Note: I do not, under any stretch of the imagination, own Death Note. Nor do I own anything written and sung by the amazing Red Hot Chili Peppers- I just love the idea of Matty singing Snow.
"Hey oh! Listen what I say- Oh, oh... Come back and hey oh- look at what I say oh!" Matt's gloved fingers drummed on the wheel of his classic muscle car as he tore down the deserted road. He was somewhere in the middle of West Virgina and still running off of the high of jacking the sweet black '63 Mustang from some poor, inattentive hick mechanic in Tennessee. Matt had to give the mechanic props though; he was skilled enough to install a tape-deck in the old beauty. Even if there was no was a 1963 Mustang would have a tape-deck. It was no matter to the redhead, he wasn't above lifting a converter for his iPod at a gas station before leaving the state.
Matt was on a mission: he was on his way to find Mello and he had missed him by almost a week in Los Angeles.
Mello... where the hell did you go you bastard! He had known the blonde for as long as he could remember and he had always been really good at hide and seek. But even then Matt had always been able to find him. Somehow he had always known just where to look, even if it was at the top of the highest tree at Whammy's. It had been almost a month since he had up and left the orphanage without much planning. He had some money stashed away in a private account at a local bank, however the moment he made a withdrawal he had to duck and dodge Rodger's people to avoid being brought back. He shook away the memories and focused on the road as the song changed.
He took a deep breath and savored, if only for a moment, the sweet mountain air and the view as the road opened up into a dizzying mountain cliff side on the passenger's side of the car, before returning his mind to the possible places Mello could have gone. This was a difficult one because Kira was tricky. Although, Mello would have gotten a copy of L's case file from Rodger's things, just like he stole it from the archives.
"Los Angeles... New York... or Japan. God I hope that jerk isn't in Japan, I don't want to make another world-flight. It'll be even further this time..." He winced at the thought of the headache he'd have after another trans-continental flight. "Los Angeles would have to have been where he wanted to look first. He must have found something, otherwise he wouldn't have left. Maybe he went to New York? It's like the Mafia capital of the United States. ... If he isn't there I'll just have to book another flight."
He chuckled to himself, thinking of the poor sod whose credit card he stole. He worked for the orphanage and, by definition, it was a crime of opportunity, but Matt was smart enough to steal the numbers from a man whom he knew to have family in America and fly there a few times a year. His credit card company wouldn't suspect a thing and by the time he got the bill- which should be sometimes this week- Matt would have already been long gone.
He glanced over the side of the cliff and down into the valley, small lights winked up at him here and there, but for the most part the moon went unchallenged for the brightest thing out there. It was beautiful, but that beauty was suddenly cut off- it was almost like hitting a wall, really- when the cliff ended and the tree line once again devoured the sky. Not a hundred yards later in he saw a billboard that had clearly seen better days: "Come on down and see us at the Chicory Bed and Breakfast!"
Matt glanced at the clock on his iPod and blinked- it was almost nine at night! He had been on the road all day and he was feeling the heat- the vintage car didn't have air-conditioning and he had stripped down to his bare chest within the first few minutes of stealing the car.
"Chicory Bed and Breakfast- Great prices and an even better night." Matt read another billboard, almost as run down as the last one, as his car roared past. "Ugh, I think I'll stick with a Holiday Inn or something..." He thought immediately of the movie Deliverance and shuddered inwardly. The gamer didn't feel up to squealing like a piggy for anyone tonight, or any night.
The sudden and violent shuddering of the black Mustang made Matt grip the wheel as his hot-rod slowed to a crawl.
"Oh hell no!" He swore, hitting the pause button on his music as even it was starting to skip, as his lights flickered, and pulled off to the side of the road.
The Mustang gave one last shutter before it gave out entirely and left the gamer sitting in the dark.
"God damn it!" Matt had came to a stop in front of another billboard for the Chicory Bed and Breakfast. He tried to start the car and each time it made a horrible noise. "Well now I know why it was in the freakin' shop. Damn lousy starter... and probably the transmission." He muttered and hit the wheel in frustration. Matt looked up to get a handle on where he was, while simultaneously taking a cigarette out of the pack stuffed in between the seats and lit it, taking a few puffs before calming down again.
