Chapter 5

"Time to die!" Quintor said in a kind of gurgled, bubbly voice from the belly of a headless Rage.

Rage pulled back his left arm, then tossed his head forward underhanded like letting go of a bowling ball at an ultra accelerated speed.

"Demetre, get down!" Valtros shouted, and rushed over, tackling him to the floor.

The Shinigami's head soared through the air and crashed through one of the French doors creating a deafening crashing noise, shattering both wood and glass in a cataclysmic display of destruction. Rage's head smashed through one of the bedposts and then got stuck in the back wall.

Demetre and Valtros looked back as Rage's head. It then began to wiggle itself out of the hole. Once out, it bounced and rolled on the bed, its pith helmet still on as if permanently attached to his skull. Rage's head then began to cackle.

"My dear, Valtros," Quintor then spoke. Valtros and Demetre looked at Rage's headless body, at the ectoplasmic otherworldly creature inside Rage's belly. "You took something that didn't belong to you and now you've made someone very unhappy."

"No, you have it wrong, Quintor," she replied. "I was asked by Light Yagami to retrieve the information from a bank in Switzerland." Referring to the USB Drive Demetre grasped.

"Change of plans," Rage's head on the bed then said, his voice gruff. "Someone else wants the information. We were told where to find it, but you destroyed the computer with the data. That means you took it and wanted no one else to have it. You've been a very bad girl, Valtros."

Rage's headless body began to approach with Quintor in control. He then pumped a fist. "Give us the information now!" Quintor demanded, "or we will kill Demetre Draycott!"

Just then, the bedroom door swung open and Adam rushed in. Cerberus was at his side, a boy and his dog.

"Demetre, what's happening? I heard a large noise!" The boy gasped as soon as he saw the scene unfolding. The Shinigami (Rage and Valtros) were obviously visible to him by his reaction. The scene must have looked horrid to the boy, seeing a headless, grotesque monster in the room. A reaction like David seeing the large Goliath in the old Biblical fable, Demetre recalled. "What the—"

"Adam, stay back!" Demetre told him.

Using a form of telekinesis, Quintor then summoned Rage's head back extending out the Shinigami's normal looking hand. Rage's head catapulted through the air to him. The Shinigami caught it and then reattached his skull head back onto his shoulders. Cracking his neck back and forth, once it was properly fitted, Rage then laughed like an insane despot—his bony teeth cackling together. Rage, not Quintor, was back in control. The head obviously being the nerve-centre for Rage's consciousness to become the more dominant.

Just then, Geist and Angel manifested through the wall at the exact same moment. They shared equal reactions to the mysterious Shinigami, Rage and Valtros.

"Demmy, what's going on?" Geist demanded. "Who are these Shinigami?"

"Valtros?" Angel surprisedly voiced, as if knowing her. "What are you doing here?"

"Ah! The more the merrier!" Rage said with a broad smile. "Murder shared with friends is always the best mayhem! As the human saying goes, sharing is caring." He laughed. He raised his augmented, metallic arm, and the three fingered claw began to rotate and buzz like a drill auger. "When I was on a yacht one time, I ripped my previously handler's guts out with this. Unfortunately, for appearances sake, and as a favour to Valtros, I cleaned up after myself and removed the body. But not this time! I don't care what kind of a bloody mess I make!"

He jabbed his arm towards Demetre.

"Give me the USB stick or the human dies!" he demanded of Valtros.

"Demetre, watch out!" Valtros warned. She pushed Demetre out of the way as Rage brought his rotating claw down to the spot Demetre had been, ripping the floorboards to pieces. Wood and the concrete floor beneath ejected into the air in every direction.

"Rage's claw is made of diamond," Valtros revealed. "It'll rip through human tissue in seconds."

Demetre nodded, his eyes-widened, feeling his heart pound. The sound of the rotating claw was deafening.

"Demmy!" Geist shouted.

Geist lunged and attacked Rage, but Rage was ready and easily defended himself. He grabbed Geist by the neck and then tossed him into an ensuite bathroom like he was a rag doll. Geist smashed through part of the wall and plumbing. Water began to spew everywhere.

