Haihai, AMermaidsMelody/Aurora here~

This is my first Death Note story. Please don't eat me alive if I get things wrong. n_n"

Uhh... OK, I guess I'd better start explaining what this is about now, and why I've suddenly started writing again when I just put that Author's note on my Presentation...

Right then, just to get this out of the way, I'm just using this story to test my writing skills, and see how long I could make a chapter, ect. I mean, how can get better if I don't practice?

This story is about a girl called Elizabeth 'Eli' Archer, who dies and ends up in Death Note, blah, blah, blah... you've probably heard it all before. It's one of those typically cliché plots about people/a person who mysteriously ends up in their favorite anime.

S'yeah. That was one of the most detailed descriptions ever.

YOU'LL HEAR NOTHING ABOUT THE PLOT FROM ME MWHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Eli: Okay, Mathew, hurry up and do the disclaimer, I think AMM is about to explode. I really don't want to be scraping pieces of the Author off of the floor again.

Mathew: -Sighs- AMM doesn't own Death Note, Kuroshitsuji, Spongebob Squarepants or anything else to do with them.

Death.

We all have to go sometime, but I just didn't think I would go this way.

I had imagined myself living till the age of 80 - watching my grandchildren as they played with each-other.

...Just kidding, as soon as I had said yes to stealing those fireworks, I knew it would be my ending.

The memory was still fresh in my mind...

"You're joking," I stared at Mathew, my 'Partner in Crime' since when I first started thievery, in complete and utter amazement.

Mathew was a 19-year-old guy with too much time on his hands, and too little money. He was kicked out of his home at the age of 18, but he was doing okay. He was quite pale, and he had a scar on his right cheek that made him look more dangerous then he is. His hair was black, and his eyes were a light grey. He lived in the 'Bad Part' of town, but no one usually messed with him, they knew how tough he was, and you'd be an idiot to take him on.

Mathew had just gotten us the job of the decade, and if we completed it, we wouldn't have to worry about money or food for the next 2 - 3 years, at least.

The job was risky though, but stealing fireworks from a heavily-guarded warehouse usually is quite risky, to say the least.

"Nope, not joking," he said, and grinned at me as he waited for me to start stuttering like I always do when i'm surprised or in shock.

"B-b-but i-if we c-completed it.." Ah, there it was. It was a horrible habit I had taken up over the years, but it had gotten me out of some rather tight spots, if I do say so myself.

Mathew grinned at me again and finished my sentence for me, "Then we'd be out of the rough, have food on the table, nice house, maybe even a car..."

There he went again, off fantasizing about stuff that could probably never happen.

I shook my head as I spoke, "But we could never do a job like that, we'd need more people. Some people to distract the guards, someone to erase the camera footage, someone to dismantle the alarm, someone to.." Mathew put a hand over my mouth at that point, so I stopped talking and listened to what he was about to say.

"Forget about that stuff, mate. What about 'Live life as if you'd die tomorow'?" Mathew said with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

I almost sighed, he always got annoyed with me when I tried to refuse something. That was one of Mathew's problems, he was too controlling. Another of Mathews problems was that he always ran head-first into things. Literally and metaphorically. He ran head-first into a wall this one time when he was drunk, of course since I was with him I was the one to take him to A&E. Never did repay me for that, hell, he probably didn't remember it in the first place.

I removed Mathew's hand from my mouth and started to speak, "But what abou-" He covered my mouth again.

"Elizabeth," he said in a stern voice, and I mentally scowled at the sound of my full name. "It's either you're coming, or you're ditching me for the first time in years."

He let his hand drop from my mouth and waited for my answer. I hesitated for a moment. Would I really ditch Mathew for the first time ever just because I was scared that something might happen? I mean, we were completely fine doing other jobs, but this job just gave me a strange feeling that something bad could happen. I soon shook the feeling off. Nothing would happen. I was sure of it.

Mathew looked at me as he waited for an answer and I took a deep breathe. "Okay. I'm coming."

