~~The Taste of Revenge~~
Chapter 3
Zalika quickly ducked her head down, hoping that her hair would conceal her identity. She knew though, that Joey, who was somehow good at pointing out odd details, would notice her in her tight leather jeans and black spaghetti straps. Unfortunately, her prediction was correct, and Joey spotted her as the breeze pulled her hair away from her face.
"Hey Tristan, look, is that Zalika?" Joey spat out, rather loudly and rudely.
Tristan, who seemed to be the only straight one out of Yugi's gang of friends, was silent for a brief moment. Cursing herself inside, Zalika hardly noticed Tristan saying something to the extent about them needing to tell Yugi. Footsteps approaching, Zalika gave in to the incredible urge to look up, but suppressed the nagging lust to take the two teenagers out.
"Hey Zalika," Joey began. "Uhh, what's up?"
"The sky." Zalika responded, her voice a dead monotone.
Joey frowned, immediately looking to Tristan for help. Of course, Joey only received a stupid stare.
"Go away..." Zalika demanded, her voice instantly returning to its normal, threatening state.
Joey decided to attempt to be civil. He knew deep down inside though, it wouldn't last. "So, can I uhh," Joey paused, trying to think up something that wouldn't set the girl off. "...Borrow a dollar for a snack?"
I have to get them away from me before Marik comes back! And I know that my old friend Seto Kaiba's jokes on Joey will piss him off in seconds. Hopefully then, he'll go away. Or at least start a kick-ass fight for that matter....
"Joey, you don't need to ask me to buy you a snack. I know your favorite cookies must be dog biscuits. So, why don't you go home and search through your pantry? You may find something edible in there. Or do you live in a doghouse?"
Joey growled, and Tristan took a few steps back, not wanting to anger either of the two.
"You know I have an apartment downtown!" Joey yelled.
"Well, how come in all the years I've known you, Tristan, Serenity, Yugi, and that faggot Duke, you're the only one out the group that hasn't showed me where you live? Fuck, even that bitch Téa let me see her house!"
"I was busy!" Joey protested.
"Yeah, pigging out in the dumpster behind Kaiba Corp...." Zalika rolled her eyes, praying silently in her mind that Marik was either in the bathroom, or stuck in an extremely long waiting line.
"Grrr! I always knew you were too good to be true!" Joey yelled. He nearly attacked the girl, but Tristan grabbed his arms and held him back. Zalika, no longer amused, yawned.
"You know I don't eat garbage!" Joey continued.
"Then what do you eat? I'm sure nothing edible, since you're too third-rate to afford food from the Quick-E-Mart up the road, which sells dog biscuits for 50 cents." Zalika swung her leg over the motorcycle, wishing Marik had left the key in the ignition so she could get away from it all.
"Grrr!!" Joey's face was becoming a deep red, and people were beginning to glance over, wondering why he was fuming, some even eavesdropping on the whole argument. Noticing, Tristan decided it was time to end the feud, and change the subject to hopefully something more.... Pleasant.
"So, where'd ya get that new Harley?" Tristan asked. "I didn't know you were a motorcycle girl, Zalika." He observed the red bike, occasionally glaring at Joey when he looked ready to smash Zalika's face in.
"It's not mine." She said bluntly, beginning to pick at her nails.
"Then whose is it?" He inquired.
Looking up and into the restaurant, Zalika could see Marik finally paying for their food, and a long line of complaining people waiting impatiently behind him.
"Oh no one's!" Zalika said quickly, and pushed her two former friends towards the back of the restaurant. "Use the door on the other side! Some people were having problems with that one..."
"Uhh, thanks Zalika." Tristan said, obviously too dense to be suspicious.
Joey however, glared at her until Tristan nudged him in the side, and she knew their battle had only begun.
She leaned against the shiny bike once again, acting as if she didn't notice Marik approaching. It was a much warmer feeling, knowing that somebody worth talking to her was there. Looking up, and smiling sweetly, he set the bag on the seat of a picnic table and came up along side her.
"Would you like to eat here or at my place?" he asked softly, looking into her eyes.
