Because so much can pass in a heartbeat. Sometimes even an entire lifetime.

--

I'm motionless. Utterly still. Completely frozen in my usual crouched position on my chair as I stare blankly at the buzzing computer screen before me. I can feel the panic and fear radiating off the people around me, but I remain unaffected. It's not that I don't want to feel anything. I just can't.

I hear footsteps hammering at the ground- some of the team are leaving. I don't bother to call them back. There's no point. Not any more.

I slowly raise the spoon from the half-eaten cake in front of me. Even in such a situation, it would be a betrayal to my stomach to waste it. The metal clinks against the china plate.

And then it hits me. A sharp pain in my chest. I can feel it like a sharp blade twisting around inside of me, and it tightens its grip on my heart and squeezes, squeezes until I can't breathe.

My entire body stiffens, and my throat tightens. I can't draw in any air, no matter how hard I try. My limbs grow heavy, and I am weak. I am so weak that I can't even support my own weight, and I can feel myself slowly tipping to one side, and there's nothing I can do about it, and I'm falling, falling...

And then I feel strong arms around me, and a body folding around mine, breaking my fall as I crash to the floor. I look up at him, my eyes wide, but not afraid. I had no reason to be afraid any more. His arms tighten around me, almost protectively.

How odd, I think, that I should die like this. In his arms. It's almost funny. I would laugh, but it would hurt too much, and I'm not too fond of the idea of making my life any more painful. Making my death any more painful.

He smiled at me, a cruel, warped, twisted smile. It was hard to bear. But I knew I wouldn't have to bear it for long. I tried to think, to remember how he used to smile, but my brain isn't working properly, and for the first time in my life I can't think. I can't think. And it's terrifying.

I cough, trying desperately to force air into my lungs, though inside I know it is futile. But I don't want to give in to that smile, those eyes. How foolish of me, I thought, to think that I could cheat death just by wanting it enough.

I wonder if it's true what they say. About your life flashing before your eyes just before you die. I wonder... I can't remember what I was wondering. It's strange, how so much can pass in a heartbeat. A thought. A life. It was almost poetic.

I'd never been one for poetry.

My own heartbeat is slowing. I can hear it roaring in my ears, slamming against my ribcage, as if fighting to be free. But with each thud, it gets weaker. It's giving up its fight. No, don't give up, not yet...

I'm getting tired. My mind is clouding, and so is my vision. His face is blurring before my eyes, the room darkening. I'm getting tired. I want to sleep, but I know I musn't, because if I do I'll never wake up, but I know it's useless to fight it and I might as well just give up, just give in, just give up and die...

I'm getting tired. I'm getting more tired by the second and I can feel my eyes closing and the world darkening and my breath slowing and my heartbeat fading and my consciousness slipping and I'm going to sleep and I'm going to sleep and I'm going to sleep...

--

I'm sure a few of you will be curious to know why L died in the first chapter. The reason is this- I'm using the 'life flashes before your eyes' theory. Think of this as a prologue because as from now, we are going to travel back in time; way back to before the beginning, starting from the very moment L was brought into this dark, cruel, unloving world.

This is L. This is his life. In a heartbeat.