*Note* This chapter uses real life places and names. Though I looked up these places and names, I have never been there so I cannot describe them accurately nor can I say what exactly would happen. Take all descriptions of real-life things lightly, for even if I look it up, I still have never been there, and the internet is limited compared to real-life experience.
In other words, don't flame me, just tell me what's wrong if you know it to be wrong so I may fix it. Thanks! =)
With that disclaimer out of the way (I don't do the "I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!" one anymore because this is FANFICTION), I want to apologize for the incredibly long wait! (Two freaking months… TT_TT I am so sorrryyyy!-!-!-!-!-!-!) But um, posting a chapter on Christmas Eve might make up for it…? *dodges tomatoes thrown at her* Eheheh… Now, to offer some kind of explanation for the lateness, this chapter and the next two had to be written altogether before I posted this… you'll see why when I post the other two.
Which reminds me! There will be an update next week and the week after that! Yay~! And after that I have no idea when the next update will be, so uh… Yeah ^^;
Also~! The next three chapters were betad by the lovely and awesome miss anime-on-replay! Who, by the way, made a "Top 15 Yu-Gi-Oh! Fanfictions of 2011" thing on her profile, and this story was listed fourth~! Heck yes! *incredible happiness*
Anyways, enough of my rambling: Enjoy the chapter and Merry Christmas everyone~! =D (Sorry there's not another Christmas special, but that would mess up the timeline XD)
Chapter 31: Three Big Problems (This chapter is dedicated to VampirePrinssess. You rock girl! (= )
Marik was laying on his stomach at the foot of the bed, staring at the hotel door. His eye was starting to twitch again; it had picked up the habit during the night. Why, you may ask? Simple: he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep last night waiting for Bakura to come back. The idea to go out and search for him himself had crossed his mind about a half an hour after he left, but it would be a big hassle to search the entire city for him. If he had the Millennium Ring he would have tried, but as it was he decided to just wait for him to come back. After all, Bakura would have to come back sometime right? Plus, he was a big boy; he could handle himself. And it's not like he'd avoid him just because they kissed right? After all, they'd kissed before… Sure, they were all due to bets, but they were still kisses, and Bakura hadn't run out after those…
Marik sighed and turned on his back, looking at the door upside down now. He knew Bakura couldn't get lost since he had the Ring to guide him, so what was taking so long? Waiting for him was so nerve-wracking… Especially since the sun was going to rise soon. Marik picked up the "Vampire Sunblock" bottle again, looking at the "24-hour protection" label. Hopefully that would ring true, because then Bakura wouldn't be able to burn until it was almost dark again. And surely Bakura would be more cautious than that and come back soon after the sun rose, right? This is the guy who always locks the door whenever he leaves someplace after all.
Marik sighed again, turning back onto his stomach and laying his chin in his arms, staring at the door. He was starting to develop claustrophobia on top of his acrophobia waiting in this room, but he didn't want to leave in case he missed 'Kura…
As he continued staring at that torturous door, he began to think of reasons why Bakura wasn't back yet. Maybe he had gotten distracted? Maybe he found a Millennium Item and was having a hard time getting it? But if that was the case he'd tell Marik about it right? Maybe he…
Marik's eyes widened and he sat up on the bed as a horrible thought came to him.
What if he had ran into Bandit Keith?
… It seemed the only logical explanation so far…
Marik felt panic well up inside him as images of Bakura tied down on a metal slab being tortured came to his mind. He had visited Bandit Keith's "torture lab" before; it had all sorts of torture devices, including a five-pronged metal implement attached to a device that allowed the prongs to spin and burrow inside your stomach or your throat, and then the prongs would open up and twist your insides, taking them out when it exited your body… Or that one device Keith called a "drinker," where it slowly and painfully sucked all of the blood out of your body… Or that one device where it slowly ripped pieces of your skin off… Or the "sucker" that involved –
Marik got off the bed and ran out of the room like his life depended on it.
Bakura woke up slowly and groggily, not knowing where he was and finding it difficult to remember much of anything. What happened? Where was he? Why was it so cold? Wasn't it so warm a little while ago?
As his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting and his mind came to, he started remembering what had happened last night. His eyes widened and his cheeks turned warm as he remembered the kiss, and then he looked around wildly when he remembered he ran into Bandit Keith. He must be in his lair or something. He blearily saw a bunch of contraptions everywhere, and somehow, he just knew they were torture devices (especially the ones with apparent sharp implements on them.) There weren't any windows that he saw, so he must have either been in a basement or in a secret building.
It was then that he noticed he was chained to a metal slab in a vertical position wearing nothing except his boxers. Even his Ring and the red collar Marik had given him were gone! "Where…?" he asked no one in particular, looking around wildly and trying to make out the room he was in. He noted with surprise that this was proving difficult; he was a vampire, and he was supposed to be able to see in the dark with ease! So why was everything blurring and not focusing?
"Well, well, well… Look who finally decided to wake up," Bakura heard a familiar, English, haughty voice echo throughout the room. "Have a nice nap?" it continued mockingly.
