Chapter 8: Family Life

Yugi looked straight into his eyes. His purple eyes were fierce as a lion's, twisting his grim gaze. His pale fingers were looking at the card he had just drawn, his mind ticking away as to find the right move to crush him. But no matter what he did, he couldn't be able to defeat him. Not this time.

"Make your move, Yugi! You know defeat is inevitable. I will be the most powerful duelist in the world!" He smocked smoothly to his rival. Once again he had all blue eyes out on the field, all hungering for the next monster the midget had to play. He also had his crust card out, making impossible for him to win. The game was his, Seto Kaiba's, for the taking.

But like what actually happened, and in a twisted not, Yugi's gaze shifted and a smirk played upon his lips. But instead of playing his card, he suddenly shot up twenty feet into the air, no longer a short kid but a terrifying. His eye sockets were suddenly full of bright blinding light has his body turned black like a shadow. His hair ruffled violently and the millennium puzzle bounced mercilessly on his chest.

"No Kaiba!" His voice boomed, and showed his very long and sharp fangs protruding from his gapping mouth. His smirking mouth in his looming face. Blue eyes widened in fright as Kaiba himself shook in his trench coat at the huge monster poised in front of him. Yugi, or the huge Monster, didn't lead forward. Instead he opened his jaws again.

"Beware Kaiba. Beware the White. Beware the merciless darkness. Or death will come to you and yours…" Then suddenly the monster's foot came out of no where, knocking him off the building screaming, screaming, screaming…

…screaming until Seto Kaiba hit the bedroom floor with a loud thud and jerked awake. For a few moments he laid on the floor, face down, sweating greatly, wide-eyed and subconscious waiting to be devoured by great a great fanged mouth. But nothing like this happened. Not in reality.

"It was just a dream…it was just a bad dream" The great CEO still struggled to control his deep shallow breathing as he heaved himself up off the floor, telling him to get a hold of himself, that he shouldn't be getting stressed out due to some continuous nightmares. Standing on his feet, he felt the ache of his bones and patted down his matted, partially gray, hair and sighed in relief. He was still in his the comfort of his own bed room, hadn't hit anything but his head, and most importantly, he hadn't woken his wife. Which had to be some sort of miracle.

She often questioned him about these nightmares. And most often he had to lie through his teeth. He hated lying to her. She always took him seriously when he did, and it made him feel extremely guilty. But he couldn't tell her the truth. It would stir up past matters wanting desperately to be left alone.

Suddenly the door creaked. Kaiba looked up so fast that he would be suffering from whip lash the next day at work. In that two second period he hoped it had been the wind. It wasn't.

"What are you doing up so late?" Kaiba looked down at the boy, half in half out of the door way wearing blue PJs and pondered how to answer this question with out getting a billion questions in return.

"Umm…sleeping…"

"Why are you sleeping standing up?" In all his head racking, Kaiba never found a way of getting out of this dilemma.

"Because I was sleep walking." The boy's icy blue eyes questioned him. Kaiba could see the gears working behind those blue eyes, his quick wittedness seemed past on through some part of the family line. Kaiba was proud of that. His gaming skills however…

"You've never slept walked before…"

"What are you doing up at this hour?" The older man countered. The boy's eyes widened, and that big brain was clicking fast at options. Kaiba watched him, unknowingly crossing his arms and taking that 'well, I'm waiting stance'. The fourteen-year-old started at him for an extra moment.

"I was sleep walking, too. I guess." Replied the child with a smirk and bright knowing eyes. Kaiba's eyes widened considerably, recognizing the smile immediately with shock and surprise as his face twisted. The boy's smile was immediately whipped from his face at his reaction.

"Dad? Are you alright? You're not having a heart attack or something, are you?" Kaiba quickly whipped the expression off his face in a flash and replaced it with a stern mask. "Go to bed, Javas." Javas frowned deeply and sighed and began to turn.

"And Javas," The boy turned back quickly, "Don't tell your mother about my sleeping walking."

"I won't if you don't mention mine." Javas said, and smiled politely. Kaiba smiled back at his son and watched his peachy face leave the door way. He also watched his son walk into his room and quietly shut the door.

Scratching his blonde haired head all the while.

"So you haven't seen her? Okay…yes, thank you very much."

