A/N: Sorry guys! I meant for this to come out sooner, but I got so busy with sorority recruitment and tests and college shiz, that I lost track of time. But without further ado, I present you: Chapter 2! Disclaimer: Shockingly enough, I don't own Yu-gi-oh. Bakura would have had much more screen-time if I did.
Chapter Two – Sagas
The next few weeks went by fairly fast for Clarice. To her surprise he had actually ended up really liking Domino High. She was fairly reserved and quiet at her old school, so she didn't really have a whole lot of friends... Or any for that matter, but that didn't matter now! Because she'd made a lot of friends at her new school.
She wasn't Homecoming queen or anything. But she had succeeded in making a few friends in her Art and PE classes. Also, she'd gotten a lot closer to Tea and her friends. When Mr. Kalphone wasn't lecturing or yelling at someone, she would joke around with Tea, Hana, and Lara. And when they would break for lunch she'd hang around Yugi's desk with Tea, Joey, Tristen, and Ryou. And after school every day, her and Ryou would walk home together and talk on the roof of Ryou's apartment.
Yep, Clarice definitely thought she could get used to this schedule. She'd really been worried about moving to Domino High, and she was so happy to have met so many friendly people. And she was especially happy that she and Ryou had been able to rekindle their friendship so easily. She was really scared that he'd changed after that night, but it seemed like he hadn't.
"It's weird," she thought. Back when they were little, she and Ryou were practically inseperable. But after his dad was killed, his aura seemed to have turned dark. He had seen his own father get murdered, when he was 7. And at least Clarice could live with the comfort of knowing that the man whom had killed her parents received justice. But Ryou's father's murderer had never been caught. Apparently when Ryou saw his dad get murdered, his body went into shock and put him in a post-traumatic coma. He forgot everything, and was in the hospital for months.
She and her parents used to spend hours watching over him in his hospital room, his eyes were completely blood shot, and his body completely without motion, besides the occasional mumblings to himself. Those mumbles use to scare Clarice. They didn't sound like him. They sounded cold, hollow, and without hope, while his usual tone had always been so warm and friendly.
His mother became strangely distant from Ryou after his father passed. They had been told by the doctors that she rarely visited and when she did, all it consisted of was her dropping a vase of flowers on his desk and storming out of the hospital immediately afterwards. She never asked the doctors about his condition. She didn't even really seem to care. It got to the point where even the doctors grew worried. They had asked Clarice's parents what was wrong with her, but they didn't know. Nobody knew, really.
Clarice pondered. She'd always blamed his mother's boyfriend for the woman's sudden change in personality. When she was around Benjamin, Ryou's biological father, she was calm and happy and loved Ryou. But, after he passed she became distant. Less than a month after Ben's death she met Warshal, her new 'boy-toy' who was infamous for corrupting the law in their small sub division.
When Ryou left the hospital and moved back in with his mother and Warshal, that's when Clarice noticed bleakness clouding the features of Ryou's face. Not only had he gone into a depression, but he would also show up to school covered in bruises and scars. Clarice hated Warshal. She hated his greased hair, his un-shaved face, his nose deteriorating body oder, everything.
And even though she felt so strongly about this, she still hated to admit the fact that she felt Warshal and Ryou's mother's deaths were the best thing to have ever happened to Ryou. Once they were gone, she saw a huge wave of relief appear on Ryou's face. She knew he must have loved his mother, but the woman she became around Warshal was not the same woman who had raised and cared for him so.
When he moved in with Clarice and her parents, he went back to being the happy individual he was before his father's death, and he and Clarice were on the same wavelength again. Though, she did notice that he had become strangely attached to her. She assumed it was his way of coping with his parent's deaths. But other than that she was really enjoying his company again. She just hated that it didn't last for very long.
A little over a year later her parents were murdered.
George Kindermein.
She would never forget that name for the rest of her life. He was the man who had killed her parents. He was a lower employee of her father's work. He had been going through a lot of financial troubles at the time of her parent's murders, and assumedly the reason he had killed her parents was in an attempt to rob them.
She clinched her fists and tears began to slide down her face. "How could anyone ever believe that money is worth taking someone's life away for? Why couldn't he just ask my father for a raise?" Her father was a nice man; she was sure that if Kindermein would have just informed her father of his financial problems, he would have helped.
All life is important. She couldn't comprehend how anyone else could possibly think otherwise.
Then she remembered.
Ryou.
He had been the one to take George Kindermain's life away. It was in self-defense of course, and there were no charges put against him. She could never imagine kind hearted Ryou purposefully ending someone's life. She chuckled at the idea of it. But she worried about Ryou. It must have been absolutely traumatizing to end someone's life, even if it was in self-defense. She was worried that he would change after that. But surprisingly, he seemed to be the same, if not better. "He probably tries to block it out. Maybe that's why he didn't want to talk about his parent's deaths. It's just too hard to think about." Clarice thought to herself. She then snaps out of her day dream to look at the clock.
