Chapter six: Evanescence

Bakura screamed. His head hurt. Well, the other parts of his body hurt too, but it was nothing compared to what his head felt like. After screaming for what seemed like hours, he finally passed out.

Bakura floated around in a very dark place in which he did not know. His body was producing some kind of radioactive luminescence, so he could see himself, but nothing around him. He touched his arm and felt nothing. Gasping, he found that no air came into his lungs. If it did, he did not notice. But he realized he did not naturally breathe. Something was wrong, very wrong.

Well, obviously. No shit Sherlock. Did you figure that out or did your mother do it for you?

Bakura laughed to himself but stopped when things started to come into focus. At first it was blurry, but then he found that he was lying on the floor. He looked up and saw Ryou crying over his father's limp body, red-eyed, staring at the corner. Surprisingly, he was staring at Bakura's body. Well, it was the body of a little boy, but nevertheless Bakura used to inhabit it.

"Ryou?" he called quietly, sitting up.

Ryou ignored him, still sobbing and staring at the corpse. Bakura repeated what he had said; only yelling it. When Ryou ignored him he rose and brought his hand back to smack the teen. He struck, going completely through Ryou. He fell on the ground in a big heap. He looked up at Ryou and stuck his hand out, going completely through Ryou's leg. Bakura gasped.

A hand found itself on the spirit's shoulder and Bakura jumped. It was the form of an angel, bright and luminescent. He had four wings, a powerful looking body and a blindfold over his eyes.

"Come," he said in a hallow voice. Bakura whimpered and began to shake. This powerful being was standing before him, godly and mighty. It would make anybody tremble at their feet.

But despite that Bakura managed to shake his head no. The angel bent down in a very gentle gesture, but Bakura squealed and backed off into a corner. The angel moved very slowly and calmly towards Bakura, who was very frightened.

"Do not be afraid, I am here to help you, and you will help me in return." The angel said.

Bakura shut his eyes and shook his head. The angel moved and held him very softly so that he would be calm. But Bakura continued to struggle. The angel picked him up bridal style and held him tight so that he could not struggle. Bakura screamed, hoping that Ryou would hear him. He was completely helpless.

"Be quiet, for the living cannot hear the dead." And that's when Bakura went completely limp. He began to shake.

Is this a demon here to carry me off to hell? He thought weakly. Oh, please no, I hope not.

Bakura, deep down, knew that this was what he was venerable to. His only weakness, besides Yami. The one thing he was afraid of.

Death.

It sat there in front of him, looming, taunting him. It was in big, bold red letters with a black background and skeletons dancing behind it. They were broken, holding pitchforks in there hands, that were more-than-likely missing digits. Bakura nearly fainted.

He watched in pain as the angel as well as him sank beneath the floor, leaving his Ryou to weep. He silently protested, moving a bit, and the angel's grip tightened.

"You must sleep. No mortal being from Earth is allowed to watch this." With that, the angel blew on Bakura and Bakura shut his eyes and fell into a dreamless and very peaceful sleep.

When he awoke, he was strapped to a chair with the blindfolded angel staring down on him. He growled menacingly, getting some fight back into him, but when the angel arched his back and showed his true height Bakura backed down, not wanting to get into a fight with a celestial being.

"Now, let me explain your predicament." The angel began, his surprisingly soft and gentle voice naturally calming Bakura. "As you know, you are very much dead." At this, Bakura let out a small sob. "Dead as a doornail. Stone cold, flat-liner-"

"Okay! I get the picture! I'm scared enough of death, you don't have to rub it in my face!" There was something you didn't see everyday, Bakura emitting a fear.

"Okay, moving on. Usually, we send you to hell, you get the whole picture, blah, sinner, blah repenting, you know. (Going by Christian Protestant morals). But your situation is much different.

"You see, there recently was a breach in both heaven and hell. Some souls escaped before we could fix the breach. The odd thing was is that the only ones that escaped belonged to the Bakura family. Why anyone would want to leave heaven is a complete mystery to me.

"But back to the story. Anyways, I'm offering… well not me exactly… you know, anyways, we're offering that if you could return all the souls back to the Great Hallway (which does not exist in the morals I'm using, I made it up) so that we can separate them to heaven or hell, you can go to heaven. (Which is also not true but hey… it's fiction.) Do we have a deal?"

Bakura looked slyly at the angel. "If I can finish my life out with Ryou, how it used to be, and let Ryou forget this thing, then you have a deal."

The angel thought for a moment. Then he nodded and smiled.

"You've got yourself a deal."

"Do I have a time limit?"

"Do you want one?"

"No."

"Then as long as you are truly trying then you don't have to worry about that." The angel took out a staff. "This will be very painful as well as turn you back to a few seconds later after we descended this world." The angel pulled it back and was about to send him back when-

"Hey! How do I get them here?"

"You'll know, trust me, God works in mysterious ways."

And then he impaled Bakura with his staff, and Bakura felt pain so immense that if he was mortal, he would have died—but within a second, as soon as it started, the pain dripped out.

He found himself lying on the hospital floor. He took one long breath in, a horrid noise that sounded more like he was sucking then breathing. Ryou flew to him and wrapped his arms around him.

