I'm not really committed to the Fanfic100 Claim of the Big Damn Table site/challenge, though I still hold the claim. Just a fun idea that popped into my head for a larger story, as always enjoy.
Fandom: Yugioh
Characters: Yami Bakura/Malik Ishtar
Prompt: # 24 Family
Word Count: 1,954
Rating: T
Warning(s): Supernatural themes.
Summary: Malik is part of an organization that takes care of the dark side of their new world.
Chapters: 24/100
Chapter: Family
"How long have the children been missing?" I ask standing in the child's bedroom as I removed my gloves. The bedroom was packed with toys, books a way for the parents to keep their child self-occupied for a time to give them space. A small list of potential suspects skimmed to the forefront of my mind. The Bogeyman being at the top. "How long has your child been telling you about monsters?" Children aren't just taken, they are always stalked from the shadows or in the cover of night for a time before it makes its move. Only a small few creatures would nest and feed within the house itself, only if the parents are mostly absent.
"I'm not sure," Mr Mutou stood stiffly and runs his hands through grey spiked hair and rubbed the back of his neck and eyes darting everywhere, his daughter sobbing by his side into a handkerchief. "The cops scouted the place with dogs and found nothing." The shouting and yelling from Mr Wheeler downstairs.
The police were always the go-to people until the parents get desperate and one of them to hold onto hope will go through photos and their infant's things and it's when they find us. "It is important that you remember Mr Mutou." I flick down the secondary lens of my glasses and I see the smudges lit up in a fluorescent blue and it looked like blood smears on the floor, walls and bed. My heart goes into overdrive and it feels like it's going to burst out of my ribs and I hope this isn't a body recovery job. I crouch down and flip a third lens of my glasses. A breath of relief rushes from me, it isn't human blood. I walk to the closet to find the doors ajar and pulled them open… nothing. "Time is of the essence Mr Mutou."
"Sometime last night," Mr Mutou's voice is watery as he's trying to hold it together and I curse internally, it was late in the afternoon so it had many hours head start. "Is that important? Oh god, someone was stalking my boy?!" He hits the wall next to him with a fist and his daughter sobs even louder.
"Where did your child say he saw this monster?" I reach into my satchel at my hip and pull out a vile.
"I don't know, he said something was watching him from the cracks of the door and an eye in the keyhole, he also seemed frightened of the stairs, would run down them even after I told him not to, I thought he was just being a kid, all kids are frightened of the dark." Mrs Mutou sobs out. Mr Mutou points to the bed.
"No, we are born unafraid of the dark, until we get older and it's not someone, it's something," Opening it I pour the purple powder into my hand and blow it across the room. The powder floated about the room like a mist before it took shape of a creature leaning over the bed and pulling the child, who kicked out and fled the room and the image vanished as the powder floated to the floor.
I rushed out of the room and downstairs the Mutou's calling after me asking what the matter was. I feared despite finding out the monster that took the child, that I would be too late. I wished parents too more notice of the card in the back of a newborn's health book given to all new parents contained more information, not just for vaccinations and doctor notes on the growth and the health of the baby. On matters that if your child cries about monsters in their bedrooms or around the house to call us immediately. Since everything supernatural crawled out of the woodworks a few years back when two realms collided everyone focused on the Elves, Fae and shapeshifters, no one wanted to think of the creatures that lingered in the darkness ripping apart families literally.
The space under the stairs, my first stop, a nicely painted wall that matched the rest of the house and a few family pictures, the perfect forgotten place. I removed my glasses and tucked them away in my satchel and at the same time I pull out a small quill made of the blood and bone of a Rawhead and drew the rune. The walls cracked like spider-webs before if broke apart as if there were a strong vacuum on the other side sucking it in. "Oh my god!" the Mutou's gasped stepping away until their backs hit the wall opposite the now dark long tunnel under their staircase.
"Mrs and Mr Mutou," I turn to face them as the entryway is filled with a few detectives and Mr Wheeler pushing his way through them demanding to know what's going on and I wait until everyone is silent and given looks from those before me that this wasn't real. Half the population hadn't seen the dark side of our new world. "It is imperative that no one is to follow me, no matter what you hear or see. If you do enter this tunnel you'll never be able to return." They all stare at me. "Do you understand? You cannot go into that tunnel, I'll bring your boys back to you." Mrs Mutou is the only one that nods slowly.
I cup my hands as if to catch water and bring it to my mouth and blew until a ball of light lifted from my hands and entered the tunnel lighting my way.
