(This is getting somewhere... I'm starting to love this idea. Well, anyways, a couple of random notes; when L mentions pips, they're slang for seeds in a fruit. Weird, right? Kind of WTF.

Um. Like I said before, well, the cursing mostly on Mello's part, and do you really think that a young Mello wouldn't enjoy using curse words? Seriously? Either way, yes, cursing is heavy. I swear a lot. ...That's about it. I don't own.)


His house was about an hour's drive away, he said. It was warm in the car; a Rolls-Royce? Mello wasn't sure...

Best to sleep... Maybe it was a dream, and he'd wake up...

"We're here!" Clarence called cheerfully, rousing Mello out of a fitful sleep. He blinked, and struggled to a sitting upright position. Clarence turned to Mello. "Come on, let's go in. I can't wait to settle you in!" Mello grabbed his few things, and hopped out of the car, rubbing his eyes furiously.

"Wow." He said softly. "Your house is big." Clarence nodded, and took Mello's hand, not noticing the flinch Mello gave in return.

"I suppose so, eh? Come on, we'll get inside, and I'll start dinner!" Mello nodded quietly, thoughts focused on Matt, L, and Near instead.

"I miss you guys... please come get me soon..." Mello whispered softly, clutching himself tightly.

They ascended the steps smoothly, Clarence keeping up a constant chatter about how wonderful the house was, and how lucky he was that Mello was here now. Mello himself stayed silent until they opened the door.

"Oh my god." Mello whispered softly, fumbling for his rosary. The house was huge. It looked big enough on the outside, sure, but this thing towered over everyone and everything. It looked like what Mello imagined would be the doge's palace in Venice; everything was layered in gold and crafted elegantly.

"You like it?" Clarence said. Mello nodded slowly, unwrapping another bar of chocolate. "Uh-huh..." He said softly, not meeting Clarence's eyes. The man smiled.

"Good! Let's get you settled, now."

In an hour's time, Mello was curled up in an extravagant bed, silk sheets and down comforters galore. He was eating gourmet food, and Clarence had gotten him a giant bar of Godiva chocolate.

He hated the entire thing. Matt was gone. It meant nothing to him without his friends.

He curled up in the bed, and began to sob, heart-wrenching tears that racked his whole body. He fell asleep, still sobbing and clutching his rosary for comfort.


L couldn't get the feeling that he'd seen Clarence before out of his head. It was incredibly unnerving, because wherever he'd seen him, it hadn't been good...

Matt was inconsolable. Mello was a lot closer to him then either of them had let on, apparently. He wouldn't eat anything but Mello's chocolates, and he barely played video games at all.

Near was patiently waiting for Roger to get back here and sort this out. Mello, strangely, was actually his best friend... Their intellects were so perfectly matched; quiet Near and fiery Mello. They complemented each other, and now Mello was gone. Near had no one to best.

It had been about two days. Matt was still inconsolable, crying quietly at random intervals, and refusing food. Near hadn't come out of his room at all, and neither had L.

However, L was doing it for different reasons. He was searching his case files in an attempt to figure out where the bloody hell he'd seen Clarence Carter before. It hadn't been that name, either; L figured the name was an alias.

But what would he need an alias for?


Two days had passed in the household without many goings-on. Clarence promised to take Mello shopping for new clothes tomorrow, and he had offered to take Mello to buy him some new books, as well.

But Mello still didn't trust him. The whole place seemed false, somehow. He was terrified of something going wrong.

Clarence was really rather easy-going, but for one rule. Mello was not, under any circumstances, allowed to go downstairs at night. Not ever. If he was in trouble, he was only to yell. Clarence had told him it was because he would be working at business downstairs, and didn't want to be interrupted.

That wasn't really a good explanation for Mello, but he knew he didn't have much choice.

That night, he sat in bed, and stared at his rosary. He wasn't really that religious; the rosary had been his mother's, and he would never want to part from it.