Bakura growled lowly and turned his head to try and locate the sound. Soon, lights turned on, making him shut his eyes tightly from the sudden lights. He squinted his eyes at his surroundings; it appeared there was only one light on that was on him since everything around him was outlined with the black shadows of before. He could faintly make out the workings of a lab (complete with the computer monitors and blinding lights), but the floor was stone like a dungeon, and the various outlines of what he assumed to be torture devices were aiding in this allusion. This place smelled foul like an old dungeon too; strong with the smell of death, and… Bakura's eyes widened. Blood. The smell of blood was thick throughout the room, and while some of it smelled sweet like he was used to, most of it smelled rotten and sour, like it had been sitting too long inside a dead man. Bakura scrunched up his nose in disgust.
"Heh, I thought you might enjoy the smell of blood, vampire," Keith said. Bakura turned to where he could make out the outline of a man past the shadows and glared at it. He was standing by some table that appeared to hold the things Bakura had been wearing. At least, that's what he thought when he saw what he assumed to be the Millennium Ring, his clothes, and his collar on top of it. "After all, that's the only thing you creatures care about, right?"
Bakura growled, and just to mess with him, he spoke in Japanese: "You'd be surprised what a vampire can care about, American Idiot. I certainly was."
"What?" Keith said in obvious confusion, "What language are you speaking?"
"He's speaking in Japanese," a female voice cut through the room, causing Bakura to whip his head towards the sound, "you know, my home language? From where you took me from? Or is something so simple like that hard for you to remember?"Bakura fought the urge to smile at the tone she used; she spoke like she was talking to a little kid.
"Silence girl! Know your place," Keith said as the girl stepped out of the shadows and showed herself to Bakura. She had auburn hair, green eyes, deathly pale skin, and she appeared to be about eighteen years old. And even though Bakura was in such a dire, defenseless situation, he was a little surprised that someone so young was caught up in all of this, and it made him wonder why she was in the first place.
"Hey, you don't want me to translate; that's just fine," the girl said, holding up her hands palms forward in a sort of defense. "I don't even wanna work for you in the first place." That statement made Bakura wonder why she needed to work for him… Did she need the money or something?
Keith let out a sound like a growl and said. "You better watch it, girly, or you know what will happen."
She narrowed her eyes. "I got it, I got it."
"Excuse me, I'd hate to interrupt," Bakura said sarcastically, still in Japanese just to be more difficult, "but what exactly am I here for?" he had thought that Keith was a vampire hunter, not a vampire trapper. Bakura's eyes widened as he remembered what Marik had told him a while ago: "He will not hesitate to kill you on the spot, and if he doesn't then you should be more afraid because that means he's going to experiment on you to make new weapons for hunting with." Great; looks like he was a test subject for some new death weapon… Whoopee.
"He wants to know what he's here for," Amora informed her boss.
Keith laughed maliciously. "Why, you're going to test out my new invention. As soon as I finish it –"
"You still haven't completed that thing?" the girl said a little mockingly, "What happened to: 'It'll be done by next Tuesday!'"
Bakura was a little shocked when Bandit Keith stepped into the light and slapped the girl across the face. She turned her head painfully to the side and cringed, a hand immediately shooting up to her face to cradle the blow. She turned her head forwards again and gave the vampire hunter a look of hate so strong that even Bakura felt it.
"Silence girl!" Keith said, "You know nothing of my work." Keith turned his back on them both, saying behind his shoulder, "You know what to do, Amora, I'll be back later."
Amora glared after him as he left before she turned to Bakura. As soon as Keith was out of ear-shot, she said, "So… We should get started." She stepped outside of the light circle, heading towards one of the devices.
"Wait!" Bakura said. She paused and turned around. "Why are you…? You are-?" Bakura struggled to find the right words.
"To answer your second question-" she interrupted "-yes, I am a vampire. That would explain the pale skin wouldn't it?" She gave a weak smile. "And if your first question was: 'Why am I working for Keith', well… the answer is complicated and long."
"I've got time," Bakura said with a roll of his eyes. "It's not like I can go much of anywhere." He tried breaking out of the restraints only to receive a surprisingly painful shock. It reminded him of when Pegasus' goon had tasered him a while ago—only this was throughout his whole body and centering right in his heart.
Once the shock ended he was breathing heavily, and the girl seemed sorry for him, but it also seemed as if she had felt his pain. "I forgot to mention, every time you try to break the holds you'll get a shock… I'm sorry."
"… Don't worry about it," Bakura said through ground teeth, still feeling an aftershock of the jolt. "I don't get it, though… If you're a vampire, why hasn't Keith killed you yet?" He asked mainly to ask for information, but he also felt that if he didn't stall the girl that he would be tortured with one of those sinister-looking devices, and he didn't necessarily want that, though he knew it was bound to happen sometimes. Might as well get some answers before then, right?
Amora looked at him seriously and then sighed. "Like I said before, it's a long story… Let's just say, he has something over me that requires me to work with him."
Bakura raised an eyebrow. "Why does he need you?"
Amora shook her head and rolls her eyes. "It's not just me, he also has a ghost, a zombie, and a werewolf. Oh! And a mummy, forgot about him. He thinks it's a good idea to have a team of undeads with him to help with his captures."
