Blood stained the room red, while the scent of death lingered in the air.
The sky outside was gray.
Gray like the eyes of the man who now pushed the door open with a twitch of his alabaster fingers, his face set in an emotionless gaze, toes digging into the carpet of the hallway in the apartment he was now investigating.
Backup was to arrive in fifteen minutes. He had not a moment to spare, yet he found himself hesitating.
Only the weak hesitated, he thought.
Mello wasn't weak. He had done what he thought best, had taken a risk to his life to better those of people he didn't even know.
No.
He refused to think of his once-alive competitor, but the memories kept flowing like waves.
He made the mistake of letting them crash down upon him like rage from the heavens.
The smirking face, the air of superiority- what made Mello himself, yet so alien to near.
The way his emotions rose above all else. He could see why he was a chosen one. He had what most didn't have.
A personality all his own.
Though he hated to admit it, Near had always been fascinated with Mello. His fierce demeanor, his everlasting bravado- they had not made him into someone he was not. His life was not masked by the opinions of others, and his downfall was one that had flared up and taken him away in an instant.
Mello was one to believe that it was better to burn out than to fade away.
He faced his fears with open harshness, and took them down, too. His desires were bland- the only normal thing about him.
Step. Right foot, left foot. Stop.
The room would have been like a play ground to Mello. A place to harbor his interests, then a starting point to what would become an investigation he would never cease to abandon until every single question became a statement.
What would Mello have done, if he was the one alive? Would he face these crimson walls with the same feeling in the pit of his stomach? Would he think of near as he bent down to pick something up off the ground?
A chocolate wrapper.
Smirking in a surprised way, Near felt the papery surface of the wrapper, which had some of the sweet treat still inside of it.
Was this the key to solving the case? Or a message from a higher power than himself?
Somehow, as he pocketed the trinket, he decided he didn't want to know.
