Chapter 5: A Ghostly Flame
It was about Midnight by the time Rose had made her way back. She'd spent her time exploring the local high street, and trying to find her way around.
She was starting to get a feel for the area, and was more confident that she'd be able to navigate herself, if she had to.
Towards the end of her exploring it got chilly again. Rosemary then took the time to zip up her jacket, slip on her velvety soft, pair of gloves.
Since it was so late, she was sure that Light's family would be asleep by now. So it was the ideal time to take the notebook.
As she passed the brightly lit street lights, she made her way up to their house. Rosemary gently forced her way through the door. She was careful, and slow in her movements this time, so she didn't hit the floor, and wake everyone up.
She softly tiptoed up the stairs (thankful that they didn't creak), before once again slipping through Light's door, and softly padding her way, towards his desk.
She looked over his bed. He looked calm in his sleep, no trace, nor hint to the actions he could do.
There was even perhaps, only a little, a tiny part of her, that admitted perhaps, he looked good.
But this wasn't the time, for nostalgia teen crushes. She had to be swift, she had to be active, and she had to move now.
Rose stood by the desk, and carefully put her notebook down on it's surface. She stood still for a moment, but heard no indication, that anyone was awaken.
She then slowly, and delicately, opened the top drawer.
Rosemary swiftly, glanced at Light, but he hadn't stirred at all.
She looked over the Death Note, unsecured, and out in the open. Now was her best, chance to take it.
She gently reached down to grab it and-
her hand slipped through.
Rosemary couldn't touch the Deathnote.
Her eyes widened. "It" had never mentioned, that she couldn't touch the Death Note! How was she going to fulfill her purpose, if she couldn't touch the notebook?!
She tried again, and again, but every single time, her hand would just slip through the book, and hit the wooden bottom of the drawer.
"URGH!" screamed Rosie hitting the bookshelf, next to her in frustration.
She'd forgotten where she was for a second, and the force of her fist slamming into the shelf, had tipped it over in her anger.
Light instantly woke up to the sound of the crash, before quickly turning on his lamp and staring on in disbelief.
"How did that happen?"
Rosemary immediately panicked, and forget that he couldn't see her. Freaking out, Rose ran to the exit and slammed the door open, instead of trying to go through it, stomping loudly as she ran down the steps.
Light quickly ran after her yelling.
"Hey get back here thief!"
He must've thought she was a criminal, but it was far too late, to act invisible now.
Light's voice had woken up his family, and they were coming down after him; his father brandishing a pistol, and his mother, and sister cautiously, going behind them.
Rosie quickly opened the front door, and ran through the front garden without looking back.
Light came down shortly after, but because he couldn't see her, he couldn't tell what direction she'd gone in.
"How could someone disappear that fast? I was right behind them." Light murmured to himself, looking around for the thief.
Light hadn't even seen, what they looked like.
Rosie meanwhile had begun to move so fast, her surroundings were blurring once again. She ran for a good while, before she suddenly, slowed down to catch her breath, as she realised she'd long ago out ran Light.
Why did she have to panic like that? If she'd just gone through the door, it would've been fine. He would have written it off as an accident, like anyone would.
Straightening up, Rose leaned against a street lamp, and slowly sank to the floo.
What was she going to do now?
If she couldn't touch the Death Note, and take it, then she'd need Light to give it up himself. But he was a very arrogant young man, and he wasn't likely to listen to a stranger, he'd never met before.
She couldn't ask L to help her either, since he wasn't even close to being involved, this early in the story.
But wait!
In the beginning, when Light met Ryuk for the first time, he was scared that he would steal his soul, or something right?
Well then Rosie could use his Paranoia, to get him to abandon the notebook.
She was a ghost, so she could sneak in without being seen, and she could freak him out.
Besides no one else could Know about him killing yet, so of course he'd think it was some kind of strange supernatural thing, come to kill him unless he gave up the notebook.
Rosemary smiled, she could still fix this.
She'd just need to make a list of supplies in her notebo-
Wait, where was it?
Rosie patted herself down, before grasping her face in horror.
"Oh Fuck!" she'd left her notebook on Light Yagami's desk.
….
His dad called his colleagues, to tell them about the break in, but something didn't sit right with Light.
He couldn't see anything missing, and there was no sign of a break in at all. If he didn't know better, he'd have thought he'd imagined the entire thing.
Something was definitely odd here.
After talking a bit with his father, and looking around for any sign of the culprit, he returned upstairs to his room. But what Light found, sent chills down his spine. His eyes widened, in shock.
The drawer was open.
Rushing towards it, Light was relieved to find the Death Note still there.
Had the thief not thought it valuable? Or had they looked for it specifically?
But if they'd wanted it, they would have taken it wouldn't they?
'Of course they would.' reasoned Light. They'd probably dismissed it as Junk, like any other sensible person would.
Lifting it up, Light was shocked for a moment, and dropped it.
It was ice cold to the touch.
Had something happened to it?