"Why don't you all just rise up against him? With a team like that, I think you could kill him in a heartbeat."
"It's not that simple," Amora started, "if we even try to take him down, he'll kill us all in an instant."
"It's not much better than following his commands… Why do you all listen anyways?"
"Because…" Amora paused. "Well, the main thing is to live obviously, but other than that… It varies from person to person."
Now Bakura's curiosity was at its peak by her unwilling tone. "What do you mean?"
Amora took a while to answer, staring at the floor. Suddenly she smiled brightly and said to him, "I think it'd be best to just show you…" She looked up at the ceiling and put her hands to her mouth, calling out: "Anai! I need you!" in English.
After a few seconds of silence, Bakura asked, "Anai?"
"She's our ghost," she chuckled. "I swear, she's just like Casper but even more shy if that's possible! She's so cute. You'll see, just as soon as she comes…"
Bakura was about to ask who "Casper" was when suddenly a white blur raced into the room and almost knocked Amora off her feet. "I'm sorry!" Bakura heard a panicked, high-pitched, female voice say in English. But her words had a weird accent to it; she seemed to pronounce things more clearly or something. It was different from the American English he had heard so far, that was certain. "Lady Amora, are you all right? Did I harm you in any way?"
"For the last time girl, just call me Amora! You're not in 19th century England anymore! And I'm fine," Amora said. Well, that was one question answered–Anai talked funny because she was from England, he supposed, though he had no way of proving this. Amora gestured to Bakura and said in Japanese: "This is Anai. She's a ghost, obviously, and she can't remember much of her human life. She didn't even remember her name! I had to give her one. She's with Bandit Keith mainly because she has nowhere else to go, so she helps him from time to time."
"Lad- Amora, please do not talk in that foreign tongue, you know I never quite mastered it… Though you were a great teacher! It is just…" Anai paused and looked a little sad. "It is hard for me to memorize or remember things…" Just then, Anai seemed to materialize out of thin air. She developed a more human outline, and although the colors on her were dimmed by her ghostly pallor, Bakura could see her dressed in a simple black dress that had ruffled sleeves and ends and adorned with mounds of lace. The skirt part of it puffed out, but only slightly, and had some sort of fancy pattern on it. The dress actually did have a 19th century English look to it, but it seemed more as if she was dressed for a funeral. The actual girl had black hair that was tied up in a tight bun with a few frazzled strands sticking out, and her face reminded him of a ten-year-old. She was very cute-Bakura had to admit-but she seemed awfully shy yet very polite, if the title of "Lady" and the apologies for things that weren't necessarily her fault were any indication. Either she was very polite or she had low self-esteem, and Bakura found it hard to decide exactly which it was.
"Sorry, girl," Amora said, gesturing to Bakura, "But he speaks Japanese, and I had to tell him about you."
Anai looked at Bakura with a look close to pity. "Hello, dear sir. I'm awfully sorry you are stuck in this position… Oh wait, you cannot understand a word I am saying, silly me."
"Actually I speak English, too," Bakura said, feeling a little awkward wearing only his boxers in front of two girls… not that either of them seemed to care much. Although, when Bakura thought about it, they were probably used to the sight… and that thought was kind of unnerving.
Amora looked at him oddly. "Then why did you speak Japanese in front of Keith?" she asked.
"Well-" he said in English but then proceeded in Japanese, "-as long as I'm trapped here and sentenced to die anyways, I may as well be as difficult as I can be."
Amora blinked up at him before her face broke into a happy smile. She put her hands on her hips and said, "I like you Bakura– a fighter. Of course, down here, that'll get you killed." Her eyes seemed to soften. "Down here that'll get you and your boyfriend killed…"
For one shocking second, Bakura thought that Amora was referring to Marik and felt a blush come to his cheeks at the prospect of Marik being his… boyfriend, but remembering that she would have no idea of Marik and the far-away look in her eyes told him that she was, most likely, referring to her boyfriend. Wait, if being a "fighter down here" would get you and your lover (love interest?) killed, then why was she still alive? Was she just saying that her boyfriend died and Keith decided to spare her for reasons unknown? Curiosity be damned…
Soon, Amora snapped out of her daze and sighed sadly, looking up at Bakura and crossing her arms. "Do you have a girlfriend Bakura?" she asked in Japanese. She didn't want Anai to hear what she was asking, so she'd have to deal with the sad, pleading eyes that wondered what Amora was saying that she didn't want her to hear.
Bakura shook his head. "Nope."
"Best friend?"
"Nope," Bakura answered. He decided that he shouldn't mention Marik, lest he be brought into this as well. After all, there was nothing that would tie him to Marik right now, and the Egyptian had the best cover: a vampire hunter! Him associating with a vampire would be strange and unorthodox, so the odds of him being taken here right now were slim to none, and he'd prefer to keep it that way.
"Really?" she asked with a crease of her eyebrows, "'Cause Keith said he heard that you and another guy were travelling together or something."
