I'm finally back from Virginia and Maryland! Both were really nice, and the
weather there is beautiful! Now, I want to take this time to once again,
thank you for continuing with this story. I know, I've thanked you probably
three times more then a normal Authoress does, but hey. *shrug* Remember
how I said there was a small number of chapters that I was worried about
writing? Well, last chapter was number two in the 'WORRIED ABOUT WRITING'
file.
I hope it came out OK. I know that too much information is boring, but I had to get it over with some time or another. Hopefully now you have an idea what is going on, instead of being completely lost. If by any chance, you are completely lost, send me an e-mail and I can explain it all to you and fix the confusing parts! WE CAN BE FRIENDS!
Yes, well, now we are on the next chapter. Which sadly, is still not going to explain what happens to Ryou and the rest right yet. I title this chapter, 'Not to be Trusted'
~*~
"NOOOOO!" Cami screamed, struggling as I held him down in the chair. "NOOOHOHOHO! LET ME GOOOOO! LET ME BE FREEE! FREE I SAY! FREEEEE!"
"Will you please hold still!" I snapped, uncapping the tube of lipstick and doing my best to apply it on a struggling 5000-year-old Egyptian male. Although, it didn't turn out right, smeared, and made Cami look more like a clown then anything else. But I was satisfied nonetheless.
This was about the time Bakura walked in, looking quite damp from being out in the rain. He had a very cross look on his face. But of course, the moment he saw me holding down the scribe and putting the red stuff on his lips, his expression changed from cross, to confused, to amused. Cami had what Yugi knew as 'Make-up' all over his face that I had found in Caitlin's guardian's room. It didn't look too good, but the point was, it was on.
"BAKURA!" Cami shouted, kicking fiercely at the sight of him, "SAVE MEEEE!"
Bakura smirked, and leaned against the wall, "And spoil this chance of entertainment? Never."
Cami cried out and did his best to pull from my grip. And sighing, I let Cami go, and he fell onto the ground with a thump. His hair was done up in high, messy looking pony-tails that, because his hair wasn't long enough, looked like large lumps on his head. He was wearing the girl's uniform of pink shirt and a skirt, to which he complained about as soon as he put it on, ("I am SO SICK of pink!") complete with a sparkly necklace, bracelet, and gaudy ring.
His face was coated with make-up. His blush was over done like his eye liner and eye-brow pencil, and covered most of his face. Even his lip stick was a strong, dark red that clashed horribly with his entire outfit and hair. Most of the make-up was used the wrong way to substitute something else, and he looked completely insane. As soon as he got up off the floor, he glared at me and crossed his arms in front of him.
"I don't see why this was necessary..." He complained, "You've taken away everything I had left as a guy! Not to mention the tiny bit of pride I had left..."
"It had to be done, Scribe, and now that it's finished, we can leave." I answered, putting away most to the make-up in a bag.
"I'm never going to be able to pull this off!" He whined, "NEVER! I don't act like a girl!"
"Want to bet on that?" Bakura muttered, collecting his schoolbooks from the table.
"You'll just have to learn." I said, "Step one, your voice has to be higher, and you have to talk more like a girl would."
"Example?" Cami said in a higher voice, motioning his hand for me to keep going.
"For example," Bakura said, "If I came up and hit the books out of your hands, you would...?"
"Uh..."
Bakura groaned, and handed him a pile of magazines from the coffee table, "Here.
Cami took them awkwardly, but as soon as he had them in his hands, Bakura knocked them down again. "Now, what would you say to me?"
"I say 'Get lost.'" Cami answered angrily, forgetting his high voice.
Bakura slapped his forehead, "No, act more like a female would."
Cami paused, then put on a fake grin and clapped his hands together. Then, he said in a higher voice, "Get Lost."
Bakura muttered angrily to himself, then said, "Alright, Scribe, I'm only going to do this once. It was necessary to pose as a woman a few times to gain access into different area without getting caught."
Bakura picked up the magazines and pretended to have them flung from his hands. He pulled his hands up to cover his mouth in a swift movement.
"Oh dear! Look what you did!" He shrilled.
A beat. Then both Cami and I burst out laughing hysterically.
[A/N: I'm not trying to down put females or anything. I AM A FEMALE. But I mean, come on, it's Bakura here. How would HE portray them? Not to mention, although Bakura helping is a little OOC, he probably DID have to pose as a girl once and a while to steal what he wanted.]
Bakura fumed instantly and started ranting that 'This is why I DON'T HELP PEOPLE OFTEN!' In no time at all, I was holding my side because of all the laughing and Cami was on the floor, rolling around and occasionally slamming his fist on the ground. I couldn't help myself, I don't laugh much because nothing is funny to me.
...But you have to admit, seeing Bakura acting like a girl is pretty darn hysterical.
