"In the End" for Death Note

M. Weber

Mello stopped the truck in the abandoned church, parked it, and turned it off. Matt was dead. His Matt was dead. He had practically killed him himself. How cold he have been so stupid? He had let him get into a car chase without a bulletproof vest or helmet…Matt had probably tried to talk his way out of it…

Mello looked at the TV screen again, observing the crime scene. Matt's car had been surrounded. He had left the car for only a second before he had been shot to death. Mello blanched, his usually hardened expression softening, his lips trembling and his eyes filling with tears. He started to panic, and fear gripped his heart.

Somewhere, a few kilometers back, Matt's lifeless body lay on the cold asphalt, unattended to. "The paramedics did not arrive in time to save the boy's life," the reporter said, "but have confirmed that he died almost instantly upon being shot." Mello pursed his lips. At least Matt had died instantly – and on his own terms, too. He had died of his own will. Mello had kept him safe from Kira, at least. Mello took a deep breath. He would have to finish this hostage thing himself, Matt or no Matt.

He heard a noise from the back of the truck. What was it? A beep? Or a chime? Mello wiped his eyes deftly and looked back into the truck bed. He gasped. Takada had a phone, and was texting away with a terrible expression on her face…Mello realized that she was as panicked as him. He had no choice now but to blindfold her, tie her up for real this time, and move somewhere else. She could have seen a road sign through the small window…

"Hey!" he called, rapping the glass with his knuckles. "Put down that phone!" Takada's mouth dropped open and she looked up at Mello, horrified, as if she had seen a ghost. It took her a moment to gather her wits, but she went to try and finish her text. Mello took out his gun and fired two shots through the small window dividing the cabin from the truck bed. The window shattered outwards, and a cascade of glass shards fell into the truck bed. Takada screamed and covered her ears. "I said: put the phone down!"

Takada put the phone down slowly and backed into the other corner of her prison. "I-I'm sorry," she said.

"No you're not," Mello growled. "Who did you text?" he demanded. Takada did not answer. "Where did you get that –" he broke off in mid-sentence. It was Matt's phone. He had left it in one of the bags on the bike, and Takada had been free to rifle through them… Something caught Mello's eye. It was a little white slip of paper crumpled up in Takada's fine hand.

"What's that piece of paper?" he asked. Takada stayed silent. Mello pointed his gun at her more insistently. "Give it here." Takada stood up and walked over to the little window, one arm busy with keeping herself covered, and handed Mello the paper. Mello smoothed it out. There was something familiar about it…its texture and weight…the rulings on it…

Mello caught his breath. It was a piece of a Death Note, with his name written on it – misspelled. "Mihael Kail?" he read. He looked back at Takada. "You bitch. You tried to kill me!" he spat angrily. "You have been taking orders from Kira, haven't you?! Did Kira kill Matt too?!"

Takada looked away. "You can't blame me for trying to escape, Mello," she said softly. "I am loyal to Kira and Kira only. He will rid the world of criminals like you. And it's too late; shooting me won't do any good. I've already told Kira everything he needs to know to find you."

"Liar," he said. "You couldn't have possibly told Kira I was still alive. Well, he's in for a surprise."

"You fool!" Takada shouted. "It's exactly people like you that prompted the Kira killings in the first place! Scummy, rotten people who don't care about life, or laws, or people –"

"SHUT UP!" Mello screamed. "Don't you ever tell me that I don't care! That kid who just got shot to death on the news was my boyfriend!" Takada clapped her hand over her mouth. "And I'm not doing this because I just felt like breaking the law and murdering a bunch of people! I want Kira's head for my own reasons, you know." He wanted Kira for L, for Near, and now for Matt. Mello did not relish the life of a criminal. "I had no intention of becoming such a monster before Kira showed up. I did all of this so I could catch him myself." He glared at Takada. "Don't you try and label me."

"Well, what're we supposed to do now?" Takada asked gently. "I won't lie: I told Kira where we are, and it's only a matter of time before he comes for me."

"Sit down," Mello said coldly. "We're getting out of here." He turned his back on her and started the truck. He was about to put it in reverse when he hearkened to another unusual noise in the back. He looked over his shoulder again, and saw Takada doing her best to puncture the bike's gas tank.

"What are you doing?" he asked, starting to panic again. Takada did not answer. She moved eerily, as though she was a marionette having her strings pulled, and her eyes were blank and unmoving. She didn't even blink. "Kira," Mello breathed. "You bastard. You never intended to rescue her. You just meant to kill her when she became too much trouble."