"Bakura you're alive!" he squeezed Bakura tight. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! It's all my fault!" Ryou began to cry into Bakura's chest.

"I'm… alive?" Bakura mumbled, not believing it. "Is this… possible?"

Remember what you're here for. The voice in his head reminded him.

Yes master, he thought back sarcastically. It was much easier to mouth off to the angel when you couldn't see him.

"Bakura…" Ryou hugged him closer.

"Yeah, I know you missed me, now can you get off?" Bakura snapped.

Ryou did as he was told and looked at Bakura.

"Can we go home? I've had a very long day." Bakura rubbed his aching head and Ryou nodded.

"I'm ready too."

They walked back to Yugi's where Yami was sitting right by the door. He gave Bakura a very scary smirk and Bakura shivered. Yami stood up and Bakura backed up one step. He did not like the way Yami was looking at him. The spiky haired pharaoh pushed Ryou out of the way and picked up Bakura by the collar of his shirt. Bakura gagged, barely able to breathe.

Yami tossed Bakura into a wall with ease. Bakura's head smacked it with a loud thump and he growled.

"What's wrong with you?" Bakura snapped. Yami's mouth began to foam and his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

"Something's wrong!" Ryou yelled.

"No shit!"

Yami dived for Bakura but Bakura evaded him with ease. Yami began attacking him slow and clumsily, as if a zombie. Bakura punched him in the head and he seemed to not notice.

Fatigue soon began to take over Bakura's body. He slowed down on his punches and barely was able to keep up with the attacks. But then Yami caught him in a right hook. He smashed into a shelf and staggered. Yami caught his throat in a tight grip and he was completely powerless. He felt very weak.

Ryou tried to help him, but Yami smacked him with his free hand and his head made a sickening thump against the wall. Bakura choked, and hoped that Ryou was okay, somewhere in the back of his mind; the rest of it was focused on the burning sensation around his neck, and gradually spreading to his lungs. Now, he could understand why his lungs were burning, but his neck was-

Smack! And then Yugi, Yugi of all people, smacked the Great Pharaoh over the head with a glass coke bottle. It shattered and Yami fainted.

"You can't hurt my friend, you're not the Pharaoh I know," Yugi turned to the fallen Ryou and began to look at the damage.

For one second there, Bakura thought that Yugi was considering him of all people to be his friend. And then woke up and smelled the ammonia, Yugi hated… no, loathed him.

"Is…" Bakura coughed, blood flew into his palm and he ignored it and his awful strained voice. "Is Ry… ou okay?"

Yugi looked at Bakura sadly.

"I think he may have a concussion, I don't know. His nose is bleeding badly. We have to take him to the hospital."

Too many times lately Bakura has been there. But for Ryou, he went. Even after all Ryou had put him through, he still went. But he detested the waiting room. His eyes darted from wall to wall, person to person, all very nervously.

Is Ryou going to die? Oh, I don't need that, right after I died, especially. Please no… Bakura's thoughts progressed to a worsened condition when a nurse in white popped up.

"Ryou will be okay, he just needs some rest." She said. She left after that. Bakura stood up angrily.

"I'm going into that fucking house and hunting down every single fucking ghost. They will all burn in hell."

"Wait!" Yugi grabbed Bakura by his shirt. "How about we get reinforcements?"

So, in two hours that stood outside the mansion, along with Téa, Serenity, Joey and Tristan. Bakura shook, only a tad bit though, and stood up tall. A limo pulled up behind them and Seto Kaiba stepped out, smirking.

"Okay, ghost busters, how's the hunt?" he smiled.

"Kaiba," Joey snapped.

"I want to see these… poltergeists you speak of."

Bakura breathed in. "Okay, are we ready to go in." he didn't let go of his breath; he kept his chest puffed out.

"Yes," Tristan said, rolling his eyes.

Téa and Yugi stayed outside. Seto gave them a walkie-talkie (baby sounding, but I know no other name for it) and Bakura and themselves one. Bakura held onto one and Kaiba the other.

They walked in, bravely. And surprisingly… nothing happened. Kaiba kept his smirk. They went into the living room and Tristan seated himself on the couch.

"I haven't seen any ghosts yet, Bakura. I think you're just paranoid. Too bad, I was expecting something relatively interesting from you."

The others snickered. Tristan laughed the hardest. Then his eyes bulged.

Scarlet blood was projected from his mouth and nose, and a hand ripped from his back. The hand grabbed Tristan's head while he was still barely alive and ripped it off. It went soaring and made a bloody print on a window across the room. His legs began to twitch, as well as his whole body because of the lack of brainwaves. Blood still spurted, almost like a crimson water fountain from the corpse. The carcass fell to the ground with a sickening thump, like an executioner's axe.

The bloody hand rose from the couch and then slowly shrank back into it, like a dog protecting its territory.

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Okay peoples! Show's over! Now review! If this is on your fav list, I expect a review! Got that? How about a review as a birthday present? Everyone who only reads this story… I'm fourteen!

Okay, now I've left my mark of killing Tristan. Review or die like him.