Atemu and Heba - [ON HOLD]

Chapter 9: Kidnapped

* Italics = thoughts and Bold = emphasis

* A/N: No, the man who captured Heba and Atemu is not Marik.

* / = Yugi to Heba mind link & \ = Heba to Yugi mind link

* // = Yugi to Yami mind link & \\ = Yami to Yugi mind link

* /// = Yami to Atemu mind link & \\\ = Atemu to Yami mind link

Heba's POV

I wake up and move around, only to find myself bound to a pillar and gagged. I look frantically around for Atemu and see him in a similar position, but he's still unconscious.

"I see one of them has awakened." says a voice in the distance.

"Yes, we failed last time to get the royal family's secret, but this time we won't fail." replies another gruff voice.

Last time? Are they talking about the time with Atemu's mother?! Oh no! If I'm right, they'll torture the information out of him. My mind shifts through ideas of escape and I come up with none. I'll just have to wait for Yami and Yugi to get here. During that time, I can't allow Atemu to get hurt! That much I'm certain of. But I don't know how long I have to wait till they come. It doesn't matter, I'll protect Atemu! We look similar and Atemu has his disguise on, that's why they couldn't torture us till now. They had to know who was the real prince. I'll try to stall them.

/Heba!!/ I hear Yugi call through the mind link.

\Yugi!\

/Heba? Thank Ra, you're alright!/

\I'm alright, for now.\

/For now?! What does that mean? Heba, where are you?/ I could feel Yugi's panicked emotions through the link.

\Calm down, Yugi. The people who captured us want some kind of secret that only the royal family knows. As for where I am...\ I look around to observe my surroundings. \We seem to be in a small house and from what I can hear, away from people.\

/.....Okay, I told Other M- Yami that and he used his shadow magic to try to locate you. We'll be there soon. Don't worry./ And then the link is cut off as one of the men yanks my face up and starts looking at me in a weird, almost lustful way.

"Hey, boss," the man says while licking his lips, effectively creeping me out. "Can I have this one? He's so pretty."

"Not now." The boss grumbled and I'm about to sigh in relief until he continues, "after we get the info that we need, yes."

"Thanks boss!" The goon replies excitedly. I just shiver in disgust.

"Now that you're awake, how about telling me who you are. I'm Kyoki." The boss says as he walks up to me and removes the gag.

I struggle to make myself comfortable as I say, "I'm the prince, leave my companion alone. He was just at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Oh, I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Why?"

"Well, for one, it'll be easier to get the info I need with a hostage and two, this kid is more important to you than you're telling me. One of my goons saw you two kissing, you must have a pretty close relationship. Now then, are we gonna do this the hard way or the easy way?"

I need to buy more time. Yugi, Yami, hurry up! "What are you talking about? That guy tripped over me and accidentally kissed me."

"Then why were your wrists bound?"

I sigh in pretend annoyance to get the boss to believe me. "Some of my friends thought it would be a nice idea to bind my wrists with my lookalike over there."

"It seems you aren't lying. You are the prince, but I need that secret."

"Why do you need that secret?"

He sneered. "Why are you asking?"

"Well, I'm probably going to die anyways after I break and tell you the secret, right? No harm in telling a dead person."

"Hahaha! You're pretty blunt for a prince, aren't ya!"

"Well, when dealing with people like you, I don't need to put up princely airs."

"Well, it's simple really. I heard that whoever obtains the royal family's secret could rule over all of Egypt and maybe even the world. That sounds like a nice plan to me. Especially when some royal family members like to sneak out of the palace. It makes getting the secret that much easier."

I growl. "I won't tell you."

"Oh, you will tell me."

"No."

"Then, we do this the hard way." He starts to walk over to Atemu. No! I can't allow him to harm Atemu!!

"Wait, let's play a game."

He stops. "Oh? A game?"

"Yes. You torture me instead of him. If I break down, you get the secret, but if you get bored and give up, you release him. Either way, you get the secret."

"I see. You're protecting this innocent, huh? How very brave if you, Prince. Very well, I agree to your terms."

I sigh. Atemu, you're safe, at least for now. I just hope, if we survive this, I'll be able to tell you my feelings, my true feelings for you.

(A/N: Sorry guys. It broke my heart to include a torture scene, but I have to. ~sigh~ Time to get this over with.)

Kyoki unties me and shoves me to my feet. I follow him into a torture room. What fun this is gonna be. I think grimly.

"Oh don't worry, I won't damage your body too much as it seems that my goon wants to have a spin with you. Let's see. How about we start off nice, with a whip?" He picks up a sleek, black whip as his face wears a sadistic smile. "Ohhhh, this is gonna be fun." He smiles.

Kyoki raises the whip in the air and brings it down. I try not to make a sound. He brings it up again and whacks me harder and harder and harder until the skin breaks, but he doesn't stop. I don't remember the amount of times he whipped me, I only knew that it hurt like hell. My voice was sore from all the screaming and I collapsed into my own pool of blood once he felt satisfied. He picked me up by my hair, making me wince.

"Oh, it seems like you've gotten a bit dirty. Don't worry, I'll fix that for you." I flinch in fear as he said this.

He drags me over to a water tank and dunks my head in abruptly. After what seems like an eternity, he pulls me back up as I violently cough and sticks my head back under the water. He repeats this action until my lungs feel like they're dying. My last thought before I'm about to faint is...

\Yugi, help....me.\

/We're on our way, hang on!/ I hear him reply.

I smile before everything goes black.