Warnings: Rating M, Swearing, Child Abuse, Mild Animal cruelty. If this type of thing offends you then DO NOT READ! This is a fictional story ONLY and nothing more. Flames will be used to toast my marshmallows. I own nothing!!
Chap 23: A Note of Flesh
The next morning Marik once again woke to find feet in his back and hands in his hair, even though his bed was a large double bed, Ryou always found away to take up most of the room and so Marik ended up cliffhanging on the edge of his bed. Marik sat up running a hand through his hair and got to his feet. Ryou rolled over into his spot and then rolled onto his other side, making Malik the victim in Ryou's hug. Marik walked out into the hallway and headed for the stairs stopping by Bakura's bedroom door and looked in to see the boy asleep on is back, Marik moved on.
He just sat down with his first cup of coffee when he got up again and walked to his front door and opened it, instantly expecting Ra to come running his way into the house like he did every morning to eat, then finding some place to sleep. Instead Marik found nothing, he closed the door and went back into the kitchen, finding it odd that his cat hadn't come.
Marik picked up his phone and dialed in Elder's number and waited, he soon hung up, as she hadn't answered. He left the kitchen and went upstairs to shower and dressed in black jeans and a blue and black long sleeved top. He stepped out of the bathroom and almost fell over Ryou, saving the boy and himself he picked Ryou up and stumbled a little. "What are you doing?"
"I'm looking for Milly." Ryou smiled fiddling with Marik's collar.
"She'll be around here somewhere." Marik said walking down the hallway with Ryou in his arms.
"Where are you going, Daddy?" Ryou asked with a tilt of his head, not missing on how the man was dressed.
Marik reached the bottom of the stairs. "We are going to go look at some schools." A knock came at his front door, sighing Marik changed direction.
"School?" Ryou frowned. "Will Malik be there with me?"
"Don't know, maybe." Marik said as he opened the door, finding Mai standing there with a rather bright smile and two others with her, a short woman with dark blonde hair and green eyes, the other was a tall male with short black hair and brown eyes. "Do you ever sleep in or go home?" Marik mumbled.
"What work would I get done if I spent all my time sleeping?" She smiled even more. "I love mornings, especially around Christmas time."
"Daddy." Ryou whined out in a loud whisper. "I don't want to go if Malik's not going to be with me." His eyes widened. "They might be mean to him." Ryou gasped, knowing all boys and girls were mean, having been picked on himself when playing in the park and his older brother coming in to scare them all away.
"Why would they be mean?" Marik turned and headed back to the kitchen leaving the door open for Mai and the others to follow at their own free will.
"Silly Daddy." Ryou scolded him. "'cause they can."
She closed the door and took off her jacket, scarf and gloves as she followed him into the kitchen. "The world is wicked place Mr. Ishtar and it's people like us who keep the wicked… good." She grinned adding. "Or making them pay in punishment."
"I like wicked it makes the world go round." Marik mumbled as he picked up his coffee. "What do you want?"
"Oh I came for your delightful tea party." She sat down and placed her black briefcase onto the table as the other two that came with her looked nervous and didn't know what to do.
"My tea-set is broken." Marik glanced at the other two then at Mai as he sat Ryou down on the counter. "I meant as in coffee, tea."
"Pancakes!" Ryou nodded his head, throwing in his order on what to have for breakfast.
"Coffee is fine." Mai said standing up and opening up her briefcase. "Oh I forget, how rude of me." She laughed a little pointing towards the two that had come with her. "That's Ms. Foster and Mr. Taka."
"Hi, I'm Dacey Foster." She smiled making her way to the table.
"I'm Ryou." He giggled and waved to her, she smiled back.
"Han Taka." He gave a bow, and Ryou giggled but stopped at the cool glare Marik gave him.
"So." Marik lent on his counter, arms on either side of Ryou and looking over the boy's head to his guests. "What brings you here? Since I only got a phone call from you last night."
"The court hearing was brought forward as you are aware of." Mai said, going through her briefcase. "The three of us will be representing Malik and yourself in court." Mai pulled out a large folder and placed it down onto the table. "This folder holds Malik's court date hearing and other information that will be needed, as in proof of his unwillingness to talk."
"It's not as if Malik just woke up and decided not to talk." Marik bit back angrily.
