Disclaimer: Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh...it's a sad story, really...
The legend of the three souls
Chapter V – In the dark
-by Alena S. Anigor
The room was poorly illuminated by the lights; the only real light coming from the computer, a whizzing sound emitting from it. The screen was barely noticeable, since two figures blocked the view to it. The third figure leaned in a bit to see what the other was doing and then frowned slightly, seeing how the knife glistened slightly.
Tea Gardner was afraid to move; heck, she was even afraid to breathe. Her choke got stuck in her throat, as the figure behind her, currently holding her life in his hands, leaned down slightly to observe the girl better.
Bakura almost smirked, noticing wide and bright cerulean orbs staring at the screen then at him. He chuckled lightly, making the girl swallow a bit.
"Now, you be a good girl and do as I tell you," he ordered, nudging her shoulder slightly with his hand, and instructing her to get up.
"Bakura, you are actually taking her with us?" Marik hissed from behind, eyeing the corridor and the white haired thief simultaneously. Bakura turned around to glare at his companion; sharply lowering the girl back to the chair and she winced slightly. The grip the white haired intruder had on her arm was very tight and almost painful now. She heard him saying something on Arabic, but she couldn't understand a word he was saying. Her eyes were glued to the screen where she watched numbly one little single line blinking on the white screen and on the imaginary paper. An idea crossed her mind, and she wondered briefly how was she even capable of thinking straight in a situation like this. She glanced at the young man beside her who was currently in some kind of a quarrel with the other voice from across the room. Apparently, the man was not alone, and she knew she couldn't fight them both...especially if the other one also had a nifty dagger to stab her with.
Carefully, she lifted her right hand, the one that was still free to move and looked at the keyboard in front of her. She placed her finger on the letter 'h' and slowly pressed the key with her finger. The letters 'e', 'l' and 'p' followed, and she sighed inwardly for managing to do at least something. She looked at the thief from the corner of her eyes and saw that he was still arguing with the other person.
"Fine, take her if that's your ingenious plan, then!" Marik hissed his final disagreement, before Bakura glared at him one last time and then redirected his eyes to the girl at his side. She closed her eyes, wincing a bit and he noticed that he forgot about the knife in his hands while arguing with Marik and that that same knife went a bit too deep into the girl's skin. He loosened the pressure of the blade a bit and then grabbed her by the hand, yanking her from the chair, and pulling her up to stand in front of him. He wasn't much taller than her but he could still place his chin on top of her head and lean down a bit to her ear.
"Walk and be quiet," he ordered sharply, "and you won't get hurt."
Tea understood him this time and he placed an arm around her waist to guide her trough the room. Now she could see the other person and wasn't very surprised to see another young sandy haired Egyptian standing by the doors and guarding the corridor.
"W-what do you want from me?" She gathered some courage to ask her kidnaper, and he snickered, glancing down at her, as he pressed the knife against her skin a bit more again and she raised her head, trying to avoid the sharp blade of it.
"Let's say we're going to do a little exchange here," he replied, smirking evilly at her and making her gulp. "Your life for the bust.
"T-the b-bust?" She choked out again, stumbling a bit when she almost hit the doors with her feet. The thief nodded and let out a chuckle.
"That's right," he added, leaving Marik behind to check if another woman was on her way, "I'm sure your friends would do anything to save your pathetic life."
Tea frowned on that statement, knowing very well that Yuugi and Mai would do anything to save her. But as long as she was with those two, her life was hanging on a thin line and she decided to play along; there was nothing else she could do anyway.
Bakura directed her towards the backdoors they sneaked trough after Marik used his lock picking skills to open them. He followed behind, turning every now and then to look for any sign of the black haired woman. Bakura opened the doors with his foot and then pushed Tea outside, stumbling a bit after she almost fell across one of the steps.
"No tricks, girl," he hissed, tightening his grip on her, and Tea nodded sharply, feeling the pain surge trough her left arm. The sharp metallic blade pressed against her neck wasn't helping either, but at least it wasn't used to make further damage to her health...yet.
