CK: I'M BAAAA-ACK!!!!!! After major, major groundage (is that even a
word?) I GET TO USE THE COMPUTER AGAIN!!!!!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!! Oh,
before I forget, here are the responses..........
Kabuki: Hehe.....yeah, I oughta think of something rotten to do to Bakura, he was definitely asking for it.......and about Cecilia: erm...........well, uh, you might want to read this chapter, you'll know how she reacts......
SweetCandie: Cecilia? Oh, she's just a little peeved about Bakura trying to hurt Pegasus.........she could sorta hear him, and let's just say she's not too happy.......
Sailor Twilight Assassin: YAY!!!!! SOMEBODY FINALLY RESPONDED TO THE STORY IDEA!!!!!! *glomp* Here, since you were the first person to respond to that, you can have THIS!!! *holds up a Pegasus plushie* He's yours!!!! And if you pull the string on his back, he says "Your turn, Yugi- boy".......
BTW, another FYI for ya...like I said before, I KNOW that I'm the queen of sticking dramatic stuff in for no or little reason, but I DID need to put in the thing with the diary. It gives some major clues as to why Pegsy built a killing machine in his laboratory..okay, well THAT just plain out gave THAT away...
Disclaimer: I don't know why I'm so weird about saying the disclaimer every week, but, once again, I get to waste space saying that, no, I DON'T own Yugioh.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Consequences
At breakfast that morning, an uncomfortable silence had settled on the table. Due to.....'recent events'.........not to mention the hatred that ran through the blood of many who sat there.........well, let's just say many people didn't have an appetite. Well, alright, except Joey and Tristan, but when do they NOT have an appetite?
When every last one of them had pushed away their plates, declaring themselves full, Pegasus and Cecilia did their duties as 'hosts' and gathered the plates and began to wash them in the kitchen. Once the two were out of earshot, Mai began some more of the talking/squawking that she had been doing ever since they had arrived.
She began fumbling through her purse, pulling out random cosmetics to make room for her to continue to search. "I have something to show you guys........something I think'll help us out big time......."
Kaiba, cranky, as per usual, spoke up "You didn't happen to read Nancy Drew books when you were a kid, did you Mai?" Mai began to turn red. "And if I did....?"
"Ah, that explains it."
"Explains what?"
"Why you are apparently obsessed with 'solving' this 'case'."
"Shut up." Mai ignored Kaiba and finally located what she was looking for, then held it up for all to see triumphantly. Tristan raised an eyebrow skeptically. "A book?"
Yugi, however, knew what it was and began sputtering protests. "That....you can't.....that....MAI!!!!!!!"
"Whaaaaaat? This could be a key to all of the answers we want."
"But you can't just......."
Joey butted in. "What is it, anyway?" Yugi responded quickly. "That's his diary!!!!!!!"
Mai shushed him. "Not so loud!!!!! If one of them came back and heard you....." Kaiba raised an eyebrow. "Search without a warrant, robbery, intrusion of privacy.......well, Mai, I must say you're on a roll if you want to rot in an American prison for the rest of your life."
"Shut up.....anyway, I'm gonna need your help with this, I can't understand a word of English...."
Kaiba quickly stood up and began to stride away from the table. "No thanks........any time I do I get involved in something concerning Pegasus, my ass or Mokuba's gets into a major jam....."
With that he left.
Mai seethed. "Alright, well, who else can read English here?" Ryou mumbled. "I suppose I could....." Mai had shoved the book under his nose before he had a chance to finish his sentence. "READ."
Ryou picked up the book timidly, then looked at it. "Erm.....what part of it exactly do you want me to read?"
"Anywhere from the last week or so."
"Alright....."
Ryou scanned the pages, then frowned. "He's only written once since Duelist Kingdom...and it doesn't say much of anything...I think he must have written it in the hospital."
"Well????? Let's hear it!!!"
"Okay.." Ryou began to read it aloud, although he stumbled every now and then on the words. "Dearest Cecilia....I think I miss you more tonight than any other...things have become chaotic and I am the one to blame for all of it...what happened to me? Was I always so cruel when you were alive? Have I changed? Or have I always been this way, and only just noticed? Would you still love me even if you were here now? I can't bear to think of what may be your answer...