"Daddy?" Ryou tugged on his shirt. "Malik's talking has just gone away it'll came back soon." Marik glanced down at him as the room fell silent for a moment, he only hoped that Ryou was right and that Malik would soon be talking.
"Yes, I apologize." Mai said breaking the silence. "With the little one in the room. I didn't want too say it." Mai said glancing at Ryou, he was quick to pick up on things.
"We are gathering all the needed information we can to make this as fast and painless for Malik." Mr. Taka said.
"With proof of a stable home and Malik receiving the care he needs and use it as evidence, it shouldn't take long at all especially with the help of Mai." Ms. Foster said.
"Okay." Mai said. "Have you picked a school for the boys?"
"I was doing that today." Marik said.
"Good." Mai nodded her head. "I'll need to see Malik for an a evaluation from me as well." She tapped the folder with a hand and said. "Everything you'll need is right here. I'll come by in a few days to pick it up." Everyone's head turned as Malik rubbing at one eye now standing in the doorway of the kitchen. "Oh good, this is Malik." Mai said introducing the two lawyers to Malik.
"He just woke up!" Marik growled at them to back off as Malik still looked asleep on his feet. He walked over and picked him up, Malik instantly snuggled into him and rested his head on Marik's shoulder almost going back to sleep.
"Right, we should be off." Mai said gathering up her things. "Let you get back to what you had planed." Marik quickly placed Malik down on a chair and rushed over taking Ryou down off the counter and ran after Mai, stopping her at the front door.
"Mai." He came to a stop. "I want to make a few appointments with you for Bakura."
"The older boy?" Mai looked confused, Bakura and Ryou had seemed to be the only ones that seemed normal.
"Yeah, a few things he told me and I know he needs help, but I can't do it on my own." Marik glanced up his staircase to make sure Bakura wasn't lurking about to over hear them.
"Sure, I have a few openings this week, just call me when you're ready." She smiled again and turned about and with a startled yelp she jumped back almost into Marik at seeing the rather tall man before her. "My aren't you tall." She smiled even more looking up at him.
"This is my brother Rishid." Marik said, Ryou came running out, pushing by Marik's legs to get to the taller male and be scooped up into his large arms.
"Are we going to the park again?" Ryou asked him.
"Nice to meet you Rishid, I'm Mai." They shock hands for a moment, when Mai said with a good blush. "I must go." And with that she was getting into her car with the other two.
"She seemed… nice." Rishid said watching her a little longer and with a smirk on his lips.
"I bet." Marik shook his head and walked back in.
"Uncle Rishid, girls are yucky." Ryou wrinkled up his nose in distaste, Rishid laughed as he walked into the house.
"Are pancakes yucky?" He asked.
Ryou giggled with a shake of his head. "No!" He then squealed. "Are you going to cook them for us?!" Ryou gasped his eyes widening. "Can you throw them in the air like, Daddy?"
"If you want them to end up on the roof or the floor." Marik said as he was pulling what he needed out for cooking.
"Marik has been the only one to do that." He said placing Ryou down on his feet and ruffled Malik's hair in greeting, the boy only smiled at him.
Bakura walked into the room glancing at Marik. "We are having pancakes." Ryou bounced on the spot.
"You know he is going to have you cook that every morning." Bakura said to Marik as he took his seat.
"I don't mind it saves Rishid doing it and the emergency ward the trouble." Bakura gave him a confused look as Rishid raised an eyebrow.
"It wasn't that bad." He said walking over and leaning on the counter.
"Not that bad?!" Marik said sounding surprised as his brother just brushed off the horrid incident. "You remember the tenth grade and your cooking class that was hosting a function for the end of the year prom." Marik shook his head and turned his attention back to his cooking and Bakura. "Anyway, Mr. I-can-cook-anything bakes up a storm and puts everything into the fridge over night and forgets to turn down the temperature. The whole school was out for a few days as everyone had food poisoning."
"Don't leave out what trouble you caused Marik." Rishid said, Bakura smirked liking how this conversation was going.
"I'm not done." Marik said cutting in again. "Anyway, Isis was holding a formal dinner party and we offer to help her with preparations and cooking. Mind you the day before the Pest control guys had been to vacate any mice and rats" Marik paused for a second as Rishid groaned at the not so pleasant memory and bowed his head with a hand rubbing at his eyes. "Half way though the party people were dropping like flies and rushing to the bathrooms to be sick, I'm talking total chaos of over five hundred people, there was throwing up, passing out, seizures."
