale, lavender eyes peered deeply into her emerald ones. He wore a sleeveless white shirt, with gold chains hooked along the front. Beneath his revealed stomach, he wore a ebony pants, a black belt looped around his waist. Hanging from the belt was a gold rod, and on his arms where matching gold wrist, and arm bands.

"M-Mast, I mean Marik," he shot an alarmed look at Janessa. "What are you doing here?"

Marik tilted his head sideways, a smug smile inching along his lips. "Why, to meet your family of course." He returned his gaze to Janessa, who was confused. Was her father about to call him master or something? Who exactly was this Marik?

Marik reached out a tanned hand to Janessa, for a handshake. "You must be Janessa," Marik said to her as she grabbed his hand. Marik's palm was soft, and warm.

"Yes," Janessa replied, releasing the grip on his hand. When she first had glanced at him, Janessa was love struck. But their was something about his demeanor that changed her mind, as if an evil presence lay concealed beneath his handsome features. "Who are you?"

Jared answered quickly for him. "He's a, well, he's, um, by bosses' son." He glanced at Marik, pleading with his eyes for him to go along with the facade.

Marik chuckled inwardly, but couldn't keep a small smile from flickering across his face. How he loved to make people squirm in fear, especially Jared. The slave dreaded his family finding out that he was a Rare Hunter.

"Oh, well nice to meet you." Janessa smiled, but was still confused as to why her father was acting so nervous.

Jared looked down at his daughter. "Jenna, why don't you go over and help your mother find your luggage. I'll be over to help in a minute."

Janessa looked at Marik, then at her father, still confused as to what was happening. "Um, okay, I guess so." She turned away and started walking to her mother, looking over her shoulder to see her father and Marik deep in conversation. Her father looked frightened, concern etched on his features. Marik, on the other hand, had his arms cross over his chest, smiling smugly at her father's obvious discomfort. Janessa turned her attention back to her mother, shaking her head slowly. Things are getting weird, thought Janessa. Perhaps Marik is a snotty jerk threatening Dad with his job, or something.

When she reached the conveyor belt that was spewing out various travelers' luggage, Victoria, or Kevin where nowhere to be found. Janessa looked frantically around, after all, their were dozens of people searching for their baggage. Perhaps she had overlooked them. A few people jostled her, trying to reach their bags as she continued searching. Concluding that her mother, and younger brother had joined her father, she walked over to where she last saw Jared. Janessa began to panic when she couldn't locate him either.

Janessa turned around frantically, looking for anyone familiar. There were hundreds of people at the airport, myriads of colors dancing about her. She began to wander, dozens of noises streaming through her ears.

"Lost, are we?" a cold voice questioned behind her. Janessa turned quickly around, to find Marik standing right behind her, looking down at Janessa with an odd expression on his face.

"Yes," she said hurriedly. "Where's my father? I can't find him, or the rest of my family anywhere."

Marik smiled, though his violet eyes still remained cold. "Hmm, well, I don't know where they are either."

"Oh." Janessa lifted a hand to her forehead, shoving red curls out of her face, turning her head around, still searching. "I guess I'll go have someone announce over the speakers, or something, that I'm lost. They do that at stores."

She turned around, this time looking for someone who worked at the airport who could help her, when she felt a hand roughly grab her arm right above her elbow.

"Hey!" she tried to pull away from Marik, but he held her tight. Janessa stopped struggling and looked up into his purple irises. "What are you doing?" she demanded, rather than asked. "Let go of me."

Marik just smiled, lightly rubbing his thumb across her smooth skin, causing Janessa to shiver. "I know where you live," he stated, starting to drag Janessa toward the exit door. "I'll just give you a ride with my motorcycle."

Janessa planted her feet firmly on the tile, forcing Marik to stop. "No!" she tried to yank her arm out of his grasp, to no avail. "Let go of me now or I'll scream."

All this did was cause Marik to smile. He leaned down so his lips brushed her ear. "That really wouldn't be prudent of you, Jenna."

Janessa pulled her head back and narrowed her emerald eyes. "Why not? What's up with you? Just lemme go!"

Marik smirked, staring down at the girl. As far as he was concerned, he owned Janessa's father, and therefore owned her. "Calm down. I'm sure you wouldn't want anything bad to happen to your father."

Janessa narrowed her green eyes, anger sparkling in its depths. "What do you mean?" she asked in a deadly whisper.

"Just what I implied. Your father could, well, let's just say, find himself employed somewhere else. Someplace dark with shadows that some people refer to as another realm."

"What?" Janessa looked at Marik as though he was crazy.

"A rather cryptic statement, is it not?" His eyes seemed to laugh at her.

Janessa took a deep breath, calming her nerves. "Look, I'm sure you mean well and everything, offering to drive me to my new house. But I'd rather go with my family. My mother will be worried sick when she doesn't find me, and there is no way they'll know that I'm already at our home. So let me just go and find someone who works here who knows what to do in these type of situations," Janessa tried to reason with him.