"7:45! I'm late!"
She quickly gulped down the rest of her food and rushed out the door to get to school. It was times like these that she really hated the fact that she had to walk to school. She sprinted down the road making sharp turns at a few corners, almost knocking into a middle aged couple. "Sorry!" she called out, turning her head away from the concrete in front of her. And then, she tripped over a small rock placed in front of her. "Ugh! I'm going to get Saturday school for sure!" She quickly stood up and brushed the dirt off of her clothes. "Whatever." She sighed to herself while continuing to walk to school.
She began to approach the entrance of the school and looked at her watch. "7:55. Wow, I still have 5 minutes left." She thought out loud to herself. She then paused, taking in a sigh of relief. She then looked around to notice that no one else was around. "Wait a second…" She then remembered that her watch was 5 minutes fast. "Shit!"
She barged through the doors and began to run to class. There was absolutely no way she was getting Saturday school! She noticed more students lingering in the hallway, whispering about her frantic sprints. But she had no time to worry about that! If she didn't make it to class on time, she'd get Saturday school, and if she got Saturday school Aunt Maria would-!
Halfway through that thought she crashed into another frantic student running the opposite direction. The collision caused both of them to fall back, and the causing boy she collided into's disheveled binder to scatter across the hallway floor.
"I'm so sorry!" Clarice apologized, while paper floated down around them.
"It's fine." He said nonchalantly while looking at the ground, attempting to collect his papers. He had short brown hair, square glasses, and a flurry of pimples residing on the bottom of his chin. The boy looked up to see her and immediately began to blush and frantically collect his papers.
"Here, let me help you with that," Clarice politely insisted.
"No, no, it's fine. Really, I got it." He insisted while still looking down and blushing furiously.
"Is he nervous or something?" She thought to herself. "No, I insist! It's my fault that you dropped them." She said while continuing to gather up papers.
She then handed the papers to him. "Thanks," He replied. Aren't you Clarice? The girl who moved here from Wendover?" He asked, attempting to seem as nonchalant as possible.
Clarice easily saw through his façade. "Uh, yeah. But how did you know I'm from Wendover?"
"Oh, did I say that?" He said nervously. "I don't want to sound weird, or anything. I just heard from someone that you were from Wendover, and I um, thought it was pretty cool because my favorite author lives there." He said, consistently fast.
"Does he have a crush on me? He's acting nervous enough." She looked him over. "He's not really my type. But, he seems sweet." She smiled inwardly to herself. It was nice to think that maybe someone had a crush on her. It was definitely something she wasn't use to. "What author?" she asked. She didn't read much, so she wasn't aware that one lived in her hometown.
"Oh, she's not one of the really popular ones. But her name is Diane Killingsworth, she wrote the 'Sagas' Trilogy.
"Never heard of it. What's it about?"
He began to go on some long rant about a boy, who found out he was an alien… Or maybe it was zombie? Well, it was something like that. Clarice zoned out halfway through his summary of the plot.
Ring-ring.
"Well, it looks like we're officially late! What class are you heading out to?" She asked while beginning to walk to her class.
"Mr. Lawson. I have the same homeroom as you." He said awkwardly while following her.
"Oh my gosh! I'm sorry, I guess I just never noticed you in there before."
"It's fine. I sit in the back, and I don't really have any friends in that class. So I don't talk much in it." He said with slight embarrassment in his voice.
"Well now you do have a friend in there!" Clarice smiled at him. The boy blushed, and Clarice also slightly blushed in return. "That reminds me. I don't think I ever caught your name?" She asked.
"Damien." He replied smiling. As they continued to walk to class, the two continued friendly small talk. As she continued to talk to him, she felt more comfortable in his presence. And dare she say it, but she thought he actually seemed kind of cute. Maybe not in a handsome sort of way like Ryou, but in a dorky adorable sort of way. She smiled to herself. But even though she was enjoying the boy's company, she couldn't shake this eerie feeling that they were being watched.
The rest of the day went by fairly normal, until fourth period when she noticed that Ryou was absent. She wondered if maybe he was sick, he seemed fine yesterday. "He's probably just skipping." She giggled to herself.
To Clarice's demise, she had to stay afterschool for detention. It was incredibly tiring and not to mention incredibly boring. On her way home she reminded herself never to be late for school for three days in a row, again. And of course, her aunt decided to remind her of that also. Through yelling. Lots and lots, of yelling. She decided that today was turning out to be a pretty crappy day. But surely tomorrow would have to be better.
-ooooo-
She woke up the next day running late, again. She had the feeling that this was going to be a bad week. She then rushed to school, barely making it on time. When Clarice arrived at her classroom she noticed that her new friend Damien was absent. She usually would blow off her worries, thinking that he was probably sick, or just skipping school. But she had that eerie feeling that she was being watched again. When she arrived to her 4th period class, she noticed that Ryou was absent again. "That's strange. I guess he isn't skipping." She thought to herself.