"Ok, ok-" Cami said, brushing the tears from his eyes, "Sorry Bakura, it's just- oh my gosh I wish I knew how to work that camera over there!"
He gestured to the camcorder on the table, and gave Bakura one last sigh before he stopped laughing completely. Bakura had the angriest face on, and I'm surprised he didn't jump on us for laughing that hard. (However I'm sure the thought crossed his mind more then once)
"You know, this would really be a good morning if The Pharaoh would act like a girl too." Cami said, grinning.
I instinctively thought of revenge for bringing up something like that, but controlled my anger down to a simple glare. Bakura could sense my annoyance though, and he looked half glad that I got 'punished'. Suddenly remembering something, I grabbed a bottle of liquid make-up from the bag and approached Cami with it. He whimpered.
"What are you going to do with that?" He said, backing up against the wall.
I explained, "I'm going to spray you with this stuff, and then you keep it in your backpack in case you need it again."
I sprayed it a few times in Cami's face. He tried to shield his face with his arms, but it wasn't working very well. Bakura and I exchanged looks as he choked, coughed, and made loud over exaggerated gasping noises right before falling over on the floor and letting his tongue hang out.
"Get up Scribe." I said, slipping the perfume away. "We don't have enough time to play around like this."
Cami's leg twitched in response, and Bakura rolled his eyes so far his entire head was facing the ceiling.
"Come on Tomb Robber, let's wake him up." I said with a sigh.
Bakura suddenly brightened, a smirk casually curling onto his lips, as he replied, "With pleasure."
Bakura advanced to the semi-conscious scribe, still dramatically sprawled out on the ground. Actually, I think Bakura really meant to smack him upside the head and scream in his ear to get back at Cami for not appreciating his help, but he didn't get that far. As soon as he got within two feet of him, Bakura immediately covered his nose and staggered back.
"Ugh! He smells like Ryou's grandmother!"
I glanced at him, "Bakura, what are you doing smelling other people's grandmothers?"
Another deadly glare from the Tomb Robber, and I was glad to hear the doorbell ring. Although it was dangerous, I decided to leave Bakura to waking the scribe up so I could answer the door. When I opened the door, though, I was happy to see my Tea standing there. She looked a little wet from the rain and had a genuine smile spread as far as humanly possible on her face.
"Hi Yugi!" She said with a smile.
"Hello Tea. What are you doing here?"
"Well, I thought you might want a ride to school, seeing as this isn't a good day to walk to school." She explained, holding up her pink umbrella.
I nodded, feeling better knowing that I didn't have to go to school in the storm. There was a honk from the car waiting for us in the street, and Joey waved to us. Tea held up a finger at him to signal she wanted 'one minute', then she turned to me.
"You ready for school? Joey borrowed his dad's car so we didn't have to get wet. Is everyone up and dressed and such?"
A heard a loud screaming noise followed by loud running in the house and a, 'BAKURA I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!' Tea cocked her head in confusion, and I just sighed in response.
"Yes, we're ready." I said.
"Ok, good. The storm's getting harder, and we're already late for school, we'd better get going."
"Just hold on a minute, Tea, I'll get the others."
"No, wait a second, I have....a question for you." She said, holding my shoulder as I turned to leave.
"What is it?"
"Well...uh...this is kind of hard to say but...is it true that Yugi and Ryou are in the Shadow Realm? And that right now Bakura and you are in control of their bodies?"
I paused at the question, realizing that Tea hadn't asked about the whole thing in the past two days. It would be natural that she would be confused and curious. I nodded to her, and Tea's face darkened a bit.
"I thought so, but I wasn't completely sure. I sure hope Yugi and Ryou are alright, wherever they are."
"I'm sure they're fine Tea. You don't need to worry about them."
"Yea, well...well go ahead and get everyone else so we can get to school."
"Come on in Tea, I'll be back in a little bit." I told her, going off to get the others.
"Alright Yugi...er...Yami."
I followed the running footsteps through the house until I found Bakura and Cami pelting each other with pillows in the guest bedroom.
"THAT. WAS. NOT. FUNNY. BAKURA!" Cami yelled, hitting him with every word, messed up hair and shirt soaked with the red, sugary beverage we had recently found in the fridge.
"IT'S. YOUR. OWN. FAULT!" He answered, clearly hitting Cami a whole lot harder then he was hitting Bakura back.
I cleared my throat to let them know I had come into the room. They stopped and stared at me, pillows still clenched in their fists.
"May we help you?" Bakura said coolly.
"Tea is here to pick us up for school." I told them. "Get your stuff and get ready to go."
"Aw man." Cami grumbled, "I was hoping you'd forget about us and leave...."
