The L Word
Prologue
Picture, if you will, a land enshrouded in darkness and shadow. Lifeless eyes gleam from every corner, while trembling clawed hands scramble for pitch black notebooks. Pens click as names are slowly, carefully scrawled onto a musty, yellowed page.
Forty seconds later, a collective sigh is heard from the assembled creatures. Then the mockery of living that exists in this world goes on, with no goal but to survive another day, no amusement but the meaningless results of futilely rolled bone-dice.
The Shinigami world is rotten to the core, and no one knows this better than the figure standing longingly next to the portal to the human world, gazing in fascination at the scene before him.
"Humans are so...interesting."
Wing beats from ragged wings are briefly heard, then cease abruptly. The portal glows with explosive light, revealing a monstrous figure passing through its depths. Listening closely, one can almost hear the echoes of faint, otherworldly laughter.
"I wonder how you'll deal with this situation…Light."
Light awoke with a start.
...
...
...
Shuffling feet in choking darkness. Muted noises as bodies shift from one side of the room to the other.
Glasses click against one another, accompanied by the slosh of liquids being poured. Gases hiss, signifying completion of whatever task that had just taken place. Twin sighs of relief, then a hushed voice.
"Should we really have done this?" Fear and guilt creep into the speaker's voice.
"This was all done in God's will, you know that," A soft, composed voice replies, "We shall receive eternal salvation for vanquishing the Kingdom's greatest foe, and this (a glass holding some noxious, smoking substance is held up) is perfect-untraceable, without any symptoms whatsoever, and incurable. Besides, it's too late to back out now, we're done!"
Eyes gleam madly behind rectangular glasses, the speaker no longer calm, but ignited by some inner passion. The accomplice, still unconvinced of the propriety of their plan, nods nervously and exits the abandoned warehouse in haste. This goes unnoticed by the speaker, still frozen in zealous glee, lost in his own world of madness.
Eventually, cracked lips grin, and move slowly, deliberately, as if savoring the words being formed.
"Judgment has arrived...L."
The door slams with a harsh, foreboding bang.
End Prologue