The Night Before
The room is bare mostly the paint is peeling off the walls a sagging bed sits in the middle of the room. On the bed sits a red headed boy of about twenty. His green eyes are almost glazed as he rolls his cigarette in between his thumb and forefinger.
He gets up and turns on a video-camera in the corner.
"My name is Matt." He rakes his fingers in his hair, pulls his goggles down to hang around his neck.
"And if I'm right I might not be alive tomorrow." He glances at the camera and looks away again. "I dint want to die and have no one know me so I'm taping this…to leave something behind…just in case."
"The name my mother put on my birth certificate was not Matt." "Her name was Lilly." "We lived in New York City, White Plains the Bronx." He presses his black gloved hand to his face lost in thought he rocks slightly while he thinks.
"I guess she was kind of messed up my mom…she loved art was a bit of a snob about how smart she was one of the reasons we lived so close to New York City she was an artist and a poet."
"So she was trilled to find me reading Greek plays when I was four."
"But her devotion to me mostly depended on who she was or wasn't dating at the time and if she was drinking."
"I was about five when she put a computer in my hands." "It was like a blot of lighting from God." He smiles fondly at the memory.
"So …I begin to fiddle with computers my mom adored me or ignored me…I had few friends." "I was happy someone once said you never know when you're happy until your not." He plays with the sleeve of his red and black striped shirt.
"When I was about eight my grandpa who had been giving me and mom a place to live some money every now and then got into debt with the mob." He shakes his head.
"I wish…I could have told him…we were ok he dint need to do more I wish…Mom wasn't so dammed selfish and would have done something to make her own way."
"So yeah moving this sad tale along…at eight I was a master hacker and Grandpa knew it, he offered my …help to get himself out debt." "I dint know I was doing anything wrong till I saw one of the guys I dug up from deep undercover dead on the news."
"I was a kid ya know too many movies and…" His eyes tear up. "I hacked everything I could find on the guys that gave me orders." "I sent everything to the FBI."
He closes his eyes. "I only survived the hit because the guy who shot me and Mom was a moron." "I took one to the gut he left me to bleed out." "Thank god someone found me."
"So…I bounced from one place to another before I hit Whammy's house for gifted orphans, a breeding ground to find the next person who will take over as the puppet master of the police." "I was about nine and half I guess when I got there."
"The current puppet master at the time was a man called L, he was hyper smart…kind…quiet we all loved and worshiped him."
"It would have been hard not to love L here was just something about him."
"I dint obsess about him like Mello or shadow him like Near but I loved him in my own Mattish way…to say when he was around me I couldn't talk and stared at my feet a lot."
"He pulled me aside once not long after I got to Whammy's house." "Does Matt-kun have time to speak to me?" he asked me as if I was an adult with many things to do.
"I just nodded and he took me into an empty classroom." "He climbed into a chair and crouched on it." "I understand you don't want to considered as my heir and I can understand why." "I just stared at my feet." "However please promise me something?" he asked softly. "Y-Yes?" I stuttered."
"Keep your mind quick on your own time while you play dumb." "I nodded and almost ran from the room."
Matt sighs he takes another sharp inhale of his smoke. "I miss him so much sometimes."
He pauses for a few minutes.
"I was there two months when he came there." "Mello….who shaped my life more then any other."
His eyes are far away as he reflects.
"Oh!" he jumps a little. "Before I begin the 'Ballad of Matt and Mello' here's some random things about me."
He ticks on his fingers. "I love pizza the more meat the better." "My favorite bands are The Blood Brothers, Thursday, Daft Punk, The Used, Oblivion Dust and The Doors."
"My goggles are really not useful for anything ..they were the last thing my mom gave me is all."
"I am….a doorMatt when I care for someone…but that doesn't happen to often."
He smiles. "Making choices and new people make me have small panic attacks."
"And now the 'Ballad of Matt and Mello.' He bows slightly as he says it.
"Some people should really be required by law to wear a warning sign."
"I am not going to tell you how he got to Whammy's House that's not my tale to tell."
"What I will tell you is how I met Mello." "He was the new kid at first he seemed shy because he kept to himself for like a week." Matt smiles almost sourly.
"Then he just begin to work everyone…he charmed he bullied he made sure everyone knew there was a new boss in town." "I was the only one he could not …affect...make react." "I just avoided him as much as I could." "I could see he was in pain had something to prove…and I dint want a dammed thing to do with someone like that someone bound to get me into places I didn't want to be."
"Mello found me one night holed up under a table playing my Gameboy."
"I remember so perfectly what he said." "You're like me but not."
"We talked late into the night that night him asking me questions while I tried to ignore him…"
"Mello…there is no other word for it he pursued me after that." 'It wasn't ...blatant but he seemed to want my friendship more then anyone else's because I had not dropped to my keens for him."
He laughs. "I dint do that until much later." He grins wolfishly.
"Mello worked so hard to become the next in line and he thought he was going to be passed over for Near." "The fucked up thing was anyone could see what was going to happen." "Near was sick you could tell from looking at him and if you looked at how the adults treated him…how often he went way to the hospital."
He sighs. "I thought Mello fucking knew….knew that him and Near were going to named co-L and then when Near died….he would take over…"
His face becomes sad. "He grew bitter and harsh…working harder to get L's love something he had already…"
"I was happy for those years from 10 to about 14 I had Mello and when he was around me he was different." "I could always get a smile from him a laugh…we would have these insane role play games where I was Kira and he was L…"
"I don't know why I was always the bad guy I guess so Mello could be the hero."
He drags on his smoke and smiles.
"He was my hero…"
"I was 13 when L died." "This….shattered…my world." "Mello.." His face is turned from the camera.
"The night we found out Mello stormed into my room screaming about how Near had been named the new leader and L was dead…." "I don't know what enraged him more."
"He had…" Matt pauses. "OK…this part…I'm struggling with telling …oh fuck it I am not ashamed of it."
"The night before he left, the night Mello found out about Near and L…"
"We had sex." Matt lifts his chin and stares into the camera as if he is daring it to judge him even as he is blushing somewhat.
"I wanted to leave something behind and I need to be honest." He bites his lower lip.
"He left while I was sleeping left for about 4 years."
Matt shifts in place as he thinks.
"I'm not sure what he was thinking if at all I mean...taking over the mob?"
"Murder and blackmail extortion…and god knows what else." "I guess he paid when he ended up in that clusterfuck that left him with the scar." His face is pale as he rubs his forehead. "Eight months of nursing him…after I had heard nothing for 4 years…I am such a doormat."
"I asked him why, why he left me...he told me…he dint me going to the places he was going to go."
"And so…I guess that takes me to now…tonight I am going on a mission with Mello I guess…it might be our last and there are some things I need to do before I go."
His smile as he as says "Wish me luck!" is dazzling.
He leans over and fumbles with the camera turning it off.
Two boys about ten sit next to each other in a class room one is shorter then the other blonde and blue eyed. The other is black haired taller and brown eyed.
The black haired boy raises his hand.
"Teacher that's one of the guys who took down Kira?" his eyes are wide with wonder.
"Yes Mori, Mail Jeevas was one of Whammy's House's own third in line to be L at one point." A man of about 40 with graying hair answers him.
"This tape came in the mail days after we learned of his death in the Kria case there was a letter as well he requested the tape be shown to the children here...we saw no reason not to Mail was a hero." "Wow." The blonde mummers.
The bell rings. The class dashes out laughing.
Mori turns to his friend Jem. "Want to play Matt and Mello?"
The blonde nods. "Only if I get to be Matt!"
"No fair!" the boys run outside laughing.