Perhaps I should have been the one destined to die. Things wouldn't have turned out this way. I almost killed him.I tried to kill someone who had done nothing to me...nothing...I'm still wondering when I turned murderous..I almost killed Kaiba, too. Can you forgive me, Cecilia? Can they? If I had died and you had lived...things would have been so different. You wouldn't be like this. You wouldn't do these things. You would have moved on...who knows, maybe you'd be married to someone else now, and maybe you two would have had children, too.......and maybe I'd be in Heaven, and at least one day we would be reunited.
..I think I've lost my chance for Heaven......maybe I really will never see you again........... Even now, with all these things done...I wish you could come here. Even if you can't forgive me. You always fix things somehow...could you fix this? Could you fix something so evil and so horrendous? Could you? There's no way I ever could..I wish, and I wonder, and I hope, but it seems to be for nothing....Maybe I'm better off dead. Maybe the world would breathe a sigh of relief if I just disappeared. I know no one would miss me. I know no one would cry for me. I know if you were here you would....................it's funny, how many times I keep thinking what things would be like if you were in this world. I suppose I'm a dreamer, that I can't accept your death even now..........
The doctors are coming in to check on me again, so I'll have to stop writing for now...I'm sorry if my tears blurred the ink, darling.." Ryou looked up. "And that's where he stopped writing.."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ((A/N: Okay, we're about to have some sort OOC-ness here, but let me explain first: I think Cecilia's a nice person and all, but I am not playing her off as a saint here. There's a point where we all snap, or have already snapped, and Bakura either hit that point or came pretty friggin' close, at least. She's gonna be pissed. Erm, also, if you're one of the readers who also reads my humor ficcie, you can blame the following scene for that on-running 'Cecilia-carries-a-butcher-knife-up-her-sleeve' thing.....))
After the rather uneventful breakfast, Ryou walked down the halls so that he could head back to his room. He knew that Mai was probably still squawking back in the dining halls and forcing the others to listen, but at least he'd managed to escape. As he walked, he watched the windows that ran along one of the walls. The snow that had been falling the night before was melting now that the sun was out.....too bad. It had looked so pretty last night, glittering in the light. Oh, well.
As he turned one of the corners, he almost walked straight into Cecilia. "Oh, I'm sorry, miss." He apologized, and then continued walking. Cecilia gave no signs of any reaction until he was about five feet away from her, when she spoke up suddenly. "I heard you threaten him."
Ryou turned around and blinked. "Excuse me?" Cecilia shut her eyelids tightly, and replied. "I heard you threaten him. I saw the blood on the carpet." She opened her eyes. "I know how you got those gashes on you hand."
Ryou looked down at the gauze wrapped around his right hand. He knew that he had woken up that day with his right hand mangled badly, but he had no idea what she was talking about. For all he knew, he had been attacked by a rabid squirrel in his sleep. He looked back up at her, but before he could say a word, she spoke again, as she pulled a long object out from her sleeve. "You left this behind." The blade of the butcher knife gleamed in the sunlight. It looked especially menacing now that stains of blood trickles ran down the length of the blade.
When Cecilia said this, it was only a moment more before Bakura stood before her instead of Ryou. "I thought that that would bring you out." She said dryly. Bakura slit his eyes and glared. "What the hell do you want me for, girl?" Cecilia glared right back and spoke to him icily. "Lay a hand on my husband ever again and I'll chase you around the universe if that's what it will take me to kill you."
Bakura laughed. "Who, you? You're not exactly that threatening to behold, not to mention that you're talking to one who has spilt blood many times in the past." "I believe I'm the one holding the knife." Bakura began to chuckle. "How could I forget?" He paused for a moment, then began to laugh again. Cecilia slit her eyes. "What's so funny?"
"Basically, you're willing to murder a murderer to avenge the murder of a murderer. I must say, you seem a little prejudiced." "Shut up." "What? Perhaps you're just worried that he and I will be roommates in hell, is that it?"
Cecilia said nothing, but Bakura took that as an affirmative. "Well, I suppose I can't blame you.......after all he's done, really, I can't see any other place for him to go once he's pushing up daisies. But, then again, you would know more about that than I would, wouldn't you?"
