Matsuda's heart raced.

There was a man in the wardrobe.

He lay slumped in its corner. He wore plain black slacks and a white shirt; the same white shirt Matsuda recognised from his first night. Most tellingly, wild black hair covered the man head, long bangs covering his eyes.

It was Mr. Lawliet.

But how?

"Mr Lawliet?" He asked softly, slowly climbing out of bed. His legs felt shaky, he knew they were betraying the fear he felt. "Mr Lawliet? What are you doing here? Was it you who was on the battlements a few days ago?"

The man did not answer but continued to lay stock still. Matsuda fell on to his knees and began to crawl towards the man, partially so his face was on the same level, partially because of his cowardly legs.

As he came closer, he could see the sharp features of Lawliet. His nose was pointed, he had high cheek bones and his lips were as thin and pale as the rest of his body. Hands than lay limply across his lap and the wardrobe bottom had freakishly long fingers. Looking back to the face, a red line of blood ruined the porcelain skin. Matsuda, forgetting his fear, rushed to the man.

"My God, what is wrong?" Grabbing the man's shoulders he shook the body, making Lawliets head roll back. His eyes were closed and deep set shadows lay underneath them. He threw up a mixture of blood and vomit. To his credit, Matsuda not only continued to hold him, but knelt down and looked more closely.

"Oh no, it's some sort of...of over dose!"

Matsuda knew little about drugs but before setting off to the city, his grandmother had ranted away to him about what the loser bums and druggies looked like. And boy, this guy sure did fit the bill!

Matsuda wasn't sure if it was marijuana, or heroin or what, but this guy needed help.

"Don't worry," he comforted his unconscious and cold stowaway, "I'm gonna get you help, just hold on."

Running just outside his room, he wrung on several bells hat would lead down to where the servants were. He had never used them before (they were for the Masters and Mistresses of this place, where he felt like a glorified servant,) but this was an emergency.

After pressing it desperately a number of times, he ran back to the man.

What did you do when someone was over-dosing?

Did you lie them back down?

"No, no," he thought, "I can't lay him back, there's sick in his mouth. Oh no he's so cold! Is he already dead? Should I check for a heart beat?"

But he did not. As little as he wanted to admit it to himself, he just could not bear the idea that here, in his room, someone was lying dead. It was too horrible t consider. Instead, he opted for his almost inexhaustible hope. Somehow this man had to be OK. He did not care why he was here or how he got in; he just needed this man to be alive and saveable.

He heard several feet coming up the stairs loudly and sullenly. Running out of his room, Matsuda came to the edge of the banister of the long winding stairs. Several floors below a maid was idly approaching.

"HURRY!" he screamed, "and get Watari on the way! There's a sick man up here! Hurry!" The girl immediately began to run as he went back to his charge.

Slightly calmer now knowing that back up was on the way, Matsuda focused on the man. It was definitely Lawliet. Was he the prowler? Matsuda had been certain it had been a good looking brunette, but the sun had been in his eyes when he had looked at the battlements. But what was Lawliet doing here?

"Mr. Touta, what is it?"

Masuda looked up to see Watari and an anxious Maid peeking over his shoulder.

"Isn't it obvious?" cried Matsuda with uncharacteristic but stress induced annoyance, "this man is..."

"What man?" Watari looked at him curiously. "Are you all right Sir? Have you hurt yourself?"

"No, I," Matsuda turned to where Lawliet lay, to see his was cradling in his arms nothing but a white, long sleeve shirt. He paled.

"I'm not insane," he said to Watari immediately. "I'm not! There was a man here! A man! Lawliet! The old teacher was here and he was ill!"

"M-Mr. Touta, I think it would be best for you to lie down...

"No!" Matsuda stood and held out the shirt, "whose is this? It isn't mine! Lawliet was here, in the wardrobe, he had been sick he was dying!"

Then the Maid fainted.

"Why has she fainted?" Matsuda demanded, "Why? What's happening?"

"You have likely frightened her!" Watari barked, seemingly losing his patience. "There is no Lawliet! He could not have gotten in here!"

"How? And why?"

"Because Lawliet is dead also."

There was a pregnant pause before-

"WHAT?"

Matsuda shook his head in disbelief. "This is too crazy. I need to write to Miss Amane." He decided. "Watari, I'm sorry but this is too much."

