When Matt took a job at a local news paper he hadn't expected to cover anything exciting. After gaining his undergraduate degree Matt faced the hard fact that without a stroke of luck there was no way in hell an orphan with no financially powerful friends could afford the schooling needed to do what he wanted with his life. So, for the moment, he was going to try to stay alive long enough to figure out where to go next. The community of the city Matt lived in as well as the neighboring towns was sleepy at best. Matt didn't mind this, since he saw his current position as a stepping stone.
Then something completely unexpected happened.
Word of the murder of Light Yagami had spread through Matt's city like wild fire. At first every paper, website, and blog were publishing bios on Yagami and how unjustly his life was snuffed out. Then the killer was caught, and all official opinions met a standstill. This was partly because no one really knew who the man was aside from the police and those in charge of the trial. The killer, apparently, wouldn't talk to his lawyers, therefore they didn't want to allow reporters to see him.
Fortunately, Matt's boss had happened to go to school with one of them and was able to talk his way into sending one of their paper's finest to conduct one interview. Unfortunately, no one had the stomach for it. This meant that man who needed the job the most would have to go. Matt was currently living pay check to pay check in a small apartment. He couldn't afford to say no.
That was how he found himself in a town he had never heard of before, about to interview the man who had put a bullet in the head of the twenty-three-year-old son of same town's successful police chief. He would have been walking in blindly had one of the town's police officers, who had appointed himself as Matt's unofficial guide, not taken pity on him and explained the details that weren't strictly confidential. Matsuda, as the man had introduced himself, turned out to be quite the chatter box and by the time Matt was headed to his scheduled interview he had a decent idea of what he wanted to ask.
The murderer was residing in one of the two holding cells at the town's police station. Matt was to talk to him in the same room that the defense attorneys called their meetings. It was a plain room, empty aside from a table and two chairs on either side of it. There weren't any windows, and the walls were a dismal shade of pale grey. It was exactly the way one might imagine the meeting room of a small town prison.
Matt would have been slightly disappointed by this, had he the time to dwell on it. He had only a second to take it in before his eyes rested on a thin man with choppy blonde hair sitting on the chair facing the door of his room. Although Matt was talented at schooling his expression so that his thoughts were rarely on display, he was glad that the man didn't look up when he walked in. He hadn't imagined Mihael Kheel to be so pretty.
Yes, pretty was the right word. The man didn't look older than seventeen, although Matt had been informed that his age was twenty-one, and his build was too girlish to be called handsome. That didn't mean that Kheel wasn't attractive, just not in a stereotypically masculine way. Despite knowing his age and being told that Kheel was rather "unconventional" Matt had expected to interview a muscular and crude faced brute not the slender, high cheek boned boy that sat before him.
"They don't pay you enough," the blonde muttered.
"What was that?" Matt asked good-naturedly.
He had always been praised for his charm, this was a large part of what made him good at his job. Kheel, however, didn't seem at all impressed. Instead of answering he merely grunted and focused his attention on cleaning the nonexistent dirt under his finger nails. Matt cleared his throat as he sat down at the table.
"My name's Matt, I'm a—"
"Journalist," Kheel cut him off in a dry, uninterested tone.
"Yes," Matt kept the tightness out of his voice. They really didn't pay him enough.
"They're actually letting the media in," Kheel mused with a slight chuckle. "Didn't think they'd stoop that low."
"I take it you're not prepared to be interviewed?" Matt asked, testing the waters.
"They don't like to talk to me," Kheel said curtly.
"Your lawyers?" Matt knew that these were the only people that Kheel was in contact with. Although the convict was aloud visitors, none had presented themselves. Either he had no friends and family or they were too ashamed to make themselves known.
"The people your state put in charge of my case," Kheel answered with a sneer.
"Do you think they're misrepresenting you?" Matt wondered.
Kheel shrugged.
"Right," Matt sheepishly glanced down at his note pad.
"What's you're real name?" The question caught him off guard, and he glanced up to meet not entirely disinterested eyes. "It's not really Matt, right?"
"I don't give out my real name," he stated honestly. "Matt is my professional name."
"Well, my professional name's Mello," Kheel shot back with a thin smile.
Matt knew about this. He had gone over the details of the case that had been already made public. Apparently a few years prior their had been a series of deaths of small named mafia members. The only link to a killer that remained was a slip of paper bearing the name "Mello" in gothic lettering. Eventually the case went cold due to a lack of evidence. However, after catching Kheel and his DNA was run through the system they found that it matched the the little they had. When questioned on the subject Kheel had casually confirmed it. Only now did Matt realize that the murderer would have had to have been only fifteen when he first spilt blood.
"Nice to meet you, Mello." Matt said this in a level voice. "I'd like to talk about why you're here."
"You wanna know how I did it?" Kheel smirked.
"Not exactly," Matt replied. "I want to know what happened that would make you want to kill such an innocent man."
"Maybe I'm just a sociopath," Kheel stated.
"Unfortunately, you've been tested negative," Matt countered. "I know that there are things you don't want to tell them. I'm not going to be one of the people telling you what you should plead or how you should present yourself."
"You want a story," Kheel said.
"I want your story," Matt corrected. "You may not be able to save your life, but I can make sure that you don't die with the world thinking you're an animal."
"What makes you think I care about that?" Kheel inquired.
"Everyone cares what others think about them," Matt answered.
Kheel laughed.
"Okay, sure," he finally replied.
"You'll answer my questions?" Matt had to admit compliance was not something he anticipated.
"Once you hear what I have to say, you're not going to want to write it," Kheel shrugged. "But I guess there's no harm in humoring you. Besides, I have nothing better to do."
Guess who actually wrote something for the first time in forever! Please review (I love predictions since this story's gonna be a bit more ploty than my last)! Thanks!
I spent an hour of trying to upload the cover image I worked really hard on to no avail (pfft, I'm not salty), so if anyone would like to see that it's on my instagram and tumblr (link in bio) or will be as soon as I post this.