Again with this mysterious tip-off… Who told Keith about us? Bakura wondered with anger and surprise, but on the outside, he kept a mask of indifference.
"Ah, well, it doesn't really matter," Amora said with a wave of her hand. "Keith will still look to see if anyone knows you, 'cause it'd be a pain if someone cared and asked about you; we'd have to go into hiding again…" She tilted her head to the side slightly, her eyes drilling holes into Bakura. Which again, made him feel awkward considering the minimal amount of clothing he was wearing… He probably would have tried to move away from her gaze if he wasn't afraid of getting shocked again, 'cause that hurt.
"Excuse me," Anai interrupted with her weird, English accent, "but what are you two talking about? I am awfully curious."
"Oh it's nothing, girl," Amora said with a wave of her hand, closing her eyes. She sighed before looking back up at Bakura. "It's a good thing you're a loner. I mean, you'll still die, but at least you won't have to worry about anyone you know getting hurt."
"… Yes, isn't that wonderful?" Bakura said with an eye roll.
Amora sighed and walked over to a post and pressed something. Soon, there was a loud humming sound and Bakura was leveled until he was horizontal. As soon as the humming ended, Amora was looking down at him, her hair hanging limply from her face. "Yes, it is wonderful…" she pressed a finger over where Bakura's heart was and traced a circle, as if she knew what his heart looked like. "Imagine the one you love having their heart brutally ripped out or shot through the skull or hell! Even hung or having their head chopped off!" She briefly looked at Anai before looking back at Bakura and saying quietly. "Or drowned…" Her eyes took on a faraway look after she was done talking.
Bakura stared back at her listlessly, but he couldn't help but imagine Marik in those positions… Breathing his last breath, the look that would be on his face… No, that could not happen! He wouldn't allow it!
He tried hard to keep his face normal and unemotional, and so he was surprised to hear a quiet, protective snarl escape his lips. He quickly made his face go back to normal, hoping that Amora would be too lost in her mind to notice his reaction to that horrible thought.
However, it seemed Amora did notice.
Her eyes hardened and she narrowed her eyes. "You do have someone…" Her tone was dark and accusatory, and it struck a note of warning in the back of Bakura's mind. "Not only someone, but a Blood Pack, am I right?"
Bakura just stared at her unemotionally, not backing down but beginning to feel a sense of panic. Why did she look so hostile? Why did it seem as if she spat the words "Blood Pack"?
"Don't even try and lie to me," she said, positively livid. "I've seen that look, that degree of anger, that over-protectiveness," she narrowed her eyes dangerously. "Why don't you just tell me her name?"
Bakura narrowed his eyes, the "her name" comment getting to him. Why did everyone assume it was a girl? Well, he knew that was the norm, but still… It was slightly annoying. And why would she assume he'd tell her anyways? Just because he wouldn't want to get tortured? She'd probably torture him anyways, so there really was no point to that logic. Plus, he could deal with pain just fine, and if she knows about Blood Packs then she should know that he'd rather die than have any harm come to Marik, so obviously she was just upset and irrational for some reason. With all of these thoughts floating through his head he remained silent since that was probably the best thing to do at this time.
The young vampire slammed her hands down on the slab supporting Bakura, causing a small dent in the tough metal. "Bakura, you are an idiot!"
"Lady Amora," Anai interrupted worriedly. "What is the matter?"
"This idiot has a Blood Pack," she sneered the last two words. "No, you're not an idiot, you're a fool." She accented the last word by running from her spot over to some kind of machine using her vampire speed, though to a human eye it would seem she just disappeared and reappeared. She pushed the machine towards him, and soon a long, sharp, shiny needle was pointing over him, and Amora appeared next to it soon after. "You are being deceived…" It was then that Bakura noticed tears were glistening in her eyes. "Blood Packs are a lie; they don't mean anything!" She was hysterical now, screaming the words at him. Bakura just lied there, unsure of what to do or say to calm her down. He probably couldn't have done anything anyways; she seemed very sure of this matter… not to mention emotionally hysterical.
Soon Anai crept close to Amora and put a ghostly hand on her shoulder. "Amora, calm down." Her voice was pleading. "Everything is fine –"
"Everything is not fine!" she screamed. She looked back at Bakura, piercing him with a stare full of so much hatred and anger that Bakura thought she'd kill him right then. Bakura tried to move again only to be met with the same agonizing shock. He closed his eyes in pain but didn't cry out; he didn't want to seem weak, not now. His breathing heavy again, he opened his eyes to see Amora have a sort of pitying look in her eyes, but she shook her head and the anger returned. "Tell me her name," she demanded again.
Bakura narrowed his eyes, and felt like retorting: "What makes you think it's a girl?" just to see her reaction, but instead said: "Why should I?" since denying it at this point would most likely get him killed, and he did promise Marik he'd try to live…
Why couldn't he have made that promise after this?
"Because if you don't, I'll tell Bandit Keith you have a Blood Pack," she said seriously.
Bakura laughed cruelly and cynically, glaring at her. "If I tell you a name, you'll just tell your master anyways."
To his surprise, Amora slapped him. "Idiot!" she said before she thought about something. "You said 'a name' instead of 'her name', which means it's a boy, right?"