"Just shut up, or I'll kill you now." "You couldn't even kill me if you tried. Shouldn't you have learned that by now? All you'd do is kill an innocent bystander, who had nothing to do with any of this. Poor little Ryou. Really, girl, don't you have a heart?" He mocked her in a way that stung, but the expression on Cecilia's face never changed. Inside, however, she was begging and pleading Bakura to shut up so she wouldn't have to kill anyone. She didn't want to shed blood, and, hopefully, she wouldn't need to.......but if he tried to kill Max again.....well, even she had her limits. Even if she didn't want to kill Ryou, she was in flesh and blood again, when it's a lot harder to control your emotions..... The best she could hope for now was Bakura just giving up.
The thoughts running through Bakura's head were much more mocking and sinister than the ones in Cecilia's. //She must be scared out of her mind if she's actually gotten the knife......Hehe, poor little bitch, coming to her husband's rescue, how sad, how sentimental, how sickening. I wasn't even going to go near him anymore, and now she's gotten so worked up. Little bitch, she's a tiny girl in a grownup's world and all she can do is put on a brave face and hope she can scare me. It's so amusing to watch, and she seems so blindly sure that she knows what's right and wrong. She must not have a clue about Tea.......// Bakura's train of thought was interrupted when Cecilia spoke again. "You're preaching to me about having a heart when you're the one who's enslaved that boy in the first place. You're a hypocrite to make others seem cruel when all that blood is on your hands."
"Well, it's just funny to me to think that you're spouting all this shit about me being a murderer when the person you want to protect is just as murderous as I am."
Cecilia narrowed her eyes. "Don't blame him for something that's my fault. Besides......he's changed, and I doubt you ever will."
The quiet snickering that Bakura had been doing before had turned into a loud cackle. Cecilia cringed, and Bakura laughingly spoke again. "Really, girl, you're just a barrel of laughs aren't you? He's planning murders of his own in the basement and you spout shit about him being changed. You're too naiveté, little girl, and you're too frigging gullible."
"What are you talking about?"
Bakura folded his arms across his chest. "Really now, insulting me and then expecting me to give you information. Really, girl, where are your manners?"
"Tell me now or I'll......"
"Ugh, quit with your threats already. If you want to know, then I want a favor."
"......................What's the favor?"
Bakura grinned widely. "Give me my knife back."
In no time at all, Cecilia had tossed the knife in Bakura's general direction. He sniggered as he picked it up, but didn't notice that Cecilia was fumbling around for a new source of worry.
When he stood back up, he was looking straight into the barrel of a gun.
By now, he was a little bit more concerned than he was before. Even he knew what a gun was, or at least had a general idea, thanks to Ryou's action movie obsession. What DID that kid see in this "Arnold Schwarrzenegger" anyway? Well, that wasn't really the issue at hand, and all he knew about these 'pistol' things is that when you pulled the trigger, people bleed and die. And Bakura was not in the mood to spend several thousand more years inside of a ring. It seemed like this was a good time to do exactly as she asked. "I gave you your knife back, now why exactly were you spouting trash about my husband?" "Just follow me, and I think I'll have enough evidence to convince you."
Bakura made his way through some of the hallways, being careful not to do anything that could be mistaken for a sudden movement. Cecilia followed steadily behind him, the gun pointed squarely at the back of his head. It was cruelly ironic, at least for Bakura, that the roles of power had been switched so easily. He could have all the knives in the world, but even they didn't have the strength of a single well-aimed bullet.
Ah, well, at least he got to have a front-row seat for the shock of the century.
When he reached the correct bedroom, the one which held the corpse, he opened the door, then held it open, mockingly. "Ladies first." Cecilia, gun still in hand, replied curtly. "After you."
Bakura shrugged, and entered, not even bothering to switch on a light. The darkness would create an eerier effect on the corpse. Cecilia followed about three steps behind him. Her eyes widened in horror when he pulled the sheet back off of Tea's rigid, pale corpse. She staggered to her right to gain support from a nearby wall as waves of sickness passed through her.
Bakura smiled cruelly. "Doesn't she look young? Innocent? She probably had a bright future as well. But all for nothing........I suppose I should give your Max some credit.....after all, I doubt he was ever after her.....but she died at the hands of one of his creations, asphyxiated in his laboratory...."
