Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Spiritual Heart ❯ Chapter 3

It was a gloomy, overcast day. Gray clouds stretched as far as the eye could see in every direction and a chilly wind whipped through the quiet city. Joey Wheeler was in a hurry down the empty sidewalk, not really giving any mind to the fact that the city seemed deserted. What was on his mind was that he was late. Again. He had promised Serenity that he'd meet her at the bus stop at 2:00, and it was already half past. Joey hated letting anybody down, but especially his little sister. After all, she had come all the way to Domino just to spend the weekend with him. He hurried along, not paying much attention to his surroundings at all, simply looking straight ahead and focusing on getting to his destination as quickly as he could. But when he passed an empty alleyway, he stopped. Something in his mind told him that something was amiss, but he could not seem to place exactly what it was. He looked around, puzzled at this strange sensation in his mind, wondering what on earth could have sparked it. Finding nothing and dismissing the sensation as only his imagination, Joey began walking again, only to stop suddenly when he thought he heard a scream. A faint one to be sure, but a scream nevertheless. Joey held his breath and listened to the quietness of the street, waiting for the scream to sound again, but it did not. He turned and walked a little ways down the alley, examining everything around him. He was about to turn back when he noticed a door in the side of one of the buildings that was just slightly ajar. He quietly walked over and opened it a bit more, peering into the darkness of the abandoned warehouse.

"Shit, somebody's comin'!" Joey heard a voice announce and then several shoes squeaking on the floor as whoever had been occupying the room scattered for cover. Now Joey's interest was peaked and he very carefully ventured into the building, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. And talk about suspicious, he discovered a form hanging from a hook dangling from the ceiling. Blood leaked from the form's back, dripping into puddles already formed on the floor. Joey sucked in his breath and gingerly made his way over.

"Holy fucking Jesus Christ…" Joey gasped as he approached the figure. "Bakura…?"

Bakura's eyes were tightly shut, his forehead etched in pain as blood dripped from his mouth, his head, his back and God knew where else. Joey lifted Bakura's body up, unhooking the ropes that held him to the hook above and gently laid him on the floor.

"Bakura! Hey, can you hear me?" Joey asked the motionless boy. Bakura did not stir and panic started to settle in the pit of Joey's stomach. He leaned over, checking the boy's breathing. It came in short, strangled wheezes. "Hang on Bakura, I'm gonna get you to a doctor." Joey very carefully began to lift Bakura into his arms but froze when he noticed several sets of eyes smirking at him from the shadows. He looked around, seeing that he was completely surrounded.

"What's a matter?" a voice asked. "You scared now?"

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Joey rolled Bakura onto his side and stood up, facing the direction in which he guessed the voice had come from. "Who the hell're you?" he demanded. "And what the fuck did you do to my friend?"

A teenaged boy stepped out of the shadows towards him. "You wanna know? Maybe we should show him, huh guys?"

A chorus of gleeful chuckles surrounded Joey as he looked around at all the faces sneering at him. He took a step backwards, setting his feet apart to get a better stance. "Just try it," he threatened.

Several more teenagers emerged from the shadows on all sides. Joey tried to keep his eyes on everyone at once but to no avail. The ring of teens around him began closing in on him and the motionless Bakura at his feet. Each one clutched some form of weapon ranging from a thick steel chain to a burning cigarette. Joey sweated nervously but put on a strong face, not allowing his opponents to see how frightened he had become.

"You're that one punk, ain't you?" one of the teenagers inquired, eyeing him curiously. "Wheeler, right?"

"What's it to you?" Joey replied harshly. He balled his fists up while looking from one boy to the next, dreading what was to become of him and Bakura if he was unable to fend them all off.

Suddenly, one of the obviously younger boys dashed forward, his fist headed directly for Joey's face. Joey turned and caught his fist easily, twisting his arm in an unnatural direction, dislocating the boy's shoulder and pushed him down. Another of the teenagers came at Joey from behind, lashing a leather belt at his back, but Joey dove out of the way at the last second, sending the boy toppling over from his momentum. Joey turned around swiftly, looking for his next attacker who came at him with a glass beer bottle in hand, taking a wild swing at Joey's head. The blonde boy easily ducked out of the way and drove an elbow into his attacker's gut, knocking him off balance. But suddenly Joey was seized from behind and a thick arm wrapped around his throat. He was pulled backwards into a large form and Joey took a foot and thrust backwards and upwards, catching his captor in the groin. Joey was able to wiggle free and took a fighting stance in the midst of all of the boys, ready for anything.

"Hold it right there!" came a commanding voice from the center of the room. Joey turned toward him and found, to his horror, that one of the teenagers was holding Bakura by a handful of bloodied locks of hair. The unconscious boy hung limply from his grasp, blood dripping to the floor. In the other hand, the teenager held a taser.

"Put him down!" Joey demanded, his shout echoing in the still room. The other teens snickered slightly, watching as all of the color drained from Joey's face.

The teen regarded Joey with an amused smile. "Why should I? What're you gonna do for it?"

Joey gulped, fear nestling itself in the pit of his stomach. Bakura was hurt and a shot from that taser could… He dismissed the thought from his mind. He had to get Bakura out of there and quickly. "What do you want me to do?"

