Expectations

Near and Beyond Birthday

"Wait Near!"

"Near, come back!"

I kept running, ignoring whoever was shouting me. I had enough for one day, I wasn't going back.

They always acted so surprised whenever I shouted at them, or ran away. They expect me to be a blank slate, an expressionless mask.

They expect me to be like L.

No ones like L, no one will ever be like him.

I'd been running for about 20 minutes now, and my feet were really sore. looked down to discover I'd forgotten my shoes in the hurry to get away from the examination hall. My feet would surly bleed.

I slowed my pace to a stop and looked around. I'd been running blind with and I realized I had no idea where I was. The buildings here where tall and squashed tightly together, blocking out alot of light. It looked as though no one had lived here in years, and an eerie silence filled the narrow streets.

Slowly, I started to walk further up the street, in no hurry to get back to the house. I noticed most of the windows in the houses were boarded up and glass jars lay all over the place.

Wait, Jars? Not bottles?

I bent down to examine one, yep, it was a glass jar, the kind Linda used to clean out her paintbrushes.

How strange.

Suddenly, I heard a sound. It was a sort of rushaling, coming from a tiny alley in between two of the flats.

It was getting closer, I held my breath and stood totally still, then a huge hairy black thing jump out of a bin and tackled me!

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I shouted, trying to fight it of. After a minute of struggling I opened my eyes to confront my attacker.

It was a little black cat. I'm such a genius huh?

"Nya!" I swear it frowned at me, before Turing tail and running off. I laughed shakily at my panic and picked myself up, dusting of my white trousers.

"You can't acted so irrational Near, that's Mellos job" I told myself, shaking my head

"Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness my little friend. Trust me I would know"

Okay, that definitely wasn't the cat. I turned around slowly, and looked towards the alley again.

Two menacing red eyes stared back at me.

"Hello"

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I was getting good at this screaming lark

The creature ran from the shadows and slapped its hand over my mouth, silencing me.

"No point screaming Nate, no one will hear you, hehehehhehe"

"How do you know my name!?" I tried to say, but because of its hand it came out more like "hu dos oo now mo nam?"

I tried to see who the person was, but they were behind me, an arm around my waist so I couldn't escape and of course the other at my mouth. I was guessing it was a man by his voice, but that's all I knew.

"I'll move my hand away, if you promise not to scream.." He said, his voice a calm drawl "Deal?"

"bweal"

He slowly lowered his hand and the second his grip was loose I sprang away, Turing to face him. And what I saw was sure a surprise

"L?"

"What?" The mans face lit up like I'd just told him he'd won a million pound. "did you just call me L?"

He stepped forward and I realized I had been mistaken. I this light I could clearly see the man had darker skin, and his hair was far neater than L's. But what I really noticed was, his eyes were a deep blood red, and memories from all the horror movies me Mello and Matt had watched behind Rogers back came to mind.

He was advancing on me now, huge grinned plastered on his face.

"Oh s-sorry, you just look a little like a friend of mine is all.." I muttered, walking backwards

"I know L! I've met him! He.." The man said, and suddenly his smile clouded over and he whispered the next part "He knows me"

Alright, this man was clearly insane. Maybe I should run? yeah that seemed a good idea

I turned while the madman was busy staring at the ground and belted-it back the way I had come, fear making me faster it seemed.

I turned to see if the man was following me, but he was no where in sight. This can't be good

"That was rude you know"

I'd been running while facing backwards (see, genius) and had apparently ran right into the mans open arms.

"Let me go!" I shouted, failing around and kicking him, but without my shoes I was really doing more damage to myself than him.

"Calm down Nate, I want to hear how Ellies been getting on without me!" He said, grip tightening so much I started to get dizzy

"Can't...breath" I gasped

I heard the manic laughter of a man clearly derange, before blacking out

---

"Finally, a little company... dont worry Nate River, a friend of Lawli's is a friend of mine"

TO BE CONTINUED

That is, if i get reviews.