Bakura just glared at her. He knew he should have said her, but honestly, he didn't want to disrespect Marik like that. 'Cause he was definitely not a girl, no matter how much he teased him about his appearance.
Amora sighed and appeared to calm down. "If you tell me his name, I won't tell Keith. But if you don't, then I'll tell him."
"Why would you do that?" Bakura had to ask, since it didn't make any sense. "And why should I trust you anyways?"
Her eyes saddened. "I just want to know… and you should trust me because you don't have much of a choice."
Bakura stared at her, looking into her eyes. It seemed as if she was only curious, and it also looked as if she wanted to help him somehow… And help him with what? Bakura tried to figure it out, but he couldn't. He then thought about how it'd be better if Keith didn't know that he even had a Blood Pack, because he didn't want to risk him finding Marik. If he told Amora his name, then she said she wouldn't tell the monster hunter…
Should he take the chance?
"… Marik," he said grudgingly, deciding it seemed like the best option right now.
Amora seemed confused. "What?"
"Marik," Bakura repeated angrily, closing his eyes. "His name is Marik. Hear me now? And I swear to God if you tell Keith I will find a way to kill you or haunt you in my afterlife."
She stared at him before a goofy smile took over her features and a giggle escaped her lips. "You should hear the way you say his name," she laughed now, obviously amused. "You're head over heels huh?" she accented the end with even louder laughter.
Bakura stared at her, wondering exactly how he was saying his name… Was it that obvious just by saying a name? He wondered how Marik said his name…
Amora just kept laughing, but suddenly she stopped, a sudden fact dawning on her. "Wait, Marik Ishtar? Hank's son?"
"… Um, I don't really know who "Hank" is, but yes: Marik Ishtar," Bakura answered, now knowing that Marik's father's name was Hank. So this was the name of the man he wanted to kill… How could such a horrid man have such a normal name?
Amora's eyes widened before she started laughing again. "Oh my gosh, you two have, like, a triply forbidden relationship! It's hilarious!" She laughed boisterously, covering her stomach with how hard she was laughing. Anai seemed confused but happy that Amora no longer looked angry, and so she laughed slightly with her even though she didn't know what was so funny.
"What do you mean 'triply forbidden'?" Bakura asked curiously.
She calmed down slightly. "Well, even today homosexuals aren't accepted everywhere." Bakura didn't know why, but he felt slightly uncomfortable at the term "homosexual." It was never a label he'd thought he'd have… Why did it have to be labeled anyways? "And even if we do have Blood Packs, a relationship between a vampire and a human is forbidden," Amora continued. "We're supposed to turn the human to one of us first. Not to mention that he's a vampire hunter! Man, you're screwed; although, Keith did say Marik had a soft spot for us… Did he just give up hunting altogether?"
"… Yes. So Keith talks about Marik?"
"Well he mostly talks about Hank." Amora laughed. "He looks up to that guy like he's his father! I don't really see why he respects him so much though, but he mentions Marik sometimes. Says he's got the hunting talent if he'd just use it. He once said that with his looks he could probably lure and slay all the female vampires and even a few males." She smirked at Bakura. "I had thought he had been exaggerating but…" Suddenly, Amora's face looked surprised and she snarled, holding a palm to her forehead in exasperation. "I'm falling back into my old habits… Anai!" she yelled, causing Anai to look at her nervously from her harsh tone. "I want you to go out and find this "Marik" character," she ordered. Bakura's eyes widened; why did she want to find him…? She said she wouldn't tell Keith! That filth liar! He began to feel a blinding rage and was going to yell at her furiously before Anai interrupted with a shy:
"But-but, Master Keith –"
"Anai, GO!" Amora ordered.
The ghost girl let out an ear-piercing, high-pitched, sorrowful scream before turning into a white fog and disappearing through the ceiling. Glistening drops of something floated gently to the floor, giving Bakura the impression that she had been crying. He cringed only slightly at the sound; he still didn't like it when people cried, it was one of those times where he had no idea what to do. Through every other situation, he could fake his way through it but not when someone cried.
Amora sighed, interrupting Bakura's thoughts, and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Damn it, I hate making that girl cry," she said to herself, though Bakura heard anyway, "but it's the only way to get her to do anything!" She sighed again before walking over to the machine that was over Bakura and seemingly turning it on, since it started to make a low, grumbling noise. She turned to Bakura with a hard stare before saying coldly, "Having a Blood Pack is a pain, isn't it Bakura?"
Bakura didn't respond at first, but as the silence stretched on and on, he realized she expected an answer and he nodded his head slightly. It was a pain, feeling such powerful emotions for one person, knowing that they're possibly your worst weakness and yet you don't care because… Well, you can guess why.
Amora scowled before she pressed one of the buttons on the machine. "You think having one is hard?" she said mockingly as the needle started moving and inched closer and closer to him. Bakura tried to shrink into the metal panel he was on, similar to how he changes into a shadow, but was met with the same painful shock and was ridden of any and all shadow-ness he had become. Soon the needle was centimeters away from his neck, and he couldn't do anything about it. "If you think having only one Blood Pack is hard," Amora said with hostility, "try having three."