I stood hidden behind a tree, in front of the warehouse and waiting for the signal so that I could provide a distraction.

At the back entrance of the warehouse there was two guards. One on each side of the door. My job was to wait for the signal and then try and get the guards away from the door. Mathew said he'd carry out the rest, but I had to keep the guards busy until he gave me another signal saying it was safe to let them go back. Now all I needed to do is wait for the-

At that point I heard a crow cry out in the distance. I smirked, time for the fun to begin.

"Help! Help!" I ran over to the guards at the door, screaming frantically and pretending to panic.

"What is it, miss?" One of the guards said politely, eyeing my dark choice in clothing suspiciously. Crap. I hadn't taken into account that I probably looked like some sort of criminal in my all-black clothing - which technically I was, considering the fact that I was making a distraction whilst my partner-in-crime stole fireworks. Well, can't go back and change now, can I?

"T-there was a m-man! He s-stole my backpack!" I said, pretending that I was panicking and pointing in the direction I had come in.

"Now Miss, I'm sure if you called the police-" I grabbed him by the arm and shook him, keeping my act up and almost tugging off his arm in the process.

"There's no time! I had e-everything in t-there!" I stopped shaking the guards arm and my put head in my hands, covering my face. "E-even my picture of father!" I started to fake-sob, making sure my face was covered at all times.

I glimpsed the guards looking at each-other, probably debating whether or not they should help. Their conscience won out in the end, and they both turned their attention to me.

"Which way did he go, Miss?"

I took one hand away from my face, using the other to rub the 'tears' from my eye. "T-that way!" I replied, pointing in a random direction. Both of the guards nodded to each-other and then took off in that direction. I waited until they rounded the corner before casually slipping a key out of my pocket and putting it in the door, I had managed to get it out of the guards jacket pocket while I was shaking his arm off.

I whistled the start of the opening tune from the cartoon 'Spongebob Squarepants', a signal to show Mathew that it was okay to come out, and then bolted in the direction the guards went.

It hadn't taken me too long to catch up with them, thankfully they didn't notice my absence, and were looking around frantically, trying to find the person who 'took my backpack'. I mentally snorted. That was probably one of the oldest tricks in the book, and they actually believed it? Oh, I couldn't wait to tell Mathew about that one...

The guards began to turn back to me, so I hurriedly started looking around, pretending to try to find the imaginary criminal.

"Do you know which way he went, Miss?"

I pretended to try and remember, then pointed in a random direction. "That way, I t-think.." I said, making sure the fake uncertainty wasn't too noticeable in my voice.

They both nodded once again and took off in that direction. I glanced behind me, trying to see if Mathew had gotten into the warehouse, but I could only see the side of it, so I took off after the guards.

After a while of running around corners and dodging passerby's, we came to a dead end. The guards were clueless at first, searching every nook-and-cranny of the place, when a sudden realization hit them. They had been tricked.

The guards turned to me with an angry expression, and I gulped. Had it always been this cold out?

"What did that thief look like again, Miss?" One guard said in a cold tone, and I took a step back.

"I...err.." I trailed off, my mind pulling up nothing.

The guards were looking at me with cold and angry expressions, and I knew that I'd probably be in a lot of trouble, so I did the only thing I could do in a situation like this.

I ran for my freaking life.

The guards bolted after me, but I was smaller and quicker, so I could dodge the passerby's easier then them.

I had rounded the third corner when I noticed the cloud of smoke that was hanging over one of the buildings in the area. But not just any building. The warehouse.

Realization hit me like a ton of bricks, and I bolted to the warehouse. Any normal person who valued their lives would have ran in the opposite direction, but it wasn't just my life that I was running for. I was running for Mathew's life, too.

The adrenaline kicked in and I soon found myself outside of the warehouse, or what was left of it, anyway.

The warehouse was a horrible sight to see. Black clouds billowed out from it, poisoning the air and making anyone around cough. But that wasn't the worst part. The warehouse was consumed by red and orange. Everything seemed to be burning, and every now-and-then fireworks shot into the sky. But even that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was probably inside.