"You can stop anytime you want now?" Rishid growled and Marik smirked liking nothing more then seeing his brother squirm, so he continued.
"The hospital treated all the sick and had found that Rat Poison had been the cause. We found out that Rishid had mistaken the box for mixing ingredient." Bakura laughed a little, but stopped at the look Rishid gave him.
"Alright, lets talk about Isis's hair, Mr. Albert Einstein." Rishid said and had wiped that smug ass grin from his little brothers face. "Twelfth grade, science lap. Marik here decided to make a nice perfume shampoo for our Sister for her birthday. Made it at school and brought it home before letting the Teacher test it and grade it. Oh no, Marik wanted Isis to be the first to use his new wonder shampoo. And what happened Marik? I'll tell you." Rishid turned to Bakura, while Ryou and Malik just stared at him. "She use it, and with in a few minutes of putting it into her hair, the shampoo had turned into a glue. The hospital had to shave her head bald and she ignored us until it grew back, I'm talking about hits,weggies, toilet flushes while in the shower, cold water thrown on us in the mornings and our pocket money handed over every week."
Marik chuckled finding it all funny really, though Isis had made it her mission to make their life a living hell until her hair grew back, but forgave them soon after, when her hair had grown to her shoulders. "Lets not forget that you used that damn stuff to glue the Buts of half the faculty to the toilet seats." Marik burst into laughter along with Bakura and because they were laughing Ryou giggled with them.
Ra at this point walked into the kitchen from the backyard and sat down licking his front paws. "Marik your cat!" Rishid said, pulling Ryou and Malik with him, stopping Ryou from trying to look at the cat.
"What the hell?!" Marik dropped what he was doing and approached his cat; he hadn't opened the back door yet. He glanced up and saw the lock on his glass sliding door had been bent as well as most of the metal farm around it; someone had used something to break in using a screwdriver, maybe? Bakura stood up his eyed wide and worried as the gray fur was stained with blood about his paws, snout and neck. "Come here Ra." Marik crouched down clicking his fingers, the cat instantly got up and walked forward and Marik stopped him, running his hands over his cat and not finding any wounds on him at all.
"What happened to him?" Bakura asked coming up beside Marik. "Is he hurt?"
"No, he's fine." Marik stood up and walked to the front door not wanting to disturb anything that might be evidence to who had broken in. Ryou rushed to meet him, stopping Marik at the front door, Malik right behind him followed by Rishid. "Daddy, Daddy, I can't find Milly!"
"She's around Ryou, look harder." Marik brushed him off as he walked outside; Bakura went to follow him to see what the cat had gotten into. "Stay here." Marik stopped him and Bakura shot him a look.
"I'm not a kid, Marik." Bakura slightly snapped at him.
"Stay here." Marik gave him a stern look not to argue, then said. "My cell is beside my bed, get it and press four, ask for Yami, tell him my house was broken into." With that Marik walked down the few steps and around to the back of the house.
"Watch the boys for a minute." Rishid said following Marik out side.
Marik reached the side of the house and was walking down his driveway when Ra came rushing around the corner of the house and running by Marik to the front. Marik turned to follow and almost ran in to his older brother. "The cat went back there!" Marik moved around Rishid and saw Ra ducked under a bush, Marik moved forward and parted the leaves and growled out. "Fuck!" Milly lay on her side and bleeding badly. "Get me a blanket!" Marik said as he bent down, Rishid ran to the front door and into the house.
Marik every gently pulled his dog out from under the bush, leaving a trail of blood on the snow. "Shit!" Marik sighed as he placed his hand over his month in thought, while looking at the mass of wounds on her side. He had locked everything up last night and Milly had been a sleep on Malik's bed, he had seen her in the boy's bedroom before going to bed himself… had the intruder done this to his dog? And he didn't know how long Milly had been out here in the freezing cold and laying in snow. Fuck! Ryou was going to be so upset to know that his dog was dead. The puppy gave a very soft whined and opened her eyes part way.
"What happened to you, huh?" Marik mumbled as he gave her a pat on the head gently for some kind of comfort to the puppy as she gave another whine. "Such a good girl."
