Chapter 6

"Owen's frigging hot," said random movie girl as we rose from our seats.

Okay. So I'd gone to see the movie.

"Hell, yeah, he is," I agreed, shoving my hot dog wrapper into the garbage can while I walked by. Honestly, I didn't know her name, and I didn't really care. I wasn't big on talking to strangers anyways.

A black-haired boy rolled his eyes and shoved past us, and random movie girl flipped him off. "Jerk," she said angrily, and stomped out of the theater. I followed and headed to the parking lot, where my Jeep was parked right up next to the building. Lucky me.

The movie had put my mind at ease. As violent and intense as "Jurassic World" was, I totally loved the feeling of adrenaline and how I couldn't really think about anything else after seeing it. Basically, I didn't feel tense anymore, but I also didn't feel tired the way I did after watching a chick flick.

I pulled open the door to the Jeep and switched on the radio. Of course, I didn't pay much attention to what was playing - I think it was Green Day or something like that - but the background noise was nice and seemed to harmonize with the road and engine noises. It didn't, really, but I was in a good enough mood to think that it did and ignore it when it didn't.

It took me only a half-hour, give or take, to get home, and when I did, the heavy front door was wide open, though the glass door was shut. Adrian had probably been waiting for me. He certainly hadn't expected me to be gone for two extra hours to see a movie.

But maybe, I thought, he should be less irritating. Then he wouldn't have to wait for me.

I yanked my purse out of the car seat, feeling certainly less irritated than I had when I'd left home, though some of that irritation had come back. I really needed and attitude check and I knew that, but somehow, I didn't feel like Adrian really had the right to judge me for being irritated at him, even if it was for an entire day. I had done a lot for him and all I'd received in turn was a constant badgering to believe in the unreal. I was pretty sure it was okay to be frustrated.

And damn, was I frustrated.

Still, the part of me that liked Adrian as a person and wanted to be his friend wanted me to let it go. I know I'm not an incredible person, but sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be straight-up bad. Maybe then I'd have the ability to hold a grudge. But, as it was, I was having a difficult time holding this one for more than a few hours.

I decided not to struggle with it. Just to let it go. It would be one thing if I held grudges sort of naturally, but putting effort into it would probably make me an angry person. So when I get inside, I just… won't talk about it, I thought as I pulled the glass door open…

… to find that Adrian wasn't in the living room.

It seemed that it wouldn't be a problem, after all.

I dropped my purse on the couch and shut the doors behind me, then began to run up the stairs. It was only about nine, but I was already tired and a shower would be nice. Anyways, it had been a long few days that definitely warranted a long, hot shower and a decent night's sleep. What with all of the activity and the oddity of the past few days, I guessed that even Adrian would want some sleep.

I pulled the door to the attic and walked in, only to find that Adrian was crouched comfortably on my bed, reading a book.

More specifically, the seventh volume of Death Note. The one where he -where L - dies. "Adrian!" I exclaimed, feeling very distressed for a reason I couldn't name. But I wanted to think that my reason was that if he read those, books, he might become even more obsessed. Still, that didn't make sense even as I thought of it. If he was the superfan I thought he was, he'd read them before. He didn't need them anymore.

He glanced up from the book, his face almost expressionless. I don't know what I was expecting; fear, maybe? After all, he had just read the future of his supposed self, not to mention his death. "These books are rather…" He paused, his nose wrinkling. "... distasteful."

Of course he would think so. It was both funny and sad to realize that he was simply putting on a brave face. Otherwise, he would have been entirely cold to the situation, or else he would have overreacted. "Yes, but they're good. That's why people like you cosplay as their favorite characters," I answered lightheartedly, as if there was no problem at all.

Adrian ignored my jab and put the book down. "I see no reason to continue reading if it isn't real, as you have continually insisted."

He stood up and brushed past me while he hurried to leave. "Stay out of my room!" I called down after him, only to have the door shut in my face. "Whatever," I muttered coolly, turning my back to the door. It seemed as if we were destined not to get along, after all.

I was awakened not by the sound of Adrian running the shower, or by the odd taste of my own breath, but by the sound of my phone ringing on my bedstand. I moaned in frustration and slapped the wood of the small table in an effort to reach it without opening my eyes, only to realize that it was unfortunately impossible. I opened my left eye just a crack and peered over at the phone, gripping it in a tight fist and sloppily bringing it to the side of my head as I answered the call. "H'lo?" I slurred.