Light flicked through the pages, but couldn't find anything. At first he thought one of the pages looked a little darker, but it was so slight it must have been a trick of the light.
Finding nothing he moved it to his school bag, in case the Police wanted to search his room for clues.
But just as he was doing this, he noticed another notebook on his desk.
A notebook, that wasn't his.
Picking it up, Light noted that it had no name or return address on the outside. It was a dark blue notebook, cheap and easily purchased.
He then flicked through it.
"tch English" sighed Light in annoyance, he could understand English fine, but it was still a pain to read through.
However reading through, Light quickly grew concerned.
This was clearly a person, who had little if any understanding of Japanese, and yet they'd found details of his life and where he lived, and went to school.
There were even bus timetables, and train schedules, to show you how to get to his town.
This person had wanted to specifically find him.
Why? Was it for the Deathnote?
No, no one could know about this. This Journey would have taken almost a day, he'd had the book for barely twelve hours. No, instead this was probably some stalker, but still to go so far to track him down was unsettling.
Where had they come from, if they didn't know Japanese, and how did they know about him? Light wasn't internationally famous, he was modest enough to know that much.
There were only a few details, alluding to the owner.
Light found many small notes, mostly asking how to get to different platforms, for the right trains, but some gave away details.
Her name was Rosemary Green.
She was from Northern Europe, so she was most likely from Scandinavia or the United Kingdom; Light was leaning more toward the UK as she didn't have any notes, that weren't written in English.
The book also suggested she was mute, or had some difficulty speaking, as she indicated on several instances that she couldn't talk back.
Flicking to the back of the book, Light found a well detailed sketch of three people.
He also knew, she was a talented drawer.
But he had no contact details, or significant information to find this person, and he had no clue who the people in the picture were.
Light frowned.
He was beginning to doubt this person was a criminal. If they were, they certainly wouldn't have brought something, like this along with them.
But if they were just some crazy admirer of his, then how did she get in without a trace?
What if they came back?
Light couldn't risk that.
Should he hand the notebook to the police?
No, a mystery Burglar who didn't take anything, was already a little far fetched. A mute english girl who can break into houses unseen, was even just absurd.
Besides they might want to monitor his room, and Light would like to avoid that if he could.
Light slipped it into his school bag instead.
He'd hold onto it for now.
….
"Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck,oh fuck." rambled Rose as she paced back and forth.
How could she screw up this badly? It was one thing to get caught leaving, but to leave the notebook.
Lord knows what they must think; that some crazed english woman, wants to get into their son's pants or something.
'I mean yes he was cute but I'd never do anything so-.'
What was she thinking? Who cares if he's cute? He knows who she is! How was she supposed to scare him, if he'd already been broken into by a crazy lady?
Of course now, he'll be expecting something weird won't he?
'Okay calm down Rose.' she thought.
Maybe she could fix this.
He'd ran after her right? Then he probably thought she was some kind of Burglar, or a murderer or something.
So if she just focussed on making the scene of the crime, look like it was some kind of supernatural entity, and she didn't fuck up and start opening doors randomly, then he might not make the connection it was her.
Especially if she made direct references to the Death Note itself.
Rose then began to formulate a plan. She couldn't go back tonight as Light's house would probably be on red alert, after her stunt earlier, so she'd have to wait for the next night.
In the meantime she could get supplies in the morning; none of the shops would be open this late, so she'd have to wait.
Now feeling a bit calmer, Rosie headed back down the high street to the small hotel she'd seen near the shops earlier on her walk out.
She rented a small one bedroom room, for two nights. It was weird seeing a Futon instead of a proper platform bed, but Rose couldn't really complain.
There was a bedside cabinet with a lamp, a small desk with a chair, and a door which led to an en suite with a shower.
A shower sounded lovely to be honest, she'd been running around for almost two days.
Rosemary stripped off her old clothes, only now realising how grungy they should have felt after being worn for two days straight.
Instead they still felt crisp and clean.
It felt heavenly to have warm water wash away all the stress this entire thing had caused her. Rose took her time and scrubbed her body, and her hair with the small complimentary shampoo bottles, before wrapping herself up in the free towels.
Rosemary sighed in contentment, as she lied back on her bed, smiling.
She felt much more relaxed now. She shouldn't give up so soon, after all, Light wasn't necessarily hopeless, just because he'd already picked up the notebook.
Once she'd dried herself off, rose crawled underneath the bed covers and tried to sleep for a bit. She may as well, she couldn't get supplies til it was morning anyway.
'Everything will be alright.' thought Rosemary. With that comforting thought, she closed her eyes, as she soon drifted off to sleep.
….
The next day, Rosie woke up at about 10:00 well rested. She was surprised to find she'd slept that much, but just because she didn't need that much sleep, didn't mean she couldn't sleep that long, she supposed.
Quickly dressing herself Rose checked herself in the mirror. Should she brush her teeth? She couldn't feel any plaque, did they even decay anymore? They really shouldn't.
Checking her breath she didn't find anything wrong.
