The basement was dark, creepy and above all filled by the smell of chemicals. A young man about twenty-three years old poured assorted chemicals into a metal bucket. His red eyes glowed like two red embers in the dimly lit room. He smirked at the naked corpse, which sat in an upright position in a bathtub, which he had drug down there two days after he moved into the house. He didn't intend to use it at first, but now…he found a good use for it. The young woman's corpse was stiff and cold, but did that really matter? No. In his opinion it didn't matter at all. She had molested him and harassed him for several months. She had killed his pet cat and had hurt a young woman he really, really liked. She had made life hell for his closest friend, A, who killed himself after several weeks of having to deal with her.

She was gleeful about A's death.

And she tormented A's friend for at least a year after she moved in next door.

One night he had lost it. he had broke into his home and had attempted to seduce him and when he said no she tried to bash his skull in with a metal baseball bat. He wasn't gonna let her kill him without a fight though. He struggled with her and overpowered the bitch after several minutes. He beat her with the bat until her wails and swear words had stopped. He called 911 and she totally turned on him saying it was his entire fault, that he'd kidnapped her and done all that to her because he hated her and the police and ambulance sided with the bitch. But thank God there were witnesses who knew about her actions toward him and he was let go. Several months after she recovered and begun stalking him.

The next time he saw her in his home…oh the next time…he strangled her to death. He was more than skilled in the art of murder. He was willing and joyful to kill the stupid whore.

A killer instinct told him to destroy all evidence. And that was why he was mixing chemicals, that was why he was down in his basement, that was why he was he was doing what he was doing. He had to if he was to stay out of prison, if he wanted to stay alive. If he wanted to keep his love's affections and keep a vision of them forming a family, there was no way he would let that damn whore destroy any chances of that.

"Nobody ruins my life you bitch." He muttered to no one in particular. "You hurt people and you hurt me and you killed my fucking cat and my best friend and I hate you, but in a second you'll cease to exist. That's right Kiyomi you'll be dead and buried for good. Forever. Hope you like fire, cause hell is really hot this time of year…or so I heard."

"You can't do this!" he heard her familiar voice in the back of his head shriek. "You bastard you can't do this! You can't! You can't! You can't! You'll always be alone! Always! Always! Always! Naomi hates you! She hates, hates you! Everyone, everyone does! They all hate you! Especially L! He despises you! Despises, despises, despises! You! They all hate you, you, you! Hate! Hate! Hate! Do you hear me?"

"Shut the hell up you dumb whore!" He growled.

Silence.

"Daddy?" that small voice suddenly nagged at the back of his mind. "Daddy? Daddy? Where are you daddy? Are you my daddy? Why did you kill my daddy? Daddy? No! Daddy?"

That was all that small voice ever spoke of. His daddy. The voice was soft and sounded curious, confused and above all…frightened. Perhaps, that was because he killed that voice a while back, too. He remembered how the little boy had struggled against him after finding his father stabbed to death, but in the end he was overpowered and strangled to death. It was too easy. And another guy took blame after he was caught breaking into the house later on the same night! The poor moron didn't stand a chance and was sentenced fifty years in the slammer! It was all too perfect!

Yeah, I killed that brat without a problem. Beyond Birthday thought darkly his red eyes flashing. It was too easy.

It wasn't his fault though.

That boy was bad. He always rode his bike throwing rocks at people's houses and killed neighborhood pets with that bike of his. At the time B was worried his cat would get killed, but in the end it didn't matter. The child was a very bad boy. And his father was even worse. He had always threatened to kill B's black kitten (when he had a cat) and he had tossed eggs at B's house and stole his mail, burnt it and joked about it. One afternoon, B just snapped. He was a bad man with a bad brat for a kid.

"Yeah, they were bad neighbors." He muttered. "Bad people. They deserved it, didn't they? Yes, yes, yes they did and so does this bitch."

As he poured the chemicals over the woman's body he smirked.

Her short black hair quickly dissolved into a powdery substance on her head, whist her scalp started to peel and burn. The flesh on her body dissolved and sizzled as the chemicals made contact dissolving her skin and meat and nerves and muscles. Bone was quick to show from beneath it all. Her dark gray eyeballs fell from their sockets and rolled down between her legs, which were nothing but bone by that time. Her brain melted into a gooey kind of substance. And after that she was just a skeleton. All her organs and flesh had become a fine multicolored soup in the tub's bottom.

Beyond laughed manically for a long while before he cleaned everything up and crushed the skeleton into a fine powder. He buried the dust in his backyard in a hole three feet deep. It wasn't necessary for the hole to be so deep, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

It was just that easy for him. He heard a scream from next door and that was when he remembered he had new neighbors. There came the sounds of something breaking and metal clanging against something. They were always so damn noisy and they always seemed to be so damn bitter and so damn ignorant. They had a little child Beyond knew. B couldn't tell how if they had a boy or girl at first, but after a while learned they had a boy. He'd always wondered how old the boy was because he never really spoke with him, but made a guess that the kid was around four or five, yet his parents seemed to always have him outside working. Never once had B seen the boy playing with other children.

