A/N: I had to put 'Acta Sanctorum' on a hiatus until I finish this or 'Picture Perfect'. Oh well XD Enjoy and please review. That's an order, actually. I was just trying to phrase it nicely.
Heh, this chapter is where the title starts being slightly ironic. Gah, I really wish I could just explain why the other characters are what they are, because it just makes it all really … poetic, on some level.
-x-x-Room of Angels-x-x-
Alter ego
(Other I)
Light had stayed in the small room with Misa until dawn. She had refused to answer any questions about this Beyond-person, but otherwise she was talkative. Too bad she didn't seem to know anything. He'd asked where Mikami was, and she'd told him that Mikami often didn't show up, but that he sometimes was there at night along with her. He still hoped to meet someone who would explain something to him, of course, and anything would do at this point. Even the smallest clue or just someone who'd answer a few of his countless questions.
He was getting a little freaked out; Misa had left about an hour ago, and he'd been walking restlessly around the house since then, hoping that he would bump into someone. So far he'd had no such luck.
The house was enormous, though. The hallways never seemed to end… all the rooms he'd peeked into looked the exact same. A few of them were locked, but no more than three or four as far as he knew. He figured that someone was living there and had knocked a few of them. No answer, obviously. Otherwise he'd be in the middle of questioning someone in a very aggressive manner. It was quiet enough for his footsteps to echo back at him, taunting him, telling him that he was, indeed, alone.
However, he suddenly found himself outside of a room that was different. Unlike the other rooms, which all seemed to be bedrooms, this was filled with all kinds of toys; a paradise for any child. So… there were children here as well. Did they know anything? And if there were children, there had to be parents, right? And any parent with respect for themselves had to know something about the place in which they put their children.
He went into the room, looking around for anyone, anything, that might give him some information about the place. Of course, he could leave, but he had no idea where in the world this house was—
Was that doll moving?
Not really believing his eyes, he stepped closer to it. It was huge, about the size of a small child, had white hair, dressed in white clothes, was extremely pale and clearly made out of porcelain, and its dark eyes were staring unfocused at him… it seemed wring, somehow. Too lifelike. But the porcelain was broken several places, cracked open to reveal that it was nothing but a doll. He moved a little to the right, and its eyes seemed to follow him. Of course, it did look real, so of course his mind wanted it to be. He knew about those things; he'd studied psychology for a short while—
It just moved again!
Light tried moving it so he could see if there was some string at its back— he remembered the dolls his sister used to play with when she was younger, the ones where she'd pull the string and then the blasted thing would sing a little song or something like that. But when he touched it, the porcelain crumbled beneath his fingers, and he moved away immediately, not wanting to ruin someone's toy.
And that was when it happened.
He had always been told that when something traumatizes you, you don't notice it until it starts haunting you, but he knew for sure that he was never going to forget the moment the doll tilted its head back to look directly at him and spoke with the voice of a little boy.
"You must be Light," it said. "Good morning."
Light managed to say "B-but… you-you're, you c-can't--"
"Be talking to you? Oh, but I am, as you can hear."
"But you're a doll," Light reasoned. The doll confirmed this, but asked him to call it 'Near'. Light laughed.
"I've gone insane!" he figured between the hysterical laughing. "Completely insane! Talking dolls…" He laughed again.
"While you might have lost your mind, I most certainly do exist." Light became serious once again, sitting down in order to face the creature.
"But how are you able to talk and move?"
It moved to shrug, but seemed to find it a bad idea, stopped in mid-motion, and went back to just staring with those unfocused eyes. "I don't know," it said, "but that doesn't matter. What matters is the fact that I can do those things. And as long as the result is good, then who cares how or why?"
"I care! A living doll, that's not normal, you know. Ugh, I must be having some nightmare."
"I don't like to repeat myself, but I can assure you that I am real."
"Prove it."
"I can't."
"Well, if you can't prove it, then this is a nightmare. Good, then I just have to wait until I wake up."
"But you can't prove that I'm not real, so why bother?"
Light rolled his eyes, but decided that he might as well try getting some answers.
"What is this place?"
"Wammy's House."
"I know that! But what is it?!"
"A house."
"But what am I doing here?"
"Currently, you're talking to me."
He had to resist the urge to smash the thing's head in. He sighed deeply and tried another question.
"I've met L, Misa, you, and I know about Mikami and… apparently someone named Beyond. Are there any other people here?"
"Yes."
