X – Bright Lights
Sunday passed by in a flash. Light barely had time to wake up and realize another week was about to end in only a couple of hours when the moon was already up and the clock shined its silvery tongues over the ninth line. In another quarter hour it was going to be ten o'clock. The student sighed and went downstairs for a cup of tea. His sister was sleeping over at her newest best friend's place whom which Light could be certain Sayu will be breaking up with in the following six months.
He found the living room empty and dark. The TV was turned off and there was no one hugging a pillow on the couch and crying over the death of some soap opera character. The entire space seemed lifeless and cold, even if he knew there was a constant temperature in the entire house. Light found the switch without even looking for it on the wall and the lights turned on.
As he went to the kitchen and boiled some water, he thought about all the crimes in the world. What would he feel if his younger sister would become the victim of some insane homeless man, or a rapist, or a drunk man with no idea of what he is about to do? She was annoying and inferior in terms of intelligence, or perhaps she was just immature, but he still cared about her. He frowned and rubbed his forehead, trying to get rid of an upcoming headache. There was that annoying voice in the back of his head repeating 'You don't… Admit it, you don't really care… You feel nothing for them.' But that wasn't true. He cared about his sister, his mother, and his father who he held as an example in life.
He poured the boiling water in a cup over a little tea bag that immediately began to float as if in pain from the hot environment. Was there a hell where souls were boiled and fried for eternity…? Again, the voice made itself heard – 'There is not. Religion is just a fantasy, a tool of manipulation and control used by the leaders. The real gods are mortal.'
Light shook his head, leaned against the kitchen counter and crossed his arms over his chest, his head hanging low. He frowned. Was there any way to shut it up? This other voice in his thoughts that he never liked. It hasn't always been there, but he couldn't remember the first time he had heard it.
In need of a distraction, he found himself looking at his phone – no missed calls, no messages. He looked over the contacts and the conversations… The last time he had talked to somebody who wasn't selfish enough to pretend they were busy whenever they weren't asking for help with homework was two days ago with Caterina. Still, she hadn't replied yet. The screen only showed she had seen his last message – 'You too. Sweet dreams.'
The voice was trying to make itself heard again, to complain about the humiliation she was dragging him through or how ironic the girl could get whenever something didn't go the way she imagined. Light on the other hand, was looking at an already typed 'Hey. What's up?' that still waited to be sent. 'Don't. That's what she wants, the girl won't answer for hours,' the voice warned, but Light still sent it. 'Better in a few hours than never…' was his mental response to the voice.
But the reply was much faster than that. Caterina had sent back a cold but secretly interested 'What do you want?' from her phone while going through her closet. Fall was on its way and she had to decide with a bit of intuition and a bit of experience what was worth keeping and what will be taking the highway from her closet to some unfortunate second hand store. In other words, the girl was bored, fuming and inevitably alone.
'The bet was only an idea. If you don't like it, we can still cancel it.'
She looked at the screen and rolled her green eyes at the text. 'We made no bet. I didn't agree, remember?'
'Right.' Light sent back before she had the time to even put her phone down. That made her consider the possibility of a smile tugging at her lips. 'How did the meeting go?'
'What meeting? The one I won't tell you about?'
Light smiled bitterly, tasting the irony in her words. 'Yes. Did it turn out as expected?' he sent, then threw away the used tea bag and walked back upstairs with the hot mug in one hand and the phone in the pocket of his pants. Surprisingly enough, it took her more than he expected to write a short answer like that.
'…More or less.'
'Is that a good 'more or less' or a bad one?' he sent back, trying to read her change of attitude.
'Sort of. I got what I wanted and I'm not sure I should have wanted it.'
'How ironic.'
'Hm, yea. Whatever.' Caterina threw her phone between some pillows and some clothes on her bed and held a shirt in front of her in the mirror. It was old, she had worn it perhaps ten times both in spring and summer, but it still looked good so it was going to be one of those rare exceptions that will probably see a whole year in her amber-scented closet.
