Dark Tale From Egypt
Rika stood between her aunt and her uncle at the airport anxiously awaiting Mai's return from Europe. Rika was looking forward to seeing her cousin again but the real reason she was anxious was because there was something up with Mai and she wanted to know what that something was. Tapping her foot impatiently Rika knew that there had to be a really good reason why her cousin was coming home early when she knew Mai had been scheduled to do several other modeling shoots in Europe and Mai was a professional, she wouldn't just up and cancel for no reason. Something big must have happened. Hearing the announcer announce the arrival of Mai's flight Rika and Mai's parents made their way to the gate to wait for her to come and soon enough out she came, her eyes hidden by black shades and her clothing a lot more drab and plain for Mai's usual taste. Mai came running towards them as soon as she spotted them and Rika watched Mai run towards them with a bit of shock since Mai wasn't the most affectionate person in the world and even less so in public. Watching Mai hug her parents like they'd been apart for years had Rika's eyes narrowing before Mai caught her up in a big hug too. "Hey, cous." Rika said as she forced a smile onto her face. "How was Europe?"
"It would have been even better if you'd been there with me." Mai said with a smile but Rika noticed it seemed as forced as her own smile. "We have a lot to catch up on."
"Yeah, I can see that." Rika said then narrowed her eyes when she got a good, up close look at her cousin's face. If she wasn't mistaken...those were bruises on Mai's neck and cheek cleverly almost hidden by make up. Raising an eyebrow at her cousin Rika's eyes said plainly that she wanted answers.
"I'll tell you about it when we get home." Mai said softly as she took Rika's hand and squeezed it before sending her parents a dazzling smile that would have done any model in the business proud. "Now lets get my stuff and blow this joint."
)
After Mai and her parents had played catch up for a good hour Mai was finally able to convince them that she and Rika needed to have a serious girl talk about everything and rolling their eyes the parents left the girls alone to chat. Having a laugh about how Rika wouldn't be interested to hear about the boys and the clothes the parents were unaware that good times were the last thing the girls were going to be talking about. The two girls were finally left alone in Mai's room with them both sitting side by side on Mai's bed, Rika patiently waiting for Mai to explain. "So spill." Rika said finally as she turned her head to look at her cousin, unable to wait. "Where the hell did you get those bruises and why are you home so early?"
"You'd think given how much money I paid for these damn cosmetics they'd do their damn job and actually cover something up." Mai said with a sigh as she took off her shades to look at her cousin, knowing that Rika was perhaps the only one she was up to telling her story to right now. "And well I guess I don't know where to start..I guess the beginning is always good right?" Mai said with a sigh as a sadness came over her eyes. "I'd been in France for about two months when I met Jack and you could say we hit it off right away. He was hot, well off, cultured and he treated me like a goddess which was the big pull obviously. He was everything Joey wasn't..or so I thought. Turns out I was dead wrong on that one. Anyway we dated for a month and everything was great but then I began to have this..I don't know..feeling when I was around him. Not a good feeling either. Then things he did really started to bug me and I don't know why but it got so that I didn't even want him to touch me so of course I said to myself 'Mai, your instincts are telling you something here, listen to them.' So that's what I did. I told him that I had decided I didn't want to see him anymore. Damn but I didn't even see his fist coming. I saw stars and I was out for the count, woke up an hour or two later black and blue and scared as hell. So there I am, laying on the floor thinking how the hell did this happen, how the hell could this happen to me and I was getting all set to call the police, to fry his ass in court when he strolls into the room..like nothing's happened." Mai said, her voice shaking as Rika slipped her arm around her cousin, Rika's eyes murderous. "So I get to my feet and I'm weaving there, wondering how I'm going to kick his ass but knowing I'd try and..and he locks eyes with me and I just freeze. I stare into those beautiful brown eyes of his..the ones that have gone hard and cold with hate directed at me and I can't move a muscle, I can't think, it's as if I've turned to ice. And he frames my face with his hands and tells me that I'm his and that if I try to pull another stunt like the one I did he'd kill me."
"I'll kill him..I'll rip out his heart and make him eat it." Rika said as she bounced to her feet, her eyes livid and her hands in tight fists so that her knuckles were white. "Where is the bastard? I hope you killed him. I hope you killed the son of a bitch and you're running from the law. I hope you crucified that bastard to the ground and left him to be slowly eaten alive by wild animals....I I I I really want to kill him if he isn't dead."
"That's the thing, Rika..I fell in line. As God as my witness I don't know why but I fell into line like a God damn puppy." Mai said as she put her face in her hands. "You know me, you know how tough I am, how strong I am but there was just something about Jack, something about him that just held me captive...it was as if I had turned into some spineless coward so blinded by fear that I couldn't get away. And then the dreams started to come. The dreams about Egypt." Mai said as she lifted her head, her eyes haunted and scarred beyond belief.
