'You know, Yadunoshi, one of the most painful ways to die, is being devoured alive. I wonder... How long do you think it would take for a cast of blue crabs to finish off one of your pesky little friends?'

Ryou was in the restroom clutching at his head and trying to ward off the voice of the spirit from his head. But so far, it wasn't working. Rather, it seemed to be getting worse and worse.

'Or maybe, an electric shocker. I'm sure that, if I use it well enough, I'll manage to leave behind some beautiful burns. Just imagine! Those annoying, ignorant runts, laying unconscious on the cement, burns and cuts covering every square centimeter of their skin, blood all around... Oh what a soothing image!'

Bakura ended by sending the boy a horrifying mental picture of what he'd just described. A lot worse than he made it sound, his friends having been not just just electric shocked until their skin was burned, but they were mutilated! If he didn't know who Bakura had been talking about, he wouldn't have guessed it was them in that image. Then, the sadistic spirit topped it all off with a bone-chilling and cruel laugh. Just like a real psychopath. Then again, it's only natural for one to laugh accordingly.

But Ryou didn't get to finish that thought before he felt his stomach tighten, and the horrid taste of bile covered his taste buds. He hurried to the toilet to retch, an action caused by the gruesome images now imprinted in his mind.

'Oh come now, Yadunoshi, don't you think you're overreacting just a little bit?'

At that, the pale boy started laughing of all things. Not quite a sadistic laugh, like Bakura's, but nonetheless creepy.

"You know what you may be right. But then, I wouldn't know, now would I? After all, I'm not the expert in this stuff!" he said in a maniacal tone, laughing again before going to rinse his mouth, and commence his normal activities. Ra knows Bakura wasn't done with the boy yet. Not by far.

While Ryou was keeping up his fake smile, and acting like nothing happened, he realized that it was getting harder to do with every minute. First of all, he didn't know how he could keep himself from limping any longer after the thief's last 'lesson'. And then Bakura kept filling his mind with all kinds of images of what he was going to do with his friends. Mental images of the gang hung from a ceiling, covered in their own blood. Or them, sprawled on a floor, not breathing. Their bodies covered with staples, needles, nails, studs, and other sharp and small objects that Ryou dared not mention.

There were even sequences of his friends screaming in agony while Bakura was marking their bodies all over with pieces of hot iron melted in the shape of his name. It was driving him insane keeping up that fake smile, when in reality he was fighting to suppress screams.

"Ryou? Are you ok?" asked Yuugi in a concerned tone. It was now lunch, and Ryou wasn't able to down one bite of his food with how sick he felt to his stomach. Courtesy of the thief's horrendously sick imagination.

"Huh? Oh, Yeah, I'm fine, Yuugi," he said, shooting the other a smile.

But Yuugi wasn't quite fooled. He could tell something was off. That smile... That smile didn't quite match his eyes. While it seemed to be all happy and bright, his eyes were not. They were dull, and empty. Like the boy now sitting in front of him was just a shadow of who he normally was. And people always say that the eyes are the mirror to the soul. Yuugi was becoming really worried about his friend. But until he knew what was going on, he couldn't do anything about it.

The Albino's eyes widened for a moment, before he excused himself and darted away from the table and into the crowd of people filling the cafeteria.

Yuugi didn't know what to make of his white haired friend. How on earth could you understand someone as quiet as him.

"Hey guys?"

"Huh? What's up, Yuugi?" Joey was the first to ask.

"Have you noticed how strange Ryou's acting lately?"

"What do you mean?" Honda responded.

"Well, he seems to be more and more distant. You know, he's almost never with us anymore."

"Now that you mention it, Yuugi, I can't remember the last time when he came to hang out after school," Anzu remarked.

"Maybe he just has a problem with socializing? I don't notice anything different," Joey thought out loud.

"Hmm, maybe, but I'm still not convinced."

"Well for now, let's just keep a close eye on him, and try to include him more," Anzu suggested, clearly trying to cheer up their shortest classmate.

"Would you stop that already!" Ryou snapped once he found himself alone.

'I'm getting tired of repeating the reason why I won't stop! Not until you break! And besides, it's just starting to get fun. I mean really Hikari, I never expected to see you snap the way you did. That poor fangirl probably didn't know what hit her,' he finished on a completely faked piteous tone, and ended with another one of his shiver-inducing laughs.

Ryou's eyes widened a bit before he stumbled backwards, putting a hand to his forehead. He leaned against the wall and slid down to the ground, curling up, with his hands to his chest. He couldn't believe he'd done something like that! It wasn't like him at all, to shout like that at a person, and shove her out of the way... He felt tears fighting to get free.

But the boy wasn't about to let them out. No, he still had some fight left in him, and he wasn't about to let the spirit defeat him that easily.

Keeping the tears at bay, he got up from that spot and went to wash his face. After that, he walked to his next class, ignoring the threats that the thief kept throwing at him. Suddenly determined to take away the thief's (sick) satisfaction that came from seeing him in misery.

Soon, Yuugi and the gang joined him in the classroom. The white-haired male greeted them wearing a big and blindingly bright smile on his face. He didn't notice the confused looks that his friends sent him.

After school ended, the gang decided to go to the arcade to hang out and have some fun, and they had decided to drag Ryou along with them.

As soon as they asked though, his eyes suddenly changed, to something they couldn't quite place.

"S-sorry, guys, but.. I-umm... I've really gotta go. I have to shop for some groceries, and, well... catch up with homework," he stuttered out.

"Oh come on! It's been forever since you hung out with us! It won't kill you to have some fun, you know," Joey said as both him and Honda grabbed one of Ryou's hands, and started to drag him after them.

'That's... not really what I had in mind when I said that...' Yuugi started thinking, before Ryou cut him off by doing something that surprised all of them.

Pulling his arms away from the boys' grasps, he started shouting at them.

"Would you cut it out already! Just stop meddling in peoples' lives and making decisions for them! If I said no, than I have my reasons and it'll stay a no! Just stop fucking interfering and mind off your own bloody business!" and with that, the Brit spun around and took off running towards his house.

'That was not at all what I expected to happen,' Yuugi thought to himself, wide-eyed.

And so it begins. This chapter was majorly Tenshi, she wrote the majority and I editted and nipped and tucked stray hairs. Well. When we first posted tht's what I did, but now it's a bit different. I don't know why I'm really trying to change it so much. Guess I'm just trying to slow it down and make it more... Me. Again.

Well, here comes the original Review!

00Midnight00 - I liked how you ended this chapter; can't wait for the next one 3

Aw! Thank you! Umm, funny thing is, it originally ended differently...

Well! That's all for this chapter! Love you readers out there, you sick bastards you! C;