"Hey, Nik," said Lacey Jackson, and I sat up, my back straight against the headboard. "I've got those results back."

I felt my heart take a dive from my chest to my stomach and into my shoes, and I felt like a fish out of water. The idea of those results had me anxious. I didn't want to find out he'd been drugged, and I certainly didn't want to find out that Adrian had some kind of mental problem. How would I be able to convey that to him? It would be impossible to talk about, and the idea had me sick. "Okay," I answered bravely. "Lay it on me."

"Alright," Lacey began cheerfully, and I heard a shuffling of papers. I was on speakerphone, so I'd have to be careful about what I said. "Okay. Let's start with those blood tests. No signs of illegal drugs, but there were signs that he took sleeping pills and vitamins on a semi-regular basis." I frowned. Sleeping pills? Vitamins, too. He was an insomniac, and he wasn't into eating proper foods, so that was easily explained. Pretty devoted for a cosplayer. Is he a cosplayer? "Otherwise, his blood tests were fairly average, except that he seems to be on a permanent sugar high." I felt bile rising in my throat. All of this was reminding me a little too much of a certain manga character.

"Okay. What about his clothes?" I asked, remembering that we had brought them to her in a plastic bag.

"Now those were weird. The papers I got from the lab showed that bits of the clothing were doused in something similar to chloroform, but it's not an exact match and I've never some across it before. Whatever it is, he was probably knocked out with it." She paused, and I heard some more shuffling. "Nicolette, you should take this to the police."

"Yeah," I muttered, "I should. I will, I mean." I knew, in my heart, that it was a lie and that the police would never hear a word of this, but I was worried she'd send the test results to the station herself. "Today," I added. "Thanks, Lacey."

"Sure," she answered. "Take care of yourself kid." I was about to hang up, but she began talking again, her voice hesitant. "I did another test. You didn't ask me for it."

"Yeah?" I replied, feeling sick at the weird way her words came out.

"I had a friend of mine run his DNA. See if she could find matches, you know?" Lacey continued, and I began to gnaw at my lower lip. What if he was a criminal or something? What if he'd escaped from a psych ward?

"And?" I asked anxiously, unable to decide whether I wanted her to continue or not.

"No matches. Anywhere. There weren't even any partial matches worth looking at - meaning that his family aren't in any databases either. Nik, it's pretty likely that Adrian doesn't really exist - legally, anyways. The police can help." He didn't exist. How could he not exist? How can he not be on some missing persons database or something? He can't just… just not exist!

I wanted to scream from frustration, but I settled with biting my lip till it bled. "Thanks, Lacey," I muttered, and hung up without another word.

Nonexistent.

Sugar high.

Sleeping pills.

Adrian himself.

How am I to take all that?

By that point, I was already starting to believe him, but now, I felt like I was being pushed off the edge of the world - my world - or what I thought of it, anyways. It was like some outside force was trying to make be believe something wrong, simply because it couldn't be right. I believe in things that I could see and understand. I believed in things that were possible. And now, it seemed as if the lines between possible and impossible were blurred.

A little bit of faith can move mountains, but it takes a mountain of reason to move someone without faith.

And I had no faith in this stupid theory that Death Note was real and so was L. It would take more than a mountain to get me to really, solidly believe that he wasn't lying to me through his teeth. It would take a mountain to force me to have faith that this wasn't all some mistake. So in my heart, I wished for reality… or even a mountain. And in my mind, I wished I'd be careful what I wished for.

"I have already tried to explain to you why it is that I don't seem to exist," L - Adrian - said patiently.

"Yes, I heard you," I said madly, hugging the white softness of my pillow to my knees and my knees to my chest. I breathed heavily, as if in a rage, and buried my nose into the pillow. It smelled like hairspray, but that wasn't even at the back of my mind. I was far too concerned with other things for obvious reasons. "You're a fictional character and your acting father took care to wipe all traces of you from the face of the Earth. Yeah, that would make sense if it was actually possible."

"I don't understand why you won't believe me," he monotoned, and I wanted to hit him. Maybe he was a fictional character. A real person - their voice would have broken. They'd be upset. But Adrian just sat there, indifferent, like he was over it all, and I wanted to strangle him for ever catching my attention in the first place. Then I'd strangle myself for ever approaching him. I laughed madly into the pillow and glared up at him. I imagine I looked bad - eyes bloodshot, face flushed, hair a mess.

