Sorry this chapter is a little late, I stopped in the middle of last week, we went to New york on saturday to see family, and I slept in the next day and then had tennis for three hours, and we went out to eat. I was sleepy, but felt bad so I made this one a bit long and went back through to make it sort of like a final copy so it was a bit better then my usual writing.

If you want chapters of this quality, then just say so, but keep in mind that it will take longer.

MY SCHOOL IS OUT YAY SUMMER. (spaz)


The speed of dark


Chapter 9

Emily sat on her knees in the middle of an empty room. Sun light streamed in through the windows, yet it was cold and humid outside, so fog was misting the glass. The hardwood floors of the room had been the perfect place to start building with blocks on the second day of her arrival, so Emily sat in the middle of a small fort made with multicolored blocks of different shapes and sizes. The small building was carefully and meticulously built so that nothing was out of place. Just the way she liked it.

She picked up another block and stacked it, precariously leaning forward without balancing on her left hand. Just her luck, the door was slammed open, scaring her to death so that she fell over, flinching as she braced herself for the floor, blocks tumbling down after her. A larger hand found hers beneath the ruble and yanked hard, pulling her up. She opened her eyes to find Mello scowling down at her. He let go of her hand so she could safely sit on the blocks that had once been something magnificent to her.

"Yo, get up. We have class." He stated and spun around leaving the room. She sat, blinking up at the sunlight with dazed look on her face. She quietly mumbled a sorry and pushed herself up off the floor, dusting her knees off. Lately her dress had changed from jeans, a tee shirt, and a jacket, to black leggings and a light blue and white shirt that was extra long (but not wide) and looked more like a dress (A/N: Do you know what I'm talking about? Girls wear them all the time at my school, they are shirts that look like dresses.) . To finish it off, she wore black ballerina type shoes, with her dark hair in messy pigtails that sort of defeated the purpose, because her odds and ends bangs still hung in her face. The clothes were courtesy of her messy girly girl roommate, Tabitha, A ten year old French blonde.

Still in a crazy daze, she leapt gracefully from the pile of blocks into the hallway, following the essence of evil and destruction that followed Mello everywhere. She ran forward, letting her feet slide on the turns until she neared a doorway. She slowed to a skidding stop at the doorframe and quietly walked in.

The room was not as bright, but still had three windows and hardwood floors. A desk sat in the front, and rows of smaller desks which were usually only used by the top five students at Whammy's house. Five desks, three of which were presently occupied by Matt, Near, and Mello. Linda still had yet to show up, and she had arrived just now. She carefully glided between the rows of desks to one closer towards the back. On her first day, she had made the mistake of sitting in front of Mello (He had poked her in the back all day with a sharp pencil) and was careful not to do it again.

She let out a small sigh, staring out the window with a glazed over look on her face, waiting for the professor to show up. She swung her legs back and forth, because she was too short to reach the floor. Her left foot gently brushed against the surface of the glossy white board underneath her desk in a small rack. (AN: They have these things at my school where there's a metal rack under your desk to put books and binders in when you don't use them, so I'm not sure what the official name is) She frowned, remembering that she was still unable to talk to anyone here, as she was always too nervous. Stupid selective mutism she thought haughtily, brushing her messy bangs out of her face. The whiteboard was for communicating with other people, as not being able to talk wasn't exactly the greatest thing ever.

Linda practically skipped in the door, waving and yelling goodbye to somebody outside going to a different class. She carefully found herself a desk diagonally in front of Emily, then turned around, grinning.

"Hi, so, how are you?" she seemed especially hyper and ecstatic. Emily…not so much so.

She nodded, flicking her eyes back to the clouds outside the windowsill, praying that the conversation would end there. As long as nobody expected her to talk back, she was fine, feeling quite normal. But when the situation called for vocalization, her throught would close up and she would get really nervous.

Her small hands clenched as Linda spoke again. It wasn't that she disliked the older girl, it was just she couldn't stand loud, very outspoken happy people like her, who where often matriculate people with a need for order. The two girls were simply not compatible.