Light sighed, feeling rejected yet again. He had long lost count of how many times she had shooed him away only to take him back again. It was tiring and humiliating and the voice in his head was angered to the point he could feel a mild headache coming up soon. Just as he threw his phone on the bed and turned on the TV, he heard another 'Ding!' and saw the screen lighting up. He stared at it for a moment, but eventually opened the message.
'Done anything interesting this weekend?' it read.
'More or less,' he found himself typing. This wasn't really like himself, it was rather the voice in his head, his darker side making a comment. But he couldn't complain…
'Details.' Caterina demanded casually as she held a pair of short jeans in front of her. Those were definitely going out of her closet.
'No money, no trust, no details' he sent back. The voice was taking over, but Light was too frustrated to fight with his other self. Might as well see where it's going, because it sure was interesting to see Caterina faced with a dose of her own stinginess.
'Aw, so you don't trust me? And you already know I have enough to buy your life. Friendly reminder, don't try to fuck with me.' A puppy face and wink were animating the girl's reply.
'Your daddy has the money, not you. You said you're not powerful yet.'
'If I sold a quarter of my closet, I would make more than your daddy makes a year. Though that would be about half of my pocket money for a month… You were saying, honey…?'
Light found himself taking deep breaths to calm both himself and the voice once he read Caterina's message.
'You don't even work for that money. You have no idea of its worth.'
'I guess some of us are luckier than others. Poor unfortunate souls~'
'Don't mess with me…' he sent, already typing another reference.
'My! I haven't seen this side of you yet. I should mess with you more often.' Caterina said, actually sitting down and waiting for a response.
'That wouldn't be such a good idea, sweetheart.' Since she used a pet name before, the darker side of Light thought it just fine to use one now. Right?
'Oh, really? And why is that, apple pie?'
'Curiosity killed the cat, didn't it?' he sent back with a clear reference to her name.
'But satisfaction brought it back eight more times.'
'Is the kitty sure she has eight more lives to waste?'
'Is this a threat?' she eventually sent and a wide grin spread on Light's face.
'Does it feel like one?'
Caterina threw herself back, falling on her wide clothes-covered bed and bouncing a few times. Was he interested at all, or just meanly stinging her for all her sarcasm and irony from before? It felt good to be the cat chasing a mouse, but it was really awkward now that the roles had been reversed.
'Just checkin' she sent back after a short pause.
'Can I call?' Caterina read from the screen.
'If you want. But I'll put it on speaker.'
'Why?' Light asked, the first thought in his mind being that some third person was reading their conversation.
'Cleaning out my closet. Need space for the fall collection.'
'Fine.'
After the potential threat had been ruled out, he pressed the green button and called her. In the mean time, Light threw his shirt on the back of his chair and let himself fall on his bed, looking outside the window and towards the city.
"Talk." Caterina ordered at the other end of the line, not bothering to go through the typical time-consuming introductions of 'hello' and 'how are you'.
"What do you want me to say? I just wanted to hear your voice," he said, taking over the angry voice in his head. Light was calmer now, but Caterina still sounded mad at him.
"Aww, how sweet. Except you were trying to trash-talk me earlier."
"Are you mad at me?" he asked in the sweetest voice he could manage. In truth, he did feel bad about this war between them.
"…If I were, you'd be in hell."
"Caterina, I don't like this…" he began.
"This what?"
"This… constant battle, as if any of us could benefit from a constant tension and war of words. We sting each other with irony and sarcasm and all I can think about is what a waste of time and nerve this is when we could be trying to know each other better, maybe?"
Light left the phone on the bed beside him so he wouldn't have to hold it and threw one arm over his eyes. Caterina threw a pair of jeans and a floral dress in a pile on the floor, one of them still with the label and price on it.
"…I don't know what to say. I don't want to back down in an argument-"
"There's no real argument here now, is there? Why were we fighting two minutes ago?"
"Unimportant, I know…" Caterina sighed. "So, what now?"
"I don't know, you tell me."
"Me? How?"
"What do you want? Do you want to keep this as it is, or do you want to accept a peace offering?" he offered.
"What do you have in mind?" she asked.
"No… I won't tell you until you choose. I don't want you to decide out of greed-"
"Are you calling me greedy?"
