Chapter 7:

"Out For Blood"

The beach house was spacious. Every room was luxurious, but with a minimalist feel, filled with bright colours and a stylized decor. It had a vaulted, wooden arched roof, and two white brick gas fireplaces. It included natural light, soft tones, and a clean aesthetic atmosphere, meant to evoke the breeziness of the beach. BB was pleased with the place.

When they returned to the back with its direct line of sight to the beach, and as Raven was setting a table for the trio to eat, serving stacks of pancakes on each plate, Mello asked, "So, who are they? I noticed pictures of a middle-aged couple on the walls."

BB shrugged. "The previous owners of this beach house," he said. "Raven cleared them out before I moved in. I guess you can say I've frozen their assets. Their bodies are in a box freezer in the basement. They'll stay there until I figure out what to do with them, maybe thaw them out and serve them with some lavender sauce and red wine."

"That's cold," Matt japed. "You're no cannibal."

"I used to bite my own finger nails, so I'm capable of anything," BB quipped with a smile.

Sitting down at a round glass table and served by Raven, BB poured a healthy helping of strawberry jam directly over his breakfast, smothering the pancakes, then saw Mello did the same with chocolate sauce. Both dived in like hungry, blood thirty animals.

BB looked up and saw Matt looking aghast. "Not hungry, Matt?" he asked with a mouthful of pancake and strawberry jam dripping from the sides of his mouth. "Dig in! Oh, my apologizes—we seem to be out of strawberry jam and chocolate sauce."

"You two are gluttonous freaks," Matt said.

BB smiled despite a mouthful of pancake. He swallowed, then said, "I love anything with strawberries, I can't get enough. When we were all at Wammy House, I used to horde packets of strawberry jam and secretly eat them before bed."

"I used to do the same with small packs of Nutella," Mello added.

Matt shook his head. "And I have a problem with smoking?" he said. "I need a smoke. I'll light one up far away from the beach house." He excused himself from the table.

BB watched him go, wiping his mouth with a napkin. Matt lit up a cigarette far enough away and let out a puff, walking down to the water's edge.

BB turned to Mello, and said: "Smoking is problematic. He won't have to wait for Kira to kill him."

Mello finished the last chunk of his breakfast and then licked his lips. He didn't use a napkin. "You know the deal, Rue," he said. "We've all been psycho-neurotically conditioned with some sort of quirk in mind. It's Wammy House's dirty little experiment. You and I obsess over chocolate and strawberries, we can't get enough. Matt smokes."

"The orphanage isn't as noble as everyone thinks," BB added. "We're all a bit psychotic."

"Some more than others," Mello jabbed. "L was the only one that seemed to repress those tendencies, for the most part. We all know L was very weird from the get go, which isn't surprising that everyone looked up to him. He went on to become someone we all could respect and aspire to be. But it wasn't Watari that did this to us, it was the Good Doctor."

"Ah, the Good Doctor," BB said retrospectively. "How is the old coot?"

Mello shrugged. "No clue," he said. "He just up and disappeared when Watari and L died."

"Hmm," BB mused. "Should've known he wouldn't stick around with what everyone knows about him." With a finger, he scooped up a glob of strawberry jam that was left on his plate. "It's better he does go into hiding, or he knows what will happen. BB slammed a fist into his plate and smashed it, he cut himself and blood oozed out. He licked his blood off his hand like it was strawberry jam. Mello gave him the most repulsed look, but BB merely smiled.

Beyond Birthday licked himself clean of his own blood like a dog would his own paw. He had a deep cut, but the pain of it was nothing compared to what he felt on a daily bases after he had set himself on set and constant pulling of his own skin. But he had a strong pain tolerance.

In the distance, there was a slight buzzing noise. It sounded like a seaplane. In Jamaica, they were commonplace, and were used to haul passengers, cargo, and other more nefarious means. The drug business was huge. But Beyond Birthday had his standards. No drugs. He accepted Matt's smoking, because he had no choice like Mello and chocolate. The very urge to indulge in the like was ingrained in each other their psyche.

"Hey, Rue!" Matt's voice came from the beach. BB and Mello looked over at him and saw that Matt was pointing at a small passenger seaplane coming towards the beach house from the horizon. "Are you excepting someone? Seems like that biplane is on a direct approach."

BB's eyes widened, he looked at Mello—and above his head—and saw something horrific. He could see things no one else could with any fathom of normal comprehension. He had the eyes of a Shinigami and hence could see the "lifespan" of people above their heads, how much time they had left, and when they were going to die. He had told no one about this gift, yet some suspected such from his previous crimes, L being one of them. And Mello, as well. Now he saw Mello's "lifespan" quickly ticking down.

Something bad was about to happen! But he could something about it.

"Matt, get down!" BB shouted.

Mello eyed him. "Rue, what's wrong?"

"Mello…duck for cover!"

Mello ran…

BB then bolted out of the line of fire, as the bi-plane came to shore with an eruption of gunfire from two turrets, coursing two lines of pop-marks in the sand. Bullets tore through the table they were eating at, glass exploding, and the rear half of the beach house was hit.