Marik stepped outside, carefully closing the doors behind him and then turning his attention to the thief and the girl in his lethal embrace. He shook his head then went ahead. Bakura let go of the girl, steadying her with his arm, and then reached into the depths of his shirt to grab a little white cloth. Tea watched intently what he was doing before it dawned to her that his intention were to make her mouth shut. Her eyes widened and she wanted to protest but the cloth was already in her mouth, and Tea felt a sudden impulse to vomit when she registered the bitter and disgusting taste of the cloth shoved into her mouth. She wanted to spit it out, but Bakura warned her not to do that with one single twist of his arm, and she cried out, her scream muffled by the cloth. She didn't even manage to get over the pain when she was suddenly being pulled up and thrown over the thief's shoulder. He chuckled at her meek protests, her fists being unable to do him much harm, and she was now hanging from his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She was jerking violently in his grip until Bakura had enough and let her off his shoulder so quickly that she almost fell backwards to the ground. He grabbed her by her neck and pulled her up to face him. His menacing dark orbs matched his vehement expression as he pulled her face up to his.
"If you want to live," he hissed, making his grip on her neck tighter and her eyes widened slightly, "behave! I'm not playing woman, and I'll get that bust with or without you participating in my plan!"
With that, he let her go and pulled her up over his shoulder again. This time, Tea made no attempts to fight, as her body hung loosely down his back, her hair billowing slightly over her face. She bit the cloth hard, despite its disgusting taste, tears threatening to fall from her cerulean orbs. That was supposed to be a nice vacation, and what happened? She got kidnapped, and all that because of the petty bust? She didn't understand why was everything revolving around that bust, but she hoped that the message she left on the screen wouldn't go unnoticed by Ishizu.
The coffee pot let out an ear - piercing whistle and Ishizu sighed in irritation, finally able to remove the pot from the stove. The water always got warm very slowly in that particular pot, but unfortunately, that was the only one she possessed. She sipped the dark dust called coffee into the pot, darkening the water and making her thicker with the brown substance. It took longer than usual for water to heat up and she hoped Tea hadn't fallen asleep in front of the screen by now. Pouring the coffee into the cups, she put them on a tray and lifted the tray from the sink. She made her way down the corridor, carefully balancing the tray in her hands, and sighed in relief when she saw the faint light coming from the open room at the end of the corridor. She turned to step into the room, observing the cups that were shaking slightly on the tray.
"I'm sorry it took so long but the wa-" then she stopped, noticing the empty chair in front of the computer and no Tea in sight.
"Tea?" she asked, approaching the desk and putting the tray down. She turned around carefully, a strange feeling suddenly overwhelming her. She wanted to go and see if she went to the bathroom, but she turned to the computer to see how far she came with the sorting. She could only see a white screen, but four lettered words written in large case definitely caught her attention. Ishizu's eyes widened in fear when she read the single word written on the white screen. She clasped her hand across her mouth, turning around quickly and running all the way down the corridor to the backdoor.
She opened the doors with ease, not realizing until now that she forgot the keys, but that wasn't really important now since the doors were unlocked. She stormed out, skipping down the stairs and then stopped when she found nothing but a dark and empty alley in front of her.
"TEA!"
Solomon wasn't very pleased when he was almost brutally awakened from his, already shallow sleep. The first thing that came into focus were the violet and wide orbs of his grandson, as he was still shaking him.
"Wake up already!" Yuugi yelled vehemently, and Solomon noticed then that his voice was almost shrill with excitement and that his eyes were wide in fear. He rose quickly, steadying the boy with his hands, and noticing Mai, Joey and Tristan standing in front of the door. They were all wearing equally worried and frightened expressions and Solomon frowned, the thought of something happening to Ishizu already crossing his mind.
"What happened to Ishizu?" he asked suddenly, his own voice now full of concern.
