Author's Note: Below is a guide that will aide you on your journey through this fic. Please feel free to skip around. If you wish to wait for a certain theme, I suggest you alert this story.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction
2. Complicated
3. Making History
4. Rivalry
5. Unbreakable
6. Obsession
7. Eternity
8. Gateway
9. Death
10. Opportunities
11. 33%
12. Dead Wrong
13. Running Away
14. Judgement
15. Seeking Solace
16. Excuses
17. Vengeance
18. Love
19. Tears
20. My Inspiration (Chapter 4)
21. Never Again
22. Online
23. Failure
24. Rebirth
25. Breaking Away
26. Forever and a day
27. Lost and Found (Chapter 5)
28. Light
29. Dark
30. Faith
31. Colours
32. Exploration
33. Seeing Red
34. Shades of Grey (Chapter 1)
35. Forgotten
36. Dreamer (Chapter 6)
37. Mist
38. Burning
39. Out of Time
40. Knowing How
41. Fork in the road
42. Start
43. Nature's Fury
44. At Peace
45. Heart Song
46. Reflection
47. Perfection
48. Everyday Magic
49. Umbrella
50. Party
51. Troubling Thoughts (Chapter 3)
52. Stirring of the Wind
53. Future
54. Health and Healing
55. Separation
56. Everything For You
57. Slow Down
58. Heartfelt Apology
59. Challenged
60. Exhaustion
61. Accuracy
62. Irregular Orbit
63. Cold Embrace
64. Frost
65. A Moment in Time
66. Dangerous Territory (Chapter 2)
67. Boundaries
68. Unsettling Revelations
69. Shattered
70. Bitter Silence
71. The True You
72. Pretence
73. Patience
74. Midnight
75. Shadows
76. Summer Haze
77. Memories
78. Change in the Weather
79. Illogical
80. Only Human
81. A Place to Belong
82. Advantage
83. Breakfast
84. Echoes
85. Falling
86. Picking up the Pieces
87. Gunshot
88. Possession
89. Twilight
90. Nowhere and Nothing
91. Answers
92. Innocence
93. Simplicity
94. Reality
95. Acceptance
96. Lesson
97. Enthusiasm
98. Game
99. Friendship
100. Endings

And now, the show can begin. Start shoveling that popcorn into your mouth! And enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note. Nor do I actually own a Death Note...

34. Shades of Grey

(Genre: Supernatural)

Kira!

The pale hand shot out from a thick abyss, its fingers set like daggers. And every fingernail—God, Light wasn't surprised if they could shred flesh. The brunet gulped, eyes wide in terror: His flesh, they could shred his flesh. The hand edged nearer, closing the small between him and that thing. Currently, Light deduced it was some sort of ghoul, a twisted creature who stole rotting bodies from coffins, slowly digesting them in deep burrows—except, Light realized with horror, this one didn't want a rotting body; it hungered for the caviar of its diet: the live, blood-spilling human.

Air shot in and out of his nostrils as he stifled a scream. No, no, no, no, NO! How the hell was this happening to him? He was Light Yagami. Why should he piss his pants for some ghoul if he could look at a Shinigami and not even bat an eye? And this thing wasn't even comparable to Ryuk on the Ugly Scale. Just as he thought he was gaining some ground on his sanity, its fingernails brushed his cheek, making the brunet's skin crawl. Subconsciously, Light began emitting squeamish moans through his lips. He sounded like a child who had discovered Pennywise sheepishly hiding underneath his kitchen sink.

Sh, I'm not going to hurt you.

Light's eyes widen in terror. Its lips weren't moving.

I just wanna talk. Slowly,it lowered its hand to its side, a pair of unblinking eyes handing their undivided attention to him.

Light's brow creased. Now that most of his initial fear was absent, he could clearly see that this thing wasn't a ghoul at all. It was a young woman wearing, of all things, an orange jumpsuit.

His heart skipped a beat. An orange jumpsuit? Oh, this was going to be interesting. For the better half of the last three years, Light sat at a desk, killing orange-jumpsuit-people with fluid pen strokes. He hid behind the Notebook as a means for power. But, at the moment, the brunet wondered if it would have been more fun doing the deed face-to-face. To not be bound by the standards of anonymity. To freely bathe in the sheer joy of those who pollute the world suffering in nothing but pure agony. While the chances of that actually happening were slim, he received the pleasure to meet a result of his movement. Yes, this was going to be more than interesting; it was going to be fun.