"School isn't what I've been looking forward to either, Pharaoh." Bakura said, lowering the pillow and glaring at the backpack on the floor. "It's no fun if you can't banish anyone to the shadow realm or turn them into plush dolls."
"Tea is waiting for us, so get your stuff and let's get going. They are going to drive us in Joey's father's car so we don't have to walk in the rain."
Cami's face brightened instantly, "He's got a car? Awesome!"
"I'm fine with the rain." Bakura said stubbornly. "I didn't need a car five thousand years ago and I don't need one now."
"Just come on Bakura! Cars are fun!" Cami said, scooping up his backpack. "I've driven one once, and they go all fast and stuff! Only, I'll never get to drive one again because Caitlin said there was no way in hell she'd let me because I 'almost killed us all' or something like that. I don't know what her problem is, but anyway-"
Bakura sighed as Cami chattered mindlessly about cars and followed me down the hallway anyway with his backpack. That was about the time we heard a loud almost deafening crash of something very heavy falling.
We all jumped, and curiously followed the sound of something being hastily moved around.
"Tea?" I said, loudly.
A quick gasp and another crash came from the kitchen. Now someone was moving something around very quickly and there were banging noises, like someone was trying to force something back into place and failing.
"Yami!" A clearly frightened voice exclaimed, "You're back already, hold on a second I'll just--"
"What are you doing in there?" I said, walking after Bakura and Cami into the kitchen to see what was happening.
There stood Tea, trying her hardest to push the drawer back into where it first resided. All the kitchen drawers were opened and emptied, with the random items spread out on the counter or the floor. There was something else that caught my eye as I observed the scene...
One of the knives from the display was missing.
She looked a little pale when we came in, and as soon as I come toward her she dropped the drawer on the ground for the third time, causing it to crack in the middle.
"What were you doing Tea?" I said, cocking an eyebrow.
"Look, Yami, I can explain. I was just looking for...for...my pony-tail holder I left here the other day." She looked guiltily at the drawer and added, "I can pay for that, Yami, I promise. And I can clean up this mess, I swear it!"
I was about to ask her a few more questions when the car horn rang from outside. Tea jumped, but looked relieved as she grabbed her umbrella and backpack from the patch of kitchen counter that wasn't covered in junk.
She hastily left the kitchen and called to us, "That's Joey, we need to get going."
We all glanced at each other, gaze lingering on Tea as she rushed out the door, each with the same questioning looks on our faces. I gave a last look to the knife display again before I left, and the four of us piled into the car.
"Hey guys." Joey said, sending a smile while pulling out of the driveway.
The car was unusually neat. There wasn't a paper out of place, and what was more, there was an air freshener in the cup holder. I looked around the car a few times before noticing something very out of the ordinary.
"Where's Tristen?" I asked Joey, "He doesn't think he's going to ride his motorcycle in this rain does he?"
It took him a few minutes to respond to his name, and turned uneasily to Tea before answering, "He's staying home from school today. He's sick or something like that."
Tea nodded to us, and then continued looking through the front window absently again.
"Are you sure this is the way to school?" Bakura said, looking closely at the scenery, "This isn't the way we walked the other day."
"It's a short-cut." Joey said, taking a sharp turn down a muddy road into a dense forest and making us all slide down the seats in the back.
After about three minutes of driving, I realized that Bakura was right. We were going in the exact opposite direction of school, and the forest we were in looked unusually eerie. Joey and Tea didn't seem to notice, but Bakura seemed persistent on his opinion of direction. He elbowed me gently, so not to draw attention from Tea and Joey in the front seats, and jerked his thumb in the direction of a strange marking on a tree that looked like a deformed arrow.
"Where are we?" I asked again.
"We're going to school, Yami, I told you already." Tea almost growled.
"That's what you say, but I've never seen this part of the city before." I continued.
"Look Yami, I know what I'm doing." Joey spoke up.
This seemed to only get continuously more and more awkward. I thought it queer that Joey knew that I was Yugi's Yami already, when Tea had to ask. It didn't set well with my train of thought.
"...Hey, do you think we could turn on some music?" Cami asked innocently, completely unaware of the whole situation we might be in.
Tea leaned over and flipped the radio on, the voice of a female reporter quickly breaking the silence.
"The rain is continuing harder then ever." The reporter said, "We're gotten almost six inches of rain in only a day, and reports of frequent flooding are coming from northern Japan. The storm seems to be getting continuously worse, and although most of Japan's weather has seemed to calm down back to usual patterns, the worse part of this 'storm' has seemed to stop right over Domino. Experts don't know how to define this sort of weather, and can't explain the strange formations."
"There will be more on the reports at 7:30, but for now, we warn all people outside to find shelter as fast as possible." A male reporter finished, "On other news, there have been reports on strange cereal murders over the past two days, and experts say-"
Tea turned the radio off again, and we heard nothing but rain. I was more then confused. These incidents just didn't seem to flow right, the clues just didn't fit. Determined to get more information, I started up another question.
