I do not own Death Note. Ah, disclaimers, disclaimers...

Chapter 9. You're safe

They're everywhere.

Why are there so many?

No, wait. Just three. But it seems like hundreds...

I'm scared. I'm really scared.

I didn't do anything, did I? So why?

What do you want with me? Why wont you go away?

Please go away...

I don't like you... I'm tired... Just go away...

I can't take this anymore.

Mello shot up wide awake in his bed from the shriek that was coming from the bed next to him. It only lasted a second, but that did it. The boy was wildly confused and bewildered, the first thought that occurred to him is that someone's being murdered. But he quickly chased that thought away and looked at where the scream had come from.

Of course, there wasn't anyone else in the room besides him and Caitlyn. Maybe he had imagined it? But no, something was definitely wrong. It was dark so he couldn't quite see her, so he got up and moved closer. The moonlight from the window was bright enough to see when close enough.

And when he finally got a good look at her, he froze.

The girl's eyes were so wide, they seemed like perfect circles. And she was panicking. She shook so bad, it seemed she was on an electric chair or something. Then she finally stopped and screamed again. There was pure fright in her face. She began to move her body wildly, it looked like spasms. They probably where. She was panicking so bad, Mello had no idea what to do.

What the hell is wrong with her?

He moved closer and called her name.

''Lily?''

She didn't answer. She didn't hear him, in fact.

Mello got the courage and moved right next to her.

''Lily! Can you hear me? What wrong?'' He tried to get something out of her, but there was no response. Couldn't she hear me? But her eyes are open... The spasms just didn't stop.

''Lily, hey! Talk to me!'' He tried to grab her arms in order to stop her, it was no use. For a such a girl she was strong, or so it seemed. And hot. Mello noticed her body temperature was way higher than normal. Is she sick or something? What should I do?

He tried to calm her down as much as he could, but it was no use. She didn't listen to a word, nothing got through to her. Mello nervously clenched his fists and bit his lip. It was only a matter of time before he would start to panic. He had no idea what now. Should he go for help?

Like an answer to his thoughts, the door suddenly opened. Mello quickly looked and saw none other than Near. He was in the same outfit he was everyday, white pyjamas. He looked calm, but there could be seen concern with some sort of fright in his eyes.

He quickly went over to the kids and immediately asked ''What happened?''. His voice was monotonic like always, but a bit shaken.

''I have no idea, I woke up from her scream and I couldn't manage to calm her down.'' Mello spilled out the words. He momentarily forgot about Near being his rival.

''Lily, can you hear me?'' He calmly asked. ''Lily, it's me. Talk to me. Tell me what's wrong.''

''No use, I already tried that.''

Near thought for a moment, then suddenly and with the most confident and reassuring voice he could manage said:

'''Caitlyn, it's okay. They're not real. They won't hurt you.''

The girl suddenly froze at those words. She still shook, but the spasms had stopped.

''It's okay, Caitlyn.'' He repeated and slowly took both of her arms. ''You're safe. They can't get you. They wont get you. You know that. Remember what I had said? It's true, Caitlyn. Remember? They won't harm you. You're safe, Caitlyn. You're safe.''

Just then he noticed that the girl had tightly grasped his arms. It was almost painful. He managed to slowly free one of them and gently stroke her cheek, repeating the words "you're safe".

Her eyes were still wide, but her body had stopped shaking so wildly. Slowly her eyes began to close. She was calming down.

''How the hell did you manage that?'' Mello asked with shock and amazement.

Near didn't answer. He was intently looking at her and continued stroking her cheek, until her eyes were fully closed.

''She's got high temperature.'' He stated.

''Yeah, I already figured that out, genius.'' Mello said sharply with sarcasm in his voice.

''We must take her to the infirmary.'' Near ignored that. He tried to free his other arm, but he had trouble with that. She wouldn't let go. ''God, she's strong.'' He muttered.

When he finally got his arm out, he gently took her up. ''It isn't necessary for both of us to go.'' He said and looked at the other boy. ''You can go back to bed.''

''And why you're the one who'll take her there?'' He asked coldly. Not that he wanted to carry her, he just didn't want Near to be better at something.

''Because if she would have another panic attack, I'm the only one who would calm her down.'' He said simply.

Mello wanted to make some remarks, but Near had already gotten out of the room and head for the infirmary. He didn't know what would happen if he woke her up, and now she was still and calm, so it was no point in doing that. Besides, not that it was hard for him to carry her, she was quite light.

He went into the infirmary with Caitlyn on his arms. The room was brightly lit. There were about ten beds with white sheets. The nurse was sitting in front of a table and reading some sort of book. She looked up at the sound. When she saw Near carrying Caitlyn, she widened her eyes and immediately went to them.

''What happened?'' She asked tensely.

''She's got high temperature and only a couple a minutes ago she had fearsome spasms that lasted at least five minutes. Maybe more.'' He explained calmly. ''She's now unconscious.'' He added.

''Put her on the one of the beds.'' The nurse said to him and went to her cabinet to get necessary equipment.

Near did as told, laying her carefully. The girl didn't wake up at the commotion, if she was asleep that is.

The nurse first checked her temperature. ''My, 39.5 degrees Celsius. '' She muttered nervously. ''She needs aspirin.''

The woman took a syringe full of medicine and injected into the girls arm. Then she took a blood example and went into the lab, which was in another room. Near was watching Caitlyn all this time while sitting on a chair near her bed with one leg bended and placed to his chest. He just didn't feel it was safe to leave her now, even in the hands of that nurse.

She came back after a few minutes with some sort of papers in her hands. She was reading them intently and bit her lip when finished.

''What did the test show?'' Near asked emotionless. He did a good job of hiding what he felt.

The nurse was quite for a bit and examined the papers more. Then she looked at him and said ''The strange part is that nothing. Her blood is good, nothing out of order. It didn't show anything that could mean she's sick.'' She narrowed her eyes a bit at Caitlyn. ''Can you tell me exactly in what happened?''

''Well, I was laying in my bed, thinking, when I heard a short, about a second long shriek. At first I didn't do anything and just waited for what would follow afterwards. After about a minute there was another short scream, so I decided to see what was happening. It came from a near room, so I went into it. I saw Lily in her bed and she had terrible spasms in her whole body. Mello was trying to calm her down, but only I succeeded in that.'' Near explained.

''You said you calmed her down. Why did you think that'll work?''

''Because it was obvious she was panicking.''

The nurse bit her lip once more and thought. Finally she looked back at Near and stated ''It's not my specialty, but based on the blood test results and your story, I'm coming to the conclusion that she has a mental disorder, which is far worse than a regular illness.'' She sighed. ''For this we better call Marcus, but...''

But. Near knew exactly what she was talking about. Here children with mental disorders aren't really tolerated. If it's nothing too bad, on the first level, then it's fine, but then the child is kept under supervision, just in case it goes worse. Normally those kind of disorders can be healed. Near didn't know what particular kind Caitlyn had, but he had hope that he'll manage to fix her, or...

A/N: Alright, I'll leave it here. The next one will explain more about Caitlyn's problem. Oh, and she did a have condition, but it's not the same as a mental disorder, just to point that out.

Like I said before, it won't be long 'till I cross my two stories, I'm thinking about two-three chapters here and then BOOM. Anyway, if you want me to expand it more, please say so and suggest any ideas if you have some.

Sorry if I'm going too dark here, but I had to. Besides, for some reason I enjoy writing such stuff.

By the way, I'm not English, so I don't know many fancy words. I've read some stories with many of them and I had to translate most of them :D

Please tell me what you think! See you later!