"MATHEW!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, causing everyone around me to look at me in surprise.

I lunged for the door, I recall someone trying to hold me back, but I soon got free from their grip and ran straight into the flames.

Inside was definitely worse then outside. Outside was just a flickering candle compared to this..this..flaming piece of hell.

Once I got inside I started searching for Mathew. Unfortunately, I couldn't see anything that looked relatively like his body. I had to go in further.

I searched the place as much as I could, but soon the smoke started to get to me, and I started coughing like a old person smoking 40 a day. I was just about to turn back when I saw a figure.

"Mathew?" I called, uncertainly. Although it was unlikely that anyone else would be here, I couldn't exactly go bounding up to him and hug him to death.

"E-Eli?" He coughed and I immediately started to run over to him. He seemed like he was going to pass out any second.

But before I could get to him the ceiling started to cave in above him.

It all happened in slow-motion. I remember screaming at him to move, but he was busy coughing his lungs out. I did the only thing I could do, I ran and pushed him out of the way, successfully getting myself crushed almost completely.

The pain was unbearable. I was about to scream my lungs out, when a louder scream filled my ears.

I could just about see Mathew, I could just about see the flame slowly creeping it's way up his coat-arm.

And that, folks, is how I came to be lying in a pile of charred/still slightly on fire rubble, watching my best - and only - friend's body being consumed by firey red flames.

I find it ironic how he did actually die the day after he said 'Live life as if you'd die tomorrow'.

You've probably guessed by now that someone - coughMathewcough - accidentally set the fireworks off, therefore burning the whole place down. It was actually amazing that I was still alive, even though I was only hanging on by a thread.

I had tried to move the huge piece of roof that was slowly crushing the air out of me, but it had only ended in me noticing that I couldn't move, at all.

I could barely breathe, and my mind was starting to play tricks on me. I swear I could hear Ryuk's laugh from Death Note.

Ha, that's exactly like me. Hearing funny noises and immediatedly matching them with anime-related things. Well, I guess I really am an anime fan til' I die. I probably have minutes left and here I am, debating whether or not that sound is Ryuk's laugh and my name will be in the Death Note soon, or if it's Ronald Knox's death scythe, ready to reap my soul.

- Nah, i'm just kidding. That sound could never be Ronald's Lawnmower, it's too - I dunno - creepy. Yes. That's the word. Creepy.

I was rudely interrupted from my train of thoughts with a coughing fit. I guess the smoke must be getting to me, then. Oh well, I had a good life, right..? Well, I wouldn't call it 'good', but I'd say it was 'okay'.

Dark shadows started to pull at the edge of my vision, and I stuggled to keep them back.

I had just realized something. I couldn't die. I didn't want to die. I wanted to live, for crying out loud! Can't you give a teenage girl a break?!

My eyes scanned the area frantically, as if something there could stop me from dying. I caught sight of an oddly-shaped shadow casting off the wall of the warehouse, it kinda looked like Ryuk, but that was pretty much impossible because A) I was pretty sure Shinigami didn't exist and B) Ryuk was from an anime, therefore he couldn't be real.

The shadows tugged yet again and my eyes started to close. No! I thought. I couldn't die. Someone had to come to my rescue. Someone, I thought. Anyone...

"Kukuku, don't worry, you won't be dying today, I have an even better job for you..."

My eyes darted toward's the shadow again, more frantically this time, only to discover that what I thought was a shadow, was actually...A Shinigami!?

And that's when my vision was engulfed in darkness.

HELLO AGAIN. ;D

Okay, so, this is the first chapter of 'Welcome to the Afterlife'.

I'm not entirely sure if I should post more of this story, so reviews would be quite nice.

This chapter is probably longer then the others, which I am sad to say. I'M SORRY I CAN'T WRITE LONG CHAPTERS FOR MY LIFE. D;

BUT, I still have to edit the second chapter, so we can still hope.

Uhhh... yeah.

I think that's all I have to say about this story right now.

Review? ^0^