Warnings: Murder (Duh, it's DN xD), Het OC Pairing, No Official Characters.


Here it is! Chapter 1 of my Death Note fic.

Hope you like it :D

Chapter 2 is being edited at the moment and is coming soon, probably this weekend :)

Again lots of hugs to SkittleYentl for beta-ing and overall giving me lots of help with the writing :3

Enjoy!


Living Among the Remnants of the Dead

Chapter 1: Awakening


An annoying sound came from under Jacks' pillow. "Goddammit, not again..."

It was the fifth time that the alarm clock under his pillow went off this morning but he just couldn't figure out how to turn it off. Jack had the nasty habit of not being able to get out of bed in the mornings.

Normally he'd just unplug his clocks, but Shanna bought him one with batteries this time.

"I HATE THAT BITCH!" Jack yelled through the youth complex.

His parents had abandoned him when he was five, so he had been living in an apartment complex full of orphans ever since.

After he threw the clock out of his window, he noticed someone was standing in the doorway. "What do you want?" Jack growled. "We're supposed to leave in 10 minutes, or you'll be late for school… again." Said Ronald.

Ronald was probably the only person in the world Jack didn't completely despise, mostly because they had been through the exact same thing when they were kids. Ronald didn't have many friends either. Well, more than Jack anyway, but that was probably because Ronald didn't push everyone away. He looked a lot like your typical computer nerd: Short, chubby, with glasses and a face full of acne. Jack however, didn't care how he looked. Ronald was 13, four years younger and saw Jack as his older brother.

Well if you've got to have something like 'family ties' with someone, it might as well be someone who doesn't annoy you. Jack always thought.

"I'll be right there, go on ahead without me." Jack said, as he walked into their shared bathroom.

I look like shit. He thought, as he looked into the mirror. His hair was standing up straight, and he had always hated the colour... blonde just didn't suit him. Oh well, just a little hair gel and he looked acceptable, it's not like he had to look good for anything anyway.

Walking through the complex was a nightmare for Jack. "Why the hell did they have to paint friggin' polar bears on the walls?" He said to himself.

Shanna was chasing him through the hallways, screaming Jacks' name, and when Jack turned around, he saw her incredibly happy face.

Even though Shanna was only a few months older than Jack, she had been taking care of him since they were 10 years old. Her parents were the owners of the orphanage, where they lived, so Jack had known her ever since he first arrived there.

In many ways, Shanna was the exact opposite of Jack; she always had a smile on her face, and whatever happened, no one had ever seen her cry.

Even though Jack hadn't been the nicest person to her in the past few years, Shanna had always been nice to him. So nice, that some people actually thought they were a couple. Still, Jack hated the idea of him and Shanna being a couple. Not that she was ugly, far from that actually. She was slim, not especially tall, had a very light skin and beautiful bright green eyes.

One of the things about Shanna that annoyed Jack the most, was the way she was always playing with her hair. She had long curly brown locks and it took all of Jacks' strength not to slap her hand away as soon as she started to twirl it around her finger.

"KEYS!" She shouted with a huge smile on her face, "Time to check your room again!"

"Jeez, no need to shout… I'm right here." Jack sighed.

For some reason the guidance counsellors in the orphanage thought Jack was a danger to himself so his room had to be checked every day. Next to that, Jack could see Shanna had already brought a new alarm clock for tomorrow.

"Aahw don't be so grumpy Jack!" Shanna said. Jacks' frown deepened and he growled: "It's friggin' 7 in the morning." And walked away as he threw her the keys.

Even though he was going to be late for class, Jack still decided to walk to school, since he hated taking the bus. The one at 7:30am was always cramped with people, and he hated crowded spaces. Walking also had its upsides, since he could quietly listen to the music on his iPod, so his mind wouldn't be swarming with thoughts.

Just as he walked around a tight corner in the middle of the city, someone ran into him. The boy fell, and books were littered all over the sidewalk.

It was Jonathan. Even though Jack couldn't see his face, he immediately recognized him by his overly-fancy coat and short styled black hair. Normally Jack would never help him pick up his books, but in the pile of paper he recognized something. A black notebook with red letters only slightly appeared from under some old homework.

No… it couldn't be. Jack thought.