Her and the rest of the class suffered through Mr. Kalphone's lecture, for around 30 minutes and then were dismissed for lunch break. At lunch-break everyone split off to find their group of friends, leaving Clarice to wander to Yugi's desk, still slightly worried about Ryou's absence.
"Hey, do you guys know where Ryou is? I haven't heard from him in a while." Clarice asked.
The group around Yugi's desk became silent for a few moments. "I don't really know, exactly. But, he does this every once in a while…" Tea answered.
"Does what? Skip school a lot?"
"Not exactly," Tristan says, entering the conversation.
"What do you mean?" Clarice asked, beginning to worry.
"Well, he's not exactly skipping school. He has a good reason for not coming to school." Tristan continues.
"So, what's wrong with him? Is he sick?"
"I guess, you could say that," Joey comments.
"Why are you guys being so secretive? Just tell me what's going on." A now slightly aggravated Clarice states.
"Ehh… Well, you see. That Bakura kid is a special case." Joey continues. "He's kind of off, you could say."
"I don't understand."
"What Joey's trying to say, is that Bakura is a total nutcase." Tristan interrupts.
"Oh! Real nice, Tristen!" Joey exclaims.
"Well, somebody needed to say it!" Tristan argues. Clarice looks down.
"Now look what you did! You upset the poor girl!" Joey replies.
"What's wrong with you guys? You're supposed to be his friends, but you're acting like he's some sort of criminal! Ryou's been through a lot in his life, and he deserves our support!" Clarice states firmly.
"Clarice!" Tea begins. "It's not that we aren't his friends! It's just…"
"We have a hard time trusting him." Yugi finishes.
"Why?"
"Well," he begins. "About a year ago, we-"
"Attention class!" The teacher interrupts. "Lunchtime is over. Please return back to your assigned seats."
Clarice sighs deeply and returns back to her seat. The rest of the day was filled with concern about Tea and her friends not 'trusting' Ryou. She usually wouldn't get so heated up over an argument, but this was different. Ryou had been through a lot of hard times in his life, and he deserved friends that can trust him. Or actually care about him, at the least.
He finally seemed happy for the first time in 10 years, but now he couldn't even have friends that genuinely cared about him. She was so aggravated. But somehow, she managed to make it through the rest of the school day.
After school, Clarice decided not to talk to Tea like usual. But instead, she decided to head straight home. She felt it would be better to confront them tomorrow, after she cooled off. When she arrived at her apartment building, she decided to go next door to visit Ryou. She entered the building, walked up the staircase to the second level, and when she arrived to his room she knocked twice.
"Ryou?" She knocked again. "Ryou, are you in there?" She knocked one last time. "Hello?" She sighed. In one last attempt, she wondered if the door was locked, and decided to gently twist the door knob. And to her surprise the door was open.
The door creaked open to reveal a disheveled room. The couch that stood in the middle back of the room, had now been torn to shreds and flipped over, his tv now had a broken screen with its glass shards spread across the floor, and then she noticed that some of the silverware and dishes from the kitchen had been thrown and broken.
"What the hell?" She then heard a faint cry coming from inside the apartment. "Ryou! Is that you?" she called out.
She then heard the cry, again. This time she noticed that it was coming from a closet on the right side of her, located next to the entrance of the kitchen. She hesitantly walked towards the closet, and opened the door. To her surprise, there was no one in there, but the cry she had been hearing sounded closer than before. That was then she realized it was coming from the suitcase inside. "Maybe, it's an alarm he forgot to turn off? Yes Clarice. An alarm he set to go off at 3:30 pm, with someone screaming as his ringtone. Of course. That must be it." She inwardly scolded herself. She picked up the briefcase, and slowly clicked open the tabs on its side. She then silently opened up its lid to see what was inside.
… It was toys?
They looked like figurines that would be used for a board game. But some of them looked oddly familiar… Then it hit her, one of the figurines looked exactly like Martin. Then, she noticed the one sitting right beside it looked like her friend Damien. She also noticed that the yelling noise, was gone now. What she heard now, was what sounded like nervous panting.
"Turn." She thought she heard from the doll that resembled Damien. "What?" She leaned in closer.
"You really shouldn't meddle in other people's affairs." She heard a voice from behind her say.
"Oh! I'm sorry Ryou." She apologized while turning around. "…You're not Ryou." She said frightened.
"Very Perceptive."
A/N: DUN. DUN. DUUUN. Cliffhanger! –ish…
Hey guys! I know this chapter is kind of slow, but it contains A LOT of important info for the chapters coming up ahead. And I promise there will a lot more of Bakura in the next chapter too! Just a heads up, another reason why this chapter took longer than expected, was because I got another idea for a fic that I really want to start working on too. I'd like to wait to work on it AFTER I'm done with this story, but it really just depends on how many reviews you guys give this one.
So if you love it, REVIEW. If you hate it, REVIEW.