"Get down," the boy replied. "Down to your knees." Joey growled in anger but did as he was told. The teen boy looked around at the others, nodding for them to move in closer. Joey felt his breath quicken and his body began trembling. He did what he could to hide his fear, but he knew that they could tell. He watched as the boy with Bakura began walking towards him, dragging the white-haired boy behind him along the ground. A trail of blood followed.

"You thought you were so tough comin' in here and ruinin' our fun, huh?" the boy sneered, looking down at Joey with a dominant gleam in his eye. "Well, looks like you bit off more than you can chew, huh?" He charged up the taser and kneeled down so that he was eye-level with the blonde on his knees. "You really should learn to mind your own business." He pulled Bakura onto his lap and held the taser close to the unconscious boy's face, right between the eyes.

"Don't you dare!" Joey snarled through clenched teeth. He could hear that Bakura's breathing had become even more labored since the last time he had heard. It made him nervous and he knew that the boy would not last much longer without medical attention.

"Dare? Are you daring me?" the teen laughed, releasing the white hair and placing a hand on Bakura's forehead. Joey flinched at the amount of blood that had stained the hand. The teen titled Bakura's head back and brought the taser down to his pale neck. "I got this nasty habit of taking every dare people give me."

"Leave him the fuck alone!" Joey screamed in desperation. "He ain't done nothin' to you!"

"I know, and it's always the innocent who gets hurt," the boy replied. "Shame, ain't it?" He shoved the taser down into the base of Bakura's neck, sending a harsh shock throughout the frail boy's body. Joey snarled and leapt forward, catching the teen off guard. Bakura was dropped to the floor as Joey pounced on his attacker, his fists flying through the air and slamming into his face with uncontrolled rage. Joey felt himself being lifted up off of him by several pairs of arms, and he began to struggle against them with all of his might, trying to find a way out of his current predicament and get to Bakura as quickly as he could. He was able to free himself from a few grasps, but one held him tightly by the collar of his jacket and threw him sideways into a tall tower of wooden boxes. Joey threw out his hands in order to soften his contact with the wood, but he could not turn around in time and his skull slammed into the rim of one of the boxes and he collapsed limply onto the floor.

Joey looked up. Everybody was gone. He blinked a few times, trying to regain his senses and finally was able to hear the faint sound of police sirens somewhere in the distance. He must have blacked out temporarily, long enough for the large group of teens to be scared off by the sirens. Whether the sirens were meant for them, Joey could not know for sure. All he knew was that his head felt like it had had a bullet shot through it and that Bakura was still laying motionless on the concrete floor.

Painfully, Joey began crawling along the concrete, pulling himself over to where the white-haired boy had been dropped. There was so much blood around him that Joey began to seriously debate whether he could possibly be alive. But when he reached Bakura, he found that he was indeed still breathing, however labouredly, and Joey let out a sigh of relief.

"You're gonna be okay, Bakura. You hear me?" Joey whispered to the motionless form. He moved Bakura onto his back, flinching at the paleness of the boy's face, then gently cradled him in his aching arms, lifting him off of the floor with great difficulty. Although Bakura was lighter than he had looked, in Joey's weakened state he felt as if he were carrying a horse. Joey's knees buckled and he fell, landing on his knees and scraping them on the concrete. He growled in pain and attempted to stand again, pushing himself to his feet and forcing himself to take three steps before he fell again.

"Damn, at this rate my legs're gonna be broken by the time I get outta here," Joey grumbled, pushing himself to his feet again. He could not let Bakura down. He needed him then and there and if there was one thing Joey hated, it was letting down a friend. He took two more steps before he sank to his knees again.

"This ain't workin'…" Joey moaned, his arms shaking under the weight of his friend. He lifted his head up and found the door with his eyes, then yelled, "Help! Can anybody hear me? We need some help in here!" He waited for a few minutes before attempting to get to his feet again. This time however, his body refused his advances and he collapsed to his knees, then to the floor. Bakura's cool body rested underneath him, his chest rising and falling in small, rapid motions. Joey cringed, knowing that there was no way that he was going to be able to move the white-haired boy without seriously injuring him or himself. He removed his arms from underneath his body and was about to try and stand up again when he heard,

"Joey! Is that you? Where are you, bud?"

"In here!" Joey practically screamed, thankful beyond any measure that he had been heard. In a fraction of a minute, Tristan Taylor and Yugi Mutoh appeared in the doorway, now seeming farther away than ever.

"Joey! What happened?" Yugi gasped as the two came running over.

"There was a whole gang of 'em," Joey responded as Yugi knelt by him, settling a gentle hand on the back of his friend's head. "I don't know what they did to Bakura, but they sure beat the shit outta me."

"He's not breathin' too good," Tristan observed, a hand resting on Bakura's chest. "We need to get him and you to a hospital."

"I'm fine," Joey replied, shaking Yugi away from him. "It's Bakura we gotta worry about."

"But Joey, you're bleeding," Yugi said in a quiet voice. Joey looked at him and noticed in shock that his friend's hand was covered in blood.

"He's right, we're gonna get you both to a doctor," Tristan announced, scooping Bakura's limp form into his arms. "Think you can walk, Joe?"

"Yeah, no problem," Joey responded, staggering to his feet. Yugi approached his friend and draped an arm around Joey's waist, prodding the blonde boy to lean on him a bit. In this manner, Tristan, Yugi, and Joey walked out of the warehouse and into the gloom of the daylight, traveling together toward the hospital two miles away. Only then did Joey remember that he was supposed to be spending the weekend with Serenity.