[ CHAINED TO THE NIGHT ]
Story By echo Belmont

Summary: This is my story. In it Yami Bakura is cursed, he is part vampire, part wolf and he searches for a way to cure himself and at the same time he meets in this tale a young girl named Kisa. Many things shall happen, explanations are never straightforward, Teenagers flirt and fight and fall in love, though Bakura recieves some help from Kisa, and yet...life goes on...

[ Chapter 1: The dark one ]

Listens as the wind blows,
From across the great divide,
Forces trapped in yearning,
Memories trapped in time,
The night is my companion,
The solitude my guide,
Would spend forever here,
And not be satisfied?

Bakura drifted off the main road to the darker streets. He hummed a pitch perfect song he had heard a while ago. It was a song he enjoyed the most. He beat out its driving rhythem on his thigh as he walked. Occasionally he'd sing a verse, when he remembered the words.
Threads of memories clung to him, though most was a blur. Images sparked bright at times; pictures frozen in the muted green light of the forest--savaged corpses of animals, or a gamekeeper crumpled and drained amid the fallen leaves, his head barly attached to his neck. Bakura could not ever control it then, and his attack was fierce, made vicious by his own fear. It took a long time to regain the capacity to think. It took even longer to leave the forest in which he had hidden from Luanus. But the forest never left him. Tonight it echoed in him like owl cries, and pine needles rustling.
He turned a corner and passed by a group of girls, ignoring their whistles and "Hey baby's". Soon the cold would force them inside, so they clutched at lost summer.
Bakura walked on and found a weed--choked vacant lot. Its only inhabitant was an abandoned car. He sat on a ruined wall and gazed at the moon.
"Hey boy!" A call from the high brick wall next door. A leg was flung over, and then a scruffy youth of about sixteen pulled himself astride it. Boy, Bakura thought sarcastically. He smiled in anticipation.
"Yeah you!" came a deeper voice. Another youth, perhaps a touch older, stepped out from behind the car. He was a big lout in jeans and a flannel shirt like a lumberjack. A sneering boy in a leather jacket followed him. "This is our lot," he hissed. He carried a half-empty liquor bottle and swayed slightly. His right hand flashed silver. Bakura saw he carried a knife. Bakura did'nt like long sharp pointy objects. They made him nervous, he did'nt like being nervous.
A scuffling announced the descent of the wall straddler, a thud his landing. The boys spread out and converged on Bakura. He rose slowly from his perch, muscles tightened. The boys advanced.
"Where you from?"
"You aint from here."
"Nobody knows you."
"Yeah." spoke the wall climber. "And if nobody knows you, you aint nobody." He giggled, a high-pitched, nervous sound, and wiped his hands against a ragged Ozzie Osbourn T-shirt.
Nobody. Even this scum called him nobody. Bakura stepped toward the danger, into their net. They'ed caught a shark this time. He smiled.
"Pretty tough huh?, Don't Think we're going to go easy on you just because you're a wiseguy." said the big one mockingly. The boy with the leather jacket setled his bottle in between two bricks.
"Pretty stupid, you mean." He tossed his knife from hand to hand.
"You a retard of somethin?"
"Yeah, he's too dumb to be scared." Bakura turned his back on the third boy, the one who had said that. He was a sheep. The big one was a bully, but the leather-clad one was trouble. He was crazy. He smoked green. Bakura could smell it on him. It reeked like burning plastic and it killed the brain. It made people think they could'nt die.
"This is our playground boy."
"Yeah, wanna play?"
Bakura finally spoke. "Is that what you said to your mother last night?"
"Son of a..." The big one charged him, swinging meaty fists. Bakura stepped aside, quick as thought. The boy stumbled looked confused, then turned like an angry bear to attack again. Bakura stepped aside once more. His opponet breathed heavily. Bakura smiled. Get the biggest one and the rest often run. But he kept the crazy one in his sight all the same. You did'nt know about dusters.