He kept it not only because of that, but because he believed in guardian angels. Angels that took you away to better places when you were lonely and sad, angels that protected you and loved you.

So he prayed not to god, but to angels.

"Please, my guardian angel, help me. I want to go home! I want to see Matt, and L, and even Near! Please get me out of here... I don't like it here, it's freaky. If you get me out, I promise not to knock over Near's dice towers for an entire week. Amen." He said quietly, clasping the charm and curling up tight under the covers.


On the third day of Mello's exile, Roger came back.

Matt saw the car, and screamed with joy. Mello could come back home now!

"ROGER! ROGER!" He roared, rushing down the steps, and bursting out the door. The man was getting out of his car, only to see Matt running down the steps screaming bloody murder.

L was still searching his databases when he heard Matt's scream. He got up, and went for Near immediately.

"Matt, whatever's wrong? Are you all right?" Roger said concernedly. Matt shook his head.

"No! That stupid bitch adopted Mello out, and he's been gone for three days, and I miss him so much, and please make him come back Roger, I'm SCARED for him!" Roger processed that, and said quietly,

"So... You're telling me that she let someone adopt him?" He hissed. Matt nodded.

"Uh-huh... An' he's gone now, and I want him back! Please, Roger! I need him!" Matt burst into tears, and began wailing. L and Near had slipped outside in the chaos, and Roger observed them all.

"Come inside with me, and explain this further. As soon as I murder our substitute caretaker, of course." Matt was helped inside by L, who was stroking the boy's hair and murmuring in his ear softly. Near trailed behind, eyes hardened in anger. The blank orbs looked like fogged-over mirrors; hard and unreadable.

"Miss Francis. Am I to believe that you adopted out one of L's top potential successors?" Roger hissed in a deadly tone. Lilly looked up.

"Of course! It's an orphanage, isn't it? Besides, Master Carter seemed like quite the nice young man. I've seen him on the news, in fact." It hit L in a flash.

His eyes widened, and he whispered in abject hatred and terror both,

"You just gave our Mello to a serial killer." Everyone stopped short. Lilly looked flustered.

"Wh-what?! Certainly not! His records checked out perfectly!" L shook his head.

"That's because he was using an alias! I had seen him before, I knew it! There is a seventy-two percent chance that the suspected killer on the news and Clarence Carter are one and the same person!" Matt felt nauseous. Near's face went blank with horror.

Roger rounded on Lilly. "Out. Before these boys kill you." He warned, and sure enough, it seemed like a deadly threat. The woman rushed out before Matt could launch himself at her and rip her foolish brain out.

L nodded for them all to sit, and he crouched in his chair before continuing.

"Listen to me. Clarence Carter came here and adopted Mello three days ago. We have a very serious problem on our hands if he is indeed a serial killer. We might even have a disaster on our hands. Roger, may I use your computer for a moment?" Roger nodded slowly, and watched as L brought up his case files, and scrolled through a few before clicking on one.

"Our Clarence Carter may be Ryan Smith, and if this is true..." He pulled up the file.

"This specific serial killer targets children, and then he..." L winced.

"He eats them."

Matt put his head between his legs, and threw up.


It was so quiet here. It wasn't good, either. There were people here but they weren't talking.

"Mello?" Matt whispered softly. "Mello, come here, MELLO!" Matt made a move to the left, and screamed.

A corpse stared blankly up at him. It wouldn't have been that bad, but—

"HE DOESN'T HAVE A FUCKING FACE!" Matt roared in terror. Oh my god, he was going to be sick again. The arms were gnawed at too, stripped down to sickly pink bone. Matt dropped to his knees, and stared.

Blonde hair. Blonde hair that was so beautiful, so silky, so much like...

"MELLO! MELLO! OH MY GOD, NO! MELLO!" He roared. "Don't be dead, please!" He cried weakly, stroking at Mello's hair frantically.