"You can't write to Miss Amane," pressed Watari in a tone suggesting that Matsuda was some kind of temperamental child he was trying to sooth. "She does not want to be disturbed; you told me yourself that was her specific command."

"Yes but..." Matsuda slumped on the bed, quickly losing his mental resolve. He had promised Miss Amane. That was his job. What would she think of him if he not only disobeyed her but also told her fantastical tales of dead men in his wardrobe that weren't really there?

"Come with me, Matsuda." Said Watari kindly, using the personal first name. "Come with me and I will tell you what I can."

Even though it was eleven thirty at night, Matsuda and Watari left Applegate side by side, their path lit only by a single lantern Watari held. It seemed the man knew the way, though Matsuda could not help but worry over who might be hiding in the darkness. Something about Applegate spooked him; the hallucinations were disturbing enough, but there was something about the actual landscape and building itself, not evil exactly, but Matsuda felt as if something were...waiting. Like a spider sitting in its web, calmly and collectedly waiting for the fly to get caught.

Through a dark lane they passed into the graveyard of the local church. Matsuda looked up at its crumbling precipices, the moon, fat and full, leering down through the holy towers. In the distance an owl howled and a fox shrieked. He did not like being out at night. Once again, the fact that he was a stranger to this land pressed heavily upon him.

"Mr. Lawliet," began Watari, "was not from here. He was...Italian or Russian or something like that. No one can really remember. What we do remember is that he was very odd, he was not one of us."

"He was different, like me?"

"No, no Sir. You are one of us! We consider you to be an ally. It was just, there was always something very wrong about Lawliet, and then when Light arrived there seemed to be some sort of odd obsession between them."

Matsuda thought back to the story of Hyancinthus and Appollo- Lawliet and Light.

"Did the boys know of their...relationship?"

"Obsession Sir, not relationship. It was too twisted, full of mind games and perversions to be called a relationship. I'm certain the boys were fine. They were very young. But was a relief when Lawliet died."

"How did he die?" Matsuda pushed, completely unconvinced that the boys had not been heavily involved in said 'mind games and perversions.' His talk with Matt after the Hyacinthus story was proof enough of that.

However, Watari was clearly going to continue to give half truths; whether it was due to typical British reticence, a desire to protect Miss Amane's and Applegate's good name or whether he was just something of a secretive man, Matsuda did not know nor at this stage care. What he did know was that things were very wrong in Applegate, and that meant bad things for his charges.

"He fell," the elderly gent replied after a brief but heavy pause.

"He fell?"

"Down the stairs. He broke his neck."

They paused in front of a grave.

Light Yagami

Beloved son

Taken too soon

R.I.P

1916-1933

"And he died of a heart attack?"

"He did, very unusual, Sir..."

"So Miss Sayu was correct in some of the things she said?"

"Well, yes Sir..."

Matsuda felt too stressed and tired. But still...

"Now Lawliets grave..."

Lawliets grave was even further out on the edges of the graveyard than Lights. His was covered in overgrown hedgerow. But, being foreign, Lawliet probably would have had no family in England. Matsuda could not help but morbidly think of his own grave. He too would be forgotten.

He shook his head- no time for negative thoughts!

L. Lawliet

Suicide

May God have Mercy on his Soul.

Unknown- 1933

Matsuda slowly looked at Watari.

"Fell down the stairs?" He repeated with more incredulity.

Watari, however, was unruffled. "He may have fallen or thrown himself..."

"Or," interrupted Matsuda, "did he take a load of pills before sitting in the wardrobe to die? What did Kira do to him? Did he break his heart, like he did to all those girls? Is that why Matt is so sad? What did those boys see happen in this house?"

As Watari merely looked at him as if he were a man going insane, Matsuda shook his head before asking to go home. An embarrassed and angry flush was spread across his face. He knew he wasn't losing his mind. He needed to find out what was happening and if his boys were in danger from a horrible past manifesting itself either in ghostly form, or in psychological trauma.

"That's it." He decided on the silent walk back to Applegate. "I'm taking control from tomorrow. If the servants won't help then fine, I'll do my own investigation and protect Matt my way."

A.N. Thank you Chyrsus for reviewing.

If anyone is wondering why Matsuda is so oblivious about drugs it's because during the Depression in America, whilst drug use increased, people knew very little about it. Marijuana would have been seen the same as heroin to a normal, innocent American boy.