A/N - Hello. Jik here. This chapter is actually dedicated to my 12 year old cosplay friend, Kayla. She a Matt, BB, and L cosplayer. She really looks like them, and I'm getting her 'Another Note' for her birthday... August first! :D So a shout out to her, Happy Birthday Kayla! This is for you, and I bet you can't wait to get 'Another Note'. :3

That's about all I've got to say for the rest of this.

Disclaimer - I only own the text.

-

Askew Betwixt

One should rather die than be betrayed. There is no deceit in death. It delivers precisely what has been promised. Betrayal, though... betrayal is the willful slaughter of hope.

Steven Deitz

It wasn't me who was the traitor! It was not me who betrayed! It's all lies, lies! Hear me, hear me! I speak only the truth, as the mad can't tell a lie since sanity has already died in their mind! So I cannot lie, for I am already dead in the mind!

Unknown

-

ii.

"What does it mean, 'traitor'?" questioned Roger as soon as the redhead had stopped his hysterical laughter. The other three looked pointedly at the redhead, whose cheeks were flushed from laughter.

"...I don't have to answer, as it doesn't concern you. Well I suppose because of that factor it might concern you, but if I know him as well as I should... Yeah that'd definitely happen. Which is bad, since that means a Hound will know about it but... if you hear... reasoning I would assume you'd see the full, eh, situation," mumbled the redhead, partially to the others in the room, but mostly to himself.

"...the hell are you blabbering about?" seethed Mello, still angry that Matt seemed to have forgotten completely about the beating. The redhead needed to be taught another lesson.

"Someone, no one, something, nothing, does it really matter?" returned Matt, turning on his PSP. It was best to avoid conversations with others after a hysteric breakdown since your nerves were always on edge afterwards. Distracted from the game, he absently scratched at his right shoulder; it was painful for something that had suffered no damage. The words 'game over' on the PSP distracted him from his scratching making him realize that he'd stop playing his games. Strange.

-

The government had first been suspicious of some other being that looked like a human, but was not a regular human nine years ago. The four year old child spoke of strange things; the one that stood out was of an 'Order' of five 'Mark' beings, and an unknown amount of humans. While the only one of the 'Order' knew the hidden leader's face. The red haired child was of a higher intelligence and appeared fragile like a glass doll; he had a beauty that was great compared to many a human.

However there was something very strange about this boy, he had this type of air to him that made most people be afraid of him. A few weeks after turning four the boy seemed to find some fascination with squishing ants lined up in a march; the glitter in his emerald eyes caused the mother to change her views about the boy entirely. When the child had been born the mother had thought him an angel; the father thought him the son of the devil. Before the child disappeared at the age of five, the father had attempted to kill the boy numerous times. The child managed to bypass all of the attempts at his life easily, so there was one thing the father had left; abandoning the child in the wilderness somewhere.

Sometime in the fall that year the five-year-old was taken for a ride through the mountains of Europe; and was to be dropped in the middle of nowhere. This whole plan seemed to go well until the father's body was discovered five hours after he left to abandon the child. The father appeared to be stabbed countless times in the neck, though there was no blade or object near the body that could have been used in the killing. There was however a message written in blood along the side of the car.

"Two bites at the heart and eye, he howls at the Hounds."

The message was impossible to decipher then as the Hounds hadn't existed at that point of time. However several weeks since Their attack government authorities were able to discover a story from twenty-three years ago about a similar case; except escalating in the amount of violence displayed. No physical description was able to be attained on the child of this old incident except that the child was 'a vampire made child'. The similar case is that the child began showing murderous desires shortly after turning four as well, apparently this is the turning point in which their real nature begins to show. Reports from an neighbor who was actually a spy of a church organization provided the government with the rest of the information.

However the desire stopped abruptly till the child was six and then resurfaced when he was found strangling a chipmunk with his bare hands. The mother had witnessed this event with her own eyes, and the child lunged at her like a feral animal when the father had come to the back door to see why his wife had screamed. The child was soaked head-to-toe in his own mother's blood, a snarl had emerged from his lips as the father came into view, rushing at the child with the log-ax. The ax had been brought down onto the child's back; but the boy kept furiously trying to claw at the father with his bare hands. After fifteen minutes of little action, the child managed to shatter the ax's handle; leaving the father unprotected. Within seconds the child was ripping the still-living man apart.

The child seemed to have regained bits of his senses after he had killed the father, and began to write with the blood that dripped from his hands. He wrote in large letters across the white garage door; the boy had been said to let out a feral snarl at the sky before running on all fours into the woods. The words the child had written were very similar to the red haired child.

"Double faced serpent turned his poison at man's heart and mind, he cries for the Hunted."

However this was not the last to be heard of the child, as murders in similar fashion dotted across Europe for two years before all beast like murders stopped out of the blue. The last murder to happen was of another serial killer at the time nicknamed 'Woppolu' because he always left a sound recording of a swish then a voice saying 'woppolu woppolu!' 'Woppolu's head had been cut off and left hanging in the rafters of an abandoned warehouse somewhere in London. Another word message was written, it seemed to be a more intelligent and less hurried version of the red haired child's phrase.

