Wish You Were Here

Chapter 4:

Bakura and Marik tried to coax Yami out of hiding in the tent for the rest of the evening. But he wouldn't budge until his hair was back to normal. Marik wanted to just leave him in the tent, "I hope he rots!" He proclaimed, but Bakura gave Yami some gum that he'd been chewing and, surprisingly, it worked just as well as the hair gel would've.

Yami was happy again and strutted out of the tent with his neatly groomed head held high.

Marik rolled his eyes and continued to cook. He'd already skinned the squirrels and stuck them on sticks over the fire, so it'd be easy to roast them. Of course, Marik knew that Yami wouldn't go near it, if he knew it was freshly caught squirrel. So… he disguised it.

"Okay, it's ready!" Marik shouted, "You'd better come get it before it gets cold!"

Bakura came running and slid right in front of the fire, "Finally! You got the squirrels all cooked up, right? I told you I like it medium rare."

"Shh! I don't want the Pharaoh to know they're wild meats." Marik picked up one of them and wrapped a few leaves around it, and filled the eye sockets with berries. "I'm going to see if he notices anything…"

"Marik, you're sick." Bakura laughed, then quieted down when Yami came trotting over, "Heh… hey, Yami."

"Hello. Marik, I hope you didn't pick anything vulgar to eat out in the woods. You know what I said about all that-"

"Relax." Marik handed the squirrel with the leaves and berries on it to him. Yami didn't notice anything at first, which was strange because of the fact that the tail had fallen off onto Yami's shoe. Still, he didn't notice and Bakura was about to explode from the laughter he was keeping in.

Marik sat there and watched, "See, Yami? I got a bunch of sissy berries and flowers just for you." He used his fake-friendly smile.

"Wow, that was nice of you. Maybe you're not so bad after all."

Bakura cackled and Marik glared at him, so it turned into a cough.

"Hurry up at eat it before the flowers wilt."

Yami nodded and took a bite. As he swallowed, his eyes wandered down to his shoe, where the burnt and shriveled squirrel tail lay. Yami's eyes widened and he backed up, stumbling and tripping over the logs of wood.

"Mrm!" Came his muffled scream. He still had a large chuck of the leave-covered squirrel in his throat and he forgot to swallow. Yami took a closer look at the food he had in his hand and realized that it was a roasted, headless squirrel.

"Whraaaaa!" He hit himself hard in the chest and the squirrel head came flying out of his windpipe. Coincidently, it hit Marik in the middle of his forehead.

"Ah! Yami, you dork!" He held his head, "What was that for?"

Yami was on all fours, coughing and hacking.

Bakura was sitting down, eating his squirrel calmly, "Hey, that was cool."

"That was nasty." Marik rubbed the saliva off of his forehead and sat next to Bakura, watching Yami toss his cookies in the river.

When Yami was done, he staggered over to Marik and pointed at him, "Y-You snake! You gave me a dead squirrel!"

"So, what? Bakura's eating it."

"I'm not Bakura! I'm Yami and you should treat me with more respect! I mean, really!" Yami folded his arms, "All you ever do is pick on me!"

"And all you ever do is complain!"

"You give me more than enough reasons to complain!"

It went back and forth like that for about ten more minutes. Bakura had finished off his squirrel and he sat there, being bored. "Urg. Shut up, the both of you! You're giving me a giant head-"

"Awhooo!"

Yami and Marik stopped in mid-argue and looked at Bakura. Marik tilted his head, "W-Was that you?"

"No." Bakura shook his head and looked around. He just noticed that the sun had already set and it was almost pitch-black.

"Awhooo!" the strange noise came again from the forest.

Suddenly, it was as if Marik, Yami, and Bakura were the best of friends. They clung together on the wooden bench and were shaking like little leaves. It was quiet for about two or three minutes and then Marik realized what he was doing.

"G-Get off me!" He pried Yami and Bakura's hands off of his waist and neck. "What are you, a bunch of lilies?"

Bakura cleared his throat and stood up, "I don't know what you're talking about, Marik. I saw a bug on you and I tried to flick it off."

"Yeah, right." He looked down, "And what's your excuse, Pharaoh?"

"Uh… I-I don't know. But there's no need to be frightened, you guys. It was probably just a wolf. H-He won't bother us."

Marik looked a little worried at first, then he smirked, "Heh. I'm not afraid of some dumb wolf."

"Awhooo!"

"Gah!" Marik jumped about two feet in the air, "Um, let's do something to take our minds off of that stupid animal. Something… anything."

Yami sat down next to Bakura and shrugged, "Well, you wanna play chess? Yugi taught me how about a week ago."

"Sure, Yami. Let's chop down a tree and make it into a chess board." Bakura said sarcastically, "And then, while we're at it, let's put on thick glasses and play with robots. Jeez, you think of the geekiest stuff."

