SW: *fist pump* I reached 200 reviews!
Yugi: Congratulations!
SW: I am so excited! This story has become so much more than I had even hoped to hope and you guys are totally amazing and I love you.
Thank you to Ern Estine 13624 (Thanks! Hope you like this chapter!), Ocena Strex (Truer words have never been written. I hope they get Ryou back soon too, ;) though you might not like it when they do), PhoenixDiamond (Oh-Oh my god. I'm going to cry. I am seriously going to cry. I love your stories and to see you as a reviewer on one of mine…I can't even. And not only that, but you think my writing is good and you enjoy it…Definitely crying [tears of joy, of course]. You have no idea how much this means to me! Thank you so much!), samaurai (Whoo! Go Ryou!), Guest (Yeah, Yugi's father was the one in Malik's flashbacks. Really sorry I didn't make that clear enough!), and lemerly (Haha, I'm glad you liked it! ;) Hope this is soon enough for you!) for reviewing!
Enjoy!
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Ryou could barely control the shiver that went through him when he saw the house that Satsujin had pulled in front of. Pegasus had been locked up, right? So why was he here? What was the point in all this?
Satsujin chuckled and got out of the car, snapping the albino out of his thoughts. Thinking back to the last time he was here, Ryou quickly unbuckled his seatbelt. He wouldn't make the same mistake twice. Before the man could walk around to his car door, Ryou was out and running, and even though his muscles were burning and his vision was swimming in front of his eyes, he knew he couldn't stop.
A jolt of pain ran up his body and he fell to his hands and knees with a scream. Footsteps approached him and Ryou looked over his shoulder to watch as Satsujin slipped a muffled gun into the back of his pants. The man stopped at Ryou's side and lifted his foot, before harshly bringing it back down on the bleeding wound on his right calf.
Black covered Ryou's vision and his arms went weak, no longer able to hold his body up as he collapsed on the driveway, grit scrapping the side of his face. He screamed again but a piece of cloth was rammed into his mouth and tied behind his head before he could generate much noise.
Ryou whimpered against the pain. He just wanted it to stop. Wanted everything to stop. The hunger, the weakness, the fear. Why wouldn't anyone help him?
Satsujin reached down and gripped the boy's hair, yanking him up to a standing position. Ryou looked around for anyone who might've heard his screams, but no one was there. He swallowed against the utter despair and helplessness he felt as he was forced to hobble towards the front entrance.
"I didn't want to have to hurt you, little Ryou, but if you continue to act out like that, I'm going to have no choice." The hand on his shoulder tightened as Satsujin reached past Ryou to open the door in front of them.
As they walked inside, slow clapping echoed through the hallways. Ryou looked up to see Bandit Keith walking into the hallway from one of the side rooms, a smirk on his face. "Well, well. Look who we have here. I've been waiting for this, Ryou." Fear froze the albino's insides and he looked between Satsujin and Keith. The American threw his head back and laughed. "Some payback's in order, wouldn't you say?"
Ryou's next yell was muffled and sent Bandit Keith into another fit of laughter. "The gag was a good idea, ol' Satsujin. I hated hearing the brat talk."
Satsujin scowled and took a step forward, pushing Ryou ahead of him, apparently not hearing the pained scream that came from behind the cloth in Ryou's mouth. "I thought you weren't coming until tomorrow."
"And let you have all the fun alone?" Bandit Keith shook his head at the man's shocked face. "Pegasus has been keeping an eye on you. He wants to make sure that you don't break your half of the deal."
The man walked forward, tapping Ryou lightly on the cheek before meeting Satsujin's eye. Then Keith whipped around and before Ryou could react, a fist connected with his face and he was sent spiraling out of Satsujin's hold onto the floor.
A finger pressed into the still bleeding wound on his leg and he screamed again against the cloth that was already cutting into the sides of his mouth. Ryou panted as the finger was removed, and turned his head to look up at Bandit Keith's smirking face. The man drew a foot back, and Ryou closed his eyes and tensed right before it connected and sent him into blissful unconsciousness.
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"Son of a bitch." Bakura knelt down on the pavement next to the blue van, staring at the small puddle of blood that turned into a trail leading straight to the front door of Pegasus' house.
Isis stood next to the man, eyes narrowing at the sight in front of her. "Looks like Ryou tried to run away." She turned to the house, then looked back at the three cop cars and ambulance that blocked off the front of the driveway. Just past the blockade were two more cars, a black SUV and a silver sedan that Isis knew held Ryou's father as well as Yugi and Malik. Normally, she would've told them to go home, but they weren't technically on the crime scene and Isis didn't plan to let Satsujin get past her so there was nothing to worry about. The woman looked back at Bakura as he stood up from the ground. "I'm going to let you take head since you already know the layout of the house. How do you want to do this?"