)
"What do you mean about Egypt?" Rika asked as she slowly sat back down, her skin going cold because she had a feeling she already knew.
"I began having these dreams about living in Egypt, in Ancient Egypt with like the pharaohs and everything. I was this girl, this girl who was forced to marry a rich landowner guy..a landowner with Jack's eyes and his personality too. My father had sold me to him, sold me to him even knowing what kind of man the guy was. His name was Rae and he was ten times as worse as Jack ever was to me. But the thing was the dreams were so real and I..I began to have them when I wasn't even asleep..and then Joey came into the dreams..only he wasn't Joey anymore..he was Joseph."
"Joey Wheeler? That ex boyfriend of yours?" Rika said as she pictured the skinny kid who'd struck her as a nice guy if a loud mouthed hot head. Rather like Kazu come to think of it. And this was sounding more and more like her own dreams only hers hadn't been the hell Mai was describing.
"Yeah and the ironic thing is he's my only friend in my dreams, he's a bodyguard my..Rae hired to protect him since he had so many enemies. Joey-Joseph was so kind to me and the girl..the girl I was in my dreams was in love with him and Joseph loved her too. But Rae found out, found out that Joseph wanted to take her away and so I..so I had to protect him. I said things, horrible things to him to make him leave, to go far away where he'd be safe...away from me. But the funny thing is, Rika..Joey and I broke up because he was always so possessive and thought I was cheating on him with other guys..and in the dreams..in the dreams I told Joseph that that was.. was what I'd been doing, that he'd simply been my temporary plaything because I knew he'd leave then, that in his anger he wouldn't see the truth. Rika, I can remember this girl's life as if it were my own. There are pieces missing but I can remember every beating that she took, every time her husband destroyed something or someone she cared about, every cruel thing he said to her. I remember it all like it was me, Rika. Like it was me. Like I was that girl." Mai said as she broke out sobbing, Rika moving to hug her cousin tight as Mai sobbed into Rika's shoulder, finally quieting down so that she simply hung on to her cousin, knowing that Rika would understand. "But it was the dreams that made me call the police..because I realized I was becoming that girl..only unlike her..I had the ability to get away. I had people who could and would help me. You don't think I'm crazy do you? God I couldn't take it if you did." Mai said as her head come up, her swollen eyes searching Rika's. "You believe me." Mai said with a grateful sigh as she read the truth in her cousin's eyes. "Thank God I thought I was going crazy but if you believe me..then I can't be going crazy."
"I've been having dreams about Egypt too but they haven't been bad ones..but they involve friends of yours." Rika said as she lifted a hand to stroke Mai's hair, needing to show Mai how much she was cared for and loved. "Seto's in it and so is Yami. The strangest thing is that I dreamed about him before I met him, Mai. I'm beginning to think these aren't dreams either and I gotta tell you the idea scares the hell outta me."
"I thought maybe..reincarnation? I mean it sounds crazy but the girl in my dreams..her face was like mine. The hair and the color of my eyes were different but the face, the face was exactly like mine. Just as Rae's face was Jack's and Joseph's was Joey's. I'd never believe it but having hung around with Yami for so long..I can believe it's possible. I can believe that I might be the reincarnation of some girl that lived and died thousands of years ago." Mai said as she swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. "Maybe it's like in the movies where history is repeating itself...it has for me anyway. Joey can't stand me anymore and..well the other similarities are obvious. But worse I don't know how the story ends..I don't know what happened to the girl I am in the dreams..I don't know what happened to me then."
"True but you got away from this asshole too and he's going to pay for what he did. Back then...back then he wouldn't have paid for any of it. It would have been his right." Rika said with a considering voice as she turned the idea over in her head carefully, analyzing it as she fought to push her rage aside for Mai's sake. "And if that were true then..but that doesn't make sense because I don't have any brothers, there isn't anything wrong with the life I'm having in Egypt in my dreams. Well going after a guy I don't have a chance in Hell with but nothing life threatening."
"Maybe not yet?" Mai asked hesitantly as she thought it through herself, glad for the chance to take her mind off the hell she'd been living in and the shame that went with it. "Maybe the bad thing that's going to happen to you or someone else you care about in the dream hasn't happened yet."
)
Hours later
Rika zipped up her jacket a little higher then continued walking down the block till she came to the right apartment building. Double checking her uncle's directions to make sure she had the right one Rika walked in and finding the name Wheeler pressed the button to page the apartment and hoped the hot head was in.
"Hello?" Came a bright and cheerful voice on the other end that had Rika rethinking her visit to talk with Joey but since she was already there anyway Rika asked if Joey Wheeler was home. "Yes he is, are you a friend of his?"
"I'm..a friend of a friend. My name's Rika Nonaka." Rika said with a sigh as she stuck her hands in her pockets. "I'd like to talk to him if I could."