Bakura hung up and started to dial the police again with frantic fingers. He didn't ignored his other two children sitting on the couch behind him, eyes down, and minds riddled with guilt as well as a bit of anger. But still, it was better to lick the emotional wounds instead of arguing again. They found arguing their father when he was this freaked was a bad idea.

"Hello police? Yes, I know I've called already but I want to know if you could just please just make a few calls, please-" He paused suddenly.

"Yes, yes, I know but she's been missing all day and-" he paused again.

"AH WELL YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL YOUR TALKING ABOUT!" He suddenly screamed into the receiver, making them both jump. Some stern but loud talking filled the receiver but Bakura was beyond caring about the police, and was only enraged when they said he was over reacting. The fact the police officer just called him a bastard wasn't helping.

"WELL FUCK YOU!" He slammed the phone receiver down hard; creating a loud bang on the table, and making his remaining children jump again, not from the screaming or the slam, but the fact that he used the F word. Their father was not one to swear, and it would have just been shocking to here him say bastard. The F word was enough to tell them how bad the situation was.

He turned his face back in their direction as he started pacing, his eyes were dull, but wide, and the purple that had lined the bottom of them was now an almost black color. His face was whiter than his hair, if that were possible, and his fingers shaking ran through his locks in jerks.

His clothes baggy about his figure, easy to see that he had lost a lot of weight. They didn't know why he was loosing so much weight or what had been stressing him, it hadn't happened when they arrived, but for some reason unknown he was loosing it. Some sort of stress had gotten the better off him. And this was obviously the last straw.

Mat got up and tried to calm his father down by placing a hand on his shoulder. Bakura stopped for an instant and looked at his son with deep troubled eyes. Between the chocolate brown and hazel eyes passed a wordless communication that only a father and a son could understand. Bakura placed his hand over his son's for a brief moment before starting off into the hall.

"I'm going to see Mr. Mutou; he'll help me search for your sister. I want you two to stay here in case she comes back. Whatever you do, DO NOT let anyone in." Both kid's nodded simultaneously and watched their father drag his heavy coat from the hall way and grabbed the door knob with tired eyes. He paused a moment, then turned to his children.

"I love you." He left.

The rhythmic sound of the wind shield wipers was deaf to his ears as he passed through slow traffic. It had just started to sprinkle moments ago, but he knew from the deep blackness that was once the sky that this was going to be one mother of a thunderstorm. Turning the wheel to his blue sedan around the corner with icy hands he ran a stop sign that said to yield. He was lucky no one was driving. The weather reported had said it was going to be raining so much that no one should drive unless it were completely necessary. This classified as a necessity.

"I can't lose any of them. Not again." The first time had been painful enough. Gripping the wheel with the might of death, Bakura was unable to keep the memory from his waking eyes.

The rain pattered in endless streams upon the house, much like it would fourteen years from then. Bakura rubbed his index finger around the edge of his coffee thinking calmly, finding a reasonable way to solve the problem. But no matter how much he thought, one never came. There was no reasonable answer.

"We could always destroy it." He said carefully, looking up into bright hazel eyes. The fair haired women in front of him looked at him lovingly, but in her eyes he could still see the distress. Her face was pale and her fingers patted her enlarged belly and slowly her eyes settled on her unborn child. Bakura gazed too, thinking of the wonderful yet sometimes stressful situations that would bring three children. He took great comfort in knowing his other two were nested safely in their beds at such a late hour, and probably always would.

"No Bakura." The woman said her eyes downcast toward the growing baby, "You can't destroy him. He's part of you."

"He is not part of me." Bakura retorted angrily, but immediately softened his face for her. Stress was bad during pregnancy.

"Yes, he is. You're entwined. I know what I'm taking about. I did read all about you before I came here as a child. You know this, Bakura." He looked into the beautiful face of his wife and placed a hand over her stomach, looking deeply into her eyes.

"Ryelle, you know I love you, but what other way is there than destroying him?"

Ryelle looked into his eyes so deeply he felt as if she were feeling inside his mind with deep mournful eyes.

"I love you, always remember that, Bakura."

Bakura whipped the tears fogging his vision and jerked the barking stick into place as he scrambled from his car, walked up the green grass to the equally green door and banged on the door. By the time the door was unlocked and a pair of eyes were looking at him, his face was covered in tears.

Book Dragon: "Please review."