The Purpose of a Heart
Chapter Five:
Two hours later, Bakura blew his bangs out of his face and studied the letter. It was smudged and a good many lines were scribbled out and rewritten over, but he thought he might have finally written something that would get Yami's attention and wouldn't be written off as a joke.
Yami-
Your life is in danger. You have to get out of Domino as soon as you can, because these are people you do not want to mess with. This is really serious. I know I've said things before that weren't true, but this time it's different. If you don't get out of town now, you could be killed. So please do as I'm saying, and leave and hide really well, and don't tell anyone where you've gone!
Bakura re-read it, blinked, and slapped himself. "He's never going to believe that!" he said aloud. "Well…then again, he's fairly serious, and this is the kind of thing he wouldn't laugh at. I guess all I can do is try to get this to him as soon as I can, and hope for the best."
He folded the paper and hid it inside the Bible that he'd found in the room the night he'd moved in. Because Bakura had no interest in the religion, he hoped that anyone that might search his room wouldn't look inside the book.
It was good because at that moment the door was opened. Bakura straightened up quickly, to be met by the boss, who was holding a picture.
"Good morning Bakura."
"Something you want?" Bakura asked pointedly.
"Your assignment." He replied, holding out the photograph. "Tonight will be your third killing."
"Hurrah." Bakura said dully, taking the picture.
"Louis will meet you tonight at ten in the parking area to drive you." the boss said, backing out the door and closing it. Bakura looked at the picture of the man and tossed it on the bed gleefully. This was perfect timing! Louis could be easily persuaded to stop at the post office real fast for some stamps, and he could mail the letter tonight. By the end of the week, Yami would be hidden safely out of Blair's way, and Bakura himself would be free to raise hell.
The only thing that bothered him was just how convenient it all was. Things never went this easy in real life. The smoothness of the moment was almost fake, and that made Bakura slightly uneasy. He decided to polish his gun and try to forget his worries.
That night, Bakura was almost in a good mood-or at least, as good a mood as could be expected. His dread at going to kill someone was both heightened with stress about mailing the letter secretly, and also helped by the knowledge that soon, he could get out the Compound for good. Blowing it up still wasn't a bad idea.
He strapped the Uzi over his shoulder and slipped the letter he'd written into a zipper on the inside of his coat. The picture of his target, (Name: Jonathon Holmes), was in his back pocket along with the address.
Turning off the lights, he headed downstairs to the parking area. To his surprise, it was empty. Louis was no place to be found, and the station-wagon, the usual get-away car, was parked in its place as normal, the engine cold. Suspicious, Bakura walked toward the front of the Complex. The way the building was made, there was a drive-through that went all the way under the building. One end, the font, opened onto the dirt road that led to the building, the other opened to a small empty field and then the woods. The front of the building was lit by a single motion-activated light, which flipped on the second Bakura emerged from the covered parking area, and revealed two people standing there, waiting. Blair, and the boss.
Bakura glanced around and then walked toward them. "What's up with this?" he asked. "Lou's not waiting by the car."
"Boy, you're a smooth one." The boss's normally serene voice was on edge.
"What's going on?" Bakura asked warily.
"Bakura, you disappoint me." He said sadly, shaking his head. Bakura narrowed his eyes.
Blair couldn't contain a smirk as he watched, and it was that arrogant grin that bothered Bakura the most. Finally he asked,
"Look, is Lou going to drive me tonight or not?"
"Bakura, concentrate on the real subject at hand, please."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Bakura protested. The boss snapped his fingers. With a lightning fast movement, Blair grabbed Bakura's arms and pinned them behind him. The boss moved forward and unzipped the pocket of Bakura's coat, pulling out the note to Yami and waving it. Bakura felt a bit light-headed suddenly as he figured out that he'd been set up. Somehow the boss had found out that he had the message.
"Bakura, sometimes you don't make any sense. On one hand, you claim that no one likes you or misses you. You're a cold-hearted person that will use whatever you can for your own advantage. You're a killer for god's sake. And yet…you sit in your room and talk to yourself about the person you love, you put your own life on the line for a person that likely doesn't even care if you live or die. Your idiotic connection with Yami is your only weakness, and you're letting it get the best of you at every turn."
