"A book in the courtyard? Augustine, don't you think that's a bit-"

"What did I tell you?" Bending down, she picked up the book and examined the cover of it.

"Death Note, how morbid." She playfully joked, shoving it into her backpack.

"You won't let me see it?"

"Not right now, I reckon we get going to your house." Down the street, they barely spoke. Her loud thoughts had quieted down, leaving Light to make conversation. Close to his house, Augustine's phone began ringing, forcing her to pick up.

"My... My mom wants me home, I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry, I'll see you later." Reaching his hand out, she met him halfway and squeezed his hand, pressing a chaste kiss to the corner of his mouth as he smiled boyishly.

She walked home alone as it got colder, Augustine stalled as long as she could. Going home wasn't easy anymore.

Entering the quiet home, she sighed and heard her mother in the kitchen arguing with her father. The cigarette smoke could be smelt from the doorway, no surprise. Removing her shoes, she started up the stairs until she heard her name being called.

"Come down here, we need to talk."

"I'll be right back down." Swallowing the lump of fear in her throat, she continued to her bedroom where she set her bookbag down and removed her jacket and school blazer before returning. In the kitchen is where she found her mother and stepfather as well as her father.

"What's the matter?"

"The next school break you have you'll be going back to the US with your father."

"But my boyfriend..."

"Does it look like I care, Augustine?"

"No, it doesn't." Maybe he'd be willing- who am I kidding, Light has cram school and he'll never be up for leaving his parents.

"When is the next break?" Lorenzo, her father asked as he leaned against the counters.

"It should be soon... Christmas break and New Year."

"That's when you'll come back with me, Augie. Perdón por darte sorpresa así."

"No ay problema, pa."

"Speak English or Japanese, not Spanish."

"Sorry mom."

"Don't be so hard on her Sayuri."

"She's a hardhead, doesn't ever listen. I know just where she gets it from too." Sayuri blew the smoke away from them and waved her daughter away once more. Augustine returned upstairs and sat at her desk, pulling out the Death Note and opening it to the rules page.

"The human whose name is written in this note shall die." Reading further, she began to get nervous at reading the following rules.

"This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people with the same name will not be affected."

"If the cause of death is written within the next 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen."

Three days later

Augustine had opened the Death Note every day since she'd gotten it, but she hadn't written anything in it. Reading the rules had spooked her but she decided maybe she shouldn't have picked it up at all.

Izumi Sato will get into a fight with Sayuri Sato and her ex-husband over their daughter and custody before killing her and himself at 11.

That night, she realized 11pm had passed and frowned, nothing had happened. There was no arguing. No screaming, nothing happening.

What did I expect? It's a fucking notebook.

The next morning, during school, she had gotten bored and listened to the teachers drone on and on. Light watched her, puzzled by her behavior. Augustine loved her father more than she'd ever love her mother and stepfather, the two of them together was more toxic than her parents still being married.

The police stepped into the classroom, her posture tensed up as they whispered back and forth with the teacher before both sets of eyes were set on her. Tapping the end of her pencil, the teacher waved her over. The expression dropped as she stood and slowly walked over. Outside of the classroom was where they broke the news to her. Her mother and stepfather had died, murder-suicide was what they were calling it; Augustine's heartbroken expression was only half genuine. Now that they were dead, there was no way her father would leave her in Japan if he lived in the US, she'd have to return there. Without Light.

Glancing back into the classroom, she caught Light's eyes and frowned sadly. She was escorted away and taken back to her home on her request to mourn. There was no way she'd stay in school after she had accidentally murdered people with a book. A book that was supposed to have been a hoax.

The crime scene was nauseating, flashes of cameras as it took photos of how many times her mother had gotten her throat slit, how many times she'd been stabbed and then how he'd blown his own head off with a gun. The blood splattered all over the walls, his brain accompanying it, the metallic smell of the room. It was horrifying.