"Where IS your father, Joey?" I asked.
Joey again, hesitated a little before saying something, "I think he's at a business meeting."
At that, I knew that there was defiantly something wrong with this picture. Joey's father would never go to a business meeting,
"Where's Joey?" I said. "What have you done with him?"
A weak laugh from the 'Joey', "What are you talking about Yami, I'm right here."
"You aren't the right Joey." I said again, "What have you done with him, you imposter!"
Tea chuckled, pulling the missing knife out from her backpack and pointing it at us. "Well aren't we a smart cookie?"
"We're coming up to the location." Joey informed Tea with a grin.
"You haven't answered my questions, were are Tea and Joey?!" I shouted at them.
Tea looked slightly bored at the conversation, and yawned a little before placing the knife down on the dashboard, "They are in good hands, you might say, you don't have to worry about them. In fact, they are waiting at that mortal school of yours and going through the day as planned. Your other friend, Tristen, is waiting for us at the planned location. They are still alive for now, but if you try anything funny, boys, I'll just have to terminate them all."
"The doors are all locked." Joey said, "So don't even bother trying to open them."
Tea lowered her voice to speak to Joey. "How much longer is it going to be? I'm telling you, I can't wait much longer."
"A little longer then I assumed. The mud here is thicker then I planned, and the rain-"
Suddenly, the car jerked abruptly to the side and Tea hit her head on the side of the car seat. Joey only barely put us back on course, and turned the windshield wipers on as fast as they would go. Tea glared at him.
"I would kill you and the runts off right now if I hadn't promised Hugo I'd let him do away with you. I swear, he gets to do all the fun things. But money is money, you know, and after Yukio gives us the signal, you are so dead." Tea threatened.
"N-no, you don't understand! I can't see anything any more!" Joey exclaimed, "The rain is getting too thick! I can hardly see a thing and the dirt road is filled with pot holes! I need to stop or we'll crash!"
"Don't you dare stop!" She screeched, "We have a deal with Yukio to deliver these kids and kill them off and we're going to stick to the deal! Drive!"
"But all the hail is going to break the-"
"I SAID DRIVE!" She said, grabbing the knife and pointing it at his neck, pricking a single drop of blood onto the blade.
While she was arguing, I was able to reach far enough to flip the switch that unlocked all the car doors. Tea was shocked, and was about to slice me up when I felt a jerk on the seat.
We were jostled around, and the car kept getting faster and faster as it shock violently. I dug my hands into the crevasses in the seat to keep from flying into the back of the car as we were sent almost straight down. This was out chance. Bakura struggled with the car door on his side, and was able to swing it open in the nick of time.
All three of us jumped for our lives out of the car and landed face first in knee deep mud. Well, almost. The mud was slippery, and because we had been going down a huge hill coated with it, all of us ended up sliding down the cliff after the car.
It wasn't as fun as it sounds.
Occasionally, you'd hit a large rock on your arm or rear end as you slid, and you just couldn't stop! In spite of the ride, I didn't understand why the fake Tea and Joey didn't jump out of the car after us.
And finally, after all that, we skid to a stop at the bottom of the hill, Bakura's hair so caked with mud he looked more like a brunet then anything else. I didn't even want to picture how I looked as I pulled a branch from my bangs and flicked it onto the ground.
Cami choked and coughed up a mouthful of mud. "That was...too much adventure."
I just laid there for a minute in the mud, not moving because of how much energy had been taken from me from struggling. Suddenly, a thought dawned on me. I pulled myself out of the mud and looked around.
"Where is it?" I exclaimed, raising shakily to my feet and scanning the area around me.
"Where's what?" Bakura said grouchily, wiping himself clean best he could.
"The car." I explained, "The car that those Joey and Tea people were in, where did it go?"
"Who cares." Cami said, "At least we're alive."
"But the car was right there when we were falling, and it didn't even leave any tracks down the hill. Its like the thing wasn't even there in the first place! Where did it go?"
They looked around. There was no evidence that the car had touched the mud. Only our tracks from sliding down were marking the mud. It hadn't hit a tree, or been able to go back up, where had it gone?
"Why would they just disappear like that?" Cami said, also getting up, "I thought they wanted to kill us. Why would they just give up like that? They didn't even tell us their names or anything!"
"They'll be back." Bakura said, picking something up from the mud and wiping it off.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Because," Bakura explained, holding up the item, "They left their hand mirror."
~*~*~*~
Author- I apologize for this short chapter, but I couldn't think of much more and I wanted to end with sort of a cliffhanger. Well, if you're confused, YOU ARE NOT ALONE! I'll tell you this much, it isn't just any old hand mirror... ^^
Again, R&R! I love hearing from you guys! Cause you're my loyal reviewers and readers and yay! Hats off to you!