"And your point is?" Bakura spit, struggling against Blair, but of course not getting anyplace.
"My point is that in your self-appointed quest to keep this fool safe, you've really messed up." The man said calmly, crumpling the letter in his hand. "You disappoint me beyond belief. An assassin that lets a crush get in the way of his thinking."
"Hey, whoah, now that is not true." Bakura began objecting. "First of all, as I told you the first day here, I'm not an assassin! I'm a thief, thank you very much.Secondly-"
"And you know, it's not the fact that you were going to write a message to Yami to get out of town that makes me mad." The boss interrupted. "It's the fact that you had the balls to so blatantly do so against my wishes. Had you put a little creativity into writing this secretly, I might not be so mad because at least then I'd know your head is on straight."
"Lemmie clarify this…you're saying that I can betray you as long as I'm creative about it?" Bakura asked in astonishment. "Geez, you're even crazier than I first took you to be."
"If you've got betray me at all, at least." The boss shrugged. "But no, you so blindly wrote it-and hid it-right in view of my video camera."
"There's a camera in my room?!" Bakura yelped. "That's not cool. Have you been watching me all the time?? If I find out you're some kind of pervert watching me change clothes-"
"There's a camera in every room, didn't you know that?" Blair asked gaily. "I'm one of the only people without one, 'cause the boss trusts me."
Bakura scowled. "So, you saw me writing the note and hiding it, and so you set me up on a murder tonight in order to catch me in the act. Very clever."
"Why thank you."
"Am I correct in guessing there's no murder tonight after all?"
"That's right."
Blair still didn't release his arms though.
"Okay, you guys made your point. I won't try to write to Yami again." Bakura relented. "Can I go now?"
"Oh, you're right in saying you won't be writing to him again." Blair laughed.
"Ne?"
"You'll never write to him again, because he's no longer alive to read anything."
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST SAY?"
Blair was laughing so hard by now, he was shaking. "I killed him tonight! That was your punishment, remember Bakura? If you get out of line, I kill your boyfriend. And I made good on that threat. One shot." He mimicked shooting a gun with his finger. "Bang, that was all it took."
For once, Bakura didn't bother to correct Blair's use of the word 'boyfriend'. Instead, he wordlessly brought his heel up into the man's crotch, forcing him to let him go. With a single move, Bakura spun around and whacked him on the side of his head with the butt of the Uzi. Blair went down in a heap, a bloody purple knot forming on the side of his face.
"I never knew you had such a temper." The boss said, watching. He waved his hand. "Anyway Bakura, you're free to return to your room, there's no third murder tonight." He turned to walk away. Bakura allowed him to make it two steps before jumping on his back, knocking the man to the ground. The boss reached for his pocket but before his hand was even anywhere close, Bakura jammed the barrel of the sub-machine gun into the boss's mouth, finger on the trigger. With his other hand, he reached into the man's pocket and removed the pistol he had hidden. Without a word, he flung it into the woods and turned his attention back to his captive.
"What do you think?" he snarled bitterly. "One shot? Like Blair did for Yami?"
The boss tried to say something around the metal stuck down his gullet, but Bakura only pressed down harder, pinning the man's head to the ground and nearly choking him.
"I think one shot would work perfectly." He hissed. "And I hope you'll feel every second of your death."
"Heeth got deab." Was the reply to that. Bakura arched an eyebrow.
"Say that again."
"Guy thed, heeth got deab. Ithz a hoak."
Bakura scowled, but removed the barrel from the man's mouth.
"Say that one more time and you'd better say it fast because otherwise in three seconds I'm killing you."
"I said Yami's not dead. It was a joke. Just a warning that we're serious. Blair didn't really go shoot him, he's alive and well. So like I said, you can go back to your room and not worry."
Bakura's eyes blazed and he jammed the barrel back down the boss's throat again.