Light flashed the criminal a small grin. "All right. We can talk."

You are Kira, right? To Light, her question sounded more like a fact.

"If you believe I am Kira, so be it." Even in his current situation, Light took precautions. Anyone could be watching at this point in the game, just waiting for him to break. And a slip of the tongue wouldn't be the end of his reign; Light was positive about that.

The girl seemed satisfied with her answer, because she was throwing Light a full-on glare. Do you know, she started with unmoving lips, how many lives you've destroyed?

"I—or Kira—does not destroy lives because his victims already destroyed their own. He is simply pulling dead flowers out of a garden."

And what gives you the right to think that? Just because we've wronged society doesn't mean we're a worthless cause. Her voice was calm and accusatory, the brunet mused. It reminded him of a sweet-toothed detective.

"That's where I disagree," Light began. "The chances of a high-class criminal evolving into a caring, doting person are one in a million. They can't go from just slaughtering to hugging like that." He snapped his fingers.

But I wasn't a high-class criminal! Anger shot up ten-fold on her face.

"Even if you weren't high-class, I'm sure Kira had some reason to dispose of you."

She broke eye contact instantly, lowering her gaze to the wisps of black dancing at their feet. Guilt, Light noted immediately, consumed her face. Good. She should feel guilty. People like her pulled the trigger first. Kira was merely the medic summoned to a crime scene; he dressed the wounds and delivered peace to the victims. Most importantly, though, he announced the time of death when no one else would.

Well, he shouldn't have done it with a heart attack. Her voice flattened but grew with confidence as she continued to speak, making Light slightly disoriented. This childish banter, the brunet realized, was rousing a headache across his brow.

Her eyes lifted to meet his. I heard once that Kira started killing small offenders with diseases or something like that… But then, I guess Kira got lazy because druggies like me were dropping like flies. Everywhere. At one point, there were so many bodies that you could smell rotting meat when you walked through the prison doors. It was a hell of a lot worse in summer, though… The guards wore nose plugs, but apparently filthy scum like me didn't need them. God, at one point, I could taste it—I could actually taste death. A light chuckle shook her small shoulders. And then I actually did.

Well, at least she had a sense of humor. But it died instantly, the atmosphere going cold and blatantly serious again. The sudden shift made Light's heart pound against his ribcage, shoving his stomach to his throat. His skin prickled as it felt an imaginary breeze cut through the air. There was no way she was just a druggie; only sociopaths could shift moods like that.

Kira, do you know what the purpose of a prison is?

God, his head hurt. It felt like someone was trying to ice pick their way out of his cranium. He craned his neck, silted eyes looking every which way. His headache must've been flipped the Insanity Switch on, because he was wishing—no, praying—that a heavenly bottle of aspirin would (poof!) appear right before him, pouring all its glorious pills down his throat. He could almost see each one dance its way deep into his esophagus, swimming elegantly in his gastric juices, and taking a wonderful camping trip north to murder those evil bastards chipping away at his mind. Yes, they would pay for their wrong doings. They would be scalped first and then —

Kira!

"Huh?"

What the hell is wrong with you?

Light slowly released a sigh. While she could transmit thoughts to him, the girl was, in fact, incapable of receiving them. If she could indeed read his mind, the derailment of his thought train would have cost him a large portion of his argument. Light's lips twitched at his findings; apparently, what happens in Light's mind stays in Light's mind.

Hey! The brunet jerked backwards when icy fingers slapped his cheek. God, fat men in speedos don't need to run into ball-freezing oceans anymore; they just needed to be hit by ghosts. Both dealt a good deal of numbness and reverse erections.

"D-don't touch m- me!" Hands frantically ran up and down perfectly dressed arms.

Sorry. It didn't sound like much of an apology to Light.

The brunet double-checked to make sure her hands were back where they came from before he began. "You said something about the purpose of a prison?"

Yes.

"I believe its purpose is to punish, but it doesn't handle the job very well. The typical murderer today is sentenced to a life of eating bon-bons and watching soap operas, maybe reading a few books here and there, when they should be locked inside of a cell with nothing but their thoughts."

There are a few…discrepancies in prison life, but living in prison isn't a circus, Kira. There are actual punishments; they're just subtle. Like not having a bar of soap or eating shitty food every day. And it sucks not seeing your family when you wake up. Missing a birthday party. Not walking your daughter down the aisle. It all fuckin' sucks… But they have to do it because they need to fix us. The purpose of prisons isn't to punish, Kira; it's to rehabilitate.