SUNC!
I hope it came out OK. I know that too much information is boring, but I had to get it over with some time or another. Hopefully now you have an idea what is going on, instead of being completely lost. If by any chance, you are completely lost, send me an e-mail and I can explain it all to you and fix the confusing parts! WE CAN BE FRIENDS!
Yes, well, now we are on the next chapter. Which sadly, is still not going to explain what happens to Ryou and the rest right yet. I title this chapter, 'Not to be Trusted'
~*~
"NOOOOO!" Cami screamed, struggling as I held him down in the chair. "NOOOHOHOHO! LET ME GOOOOO! LET ME BE FREEE! FREE I SAY! FREEEEE!"
"Will you please hold still!" I snapped, uncapping the tube of lipstick and doing my best to apply it on a struggling 5000-year-old Egyptian male. Although, it didn't turn out right, smeared, and made Cami look more like a clown then anything else. But I was satisfied nonetheless.
This was about the time Bakura walked in, looking quite damp from being out in the rain. He had a very cross look on his face. But of course, the moment he saw me holding down the scribe and putting the red stuff on his lips, his expression changed from cross, to confused, to amused. Cami had what Yugi knew as 'Make-up' all over his face that I had found in Caitlin's guardian's room. It didn't look too good, but the point was, it was on.
"BAKURA!" Cami shouted, kicking fiercely at the sight of him, "SAVE MEEEE!"
Bakura smirked, and leaned against the wall, "And spoil this chance of entertainment? Never."
Cami cried out and did his best to pull from my grip. And sighing, I let Cami go, and he fell onto the ground with a thump. His hair was done up in high, messy looking pony-tails that, because his hair wasn't long enough, looked like large lumps on his head. He was wearing the girl's uniform of pink shirt and a skirt, to which he complained about as soon as he put it on, ("I am SO SICK of pink!") complete with a sparkly necklace, bracelet, and gaudy ring.
His face was coated with make-up. His blush was over done like his eye liner and eye-brow pencil, and covered most of his face. Even his lip stick was a strong, dark red that clashed horribly with his entire outfit and hair. Most of the make-up was used the wrong way to substitute something else, and he looked completely insane. As soon as he got up off the floor, he glared at me and crossed his arms in front of him.
"I don't see why this was necessary..." He complained, "You've taken away everything I had left as a guy! Not to mention the tiny bit of pride I had left..."
"It had to be done, Scribe, and now that it's finished, we can leave." I answered, putting away most to the make-up in a bag.
"I'm never going to be able to pull this off!" He whined, "NEVER! I don't act like a girl!"
"Want to bet on that?" Bakura muttered, collecting his schoolbooks from the table.
"You'll just have to learn." I said, "Step one, your voice has to be higher, and you have to talk more like a girl would."
"Example?" Cami said in a higher voice, motioning his hand for me to keep going.
"For example," Bakura said, "If I came up and hit the books out of your hands, you would...?"
"Uh..."
Bakura groaned, and handed him a pile of magazines from the coffee table, "Here.
Cami took them awkwardly, but as soon as he had them in his hands, Bakura knocked them down again. "Now, what would you say to me?"
"I say 'Get lost.'" Cami answered angrily, forgetting his high voice.
Bakura slapped his forehead, "No, act more like a female would."
Cami paused, then put on a fake grin and clapped his hands together. Then, he said in a higher voice, "Get Lost."
Bakura muttered angrily to himself, then said, "Alright, Scribe, I'm only going to do this once. It was necessary to pose as a woman a few times to gain access into different area without getting caught."
Bakura picked up the magazines and pretended to have them flung from his hands. He pulled his hands up to cover his mouth in a swift movement.
"Oh dear! Look what you did!" He shrilled.
A beat. Then both Cami and I burst out laughing hysterically.
[A/N: I'm not trying to down put females or anything. I AM A FEMALE. But I mean, come on, it's Bakura here. How would HE portray them? Not to mention, although Bakura helping is a little OOC, he probably DID have to pose as a girl once and a while to steal what he wanted.]
Bakura fumed instantly and started ranting that 'This is why I DON'T HELP PEOPLE OFTEN!' In no time at all, I was holding my side because of all the laughing and Cami was on the floor, rolling around and occasionally slamming his fist on the ground. I couldn't help myself, I don't laugh much because nothing is funny to me.
...But you have to admit, seeing Bakura acting like a girl is pretty darn hysterical.
"Ok, ok-" Cami said, brushing the tears from his eyes, "Sorry Bakura, it's just- oh my gosh I wish I knew how to work that camera over there!"