They danced a lopsided waltz on the waste ground, and the big youth's fury grew and grew. Then Bakura stood still. The boy grabbed. He expected to miss, but to his suprise, found that the quarry was his. He panted and grinned, he had Bakura's arm in a crushing hold, as he prepared to punch. And Bakura, who did'nt come up to his chin, clutched the boys belt with his free hand and lifted him into the air. The boy waved his arms like an insect and gurgled with fear. The boy in the jacket spat on oath but was frozen enthralled. The other boy trembled but could'nt move either. Bakura threw his opponet then, and impossible distance. The boy sailed in the air for a moment, then crashed into a pile of debris. The sound broke the spell and Bakura heard the third boy run. But the boy with the knife laughed. He slinked forward, steel flickering in the streetlight. He had seen a fight or two Bakura surmised, but probably won through sheer viciousness, not skill. Best to deal with as a cat does a rat-no play, snap it fast.
The boy was expecting another dance, not for his victim to walk right up to him. He hesitated a second, confronted with craziness greater than his, then he saw Bakura's eyes turn from deep purple eyes to demonic glowing yellow eyes with slited pupils that were deep black. He slashed wildly in fear, but too late. His knife went flying. His arm, captured for a moment, went limp, and searing, and useless. He backed away.
It was Bakura's turn to laugh; a sound dark and cursed. The blow he had landed snapped the boy back and smashed him against the car. The boy started to slide to the ground, but slim white hands reached for him delicately and slammed him once more against the car. The third blow rendered him unconscious and flooded Bakura with the sweet warm pleasure to kill.
"Call me nobody?" he whispered, and bared his razor sharp fangs. "Call me nobody?" he screamed as if in pain. He hoisted his victim up and tore the boy's wrist open with a savage scissoring of teeth. He raised the boy's arm and, with the pulsing blood, wrote wavering letters on the dingy primer of the car's roof : I AM
The dark, raw smell of blood intoxicated. He found himself embracing the boy and pulling the damaged wrist up to his mouth. Faintly somewhere, he felt disgust. A distant echo cried for him to stop. But the blood call was too strong. He almost placed a reverent kiss upon the wrist when sirens screamed too close.
He pushed the limp body from him, but it seemed to cling. For a moment he felt trapped. Then it slid to the ground. But in the midst of panic a preverse whim took hold. He began to strip the jacket from the huddled form, struggling with the boy's inet bulk, bloodying the lining, ripping the seam with his claws until it pulled free. Black and glittering, he had his prize. He clutched it to him, leaving it's owner his life.
Then he was running. He fled past his first assailant, now staring with white-faced rictus fear, though the rubble of lost homes, out into the night, on and on through the forest until he arrived by a stream in an opening in the forest. He wrapped the bloodstained jacket about his shoulders and sat on a large rock by the stream staring up at the cresent moon. He stared at it quietly and thought to himself. This night is just like the night...i saw that girl. He remembered her. She was looking at him stunned her beautiful green eyes locked on his, her brownish blonde hair, her milky pale complexion, and her fragile figure. She was as scared as that boy when she saw me...with blood covering my mouth and the wild look withen my eyes after I had fled after I had slaughtered someone...He closed his eyes and smiled alittle to himself. But then agian the 1st impression isent always the best, but the 2nd is the charm. Bakura thought to himself smirking.

[ Chapter 2: Untainted Innocence ]

Long lost words whisper slowly to me,
Still cant find what keeps me here,
When all this time I've been so hollow inside.
...I know your still there
Hunting you I can smell you-alive
Your heart pounding in my head,
Watching me, wanting me,
I can feel you pull me down,
Fearing you, loving you,
I wont let you pull me down.....