Zalika glanced back into the restaurant. Joey and Tristan appeared to be arguing over food selections. Either that, or it was about money. She knew them too well.... And above practically everything else, they cherished food.
"Can we go back home?" She asked. Her tone of voice was nearly inaudible, and Marik embraced her gently.
"Of course." He smiled when she said 'home'. Even though his residence wasn't anything, she seemed to be happy there. "Is everything okay?"
Looking back, she gratefully returned his hug. "Yeah, I'm okay. I had just gotten lost in thought."
"What were you thinking about?" Marik asked casually.
"If I tell you, do you promise not to turn me in?"
"Why would I turn you in?"
"I dunno. Because I am a criminal?"
Marik smirked. "Come on tell me. What did you do?"
"Well, you know Téa Gardner? That bitch friend of Yugi's that was brutally murdered a couple months ago?"
Marik nodded, visible interest growing in his eyes. "Yeah, I hated that bitch. I heard about how the murderer left her remains in a dissected heap with some strange note pinned to her heart."
"Indeed." Zalika replied, "and you know what? You're looking at that murderer."
Marik took a step back, startled, then climbed onto his motorcycle. He started it up and waited for her to sit down behind him. "How come you aren't in prison right now?"
"The cops are too stupid to even suspect that I did it. When I went to Yugi's that morning, they were all suffocating the Game Shop with their presence." Zalika said, sitting down and taking the bags from Marik's hands. She glanced into them, and popped some French fries into her mouth.
Marik snickered. "I'm glad I met the murderer," he said sarcastically. "What are you going to do about Yugi?"
"I don't know yet. I was thinking about slaying him right in front of Joey. Or maybe the other way around...."
"If you do, I want to be there." Marik drove out of the crowded parking lot, and onto the main street. Speaking up, he continued. "Does Yugi know you did it?"
"Of course not. But he will know, soon enough."
Marik nodded and focused on the road. He remained silent, allowing Zalika to peacefully return to her destructive thoughts....
[flashback]
Spending no extra time in the small storm cellar, Zalika decided she had to leave before Téa's parents woke up and discovered their beloved bitch of a daughter missing from her peaceful slumber. She took out a piece of paper and scribbled "Well Yugi. The bitch's heart is broken. So much for this whore's friendship talks!" Zalika yanked a large, black trash bag from her coat and opened it up. In it she stuffed Téa's bleeding, mutilated corpse, head first. The prep's eyes were still open, glazed over and staring at her. Zalika thought nothing of it. Over Téa's motionless form, she carelessly dropped the remains of her heart, as well as any other organs that had "fallen" out.
Zalika wrapped the bag up at the top and headed out of the storm cellar. She didn't bother tying it. There was no need to. So far, everything was working out just as she had planned, and now it was time to complete the next and final step. The next, she hoped, would be even more amusing than taking the life of her worst enemy....
She carried the bag up the street, drawing no attention whatsoever to herself. Only a few blocks away, and her goal would be accomplished. The body of her victim seemed weightless to her, as she walked normally up the road, feeling no strain on her back or sores in her arms. She pungent reek of blood began to bite at her nose, but she ignored it.
At last she reached her destination. It was the Game Shop. She walked up to the front step, stopped, and dropped the bag.
"This is going to be good....." she muttered. "Inside are Yugi and the guys. When they see this, they are going to explode."
Laughing to herself, she turned the bag upside down and let the gutted heap splat against the concrete steps. Blood drained over the body. She kicked it several times, forcing it into an uncomfortable, stomach-wrenching position.
Zalika looked at her accomplishment. "Well done..." she said to herself. "Now for the fun part......"
She heard some laughing from upstairs, and then a large bang. Assuming it to be Joey and Tristan arguing over a last cookie, which would eventually be claimed by Yugi, Zalika rung the doorbell.
"Come on!! It's MIDNIGHT!! Who'd be knockin' at the door at dis hour?" she heard Joey yelling. After that came the stomping of feet down the flight of stairs, and more arguing.
Zalika quickly darted across the street and hid behind a hedge of bushes. Joey opened the door from across the road, and looked stupidly out at the air.