"So, where exactly is your room? I mean, I've seen you around her before, but really just glimpses, and hey, you know this boy Charlie? He's really cute, I think I might like him. I've got my English class with him, he's always been really sweet and-"

Emily decided she could stop paying attention there, and started to pretend, nodding and smiling in all the right parts, watching the older blonde girl as she spoke. But on the inside, this girl's run on sentences were now killing her. She felt a bit dead on the inside when Matt indirectly saved her from a horrible death by the hands of the English language.

"Ha ha, hey Mel, Linda likes Charlie!" He began to chant a tease around the girl as she made threats, denying and blushing a whole lot. Emily watched from the sidelines. As if not realizing it, she smiled.

"You should smile a lot more. Now you actually look happy. People's reactions to frowns are never good. Even chemical ones reacting to signals in the brain." It was a small quiet voice behind her, belonging to a certain white haired boy, who was, at the moment, stacking Legos. She spun around, a bit scared at first, but then realizing it was just him, and not a particular evil Russian man she had the bad luck of knowing.

"Apparently, your supposed to be third or forth in line. They haven't accurately tested you yet. Just a rumor, I think." She nodded slowly, wondering why he was talking to her. The day earlier, he had said nothing, and, judging from the permanent scowl on his face, she had been a bit scared.

"So exactly how old are you?" He asked, his eyes flicking up at her every once and a while.

She held up five fingers on her right hand, using her left to hang onto the chair she was sitting in, or better yet described, crouching in.

"You may call me Near, I'm 12 years old as of last December." She nodded, wondering what to say next. Or, what he would say next. A slight smile crossed her face as she thought of how this boy was the only one who seemed to respect the meaning of "personal space." He also seemed to know what the words "Inside voice" meant. She smiled shyly, watching his hands move as he built the miniature block tower on the desk. She counted the exact number of blocks on the desk in less then 5 seconds. Photographic memory came in handy sometimes.

"473..." she whispered softly to nobody in particular. Her eyes flicked back up to the older boy, and she realized that his scowl had returned yet again. He too, was watching his own hands as they created, concentrating his grey orbs fully on the task.

Her eyes blurred for a second, causing colors to mix together, and the florescent lights to swell. She closed her eyes, finding a haven in the darkness, and felt an odd falling feeling, like slipping into a dark pool of foreign substance. That was when the voices started.

"Ne, little sister, you need to grow. You are so short and tiny."

"Precious Emilliana, we are all very, very proud of you."

"That's OK. Because I know you still love me anyway."

"We should teach her to play the Piano!"

The voices kept talking, but they too began to blur together, causing her head to pound and fists to clench. They were mostly male, younger boy voices, and every once and a while, a woman's voice. But they soon tried to talk over each other, and it was too loud for her, why couldn't they stop? She tried clamping her hands over her ears, but she couldn't find her hands, she was completely numb. They were screaming about something now, and she could barely decipher it. Someone… Somebody was coming up the stairs…

Somebody had a butcher knife.

She opened her eyes, confused. The blurring and the voices stopped all at once… not even an echo in her head. The silence was over bearing, loud, if you know what I mean, until somebody broke it. Near, who had momentarily stopped stacking blocks, staring at her. Staring down at her? Wait...

"Emily, are you all right? You fell out of the chair. You look a bit pale too…"

She let out a small "Oh" and pushed herself up from the awkward position on the floor. She realized, slowly, that Near was the only one who had noticed, or cared, as Mello and Matt were still teasing Linda near the front of the room. She carefully slid back into the chair, muttering something about losing her balance.

Did you hear that? The imaginary people talking? Sounded a little too psycho to ask, so she stayed quiet, thinking.

Who had those voices belonged to?


Yeah.

Sorry this one is so late, again. But at least it's of better quality.

(gives cookie to all reviewers)

I CAN HAZ R&R PLZ?