"I'm fine, but..." Ishizu appeared by the doors, wiping her eyes with her fingers. Solomon jerked his head towards her, somewhat relieved to see her, but the word 'but' stuck in his ears. He narrowed his eyes, looking at Mai and the Egyptian boys then at Ishizu and finally at his grandson standing by the bed.
"But?"
Ishizu let out a sob, Tristan hugging her and trying to comfort her. Mai was also in some kind of shock, as she simply stared at the floor, while Joey's fists were clenched, his brown eyes shadowed with his hair. Yuugi's eyes fell downwards, staring at his grandfather's hands before he dared to look at his face again. Solomon felt as if something or someone was missing and he scanned the room, noticing the glimpse of insp. Muhadda's mustaches behind Ishizu. Someone was missing...but who? The thought of a brown – haired girl came to his mind and he looked at Yuugi again, eyes boring into his questioningly.
"Where is Tea?"
Yuugi took a deep, shaky breath, fighting with his own fears and worry as he looked at the floor.
"She's kidnapped, grandpa."
The dark streets mingled underneath her eyes and Tea felt her blood rising to her head. She already felt nauseous from the sickening taste in her mouth, and tired of being carried around like she was a piece of wood. She tried to shift a bit, the tears already long gone because they were to no avail. The white haired man wouldn't let her go anyway until he got the bust. She wondered for a while what did those people want with it...why was it so important and so precious? Because of some long forgotten legend?
Bakura turned around the corner again, sneaking trough the alleys, always avoiding the light and sticking to the shadows. Tea could hear another pair of footsteps from not so far away and presumed they belonged to the other young man who was with him. She looked below her, observing the stone like shapes of the street. She didn't know where they were going, but she prayed deep inside that it would be somewhere where she could actually sit or stand by herself.
She thought of Yuugi and Mai for a second and wondered if Ishizu noticed her message and plea for help by now already. She certainly hoped so; otherwise, she didn't want to think of the possibilities if she was to stay here forever, or worse – if she was to die here.
Bakura stopped suddenly, making her lash forward then back to her previous state.
She mumbled an 'ouch' but that was barely audible. She tried to turn her head aside to see the reason for such a sudden pit stop, but couldn't crane her neck enough to see anything. She could, however hear other footsteps around them and then she heard the voice of the other boy who accompanied the thief. She couldn't understand anything he said but according to the sound of his voice, something was definitely wrong.
Marik's eyes widened in horror when he suddenly saw a couple of men, all dressed up in cloaks appearing out of nowhere in front of him. He stepped back, too surprised and too shocked to do anything else. He turned to look at Bakura who narrowed his eyes into slits, observing the newcomers with a menacing glare.
"Bakura! Who are they?" Marik asked, suddenly feeling awkwardly afraid and numb.
Tea raised her head a bit when she heard footsteps in front of her now, too and her eyes widened in confusion when she spotted a couple of men, standing in front of her. Their faces couldn't be seen due to the hoods covering them, but they sure didn't look very friendly either. She gulped, feeling the muscles on Bakura's back tense. She didn't know what was going to happen, but she was sure that she didn't want to participate in some kind of street fight right now.
Bakura observed the men around him; Marik standing by his side, seeming frightened. He noticed that the men surrounded them now, and that they made a very dangerous trap around them. He almost forgot about the girl over his shoulders until she shifted a bit. He cursed inwardly; trying to come up with a plan to leave the girl unharmed and finish the rest of the imbeciles that dared to cross his path off.
Just when he wanted to put her down and order her to stay put, a figure stepped mysteriously out of the group of men, his cloak billowing slightly around him although there was no wind at all.
Bakura...? Marik whispered, backing away slightly from the figure. Bakura stared at the figure in wonder, somewhat confused with the fact that it all felt a bit too awkward to him. He was about to growl at them to get lost, when the figure interrupted him, pointing at him ominously and a hollow like voice filled the street.
Tea froze when she heard the voice, her blood running cold in her veins.
"The Ancient One wants you dead, Bakura."
AN:
Thanks for the reviews and I hope you liked this chapter!"
Till the next one – bye!
A.S.A
