Chapter Four: No Mercy for the Wicked
Bakura watched pitilessly out the window as his carriage-driver-turned-carriage, Noa, rolled the crying and screaming Amane away from the castle and into the Dark Forest toward White Willows. Snorting scornfully, the heartless King turned away from the window and headed back toward the prison where his new captive was still locked up.
Joey started walking at his side a few steps behind him and, after a minute of pondering whether to say something, opened his mouth.
"Y-Your Highness?"
"What?" snapped Bakura, shooting a violent look at the dog.
Joey tried not to look too intimidated while still looking respectful. "S-since the boy will be staying here for…for a while…maybe…he'll be a little more, um…sympathetic…if he had a more comfortable room?"
Bakura stopped walking in front of the prison door and turned to the dog. His red eyes narrowed angrily, and Joey couldn't stop himself from shrinking back.
"I will decide what happens to the boy, Wheeler," the King hissed, "and if you ever get in the way of my wishes again, I will put you to sleep and rip all of the feathers out of that darling feather-duster of yours."
Joey, in any other situation, would've torn anyone to shreds who threatened Mai, but he didn't doubt that Bakura could back up his threats, so he forced himself to remain silent while he inwardly burned with anger and hate.
Shooting one final dangerous look at the Golden Retriever, Bakura took the ring of keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door to the prison.
Ryou was hugging his knees at his seat in the corner of the prison, and when Bakura entered the prison, he looked up at him mutely before resting his forehead on his knees and looking down at his lap, hiding his face from the king.
"Get up," hissed Bakura.
Ryou didn't reply, whether in words or actions.
"Get up!" repeated Bakura impatiently, grabbing Ryou by his collar and pulling him off the floor roughly.
He froze, however, when he saw tears falling from the weak-looking albino's warm brown eyes.
The King didn't understand why Ryou's tears had such an impact on him, for he had seen his share of tears in his cursed palace; perhaps it was the mixture of sadness and fury in the eyes the tears had originated from.
"You really are the King of Thieves, aren't you?" Ryou whispered coldly. "You've already stolen my life… my freedom…the only family I have left in this world from me…and now you think you can steal away my dignity as well, and turn me into another servant to grovel at your feet? Well, hate to break it to you, Bakura…but I won't let you steal anything else from me."
Joey's eyes widened in both admiration and fear. He'd never heard someone stand up to Bakura like that before, let alone someone who looked as weak and acted as polite as Ryou.
Bakura looked taken aback as well; his blood-red eyes were filled with both shock and anger, and he stared at Ryou for quite a while before his pride kicked in and he remembered he wouldn't stand for such reproach for someone lower than him.
SMACK!
He slapped Ryou hard across the face, maiming his pure, pale cheek with a red mark that would easily become a bruise. Yet the longhaired albino didn't react with fear or pain and merely turned back to face Bakura with penetrating, expressionless eyes.
"Don't you ever call me by my name, you little wretch," Bakura retorted. "You are lucky that I have decided to be kind and give you a room of your own instead of making you stay here alone and cold in this prison…although you may deserve to stay here, with your lack of gratitude. But you might change my mind if you show some appreciation now, boy."
Ryou was quiet for a moment, before he murmured very icily, "Thank you for your consideration…Your Highness."
Bakura smirked, patting Ryou on the head in praise as if he were a dog that had just fetched something for his master. The action reminded Ryou angrily of Marik, and he stepped back, his chocolate eyes reproachful.
"Come with me," the cursed King muttered, turning from Ryou with a swish of his scarlet cape and heading for the door. After a few unsure seconds and half unwillingly, Ryou followed him out of the prison.
As the two white-haired young men and the Golden Retriever servant walked through the castle, Ryou observed the stone gargoyles hiding in the not-so-distant darkness of the walls around them, looking down with shining jewel eyes that could easily terrify anyone who was the least bit imaginative. Even Ryou, who was most likely the more down to earth one out of him and Amane, could feel bit intimidated at the number of ruby and amber eyes glinting down at him through the darkness. But he resolutely hid his fear, not wanting to show such weakness to his captor as he walked a few steps ahead of him, Joey by his side.
The three climbed the large staircase and turned into a few smaller hallways, At last, Bakura stopped in front of a dark green door in the East Wing of the castle and turned to Ryou straightforwardly as he turned the doorknob and shoved the door to the room open.
"Before you enter that room, pretty boy," Bakura stated haughtily when Ryou attempted to go inside, "there are a couple rules you must follow if you want to stay alive."