Cecilia felt like she was going to collapse. This was not happening. This was some mistake. It was a lie, there was just no way................Cecilia could have sworn that, as she stared at the corpse, Tea's glassy eyes were watching her..............Bakura kept on with his sadistic monologue, and all she could do was listen. "........even if he never wanted to kill her, I must say, the fact that he has his own little gas chamber downstairs does seem to indicate something sinister on his part......but, then again, I'm just spouting trash, like you said, aren't I? After all, your beloved Max wouldn't ever allow blood to be spilt by his own hands, now would he........."
"Shut up, just shut up!!!!!!" Cecilia still held the pistol, though she doubted she was very convincing the way she was shaking. "Just leave!!!! Go!!!!!"
Bakura smirked. As he left, he commented, "If you were worried about his soul before, I suggest you pray for him.....there's not much else you can do........"
Cecilia could have sworn that hours passed that she stayed there, trying to recover from the shock..........how? How could she have been so wrong? Hadn't Max changed??? Or maybe she was just too blind to see anything past what she wanted to believe. Maybe she was just a foolish girl too enamored to notice that her husband was as much a murderer as he was before.
He found her later....how much later, she didn't know. But by then she had stumbled out into the hall, and the way Pegasus smiled and asked her where she'd been for the last half-hour, she almost deluded herself into thinking that this entire day had been a dream. Max looked so upbeat, how......?
"Cecilia, are you alright? You look pale, are you ill?" Concern filled his voice, and she tried to smile a little but it would have been perjury to her to do so. "Max....I...I....."
"Yes, what is it?"
"I.........." He followed her gaze into the room, and saw for himself Tea's remains, and he too grew pale.
"How......how....?"
"I was about to ask you......"
Her voice was beginning to crack, but she kept talking. "She was choked to death, Max....h-he said.......something you made...it killed her............"
Pegasus didn't even ask who she was talking about......he just held his head in his hand, kneeling next to the corpse. "This........this wasn't what was supposed to happen...."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CK: Yuuuuuus!!! I finally finished this chapter!!! I probably should have been done LAST Friday, but I took forever typing something for my other story, and then I kinda lost my mojo.....((I know, weird word, blame Joan of Arcadia....)) Anyway, I'm done for now, so read and review!!!!
Kabuki: Hehe.....yeah, I oughta think of something rotten to do to Bakura, he was definitely asking for it.......and about Cecilia: erm...........well, uh, you might want to read this chapter, you'll know how she reacts......
SweetCandie: Cecilia? Oh, she's just a little peeved about Bakura trying to hurt Pegasus.........she could sorta hear him, and let's just say she's not too happy.......
Sailor Twilight Assassin: YAY!!!!! SOMEBODY FINALLY RESPONDED TO THE STORY IDEA!!!!!! *glomp* Here, since you were the first person to respond to that, you can have THIS!!! *holds up a Pegasus plushie* He's yours!!!! And if you pull the string on his back, he says "Your turn, Yugi- boy".......
BTW, another FYI for ya...like I said before, I KNOW that I'm the queen of sticking dramatic stuff in for no or little reason, but I DID need to put in the thing with the diary. It gives some major clues as to why Pegsy built a killing machine in his laboratory..okay, well THAT just plain out gave THAT away...
Disclaimer: I don't know why I'm so weird about saying the disclaimer every week, but, once again, I get to waste space saying that, no, I DON'T own Yugioh.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Consequences
At breakfast that morning, an uncomfortable silence had settled on the table. Due to.....'recent events'.........not to mention the hatred that ran through the blood of many who sat there.........well, let's just say many people didn't have an appetite. Well, alright, except Joey and Tristan, but when do they NOT have an appetite?
When every last one of them had pushed away their plates, declaring themselves full, Pegasus and Cecilia did their duties as 'hosts' and gathered the plates and began to wash them in the kitchen. Once the two were out of earshot, Mai began some more of the talking/squawking that she had been doing ever since they had arrived.
She began fumbling through her purse, pulling out random cosmetics to make room for her to continue to search. "I have something to show you guys........something I think'll help us out big time......."
Kaiba, cranky, as per usual, spoke up "You didn't happen to read Nancy Drew books when you were a kid, did you Mai?" Mai began to turn red. "And if I did....?"
