Chapter 18:
"Sanctuary"
Light ran. He stumbled once, and then again, getting back up quickly, as he raced through darkened, mildly saturated streets. His feet swished through puddles of water. He didn't stop to take stock of where he was. He just kept on running.
He didn't feel fear, it was more like the sensation of an overwhelming anxiety, whereby he needed to get away and reestablish control of his environment. It reminded Light of the time he felt when L first revealed himself, that sudden thrust of angst. Or when he fought his friend Demetre on the roof of the old Kira Task Force headquarters, as he hung over the side of the building, fearing his once closest friend would drop him in revenge for an acquittance's death.
His hair flopped over his eyes, saturated with sweat and grime. He hadn't showered in over a week, he was not allowed the privilege. And he had to evacuate his bowels in full sight of his captor. It was humiliating. He was given meals of watered down porridge with little nutritional value. Both of which contravened the Geneva Convention.
He vowed he would take revenge against the outrage and savagery of his treatment, but that would have to come much later if and when the opportunity arose.
He stopped for just a second to catch his breath, pressing a hand against a lamp post. He huffed out hot breath and felt his chest, his heart beating extremely fast. And for a moment, he wondered what Kira's victims must have felt when they were subjected to Kira's judgements. Was it anything like what he was feeling? Then death? He thought not.
But he knew eventually his own demise would come, Ryuk told him it was the bond between Light and Ryuk, to write Light's name down in his Death Note. But Light believed that would not happen for quite some time, long after Kira had established a stranglehold on the world.
He looked around. The streets were illuminated with a dim glow of yellow from overhead lights. He had escaped his captor, but Light knew it wouldn't be long before he would be chased and recaptured. Birthday Beyond had others at his command other than himself and Raven. He needed some place to hide, take a breather, and think of a return to form.
He remembered the tactic by Chinese general and military strategist Sun Tzu: "He who fights and runs may live to fight another day; but he who is battle slain, can never rise to fight again." This was Light's goal, to come back stronger. The reign of Kira couldn't end here, especially not at the hands of a lunatic like Beyond Birthday!
His heart beat so fast that he felt like he was going to faint from exhaustion, or worse, have a heart attack. His face was covered in filth and his clothes were wet to point of he felt cold. He had escaped as it rained and he felt chilled to the bone.
Ryuk followed him. He had had already cursed Ryuk out for betraying him, but he knew the Shinigami didn't care. Whatever entertained the god of death, Ryuk enjoyed, despite his past loyalty. But Ryuk was not attached to Light, Misa was the holder of the Death Note, and she was out of the country for an international commercial shoot. Ryuk was just here for the thrill.
Beyond Birthday whisked Light through a Shinigami gateway, ambushing him at the motel Light booked online, after visiting BB in prison believing it was actually BB. Instead, it was a double. Light was then thrown him into a cell in the Paris Catacombs, in France. Thanks to the sacrifice of a security guard who was patrolling the catacombs for intruders, BB had to move his operations elsewhere. BB returned to Japan, to the Kanto Region, a warehouse. Seemingly, BB was prepared for the move, establishing a secondary site.
Smart move, Light begrudgingly thought, and tactically efficient.
Light would have done the same.
In fact, Light was already prepared in the eventuality he had to quickly relocate if he was ever found out, his identity as Kira exposed, secretly using funds of his own collecting to purchase a residence in Switzerland, where there was no extradition treaties.
Then BB donned a new disguise—as Light himself—and left. Light watched over by his partner Raven. That was over a week ago. She was a near mute, saying little, and was completely loyal to BB. Light was not one to bargain, but he offered her a position in his Brand New World if she would let him go. He even tried to seduce her with his boyish charm.
She ignored his offer and advances.
Light had to turn to something move inventive to save himself. Held captive for a week with only his own thoughts as company, enough to drive a sane person mad, it reminded him of the first week he was jailed in L's cell, handcuffed, and watched on CCTV—he established a plan. The difference here was, he didn't need to be handcuffed or watched by camera. There was no where he could go, the bars of the cell were electrified. He had no idea where he was either, it was a cage within a cage. Still, there was always a way out of every prison.
His father told him that.
Light was told once when his father was much younger and a rookie cop a year in, his father had been captured, held captive in an abandoned building by a serial killer. His father, a very smart man, followed clues to the killer who murdered his victims by cutting off their eye lids. It was a signature trait, which gave rise to how many people this man had killed.
His father found the killer, by accident, but failed to call it in, and was captured, but employed a rather interesting method of escape, eventually bringing the killer in to stand trial.
With his own strategy employed using what Light had to work with, he partook in a plan that forced Raven to save his life. He electrified himself, forcing a temporary unconsciousness. Raven had rushed in, he figured she would, and then performed CPR on him, confirmed after he was revived. He coughed, sucked in deep gasps of breath, but then even after his ordeal, he mustered up enough clarity of forethought and physical strength to overpower her, and lock her in the cell. Then he fled. Only then did Ryuk appear and began to follow him.
Light was kept in some sort of structured lower area of a warehouse, made his way up to the main floor via an enclosed wooden staircase, and then burst out into the darkness, and rain.
"Shrewd, Light," Ryuk chucked, flying above, a few meters back.
Light had some choice words for the Shinigami that would make anyone else blush with embarrassment. He turned into an alleyway, stopped, and took another breather, leaning his back up against a wall. Ryuk followed.
"You didn't help me." Light eyed the Shinigami harshly. "And where were you for a week?"