He gestured to the camcorder on the table, and gave Bakura one last sigh before he stopped laughing completely. Bakura had the angriest face on, and I'm surprised he didn't jump on us for laughing that hard. (However I'm sure the thought crossed his mind more then once)
"You know, this would really be a good morning if The Pharaoh would act like a girl too." Cami said, grinning.
I instinctively thought of revenge for bringing up something like that, but controlled my anger down to a simple glare. Bakura could sense my annoyance though, and he looked half glad that I got 'punished'. Suddenly remembering something, I grabbed a bottle of liquid make-up from the bag and approached Cami with it. He whimpered.
"What are you going to do with that?" He said, backing up against the wall.
I explained, "I'm going to spray you with this stuff, and then you keep it in your backpack in case you need it again."
I sprayed it a few times in Cami's face. He tried to shield his face with his arms, but it wasn't working very well. Bakura and I exchanged looks as he choked, coughed, and made loud over exaggerated gasping noises right before falling over on the floor and letting his tongue hang out.
"Get up Scribe." I said, slipping the perfume away. "We don't have enough time to play around like this."
Cami's leg twitched in response, and Bakura rolled his eyes so far his entire head was facing the ceiling.
"Come on Tomb Robber, let's wake him up." I said with a sigh.
Bakura suddenly brightened, a smirk casually curling onto his lips, as he replied, "With pleasure."
Bakura advanced to the semi-conscious scribe, still dramatically sprawled out on the ground. Actually, I think Bakura really meant to smack him upside the head and scream in his ear to get back at Cami for not appreciating his help, but he didn't get that far. As soon as he got within two feet of him, Bakura immediately covered his nose and staggered back.
"Ugh! He smells like Ryou's grandmother!"
I glanced at him, "Bakura, what are you doing smelling other people's grandmothers?"
Another deadly glare from the Tomb Robber, and I was glad to hear the doorbell ring. Although it was dangerous, I decided to leave Bakura to waking the scribe up so I could answer the door. When I opened the door, though, I was happy to see my Tea standing there. She looked a little wet from the rain and had a genuine smile spread as far as humanly possible on her face.
"Hi Yugi!" She said with a smile.
"Hello Tea. What are you doing here?"
"Well, I thought you might want a ride to school, seeing as this isn't a good day to walk to school." She explained, holding up her pink umbrella.
I nodded, feeling better knowing that I didn't have to go to school in the storm. There was a honk from the car waiting for us in the street, and Joey waved to us. Tea held up a finger at him to signal she wanted 'one minute', then she turned to me.
"You ready for school? Joey borrowed his dad's car so we didn't have to get wet. Is everyone up and dressed and such?"
A heard a loud screaming noise followed by loud running in the house and a, 'BAKURA I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!' Tea cocked her head in confusion, and I just sighed in response.
"Yes, we're ready." I said.
"Ok, good. The storm's getting harder, and we're already late for school, we'd better get going."
"Just hold on a minute, Tea, I'll get the others."
"No, wait a second, I have....a question for you." She said, holding my shoulder as I turned to leave.
"What is it?"
"Well...uh...this is kind of hard to say but...is it true that Yugi and Ryou are in the Shadow Realm? And that right now Bakura and you are in control of their bodies?"
I paused at the question, realizing that Tea hadn't asked about the whole thing in the past two days. It would be natural that she would be confused and curious. I nodded to her, and Tea's face darkened a bit.
"I thought so, but I wasn't completely sure. I sure hope Yugi and Ryou are alright, wherever they are."
"I'm sure they're fine Tea. You don't need to worry about them."
"Yea, well...well go ahead and get everyone else so we can get to school."
"Come on in Tea, I'll be back in a little bit." I told her, going off to get the others.
"Alright Yugi...er...Yami."
I followed the running footsteps through the house until I found Bakura and Cami pelting each other with pillows in the guest bedroom.
"THAT. WAS. NOT. FUNNY. BAKURA!" Cami yelled, hitting him with every word, messed up hair and shirt soaked with the red, sugary beverage we had recently found in the fridge.
"IT'S. YOUR. OWN. FAULT!" He answered, clearly hitting Cami a whole lot harder then he was hitting Bakura back.
I cleared my throat to let them know I had come into the room. They stopped and stared at me, pillows still clenched in their fists.
"May we help you?" Bakura said coolly.
"Tea is here to pick us up for school." I told them. "Get your stuff and get ready to go."
"Aw man." Cami grumbled, "I was hoping you'd forget about us and leave...."
"School isn't what I've been looking forward to either, Pharaoh." Bakura said, lowering the pillow and glaring at the backpack on the floor. "It's no fun if you can't banish anyone to the shadow realm or turn them into plush dolls."
