Jason sat on the edge of the bed, looking at his newly won cards. He thought about adding the scientist to his deck, along with some good fusions, but he figured that might be overkill. "I guess you'll just have to settle for trade bait, my little friend," he said as he slipped the card into a sleeve and tossed it onto the dresser next to the Millennium Ring.
Jason looked down at the floor. The day was a crazy one and he deserved a good night's rest. He crawled into the bed and pulled the covers over his head. Jason closed his eyes and felt sleep pour over him. That's when the dreams started.
Jason was falling into a pit of an empty, black nothingness. Suddenly, there was a bright flash and an image appeared before Jason. He was in the middle of a small town in Egypt. A little boy was crouched under a table in a marketplace. He trembled as heavily armed soldiers ran by the table.
"The pharaoh needs as many sacrifices as we can get. Take the strongest ones that you can find and kill the others," one of the soldiers commanded in a gruff voice.
The other soldiers gave a salute, and ran off in separate directions. They ransacked homes and destroyed property. Men, women and children alike were taken away. Some people fought back, but were quickly and mercilessly slaughtered like cattle. After the soldiers were done with their twisted deeds, they torched the whole village. The boy under the table managed to get away at the last moment before he was burned to death. That's where the image stopped.
'Wow. That was intense. What did it mean? Why am I here?' Jason thought. The blonde looked around at his surroundings, but saw nothing but darkness. It was as if his eyes were closed and he couldn't open them.
Jason didn't have much time to think before another image appeared. The boy was face down in the burning sands of the Sahara Dessert as a caravan approached. The men stopped and picked up the boy, placed him on the back of a camel, and rode off to the east. That image ended and was soon replaced by one of the boy sitting in a bed, in front of a man dressed in elegant green robes with gold trim. He held a long staff with a cobra at the head.
"My followers found you in the desert. Do you remember how you got there?" the man asked. He leaned in closer to the boy, who seemed to not care about the man's presence, or how close he was. The boy simply shook his head, letting his long silver hair fall over his shoulders as he did so. "Do you know your name?"
The boy looked down at the bed, then, back up at the man. "It's…Seti," he said uneasily.
"Do you have a last name?"
"Yes. My last name is Bakura," the boy replied.
A feeling like a lightning bolt struck Jason as he heard that name. 'Bakura! You've got to be kidding me. This must be his ancestor,' Jason thought.
The image ended there. More quick images flashed before Jason. Most of them were of strange ceremonial practices, such as sacrificing goats and performing strange magic. It seemed that the man was training Seti. In each of the images, Seti got older, until he resembled his usual teenage self, except for the silver hair, dark skin, and long jagged scar over his left eye from a fight with a bandit. Then, the images ended again.
"I'm just guessing, but I think this is the story of how that evil Bakura came to be. If so, then maybe I should sit back and watch," Jason said. He reclined and found that he was actually floating in the air, if it could be called that.
Through the images, however, Jason forgot that he was actually falling…until he hit the floor, that is. There was no pain, but he felt a strange sensation in his head. Jason looked up and saw the man again. This time he was dressed in a simple beige tunic as he stood in chains before the pharaoh. Jason couldn't make out the pharaoh's face in the dark chamber.
"Salazar Midus, you stand before the royal court accused of sorcery and high treason, the worst crimes there are," the pharaoh said with a deep, officious voice.
'His voice sounds familiar, like I've met this guy before,' Jason thought as the pharaoh continued.
"I have no guilt. I shall be pharaoh," Salazar said, cutting off the pharaoh's speech. "In this lifetime, or the next, I will rule! You cannot stop me, Atem. No one can!"
The large gleaming object that hung from around the pharaoh's neck that Jason assumed was jewelry glowed brightly, highlighting the pharaoh's face in a golden aura. His amethyst eyes picked up the glow, creating an eerie orange-like color. His features were harsh and stoic, yet somewhat arrogant as he stood on the stone platform.
"You've got to be kidding me. Yugi? Well this is a fine kettle of fish," Jason said. 'So his real name is Atem, huh? He's going to be delighted to hear that.'
"For your heinous crimes, you will be punished, but not before your loyal followers. They shall be mummified alive, and you shall be made to watch, so that you may carry the guilt of their suffering with you to the underworld," Atem said.
And so it went. Salazar stood by as embalmers in jackal masks began their work on all thirteen of his followers. He was forced to watch as the red-hot pokers were shoved up their nostrils, used to carve their brains into pieces before removal. Salazar tried to look away, but his jackal-headed captors would turn his face back toward the screaming, the pain, and the insanity.
'Just because he has to watch, doesn't mean I have to as well,' Jason thought as he turned away. He was used to watching horror movies and junk like that on television, but he never thought that it was so gory in real life.
