Chapter 1: Midnight surprise

After hours of work and concentration his enormous card tower was almost complete. Just one card had to be placed on top to make it perfect. He held the last card between his finger tops. His hand did not shake, not even a little. The card hovered a few centimetres above the right place. Just as he wanted to place the card on his tower something smashed right into his tower, causing it to crash down and scatter all the cards around him.

'Look out where you sit, nitwit!' a familiar voice said.

Near looked up to see Mello coming his way of the common room. Of course he had to destroy his card tower when it was almost finished.

'I was here before you, Mello. You should be the one who has to look out where you throw things,' he responded monotonously.

Mello picked up the object that destroyed his card tower, a crumpled chocolate wrapper, and threw it in Near's face. He blinked ones when it hit his forehead, but nothing else showed on his face.

Mello huffed at that. 'It doesn't seem like you care much if I throw stuff at your face, so who cares about that stupid tower of yours!'

Near stared at Mello in silence with still his blank expression on. One of the things Mello hated. He grabbed Near by the front of his white pyjama shirt so Near was pulled up from the ground. His feet dangling just above the floor as Mello's angry face was right in front of him. Ice blue eyes piercing through his obsidian ones.

'You little piece of-'

'Hey Mels!' Matt said while he appeared at his friend's side. 'Don't you think he had enough already? You already destroyed his card tower… again.'

Mello grumbled some other insulting things, but let Near finally go. And not gently 'cause he let Near fall hard onto the floor. Mello shot one last glare towards Near and stomped off. Matt looked apologetically at him and run after his friend.

Near sat for a while on the ground, silently looking at the cards around him. It would be too late to begin with a new tower today. It was almost time to go to bed anyway. So he began to pick up his cards and gathered them in neat piles. He took his cards with him and walked out of the common room, that was pretty abandoned at this hour, through the many hallways.

Many questions went through his mind as he walked, but most of them had answers to them. At first Near thought Mello just hated everyone, except Matt, but then it seems he had special hate feelings to him. And why? Just because his grades were slightly higher. It seems too that what Mello showed a lot and he not, irritated the blonde almost as much as the grades. Emotion. Showing the others around you what you felt. He had never understood why someone would do that. Emotions troubled the mind, Mello was a perfect example for that statement. He could be just as good as him if he didn't let his emotions rule him. Emotion was a weakness that you shouldn't take the control over yourself.

Near arrived at his room and closed the door behind him. He put his cards away and on the way back to his bed he turned off the light. He crawled under the big white blanket of his bed. He was already dressed in a white pyjama so there was no need to change his clothes. Slowly his eyes closed as sleep took over. His mind stopped working for once as he drove off into a dreamless sleep.

A cold breeze blew against his face. Near shivered when he felt the sudden cold and opened his eyes.

Did I let the window open? No, I'm pretty sure I did not.

He blinked the sleep out of his eyes and sat up in his bed. When most of the sleep was gone, his eyes focused on something new in his dark room. Someone was standing next to his bed, watching him in silence.

Near stared at the dark figure in confusion. 'L? Is that you? Why are you-'

Before he could finish his sentence the figure dove forward and pinned him to his bed. Near began to panic and tried to kick himself free, but the figure was to strong and held him down. It crawled on top on him as a big spider with four legs. The panic reached Near's eyes now and he opened his mouth to scream for help. Out of nowhere the figure pulled out a piece of cloth and held it before Near's mouth and nose. Sharp smelling chemicals entered as he tried to breath. In a final attempt to free himself Near struggled with all his strength he could offer. The figure on top of him used his legs and one arm to pin him down, but the other arm that held the cloth to his face didn't. Because of that Near freed his right arm and smashed it in the face of his attacker. A irritated grunt was heard and the cloth was being pushed harder to his face.

Finally the chemicals did their work and his vision began to blur. He felt his body and mind grow numb. Before his eyes closed he could see something of the face of his attacker. Insane red eyes looked down on him as the darkness closed him in.

The next day, around noon, Mello tried to concentrate on the book before him on his desk. He had to study hard and know the book from inside out and then he would beat Near for sure on the test that week. The only thing was that outside his room constantly noise sounded. People ran through the hallways shouting things at each other and doors were pulled open and slammed shut. Mello growled annoyed and tried to focus. It worked for a short moment, but then his focus broke when his door was pulled open by Matt.

'MELLO! Have you heard what happened?!'

He turned around to look at his friend and saw that Matt ran all the way to his room. Mello stared at him while Matt tried to catch his breath.

'No, I've heard nothing, because I try to study here! What is all that fuss about?'

'Near is gone.'

Mello frowned confused at that news. 'What do you mean with "gone"?'

'I mean gone as in disappeared! He's kidnapped in the middle of the night when everybody was asleep!'

His mouth fell open. 'No way! You're kidding me!'

Matt shook his head vigorously. 'No, I'm not kidding! All the adults are going crazy that the number one successor of L is kidnapped and all the kids are scared as hell!'

'But how do they know for sure that he's kidnapped?'

Matt shrugged and looked a bit unsure. 'I didn't see it myself, but some kids say they saw blood on the window in Near's room when the door stood open.'

Matt probably saw what he wanted to do next 'cause he said: 'His room is now closed. There's no way to get in without getting noticed.'

'Do you know what is going to happen now?'

'Yes,' Matt paused before he continued. 'I heard L is coming back to Wammy's House to search for Near.'