Mello put two and two together. Gasoline…there was a lighter in the bag on the bike for Matty's cigarettes…Takada was making to kill herself – and unbeknownst to Kira – him as well. He went for his gun in an attempt to kill Takada before she could finish setting up the fire, but he was out of ammunition. "Damn," he cursed. He tried to get out of the truck, but his door was stuck shut. He reached for the other door. It was stuck shut too.

Mello's heart pounded in his ears, his head started to spin…he grabbed his gun and tried use the butt to break open a window, but they were both reinforced, and Mello had never been that strong… A hiss came from the back of the truck and a hellish flare rose up. Takada had succeeded in setting herself and the bike on fire. Mello desperately scuffled around in his vest pocket for his phone. The battery had died.

"Why?" Mello said, his voice shaking, his heart beating ever faster. He gave up trying to break open a window, and moved to fumble around with the driver's side door. Mello started to hyperventilate. He could feel the flames closing in on him from beyond the partition, and smoke was pouring in through the tiny window… He inhaled the smog and choked, coughing violently, as his eyes began to tear up. He let go of the door and crouched down in the driver's seat, covering his head with his hands, choking on the endless coils of smoke that raped the air.

He started to sweat evenly from the blaze and his own panic. The heat from gas fire scorched Mello's skin, and the flames were a ravenous beast bearing down upon him. He shut his eyes tight, and began to pray wildly for rescue, his shaking hands clasped around his rosary…

For the third time that day, Mello heard a slight noise. It was a woman, and she seemed to be shouting… "Mello!" she cried. "Mello!" Over and over again. Mello raised himself up to look out the window. It was Halle.

"Halle!" he shouted in reply, still coughing desperately. "Halle!" Halle turned to look at him directly and she gasped, tears springing to her eyes. She ran to the blazing vehicle and tried to pry the door open to no avail. "It's stuck!" Mello shouted. The flames had entered the cabin of the truck, and Mello backed up deep into the driver's seat to avoid them, his eyes wide with animal fear.

"Stand back!" Halle said loudly, drawing her firearm. "Duck, Mello!" Mello ducked below the window. She fired a few shots into the driver's window and it shattered inwards, spraying Mello with shards of glass. Halle stuck her arm through the hole and Mello grabbed onto it desperately. She pulled him out of the truck, but not without a few grazes from the shards of the window pane still stuck in the door.

She drew Mello close to her, and the two ran from the vehicle, now emitting flames thirty feet high. Halle took them a few blocks away before she let Mello sit down and rest. He did not sit, so much as fall onto the pavement, trembling, breathing quickly and shallowly. Halle knelt down next to him and helped him sit up. "Cough," she advised. Mello started to cough again, trying vainly to draw clean air into his lungs. He shook his head, still respiring heavily.

Mello leaned into her, and tears started to run down his face, leaving tiny trails in the soot on his cheeks. "Matt's dead," he said solemnly at first, but then he sobbed it repeatedly, "Matt's dead…Matt's dead…Matt's dead..."

"No he's not," Halle said gently.

Mello stopped. "Yes, he is," he said slowly. "The reporter on the news said he was shot dead."

"The paramedics told her that," Halle explained. "The guys in the ambulance were working for Near." Mello's anguish turned to anger in a second. As far as he was concerned, being kidnapped by Near was worse than dying.

"What does that fathead Near want this time?" he snarled.

"It's not like that," Halle said quickly. "Those guys were real EMTs, and they took him right to the hospital. It's just that…Near had to personally pull some strings to get an ambulance for a Kira-hater, especially some suicidal kid. They were able to resuscitate Matt almost immediately after they picked him up, and he's in the ER right now."

Mello exhaled significantly. "So…he's going to be okay?" he asked delicately. Halle smiled and nodded, and the smile reached her eyes; a rare occurrence for the professional woman. Mello's frown broke, and he started to smile weakly. He kept crying in Halle's arms, but for joy this time.

Despite all that had happened to the Wammy's boys, everything was going to be alright. Kira might have killed L. He might have taken control of the entire God-damn world, he might have pitted Near and Mello against each other. He might have made one attempt too many on Mello's life, but he had failed to kill him in the end. He might have inspired thousands of extremists to murder the likes of anybody decent, but he had failed to get rid of Matt. Mello grinned. Maybe Kira wasn't that smart, after all.