"No! I just don't want you to make a decision based on the prize. You understand what I mean, right?"
"Yes… Well, I'm running out of patience and frowning will give me wrinkles." Caterina said in a pitched, superficial voice. After that, she laughed quietly and Light smiled bitterly. "So, what do you have in mind?"
"Do you want to go out with a poor student like me?" he asked in a half-jokingly manner, trying to keep her spirits up. Still, there was the bitterness of two hurt egos blending in with the artificial amusement.
"You're not that poor," she pointed out, starting to feel a bit guilty. Only a bit. A rotting cherry on top – bit.
"You could buy my life, right? So I guess I kind of am."
Had he said it on a different tone, filled with his usual pride and confidence, she would have stung the life out of him. But he sounded almost defeated, obviously trying to manipulate her into feeling bad about earlier and succeeding at it, something that wouldn't have worked through voiceless texts.
"…I hate you. Are you going to turn my every word against me?" she whined.
"You know what they say… Anything you say can and will be used against you." The hint of amusement in his voice told her she was right to suspect him of toying with her emotions.
Caterina remembered her talk with her father. 'Am I weak… in your eyes?'
"I have the right to know what I'm being accused of."
"Nothing, yet. I lack the very thing you do – evidence."
"Oh, so you're not coming to arrest me, then?" she asked in the flirty voice that got both boys and girls boil for her.
"…I'm afraid I can't afford that, but you can always surrender."
The girl was surprised to hear a faint purr in his tone.
"Catch me or make me."
"See what I meant…?" he asked and the girl pressed the phone to her ear.
"What…?"
"It's more pleasant to talk like this rather than how we were conversing ten minutes ago." He smiled, hearing the interest of the girl in the tone of her voice. "Hold on a second."
"Hmm? Why?" Caterina asked, but no reply came. "Hello?"
Just as she was about to hung up, she heard him again. "I'm thirsty."
"What are you drinking?"
"Good old water. What did you think?" Even if the tea was still steaming on his desk, Light reached out for a bottle of water. Why? Because it happened to be sitting by its bed exactly for this kind of moments - when thirst became a problem, but so was laziness.
"Something more interesting…"
"The tears of corrupted businessmen?" he asked with the clear intention of picking on her father.
"Something like that. Or lemonade. I heard losers have sore tears."
"If you cried more often, perhaps you'd know."
"Oh, but I do," she said, "They taste like foundation and shattered dreams."
Author's Note:
* Disney reference (Ursula's song) and Temposhark (Don't Mess with Me)
Thanks to Coldheart1206, now you have another update. Keep following, keep reviewing, favorite or message me, and you will get faster updates. At the moment, I have already written ten other chapters. The more active you are, the more you get to read. Some call it blackmailing, I call it motivational trading. Also, things are about to get messy as the timeline approaches the manga events. Soon, we will be mentioning the LA BB case.
Merry Christmas, happy holidays, regardless of what you may be celebrating. With a bit of luck, we may hear from each other before New Year as well, with the beginning of Part 2. Please enjoy the last few chapters in which all main characters are alive.
Remember, you can celebrate without getting shitfaced. Follow Ryuk's example and chew down an apple instead. :D
PS. I really, really hope there are no kids reading this. You may lie to the Internet, but believe me, there isn't anything interesting here. Wait until you're fifteen to read such things. I'm telling you, there's no rush. By that time, you will have probably had enough of discrimination, hatred, violence, sex, and all the ways in which our world is rotting. If you ARE reading this at a young age though, please remember this is a fictional story, my (the author's) protest against modern society, and by NO means to be taken as an example. Okay? DO NOT take any of these characters as an example. A counter-example, yes, but not an example. Be the opposite of everything you read here and you will do the world a favor.
Update:
Yes, I am serious about not getting shitfaced. Although I wrapped it up like a joke, I really meant that.
On a second note, I noticed I had thought of something but didn't explain it, so it looked like a plot hole. Keep pointing these out in the future by reviewing and they will be clarified.
Also, this chapter had been proofread by Eat4Fun and updated.