The family had only been there for a week or so and B disliked them. They never went out together. They never really quieted down. The adults never spoke kindly to anyone and always kept their child around their house, either working outside or locked inside. The first day they were there Beyond had seen the two parents leave their house but the small boy was still inside staring out an upstairs window mournfully, with a large pair of matching dark gray colored eyes.

He looked like an albino raccoon, Beyond thought chuckling.

He heard another scream and then the backdoor to the house slammed open then shut. He heard sniffling and whimpering. Looking over the picket fence, which separated the back yards he saw it was the little boy, clad in white pajamas. His curly white hair was filthy. Dry blood was caked around his nose and smeared on his cheeks. And he held his left arm, which appeared to hang limply at his side. Beyond watched the boy who didn't take notice of him stagger over to a bush and crawled under it. The red-eyed raven heard sobbing and felt something inside him snap.

He seemed to black out then he was in his kitchen.

He held a carving knife in one hand and a hammer in the other. He blacked out for a second, and then he heard nails cling together as he moved across his kitchen to his backdoor, then exit his house as silently as possible. Bad people, he thought as he moved across the backyard, felt the green grass beneath his bare feet. Bad people, who hurt defenseless children, very bad people, they must die. Yes, they must die. Just like the previous bad people died. They deserve it.

He jumped the fence landing silently in a crouching position.

"Whose there?" he heard a voice whisper. "Whose there?"

B looked towards the bushes and saw the boy staring directly at him. He wondered if the kid was the bad one. Was he going to punish the wrong people? Did the child deserve to be in such awful agony? He didn't know who were the bad people. Beyond never knew. He could only see when they'd die and they're names. Nothing else. He saw that the boy's name was Nate River and he was due to die at the age of one hundred and one.

But that didn't matter either.

B had killed people before who had more years to live. Bad people. He sat his tools down and moved silently towards the boy wearing a friendly smile. "Hi, there." He greeted in his softest and most friendly voice he could muster.

"Who're you?" the child asked in a hushed voice. "Where did you come from?"

"Call me B if you like." He said softly. "I'm your neighbor I live next door." He added extending a hand. Nate didn't touch his hand instead he trembled and shied away from Beyond's pale, pale hand. He seemed very frightened. "A-are you mad at me, mister?"

Nate's question wasn't expected from the raven. He rolled his eyes, though and kept his smile friendly. He didn't want to frighten the boy. "Oh, no, not at all." Beyond said coating his words with sarcasm. Nate muttered something that could have been "Please don't kill me." but Beyond knew he said "Please don't beat me."

"Why would I do that?"

"Cause I'm a bastard."

"Oh?"

Nate nodded, still trembling.

"Who says?"

"My mommy and daddy." The little boy said in a quiet voice. "They say a lot of things."

"Like what?"

"I'm a worthless albino freak. I don't deserve to live. They say I am stupid and ugly and evil looking and should crawl somewhere and die…that's why I'm under here. It isn't logical, but if I crawl under here, then I should die, right? That's how it's said. It doesn't make sense to me, but that's how it works, right?"

Beyond's red orbs studied the boy momentarily.

"I understand." He muttered more to himself than the boy. He couldn't help but feel a momentary pain in his heart, seeing Nate so hurt. "What'd they do to you and why did they do it?" he asked as he scratched the back of his head feeling uneasy. "Do they always hurt you like this."

"Not all the time, just sometimes." Nate said quietly. "My daddy got mad cause I was reading a book and he started to yell at me…I got scared so I tried to run, but I fell down stairs and…and…I think I broke my arm…it really hurts. He wouldn't stop hitting me…after…after he caught me…when he did stop…my mommy shoved me out here to teach me a lesson. I guess…I'm bad. Very bad."

Beyond felt really pissed after hearing that. He knew who the bad people were now. They'd hurt the frail boy for no reason and had thrown him out for the night, like he was some mangy dog that had fleas or something. He wasn't going to stand for it! He stood up and walked back towards his tools. He heard Nate's voice from where he stood. It sounded soft, yet faint and ready to disappear, but B wasn't gonna let him disappear. He didn't deserve to disappear. Nate was a good person. A very good person he'd decided from what little conversation they'd had. "Mister?" he called quietly, softly.

"Yeah?" B said looking back at him. "What's wrong?"

"I-I ju-just…want t-t-to know…what does…dying…feel like?"

"It's not pleasant." Beyond deadpanned. "It's terrible, but, don't worry, Nate, you're not going to die tonight or tomorrow…or the day after that. I promise. And as for that other question, no you won't die by crawling under that bush. It's just a figure of speech."

Nate gave him a curious, confused look.

"I'll tell you about it later." B promised.

"Oh, okay." Nate said looking at Beyond wearily. "Are you…are you going to…help me?" he asked quietly while B grabbed his knife and hammer.

Beyond nodded hoping to reassure the boy. "I'm gonna kill your parents. Is that okay with you?"