"I'll tell you where I'm going." He said. "I'm going to go into Domino and make sure Yami's alive. And I swear that if I find out you ordered even a single one of his strands of hair to be hurt, I will come back here and make you murder number three, got that?"
The man nodded. Bakura swung his gun back over his shoulder, turned, and took off at a run under the road into the darkness of the night.
Off to his left, Blair woozily lifted himself off the ground to see his higher-up laying there, trying to catch his breath.
"Boss! Are you okay?"
"A bit bruised." He replied, throat raw. "But fine."
"Where did Bakura go?"
"He went into town to make sure Yami was still alive. I had to reveal the truth to him."
"Doesn't he know it's a five-mile road between here and the Domino limits? And who knows how many miles from there to Yami's apartment?"
"Yes, but I don't think it matters to him." He replied as he dusted himself off.
"That asshole…I'm really going to go kill that boyfriend of his now-" Blair seethed as he touched the painful lump on the head.
"No." the boss said sharply.
"What?"
"This clinches it, if we kill Yami, we've sealed our own fate." The boss said gravely. "Bakura isn't like my other employees. He's different. And his difference is a deadly one. Of all the people here that I've had to force to work for me, Bakura is the one link that could ruin everything I've tried so hard for."
"Say again?" Blair said, puzzled.
"Yami has to be kept alive, that's what I'm saying."
"Okay, it's your call." Blair shrugged and headed toward the elevator. He needed his drugs. And some beer.
The boss remained standing where he was, staring down the road that led to Domino.
To Be Continued…
Author's Notes:
I'm sorry, I have to say this: 163 IS GOING TO PLAY THIS SATURDAY, I SAW THE PROMO TRAILER, AND IT IS SO FREAKING AWESOME, AND I CAN'T WAIT!!!
Okay, I'm done now. ::blinks innocently::
Also, happy early birthday to Joseph Wheeler/Jounouchi Katsuya, who will be…25 I believe, (if we pretend that he was 16 in 1996, when Yugioh was first published), tomorrow!
Is it just me, or should Bakura have killed those guys when he had a chance? Yeah, that seems kinda foolish of him. I'll be explaining why he didn't do that in the next chapter, so for now just go with it. He wasn't being foolish, he was being prideful…which is almost as bad.
I'm still proud of him, getting all upset when he thought Yami was dead. ::huggles him against his will:: He's so sweet. Well, as sweet as an Uzi-wielding psychopath can be. Boy, I can really pick the guys. Actually, I do love Yami more than Bakura, but I've got quite an attachment to my version of the evil dude. Consider it endearment.
And now, the moment we've all waited for…THE RESULTS OF THE POLL!!
So, out of the small population I was able to rather results from, what was the most common reason why people tend to fall in love with others that they will never be able to be with? Drum roll please…
Well, far as I can tell, it has to do with fantasy. As one person said, "forbidden fruit tastes the best", and as another put it, "People love to dream". It's sort of like a walk on the wild side, trying to push fate, trying to tame and make ours what we know we can never have, so we dream about it. Everyone seems to agree that this is basic human nature. So there you have it!! Many thanks to everyone that participated. ::niko::
Replies:
Ha! Looks like I got off easy this chapter around. No one to reply to. O.o Okay, so I know one of you at least has a legit excuse. It was nice of you all to give me some time off writing, but c'mon now, let's not make this a habit, I need reviews!
In other news, I'm starting to master the art of AMVs! It's so much fun…I've just finished a Yami and Bakura tribute, you know, to go hand-in-hand, (pun not intended), with this fic. I think it's sort of neat. ::smile:: If anyone out there can think of another song that matches their relationship, feel free to give me the name and artist of it, ideas are always appreciated! I'm working on figuring out how to get them on , as well.
See you all next week, and until then, don't forget to wash your socks.
Wait...I must say it once more: NEW EPPY 163 THIS SATURDAY, IT'S SO FREAKING AWESOME! I SO CANNOT WAIT THAT LONG! ::spazzes::
Really, I'm done now. Jaa!