"Here." Rishid came back and held out the blanket and watched as Marik wrapped the puppy up, then picking her up, Milly gave another whine.
"I brought you your car keys." Rishid said walking over to Marik's car that he had left sitting in the driveway and unlocking it for him.
"Can you watch the boys, while I take Milly to a vet." Marik said going to his car and placing Milly on the front seat. "Don't tell Ryou if he asks about her, I'll explain to him later."
Marik rushed into his house and grabbed his jacket. "What happened?" Bakura asked him.
"Milly's hurt, I have to take her to a vet." Marik pulled on his jacket.
"Where are you taking Milly?" Ryou asked worriedly that there might be something wrong with his puppy; Malik frowned knowing the dog had been fine last night.
Marik cursed himself as the boy always seemed to just pop-up or appear from thin-air, he said. "Milly is sick I have to take her to a vet."
"What?" Ryou looked ready to cry. "I don't want Milly to go to a vet! I like her."
"A vet is a doctor for puppies if they get sick. I have to go, Rishid is going to watch you."
"Could I come?" Bakura asked, Marik stopped for a moment looking him over.
"Come on." Marik said holding open the door, Bakura rushed by him as Rishid walked inside the house and Marik followed Bakura.
"Daddy?" Ryou snagged the end of his jacket. "You'll look after Milly and bring her back?"
"I'll look after her the best I can, but I have to go." Marik bent down and placed a kiss to the top of Ryou's head, turned the boy around and gave him a light push back inside, grateful when Malik took Ryou's hand. Marik turned and made a run for his car and Bakura waited in the front seat with the puppy on his lap.
Bakura watched as they took Milly from him and handed Marik a clipboard of forms to fill out. Marik turned around and gave a small tug on Bakura's sleeve getting his attention and nodded towards the line up of chairs.
Both taking a seat, Bakura glanced about; people had cats in carry-cages, dogs of all breeds on leashes, posters of how to take care of pets and illness that all pets can suffer from covered every wall. "Will Milly be…" Bakura trailed off, he still felt awkward about what he had told Marik.
"What?" Marik asked as he filled out the paperwork, his head was down slightly and the pen seemed to fly across the paper leaving ink of written information behind.
"Milly, do you think she'll be okay?" Bakura asked glancing away at a cat that started growling and hissing at the dog a few seats away.
"Don't know, we'll just have to wait and see." Marik said as he flipped a page. "Did you call Yami?"
"Yes, he said he was coming right over." Bakura said putting his hands deep within his pockets and lent back more in his seat. "Ryou is going to be so upset if Milly doesn't make it."
"I'm aware and I'm doing all I can to help her." Marik glanced at him for a minute before turning back to the forms; they both fell silent.
Marik stood up and took the clipboard back and spoke to the girl behind the counter again. Bakura got up out of his seat when he saw the vet come out to talk to Marik. "What happened to your dog?" The man looked to be in his late fifties, thin, though short, and no hair on his head at all.
"I found her like that in my front yard this morning, she was in the house last night, I don't know how she got outside." Marik glanced down at Bakura as the boy now stood at his side listening to them.
The vet looked confused as if he wasn't sure on what to say or how to say what he was about to. "Your dogs wounds were inflicted by someone."
"What?" Marik and Bakura said shocked. "How can a person do that to a little dog?!" Bakura was angry he couldn't get his mind around it. "That's sick!" He spat.
"You'll be surprised what comes through these doors, young man." The old man said.
"Take it easy." Marik placed a hand on Bakura's shoulder.
"We'll do all we can." He glanced at Bakura then at Marik. "Is she your dog?" He asked Bakura feeling a little sorry for the boy should the puppy die during treatment.
"No it's my little brother's dog." Bakura frowned at him and moved away a little more.
"I left my cell number." Marik said.
"We'll call when we are done." The older man said.
"Come on Bakura." Marik said over his shoulder as he was already walking towards the door, Bakura turned and followed him.
"What's that for?" Came Ryou's voice standing in Marik's kitchen and as Yami worked.
"So I can lift up finger prints from the glass and doorframe." Yami said, he was crouched down and dusting a fine powder with a small brush over the glass and the metal of the door.
"Why?" Ryou asked looking at his hand, Malik tilted his head to the side when Ryou picked up his hand as well and looked at it.