What? Bakura thought before the needle poked into his neck, causing him to grind his teeth so hard he thought they'd break just so that he wouldn't cry out from the pain in front of Amora. The needle must have had some sort of poison or something on it, 'cause it hurt. Of course the pain increased when he slowly felt the needle somehow sucking at his body. It felt like dry, scratchy air was scratching against his veins and forcing them to almost collapse in on themselves. Not only this though, soon the little blood that he had drunken from his last victim started leaving his body slowly- even agonizingly. The blood being sucked through his body felt wrong, almost like it was trying to turn him inside out. Actually, it was a pain similar to the vampiric change but taken down just a few pegs. And that was just nearest the vacuum, Bakura didn't even want to think of the pain he would get if the sucker got to his heart.
Amora covered her ears and had a pained disgusted look on her face, but she still stared at him harshly. This stupid vampire… Blood Packs were nothing but a trick of your own stupid mind. Something you made yourself believe in.
They were nothing.
"Damn it all!" Marik screamed his frustrations as he drove at impossible speeds, dodging and swerving through the traffic and other obstacles and earning many angry honks and unfriendly shouts from his driving companions. "Damn traffic, damn Keith, and damn everything else!-!-!" he shouted as he pushed his horn down for a long time even though he was still driving through everything and therefore did not need to press the horn. Pretty soon, he heard police sirens tailing him. "Oh just fantastic," Marik said as he took a sharp turn down a narrow alley, accelerating even more. "As if my life wasn't just a basket of roses already…" He caught a subway entrance out of the corner of his eye, but decided against going down there; the last time he drove on a subway track he almost got run over by the train. Instead, he just took another sharp turn down a street and started driving the actual speed limit. He took a deep calming breath and let it out slowly, trying to clear his head. He had been driving for about a half hour now, and while the first ten minutes had been pure panic and sheer looking for his idiot vampire, the last twenty he spent in an angry stupor where he just started getting mad at anything that annoyed him... Which happened to be everything.
He probably wouldn't have been so angry if he actually remembered where Bandit Keith's hideout was. In actuality, the first ten minutes of looking for Bakura were actually him trying to remember the path to the monster hunter's quarters. However, after many wrong turns, he realized that even if he did remember where Keith's place was it wouldn't do much good because Keith said he had multiple hideouts that he went to varyingly so he couldn't be traced back to only one place. That was when he just started getting mad at everything. How in the hell was he supposed to find Bakura if he didn't even know where Bandit Keith was?-! His vampire tracking training didn't really do much good in this situation either because he wasn't trying to track a vampire; he was trying to track a fellow vampire/monster hunter. He hadn't been trained for that!-! Marik screamed to the sky again, causing many odd looks. His eye twitched and his face grew hot from embarrassment, and then he sped off again, not caring if that made him an easier trail for the cops. Although, he probably would've been found soon anyways; he heard the familiar sirens sound behind him again. The Egyptian groaned before looking for the nearest hiding place or getaway route. Not seeing one, he just sped along the traffic like he had been doing before; if he could outrun a vampire in this thing, he could outrun the cops. Although he knew he'd have to face the cops sometime, just… not now. Not when he needed to find Bakura. Not that he was doing a necessarily good job in his current state…
With that thought in mind, Marik slowed down next to Central Park. He hid behind the thick, low-hanging branches of a weeping willow tree and killed his engine. Hoping that his tires hadn't made a noticeable trail in the grass, he sat down next to the base of the tree and laid his head against it. He took a deep breath, hearing the sirens get louder and louder until he felt like they were right next to him, and then he smiled as he heard them receding into the distance. He shook his head softly and tried to think of something that would help him find Keith. What did he say was his favorite area of New York again…? He racked his brain for any indications the fellow hunter could have left to tip him off, but he couldn't think of it. It probably didn't help that he had tried to block everything Keith had told him though. After all, why would he want to know any of the "great" ways to torture vampires for information? Why would he want to hear some of his "best hunting" stories? Why would he even want to associate with that man? Although the answer was simple: Because it interested his father, so it had to interest him. Even if it was only fake interest. Marik took another deep breath to calm his anger, but as he let out his breath he began to feel something worse than anger: Depression.
What was the point of even looking anymore? He had no idea where to start; he didn't know Keith well enough to know where he'd keep his many "lairs." He had been trained to know the ways of vampires, not humans, and while it was true vampires were human at one time, the same rules did not apply. Example: most humans do not prefer dark, "creepy" places, but vampires prefer them because they felt natural there, more at home and safe, like they belong in those types of places and nothing can hurt them there. And while they can live comfortably in a house or an apartment, they still feel a twinge of paranoia or even fear, which might be one of the reasons Bakura locked his doors, now that he thought about it.
