A/N: Hello, guys. As you can tell I am a little bit depressed about this story and not very eager to post. Sorry if it's an inconvenience. This is the actual last chapter I have completely written at the moment, so...updates will be even scarcer. Sorry. I don't see myself writing it anytime soon.

Burning in red, in red, in red

Erasing everything, everything

And unfulfilled illusion begins to move

Strongly, strongly

Overcoming, overcoming, overcoming the fleeting night

And I certainly can't escape, even if I drown in my sins

ON/OFF – Futatsu no Kodou to Akai Tsumi

Chapter Ten – Library

I should have followed Quinn out of the bathroom to make sure she wasn't going to kill Pyre, but she doesn't know her full name. I've seen Pyre's lifespan, and she outlives Quinn. But that's not to say that Quinn won't write her name down for a later time. Instead, I stand in the hallway and wonder what had come over me. What inclination I had to save Pyre from death. Was Quinn right in her scornful assumption? Do I love her? She'd never even spoken to me before, but I am sure that my threat had been genuine. If Quinn tries to kill Pyre, I'll do anything to prevent it. Even if what I had heard about Gelus had been correct.

I put a hand up to my face, over my eye, pushing my hair away. Maggots squeak irritably but they seem to have sensed my disquiet.

I remember talking to Rem, shortly before she left for the (beautiful) Human World. She was a relatively mellow God. She wasn't horrifyingly ugly and I tolerated her even more than Ryuk. She had said that Gelus had died to save the life of a human. She said that if a God kills a human in order to lengthen their life, then the God would die. She said such a sacrifice was associated with love. Gelus had been in love with a human.

I myself had offered to save a human – did that mean I was in love? Some part of me had remembered the fate of Gelus, even as I threatened Quinn. So I had known what I was in for. And I'd still gone through with it. Is that enough to determine my feelings? I certainly respect her…she may be loud and obnoxious and overbearing, but it seem to have struck a chord within me. She was just odd enough to have intrigued me. I certainly haven't acted like I am in love with her. I just don't hate things as much as I normally would when I'm around her.

And what was it Ryuk had said..? "And what about that girl? Gone soft?" What if he hadn't been referring to Quinn when he said that? Had he seen something in me that I hadn't even realized? The entire realm was watching – that's what he said. I'd become a joke. Did they all see it?

Intrigue or love (beautiful)…that wasn't the point. The point was that I had already told Quinn that I would do it. And I would. It doesn't matter what the reason is. The outcome is the same.

If I save Pyre, I'll die.

When I walk into the cafeteria, it certainly doesn't seem like Quinn had threatened to kill Pyre. Maybe that had been in another time. On another planet. In another world?

But no – the tired lines are present on both Quinn and Pyre's faces. Pyre is flicking her eyes to Quinn, who isn't looking at anyone. The rest of the table is behaving normally. Chloe isn't eating anything. Thompson is spearing peas as if they were aliens and he was training trident-throwing for when they invade. Aidan is pretending that a half of a bitten carrot is surfing on waves of amorphous mashed potatoes.

I cross the room and stop behind Pyre, hovering there protectively. I know Quinn sees, by the way her mouth twists in anger. I mimic her look of displeasure, and she just looks angrier. Pyre doesn't know the war she's in the middle of. Ignorance is bliss. I could take a page from the Death Note and she'd be able to see me. That's not against the rules. But it'd likely piss Quinn off and complicate my efforts to help Pyre. And something about that idea makes me anxious. I don't want her to be able to see me. I can imagine the feelings of a human who knew that a Death God was in love with them. It's similar to my previous feelings of being associated with a human.

Disgust.

She'd be disgusted by me.

And as I said before – I don't want the only thing I'd ever found (beautiful) appealing to disappear from my life.

I don't leave her side the entire time the rest of the table eats obliviously.

After they finish, Pyre pulls Quinn to the side and says something I didn't expect.

"Hey, Quinn. I'm so bored. Want to go to the library with me? I still haven't managed to get my websites unblocked, but I've got some magazines hidden in the reference section. "

I'm impressed. Pyre can act. And if she suspected that Quinn wanted her dead, she'd still be convincing. I have good taste in humans. But what is she hoping to gain by this?

An odd look comes over Quinn's face, and I narrow my eyes as she accepts.