"Tea is waiting for us, so get your stuff and let's get going. They are going to drive us in Joey's father's car so we don't have to walk in the rain."
Cami's face brightened instantly, "He's got a car? Awesome!"
"I'm fine with the rain." Bakura said stubbornly. "I didn't need a car five thousand years ago and I don't need one now."
"Just come on Bakura! Cars are fun!" Cami said, scooping up his backpack. "I've driven one once, and they go all fast and stuff! Only, I'll never get to drive one again because Caitlin said there was no way in hell she'd let me because I 'almost killed us all' or something like that. I don't know what her problem is, but anyway-"
Bakura sighed as Cami chattered mindlessly about cars and followed me down the hallway anyway with his backpack. That was about the time we heard a loud almost deafening crash of something very heavy falling.
We all jumped, and curiously followed the sound of something being hastily moved around.
"Tea?" I said, loudly.
A quick gasp and another crash came from the kitchen. Now someone was moving something around very quickly and there were banging noises, like someone was trying to force something back into place and failing.
"Yami!" A clearly frightened voice exclaimed, "You're back already, hold on a second I'll just--"
"What are you doing in there?" I said, walking after Bakura and Cami into the kitchen to see what was happening.
There stood Tea, trying her hardest to push the drawer back into where it first resided. All the kitchen drawers were opened and emptied, with the random items spread out on the counter or the floor. There was something else that caught my eye as I observed the scene...
One of the knives from the display was missing.
She looked a little pale when we came in, and as soon as I come toward her she dropped the drawer on the ground for the third time, causing it to crack in the middle.
"What were you doing Tea?" I said, cocking an eyebrow.
"Look, Yami, I can explain. I was just looking for...for...my pony-tail holder I left here the other day." She looked guiltily at the drawer and added, "I can pay for that, Yami, I promise. And I can clean up this mess, I swear it!"
I was about to ask her a few more questions when the car horn rang from outside. Tea jumped, but looked relieved as she grabbed her umbrella and backpack from the patch of kitchen counter that wasn't covered in junk.
She hastily left the kitchen and called to us, "That's Joey, we need to get going."
We all glanced at each other, gaze lingering on Tea as she rushed out the door, each with the same questioning looks on our faces. I gave a last look to the knife display again before I left, and the four of us piled into the car.
"Hey guys." Joey said, sending a smile while pulling out of the driveway.
The car was unusually neat. There wasn't a paper out of place, and what was more, there was an air freshener in the cup holder. I looked around the car a few times before noticing something very out of the ordinary.
"Where's Tristen?" I asked Joey, "He doesn't think he's going to ride his motorcycle in this rain does he?"
It took him a few minutes to respond to his name, and turned uneasily to Tea before answering, "He's staying home from school today. He's sick or something like that."
Tea nodded to us, and then continued looking through the front window absently again.
"Are you sure this is the way to school?" Bakura said, looking closely at the scenery, "This isn't the way we walked the other day."
"It's a short-cut." Joey said, taking a sharp turn down a muddy road into a dense forest and making us all slide down the seats in the back.
After about three minutes of driving, I realized that Bakura was right. We were going in the exact opposite direction of school, and the forest we were in looked unusually eerie. Joey and Tea didn't seem to notice, but Bakura seemed persistent on his opinion of direction. He elbowed me gently, so not to draw attention from Tea and Joey in the front seats, and jerked his thumb in the direction of a strange marking on a tree that looked like a deformed arrow.
"Where are we?" I asked again.
"We're going to school, Yami, I told you already." Tea almost growled.
"That's what you say, but I've never seen this part of the city before." I continued.
"Look Yami, I know what I'm doing." Joey spoke up.
This seemed to only get continuously more and more awkward. I thought it queer that Joey knew that I was Yugi's Yami already, when Tea had to ask. It didn't set well with my train of thought.
"...Hey, do you think we could turn on some music?" Cami asked innocently, completely unaware of the whole situation we might be in.
Tea leaned over and flipped the radio on, the voice of a female reporter quickly breaking the silence.
"The rain is continuing harder then ever." The reporter said, "We're gotten almost six inches of rain in only a day, and reports of frequent flooding are coming from northern Japan. The storm seems to be getting continuously worse, and although most of Japan's weather has seemed to calm down back to usual patterns, the worse part of this 'storm' has seemed to stop right over Domino. Experts don't know how to define this sort of weather, and can't explain the strange formations."
"There will be more on the reports at 7:30, but for now, we warn all people outside to find shelter as fast as possible." A male reporter finished, "On other news, there have been reports on strange cereal murders over the past two days, and experts say-"
Tea turned the radio off again, and we heard nothing but rain. I was more then confused. These incidents just didn't seem to flow right, the clues just didn't fit. Determined to get more information, I started up another question.