"Weakling!" Rage chided. "You've become chained to this human like a mongrel on a leash." Rage looked at Demetre. "We Shinigami are gods who are not subjected to the whims of humans. Your lives are ours for the taking! The minute we kill to protect one of you is the moment we die! We Shinigami have no Masters. Death Note or not, we are free!"

"Freedom has a price, too!" Angel said, now standing next to Adam in protection.

Geist emerged from the bathroom unharmed but soaked. "You underestimate me, Rage! I'm a god of death like you. Nothing can hurt me and no mere weapon or other Shinigami can kill me. You caught me by surprise, but I won't let my guard down again."

He reached behind his back and took out his Boneclub. It was his weapon of choice apart from his Death Note.

"In being with Demmy, I've learned a lot about the Human World. I will never be able to go back to my time again, the gateway closed to me forever—my future changed because Demmy now owns a Death Note. But I'll be damned if I let someone like you ruin Demmy's future! I'll make a better future for all human beings in the age of Kira! There are other ways to deal with a situation than killing. Demmy refuses to use his Death Note to kill. And I admire him for that choice. He courageous and smart and he never gives up no matter the circumstances. But I hate it when he closes himself off to me! Apples are like alcohol to humans. I'll stop eating so many apples, if he stops drinking!"

Geist eyed Demetre.

Demetre smiled, then nodded. It must have been obvious that he was pining over Dana, drinking so much. He knew everyone had been trying to help him, but he kept pushing them away. Geist saying he would stop eating so many apples meant he cares for me. No more drinking, I promise. But I won't deny Geist of apples. The gesture is worth enough.

Geist quickly raised his Boneclub and then slammed it down upon the bed The mattress and bed springs folded in and the three remaining bedposts came crashing down. It was a show of intimidation at Rage.

"If you harm Demmy or the others, I'll kill you where you stand, Rage!" Geist threatened. "I've heard about you from other Shinigami and I can say I'm not impressed. You look like a Frankenstein monster."

Rage laughed. "Fool! Can a Frankenstein monster do this?"

He attacked Geist with his rotating claw, lunging at him. Geist manoeuvred away, now ready for it. Rage was bigger and therefore moved more sluggish especially with the metal arm. Geist blocked it, then smashed the rotating claw off with his Boneclub, rendering the drill claw useless.

Rage looked at his claw and then went into a fury like a child having a temper tantrum. He lunged at Geist again.

All of a sudden he was stopped when a shot was fired from a gun.

Everyone looked at Adam, who now had a handgun. He gripped it with two hands to steady himself. The shot was for intimidation, not at the Shinigami. The shot went off to the right into the wall.

Demetre gasped. He noted it was his personal gun that he had bought for protection when he left the Savant Society. He had never used it. But he had hidden it. He was shocked the boy knew how where it was stored and how to use it.

Adam fired off another warning shot into the ceiling just above Rage's head. Oddly enough, Rage backed off.

"Leave my friends alone, you monster!"

"Adam, what are you doing?" Demetre shouted. "You know that can't harm him! He's a god of death."

"Yes, I know that. But it can still push him back!"

Adam fired off a couple of more shoots and they all hit Rage. They went through him, however; not harming him.

Surprisingly, it pushed the large Shinigami back a few steps. Rage covered his belly with his metal arm to protect Quintor. Bullets may not be able to hurt Quintor, but Rage was obviously protecting him out of instinct. All of suddenly, he removed his hand and became transposed with Quintor. The last bullet Adam fired went straight through their spectre form and into the wall picture.

Rage chuckled. "Foolish boy," he said. "Demetre Draycott is correct, I cannot be killed by conventional human weaponry. I chose to appear before you for the shock factor. But now that you are no longer afraid of me, there is little point in adhering to my physical form."

Geist swung his Boneclub at Rage, but it passed through his transparent, ghostly form, as if to test him.

Rage laughed. "What are you going to do now, kids?"