Ryou's face scrunched up in a mixture of confusion and irritation. 'Rules? And I thought you couldn't give me any more reasons to dislike you!'
"First," Bakura answered Ryou's expression with condescending eyes, "you must show me respect as the king I am. You must not question my rules or me. You should be grateful I have kept you alive and should display your gratitude as much as you can as not to tempt my…displeasure."
'I can't be grateful to you,' Ryou thought angrily, 'not when you're only trying to use me to break a curse on you and aren't trying to change the things in you that made you get cursed in the first place!'
"Second," Bakura continued, "I don't have any need for you, so you may journey the castle as you wish. You may go anywhere, except for the West Wing."
"The West Wing?" Ryou repeated curiously before he could stop himself.
Bakura's scarlet eyes grew a very menacing look that almost made the pale captive shrink back.
"It's forbidden," he growled dangerously.
A few fearful seconds passed, before Bakura straightened up slightly, snorted and plowed on with his rules.
"Third, if you need anything, don't address me; I don't need another pitiful peasant whining for my help, I've had enough of that to last a lifetime. Ring the bell in your room or just holler for one of the servants to come and handle your needs. Lastly, breakfast is served at 7:00 every morning, lunch is served at 12:00 noon every day, and dinner is served at 7:00 every night. No exceptions."
He reached a hand around behind Ryou and pushed him into the room; the pale librarian's assistant determinedly held back a blush from the heartless king's touch on his rear.
Bakura gave a very cold smile. "It is 6:00 now, pretty boy. I suppose you need an hour to 'freshen up' before you have dinner, so why don't you just sit…DOWN!"
Ryou found himself being thrown back into the comfy bed and heard the door slam shut behind him.
"See you at dinner, boy," scorned Bakura from behind the door.
Ryou got up from the bed and kicked the door in frustration. His foot ached afterwards, but he didn't care. His brown eyes were filled with anguish as he turned to look around the room. It was beautiful, and likely anyone else would've loved the warm burgundy color of the walls, the gold-decorated wardrobe or the dark brown bed coverings. What Ryou found a fondness for, however, was the large window that almost covered the wall opposite the door that looked out of the walls of the castle into the snowy Dark Forest. Sadly Ryou couldn't enjoy it, because the outside world blocked by glass and gold reminded him of his freedom, now sold away to a king who knew nothing of his sacrifice and could never sympathize with it.
The brown-eyed albino climbed over his large bed to look beyond the glass window at the Forest and the tiny lights that made up the largest section of White Willows. His heart ached at the thought of Amane all alone trying to make a living without his earnings as an assistant librarian and trying to take care of the house around her painting…
'Her painting,' Ryou thought sorrowfully as his tears trickled down his face, thinking of the painting of their mother as an angel trying to protect her children from hell. 'Am I to be the next tragic focus for her saddest masterpieces…?'
Little did Ryou just how bad of a time Amane was having at that very moment back in White Willows. She had been thrust into the snow in the town square by Noa, before the living carriage rode away rapidly as to avoid being seen going anywhere without being led by horses. Without thinking about Noa or about sense, the young white-haired woman had run into the large, crowded bar, pleading for someone to help her. But when she told them that Bakura of Kaitou had taken her brother captive, all of the onlookers laughed at her and assumed she was a silly little girl seeking some attention by making up crazy stories.
At what seemed like a stroke of luck, Amane caught sight of Marik sitting with Odeon at the corner of the bar. She ran over to him, grabbing his shoulder and imploring him to help her.
Marik, however, stood abruptly and looked coldly down at her as he snatched her hand off of his shoulder and squeezed it painfully. His cold lavender eyes were slightly foggy as if he had been drinking, but he wasn't so drunk he didn't know what he was doing.
"You dare to touch me as if you are even close to me in stature? You, a poor woman who relies on Ryou-pretty to survive because she's so pathetic she can't do anything but draw little pictures?"
Amane cried out in pain as Marik's grip tightened even more.
"Now…where is Ryou-pretty?" the platinum-blond-haired man asked icily.
"I already told you!" Amane answered desperately. "Bakura of Kaitou-"
Amane gripped his cheek as she was pushed and almost fell to the ground, but Marik's tight grip on her hand kept her from hitting the floor.
"Useless girl," scorned Marik.
He dragged her toward the door roughly by the hand so fast she couldn't get to her feet and prevent him from doing so. No one in the tavern even attempted to stand in the Egyptian's way as he pushed her face-first into the snow outside, snorted and slammed the door shut behind her.