I pulled my blessed dagger from my waist, I took in a breath steading myself for what I am about to go up against and most importantly what befell the boys. A cry echoes down the tunnel and it is not that of a six-year boy but an infant. No one had spoken of a third child nor had I seen any evidence of an infant in their home.
The tunnel widened into a dank, damp cavern, my light drifted further ahead into the lair when I was grabbed by the arms and thrown in, landing hard on my front. The monster roared its fury and lunged at me as I rolled onto my back and lifted my dagger the monster fell upon me in almost crushing force.
It was hard to get my breath back while also breathing in the stench of rotting flesh. I wriggled my way out from under it and stood over it, a Rawhead. "Yugi, Joey?!" I call out. "I am Malik Ishtar, I'm here to take you home to your mother. Yugi came out now you are safe." I held my breath listening for anything that would indicate where they are. I hoped I wasn't too late and I wouldn't find their bones and that the infant isn't its current meal I had interrupted.
"Here," Came a breathless frightened gasp behind me. I turn to see the little boy had wedged himself into a small gap in the wall. A wave of my hand and my ball of light drifts over and I see the erratic claw and teeth marks dug deep about the edges of the gap.
"Clever boy," I held my hands out to aid him and once he was free of the small space he threw himself into my arms and cried for his mother which must be Yugi as he had the same odd hairstyle as his grandpa, the second little boy came out and burst into tears at seeing me. "There now," I patted their heads as I glanced about for the infant that had gone silent. "You are safe and it cannot harm you anymore."
"The baby," Yugi pointed back to the gap in the wall without letting go.
Clever boy indeed.
I exited the tunnel holding Yugi's hand and Joey held onto the tail of my shirt and the infant in my arms wrapped in my coat. The tunnel collapsed in on itself and the wall instantly came back together like a jigsaw and sealed up once more with the family pictures in place. "Yugi!" the Mutou's cried out and Mrs Mutou rushed to her child and fell to her knees and drew him in for a tight hold peppering his head and face with kisses. Mr Wheeler walked forward and Joey broke free and rushed to his father.
"What was it?" Mrs Mutou rose to her feet while holding her son in her arms.
"A Rawhead, a ferocious monster with an appetite for the young," Mrs Mutou's eyes widened and before she could ask I added for her piece of mind. "No, it will not come back. People from my organization will be here to..." A swift sharp knock on the door had everyone jump with a frightened gasp as it burst open.
"Oi, you!" Bakura pointed at me. "You were meant to wait for me!" I sighed at his rudeness, however, the woman ducked around him and approached swiftly.
"Mrs and Mrs Mutou and Mr Wheeler, I am Nanny Téa Gardner I'm from the organization." The brunette shook hands of stunned and confused parents and grandfather. "I'm here to place protection runes to prevent pesky beasts from entering your home again." She smiled brightly as Mrs Mutou looked panicked and frightened at the prospects of something like this happening again. "I do see you are in good hands with Mrs Ishtar and the children were recovered unharmed I see. Oh, a baby?!"
Tea's eyes flicked down to the bundle in my arms, since no one had made a move for the infant I presumed the baby didn't belong to this family. It wasn't unusual for such a creature to go after something so young, however, I wonder because Yugi and Joey escaped into that gap that the Rawhead had been so hungry he went after something so easy and the little boys saved the infant. "I'll contact headquarters," I informed Tea hoping to get the infant back to its family.
"We are not keeping it," Bakura growled.
"What will happen with the baby?" Mrs Mutou asked.
"My organization will take care of the baby until it can be reunited with its family, if not my organization will care for the baby until it comes of age." Mrs. Mutou looked frayed about the edges and looked to fall apart at any moment.
"Perhaps a nice hot cup of tea Mrs Mutou." Tea placed her arm around the older woman.
"I think I need something stronger than tea." Mrs Mutou laughed.
"Indeed, let us talk about the protection of your home and your family and the ways our organization will support you going forward, Mr Wheeler if you would be so kind to join us." Tea led them all into the next room.
"You were supposed to wait for me!" Bakura growled and with an irritated tsk sound he grabbed my jaw and tilted my head up towards the light. "Now you're hurt."
"It's part of the job," I shake him off and walk by him.
"It's my ass on the line if you die," Bakura followed me. "I ain't goin back because you fucked up."
"Keep going and I'll send your ass back myself." I heard him growl and could feel the death glare at my back. I glanced over just in to see him fly off in the form of a crow.