"He took two bites to seal his heart and eye, and so he laughs at the Hounds who hunt him."

-

"Sooo... Mello, you'll be the one to give a summary about this information that concerns to the now," the history teacher spoke, pointing a piece of chalk at the chocolate-eating blond.

Taking a snap of chocolate, the blond did as he was told, "Basically the government believes that They did not appear over night, that those two violent children have something to do with the current situation."

"Very good, yes, yes, that's absolutely correct," the teacher said, nodding her head enthusiastically, "Ah! Matt, I want you to express your feelings on the subject that They have existed before the incident."

Pausing the DS game, the redhead looked up, emerald eyes displaying his utter distaste at having to speak about this subject, but he answered anyways, "I honestly find it foolish to associate these cases to the demons since there is no proof that these two children are demons, and not just complete psychopaths. In reality I find this hypothesis to be boring, and... You seem to only ask my opinion because I look like the child described, no?"

The icy tone he had taken must have told the teacher that he would not take anything else from the woman; she didn't ask anymore questions. The woman moved on to ask the opinions of the other orphans, while the redhead returned to his precious DS. He looked up as the bell rang to be freed for the day to find a certain blond standing in his way with a questioning look in his blue eyes. Near was lurking off behind Mello, probably to hear the answer to whatever Mello was going to ask. "Yes? What do you want?" the redhead asked in a slightly off polite tone.

"You are obviously the red haired child mentioned in those reports, you can't deny it! The age, the looks, and the fact that you are an orphan! You're one of Them, and you just won't admit it! Or you're a spy for Them!" the blond angrily accused.

Matt looked absently off to the side, then sighed, "I'll tell the truth in front of you two and L. But not before anyone else. I'd rather as few people as possible hear, is that, understandable?"

Mello and Near glanced at each other briefly before nodding, and leading the redhead to L's room on the top floor. That the raven haired man had all to himself.

"Please do explain," L said, listening as Mello explained the brief situation that had happened downstairs, "Your turn, Matt."

The redhead rolled his eyes then controlled his tone to sound somewhat polite as he began, "It's true actually, how I am the redhead from the reports, however I am not a demon. You see... Even if you group me together with the demons they're... actually lower than me, really. You see they were given the same... you could say add on to their genetic structure. However they did not except the instinct... the urge to kill something, anything as I did-"

"Wait! What!? Because they didn't kill things when they were younger, they became like that? Why the-" Mello was cut off by a single glance from L.

"- so they lost control of their... genetic structure so they obtained the abnormalities such as the horns. Excepting the murderous intent would drive an normal human insane... Which is why not accepting it would make our kind, 'Marks', become demons. And as you can see many of them cannot even except the murderous intent. Which is a pity actually..." The redhead trailed off, gathering his thoughts. He couldn't reveal too much.

Swallowing Matt continued, "The one who called me a traitor is the traitor himself. He pretended like he had accepted the intent... but he really was suppressing it the whole time. When he became one of those demons himself, he tried and succeeded in proving himself the strongest of the demon. So he rules over them when it really should be one of the Marks, who would be able to get them to... The problem is... That there are only five of us left, and we haven't been able to get in contact. I still don't know if they are even alive. Well, at any rate that one will still be alive."

The redhead took a deep breath then asked, "Any questions?"

"How long have the Marks existed?" L asked this one.

"Before humans did, at any rate," Matt replied.

"Why did you not explain what you need to get the demons to do?" This time it was Near.

"Because that is something you don't need to know... And besides they'll be reincarnated with their memories if they die. Since they are suffering for remaining... human," Matt answered.

"Whose 'that one'?" questioned, no demanded, Mello.

"Ah... he's... The other child mentioned in the reports... The vampire one. Mhmmm... Him. He's got this obsession with strawberry jam, red eyes; or rather Shinigami eyes as we call them. He never really cared whether or not he stopped killing, but managed to restrain himself since that head-in-the-rafters thing... However I doubt his self-control will last that long. He looks like... well he looks the exact same as L... Dresses like 'em too. 'Cept he's got this little problem, he must kill in elaborate ways, and he won't ever use a gun. It has to be done with his hands, teeth, or his precious knife. He's creepy," Matt elaborated.

"What's his name?" L asked, suddenly interested.

"His name is-" Matt was cut off by his black cellphone ringing, which had a silver archaic M on it

"Hello?"

"Is this Matt?"

"It is."

"Do you recognize my voice?"

"..."

"Well?"

"I- I- I... Is that really you?"

"Yes!"

"Good to hear you again..."

"Mutual feeling."

"Beyond Birthday."

-

Look! BB's in this. :D You can't have a horror story with out BB... since he's the 'horror god' as Kayla would say.

Hmm... This turned out a little different than I expected but... I like it anyways. C:

Oh and... Once Kayla gets a new camera she's going to be cosplay videos for youtube. Once she starts that I'll put the link to her account in my profile.

R & R please and shankyuu.