"So I can take the finger prints back to the office and put them into the computer and then match them up with someone." Yami said, placing everything into his bag.
"Why?" Ryou asked pulling Malik with him as he followed Yami outside.
"So we can tell who broke into the house last night and ask them questions." Yami walked a straight path looking over the snow for any evidence left behind.
"How?" Ryou again asked, not sure on how or why Yami could do this.
"Boys." Marik said walking outside. "Leave Yami to his work."
"Was Milly okay?" Ryou rushed to him, Malik on the other hand was still following Yami watching everything he did.
"We have to wait and see if she gets better." Marik patted his head.
"But, Milly is a good girl." Ryou said close to tears.
"I know." Marik crouched down. "Why don't you go inside while I talk to Yami." Ryou nodded his head and walked inside.
Yami twitched and glanced up at the silent child that was watching every one of his movements. "Something you want to say?" Yami asked, he was sure that Malik's looks had told him that he wouldn't find out who had been here last night.
Malik glanced away looking over the backyard, they would find nothing, his father and the other were to smart to leave something behind that would give them away. He also knew that it had been him; the man who hung about his father who had hurt the puppy, he was sure of it. He had been here yesterday afternoon at the house and Malik knew that the dog was more hurt then what Marik had let on, though it was more so for Ryou and Malik was sure that it would soon be one of them next.
"You know telling people what you know can help so much in making you feel better." Yami said standing up and walking again, not taking his eyes off the snow covered ground. Yami was still trying to work out just how Malik's DNA had ended up on that dead girl; his suspensions were that Malik had some kind of connection to the killer or knew of him and could very well point him out and give them a positive ID, but the child didn't talk.
How could talking make anyone feel better? Malik glanced up as he felt a hand on his head. "You're not bothering Yami, are you?" Marik asked.
Malik shook his head no and looked back at Yami, if what he was doing was so damn good, then why hadn't his father been taken away already? What made his father so scary that it kept people like Marik and Yami away from him? "Go get ready Malik." Marik turned the boy about and watched as Malik walked back into the house.
"Thanks for coming on such short notice." Marik said.
"It's okay." Yami shrugged his shoulders. "What happened here?" He hadn't been told much over the phone; only that Marik's house had been broken into.
"Besides the back door being open all night and nothing was taken, I'm a little freaked out. The puppy my Sister brought for the boys, was hurt at some point last night." Marik followed stopping as Yami crouched down and taking a bit of the blood soaked snow into a clear vile and placed it into his bag. "I'm hoping she pulls through." Marik placed his hands into his pockets. "I'd hate to tell Ryou the dog died."
"Kids and pets will be the hardest thing you'll ever have to deal with." Yami sighed. "Yugi's goldfish got the royal burial in the backyard this morning, he even painted a headstone for it. I would have preferred to have flushed it." Yami shook his head looking at Marik. "I wish you luck with the dog." Yami glanced about one last time.
"That's it."
"Thanks Yami, I would have hated to have put in an official report on this." Marik said, if he had of then his house would have been over run by defectives, police officers and forensics and then only to have someone big mouth hotshot saying that this was a personal attack from the Serial Killer as a message to Marik to back off or the Killer knew where Marik lived and decided to mess with him.
"I'll get all this into the computer and run tests and then get back to you." Yami walked to his car, then stopped after placing everything onto the back seat. "Though, I would like to take a look at your dog's wounds." Yami lent on the car his hands deep in his pockets.
"I'll call the Vet Clinic and let them know you're coming." Marik gave him the address. "What are you thinking?" Marik asked.
"Thoughts… just be a bit more careful." Yami said as he got into his car and called out. "Get that back door fixed." With that he backed his car out and drove off.
Later that day, Marik sighed glancing about the colourful office of the elementary school, paintings all over the walls and noise of happy sounding kids in the background made Ryou all jumpy and wanting to join them.
They had spent a good hour on Ryou talking to the boy and assessing him on his education level and found the child had none at all; Ryou would start in the kindergarten area but that had been more to do with his age then anything else, as all five year olds had started schooling already. They, being the Headmaster and a few specialists had found Ryou to be bright and a fast learner when the child wanted to be and was so easily distracted.
