I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

by Tat Claire Kokoro and Rhapsody Moonschild

|~*Tat: Here we are again with the morbid fifth chapter.

Rhapsody: We find this section of the poem particularly fitting. Poor Ryou…

…But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing…
–Maya Angelou

Tat: Oh, almost forgot! Yu-Gi-Oh! is not our property… Begin chapter five…*~|

CHAPTER FIVE (by Tat)

Ryou's POV

I manage to limp to my bed… barely. The wound Bakura inflicted on me feels like fire burning through my body. My blood is gushing onto the white carpet.  I ignore it. I would have to think of an excuse to tell my dad later.

Collapsing on the soft mattress, I breathe heavily. My mind becomes blurry.  The trickles of blood that I've been staring at become puddles. I could die right now, losing all this blood. Oh well, if I die I won't have to live through this every day of my life… that is, if some miracle doesn't happen to fall upon me, like being risen from the dead or my blood suddenly returning to me.

My head aches from all this thinking.  My mind wants to shut down…  Calmly I allow this. I see nothing but black.

"You're going to be okay," I hear a male voice say, and the wringing of a washcloth.  Soon enough it's dabbed on my hurt shoulder. I can't see, move, or talk. Only hear.

My 'nurse' finishes cleaning me up and throws the cloth in a pan, making a big 'Splosh!' sound. Then I feel his hand press against my wound.  Slowly I sense that my skin is regenerating itself.  It's painful, but I hold my screams in.  When you've been beaten as much as I have… you learn to hold in your pain.

After he's finished, he lifts his hand off my wound and runs his fingers through my hair, brushing my bangs from my eyes.

"I don't know what I'd do if you died, Ryou-chan," he whispers. Wait… I know that voice! I search my memory for this voice.  However, it seems to fail me now. Just my luck. Well it's male… so… Bakura?

No, he'd kill himself before he'd help me. I think about the other people I know and draw a blank.

I give up.  My caregiver and I will meet very soon. I know this in the back of my mind. He moves his hand off my forehead and then I hear the click of the door…

I wake up the next morning feeling an ache in my shoulder.  I open my eyes to see a huge scar where the fatal wound should be.  This isn't what I have expected; I was thinking more of crusted blood surrounding the wound or a huge scab.  Definitely not a scar.

I throw the covers off and fix breakfast.  Bakura is mysteriously absent this morning, and I wonder what happened.

Knock knock!

I set the eggs on the side of the table and see Yami at my door.

"Why're you here?  And so… early…?"

He shrugs and lets himself in (not that I disapprove of this, I was about to let him in anyhow).