Death Note- The Red Note

My name is Zack Salazar. I can't exactly remember how old I am, being stuck here for so long, but right now I'm being held in Japan's most infamous prison. There's nothing for me to do here until I die, since my sentence is much longer than any human could ever dream to live. As for why I'm here, well, it happened many years ago, when I was seventeen years old.

"Death Note," I thought, holding a strange red notebook I found in the middle of the road. "As in a notebook of death?" I flipped the page. There was a series of instructions written in sloppy handwriting. I read the first rule. "The human whose name is written in this note… shall… die." I looked at the pages. Blank. Thinking this was no more than a prank, or a new form of chain letters, like the ones that say you'll die if you don't forward an email, and I simply put the book in a nearby trash can. I was continuing my walk home, but I kept thinking about the weird notebook. I suddenly stopped. I turned around, dug the book out of the trash, and put it in my bag. "What's wrong with me?" I thought. "Why am I even considering it…?"

When I got home, my mother greeted me. " Zackary," she said. "How was school?"

"Fine. I have lots of homework to do, so I'll be in my room." I replied.

"Okay, dear. If there's anything you need, just ask." I went into my room. Doing my homework, I thought, Like she'd buy that. I usually didn't do my homework, but I needed an excuse. I opened the notebook to the rules section.

"This note will not take effect unless you picture the victim's face. Therefore, people with the same name will not die." I read the rest of the rules aloud. "After writing the name, you have 40 seconds to write the cause of death. If you don't the victim will simply die of a heart attack." This was starting to get weird. "After writing the cause of death, details of the death such as date, time, or anything else should be written down within 6 minutes and 40 seconds."

Yeah right. Those pranksters actually thought I'd buy that? I set the notebook down, but immediately found myself picking it up again, flipping to a blank page and turning on the TV to the news. I can't believe I'm going to try this… I should kill someone who deserves to die, so at least if it works, there won't be as much…guilt? What am I saying, this is a load of crap…

"In other news, a man was found stabbed to death in his apartment which has been ransacked by a thief. Police have taken the suspect into custody. We're here with Penny Parker live with the story."

"Thank you, Jim. Police are currently escorting the suspect as you can see here…" I saw the suspect in the background. I saw his face. "Police have identified him as Treshawn Davis." His name was displayed on the TV. I quickly wrote down the name. I looked at my clock. 40 seconds…30…20…10…5… As 40 seconds passed, nothing out of the ordinary happened. Then…

Treshawn was in the middle of what looked to be a seizure. He was flailing about, screaming, and police tried to restrain him thinking he was making an escape attempt. After a few more seconds of this, Treshawn Davis was on the ground, dead. "What's going on?" The reporter said. "Sir! What on earth happened?"

The officer replied "I don't know! He suddenly flailed around screaming in pain! We did nothing that might've caused this…" W-what! A…A heart attack!

"We've just notified an ambulance, and we'll send the suspect's condition to you all soon. Back to you, Jim." No…way…there's no way that was a coincidence… The death note… It's for real…

"That's some notebook you've got there," A cold, chilling voice hit my ears. I quickly turned around and screamed. I saw a horrifying creature. It was a tall, gothic figure wearing black clothes and punk jewelry. It had a white horrifying face, with red beady eyes and a ripped mouth with sharp teeth. Its hair was short and black with red streaks. The final product was a slightly humanoid dark figure. I stared in pure fear at the monster. "Don't be afraid. I'm the shinigami Crusnik."

I had been studying Japanese for a while, since I'm going to be studying abroad for a few years within a couple of months. "A death god…" I looked to his side, and a black notebook was sitting in his pocket. "Wh-what are you here for…? Is it my day to die…?"

"Huh?" Crusnik said. "No, you've got a- oops, I wasn't supposed to say that." He clearly wasn't supposed to tell me my death date. "I'm here because you're in possession of a death note that used to belong to me." I stared at the red notebook in my hands.

"Is this yours?" I motioned to give it to him, but he refused.

"Not anymore. I dropped it from the shinigami realm to the human world. And since you found it, it's yours now." I was mystified. This powerful notebook… was mine.

"So why are you here?"

"The shinigami laws state that if something like this were ever to happen, I must stick with the new owner until the death note is destroyed, or that human dies. And when you have to die, I will write your name in my death note." He motioned to his black death note. "Yours is actually a pretty rare book, normally death notes are black, but there are very rare red and white ones, but their effects are the same."

I spent the next few minutes talking to Crusnik about the death note. Apparently Crusnik was searching for his older brother, a shinigami who is currently in the human world. He found out while searching for me though, that his brother is halfway around the world. I told him I was going to Japan soon, and he seemed to be happy about that.

The TV played another broadcast. "…In world news, criminals in Japan have been dying like flies from a series of unexplained heart attacks…" That was all I needed to hear. I instantly deduced that it was whoever was attached to Crusnik's brother. "Citizens believe the heart attacks are being caused by a single entity, who they have named 'Kira.'" Kira, I thought. So that's what this guy is called. If I were to eliminate criminals in America, and in Japan when I leave, maybe I can join him… this world is rotten… those who are making it rot deserve to die…

Crusnik smiled, as if reading my thoughts. "Guess you'd better get ready. I'm sure you wanna meet Kira." I nodded. "Kira," I said out loud. "I will find you in Japan, and together we will become 2 unstoppable beings of supreme judgement!" Crusnik laughed as I began writing the names of Japanese and American criminals.