Marik had talked to them before hand on everything he knew about the little ones, though it wasn't much, but he had hoped it had been enough, he really wasn't that great at this kind of thing and had wished that his Sister was here with him.
Ryou was happy drawing on the small table while Marik and Bakura sat by, Malik was on the other side of the room and going through the same thing as Ryou had, though they were getting nowhere fast.
The specialists was a young man and a woman, holding up flash cards with words and pictures; Malik just pulled his knees up to his chest and looked away. "Can you tell me what this is?" She asked, holding up a card with a picture, Malik's testing wasn't going as easily as Ryou's had, Malik's questions were harder on the account that he was a year older and would be in the first grade.
He knew it was a ball that was on that card, but did they think that pretty pictures and kind words would get him talking? They had no idea what punishment came with speaking, there was no longer a safe place for him now that his father had found him and hurt Ryou's puppy, yes it was Ryou's puppy. Malik didn't dare like it to much because he knew that it would have gotten hurt at some point and he had been right.
"Okay something a little easier." The man picked up a card with a word. "Can you read this?" He had asked with a soft voice, Malik just looked at it then looked away out the small window. "Malik pay attention and try! Read the word out loud." She was getting a little frustrated at having all their attempts fail, never had she come across a child so unwilling to do anything. Even the children like Malik who found it hard to talk or ones that were hard of hearing or had some kind of disability, had all tried in the testing to the best of their ability. Malik flatly refused to do anything.
"What about this word?" She asked holding up a new card. "Say it out loud Malik, read the card." She sounded out the word couch for him hoping to encourage him to sound it out with her. "Now you say it!" Malik's vision blurred with tears, he couldn't read it anyway and he wasn't going to talk no matter what they did to him, he just looked away again.
Ryou had been watching and listening, he had broken four crayons in his anger at hearing the why she was talking to Malik and he didn't like it at all. At that moment Malik had glanced at him and Ryou had snapped upon seeing the tears in the others eyes. "Leave him alone!" Ryou rushed up kicked the woman in the shin and then pulled Malik from his chair and into a hug. "He can't talk and you're mean making him cry!" Ryou yelled at the two and swung his arm out and knocked all the cards off the guys lap onto the floor. Bakura raised an eyebrow, there was nothing new about Ryou's fits of anger that had come up in the last few months.
"Ryou you don't hit people!" Marik scolded him as he got up and approached them.
"They made Malik cry!" Ryou said justifying on his out burst. "I don't like them!" If Malik couldn't talk then Ryou would do it for him, since no one really saw what Malik wanted to say, his new brother spoke volumes through his facial expressions if everyone took the time out to see what he did in Malik.
Marik was surprised to find Malik actually hugging Ryou back. "Malik." The boy turned around from Ryou and held out his arms for Marik to pick him up. Malik trembled in his arms and clutched onto him.
Ryou burst into tears and threw himself at Marik's legs and hugged him about the knees sobbing. Marik sighed placing a hand on top of Ryou's head to comfort him and glanced at Bakura.
Bakura just shrugged his shoulders saying. "Ryou has a temper." Marik shook his head, he could see that.
"Well lets get started on showing them their class rooms." Ms. Hide the principal said, she had dark hair and eyes, thin and just as tall as Marik with her high heels. "Tests for any child is stressing enough." She smiled opening the door for them.
"I want Malik to hold my hand!" Ryou jumped up and down holding out his hand, Malik rubbed at his cheeks as he was placed onto his feet.
The four walked with Ms. Hide down the hallways, the walls and lockers were either painted or had some kind of bright picture, most likely done by the students of the school. Malik held Bakura's good hand and Ryou held his other and he stared at the ground they walked on. "Ryou will be starting in the kindergarten area because of his age and never being in school." She stopped and opened a door and Ryou's eyes widened as seeing all the other children his age running about, playing games and painting.
"Ms. Mazaki?" Ms. Hide walked into the room and a happy greeting came from the all children in the room.
"Ms. Hide." She approached them wearing an apron smudged with paint of all colours, over her t-shirt, blue jeans and white tennis shoes, blue eyes and short brown hair. "This is Ryou, he'll be joining your class." All the other children in the room stopped what they were doing to see their new classmate and whispers started up.
"This is Malik, he'll be joining you from time to time for social interaction and communication." Hide said, Bakura shifted on his feet a little nervously as Ryou had never been to something like this before and looking after Ryou himself would be cut back quite a lot.