Frustration contorted the muscles in her pale face. Before I was arrested, I didn't give a shit about others. It was just me, me, me. It didn't matter if I pawned my sister's engagement ring—I still got high in the end… Christ, I didn't know I could hurt someone so bad in one night… She told me she never wanted to see me again. Wasn't long after that until my ass ended up in jail.

Once my withdrawal was over, some psychologist lady sat me down and just wanted to talk. It took a couple months of just talking to get me to open up, but once I did, it was a godamn emotional waterfall. Before I knew it, I was begging for my monthly call, repeating Cindy's number in my head so I wouldn't forget. It was so refreshing to hear her voice; I almost didn't speak. I did, though, and at one point, I was bawling so much I dropped to the floor… No matter how many times I told her I was sorry, she never openly forgave me… I guess she was right: Everything was so fucked up from the beginning that it couldn't be fixed. "Fine," I told her. "You don't have to forgive me. But…could you at least give me a second chance? You don't have to forget all the shit to look at me again." She agreed, and we made plans to visit the next day.

I promised myself that night that I'd show her how much I'd changed. Most importantly, though, I'd show her how much I respected and loved her. Our visit was scheduled for 3:30 that afternoon. But I collapsed around 1:30 out on the basketball court, collapsing from a heart attack.

Who know what pisses me off the most? Cindy never got to see the new me. All of her memories are diluted with a pissy, selfish version of me. I just wanted to live a life where she didn't hate me as much as she did. Maybe, when my time was up, I'd go see my niece for the first time. Go volunteer at a soup kitchen. Donate most of my clothes. Just do anything to make up for the shit I'd done!

Kira killed those dreams, though. He punished me because of my criminal record, not for the person I was. He only saw black and white on reports, but I saw grey in prisons… There are so many criminals who would get down on their hands and knees to beg for your forgiveness. You'll never see them, though, because you, Kira, can't see shades of grey.

Light opened his mouth to reply, but the orange-jumpsuit woman threw her hand up and pressed it hard against his forehead. Before he knew it, the brunet was falling back, back to wherever he came from.

Fear pulsing through him, Light jerked out of his slumber, arms drawing up. He could feel sweat clinging to his forehead, holding on to each pore for its dear life, as he raised a hand to nurse it. That godamn headache still pursued, making wide blurs in his mind as to what was fiction and nonfiction. Tense, he waited for that stupid girl to continue her little soliloquy, so Kira would fall to his knees and kiss the ground she walked. Oh, like hell that was going to happen. If anything, she should be doing that to him. Nothing that came out of the bitch's mind tugged at his heart. It was just a bunch of mushy shit aimed to—

Something moved beside him. Light felt the mattress tremble from underneath him as something rolled over and embraced his chest. "Hm, Light?"

Oh—Misa.

"Just a dream," he breathed almost listlessly. For a moment, he wondered if his reverse erection wasn't caused by the ghost's slap but rather Misa's touch. Shaking his thoughts, Light moved his hand from his forehead to his eyes, making gentle circles with his thumb.

"What did you say, Light?"

"Nothing. Go back to sleep."

Light felt Misa pull herself up from his side, balancing herself on his chest. "But I can't go back to sleep without a sweet, romantic kiss from my prince."

"Misa, I believe it's the other way around. In order for your theory to work, you'd need to bite a poisonous apple or prick your finger on a spinning wheel at age sixteen. Now, since you're well past sixteen, I can arrange something with Ryuk with the app—"

"Hey! Light's no fun. I guess Misa-Misa will just have to be awoken by a kiss. Goodnight, my fair prince! Sweet dreams!"

(Because you, Kira, can't see shades of grey.)

Light shook his head again, breaking Misa's grasp on him, and sat up on the edge of the bed. Searching for his robe, Light wondered if the ghost was right. Kira certainly doesn't see shades of grey, but why did that have to be such a bad thing? Allowing yourself to witness the greys in life only leads you to a path full of morals. And Kira didn't want morals; he wants justice.

And as long as there are greys in this world, there can never be justice.

With that, Light tied his robe and began his search for pain medication.

Author's Note: Please stay tuned for next week's theme, Dangerous Territory! And feel free to review. :3