A/N: Dammit, I'm so sorry! I feel so bad. I didn't have comp access for awhile. I'm sorry! Just read. I swear this lateness will never happen again.
Apologetic face.
****Holly's POV****
I still was with them. I was pretty sure they were all tomb-robbers. (They were all so tan.)
Three days of sunburn, bothersome sandstorms, and scary moments had passed. In other words, right now...
My other captors were out (they had said they were going to the river). I was here alone with Bakura.
****Bakura's POV****
She still was with us. I was pretty sure she was a princess of the palace. (She was really pale.)
Three days of mishaps, shattered treasure, and klutziness had passed. In other words, right now...
The others were out fetching water at the river and doubtless eyeing Mahad's good-looking cousin, Cahent (I knew she traded there on this day of the month). I was alone here with Holly.
She had a way of looking at me that slightly put me on edge. Reminded me a little of a tricky pickpocket victim. For her credit, I thought, watching her watch me, she was really rather observant. Maybe she wasn't a palace girl.
Well. She WAS obnoxious. So I still wasn't entirely certain of anything.
I'd given Keht, Khalfani and Senuhet treasure to exchange for whatever they wanted in town later. Keht would get his usual rope and grappling hook attachments, Khalfani would probably buy new weapons, and Senuhet would buy little metal scraps, papyrus, and ibis quills.
It was a stupid idea to give Leth or Xarius gold, we learned the hard way. Leth loved betting and gambling away everything we had. Xarius spent his gold too fast: fine clothes that wore out anyway, extravagant food, and women.
Based on how appealing girls seemed already, I knew I was headed down the same path.
I'd sent the men to town with a rule this time: under no circumstances could they reveal themselves. Hoods up at all times. No exceptions. Zip, nada, zilch.
They better not make fools of themselves, I thought half-nervously. I didn't want to bail them out of prison again. We were all worth too much right now.
"Um, Bakura?"
Holly was speaking to me. I shook off my thoughts. "What?"
"Remember that thing you said about um..."
"Apprenticing you? I don't know when. It was just an idea."
I watched her perplexity and mentally laughed at how she assumed I had "read her mind".
Exactly what kind of powers do they think I have? Even the men...
I attempted to shake off the thought because with that thought came the answer they have fear-and with Fear came memories.
the village- my village- was
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the smoke swirled into the air, mixing perfectly and horribly with the screams of anguish and the cries of children and newborn terror in a normally innocent place. the sky was as red as blood while that exact substance, thick and dark, was illuminated on the dirt by the slowly rising sun-even Ra didn't want to watch the massacre.
but the men, the tall and dark men with their long regal robes and their fancy clothes, so out of place in the framing of the doorway, normally they didn't even set foot in a place this poor, were scowling.
and the tall and dark-haired woman with beautiful clear blue eyes stood defiantly in front of them, still pale from the death of my father. she made a hand motion that ripped my soul- she wanted me to go? but without my mother I couldn't-
No Bakura, no, you must run.
knife came close to her face, her defiant and beautiful and- her face was so like mine-
my feet pounded out the rhythm of my mother's violent death, and I whipped around the corner, not seeing her shadow falling with her lifeless form as the blood splattered the walls and kept I running away like a coward and her screams followed me all the way out into the desert.
at night, when the large ball of what-was-once-hope left the sky, and the stars came out, I stared up at the moon, the sun's dark opposite, and wondered why I deserved this. why the hell the gods deserted my family and my friends and my home all at once.
what did I do wrong?
It takes a village to raise a child.
But it takes a village to break one too.
"Bakura?"
I realized I had been lost in the stupid reverie I promised never to go into again, dammit.
And worse, our captive was staring at me like I was an idiot.
"What?" I asked bitterly, my lips feeling dry, my tongue mildly thick. I had really been depressed at that flashback, I reflected angrily. I needed to stop feeling sad about what had happened years ago.
"You were just zoning out there," Holly said quietly.
"Oh."
So much for my fearsome image, I thought.
"Yeah..." I started awkwardly.
"Okay." Holly said simultaneously as I said my "yeah".
When the men got back, Holly was asleep and I was alternatively sitting on the pile of linen sheets and pacing back and forth at random intervals.
"Hey Bakura," Leth greeted me, sweeping his hood back, his hair flopping into his eyes as usual.
"Hey."
Leth had a sack of gambling treasures, and I hadn't even given him money, the cheater. I smiled. "Go put them in the corner."
Khalfani heard my order to Leth and dumped a handful of knives in the corner too, and Senuhet had stolen papyrus and stuff. I was bang on.
"Did you take off your hoods?"
"Nope," was the chorus.
"Good."
A few more days of boredom passed. Even robbing tombs was boring now. Everything was so boring.
We were stuck in a rut of boredom.
Funnily enough, the only non-boring thing was Holly. Her antics annoyed the hell out of us, but at least she was making our lives not deadly boring.
I decided I had to train her. It would be pretty cool to have a girl as a tomb-robber; she was small and slight and fast-seeming, and would be half-decent with apprenticeship.
I went to Khalfani. He was second in command, after all.
"Hey, Khal."
I proposed my idea about training Holly.
"No."
"Why not?"
"Bakura.. I'm sick of you. You think you can just stroll in here and replace me as leader. You're opressive and a tyrant!"
His eyes blazed angrily, and he drew a knife, holding it threateningly.
He has always been rebellious, but I didn't know it would be like-
My hand was at my pocket before I could think and my gold dagger was in my hand as he swung and nearly hit my shoulder. We whirled at each other in a blaze of fury, dancing with death, back and forth back and forth and back and-
"Argh!"
Khalfani groaned with pain as my blade caught the side of his face. But his metal sheath bounced the harsh sunlight into my eyes and in the split second I squinted, he lunged, his powerful arms tensing as he swung the knife as my head with incredible force. My foot moved as I slid aside and he stumbled- onto my knife.
In a split second of agony he writhed in pain, blood spilling onto the sand as he fell. With a sickening thump he hit the ground and lay still.
I felt a cold emotionlessness spread through me as I stared at his body.
Better go bury him before sunrise.
I felt a chill shoot down my back- someone watching me.
A pair of green emerald eyes gazed at me from a crack in the door. A pair of horrified eyes.
"M-m-monster..." came the whisper.
A/N: Okay. Hope you like. Next chapter decently soon. Sorry and all.
-Peace, Shiny-