"Fuckin' perfect. I'm in the middle of bumblefuck. And alone..." Matt made a grab for his phone and swore yet again- no service. He took a long drag while reading the billboard in front of him. "Well Chicory, looks like you and I are gonna be getting real comfortable. But I swear to god if anyone says that I've got a pretty mouth, I'm fuckin' gone." The redhead breathed out smoke through his nose like a dragon and he squinted at the road ahead of him. The moonlight did a good job of illuminating the path despite the trees and he saw a dirt road about a hundred feet in front of him.
"That must be the 'next left'..." Matt took another drag and glanced around suspiciously. He didn't want to just leave his only method of transportation sitting on the side of the road or else karma might really bend him over the table and screw him by having someone come along and steal it.
"Looks like I'm pushing this thing...maybe they'll have a working phone... since apparently the country that runs on a 4g network doesn't have total coverage. Lame." He disgustedly threw his phone into the passenger's seat, put the defunct car in gear and got out, giving it a good hard shove. His feet slid against the rocks and he scrabbled for footing for a few seconds before he felt his efforts come into fruition as the heavy all-metal vehicle lurched forward.
"Come...on! ... It's only... hard... for the... first... few seconds!" Matt was sure his face was as red as his hair as he huffed and puffed, pushing as hard as his body would allow, until he got the car rolling enough so that he could easily follow it- he was even able to take another drag from his cigarette. However, the turn onto the dirt road was an entirely different matter.
Matt reached into the car, blindly groping for the wheel and gave it a good hard tug- the lack of power-steering that normally made driving his beast of a car a thrill, now made it a complete pain in the ass.
"Come on! C'mon-c'mon-c'mon!" He pushed harder as the car started to slow down. He let the wheel straighten out when he was around the corner and walked with the car a few feet.
"This wasn't so hard!" Matt thought, taking another drag of his suddenly all too low cigarette just as they hit a down-grade on the road and the car sped up, forcing Matt to hurry his pace or else he'd lose his only means of transportation.
Unbeknownst to the redhead there was a log in the path that, when the Mustang rolled over it, forced the undercarriage to catch. The painful smack of sensitive bone crashing into metal filled Matt's ears and dizzied him briefly.
"Ah! Mother Fucker!" He held his nose and swore again when he felt warm blood leaking from his nostrils.
He pinched the bridge of his nose and leaned against the car, and waited until he was sure his nose was finished bleeding. He gingerly touched it- wincing and taking in a sharp breath. "Better not be broken..."
Matt cleared his head and turned his attention to his surroundings, and realized, with a little horror, that he was in the middle of the forest. Even though he could see well enough all around him thanks to the moon, it was still unnerving, because he knew there were things out there that could see better than him in the dark and probably thought he looked tasty.
Matt swallowed hard and groped in the passenger seat for his gun, that before the car hit the log, was sitting in plain sight.
"..." He made an uncomfortable noise at turning his back to the woods to fish for his gun, but the need for security out weighted his paranoia. When he came up he glanced down at his shirt and grit his teeth. He couldn't walk up to the bed and breakfast covered in blood, he would give whoever was at the desk a heart attack.
The gamer stripped down to his black tank top and tossed his bloodied shirt in the back, feeling like he would have been better off staying shirtless. He'd deal with washing the blood off in the morning. Matt glanced around him and took a slow breath to steady is suddenly pounding hear. He was starting to get a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. The kind he used to get all the time when he was little and much more agoraphobic. It was made worse by the fact that his once conquered fear of the dark was starting to creep down his spine like cold water. Matt got out of the car with renewed , stuffing his gun in his waist band and gave the back of the heavy car a good shove, making it rock forward but not nearly enough to move it over the large log.
"Damn it..." He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath full of tree sap and earth, reminded himself that he was a human with a gun and let it out slowly. "C'mon Matty, you can do this..." He gave another mighty shove and dug his boots into the ground, pushing so hard he was sure he would give himself a hernia. The car moved little more than it did the first time and he fell against the trunk, snorting in disgust.
"Great. Just great. Not only did the car that I stole die, but I got it stuck on some back road in the middle of bumblefuck West Virgina... and it's dark. I am a freakin' genius and Karma is totally laughing at my dumb ass right now."
