Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this fanfic unless I created it myself. Anything that I did create was inspired by something owned by someone else. This is done for fun and entertainment, not for profit.
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Title: Scenes From a Reversal: Bloodpaths: 26-50: Guiding Death
Character: Marufuji Ryou
Word Count: 624
Genre: Drama, Supernatural||Rated: PG-13
Challenge: 50scenes: Marufuji Ryou: flicker
Summary: Fifty scenes from a story unwritten, with one fact reversed: what happens when the Gentle Darkness is not gentle? Ryou has his own dark tale to live in this world.

Kanda tossed another stick of wood on the fire and looked at his two companions. "Who gets to stay up for first watch?" He had a feeling it would be him; both of them had dueled earlier in the day and needed their rest.

"You can." Torimaki yawned, covering his mouth with the back of his hand. "I need some sleep." Just as Kanda had predicted.

Mototani stretched his arms out and wriggled. "So do I. That was a tough fight." He'd won only by the thinnest of margins, and Kanda suspected there would be a few nightmares drifting by that night.

He poked at the fire with a longer stick and looked out into the night that surrounded them. What was out there that might see the fire? But they dared not do without it. Even though he couldn't see that far from their makeshift camp with it burning.

Darkness could hide so much. He'd heard rumors about what Haou was capable of doing and what kind of beings walked under his sway. Even…

No. That was a story, nothing more. Just something to scare people. Because he couldn't be …like that…

Kanda turned his head to check in another direction and gasped, jumping back from his perch on the log. "It's…it's you!" He swallowed, even as Mototani and Torimaki stirred and sat up. "Look! It's Hell Kaiser!" The rumors weren't true! They couldn't be! A horrible bloodsucking fiend wouldn't stand there in such silence, would it?

"Kanda. Mototani. Torimaki." His voice hadn't changed a bit. Sure, he was a little paler, but nothing that being held captive for weeks couldn't have accounted for. "It's been some time."

Kanda scrambled to his feet, even as his fellow scouts did. Both of them activated their duel disks and stared over at Hell Kaiser. Kanda stared at them. "What do you think you're doing?"

"This is Hell Kaiser! You've heard the report!" Torimaki declared, eyeing the former spy. "He's not to be trusted! He works for Haou now! For real!"

Kanda shook his head. "You're not going to believe all of that, are you?" This would make her so happy, to bring Hell Kaiser home again safe and sound!

"Kanda." Hell Kaiser's voice was much closer to him than it should have been and Kanda whirled to see the dark duelist was right beside him, instead of on the far side of the fire as he'd been moments earlier. "You should believe."

There was only time for one scream before Hell Kaiser sank his fangs into Kanda's throat and fed, the blood slurping down his throat and a few drops dripping onto his jacket.

Mototani and Torimaki exchanged a quick glance, then turned and fled the campfire and the vampire, stumbling over rocks and branches and splashing through streams. Mototani finally pulled himself to a halt, panting. "Do you think we lost him?"

"Sure. Vampires can't cross running water, right?" Torimaki glanced behind them at the stream they'd just half-swam, half-ran across. "We're safe now."

"No. You're not." From behind them came two firm hands that seized onto the backs of their necks. "Don't believe everything you read about vampires."

Hell Kaiser kept Mototani in one hand while he drew Torimaki closer to himself and bit the pulsing vein. Torimaki screamed once, his hands battering uselessly at Hell Kaiser, then slowly slumped into his captor's grip as his strength ebbed away.

Once it was over, Hell Kaiser dropped the bodies were they lay and made his way back to the fire. He kicked dirt over it until the flames smothered and then kicked more, just to be certain. The flickering flames had guided him to his feast and with their purpose served, now were gone.

The End