"Oh you're the girl who beat him at Kaiba's a week ago." Came the girl's delighted voice, her laughter bright and happy. "Poor guy's been so down about that, especially since Tristan and Yugi won't stop teasing him about it. I'll buzz you through, we're on the fifth floor, room 5H." The girl added. "I'll tell him you're on your way."
"Thanks." Rika said as she waited till the door buzzed then letting herself in walked in to the elevator and pressed the button, rocking back and forth on her heels as she waited for her ride to arrive. Once it had Rika got in and pushing the correct button was soon on the right floor and finding the door labeled 5H knocked on it sharply. Seconds later the door was opened by a beaming brunette in blue pjs who looked all set to snuggle in bed with her stuffed animals. "Uhmm..I'm Rika." Rika said not knowing what else to say, not sure what to think. "If I've come at a bad time.."
"Oh no, sorry. I was vegging in front of the television and since I wasn't going out I changed into my pjs early in case I fall asleep on the couch again and Joey has to carry me to bed." The girl said as she moved to the side so that Rika could come in, all smiles and goodwill. "I'm Serenity by the way. I'm Joey's little sister. You're Mai's cousin right?"
"Ah yeah. Nice to meet you." Rika said as she removed her shoes then followed Serenity into the well kept apartment that was a bit frayed around the edges but homey. Nice. "If he's busy I can come back tomorrow, I shouldn't have intruded."
"Oh it's no problem at all and Joey's a night owl anyway." Serenity said with a grin as they walked down the hallway, stopping in front of a door with a sign proclaiming it to be Joey's room. Knocking on it Serenity called her brother and when he yelled back to enter Serenity opened the door then motioned for Rika to go on in. Once Rika had stepped in Serenity closed the door behind her and headed back to the living room.
)
"So do what do I owe the pleasure?" Joey asked, a little out of breath since he'd been cleaning up his room when she'd been buzzed in. Normally he'd have met her in the living room but it wasn't fair to Serenity to kick her out when she was in the middle of a show. "Come for a rematch?"
"Since I won why would I want a rematch?" Rika pointed out as she leaned up against the bedroom door. "Actually I'm here about Mai."
"What about her?" Joey said as he turned his back on Rika to pick something off the floor then toss it on his bed before looking at her again, his face carefully blank. "Last time I checked she was in Europe with some fancy Frenchman she picked up."
"Actually she's home right now and that fancy Frenchman is in jail hopefully for assault and battery." Rika said coolly as she watched Joey's face go pale with shock. "Mai's got the bruises to prove it."
"He..he hit her?" Joey said slowly and Rika watched flames leap into his eyes and suddenly he was in her face, his hands on her shoulders. "The son of a bitch hurt her? Where is she? How bad is she hurt? I'll kill him. I'll find that son of a bitch and I'll tear him full of lead. They'll never be able to identify the body when I'm through with him." Joey growled, letting go of her to start pacing. "I'll slice him up into so many pieces not even a mouse would be able to find a piece of him. I'll get the guys to help me and we'll go hunting for that son of a bitch. I'm sure Yami knows all sorts of tortures..she's all right though. She wouldn't be at home if she wasn't okay right? Mai's the toughest girl I know." Joey said as he came to a stop to face her.
"She's okay but she's pretty shaken up and she needs you. And I don't mean to kill the guy because I'm doing that. I'm family so I have first digs." Rika said as she watched him watch her closely.
"What's she need me for? She's not even talking to me right now. The only reason she called a few months ago was to rub it in that she'd hooked up with that French guy. Looks like she didn't have much to brag about after all." Joey said with a pained look, shoving his hands into his pockets before he started breaking things. The thought of someone hurting Mai, putting marks on her drove him crazy but what could he do? He didn't even have to right to do anything since he didn't even think he and Mai were friends no more. Ever since they'd broken up even the thought of her hurt. But Joey knew that if he could, if that son of a bitch was here right now in front of him..Joey knew he could kill the guy in cold blood without an ounce of regret. They could give him life in prison and it would be worth it. Mai was worth it to him.
"She dumped you because you accused her of cheating on you, Joey. I know Mai, I know how she flirts and attracts guys like bees to honey so I can see how you'd get jealous. But you gotta know that Mai isn't the type to lie and cheat, especially with someone who was her friend before he was ever something else. Before I left I tucked her in and asked her if there was anything I could get for her..you wanna know what she said? She said that the only thing she wanted at that moment was you to come and tell her that everything was going to be all right. That you would be there for her. She loves you, Joey...and I'm pretty sure you feel the same. So might I suggest you get your skinny ass in gear and start thinking about the future..and who you want to be in it. If you can't go to her tomorrow as someone who loves her..at least go as a friend. I think you're man enough to handle that at least. He could have killed her you know..she knows it all too well. Just think about that, Wheeler. I'll let myself out."
Note For those who might argue I made Mai too weak in this chapter I'd point out that the kind of situation Mai was in would be enough to weaken even the strongest of people. I assure you she will get stronger and stronger as the chapters go by, especially when it comes down to life or death.