The library is enormous. There is staff present to chaperone patients, but it's easy for Pyre and Quinn to slip to the back without anyone insisting to follow them around. For once I wish the staff was more vigilant. It'd certainly help my efforts. It is odd to see Quinn following Pyre of her own free will, but since Pyre doesn't know Quinn heard her accusations, it would be less suspicious to act normally and drag her along. But since Quinn does know, such an action may have been all the provocation Quinn needed.

Quinn's sanity is teetering, so it is best to walk on eggshells.

Pyre stops suddenly, and Quinn bumps into her. I want to throttle her for not paying attention and being dumb enough to touch Pyre in front of me. The King of Death had forbade me to use my Death Note – I've already disobeyed him plenty, but I wonder if I could actually use it to write Quinn's name. I'd die immediately after in any case. If it didn't work, then my only option was to kill her with other means. And that was a crime punishable by the worst kind of death. I'd be destroyed into Nonexistence. Yes. I would have to kill her with something other than the Death Note, just in case it wouldn't work.

"This isn't the reference section," Quinn says flatly. Pyre is turned away from Quinn, and I see her features darken momentarily before she grins and faces her animatedly.

"I know! But there were too many people in the front of the library to risk it," she says. Her eyes turn to crescents to match her smile. The only sign of her anxiousness is her locked knee – there's a muscle twitching in her upper leg. Quinn doesn't notice. Pyre continues cheerily, "And the back of the library is so much more beautiful, don't you think? It's full of old books and newspapers," she throws her arms wide and spins in a circle, "and it'd go up in a second if I were to drop a match. We'd both die." She stops spinning and beams challengingly at Quinn. Quinn's face is impassive, but she turns away, hunching her shoulders.

"Please," she whispers. Her voice sounds tearful. Angrily skeptical, I circle around to see her face. Her eyes are laughing maniacally, and the corners of her mouth are twisted into a cruel smirk. When she speaks again, she manages to sound just as pitiful. The triumph on her face doesn't waver. "Please don't…my…my mom. Please don't' talk of death…," she whimpers.

"You crazy bitch," I hiss, narrowing my eyes. Her own dart up to me, laughing silently with barely contained mirth. I look past her to see what Pyre is doing. She looks confused and hesitant, clenching her fists and breathing gently through her mouth.

Hot anger of Quinn's deception claws the inside of my chest, and I seize a fistful of the sickly human shell that contains the despicable pest. I lift her to eyelevel and her head slams into the shelf behind her. The smug look has disappeared, and her features are shocked.

"You sick, twisted freak," I spit, my voice rising. I am aware of Pyre gasping and stepping back a few feet, into a row of books, but she stops there. To her eyes, Quinn is seemingly dangling in midair and turning blue. Through my ire, I am coherent enough to reason what Pyre must be thinking, and I can't blame her for her reaction. I'm 'Mr. Phantom' to her. She only ever knows me defending Quinn, like the first day in the bathroom. That's probably where her fear from earlier was coming from – she thought I'd be on Quinn's side, and she had to worry about an unseen entity instead of just a scrawny blonde weirdo.

The thought that I was scary would've been pleasant several months ago, but now I just feel weary resignation.

"Anathema," Quinn sputters. One eye is scrunched shut in a grimace, and a thin trail of blood is coming from her lips. She must've bit herself when her head hit the shelf. I am somewhat proud of that. "Let go!"

"How about 'no'," I growl as she transitions to purple. I tighten my grip, steeling myself for the consequences that will come with her death. My murder of her.

"…"

"…Anathema?" I glance down to see Pyre looking up to where she thinks my eyes are. I adjust myself automatically to accommodate her, even though she can't see me. I tune out Quinn's attempts to get air into her lungs and focus on Pyre's face, knowing full well I should pay attention before Quinn dies and I have to be killed in turn.

"You can hear me, right?" She smiles in a self depreciating way, like she's doubtful of herself and is speaking only to air. "…you probably should let her go. I don't know why you're doing that, but she's turning all shades of the rainbow."

She asked – no – she told me to stop. But she doesn't know the danger she's in when Quinn is alive. Wouldn't her opinion be different then? I'm puzzling out a way to communicate this to her when she continues.

"I assume you attacked her because she was lying about her mom. I know she killed her. But Quinn shouldn't die. I think it'd just make problems for the people she killed. Because suddenly she'd be alongside them in Death, or whatever afterlife there may be. Personally, I wouldn't be happy if I was dead and suddenly my murderer was beside me."