"Humph! Then let Marik think of something. You seem to be much more fond of his ideas." Yami folded his arms.

"What does that mean?"

"All right, cut it out." Marik paced around them. He tripped over something, looked down and saw a flashlight. "Hmm…" He picked it up and sat down across from Yami and Bakura on the other side of the campfire.

"'Kay, guys, if you're itchin' for something to do, how about a ghost story game?"

"Ghost story game?" Bakura and Yami asked, curiously, "What kind?"

"It goes like this… one person starts a scary story, and they do only a little bit. Then it's the next person's turn to do a little more of the same story. It keeps going around and around until we finish. I saw it on some show Malik made me watch."

"Okay." They shrugged.

"Good, I'll go first." Marik smirked and held the flashlight below his face, giving a spooky glow all around him, "Okay, once upon a time, there was a little girl named Yamiko. She was sitting in a tent, one night, on a class fieldtrip to the park. The rest of the class was already asleep and little Yamiko was left scared and alone…"

Yami wasn't amused. He watched, dully, as Bakura took the flashlight and began to pick up where Marik left off, "It was around midnight, and just as little Yamiko was about to fall asleep, she heard a noise from outside the tent. She grabbed her flashlight and went to see what it was…"

Bakura let Yami have the flashlight and he decided to try and savage this story, "When 'Yamiko' went outside, she saw that it was just a tree branch, laughed at how silly she was, then went back inside and dreamt about playing with dolls… or whatever girls think about."

Marik grabbed the flashlight, "Over in the next tent there were a couple of little boys named Marikan and Bakurayo. Marikan was getting really ticked that Yamiko hadn't gotten herself eaten yet. So, he went to the zoo and let out all the bears. They came into Yamiko's tent and tore of her tri-colored wig."

"She ran home crying and died of embarrassment." Bakura said.

"The end!" Yami cried and threw his hands up in the air, exasperated, "Goodness grief. You two are some piece of work."

Bakura and Marik looked at each other then busted out laughing.

Yami shook his head and sighed, "You're both weird. And that story wasn't scary at all. And I'm not a little girl!"

Marik waved away his comment, "If I had told one of my seriously scary stories, Yami, you'd be peeing in your pants right about now. You're already on edge. I knew those bears I threw in would make your knees wobble."

"What? I'm not on edge-"

Ring-Ring-Ring! "Yah!" Yami screamed and hoped into Bakura's lap, "Uh… uh, it's my cell phone."

Bakura rolled his eyes and dumped Yami on the floor. He held the phone to his ear a pressed a button, "Yes, cell phone?"

"Yami, it's me."

"Hello, Yugi. How's your… uh, cleansing?"

"It's fine, Yami. But have you heard from Grandpa? He was supposed to be home around three o' clock this afternoon and it's already ten. I'm really worried."

"…" Yami was starring into space. He had to think fast, 'Oh Ra, what am I going to tell him? I-I can't lie… I can't lie… I've never lied to Yugi, I can't start now!'

"Yami? Are you there?"

"Uh…" Yami was looking at Bakura and Marik for help. But all they did was laugh and tee-hee at poor Yami's confusion, "Oh, Yugi, I have to cell phone you back. I'll talk to you later."

Bleep-Bleep-Bleep. Yugi put the phone back on the cradle and sighed, confused. "Well, that was strange."

"What's wrong, Yugi?" Ryou asked in mid-yawn. He was in his own bed on the other side of Malik's. He turned over and faced Yugi, "Did Yami say something?"

"N-No… it's what he didn't say that I'm worried about."

"Still haven't found your Grandfather? Oh, dear. Where do you suppose he could be?"

Malik turned over in his sleep and make a little gurgling noise in the back of his throat, His hand fell off the side of the bed and he wrapped the cover even tighter around himself.

"It doesn't seem like Malik's having any trouble sleeping. You should get some rest, Yugi. I'm sure your Grandfather will turn up soon. As for Yami, stop worrying. You don't see me fussing over Bakura, now, do you?"

"No. Heh, you're right, I guess. G'night." He flicked the light switch and went to bed.

In the middle of the forest, somewhere, there was a shadow figure wandering through the night. He slunk from the safety of one tree to another as the moon grew larger in the sky and cast light on the ground below. The shadow peeked around and came into full view of the bright orb. He stretched his arms and kept going, with a song on his lips.

"Oh Susanna, don't you cry for me… 'cause I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee. Awhooo!" He howled and did a little jig to go along with the singing.

"I wonder where I am," He said aloud and looked at the map that he had in his pocket. "The ranger's cabin should be a little bit north of Cake Mountain. All I have to do is make it there, then I can call for help… 'cause I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee. Awhoo!"