Marik sighed. How was he going to find him? He had no leads, no clues, nothing. He should just go home…
His eyes widened as he remembered that cell phone Rishid had given him; the one that had Bakura on speed dial! He whipped out his phone but then sighed as he realized calling him would do no good. No doubt Keith would have stripped him of anything he could contact people with, and if he called he would probably be talking with Keith himself, and then he'd have to explain why he had a vampire's phone number. Keith would probably think that he had given up hunting vampires altogether and were now trying to help them, and then Keith would start targeting him, and it would do no good to have someone trying to kill him.
Marik put his phone back in his pocket dejectedly, but then perked up as he remembered the Millennium Rod could help him find people! He took it out with a smile, realizing that anger and panic really did make it hard to think logically. He closed his eyes and focused, picturing Bakura in his mind. Soon, he felt the familiar, light tugging sensation that came over him whenever he did this. It was pulling at his left…
"Hey, mister!" a girl's voice interrupted his concentration. He opened his eyes and saw a blue-eyed little girl with blonde hair hiked up into pigtails on the side of her head wearing a pink jacket with yellow trims in front of him. She had her hands behind her back and was looking at him angrily. She also had deathly pale skin, and he would have thought she was a vampire child if she wasn't in the sun. Although she could be wearing the new sunblock, but was that even selling in America yet? He didn't think so.
"…Um, yes?" he finally answered, wondering what he could have done to cause this little girl to be mad at him.
"Is that your motorcycle?" she asked, pointing to his red bike. He glanced at it before looking back at her, now seeing that she was holding a teddy bear that wore overalls, which was probably what she had been hiding behind her back. Why did she have a teddy bear? How old was this girl anyways? She seemed between eight and twelve, but Marik wasn't sure.
"Yes, yes, it is. Why?" he answered, looking at her despairingly. He had better things to do than talk with a little girl right now…
She gave him an exasperated noise as she said, "You're not supposed to have any vehicles in the park!" she said hotly. "I'm gonna call the cops on you!"
Marik groaned. Obviously this little girl felt like this park was "her" park and didn't want anything going wrong on it… Why did little kids take it upon themselves to take care of things they didn't have to? "Please don't call the cops…" he said weakly, knowing that he couldn't stop her if she tried; he'd get arrested for assaulting a child, as well as speeding (and possibly even parking on the grass.) Plus, he didn't want to attack a child anyways. Even a vampire hunter had morals, especially one that didn't want to hunt the creatures in the first place.
She raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you okay mister?" she asked him, just a hint of worry in her voice.
Marik almost responded with the traditional, "Yeah, I'm fine" that most people said even when they weren't, but then stopped himself. He wasn't "okay." He wasn't "okay" by any definitions. He began to feel depressed again as he said, "No…" He sighed sadly, not noticing the sad look that the girl was giving him. "I lost my… my…" at first, Marik was going to say "friend," but that still didn't feel like the right thing to call him… What was Bakura? His business partner? His ally? His friend? His vampire? His boy… friend. Just friend not his… never mind. "I lost my… cat…" he finally answered, figuring that was the safest answer. Technically Bakura was a cat, and he supposed he could be "his" considering he bought him that collar…
Suddenly Marik wished he had bought Bakura a different Christmas gift.
The girl gave him a pitying look and held out her bear. "Want to hug Teddy?" she asked. She could tell by the look on his face and the tone of his voice that this cat must have meant a lot to him… and she knew what it's like to lose something important to you.
Marik smiled sadly at her and took the bear, hugging its soft form. "Thank you…" He handed it back, actually feeling a tiny bit better.
She took the bear back and looked at him. "What does your cat look like?"
Marik smiled as the picture of 'Kura-Kitty entered his mind. "He's medium-sized with the fluffiest, whitest fur you've ever seen."
The girl seemed to think for a second, then she asked, "Does he wear a red collar?"
Marik perked up. Could she have possibly seen Bakura?-! "Yes!" he answered back excitedly, "Have you seen him?-!"
She smiled. "Uh-huh. This guy with a flagged bandana and sunglasses took him to the subways last night. I don't know why he was wearing sunglasses at night though… Is he some kind of an idiot?"
Marik chuckled at her and felt very happy and thankful for the information. If Keith was taking Bakura to the subways, that means he's not on Manhattan. He sat up straighter and gave her a pleading look. "You wouldn't by any chance know where he was taking him do you…?" it was a long shot, but it she knew where he was taking him…
"Well, he told the cat, "You're gonna love Staten Island" before laughing kind of evilly… Is that helpful?"
Marik smiled brightly. He would have hugged her, but it wouldn't be "proper" for a 22 year old man to hug a little girl, so instead he shook her hand vigorously. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!-!" he said excitedly before standing up and walking towards is motorcycle.
"Wait!" she called after him. Marik turned around to see her hugging the bear to her chest and smiling. "When you find your cat, you have to give him a kiss!"
Marik stared at her before a blush came to his cheeks. "… Why…?" he asked. Not that he wouldn't do it, but…
"My Grandpa says that when you see someone you haven't seen for a while you need to give them a kiss! Like this," she answered before holding her teddy bear in front of her and kissing its forehead and cheeks. Marik's face grew hotter as he thought of how Bakura would react if he did that to him… "Besides," she continued," It's obvious you miss him, and I'm sure he's missing you too! He'll probably be happy for the affection."
