Disclaimer: I don't own D.Gray-Man.
"Let's play a game,"
"I'll be Life,"
"And you be Death."
"Why do you want to play a game like that?" The doctor asked her lightly. Blue eyes focused on him and he had to force himself not to shiver. He'd never before seen such eyes that held the perfect combination of innocence and insanity.
"Because it's a fun game to play." She answered softly, her eyes glazed over slightly, a sign that she was once again being pulled back into her own head.
Where another world was no doubt spinning in motion.
The doctor mulled over her answer as he looked at the file on his clip board.
Patient: Nella Reklaw
Number: # 1 5 6 8 9 0
D.O.B: 12/25/2001
Age: 7
Height: 4'4
Weight: 68 pounds
Disorder: Schizophrenia
Treatment: Psychotherapy, Antipsychotic Medication.
Notes: Patient is often quiet, rarely speaking unless spoken to, tends to become cationic when stressed, talks to self and often refers to imaginary people (i.e.- Kanda Yuu, Linali Lee, Miranda Lott, Rabi, Mana, Master Cross, Timcampi, ect.), shows signs of gender confusion.
The Doctor closed the file and looked at girl with calculating eyes, she'd had been here for four months. From what he had been told her parents had died in a car crash when she was five leaving her with the only family she'd had left, an unmarried middle-aged aunt. In the midst of grief no one bothered to check the aunt's background. The child was, from all accounts, sane when she had went to live with her Aunt.
The Aunt, however, turned out to be mentally unstable.
Nella's aunt would periodically bleach the girl's hair until it had stayed white permanently, shrieked that she was the 'Destroyer of Time' (Nella often called herself that) after the girl had broken a clock while cleaning. This went on for two years, the neighbors steadfastly ignoring it-not wishing to get involved, until four months ago a blood curdling shriek made one of them call the police.
After breaking down the front door, two officers went upstairs where they found the aunt swaying peacefully from the ceiling, a rope around her neck and a toppled chair a few feet away. The other officer went into the living room and found the little girl hiding behind the couch, rocking back and forth, mumbling about akuma's and exorcist. Her Aunt had taken a knife to the girls left eye and carved a star above it and a line below it. Then she had forced the girl to put her left arm into the heated fireplace causing the skin to become burned- and causing Nella to scream. As the officer coaxed her out the corner he was able to get a good look at her eyes.
Apparently, insanity was contagious if one stayed around it long enough.
"Nella," The doctor spoke softly, "Nella please comeback, I'm not done talking with you." The girl's eyes came back to reality and she looked at him in slight annoyance before speaking.
"I've told you a thousand times that my name is Allen!" He nodded his head.
"Ah, forgive me Allen, I often forget in my old age." She smiled slightly, showing she forgave him so he continued to talk.
"You said you wanted to play a game." She blinked once and looked at him in confusion. She often forgot what they were talking about beforehand when she went decided she would, mentally, rather be somewhere else. "You wanted me to be Death, and you to be Life." He supplied helpfully. Her eyes lit up in recognition and she smiled and nodded happily to him.
"Oh, yes," She said softly. "It really is a fun game to play, a bit scary but still fun."
"How do you play?"
"How?"
"Well I can't play if I don't know the rules Allen."
"There aren't any rules, not really," She pursed her lips slightly before speaking again. "Well, you go around and try to kill people-"
"I beg your pardon?! You want me to kill people?!" The shock of her previous answer had caused him to lose his composure slightly.
"Try, I said try to kill people, you are Death after all, don't worry I'm Life so I get to stop you before you actually kill anybody." Nella explained the game as if it was simple as tag.
"What if you don't stop me in time?" By now the Doctor had regained his composure enough to ask another question. Her response was a grin and her eyes filled up with something that could only be called madness.
"Please, you're a beginner, I, however, am an expert. The chances of you killing anybody are about the same as Kanda singing I'm a Little Tea Pot."
"Who do you usually play this game with?" He wrote down a note to himself about her mentioning Kanda Yuu. When he didn't hear a response he looked up from the paper and was about to ask again- but when he saw her face he stopped.
Nella's face had darkened significantly. Those blue orbs showed anger, sorrow, and insanity (But insanity was always in her eyes so it probably doesn't count) as she hissed out her answer.
"The Earl and the Noah's. They're really good at playing Death; compared to them, I'm an amateur at playing Life." Her anger quickly changed to happiness though (Perhaps he should test her to see if she's bipolar) as she spoke again. "That's okay though, because there're other people that I know who are playing life; good people."
"I'm afraid we can't play this game Allen." Actually, the doctor was rather glad he would not play this game.
"Why not?" An innocent question filled the air after a moment.
"Well, from the sound of it, it looks like you need a group of people to play and there are only two of us." She nodded her head in understanding.
"I understand." She told him gently. The doctor took a glance at his watch, 5:30 p.m.; it was time for him to go.
"Well Allen, it seems our sessions over for this week; I see you again next Wednesday, alright?"
"Yes, of course." She replied faintly, her eyes had become glazed again, and he knew she was no longer with him. She was in the process of going back to the world she had created inside her head.
"Don't forget to take you pills." He reminded her- not that it really mattered whether she remembered or not, the nurses always made sure the patients took them- all he received from her was a small nod, as she stared at the wall but not really seeing it.
As he was leaving the room, he heard her ask a question: not to him, just to her as usual.
"I wonder what it's like to play Death. Maybe I should play Death for awhile just to see…" Her frail voice drifted off into nothingness.
That night when the doctor lied down in his bed he prayed to God the girl would decide to keep playing Life in the game; for both this world and the one in her head.
Note: I know most people use the name Ellena Walker when they make Allen a girl in their fics. The reason I made Allen's girl name Nella Reklaw is because it's Allen Walker spelled backwards. It's not an anagram it's called mirror writing, Lewis Carroll used it in his book Through the Looking Glass (Sequel to Alice in Wonderland).
Ehh, I know some of you are probably thinking "wtf?! What the hell is this crap?!" Truth be told I've always wanted to do a fic with one of the characters in a mental asylum, and yes I apologize to all the fan girls who are mad that I made Allen insane (though you're probably more mad at me making him a girl in the first place.)
As for the sentence about Allen playing Death…well that's for all the people who like the fics of Allen becoming a Noah.
The whole you be Life and I'll be Death game- if it doesn't make sense to you that's all right, it was suppose to be symbolism of the Exorcist and the Earl (Exorcist Life, Earl + Noah's Death).
I hope you enjoyed it! And if you didn't like then, well, can't exactly do too much if you flame me, neh?