"Where IS your father, Joey?" I asked.
Joey again, hesitated a little before saying something, "I think he's at a business meeting."
At that, I knew that there was defiantly something wrong with this picture. Joey's father would never go to a business meeting,
"Where's Joey?" I said. "What have you done with him?"
A weak laugh from the 'Joey', "What are you talking about Yami, I'm right here."
"You aren't the right Joey." I said again, "What have you done with him, you imposter!"
Tea chuckled, pulling the missing knife out from her backpack and pointing it at us. "Well aren't we a smart cookie?"
"We're coming up to the location." Joey informed Tea with a grin.
"You haven't answered my questions, were are Tea and Joey?!" I shouted at them.
Tea looked slightly bored at the conversation, and yawned a little before placing the knife down on the dashboard, "They are in good hands, you might say, you don't have to worry about them. In fact, they are waiting at that mortal school of yours and going through the day as planned. Your other friend, Tristen, is waiting for us at the planned location. They are still alive for now, but if you try anything funny, boys, I'll just have to terminate them all."
"The doors are all locked." Joey said, "So don't even bother trying to open them."
Tea lowered her voice to speak to Joey. "How much longer is it going to be? I'm telling you, I can't wait much longer."
"A little longer then I assumed. The mud here is thicker then I planned, and the rain-"
Suddenly, the car jerked abruptly to the side and Tea hit her head on the side of the car seat. Joey only barely put us back on course, and turned the windshield wipers on as fast as they would go. Tea glared at him.
"I would kill you and the runts off right now if I hadn't promised Hugo I'd let him do away with you. I swear, he gets to do all the fun things. But money is money, you know, and after Yukio gives us the signal, you are so dead." Tea threatened.
"N-no, you don't understand! I can't see anything any more!" Joey exclaimed, "The rain is getting too thick! I can hardly see a thing and the dirt road is filled with pot holes! I need to stop or we'll crash!"
"Don't you dare stop!" She screeched, "We have a deal with Yukio to deliver these kids and kill them off and we're going to stick to the deal! Drive!"
"But all the hail is going to break the-"
"I SAID DRIVE!" She said, grabbing the knife and pointing it at his neck, pricking a single drop of blood onto the blade.
While she was arguing, I was able to reach far enough to flip the switch that unlocked all the car doors. Tea was shocked, and was about to slice me up when I felt a jerk on the seat.
We were jostled around, and the car kept getting faster and faster as it shock violently. I dug my hands into the crevasses in the seat to keep from flying into the back of the car as we were sent almost straight down. This was out chance. Bakura struggled with the car door on his side, and was able to swing it open in the nick of time.
All three of us jumped for our lives out of the car and landed face first in knee deep mud. Well, almost. The mud was slippery, and because we had been going down a huge hill coated with it, all of us ended up sliding down the cliff after the car.
It wasn't as fun as it sounds.
Occasionally, you'd hit a large rock on your arm or rear end as you slid, and you just couldn't stop! In spite of the ride, I didn't understand why the fake Tea and Joey didn't jump out of the car after us.
And finally, after all that, we skid to a stop at the bottom of the hill, Bakura's hair so caked with mud he looked more like a brunet then anything else. I didn't even want to picture how I looked as I pulled a branch from my bangs and flicked it onto the ground.
Cami choked and coughed up a mouthful of mud. "That was...too much adventure."
I just laid there for a minute in the mud, not moving because of how much energy had been taken from me from struggling. Suddenly, a thought dawned on me. I pulled myself out of the mud and looked around.
"Where is it?" I exclaimed, raising shakily to my feet and scanning the area around me.
"Where's what?" Bakura said grouchily, wiping himself clean best he could.
"The car." I explained, "The car that those Joey and Tea people were in, where did it go?"
"Who cares." Cami said, "At least we're alive."
"But the car was right there when we were falling, and it didn't even leave any tracks down the hill. Its like the thing wasn't even there in the first place! Where did it go?"
They looked around. There was no evidence that the car had touched the mud. Only our tracks from sliding down were marking the mud. It hadn't hit a tree, or been able to go back up, where had it gone?
"Why would they just disappear like that?" Cami said, also getting up, "I thought they wanted to kill us. Why would they just give up like that? They didn't even tell us their names or anything!"
"They'll be back." Bakura said, picking something up from the mud and wiping it off.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Because," Bakura explained, holding up the item, "They left their hand mirror."
~*~*~*~
Author- I apologize for this short chapter, but I couldn't think of much more and I wanted to end with sort of a cliffhanger. Well, if you're confused, YOU ARE NOT ALONE! I'll tell you this much, it isn't just any old hand mirror... ^^
Again, R&R! I love hearing from you guys! Cause you're my loyal reviewers and readers and yay! Hats off to you!
SUNC!