Light turned, and suddenly stumbled over a trashcan. He sat up, and held his right knee after banging it. He rubbed it. He leaned back against the wall, momentarily dejected.
"One: Beyond Birthday said he would kill your family if I didn't help him after our initial plan fell through—you for apples. He can be very nasty. I thought obeying him would be better than necessary violence." Ryuk snorted. "Two: I couldn't help you, because you were behind an electrified cell. And lastly: I went and told someone about what was happening."
"You told someone? Who?"
Ryuk waved his hand. "It doesn't matter. He refused to come. It was hardly worth mentioning. But just so you know, it was your friend Demetre. But he seems to have his own problems right now with Zurn Wellington and the League of Darkness. That small encounter you had with Evangelist and his minions seems to have a spark of interest in your friend, too."
Light grunted. "That's not my problem," he said. Light breathed out deeply, getting to his feet. "Go away! I don't want to see you right now. You make me sick!"
"Hey, that's no way to talk to me," Ryuk said.
"If you're not going to help me against my enemies, then what use are you?"
"I can help you, Light, but most ways goes against the rules, and I won't die for you, like Rem."
Light snorted, then limped a few meters until he could get his proper footing back.
He left the alley and wandered the streets further, his arms wrapped around his shoulders. He shivered. His mind was foggy. He felt tired. Light wasn't sure where he was.
"Hey Light, you don't look so good," Ryuk said. "Your face is so pale."
Light pressed on and in complete survival mode. He felt like everything in his mind was shut down other than finding a place to hide. Raven was trapped, but he knew others were probably on his trail, or at the very least, following him to see where he went, or who he met up with. But he had no place to go, no safe house, no friends to turn to. He was alone in the world. He was Kira, alone at the top. The price of being king, he supposed.
But he did feel unwell and even a little sickly. He wanted to lie down.
He had been in that electrified cell for a week and he wondered what his father the rest of the Kira Task Force had been doing if not looking for him? Beyond Birthday had donned a perfect disguise of Light that even his own father wouldn't know the difference. Light had a certain amount of admiration for the guy in that regard to disguise himself so well as another.
Light still couldn't believe he had been fooled, not only by his double, but also by BB himself who had been his lawyer the whole time. And he had spend days with the man.
Light staggered, even wobbled, to a stone structure with three concrete elongated steps. His mind so tired and his vision so haggard that he didn't recognize it at first. It was a church. He smiled, a place of worship and sanctuary. He would be safe here.
All he wanted to do was sleep. Light knew he couldn't remain conscious forever. Eventually, he would just collapse ill-willfully and fall in the street. And then his journey would be over.
He slipped on the same stairs, on a wet spot, trying to make his up to the overhead awning and to the doors, and smacked his head hard, rolling back down to the street.
He lay at the base of the stairs for sometime before forcing himself up. He stumbled back to his feet, unstable, reaching out for some sort of purchase, then made it up, and grasped the hands of the church doors after he made it up the stairs without fail this time, and pressed in.
The doors opened, and he stumbled, dropping to his knees. All he wanted was to lay down, his head was killing him now, and he thought he may have a concussion. He refuted from feeling his head where he hit, knowing it would sting. He was safe, on holy ground. Even criminals abided by religious fortification and value. They would never storm a church, or risk the wraith of their own god hereafter. Or so Light heard.
Inside, as he kneed on the structure's carpeted foray, he looked inward. He could see stain glass windows and adorning every wall were religious mosaics. He slowly got to his feet, and wobbled, swaying side-to-side, holding a wall to make his way further inside, so tired, almost on the brick of unconscious, and in disbelief that this is where he would come of all places to hide from his enemies. He accidentally dipped his hand into a bowl of water and splashed himself when he pulled his hand away. He remembered when he was a kid, when his parents used to attend church, people would dip their fingers into a similar bowl, and made the mark of the crucifix on their forehead before sitting down for a sermon, a way to cleanse their spirit.
But Light knew he didn't need cleansing, he wasn't evil. He was Kira, and he was cleansing the world of its evils. He was doing a God's work, the work that the God of so many believers should have been doing to make the world a better place. That's make me god, he thought.
He walked further, through the foray doors, and gazed into an open and rather large audience hall with its two lines of pews and an altar with a large cross out front, situated on a sanctuary, with two red carpeted steps, jettisoning out from a large nave decorated in reds and golds, and a gigantic cross at its middle.
He saw a middle-aged priest, dressed in a black uniform and white collar, with greyish hair.
The priest quickly looked up from behind the altar, behind round, steel rim glasses, a bible before him, perhaps reviewing a sermon, or just standing there, reading passages to himself, and he appeared to gasp when he caught sight of Light.
Light staggered, through the main aisle, and then stumbled half way up, collapsing, no longer having the strength to move. Light rolled over onto is back, his arms spread out wide in completely submission of his situation, breathing heavy, chest rising, eyes narrowed. He looked up at the overhead lights as they shone into his pupils, blinding his vision.
"Light…" Ryuk said.
The priest ran to him, and knelt down, passing through the Shinigami. The priest couldn't see or hear Ryuk, so naturally he was ignored. The priest took in Light's limp form with shock, and said, "My son, what has happened to you? Do you need a doctor?"
Light licked his dry, cracked lips. He tried to speak, but his throat was hoarse. He couldn't communicate much, but managed to crock out: "Help me, Father…"
"Everything is okay now. You're safe, young man, you're in this church," the priest said. "No one will hurt you anymore here, I promise."
"Thank…you," Light said softly.
Light felt himself smile, and then darkness took him whether he wanted it or not.
To be continued...