Jonathan stuffed everything back in his bag as fast as he could and Jack could see the sweat on his forehead.

Thoughts raced through Jack's head. Is it real? How do I know it is? And if it's real, what should I do? Probably the smartest thing to do was ignore it for now and pretend he didn't notice. If it wasn't real there was nothing to worry about, and if it was… There was no telling what Jonathan was planning with it. But he could always find out if it was real later.

"What are you doing here?" Jack asked. "Aren't you supposed to go to school too?"

Jonathan looked at him in disbelief. This was actually the first time Jack ever said anything normal to him. "Something happened at home, I'm in a hurry." He replied.

"Oh, well… sorry for running into you anyway." Jack said. Normally he would never apologise, but if Jonathan really had a Death Note, things were already not looking too well for Jack.

Jonathan and Jack used to be 'friends', until Jonathan replaced Jack's friendship with books last year. For someone who only had a few friends, losing Jonathan's friendship didn't go well with Jack. Slowly he started hating Jonathan, because he was completely shut out of Jonathan's life. And because of that Jack started treating Jonathan as garbage, and the hatred became mutual.

"Its okay," Jonathan said, "it was really my fault anyway." He still looked as if he thought did Jack just apologize to me? And then he ran off.

Jack still couldn't believe what he just saw. He had to find out if it was real, because Jonathan could just as well write Jacks' name down if he wanted.

The image of the note kept haunting Jack the entire day. Luckily for him, nobody was keeping him from daydreaming as usual. Without Jonathan the rest of the class stopped working completely.

For the entire length of the class the teacher had been chewing on his fingernails and now it was starting to annoy Jack… Two bullies were throwing a kid's bag through the classroom. Jeez, what are we? Five? Jack thought.

He looked at the clock, "One more hour… then I can leave this hell behind for the weekend," he said, thinking nobody would hear him because of all the noise.

Mia, who was sitting in front of him, turned around and smiled at him.

"I thought you were goth" Jack said to her.

"I am… why?" Mia responded while she cocked her eyebrow.

"Goths aren't supposed to laugh" Jack said without showing any emotion.

Mia thought he was joking and laughed.

What's wrong with the world if you can't even hurt people's feelings anymore? Jack thought to himself.

"Then you're a goth too, I've never seen you laugh the entire year." Mia teased.

Well… it was true, Jack never really laughed, especially in school. He looked like a Goth too, with his long hair in front of his bright blue eyes. Even though physically he could easily fit in with the jocks. He didn't have a 'six-pack' though, but he was still thankful he didn't have what Ronald had dubbed 'a keg'. But Ronald's just fat. Jack thought and a small smile appeared on his face.

Luckily Mia had already turned back around so she didn't see his face. Jack hated showing his emotions, it made him feel weak.

He didn't feel like walking back to the orphanage at all, so Jack just wandered through the city.

Ronald still had class for another hour and Shanna was probably busy cleaning the orphanage so nobody would miss him. He needed some time to think.

Jack knew almost everything there was to know about the notebooks. Apparently they were accompanied by a Death God, or 'Shinigami' an entity that normally couldn't be seen by anyone. The person whose name was written in the notebook would die, hence the name DeathNote.

But there was one thing Jack didn't understand. If it was real, why hadn't Jonathan killed him yet? Was it because Jonathan still liked Jack? Or was he just weak?

"No, Jonathan definitely hates me enough," Jack said with a smile. He probably said it a bit loud because some people walking by gave him weird looks. It has to be fake, Jack thought. Or else I would have been long dead. Jack shrugged off his thoughts and started walking home. He could really use some time with Ronald this afternoon, 'cause people had been pissing him off all day.

When Jack finally made it through the busiest streets he checked his watch. Ronald and Shanna were probably worried since he should have been back two hours ago.

The orphanage was a rather big building, it used to be a normal apartment complex but people didn't want to live there since it was built in the suburbs of the city, near the industrial zone. But because it was so big, Jack could always see it from miles away. It was already November and pretty cold, so Jack started running the last few streets.

Completely out of breath he arrived at the front of the building. While he walked by the fence he could see someone sitting on the steps outside, in the cold. After he passed the main gate he could see who it was…

It was Shanna, and she was crying…