No eyes, no nose, no lips, no face, no face, no face oh god Matt was going to be sick

"It's okay, Matt." The corpse rose up, and spoke. The hole that the lips had previously covered moved a bit. His pink-bone hand reached up and gripped Matt's cheek.

"I can put it back on."


Matt awoke screaming. L jumped out of his seat, and stared at the young gamer. "Matt! Matt, what—"

"HE ATE MELLO'S FACE OFF!" Matt screamed. L shook his head. "It was just a nightmare, Matt, don't worry, he's okay—"

"His bones are pink, and he's bloody messed up, and he's gonna put his face back on! MELLO'S GONNA DIE!" Matt screamed, face bone white in terror. L went over to him, and looked him in the eyes.

"It was a dream. Do not worry. We'll get him back, safe and sound. We still have time to catch Smith. He usually doesn't kill the kids for a couple weeks or so—" Matt made a retching noise, and began dry-heaving.

"No! It'll be okay, it's okay! We'll get him back, and—"

"It's too late! He already ate Mello's face off! DAMMIT! I WANT MELLO BACK! MELLO!" L held him tightly, and rocked Matt back and forth. "We'll catch him. I promise."

Matt collapsed in tears. L sighed, and held the boy tighter. "Shush...Sssh, it's alright, it's okay, sssh, sssh..." He whispered gently, mumbling nonsense words until Matt went back to sleep again.

"He's in terrible condition right now. He woke up screaming that Smith had eaten Mello's face off. I really think he just needs to rest for a bit. Let's take a look at the files, now..." L muttered, opening the file.

"Okay. We can deduce that Smith is rich, either through fraud or family money. Frankly, I'd go for fraud, since if he uses an alias so competently as to adopt a child, I have reason to believe he's good at hacking into the system and creating false names for himself." L said in a monotone, selecting a cherry from the bowl. He bit into it, and frowned.

"Bloody pips. Those things are why I eat strawberries instead." Near huffed.

"Back on subject...?" L nodded.

"Right. Anyways, Clarence Carter is obviously someone of noteworthy status. Lilly mentioned she had seen him on the news. So I want Near to search his name up in the databases; see if we hit any companies, or whatever. It's possible that we might be able to trace Ryan Smith back through his alias." Roger frowned.

"How would that work?" L thought for a second, and bit his thumb.

"Look at it like this; he's using that specific alias for a reason. Perhaps Clarence Carter was a former boss of his, someone he'd like to get back at. Or maybe an abusive relative. Criminals sometimes pick aliases disturbingly close to their original names in meaning to them. Ergo, we may be looking at an abused child, grown up in a broken home, and turned to a life of crime because it was all he knew." L rolled his eyes.

"Though to be frank, I really hope that's not the case. It'd be too much like those bloody soap operas Linda watches." Roger sighed.

"Fine, fine. Near, go pull up anything you can find on Clarence Carter." Near nodded, and shuffled to the other computer, climbing gently into the chair.

L sighed, and put his head in his hands. His tea with twenty sugars had gone unsipped. "Mello, my protégé, you poor child. Where are you?" He murmured to himself. Even then, the words didn't seem right. His tongue felt thick in his mouth when he said them. Worry seemed to have ruined his lingual capacities.

Near was quiet for a couple of minutes. Then he said softly, "Come here and look at this." L and Roger peered over his shoulder, as Near read,

"Clarence Carter, aged thirty-one, exclusive interview! The man behind the plan, and where it all began." Near said, reading the title. He scanned the interview, and his eyes widened.

"It says here he has a brother named Ryan." L blinked.

"Sibling rivalry? Could we have two serial killers, Near?" The white-haired youth shook his head.

"No, no... This man sounds like more of a golden calf; an idol to Ryan, someone he wanted to be..." It hit Near in a flash.

"Wait, when was the last time Clarence Carter was seen?" He hissed urgently. L keyed something into the computer, and said,

"Three months ago..." He whispered softly. Near bit his lip.

"Well, this explains quite a bit."