I am Mail Jeevas
and this is my story, for those who'd care to listen.
Written by ZoeticCaracal
I do not own Death Note nor do I own any character or house for gifted children that appears in Death Note. All I own is the idea for the story, and this is for pure, nonprofit fun.
Enjoy!
She wanted us to kill for her.
And she knew how to make us bend to her will.
"Y-you want us to kill someone for you?!" I choked out in surprise. I glanced out of the corner of my eye to see that Rose was stiff with shock, and the look of utter disbelief on her face would've been funny if the situation wasn't so serious. "Listen here, Lady, we're not murderers! We're thieves, hackers, and occasionally robbers. Not killers, murderers, or any other term for the act of ending someone else's life!"
The Lady sat in her office chair patiently during my semi-rant, a bemused look on her face. "I'm aware of your lack of experience in the field," She started once I was done, "But I'm also aware of some… Very interesting things about the two of you."
"The hell is that supposed to mean?" I nearly flinched at the threatening tone in Rose's voice. She was always able to keep up her calm demeanor, and for it to break meant something very bad was going on. Something other than the Lady wanting us to kill someone for her.
"A little messenger told me that you two are natives of Whammy's House for the Gifted, yes?" The woman answered, a sly smile spreading across her face. At that moment, I felt the sudden need to throw up. How the hell could she know we were from Whammy's? That kind of information was kept guarded at all times, for fuck's sake! "Unfortunately, I'm not obligated to reveal my little messenger or how they know, but rest assured that I do know."
"But there are tons of Whammy grads. So, why us?" Rose asked, doing her best to try to contain herself. If she hadn't, I bet she'd be bristling like one pissed off cat. The Lady simply smiled at her, that smile that let us know she was pleased, and opened a drawer in her desk. She pulled out a square piece of paper and held it up for us to see it.
"Because I have this." She answered. For a moment, we were both too shocked and horrified to speak. The paper was actually a photograph, and in that photograph was a brunette girl who appeared to be seventeen or eighteen years old. Rose. She had a picture of Rose.
"How did you get that?" I asked, finally able to find my voice. Rose was utterly silent.
Let's take a moment here to clear up any confusion about why the picture is so devastatingly important. For one, we were living in the era of Kira, where it wasn't a very well-kept secret that the creature could kill someone just by seeing their face. Second, the Lady probably had people who could easily leak that picture onto the internet with a bogus charge attached to it. Therefore, if Kira caught sight of it, Rose would be a dead girl.
"Like I said, I cannot reveal my sources on how I came to own this tasty little treat." The woman answered, a grin of triumph plastered on her face. I've never wanted to punch someone so bad in my life. I closed my eyes for a moment and mulled things over.
"…So, if we kill the guy for you, you'll get rid of the picture?" I finally asked, my voice quiet. The situation, in the end, was simple. The Lady had handed us an ultimatum; Kill a stranger of her choosing or have Rose die.
"Yes. If you successfully kill the target, I'll hand the picture over and we'll all continue on our way." The Lady agreed, pleased that I had apparently figured things out.
"Then, who do you want us to kill?" I forced myself to say. I could see the shocked look on Rose's face, and I watched as it changed to one of grim acceptance. She knew there was no changing my mind. And I wasn't going to let Kira get to her. I wasn't going to let her die like she does every night in my nightmares. It wasn't an option.
"Now now, let's not get ahead of ourselves here." The Lady answered, laughing in a way that can only be described as somewhat psychotic. Which she probably was. "First things first, darlings. Saturday night, at 8 o'clock, meet my men at the same place you did tonight. That gives you about two days to prepare yourselves. Oh, and make sure you pack all of your things, because you won't be coming back to London for a while."
"Fine." Rose replied in a surprisingly strong voice. She stood up from the chair and calmly looked at the Lady. "Are we finished now?"