"Who? Can they give me some answers about this place?"
"Matt and Mello. But I wouldn't count on the answers. They both have a slightly twisted look on reality, you see."
"Are they dolls as well or are you unique?" The sarcasm in his voice was heavy, but the doll didn't seem to understand it.
"I am… unique, as you put it."
"Can you tell me anything about this place, or do I have to wait for Mikami or Beyond?"
"You could ask Mikami, but Beyond is rarely here… I can, however, not tell you much. But I can tell you what I see, if you'd like."
"What you see?"
"Yes. You might have observed that I'm not exactly in any shape to move around on my own, so I watch the others go about their business. I can tell you what they think. You might gain some… knowledge."
"I'm listening."
The doll brought a hand to its hair before it spoke. "They all have different theories as to why they're here. Matt, for instance, believes that he's having a nightmare, just like you. Mello thinks that this is Hell, but I must say that I disagree… L seems to know why we're all here, but he never wants to let us know. He once told me that if he said it, we'd all go crazy. I think we already have, though--"
"You think you're all crazy?"
"On some levels, yes, I do. Mikami seems to share this belief with me. Misa doesn't know anything. She's quite unintelligent." It snorted. "And Beyond… well, he's the one… the one who brings us here…"
"What do you mean, 'brings us here'?"
"I can't… I can't tell you… he'll break me again… took me hours to glue that leg back on, it did…"
"Break you?"
The doll started mumbling to itself, much like Misa had done. Light didn't manage to hear anything useful. This Beyond seemed to have that effect on people (and dolls…). Whoever he was, he obviously wasn't a nice person.
.øØø.
Light had decided to leave the freaky doll alone to search for the other occupants of the house. Once again, he didn't find anyone.
Tired from having walked for hours, he went into a small library that he found and collapsed in a chair. He tried to convince himself that this was just a nightmare and that he would wake up any second, finding himself in his warm bed. And there would be no train, no creepy dolls talking to him. The only problem was that when he figured out that he was dreaming, he usually woke up. Why was he still there, if it wasn't real?
Something moved. Pages rustled. There was someone there, reading. He got up and tried to locate the sound. Soon after, he found someone sitting in the far corner, surrounded by books. It was a boy around his age— eighteen or so. He had blond hair that fell to his shoulders, was wearing black clothes and a rosary, was buried in a book about… Light couldn't see the cover.
"Uhh… hello?" he tried, and the boy looked up. He had bright blue eyes, was attractive enough to make Light aware of his own appearance (he had to look like something that just crawled out from under a bed), but a huge scar covered the left side of his face.
"Are you… Light Yagami?"
Light smiled, relieved; this boy seemed less weird than that grotesque doll. "Yes I am," he said, "and you are…?"
"I'm Mello."
Light reached out to shake hands, but Mello just stared and said what had been on Light's mind for quite some time.
"You shouldn't be here."
"But where is 'here'?! And if you say 'Wammy's House', I think I'm going to start yelling."
Mello tilted his head to the side, still staring. Then he smiled.
"I like you," he said. "But I don't know where we are… I think it's Hell. But that doesn't really make a lot of sense…"
"What do you know about this place?" Light was careful not to mention Beyond; he was desperate to know more and he didn't want to ruin it in case Mello reacted like Misa and that… thing.
"Not much. You should try asking L, though. He knows all kinds of things, almost as much as Beyond."
Light got eager. "Can you tell me anything about this Beyond?" The boy didn't seem to have a problem with the name.
"Yeah, Beyond's great, you know… I think he knows everything."
"Why are Misa and… Near" he forced the name out "afraid of him?"
"Because they're damn weak. They just can't stand a little pain, 's all."
"A little pain? But what does he do to you?" Light was more worried about what Beyond was going to do to him.
"Well, if you talked to Misa and Near, you probably think he's some sick freak who hurts people for his own amusement, but that's not true. He hurts us because he loves us and wants us to learn to be good." Mello reached unconsciously for the scar on his face as he spoke.
"Did he… do that to you?"
"Yeah."
"How? Why?"
"He set me on fire because I tried to escape. Fair punishment…" he trailed off and stared at something behind Light.
Before Light had a chance to turn around and see for himself, something sharp went into his neck and he lost consciousness.
-x-x-Room of Angels-x-x-
Alter ego
(Other I)
-End of Chapter Three-
A/N: Haha, cliff-hanger! But if you review there'll be another chapter within the next 24 hours :D