The bi-plane ascended back into the air, the sound of its engines buzzing, and it began to circle around for another pass. Matt came running over. Raven came running out of the beach house with a rifle in hand. She planted herself in open and direct sight of the bi-plane, eyed through the scope, and fired. BB knew she was a marksman, and she proved it.

Raven scored a direct hit and one of the bi-plane's engines began to bellow smoke, it then descended, and dropped to the water, albeit safely. Its pilot made it to shore, but that's where his safety ended, as both Raven and Matt, with guns in hand, surrounded the plane, and executed the pilot, shooting into the cockpit.

But there were two occupants: the pilot and another.

BB and Mello approached the bi-plane. The pilot was dead, but the other fumbled out of the aircraft, bleeding and with moral wounds. BB was shocked to see who it was. It was someone whom he thought was dead. The man smiled with bloody teeth and then collapsed at BB's feet. BB used his feet to push the dead man away.

"What the hell was this about?" Matt asked.

BB gulped. He was not one to tense up. "I've made a few enemies over time," BB said with some hesitancy. "When L and I were battling it out for supremacy, I found out something shocking…" BB crouched down and ruffled through the man's pockets. He found a golden lighter and it confirmed his suspicions. "Damn it!"

BB stood up. Mello and Matt looked at the lighter. It was inscribed: "To BB With Love". It was a message. BB squeezed it tightly in his hand. "He's finally coming after me after all these years. Someone you two never met. The one who was slated to take over L before me."

"Wait," Mello said. "'A' committed suicide. He couldn't handle the pressure of succeeding L. Are you saying he's still alive? That's impossible!"

"Hey, stranger things happen," Matt put in. "We both thought Rue was dead."

"Stop calling me that!" BB demanded. "Pseudonyms are our new non-de-plumes, they help protect us from Kira. But after this," BB said, "we have a new enemy. He knows who we all are and he's an even bigger monster than Kira. This beach house isn't safe anymore. Raven, ready our departure. You two get back to—wherever. 'A' is after me."

"Can we help you?" Matt said. "Why does 'A' want to kill you?"

"Because so-called suicide was a fake. Call it competition, envy or jealousy." BB looked at the lighter with a deep relocation of the past. "'A' is alive and he's out for blood, my blood. You two would only be cannon fodder. 'A' is a genius. He has the ability to tap into forces you couldn't possibly imagine, forces beyond this world. That's one of reasons why I wanted to kill him."

"Is he anything lie Kira?" asked Matt.

BB shook his head. "Far beyond Kira, and unlike Kira who hides in the shadows to kill his victims, 'A' won't be afraid to come out in the open. This," BB kicked dirt in the dead man's face, "was only a prelude of what's to come. This a direct message, the very lighter I used to lit myself on fire. I know it is. I don't know how he got it. It was put into criminal evidence after I was captured. He knew where to find me, so we're all in danger. And 'A' will be playing for keeps. He wants revenge for taking away his opportunity to succeed L. Like we want to Kira for killing L."

"We're helping you," Mello said staunchly.

"Yeah, no buts," Matt said.

BB smiled affectionately. "Very well," he said. "But time to get the hell out of here."

Everyone agreed.

BB then tossed the lighter to Matt. He caught it and tried to use it, flicking the coil. "Empty," Matt said. He slipped into his pocket.

BB's eyes suddenly widened as he saw Matt's "lifespan" tick down quickly. He reached into Matt's pocket and retrieved the lighter.

Matt protested. "Hey!"

BB then tossed it as far as he could it into the water. "Get down!" he ordered.

Everyone did, diving into the sand, as a geyser of water erupted, saturating them.

"With love, indeed," BB said. "The minute you flicked the coil, you activated a bomb, Matt."

Matt looked shocked. "Thanks, man. I could've been the one smoked."

Fifteen minutes later, they got in a cobalt blue Pontiac Firebird with a winged emblem on the hood, Matt's car of choice. He said he lifted it. BB knew it was just like Matt to carjack a slick looking car. Matt liked fast cars. BB sat shotgun, while Mello and Raven sat in the back. Once they were settled, Matt wasted no time speeding out of the gravel dirt drive way, stones kicking out from the back tires. They would head for the nearest airport and then charter a flight out.

A minute out, the sound of an explosion was heard. The beach house was ablaze!

"So, where are we headed once we're in the air?" Matt asked, as he raced down the road at more then the maximum speed limit.

"Back to Japan," BB told him. "'A' is there, I know it. And I want to stop from doing something stupid. Only I get to kill Kira. There is no way he's going to take the prize away from me."

"You're a wanted man," Mello said. "Going back to Japan is suicide for you. You blew up that detective's apartment," BB had told them about it as he escorted them through the beach house, "the Kira Task Force HQ. The police will be on the lookout for you."

"On the contrary," BB said. "Only you three know what I truly look like. And by the time we get back to Japan, I'll be a new man." BB laughed.

The Firebird raced down the road.

To be continued...