"Ah, that explains it."
"Explains what?"
"Why you are apparently obsessed with 'solving' this 'case'."
"Shut up." Mai ignored Kaiba and finally located what she was looking for, then held it up for all to see triumphantly. Tristan raised an eyebrow skeptically. "A book?"
Yugi, however, knew what it was and began sputtering protests. "That....you can't.....that....MAI!!!!!!!"
"Whaaaaaat? This could be a key to all of the answers we want."
"But you can't just......."
Joey butted in. "What is it, anyway?" Yugi responded quickly. "That's his diary!!!!!!!"
Mai shushed him. "Not so loud!!!!! If one of them came back and heard you....." Kaiba raised an eyebrow. "Search without a warrant, robbery, intrusion of privacy.......well, Mai, I must say you're on a roll if you want to rot in an American prison for the rest of your life."
"Shut up.....anyway, I'm gonna need your help with this, I can't understand a word of English...."
Kaiba quickly stood up and began to stride away from the table. "No thanks........any time I do I get involved in something concerning Pegasus, my ass or Mokuba's gets into a major jam....."
With that he left.
Mai seethed. "Alright, well, who else can read English here?" Ryou mumbled. "I suppose I could....." Mai had shoved the book under his nose before he had a chance to finish his sentence. "READ."
Ryou picked up the book timidly, then looked at it. "Erm.....what part of it exactly do you want me to read?"
"Anywhere from the last week or so."
"Alright....."
Ryou scanned the pages, then frowned. "He's only written once since Duelist Kingdom...and it doesn't say much of anything...I think he must have written it in the hospital."
"Well????? Let's hear it!!!"
"Okay.." Ryou began to read it aloud, although he stumbled every now and then on the words. "Dearest Cecilia....I think I miss you more tonight than any other...things have become chaotic and I am the one to blame for all of it...what happened to me? Was I always so cruel when you were alive? Have I changed? Or have I always been this way, and only just noticed? Would you still love me even if you were here now? I can't bear to think of what may be your answer...
Perhaps I should have been the one destined to die. Things wouldn't have turned out this way. I almost killed him.I tried to kill someone who had done nothing to me...nothing...I'm still wondering when I turned murderous..I almost killed Kaiba, too. Can you forgive me, Cecilia? Can they? If I had died and you had lived...things would have been so different. You wouldn't be like this. You wouldn't do these things. You would have moved on...who knows, maybe you'd be married to someone else now, and maybe you two would have had children, too.......and maybe I'd be in Heaven, and at least one day we would be reunited.
..I think I've lost my chance for Heaven......maybe I really will never see you again........... Even now, with all these things done...I wish you could come here. Even if you can't forgive me. You always fix things somehow...could you fix this? Could you fix something so evil and so horrendous? Could you? There's no way I ever could..I wish, and I wonder, and I hope, but it seems to be for nothing....Maybe I'm better off dead. Maybe the world would breathe a sigh of relief if I just disappeared. I know no one would miss me. I know no one would cry for me. I know if you were here you would....................it's funny, how many times I keep thinking what things would be like if you were in this world. I suppose I'm a dreamer, that I can't accept your death even now..........
The doctors are coming in to check on me again, so I'll have to stop writing for now...I'm sorry if my tears blurred the ink, darling.." Ryou looked up. "And that's where he stopped writing.."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ((A/N: Okay, we're about to have some sort OOC-ness here, but let me explain first: I think Cecilia's a nice person and all, but I am not playing her off as a saint here. There's a point where we all snap, or have already snapped, and Bakura either hit that point or came pretty friggin' close, at least. She's gonna be pissed. Erm, also, if you're one of the readers who also reads my humor ficcie, you can blame the following scene for that on-running 'Cecilia-carries-a-butcher-knife-up-her-sleeve' thing.....))
After the rather uneventful breakfast, Ryou walked down the halls so that he could head back to his room. He knew that Mai was probably still squawking back in the dining halls and forcing the others to listen, but at least he'd managed to escape. As he walked, he watched the windows that ran along one of the walls. The snow that had been falling the night before was melting now that the sun was out.....too bad. It had looked so pretty last night, glittering in the light. Oh, well.