Kisa Inugami walked down the one street by a line of shops and grocery stores of New Orleans after getting dropped off the bus from school. It was a quiet chilly October afternoon and the trees in the parks gave a hint of fall coming with their leaves changing and some trees already bare to the bark. She smiled as the looked at the scenery as she walked past the one large park and shifted her backpack on her shoulders so she could walk alittle easier with all the dead weight of homework and text books. Kisa was a 16 year old girl with long, shoulder length hair that was the color of dirty blonde that made people think she was blonde in the bright daylight in the glare of the sun, and others a brunette if she was in a dark shadowy area. She stood 5.6ft tall and wore mostly sweaters and jeans or tank tops and skirts but she was mostly a tom boy although she was a very shy and quiet girl. She had bright green eyes and a pale complexion making kids tease her that shes a vampire which would explain why she didnt care for daytime that much but other then that she was a normal sweet young girl without a strange thing about her, or at least thats what others thought. Like her grandmother Kisa is able to be in touch with things from the other side: phantoms, banshees, spirits ghosts. Whatever they were called Kisa could contact them and see them but was terrified of this gift. But then agian anyone would be scared to death at the fact that they could see and speak to the undead!

She quietly passed the one cemetary as a uncomftable feeling crept up her spine and she quickened her pace and hurried past it and crossed the one road where she sighed in relief. "Never did like the fact that people are buried in those houses." she said to herself while giving one last look at the cemetary before walking home. "Kovu I'm home!" she yelled up towards the stairs to her older brother as she walked up the stairs and into her room while tossing the back pack on the bed and taking off her jacket and putting it on the hanger on the back of her door. "About time you got home sis." her brother said as he stood in the archway holding a soda in his hand as always. He was alittle taller then her and had silver messy short hair and pale skin as well, he wore baggy clothes like her and had deep blue eyes. "I would have picked you up but my friend needed a ride home more." he said innocently while smirking at her playfully. "Oh and your little sister isent important?" Kisa said while quirking a eyebrow at him while folding her arms then laughing. "Just be thankfull that there wasent alot of traffic for the buses today or I would have taken it out of your hide." she said while shoving past him playfully and making him spill soda on his shirt. "Hey! this is new!" Kovu scowled at her while trying to get the stain out while Kisa laughed while going down the stairs into the living room.

She walked into the living room and hopped onto the couch and grabbed the remote while flipping through the channels considering it was a Sunday and hardly anything was on except the news so she decided to watch that instead of Married with Children. She watched the forecast and the politics and she was about to change it, until something caught her attention as the Anchor man spoke about a interesting story: "And our main story tonight, a 23 year old women found dead and her throat cut not to mention horribly mangled in the New Orleans cemetary last Thursday. Although the police say her death was the cause of her throat getting slit, they have identied animal-like bite marks on her legs and forearms. They have yet to identify the origins of what animal bit her and we will report once the information is found. And in other news...." Kisa's blood ran cold. Animal-like bite marks? And not to mention I live close to that cemetary. She thought while shaking all over and quickly changed the channel yet agian to try and clear her head but couldnt seem to with the thought of a rabid blood thirsty creature lurking around in her neighborhood.