"Hello, I'm Ms. Mazaki your teacher." She smiled at them both, and then glanced at who she presumed to be their father. "Will they be starting today?"
"No." Marik said, it was already now into the afternoon. "Tomorrow."
"This is my Daddy, Marik." Ryou said, trying to get a look over the woman's shoulder on what was happening in the room.
"I'm Marik Ishtar." He said shaking her hand when she held it out.
"Anzu." She was still smiling, than winced at the loud crash sound in her classroom. "I have to get back before they destroy my class." She bent down at the waist. "Nice to met Ryou, I'll see you here tomorrow at eight-fifteen sharp, and you Malik, I'll be happy to see you in my class as well." With that she turned about and walked back into her room.
Ms. Hide led them down the hallway a little and stopped at a door, but didn't open it. "This is Malik's classroom." She glanced at Marik.
"There are only six kids in the room?" Marik raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, this is our class for those like Malik who have a speech or hearing impairment." She said walking again.
"Malik isn't deaf!" Bakura said and Ryou gasped looking at Malik, did they think he couldn't hear… was that why Malik couldn't talk? Was his hearing broken as well? No wonder why Malik never sang along with him.
"I know… wait did you have his hearing tested?" Hide asked Marik.
"He can hear just fine." Marik was sure of it as Malik responded to sound quite well and made a note to have the boys hearing and eye sight looked at anyway just in case, Bakura's as well. "Well even though Malik can't talk, we are hoping to teach him another form of communication other than speech, like through Sign Language."
"You're also placing him in with the kindergarteners, when he should be in the first grade and you're placing him in a…"
"I know what you are trying to say." Hide cut in over Bakura and stopped just outside her office, not taking a liking to Bakura at all. "Since we have no record of Malik being in school at all or having any education. I can't simply throw the boy in the deep end and expect him to know what all the others in grade one know."
"Just don't treat him like an idiot." Bakura growled, looking away when Marik raised an eyebrow at him.
"Thank you for taking them in so close to the end of the year." Marik said.
"Not at all, but I must remind you that both Malik and Ryou may need to repeat the year if they aren't up to standards." She glanced over at Bakura for a moment. "You will be attending the high school, right?"
"Tenth grade." Bakura said.
"The high school is about two blocks from here, so you'll all be close." She said, Marik's cell phone started to ring.
"Sorry, it was nice meeting you." Marik said, and then answered his cell while walking away, Malik, Bakura and Ryou followed him.
"The dog is recovering nicely." The vet said. "But I was about to call the police to come see what I found."
"The owner of the dog is a detective." Yami said, his large black bag hung over his shoulder as he followed the older man down the hallway, hearing dogs and cats calling out, wanting to be free of the small cages they were confined to.
"I was shocked to see this and can't fathom on who would do such a thing to a small animal." He walked into a room and Yami saw the puppy laying on her side and on a cushion, wrapped up in a blanket. The Vet pulled the blanket back and stepped away.
Yami dropped his bag with a gasp as the word Malik was neatly carved into the dog's side, the stitches made the word even clearer to see. "I can." Yami shook his head and picked up his bag. "Have you given her something for the pain?" This was one reason Yami never wanted to get his son a pet larger then a fish. "When you were stitching her up, did you happen to know what was used on her?"
"Yeah." The Vet walked over to a draw and pulled it open and held up a scalpel, Yami bent down to get a close look at the wounds, the letter i looked familiar… "How deep were each individual cut?"
"You really want to know." The older man said. "I identified the weapon used for the police so they could charge the who did this. Each cut struck each rib bone from the M to the L and it got deeper for the I and K." The Vet picked up a folder. "I wrote down all my findings in here for the police."
Yami thanked him and took the folder and picked up his camera, giving the puppy's head a pat, then started to take pictures, the cut marks looked to close to the bastard that had cut the word bitch into the breasts of his victims. Yami had only hoped that it had nothing to do with the Serial Killer and the puppy had been some one's idea of a sick joke.
TBC
Okay, your thoughts on the chapter, I know the treatment on the dog may seem cruel but it's part of the plot and I couldn't really kill off a little puppy, . so for those of you who can't wait, Milly the puppy is okay. Review (Love and Cookies)