Author's Note: Hello, everyone! Looks like this is chapter two of my Near story. :P This is the chapter where the spoilers really start kicking in. Volume 7 spoilers throughout, loves, so be sure to be careful when reading!
Chapter Two: A Lost Cause
Only a few pieces remained in the puzzle as a brilliant sunset sparkled through the bay window and into the playroom. The room stained a warm rose tone as the sun flickered against the mountains framing the horizon. I felt rather numb whilst I sat in the ethereal glow cast by the waning light. The charming delight from earlier within the day had worn almost completely away, swept away like the tide of an ocean. The white pieces of the puzzle laid out before me in distant clusters.
I had been forced to reflect on my obstacle once more, how L was still something that I had to face and defeat whether I wished it or not. How Mello was a road block in the scheme of things, nothing but a stubborn fool who wouldn't accept my help. My frustration developed the more I reasoned, and I had torn the note into shreds due to my dissatisfaction. The puzzle that accompanied it was the only thing I had to cleanse my mind of my own wretchedness.
"Near," it was a soft-spoken call, but it startled me nonetheless. Rodgers stood tentatively in the doorway, and I knew he was trying to decipher what I was doing behind my barricade of blue. My eyes fastened to his warm gaze. I could not bare how kind and gentle the old men of the Wammy House were. It made me utterly sick the way they beamed at me, as if they were my family. Back then, to myself, I was a marble statue, callous and perfect. Far too good to have a family of worthless old men. "You need to come to my office. I," his normally cheery gaze dropped to the floor, and his voice faltered for a moment, "I have some tragic news to tell you." I noted that his eyes seemed to be watering and the corners of his mouth trembled as if he were trying to hold back a terrible sadness.
I said nothing back to him, embarrassed by seeing the fragile old man's tears. I simply gathered the few remaining puzzle pieces in my hand and tucked the board under my arm. Rodgers shoved onto his face a forced smile as I shuffled after him.
Upon entering his office, I set grim eyes upon Mello. He was standing with crossed arms and a chocolate bar clutched tightly in his fingers. He was attempting to ignore my presence, but he kept glancing shiftily back at me as I knelt next to my new puzzle. It was as if he was awaiting my move, examining my actions in case I pulled another eccentric theory out of the air. Rodgers went behind his stately mahogany desk and slowly sat down. His hands trembled as he fiddled with a fountain pen, staring intently at its slender figure. Mello was growing irritable at the silence eating away in the vacant spaces. I also thought it was most unbearable; being a prickled silence of the like that is given at a funeral. A funeral… I thought, no, it couldn't be that. I stared down at the puzzle, the L was complete, and only a few pieces were left…so few were left to place in. It couldn't be… I couldn't be… It had to be. Logic stared me in the face with its most hideous leer.
"L," Rodgers began, struggling to keep a chokehold on his composure. My entire body went rigid. "L has been…that is to say… Well…" Mello's breath caught in his throat. He was one step behind me once more. "L has died. It is time for…for the both of you to rise up and fill his place." A chill filled the air, the knowledge of death blistered our senses.
Mello's eyes bugled until he looked like some sort of strange insect and his mouth hung open in a cavernous gape. "What?" I heard his shriek somewhere remote. My head fell onto my shoulder and anger swelled into my chest. I took the puzzle and let each of the pieces tumble from their position.
I whispered, cold and calm, "If you cannot win the game, if you cannot solve the puzzle, you are just a loser." Mello stared back at me like I was crazy, eyes still looking like they might pop from the very socket. There I went again, pulling a cloak of hatred and apathy over myself. I was trying so desperately to prove that I was stronger, more impenetrable than everyone else. On the exterior I wrought the perfect figure to support this illusion I cast. Inside, however, I was reeling. L, the closest thing to a godly figure there was, died. Just like that. Inwardly I was screaming and screaming, crying and tearing away at my heart. How could I have said something like that to the only person who really meant anything to me? He had been my entire life's work. He was my enemy, my hero.
"Was he killed by Kira?" Mello was certainly not mellow at the moment. He was screeching like a wounded feline. He was trembling and shaking as he paced like a caged lion. It made me sick to see him like that, showing the feelings I knew deep inside were mine as well. Rodgers let the pen clatter back onto the desk, and slowly he nodded like he wasn't completely sure of himself. Mello's hand clutched into a fist. His fingers were digging so tightly into the flesh his entire arm shook.
"And he left no will." This news was perhaps even more shattering than the last. Even my hardened soul twisted into a dumbfounded state. "Therefore, I advise that the both of you join forces and share the title of L." Ah, yes. My plan was back into my hands. Only, it didn't have such a handsome silver lining any longer.
"I see no problem with this idea," I determined without hesitation. The verdict rested upon Mello's shoulders, and the air was suffocating with apprehension. We all knew what Mello's answer would be. Two of us dreaded it. There was no telling what the other might feel.
Mello's crazed eyes turned ever so slowly to stare at me. So many emotions ran through them, danced in those black orbs. Disgust, hate, fear, revulsion, envy, and sadness wadded into one crumpled expression.
He cried, "Absolutely not! I won't work with him!" I stared up at him, and inwardly wondered if he might have glimpsed the hurt there. A vicious, crazed laughter trickled through his throat and melted against his lips. He was stumbling now, jerking spastically and laughing a gruesome cackle. He was backing up, pulling away from us. Mello was an instigated beast that was so befuddled he barely could settle on what his next action might be. He turned then, turned about and began to run. Rodgers immediately rose from his chair, following after him in large strides. However, I remained locked in my position on the floor. I knew it would be pointless to attempt to chase after Mello, after all, he was the fastest child in the entire Wammy House.
Matt's weary call chased after him, beseeching to know something he knew would have no response, "Mello! Where are you going?" Mello couldn't answer if he wanted to. We all knew, even the one who initiated the question. He didn't know where he was going himself.
Author's Note: Ok, so I hope with all my heart everyone enjoyed this. Please leave comments, 'cose I love them dearly! Oh, and sorry this chapter was so short. I tried to make it longer, but I just felt like I'd mess up the mood if I put much more onto it. Well, until next chapter!