"What else is real?" I question, daring him to contradict me. "Is 'Paranormal' real? Maybe Naruto's real. If we sit still long enough, maybe we'll be attacked by ninjas or a nine-tailed fox."

"Maybe," he offered coldly.

"What's the matter with you?" I screamed, throwing the pillow at him and only feeling dissatisfied when it hit his head and bounced neatly to the floor.

"What's the matter with you?" he echoed calmly. "I've done nothing wrong. All of the evidence your friend - the scientist - showed you seems to support my version of the truth. Perhaps I'm tired of people who won't look at what's right in front of them."

"So now," I gasped, digging ragged nails into the skin of my calves and leaving painful red marks there, "now you're going to tell me that you - that if this had happened in reverse, you'd believe this?" I could hardly believe what he was implying. The mixture of rage and confusion seemed to be drowning me. I only wanted it to stop, no matter how.

"Yes," he replied simply, causing my face to flush even further as I sank my nails into my skin again. "I believe I would. It is best to keep and open mind relating to these things."

I took a deep breath in as I threw my head back. "Well, you're just perfect, aren't you?" I yowled, jumping up and slamming my heels into the hardwood, causing a crashing noise that the neighbors would probably hear. But I could only take so much. The testing of my sanity on top of Adrian's 'I'm perfect' routine was more than I could take. "Maybe you should find someone perfect like you to spend time with, you fucking asshat!"

Apparently my excessive - for me, anyways - swearing was enough for Adrian to know I'd had enough. Or maybe it was the fact that I was clearly close to kicking him out. But his eyes, small steel-colored rings around bloated pupils, widened and he pressed his lips together. Then his mouth opened slightly, and his muscles tensed nervously. I had confused him. Silly as it was, I felt a small and thrilling sense of victory. "Nik, I'm sorry, I -"

And that's where time seemed to stop. Do I let him continue? Do I let him stay here even longer so that I can spend even more time trying to figure out who he is while he distracts me with his constant talk of fiction? It would, of course, be rude to cut him off, but I was beginning to wonder if his presence here was good for me at all. Then again, with my intensifying doubts, I didn't want to make him go, either.

I began to wish really, really hard for a mountain, something that would absolutely prove whether he was lying to me or not.

It was unfortunate, really, that right then, God or whoever was actually there was listening to my mind babble. So my wish got granted in something like a split second, right then, in the middle of Adrian's sentence. You could almost say that Adrian was saved by the gods. God. Whatever. Because right then, there was the sound of a car door slamming, and I instantly went into panic mode. "Omigod it's my foster parents they're gonna kill me," I said without pause, grabbing Adrian by the back of the neck and dragging him into the guest room.

"Nik, perhaps we can -"

"Shaddup 'n stay here," I slurred, slamming the door in his face after pushing him in further. I rushed to the front door. When I pulled it open, I noted a shocking sight - my foster parents' car wasn't there. They aren't here. Then who...?

I know what you're thinking. Maybe it was a neighbor, dipshit. Something like that, right? Wrong. My neighborhood hardly counted as a neighborhood. Most of the houses were at least 25 yards apart from each other and for my neighbors and I, it was probably closer to fifty. I wouldn't have heard them closing a car door, or even slamming it. So it was definitely my car door.

I swallowed my fear and walked outside, my heart thudding erratically in my chest. Someone had been looting my car or something! What if they were dangerous? I had to pull myself together before wandering to my car. I didn't even have to open the door to see what had gone missing.

The last clear image I saw before that sharp blow to the back of my head was the passenger seat. At first it didn't register, but in the instant that I was knocked out, I realized: that creepy doll was gone.

Hey guys! I planned to have this posted yesterday but then I ended up rewriting chapter seven (and you all know that I always have at least one chapter written in advance, as I've mentioned it before). Still, this has been a relatively fast update, and it's possible that the next one will be as well.
I guess that's a good thing since I said earlier on in this story that I would be slow to update.

And now for a very important, very exciting announcement! Remember last chapter when I mentioned my idea, in which another author would write a story similar to this one, but with Light and an OC. Eventually, the two of us would collab.
Well, this idea is now official! Luna Bass and I have been discussing this via PM and they will be writing this other story. The first chapter is not up yet, but keep your eyes peeled (;

On a much less important note, I had someone ask me how old Nik was a while back as I've only generalized her age and Adrian's (L's). I did say her birthdate but haven't specified when this fic is taking place. While I have (rather stupidly) never written this down, I think of her as being about 17.