Demetre got to his feet and snatched then the gun from Adam. He didn't like it that Adam had found the gun and unexpectedly knew how to fire it; he would have to talk to him about it later. He stood, shielding the boy now, gun in hand. He felt a guardian kinship with the kid.

Suddenly, Cerberus came running in. He had left the room and come back without being noticed. In his mouth was a grenade. He dropped it at Demetre's feet and barked. Demetre smiled and picked it up.

"Good boy, Cerberus," he said proudly.

"May I repeat, human," Rage said gruffly, "that no conventional human weaponry can harm a Shinigami?"

"That's true, no conventional human weaponry," Demetre said. "But this is something new, thanks to Geist's help. I call it a Shinigami Incendiary Device, or SID for short. It was designed for Ethereals. It was developed to disseminate a certain Shinigami who cooperates with someone I detest." And I mean Prometheus and Zurn Wellington. "It's never been tested, but I think now is the perfect time."

"Idiot! You'll kill your comrades!"

"You weren't listening," Geist responded back. "Shinigami may come from another realm, but we are as real as anything else and we exist with physical presence. We only transpose when we shift into an other plain of existence, hence only those who have touched the Death Note of a Shinigami can see or hear them. But you, on the other hand, have made yourself appear to everyone here—no one has touched your Death Note. But we can be harmed by unconventional weapons. I come from the future and during that time, unconventional weapons have been designed to combat Shinigami by humans to prevent another Kira. I gave Demetre the blueprints to the SID, as he calls it. It will harm you in Ethereal form. It has no affect if we are solid beings."

"I don't understand. What are you saying?"

"What Demetre Draycott is saying is," Valtros chimed in, "is this incendiary device can dissolve you in your spectre form, exterminating you. It will send you to Mu, to Nothingness. Your lifespan will be gone. You won't even be a pile of ash on the floor. I believe Geist."

Rage sneered. "You're bluffing!"

"Do you want to take that chance?" Valtros said.

Rage growled, then suddenly reverted back to a solid form. Surrounded by three Shinigami with his arm busted, he was momentarily subdued.

"Why are you here, Rage? Who are you working for? The information on the USD was originally for Light Yagami. No one else should know about it unless PreVost told them? But why would he betray Light Yagami if he went to painstaking efforts to devise such a scheme?"

Rage smirked, his crooked teeth shifting in his skeleton mouth. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Surrender Rage, or else!" Demetre demanded.

Suddenly, there was a loud, thunderous bang!

Demetre cried out and collapsed to the floor. He grabbed his right thigh, cringing. He clenched his teeth. He swore, his pant leg quickly saturating with blood. The grenade released from his hand and rolled across the floor to Rage's feet.

He still gripped the gun with the USB in the same hand.

"Demetre!" Adam cried out.

"Stay back!" Demetre said.

Rage chuckled as the shooter then emerged from outside.

He walked through the French doors with a snippers rifle in hand, resting it casually across his right shoulder. He was human, young looking, and wore all black leather clothing: a Bomber jacket, black boots and fingerless gloves, honing some sort of fetish for it. Around his neck was a medium sized looping chain with a bullet attached to the end. He was tall, Demetre's height, and well-defined.

"Nice," Rage remarked, picking put the grenade. "You won't be using this on me now."

The shooter grinned balefully as he stepped fully into the Master Bedroom.

"Oops, I missed," he said with a sinister grin. He had perfect white teeth. He brushed back a lock of dark black hair that had fallen over his eyes. "You can thank a twig that I slipped on at the last moment before taking the shot. I was aiming for your heart." The shooter was handed the grenade and looked it over.

"Standard grenade-type with a little extra; I heard everything. The cabin is bugged. I've been watching you for some time, Demetre Draycott, and with the Shinigami Eyes, I can't see your lifespan. I love your name! So, unique!"

"Jesus!" Demetre cringed, clutching his leg as he lay on the floor.

"Your Lord and saviour, Draycott?" the shooter asked. "He can't help you now. But I could send you to him? But after what you've done, it may take quite awhile for you to see him—or never at all. As the rule states: Anyone who uses a Death Note can never go to Heaven or Hell."

To be continued...