The torment went on for hours until all thirteen of the men were on the floor, wriggling and writhing inside their bandages like a caterpillar trying to escape from its cocoon. Their brains extracted; was this a reflex action, or could they still feel the horrifying agony? This question drove Salazar mad with torment; a pain he thought could not be rivaled. That is until the embalmers opened his mouth and cut out his tongue. He found that it was really not impossible to scream without a tongue. Difficult, but not impossible. His captors held his head forward so he wouldn't drown in his own blood. As the pain tore through his face, Atem entered and spoke.
"Salazar, this shall be your punishment. You are to be castrated with your ears sliced off, your eyes sewn shut, and the rest of you mummified."
Salazar screamed again, presumably curses at the pharaoh. The punishments were carried out, and, like his followers, Salazar was wrapped in moist bandages from head to toe. Holes were cut for the nose and mouth. The embalmers then picked him up like an object to be moved out of the way and placed him in a simple wooden coffin, which was then placed in a granite sarcophagus. Salazar lay in the coffin, unable to see, unable to hear, and waiting for the release of sweet death. But that's not what came next. What did come next was a strange feeling that something was on him. Something alive. He felt the movement, and the skittering across his body. Then, he felt it burrow into him, deeper and deeper. That's when the realization hit him. They covered him in scarabs. He could feel the cursed bugs moving through his skin, up to his head, eating him from the inside out. The heavy lid was placed over the sarcophagus and sealed with nails.
"Well, that was some brutal stuff," Jason said. "I didn't think that the pharaoh had something like that in him, but now I can see that I was dead wrong."
He looked over and spotted Seti hiding in one corner of the room. The dark haired teen had watched the entire event. His face streaked with tears of rage, Seti disappeared into the shadows. The image faded and Jason found himself standing alone in a dark stone chamber. But not for long. A new image appeared; one of Seti Bakura reading through the ancient books in a room lit only by several candles.
Jason could barely hear his mumbling as Seti read through the book. "Don't worry master. I will take your revenge and inflict it upon the pharaoh like a thousand curses. And I shall use his sacred items to do it. Then, I shall be pharaoh and rule by your very own designs. This I swear by the sands of Egypt."
Seti closed the book and a wind whooshed through the room, extinguishing the flames of the candles and leaving Jason in darkness again. Then, another candle was lit. Jason was in another chamber. This time, a high priest stood guard over something. Jason looked to see what it was. It was the Millennium Ring. "I don't believe it. I was right. This really is the history of Bakura's dark side."
Suddenly, an explosion rocked the room. Seti entered, hovering just inches off of the ground. He wore a long white robe generally worn by high priests and wizards, and his usually straight silver hair now spiked out and fluttered around his head. Seti spoke in a gruff tone. "In the name of Salazar Midus, I shall claim this Item and all of its powers."
The high priest raised his staff and prepared to defend himself. Bakura chanted some words and the staff transformed into a cobra. The poisonous snake snapped at the priest, but he threw it at Seti, who immediately turned it back into a staff. The priest countered with a spell to restrain Seti, but the thief broke it easily. The battle went on back and forth until the priest found himself backed into a corner.
"You shall not stop me. I shall rule supreme!" Seti screamed out as he pulled a dagger out from under his cloak. It was a long crooked dagger with a gold snake wrapped around the hilt and handle. "Die like a dog, you filthy mortal!" He raised the blade, ready for the deathblow, and the priest chanted one more incantation. The Millennium Ring glowed brightly and Seti Bakura found himself being drawn towards its power. "No! I will not be defeated by such a foolish thing!" he bellowed as he was dragged towards the glowing item.
As Seti flew towards the Ring, he grabbed a portion of the priest's spirit. "I'm not going alone!" Seti screamed as he dragged the transparent form of the high priest into the Ring.
The Item stopped glowing and all was quiet. The priest fell to the floor, chanted one more thing, and completely disappeared, leaving Jason alone in the room. He walked over to the Millennium Ring. Distant chanting filled Jason's ears. It was in Egyptian, but for some reason, Jason could understand it.
So it was. The sacred Item was passed down from generation to generation. And all those who came in contact with it suffered the curse known only as Yami. And with this curse came great destruction and chaos. This Yami vowed to rule all of existence and destroy the pharaoh who cursed him to this being. And so it was written.
Jason snapped up with a quick jerk and found himself back in his room, drenched in sweat. He looked over at the alarm clock. The bright red display read 3:47. Jason reached over to turn on the light, but felt cold metal up against his chest. "What is this?" he asked as he turned on the lamp.
The sight that met him was one straight out of a horror movie. The Millennium Ring hung from around his neck, and he discovered that it wasn't just sweat that he was drenched in. Blood was everywhere. On his chest, on his sheets, but more importantly, on the crooked dagger that lay in bed next to him.
...
Well, that's episode two. For those who don't know, scarabs are beetles that dig into and under your flesh, then, feed off of the living tissue within. Considering that all your organs are made of tissue, it's pretty painful. I'll have episode three up real soon. Please review!