'Oh…what am I going to do now?' Amane thought to herself as she struggled to stand again. 'Maybe I should try the bookstore…no, Professor Hawkins is too old to travel through the Dark Forest in this cold, let alone fend off Bakura of Kaitou were he to find us trying to help Ryou…and Rebecca is too young…even genius intellect can't defend you from punches from a man twice your size…'
Thinking that, the white-haired got up in new determination, her green eyes serious and her jaw set as she turned look again upon the Dark Forest.
'Ryou…you saved me a long time ago, as Mother told you to. She told us to look after each other…I suppose things have come full circle now. Don't worry, brother…I'll save you like you saved me.'
The light brown wardrobe in the corner of the burgundy room known as Serenity had been watching the castle's new guest as he peered out the window for quite a while now, worried he might be scared of a talking wardrobe as many other humans had been. At last her concern outweighed her worry of frightening the boy and she opened her mouth to speak.
"Hello, sir."
As Serenity had predicted, the white-haired young man jumped. When he whirled around and saw her, however, he didn't seem very scared; if anything, he looked more like he had just realized the answer to a question he had been thinking for a while.
"'Items no human would trust,'" Ryou quoted Kisara from the story of Bakura of Kaitou in "Tales of Kings," "You're one of Bakura's servants, aren't you?"
Serenity blinked in surprise. "You…know about us?"
"Yeah," replied Ryou as he moved on the bed so he was fully facing the wardrobe. "I read Bakura's story in a book."
At those words, Serenity grinned in delight. "Kaiba's idea worked, I can't believe it! Oh, I know Joey will be a little annoyed…but I just can't believe it!"
"I'm afraid I don't understand," said Ryou, awkward at not knowing why the wardrobe was so happy.
"Oh, sorry…got ahead of myself," Serenity muttered sheepishly. "You see, we were so scared that no one would be able to come here and break the spell…and we didn't know how we could contact anyone and get help. Then Kaiba…that's our chief researcher and historian…suggested we write something in the newspaper. But Joey…my big brother…he's the only one of us who is big enough to hold a pencil and has something close to hands to write with, so he wrote it and delivered it to the local newspaper. But we heard that the people who read our story simply got a good laugh out of it, calling it a fairy tale and pushing it aside…but it seems someone liked the story enough and rewrote it in the book you read! Maybe that means someone could come here and help Bakura break the spell if you…" she suddenly realized what she had started to say and quickly tried to cover it up, "um, I mean…never mind."
Ryou decided to ignore Serenity's thought about him helping Bakura break the spell, for he personally thought no one in the world could redeem such a cruel, inconsiderate person. Fortunately at that moment, there was a quiet knock at the door that gave him an excuse not to say so.
The albino got up and opened the door to seemingly find no one. Then he looked down to see a ballerina doll with short brown hair and blue eyes and a feather duster with long gold hair and violet eyes brush past his legs, helping each other carry a cup of tea into the room before finally setting it on the floor.
"Hello, hon," greeted the feather duster in a no-nonsense voice. "Tea thought you might want some tea to recuperate from Bakura being such an asshole-"
"I didn't say it in those words, Mai," Tea interrupted under her breath, sweatdropping slightly and looking irritated.
"-So I decided to be nice and help her bring this along up for you," Mai finished as if Tea hadn't spoken.
"All you wanted to get a good look at our guest," Tea muttered, rolling her eyes.
"Yes, but I could've done that without helping you," Mai pointed out coolly.
Ryou smiled slightly in gratitude and picked the cup of tea off the floor, bringing it into his lap. "Thank you…that was very considerate of you."
"Don't thank us yet, honey," Mai advised as she started heading out the door again. "You've still got a whole dinner to sit out with the King of Crabbiness…"
"Mai!" Tea scolded, before looking at Ryou with a kinder face and adding, "Don't listen to her…Bakura might be tough on the outside…alright, maybe more like a total jerk…but things will turn out alright in the end, you'll see."
She looked up at the clock on the left wall of Ryou's room and reacted with surprise. "Oh, I forgot about the time! See you at dinner in five minutes, sir!"
And with that, the ballerina doll gave a great jeté and left the room.
Closing the door behind her gently, Ryou looked at the clock as well, but in a very brooding way, before his eyes narrowed in dislike and he sat back down on his bed to look out the window.
'Bakura of Kaitou can have his own crabby dinner by himself. I'll spend the night right here, in this room, and as far away from him as possible.'