Nate's eyes widened slightly, filled by horror and fear, but after like two seconds his eyes went blank. He shook his head firmly saying 'no'. Beyond smirked. He knew that Nate wouldn't want his parents killed. No matter what those two sissy cunts did to him. It was apart of being a good little boy. A good person. Beyond entered the house, easily. The door was unlocked and there were no alarms. The house was so easy to creep into.

He almost laughed when he thought of how stupid the two adult occupants were.

B came upon a man in the living room. He was asleep on the sofa, but within seconds a knife was driven through his heart. His black, black heart that was neither merciful nor humane. He let out a choked cry and scarlet blood gushed from his nose and mouth. His dark blue eyes widened and his pale hands gripped at the knife, but went limb after several seconds. Beyond couldn't help but laugh as his victim fell to the floor, dead.

Next was the woman. He admitted silently to himself when he first saw her that her son looked a lot like her, except for the skin tone and hair coloring, but Nate did have her blank gray eyes and curly hair. The difference was, though that she had bleached blonde hair and his was a pristine white. Oh, well, that didn't matter since she was going to die.

She at least tried to fight. She must have heard the man downstairs scream his choked cry and grabbed a knife of her own. It was a carving knife much like Beyond's except that it was a bit smaller. Not knowing (or caring) where the woman got her weapon Beyond kept a firm grip on his hammer. He seemed to black out again and when his eyes opened he saw that he had her pinned beneath him. Her face was bruised and partially swollen, blood oozed from between her pale lips. The younger adult wondered what he'd done during his blackout but didn't think too long on it. He had to kill her and vamoose before he could get caught. He had three nails in his pocket his killer instincts told him.

Three strikes and she'd be out.

Plucking a nail from his pocket he chuckled. He placed it gently on her right collarbone. He smashed it down into her body with the hammer. She screamed loudly in agony as her bone was crushed and blood spurted from the grisly wound, getting on Beyond's pale face. He smirked when she started to beg and plead and squirm like a worm on a hook. B took out nail number two and placed it where her left lung would be. He started to hum gently as he raised the hammer.

Unbeknownst to Beyond Birthday the small boy, Nate who he left outside had heard the screaming and had become very concerned and very curious. He'd stepped into the house and discovered his father dead. He shuddered at the scene he found and couldn't hold in his interested bewilderment. Why did he die? How does stabbing a heart kill? What was the organ's significance? He shook it away and listened to the sounds of a scuffle upstairs he knew better than to interfere or go up there, but after a few minutes of listening to screaming he couldn't obey his cautious side. He climbed the stairs holding his breath.

Once he got upstairs he peered into the first room he saw the door was open to. His eyes kept blank even though he stared at his mother's corpse. Her face was locked into a silent look of horror and pain. Nate saw that she had been killed by a large hole that was in her forehead. Blood still bubbled there. He took a small, hesitant baby step into the room and was immediately grabbed by the man who he'd seen earlier, B. Nate couldn't help, but tremble as his blank eyes filled with pain upon meeting the crimson red ones.

"Why?" he asked feeling tears slip from the corners of his eyes. "Why did you…?"

Beyond ruffled his white curls and left. No explanation, no lying, no comments or apologies. He simply left with his hammer and knife. Once home he called 911 about a disturbance next door and hearing a kid screaming. The cops were of course going to be quick getting there. Mysterious murders occurring in that same house with no motive they say. What lies! The people were bad. They were always bad people who deserved to die! Nate was the first good person. The first good boy he'd met who lived in that house.

And he had decided that he liked Nate.

The boy was quiet. The boy was pleasant. He was also very intelligent. B liked quiet children. He liked intelligent children, pleasant children who could behave and keep secrets. Once the police arrived next door he saw they spoke to the small boy but Nate kept his mouth shut. B liked him very much. He was quiet and kept secrets very well. He was indeed a person who could be trusted, who could be spared.

The next week a knock came to B's door.

He opened it and a young woman stood there with Nate standing behind her. He peered at B from behind her legs. "Sir," she said all business-like, "this boy was your neighbor's child and since he has no other relatives who want him I was told to come and ask if you would like to be his legal guardian. Nate said that you and him were good friends." Beyond felt a grin spread across his lips as he nodded.

Nate gave him a halfhearted smile as the woman left him with B. "I think we'll get along just fine, Nate." Beyond said as the boy sat down on the couch in the living room. "Please call me, Near." He said quietly twirling a lock of hair around his index finger.

B nodded.

From that day on Beyond and Near were as close as though they were family.

Hope ya liked my oneshot! Pwease review! No flames, pwease, I don't like getting flamed, but then again who does? I worked hard on this, so pwease, no flaming unless ya have good reason to!

And ya shouldn't, so don't!

*Smirks*

Pwease R&R!

I really, truely, honestly hope this was good cause it took me like two hours to write it, several weeks to finally decide to post it and a month to get enough self-esteem to finally decide that reviews would be good.

So, pwease don't disappoint me.

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~Luv Fairylust~