As he turned one of the corners, he almost walked straight into Cecilia. "Oh, I'm sorry, miss." He apologized, and then continued walking. Cecilia gave no signs of any reaction until he was about five feet away from her, when she spoke up suddenly. "I heard you threaten him."
Ryou turned around and blinked. "Excuse me?" Cecilia shut her eyelids tightly, and replied. "I heard you threaten him. I saw the blood on the carpet." She opened her eyes. "I know how you got those gashes on you hand."
Ryou looked down at the gauze wrapped around his right hand. He knew that he had woken up that day with his right hand mangled badly, but he had no idea what she was talking about. For all he knew, he had been attacked by a rabid squirrel in his sleep. He looked back up at her, but before he could say a word, she spoke again, as she pulled a long object out from her sleeve. "You left this behind." The blade of the butcher knife gleamed in the sunlight. It looked especially menacing now that stains of blood trickles ran down the length of the blade.
When Cecilia said this, it was only a moment more before Bakura stood before her instead of Ryou. "I thought that that would bring you out." She said dryly. Bakura slit his eyes and glared. "What the hell do you want me for, girl?" Cecilia glared right back and spoke to him icily. "Lay a hand on my husband ever again and I'll chase you around the universe if that's what it will take me to kill you."
Bakura laughed. "Who, you? You're not exactly that threatening to behold, not to mention that you're talking to one who has spilt blood many times in the past." "I believe I'm the one holding the knife." Bakura began to chuckle. "How could I forget?" He paused for a moment, then began to laugh again. Cecilia slit her eyes. "What's so funny?"
"Basically, you're willing to murder a murderer to avenge the murder of a murderer. I must say, you seem a little prejudiced." "Shut up." "What? Perhaps you're just worried that he and I will be roommates in hell, is that it?"
Cecilia said nothing, but Bakura took that as an affirmative. "Well, I suppose I can't blame you.......after all he's done, really, I can't see any other place for him to go once he's pushing up daisies. But, then again, you would know more about that than I would, wouldn't you?"
"Just shut up, or I'll kill you now." "You couldn't even kill me if you tried. Shouldn't you have learned that by now? All you'd do is kill an innocent bystander, who had nothing to do with any of this. Poor little Ryou. Really, girl, don't you have a heart?" He mocked her in a way that stung, but the expression on Cecilia's face never changed. Inside, however, she was begging and pleading Bakura to shut up so she wouldn't have to kill anyone. She didn't want to shed blood, and, hopefully, she wouldn't need to.......but if he tried to kill Max again.....well, even she had her limits. Even if she didn't want to kill Ryou, she was in flesh and blood again, when it's a lot harder to control your emotions..... The best she could hope for now was Bakura just giving up.
The thoughts running through Bakura's head were much more mocking and sinister than the ones in Cecilia's. //She must be scared out of her mind if she's actually gotten the knife......Hehe, poor little bitch, coming to her husband's rescue, how sad, how sentimental, how sickening. I wasn't even going to go near him anymore, and now she's gotten so worked up. Little bitch, she's a tiny girl in a grownup's world and all she can do is put on a brave face and hope she can scare me. It's so amusing to watch, and she seems so blindly sure that she knows what's right and wrong. She must not have a clue about Tea.......// Bakura's train of thought was interrupted when Cecilia spoke again. "You're preaching to me about having a heart when you're the one who's enslaved that boy in the first place. You're a hypocrite to make others seem cruel when all that blood is on your hands."
"Well, it's just funny to me to think that you're spouting all this shit about me being a murderer when the person you want to protect is just as murderous as I am."
Cecilia narrowed her eyes. "Don't blame him for something that's my fault. Besides......he's changed, and I doubt you ever will."
The quiet snickering that Bakura had been doing before had turned into a loud cackle. Cecilia cringed, and Bakura laughingly spoke again. "Really, girl, you're just a barrel of laughs aren't you? He's planning murders of his own in the basement and you spout shit about him being changed. You're too naiveté, little girl, and you're too frigging gullible."
"What are you talking about?"
Bakura folded his arms across his chest. "Really now, insulting me and then expecting me to give you information. Really, girl, where are your manners?"
"Tell me now or I'll......"
"Ugh, quit with your threats already. If you want to know, then I want a favor."
"......................What's the favor?"
Bakura grinned widely. "Give me my knife back."