Matt squinted through the trees, trying to see if he could see the lights of the bed and breakfast. So far it was nothing; in truth he might have had better luck flagging down a car on the main road, as he had no clue how far back the Chicory was or if it was even still in operation. His plan to find a place to spend the night was seeming like a very foolish endeavor.
"Heading back... sounds great." He licked his lips and let out a short breath. "H-how far back was that main road...?" Matt realized, with a sinking feeling, that he had no idea how far he had come before his car had hit that log. He remembered turning the corner and getting on the dirt road, but he couldn't recall just how long it had been before he hit that down-grade.
His heart jumped into his throat as he squinted through the trees- they seemed to go on forever. Where the moon once clearly showed the path, it was now obscured and looked like any ordinary stretch of woods.
"W-wait... I..." He shook his head and was suddenly reluctant to leave the perceived safety of his car. Matt felt a bead of sweat trickle down his back and he swatted at a mosquito that buzzed around his ear. "It's just a trick of the woods. People get lost because of stuff like this all the time. I know the main road is back that way. If I keep going straight I'll hit it eventually."
He reluctantly took his hand off of the car and placed it on his gun. Matt knew if he made it back to the main road he could flag someone down and get a ride to the nearest town and then he'd be safe. He wished he had a better light than his phone, he wished he had a million-watt spot-light that could light up everything around him. Suddenly he wished that video game physics applied in the real world and that one measly torch could light up the world.
Matt licked his lips again, bouncing on his feet, trying to work himself up to taking that first step. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he took a tentative step away from the car. A breeze moved through the woods making the trees shiver, the bushes wriggle and Matt even more jumpy. His pulse was pounding in his neck and he was sure it would be like a beacon to every creepy serial killer and ravenous animal within miles, attracting them to his unfortunate position. He blinked rapidly, trying to get more night vision, but the moon had gone behind a sudden swath of cloud cover, leaving him in complete darkness.
He realized that, in addition to his throat feeling tight, his hands were shaking as he reached for his phone and flipped on the blinding flashlight app. It didn't do much good, beyond lighting up a few feet in front of him and utterly eliminating the remainder of his night vision; it certainly wouldn't help him spot any incoming attacks from rabid animals or serial killers, but it would prevent himself from breaking his ankle stumbling through the woods like a blind idiot. Matt took another step away from the car and his free hand went for his gun, the feeling of his fingers sliding over the cool metal made him feel that much more secure- at least he'd have a chance if something surprised him.
The further Matt walked away from the car, the more that agoraphobic feeling started to intensify and the more he started to get paranoid. It felt like something had it's devilish eyes on him and was silently following him. He suddenly wished he hadn't left his smokes behind, he needed something to calm his nerves, even if it would give his position away entirely.
"It's probably just an owl or something. It's nothing to be scared of... C'mon Matty, you're more of a bad-ass than anything else out there! You're a level 50 fighter in Oblivion! You eat wild animals for breakfast... You got this! It's a walk in the park compared to stopping world-ending events or carrying out contracts for the Night Mother."
A snapping branch somewhere in the night nearly made him piss himself and he swore his heart jumped out of his throat and into his mouth to try and see what lurking danger was about to kill him. Matt shined his light all around him and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding when he realized that he broken branch beneath his own feet was what had caused the snapping. He suddenly felt foolish and a blush rose to his cheeks.
"Christ... Kinda glad Mello isn't here to see this... he'd never let me live it down."
He took a moment to calm himself as much as he could before starting back on his trek. After god only knew how long of stumbling through the woods he slowed to a stop. Matt didn't recall the terrain being this rocky when he was pushing the Mustang. He squinted into the darkness, uselessly trying to see where he was going.
"Damn it... I... I think...no. I am not lost." He tried to shove the images of random hikers stumbling over the abandoned car and his picked-clean bones, but it just wasn't working. It felt like fear itself was closing in around him and slowly choking the air from his throat. He felt like he was in the middle of a Silent Hill game and the monsters were going to jump out of the trees any second.
Then his phone died.
Author's Note: It feels great to be writing again. Any way, I would love to hear feed back from you guys! Suggested improvements, that kind of thing. The second chapter should be up sometime within the next few weeks.