Footsteps approached from behind them and she turned around to look at Marik and Yami as they came up to them. Yami scowled at the sight of the blood. "We found Bandit Keith's car a couple of houses down, we think he's in there too."
"What could he possibly be doing here?"
Bakura snorted, wiping his hands against his pants as he stood up. "Who cares, they're both going down."
Marik's eyes sharpened as he looked at the blood stain on the ground. "He was shot in the lower leg, then forced in front of Satsujin to walk to the house." He let his eyes wander down towards the road, quickly finding a small bullet-shaped hole in the ground. "The bullet went straight through, so we don't have to worry about that. Ryou was probably gagged to hide the protests he must have been making from being moved so quickly after getting a bullet through his leg." Finally, he turned back to the house just in time to see a curtain fall back into place and a smirk started to form on his face. "They're in the first room to the left." The smirk widened as he met Bakura's eye. "And they know they're done for."
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Ryou groaned as he woke up, instinctively starting to struggle when he found he was bound to a chair. There was a moment where he didn't know where he was or what was happening, but then everything came rushing back, along with the pain. There was a hot pain that covered his right leg from the knee down and a dull throbbing in his face.
"Lookie here, Sleeping Beauty finally woke up." His attention was drawn to Bandit Keith, who was setting up a video camera a few feet in front of him. "Just in time for the show."
He whimpered, feeling a stream of blood drip down from the side of his mouth where the rag had dug in too deep. Ryou looked around, his face paling at the table next him that had only two things on it. A knife and a handgun. Quickly turning to look in the other direction, he saw Satsujin pulling back a curtain to look outside and swearing.
"There are cops outside." The man quickly let the curtain fall back in place and turned to Bandit Keith. "It looks like both the deputy and the sheriff showed up too."
Keith shrugged, pressing record on the camera before walking over to the table and picking up the knife. "They won't come in until they've talked to us about our demands. We have a hostage, and that's the stupid protocol. Still…I guess we'll just have to do this quickly, right? You still want your house, don't you?"
He softly started to press the knife into the skin on Ryou's arm, drawing blood almost instantly. Ryou screamed against the rag in his mouth and struggled, but the American only reached a hand up to hold onto the boy's arm and pressed in deeper.
"Hands up!" The door to the room was kicked open, and four familiar faces stormed in, followed by three others that quickly took up positions around the room. "Drop the knife and step away from Ryou!"
Satsujin lifted his hands almost immediately and the three police officers that had entered with Ryou's friends stepped forward and handcuffed him. Making sure to pat him down and remove the gun he held, before leading him out of the room after a nod from Isis. Bandit Keith, however, just let out a chuckle and forcefully tilted Ryou's head back so he could rest the knife against the skin there. "Oh, go ahead and shoot. Just know that I might not be able to keep my hand from slipping and pressing down a little too hard."
"Bastard!" Ryou looked out of the corner of his eyes to see Bakura standing a few feet to his right, his gun aimed at Bandit Keith.
The man just laughed. "Oh, Bakura, you can call me names all you like…but I'm still going to be walking away from this. And there's nothing you can do about that."
One hand still holding the knife at Ryou's throat, Keith reached down with the other to start untying the rope keeping Ryou trapped. A loud bang rang out through the house and the hand fell away, making the blade nick his throat just before he heard it clatter to the ground.
He didn't even have time to look and see what had happened before everyone went into a whirlwind of motion. People were finishing the removal of the ropes that tied him and someone took off the gag in his mouth. Ryou watched in numb shock, his ears still ringing from the gunshot, unable to even speak before he felt a hand on his shoulder.
Ryou looked over at Bakura, who was examining every inch of him. "Where are you hurt?"
He opened his mouth to answer, but his attention was pulled away by the gurney being rolled inside the room. Isis came over and crouched in front of him. "Can you stand? We're going to take you to the hospital."
Nodding, Ryou gripped the arm of the chair with his one good hand and used it to push himself into a standing position, leaning heavily on his left leg to keep from putting pressure on his injured one. He hopped forward, someone coming to his side so he could put a hand on their shoulder. But black dots started to swim in front of his eyes. The world tilted back and forth and he stumbled. Just before Ryou was going to fall, arms wrapped around him and he was lifted from the ground.
The darkness faded for just a minute as Ryou met Bakura's eyes, but his leg was jostled as he was set on the gurney and that last flash of pain sent him under.
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SW: 15 more days till summer vacation and freedom. I won't have tennis, school, or homework taking up my writing time.
Ryou: That's good, now you won't be stressed with making your updates on time.
SW: Exactly!
Hope you review!