Marik sighed and looked away. His gold earring jingled as he looked back at her then, lavender eyes meeting her green ones. He smiled ruefully. "You're a very adamant girl, I see." He used his other hand to grab Janessa's free arm. "Listen, I mean you no harm. The reason I came was in reality to ask you a few questions."

"Then ask," Janessa told him, staring up at Marik.

Marik shook his head. "Not here. Just follow me. We can leave a note with the front desk pertaining to where I'm taking you in case your parents decide to ask them, which I'm sure they will. Besides, you really don't have a choice in the matter, not if you don't want trouble to come down on your father's head. My wrath comes on swift wings."

Janessa clenched her fists. She remembered how happy and relieved her mother had been when Jared announced he had a job. Victoria cried tears of happiness, believing that their worries were over. Janessa didn't want her mother to ever cry, or feel helpless again. And that would happen if her father lost his job. "Fine," she snapped.

The Egyptian boy smiled. "I knew you'd see it my way. Everyone does, with the proper incentive."

Marik led her to the ticket counter, where he left a detailed, but brief message for the clerk to relay to Janessa's parents. Then they found their way outside the airport, where Marik had his motorcycle parked amidst the clutter of all the other vehicles.

In the time that Janessa had been inside the aerodrome, the temperature rose, heating Egypt like an oven. The sky shone a bright cerulean against the hazy heat, sun shining down at them, lighting the Earth. Sand rose in dunes in the distance, covering the land in a vibrant yellow.

Janessa panted. "Oh my gosh, how can you stand the heat?" she asked Marik, who seemed unaffected by it.

Marik shrugged, stopping at his motorcycle. "You get used to it after a while. Besides, once we're on the road you won't notice it anymore. The wind will see to that."

Marik grabbed a red helmet that was hung over the handlebars of the crimson motorcycle, and handed it to Janessa. "Here, put this on. We wouldn't want you to hurt your pretty, little head." He smiled cynically as Janessa glared at him.

"I notice that you have another helmet." And indeed there was, still slung over the other handlebar. The helmet was brown and had goggles on it. "You've been planning this before we even met."

"Of course," admitted Marik. "I never do things spontaneously."

"Why?" Janessa put on a show of anger, but inside a shiver of fear ran down her spine.

"Why I never do things spontaneously? Only fools do things impulsively."

"No," Janessa stamped her foot. "I mean why did you plan on me riding the motorcycle with you?"

"I know that was what you meant," Marik smiled slightly. "I told you before. I have a few questions I'd like to ask you. And I expect truthful answers, or the consequences may be more than you can bear."

Marik slung his leg over his motorcycle, sitting on the black seat. He then grabbed Janessa's arm and pulled her towards him. Janessa's heart beat fast as her breath came out in short quick gasps. She was afraid of him, of Marik's tone and attitude as images filled her mind of what he might do to her.

Forget this, Janessa thought as she broke free of Marik's grasp and ran toward the airport. I'm not getting killed so my Dad can keep his job.

Janessa footsteps echoed on the pavement as looked over her shoulder to see if Marik was running after her, and surprisingly he was not. Instead he was fumbling around with the gold rod on his belt.

Janessa turned back around, focusing instead on the looming airport in front of her when all of a sudden, she felt something tap into her mind. Her senses numbed, and feelings deadened all over her body. She felt something course their way through her brain to all her appendages, telling her to stop. Her body listened as she was trapped helplessly inside her mind, screaming for command. The more she fought, the more the controlling power seemed to laugh at her. Janessa felt her body turn around and head to Marik, who had a small smile on his face.

Stop! Janessa yelled at herself, but her legs wouldn't comply. She was soon by Marik, who was still seated on his motorcycle, directing his rod at her.

"See, I told you everyone sees it my way." Marik chuckled as Janessa tried to scream at him, to no avail. "I bet you're frightened now. Unable to control you body, your feeble mind not comprehending how I am able to command your every move."

He reached out his hand and lightly put Janessa's lose, red hair behind her ear. Marik then took her hand, and controlled Janessa's body to sit behind him. He put Janessa's helmet on her head and secured it, doing the same thing with his, then placed his gold rod back on his black belt. Marik grabbed Janessa's wrists and positioned them around his own stomach, entwining her hands together.

Marik took the key out of his pocket and started the motor, the load roar filling the air. "Hold on tight!" He yelled back at her, chuckling at his own joke since she couldn't command her body to hold on tight even if Janessa wanted too.

The vibration of the motor caused Janessa to shiver, which she would have done out of fright if she was able to control her body. Janessa felt the warm flesh of Marik's stomach beneath her fingers as he pulled out of the parking lot, and headed down the road. Wind whipped her red hair behind her back, and burned her emerald green eyes. Desperation filled her soul, clawing its way out from the pit of her stomach. Janessa wanted to cry but couldn't, so she sobbed in her heart as fear also took control of her mind, trapping the now scared, little girl in a deep, dark pit where she screamed silently for the help that would never come.




Adelianna: Thanks for reading, and please review. I'll read and review your stories also if you do. I'll try and have chapter 3 up soon. Thanks!