Blood Gold

1 -Ryou- Names

     The wooden door creaked as his hands pushed against it and Ryou winced. It was never unlocked, but this time Ryou had taken a wooden chair to the door handle and left the metal in ruins. The empty, dark hallway was cool enough to make him get goosebumps, but heat radiated from the only feature he could see beyond his doorway. Another, slightly ajar, door at least twice his height and made of stone at the end of the hall. The closer Ryou got to it, the more intense the heat became. He tried to look between the door and the frame, but the other side was too dark to see. Ryou barely squeezed himself through the opening. The feel of the cool stones was a temporary solace against the sweltering heat of the room and left him with the grainy feel of sand on his skin.

     Light poured in through a hole in the roof where cracked and chipped stone bricks would have merged to a point. The busted roof gave just enough light to the altar and raised platform at the edge of the large room for Ryou to see the glint of gold and gemstones littered across the edges of the platform. The closer to the walls his view traveled the more the shadows painted figures in similar shades of dark hues, and the harder it was to make out separate objects. The altar wall was different somehow, he squinted and could barely see the difference in texture, but his curiosity had him moving. He kept as close to the walls as he could and blindly tried not to rattle the loose stones he stepped on, even if the effort was in vain.

     Hieroglyphs in cartouche's spread out over the expanse of the stone. A wall of names. A shard of memory slipped through his mind of his father. He was almost glad his father wasn't here to experience what his 'gift' could really do. He was almost all the way across the room when he suddenly stopped. A flash of red caught his eye as a shadow, once near the wall, was now close enough to the light for Ryou to make out his long red coat and white hair. The shadow wasn't looking at him, he was looking at the wall, but his body was half turned as if he were leaving. Ryou's blood ran cold as he silently wished that he was invisible. The white hair shifted as the strangers' head turned in Ryou's direction.

     Ryou saw nothing.

     Ryou Bakura wasn't usually the type of person to have nightmares. He loved watching horror movies and reading macabre stories and was always just fine. Recently, much has changed. Maybe its because he's been more on edge since pieces of his memory have gone missing. Maybe its because of the devastation of learning that he was indirectly at fault for the mysterious comas and disappearances that followed him for so many years. Whatever the case was, he was wary of the spirit that dwelled in the ring, and his growing paranoia at being helpless to stop it was only matched by his obsession with finding out as much as he could about the supernatural items. He found solace in the fact that his experiences weren't entirely unique to him, although Yugi's spirit seemed far less sadistic and ruthless.

     Ryou was drawing out a new board for Monster World when Yugi walked into class with Joey. Ryou only caught a few muffled words before they got through the doorway. Yugi turned to look at Ryou first. Ryou froze as if he were caught stealing.

     "Oh hey Bakura," Yugi said "You're here early, what're you doing?" The morning sunlight hit the puzzle around Yugi's neck and caught Ryou's eye the way a shiny metal hook would attract the curiosity of unwitting fish. As Yugi made his way to Ryou's desk to see what he was leaning over Ryou felt an odd sense of dread.

     "You know, I'm just planning a new Monster World game," Ryou said as he fidgeted with his pen.

     "It looks like it's mostly desert territory," Joey said, squinting at the loose sketches.

     "Yeah, I was thinking of an ancient Egypt themed game," Ryou confessed. He felt like he was saying something he shouldn't, but the reason why had escaped his mind. Instead, his mind slipped back to the dark pyramid with an open roof.

     "Ah," Yugi looked surprised and shifted, "that sounds pretty fun!" His face said one thing but Ryou couldn't help but hear the tilt of apprehension in his voice. But why wouldn't he be nervous? Cautious? On edge? After what happened the last time. It wasn't really Ryou's fault, but that didn't change the outcome. They narrowly won, through sheer force of will, and no one wanted to relive it.

     A clique of girls walked into the room followed shortly by the teacher and Yugi took it as a que to wander over to his seat with Joey following suit. A pit of uneasiness settled in Ryou's stomach as he sluggishly drug himself through his classes and watched the clock.