In no time at all, Cecilia had tossed the knife in Bakura's general direction. He sniggered as he picked it up, but didn't notice that Cecilia was fumbling around for a new source of worry.
When he stood back up, he was looking straight into the barrel of a gun.
By now, he was a little bit more concerned than he was before. Even he knew what a gun was, or at least had a general idea, thanks to Ryou's action movie obsession. What DID that kid see in this "Arnold Schwarrzenegger" anyway? Well, that wasn't really the issue at hand, and all he knew about these 'pistol' things is that when you pulled the trigger, people bleed and die. And Bakura was not in the mood to spend several thousand more years inside of a ring. It seemed like this was a good time to do exactly as she asked. "I gave you your knife back, now why exactly were you spouting trash about my husband?" "Just follow me, and I think I'll have enough evidence to convince you."
Bakura made his way through some of the hallways, being careful not to do anything that could be mistaken for a sudden movement. Cecilia followed steadily behind him, the gun pointed squarely at the back of his head. It was cruelly ironic, at least for Bakura, that the roles of power had been switched so easily. He could have all the knives in the world, but even they didn't have the strength of a single well-aimed bullet.
Ah, well, at least he got to have a front-row seat for the shock of the century.
When he reached the correct bedroom, the one which held the corpse, he opened the door, then held it open, mockingly. "Ladies first." Cecilia, gun still in hand, replied curtly. "After you."
Bakura shrugged, and entered, not even bothering to switch on a light. The darkness would create an eerier effect on the corpse. Cecilia followed about three steps behind him. Her eyes widened in horror when he pulled the sheet back off of Tea's rigid, pale corpse. She staggered to her right to gain support from a nearby wall as waves of sickness passed through her.
Bakura smiled cruelly. "Doesn't she look young? Innocent? She probably had a bright future as well. But all for nothing........I suppose I should give your Max some credit.....after all, I doubt he was ever after her.....but she died at the hands of one of his creations, asphyxiated in his laboratory...."
Cecilia felt like she was going to collapse. This was not happening. This was some mistake. It was a lie, there was just no way................Cecilia could have sworn that, as she stared at the corpse, Tea's glassy eyes were watching her..............Bakura kept on with his sadistic monologue, and all she could do was listen. "........even if he never wanted to kill her, I must say, the fact that he has his own little gas chamber downstairs does seem to indicate something sinister on his part......but, then again, I'm just spouting trash, like you said, aren't I? After all, your beloved Max wouldn't ever allow blood to be spilt by his own hands, now would he........."
"Shut up, just shut up!!!!!!" Cecilia still held the pistol, though she doubted she was very convincing the way she was shaking. "Just leave!!!! Go!!!!!"
Bakura smirked. As he left, he commented, "If you were worried about his soul before, I suggest you pray for him.....there's not much else you can do........"
Cecilia could have sworn that hours passed that she stayed there, trying to recover from the shock..........how? How could she have been so wrong? Hadn't Max changed??? Or maybe she was just too blind to see anything past what she wanted to believe. Maybe she was just a foolish girl too enamored to notice that her husband was as much a murderer as he was before.
He found her later....how much later, she didn't know. But by then she had stumbled out into the hall, and the way Pegasus smiled and asked her where she'd been for the last half-hour, she almost deluded herself into thinking that this entire day had been a dream. Max looked so upbeat, how......?
"Cecilia, are you alright? You look pale, are you ill?" Concern filled his voice, and she tried to smile a little but it would have been perjury to her to do so. "Max....I...I....."
"Yes, what is it?"
"I.........." He followed her gaze into the room, and saw for himself Tea's remains, and he too grew pale.
"How......how....?"
"I was about to ask you......"
Her voice was beginning to crack, but she kept talking. "She was choked to death, Max....h-he said.......something you made...it killed her............"
Pegasus didn't even ask who she was talking about......he just held his head in his hand, kneeling next to the corpse. "This........this wasn't what was supposed to happen...."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CK: Yuuuuuus!!! I finally finished this chapter!!! I probably should have been done LAST Friday, but I took forever typing something for my other story, and then I kinda lost my mojo.....((I know, weird word, blame Joan of Arcadia....)) Anyway, I'm done for now, so read and review!!!!