"Hey look guys there's nobody...... OH MY GOD!!!" Joey yelled.
Zalika, from watching behind the shrubs, forced herself to suppress a huge burst of laughter.
"Joey, what's that smell?" Yugi groaned, pushing his way past Ryou and Tristan.
"Uhhh guys? Either this is a REALLY bad dream or......"
"Noooooo!! Téa!!!" Yugi wailed, bursting into tears.
"Heh," Zalika muttered to herself again, "so he does care about that bitch. Figures, since he should only have loved me. Now he shall pay dearly. That little veil of innocence that he wears now has a huge rip in it."
She heard the guys screaming still. Yugi was crying. . . crying about how she 'didn't deserve it' and how it 'wasn't her time yet' and how 'sorry I am that you had to go through this, you didn't deserve it'
Zalika shrugged it off. Tristan had gotten on his cell phone and was quickly dialing 911, trying to remain calm. Joey, who was trying to calm Yugi down, ran into the bathroom to vomit. As soon as he was gone, Yugi wailed even more.
'I'm so tempted to go and comfort him, in a way', Zalika thought. 'But no, it'd fuck up my plan.'
The stench was beginning to find its way over to her. She loved the smell. It was the smell of victory and superiority, something she knew she had over Yugi and his friends. She looked down, seeing some of Téa's blood on her pants. Running her finger along them, some attached its cold self to her finger, and she licked it off.
It didn't taste good. Too sweet. There was a large lack of metallic flavoring, and the amount of sodium was even lower. She spit it out, and went back to watching the guys.
Ryou was standing over Téa's body. He said nothing, but displayed a feeling of sadness within his eyes. Tristan had gotten off of the phone, and in the distance, Zalika heard sirens. It was time to find a better hiding place.
Again, Yugi burst into tears. He made the mistake of placing his hand on Téa's cold body in an attempt to close her horror-stricken, glazed, blue eyes. Blood spewed from her eye sockets and onto his hand. Cold blood. . . And her skin was stiff and icy.
Yugi screamed and frantically flapped his hand, trying to get the blood to drip off. It didn't. It stuck to his fingers, clinging to him as if he were its last hope of survival.
It took only minutes for the police to arrive. Zalika ducked further back into the neighbor's yard, and dumped a fluid onto her sneakers so that the police hounds would be confused by her scent. The creatures would smell it up to the road, then once they hit the bush, it would be turned into the scent of a deer that Zalika had killed for food.
Yugi's bawling was drowned out by the sirens. Six police cars and an ambulance pulled up and surrounded the game shop. Zalika frowned, deciding it was time to leave.
[end flashback]
Marik pulled the motorcycle into the parking ramp. He shut it off, but before he could get off Zalika was already making her way towards the door. Smirking, he followed, and tossed her the key. Upon walking in she set their food on the table and turned on the television.
"What's on?" Marik asked.
"News." Zalika replied, already digging into her food.
Marik shrugged and sat down on the couch. Zalika eventually had a seat beside him, seemingly lost in the boring information given out by the daily program.
"Temperatures have been skyrocketing today as a mysterious sandstorm has begun in the outskirts of town. Violent dust devils are engulfing small houses near the ends of Domino City. The cause of these bizarre occurrences is still unknown." The weather reporter said uneasily.
"That's odd." Marik commented.
Zalika shrugged. "Since when is there sand in Domino to even stir up?"
"I don't know. Perhaps the gods are angry."
"Probably." Zalika switched the channel to talk show. "Hey look, Marik, these two guys are fighting over a girl."
Marik nodded, uninterested in such pathetic behavior. He walked into the bathroom to escape the noises being loudly emitted from his television set.
He looked into the mirror. Boredom was plaguing his face, as well as sweat. He opened the door to the mirror and removed a jar of rubbing alcohol.
But when he closed it.... The mirror no longer reflected his own image.
Instantly one word came to his mind.
Punishment.
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Umm don't ask. Rather quickly written, and of course my English skills are SO bad when it comes to description. Okay I better get more reviews, good or bad. So R&R or I will cut your spine out.