She couldnt get a good night's sleep that night while she stared out her window into the murky rainy night. All she could think about is that one night when she went camping with her family...and saw a creature that sent shivers down her spine. When she was a few years younger her and her family went camping out in the one forest miles and miles from her home. She had gone hiking on her own one night collecting firewood with her brother and dispite the fact that she was scared of the outdoors and it was night she strayed into the dense forest off the trail telling Kovu to go on ahead. She didnt know why but she felt something was calling to her, it wasent a ghost or a spirit or anything like it, she just felt she was drawn to it. Kisa continued to walk through the dense forest till she saw what led her there and nearly screamed. There yards away from her in a large clearing was the body of a hunter, mangled and head nearly torn off with eyes wide with fear. And there standing its forelegs on the hunters chest, while it fed on his intestines, was a large white wolf. It was much bigger then any wolf she had ever seen! At least 8 ft long or more. She tried to get away from the horrible scene as quietly as possible and run for her life, but fate was agianst her as she stepped on a twig and its loud snapping alerted the savage wolf and it's ears cocked up and turned it's head looking right at her with it's haunting yellow eyes. Her voice caught in her throat while she looked at it. She remembered the image all too well. Its bright yellow eyes looked right through her while blood trickled down the wolfs muzzle and sharp fangs. She remembered seeing it had a large wound in its shoulder with blood flowing alittle from it, hinting that it attacked the hunter when he shot the wolf. But those eyes...they were soo eerie as if...as if a human or something else was hiding behind those eyes trapped in that large massive furry body. The creature was beautiful yet frightning, it could have torn her apart while at the same time happily nuzzled her like a pet waiting for its master to come home. It was like no other wolf she had seen before. She didnt know how she got away but she remembered suddenly turning and running quickly, breaking from the white ghost-like wolves hypnotizing gaze, and running all the way back to camp having to tell them she was just looking for a deer she spotted and wanting a closer look at it. As the wolves haunting image pleagued her thoughts, Kisa slowly fell into a quiet sleep as the rain poured outside, giving no thought of what awaited her.

Friday finally came and she happily sat in her older brothers car while gazing out the window. Her mother encouraged him to pick her up from school for awhile since the attack in the cemetary that was also printed in the paper on the front page. Kisa got out of the car and walked into the house with her brother and hurried up the stairs while saying thanks to Kovu for dropping her off while he headed out the door again to go hang out at a friend's house considering it was the weekend. She layed on her bed and drew quietly, she was a good artist and her parents encouraged her to sketch more so in her free time she would just sketch and draw her heart out since it was her favorite thing besides reading novels and poetry. Kisa finished her drawing of a raven and thought of something else to draw...then she knew what and began to draw. Once she finished the once blank paper had the image of a massive white wolf on it with the moonlight and forest around it as it stood proudly on a rock gazing at her with the same haunting eyes. She admired her work yet was freaked out and smiled alittle adding a quote to the side of it:

"Night forest, this is where I belong,
Your darkest shadow moving through my very spaces in your trees,
Knowing your every scent,
Dear forest, Wet earth, And mother to my wild heart...."

"There perfect." she said with a smile and gently slid the picture into one of her art folders and setting the folder on the bed while she started to quietly read a mystery novel.

That night she couldnt sleep right, it felt like something was calling to her and that something was watching her and the haunting image of the wolf of her childhood haunted her mind more then ever. Finally she couldnt take it and got up and dressed and wrapped her jacket around herself and snuck down the stairs and out the door, closing it quietly. The feeling grew with more intensity as she continued to walk through her neighboor hood until she stood before the cemetary and shook all over. For some reason, whatever is calling me is coming from here. She thought and took a deep breathe and headed into the large cemetary getting swallowed up in the darkness of the dense trees as the full moon was covered in large clouds. She had walked for ten minutes on the one path, hoping she just had to walk though the cemetary to get to whatever was calling for her instead of looking for it inside the chilling place. Kisa continued to walk till she heard the sound of something moving near her left by a small above ground tomb. Her blood ran cold as her heart raced as she caught something out of the corner of her eye and dashed quickly up the path not looking back afraid of the fact something was following her. She could hear the sound of rushed footsteps and knew something was giving chase, hunting her like a fox hunts a rabbit. The image of the woman flashed in her mind as she tried to run faster but only tripped and fell onto the hard ground scrapping her knee as she cried out in pain. Thinking quickly, Kisa quickly got up and ran behind one of the large tombstones, catching her breathe and waiting for her heart to stop pounding in her chest. "Oh god look at me, running from probly nothing like probly a stray dog." she whispered to herself hoping she was right. But was mistaken as her heart jumped into her throat as she felt two cold hands grab at her side and the other over her mouth. "What is a fine little maiden like you doing in a dark sinister place such as this?" hissed a cold voice in her ear as she felt this was the end as she heard her captor then snicker wickedly and she knew her hunter had caught her.

[ to be continued...]