"Hm… I suppose we are. We'll go over the rest of the details the next time we meet. Bryan!" The man with no accent immediately walked into the room as if he'd been expecting her to call for him at that exact moment. "Take them back." The woman informed him and the man nodded. I stood up and followed him and Rose from the room.
"Ta-ta for now, darlings!" I heard the Lady call after us, followed by a round of insane giggles. I remembered thinking, 'What have we gotten ourselves into? Why didn't I back out when I had the chance?'.
Why didn't I? I'm sorry, I still don't know the answer. I wish I did. Oh, how I wish I did.
I was again visited by Kira in my dreams.
But this time, it was different.
When we finally got back to the hotel room, the first thing we did was collapse onto our respective beds and fall asleep. We were both thoroughly exhausted by the events of the night.
My dream that night was different. Kira again made an appearance, but even at the start I knew it'd be different from the dream I was used to.
Rose was standing in the middle of a room filled with her namesake flower, all of them various colors. Kira then suddenly materialized behind her in all of his monstrous glory. I started running towards her, trying to warn her about his presence, but she couldn't hear me.
Suddenly, Kira cut through her with his scythe; it passed through her body like it was made of air. A hand went to her chest and the brunette crumpled to the ground. I immediately knew what was happening. A heart attack; Kira's method of choice. When I made it to her side, I folded her into my arms and looked down at her, begging her to stay with me.
Rose looked at me, the light slowly fading from her eyes. "Why me?" She asked softly. "Why me?"
Then she died in my arms.
I woke up trembling and chilled thanks to the cold sweat I'd broken out in. I ran from the bed and barely managed to make it to the toilet before hurling whatever had been in my stomach upwards and out. When the fit was over, I cleaned myself up and lit up a cigarette to try to calm my nerves.
I don't know if you've noticed by now, but by that point I was really hating Kira. First he took Mello from my life, and now he threatened to take Rose as well. But if he took her, it'd be permanent. So utterly permanent. The thought threatened to send me into another bout of sickness.
We were leaving for a mystery destination.
Neither of us would return to London again.
All too quickly Saturday night was upon us. We'd spent all Friday and the first half of Saturday packing and making our preparations. I didn't tell Rose about the nightmare, but the effects of it stayed with me.
"Everything ready?" I asked Rose while leaning against the doorway of the hotel room. The brunette hiked her bag onto her shoulder and gripped a suitcase in each hand. Determination burned in her eyes. She nodded.
"Everything's ready." And we left. We met the men outside just like we had two nights prior. They helped put our bags into the back of the van, and then we climbed into the backseat. When we were settled, the men handed us both a passport and told us we'd be riding a plane with them to our destination.
Then, when we reached the nearby airport, we were finally given our plane tickets. The men ushered us quickly through all the security stops and checkpoints that were mandatory before the flight, so we didn't get a chance to look at the destination just yet.
We made it through just as our flight began boarding, and we found our way onto the plane at last. We were led to our seats and then we sat down. Rose and I were a row away from the two men who were apparently taking the flight along with us.
Finally, we had a moment to sit and digest everything that had happened.
"We're going to Los Angeles, right? Isn't that in America?" Rose asked. I didn't bother asking when she'd found that out. Our tickets had been taken before I could get a good look at them. But then again I wasn't really paying attention to anything around us.
"Yep, it is. I guess we're LA bound, princess." I answered, looking out of the window beside us. Already we were beginning to lift off.
We were LA bound, and nothing would be the same again.
Author's Note
Sorry for the long wait, guys, it just took a while to plan everything out. My original version of this story didn't have anything about Rose in it, so everything with her is being written as I go along.
I hope this doesn't feel rushed or anything as I was trying to get an update out. I hope it was worth the wait, though!
And I've never ridden an airplane before, so the last part was summarized a bit. Sorry about that.
But yes, thanks for reading the story this far! And thanks for all of the reviews and favorites and follows! It means a bunch to me!
~Zoetic