"… Um, sure, yeah… I'll… give him a kiss," he said awkwardly as he straddled his bike. He was about to start it, but then he smiled at her and said, "Thanks again, uh, kid."
"Rebecca," she said with a smile. "Call me Rebecca."
Marik smiled at her as he said. "Rebecca… Cool, you can call me Marik. Thanks again! You have noidea how grateful I am."
He started his bike up and drove off, barely hearing her parting words: "You better give your cat a kiss! People who miss and love each other are supposed to kiss!"
Marik felt his face go up in flames. People who love each other…? he thought.
Is… is that what he felt towards Bakura? But then… What degree of love was it?
Marik shook his head, and then groaned as he heard police sirens again. "Well, at least one good thing happened to me today..." he muttered to himself.
… Yup, that's how I'll end it XD
Originally, I had thought Rebecca was eight, so when I looked up her profile and it said that she was eight in the English version and twelve in the Japanese version, I wasn't sure which age I should take… Eventually I decided to take a "Phineas and Ferb" approach and have you wonder how old she is XD
I know this chapter is a little shorter compared to some of my other ones, but the next one is longer (13,000 words I think?) so yeah… enjoy this anyways! (So much plot is going to happen… PLOT! PLOOOOOTTTT!)
And for those reading my story "Ryou's School Life," this was where Amora and Anai originally came from. So yes, this was their original character design. Obviously I made a few… adjustments for RSL XD
On another note, at this rate I think I'll be able to write a Valentine's Day special ON Valentine's day… (that would be great…. Please let that ring true).
~~~{REVIEW REPLIES}~~~
Joy: Wow… those are some, er, VERY mixed feelings XD So um, how do you feel about me now?
Haha, just kidding. I'm glad you liked the kiss! And supposing by your murderous reaction, I'm guessing you're enjoying the story as well! So um, thank you for reviewing! =)
pumpkindog789: I'm glad your life is complete now! =D Although to be fair, they did kiss before, it was just because of bets… XD Lol, thank you for reviewing! =)
RyouAwesome: Responding to each of your reviews one at a time, in order:
Thank you! =D That was back when my writing skills sucked too, so muchos gracias~!
I like the way "mad skittles" sounds too XD
Really? One of the best? :'D You make me happy~!
Haha, that would have been funny XD How is Paranormal Activity? I've never seen it…
Haha, yes, I suppose it would be Steven Tristan Timothy Taylor XD
Yay! You got it =) And thanks! I strive for awesomeness XD
Why thank you very much! I wish I could sing for you all, but I hate my voice on recordings…
I'm glad you think that! 'Cause I think so too XD
You actually started crying?-! Wow…! I'm kind of happy that my writing made you cry, that's… wow! But… b-better than J. K. R-Rowling?-! *nervous laughter* Well I wouldn't say that I mean she's a well-known writer and I just write fanficiton for crying out loud because it amuses me and I like to write but I wouldn't say I'm that good or anything and - *gets dragged off*
And on a last note: Your reviews made me giggle, laugh, and extremely happy~! Thank you RyouAwesome, you're awesome! =)
Bec: Haha, is it really such a big deal that they kissed? I mean, they've kissed before… Sure it was because of bets, but a kiss is still a kiss isn't it…? XD And you weren't expecting that for a few more chapters? Hmm… I can see why you'd think that XD But yes, it was kind of just a treat for the fans XDD And I think you should feel sorry for Marik because he's beingtormented but also don't because he kind of enjoys Bakura's kisses tormenting him… Haha, that makes no sense XD But in this you find out what happened to Bakura! Sort of! XD And you also see Marik's reaction :3
About that journal page, all will be revealed with time~! But I'm awfully curious who you think it is… tell me please? :3 And I also love the "little guessing games and mysteries" (as you put it) in all types of stories, which is why I did this XD And you feel relieved for Marik about what was on the parchment piece? Good! =D
Heehee, glad you like it~! :3 That was my original goal for the facebook page (though sometimes I stray from that…) so I'm glad people are enjoying it~!
And thank you very much! Encouragement like yours is always nice =) Thank you for reviewing! I always look forward to your reviews.
Swirly: Haha, yep! That last chapter was a pretty big cliffhanger XD I'm glad you like the fic so far! =D Thank you for reviewing Swirly~! (Awesome penname btw)
Hurrhurrbehbes: Your review made me laugh so much and filled me with a lot of joy, thank you very much! I'm still surprised when people say they cried while reading this story ^^; But I'm glad I make your soul happy and that this story is awesome! =) And if you'd like to draw some fanart I would have no problems with that XD Glad it inspires it~. And I've never seen Lost, is it really that confusing? O.O And you kind of have an answer to the cliffhanger now, so are you still crying tears of joy and freaking out? XD
I'm glad you like my writing style! Now I just wish I knew what exactly it was… XD Glad you loved all the chapters, and now you won't have to slap someone really hard, cry, or die because I updated! =) And I wouldn't necessarily call this fanfiction holy, but thank you for the virtual kiwis~! I haven't had those in a while ;)
Thank you very much for reviewing! =D