If she could hear me, I'd contradict her. As a Death Note owner, Quinn would go to Nothingness.

"I don't know if that's true, but please let her go," she presses.

With one final, hasty deliberation, I do. Quinn drops to the ground. Too weak to catch herself, her legs buckle and her head thunks back into the bookshelf. If she wasn't already unconscious, she is now.

Pyre claps her hands over her mouth and nose. For a brief moment, I feel a flash of terror. Had something happened? What had I done? And then I see that she is fighting to smother her snorting laugh.

My jaw drops as she falls onto her back and pulls her legs up, rolling around laughing.

(Beautiful)

"Oh, my God!" she shouts, tears rolling down her face. "Did you hear the sound her head made? Thwonk! No – thumk! That's not it either…"

I stand in shock for a few moments as she attempts to replicate the sound of Quinn's skull hitting the shelf before she finally quiets and rolls onto her hands and knees. She looks up solemnly.

"Thank you, Anathema."

I'm unsure how to respond, or even feel. She's looking too far to the left. I twitch my shoulders in a shrug and grunt. She doesn't see of course.

She stands up and looks down at Quinn.

"I don't see any marks. I should go get a nurse. Stay here, okay?" She is addressing the books a few feet to my side and I snicker.

I listen as Pyre feeds the nurse some rag about Quinn's medication making her drowsy, and how she had just sort of collapsed against a bookshelf. The nurse takes Quinn to her room to lie down.

Pyre had to go out and spend the day with her brother, so I'm alone beside Quinn again. I throw a glance at the wall where the Death Note is hidden. I moved it after she killed her mother, and she was in no state to see where I had put it. If she wanted to kill Pyre, she'd have to punch the wall several times to find it. I am relieved at the small buffer of insurance I have in that regard.

Quinn finally wakes up in the early evening. That bookshelf must've been pretty solid. She sits up dazedly, looking at Pyre's empty side of the room. Her bandanna was on her bed, so she must've returned while we were both sleeping. Maybe she was out in the recreation lobby with the others.

I look the other way moodily as Quinn slides out from under the sheets. She crosses the room, so I watch covertly, wondering what she's doing. Quinn picks up the bandanna. It's folded intricately, leaving small, almost invisible little pockets. A few matches spill out. Quinn's face splits into an eerie sideways grin. It fades almost instantly into a small, sane smile that is equally malicious.

"Hey Anathema," she says. Her voice has that same demented hitch to it – it's more prominent now that it is sugar coated in fake sweetness. You know what it's capable of, but you can't believe that it'd actually do it. Like a rattlesnake that doesn't warn you when it's about to strike.

You crazy bitch.

I ignore her pointedly. She smiles wider, looking like a poisonous toad, and walks past me. She raps her knuckles against the wall, listening carefully. She doesn't hear anything interesting, so she moves on. I feel hot coals settle in the pit of my stomach. She's looking for the Death Note. Is she able to find it like that? There's something horrifying about the way she confidently knocks against the wall, and leans in to listen. Like she knows that, with some inexplicably cold intelligence, she'll get to it eventually. Like it's assured.

Like it's inevitable.

She's a few feet shy of the Death Note's hiding place when she steps away from the wall and directs her smile towards me. Disgusted, I avoid looking at where the Death Note is. That's probably what she wants. She walks back to her bed and lies down, closing her eyes. Her smile reminds me of Jakes. Perhaps some part of his soul had latched onto hers after she'd killed him. But that thought is fleeting. I don't even think that's possible. Two people can have the same cold smile.

I glance up at her lifespan, then phase out of the room to look out of a window. It's beginning to turn to blackness outside. This is her last day. So it will happen in the next five hours.

According to Pyre's lifespan, she doesn't die for quite a long time. But several lifespans in this building…they all end on this day as well, right alongside Quinn. I know I can do nothing to help them. So I make my way to the recreation lobby, where Pyre is entertaining Chloe and Thompson with her story from the day. Aidan is slouched down on the couch. He doesn't seem to mind the stain. After Pyre's story ends, she walks off down the hallway, to the bathroom. Confident in her lifespan, I decide not to follow her.

I'm only there for a few minutes before I realize.

Not the Death Note.

Two nurses, Anna and Katherine, walk out from behind the nurse's station, looking confused. Chloe, Thompson and Aidan all stop what they are doing and look up, towards the ceiling.

Not the Death Note.

Fire.