'If it bugs me i'll just buy some toothpaste late.' decided rosie.
She had more important things to do.
Rosie slid her hotel key into her inside pocket before heading towards the high street.
She'd have to buy a new notebook to talk now, and a backpack would be good to put it in; then she could just hang it on her back, and forget about it, without leaving it at crime scenes.
Shaking her head, she soon found the first two things she was looking for, and quickly slid her new Red notebook, into her new black backpack.
But now what?
She needed an idea to scare Light into action, what about some kind of fake blood? She could use strawberry jam, and perhaps some notes saying things like:
"GIVE UP THE DEATHNOTE!"
and
"BURN THE BOOK BEFORE I EAT YOUR SOUL!"
Something to creep him out. In fact if she wrote the writing similar to the way Ryuk wrote the English rules, then maybe Light would think the shinigami, was threatening him instead of Rose.
'Perfect.' thought Rose.
She bought two large jars of bright red strawberry sauce, it looked much more convincing as blood, in her opinion, and was a little disturbing, quite honestly.
Rose also bought a pack of A4 paper, an ink pot, and a quill to try and make her writing look creepier, and more similar to Ryuk's, and a single roll of sellotape, so she could attach it to the walls.
Rose also brought a pack of sugar coated almonds, before heading back to her hotel.
She was all set to be honest, but on the way Rose noticed a vendor selling small straw dolls.
'Should I really?' wondered Rosemary. Light wouldn't even get the Beyond Birthday reference.
"Then again." she turned one over in her hands "they are kind of creepy." declared Rosemary.
'What the heck.'
Rose purchased three of the small dolls, and some stronger duck tape, to stick them to the walls as well.
She soon arrived back at her hotel, and began writing threatening notes. She occasionally paused to pop a sweet into her mouth, before she turned back to her writing, as she tried to write with a scratchy, eerie style that wouldn't match her hand writing.
It took her a while to get it right.
….
The police hadn't found anything last night and if it weren't for the obviously wrecked front garden, where a woman's shoes had mauled the grass, they might have thought Light had imagined it.
Light would like to think he had too, if it weren't for the notebook he found.
Who was Rosemary Green?
Why did she have to show up now, that he'd gotten involved in something, as dangerous as the Death Note? If this was just some sick fantasy for her, then she couldn't have picked a worse time to act it out.
As Light walked home he forced himself to forget about it. There wasn't anything he could do, about it now anyway.
'Besides.' he told himself, as he hung up his blazer. 'I have more important things to do.'
He said hello to his Mom and Sayu, just normal short conversation, before he headed up to his room to start writing.
Now that he knew this notebook was genuine, he could use it for so much good. No one else would have the courage to use it like he would; they'd be too scared, too worried.
But that was fine, he would bear the burden, of this book.
Browsing the internet, he started with the worst criminals he could think of.
Three hours later, Light had filled entire pages, with row upon row, of people he'd killed. People who kept evading the justice system, people only he could get to, hundreds were gone in minutes.
Stretching his arms out, he looked over his work.
He'd done so much in so little time, and these lists brought a smile to light's face, until he noticed a pool of ink in the top right corner.
Light frowned slightly.
Had he broken his pen, without realising? He glanced down. No it was fine, so where did that ink come from?
He flipped to the middle of the book to find an inky black hand print in the center of the book.
Light's eyes widened.
Surrounding the hand print, the paper had darkened, just like he thought it had last night.
So that girl had done something.
The handprint was sticky, and was leaking onto the pages, but it hadn't looked like that last night.
What was this?
The image looked as though, she'd tried to grasp a hold of the page, but had been unable to.
Is that what had happened?
She had tried to steal the Deathnote but something had stopped her from taking it? Is that why the drawer had opened.
Was this some kind of government weapon then? Was Rosemary just a cover name for something to disarm him?
No, there was no way could any human design a weapon like this, so perhaps "Rosemary" was some kind of demon, or grim reaper come to punish him for using this.
Shaking slightly Light tore out the offending pages, and crumpled them up in his bin.
"What are you Rosemary?" murmured Light. The more he found about this person, the more they concerned him.
Maybe this wouldn't be as easy as he thought.
….
Rosemary arrived back at Light's house, at around 2:00 in the morning, with a bag full of paper.
She'd finished hours ago, but she couldn't come back again until she was sure that Light and his family would be asleep.
Rose carefully slid through the door, and up the stairs; looking around for any sign of someone being awake or any objects she might knock over, before once again sneaking into Light's room.
The bookshelf had been propped back up, and it looked like all the books had been put back, in the correct place as well.
No one would have been able to tell, what had happened last night, but Rose didn't have time to focus on that. She'd have to do this quickly, without waking Light up.
It was dark, but Rose could see well enough, so she slowly lowered her backpack to the floor, and zipped it open.
Carefully lifting out her paper, Rose placed it on the desk, as she grabbed the sellotape.
She then began to stick up her pages, all over the room, until all the book shelves, and walls were covered. She occasionally turned back to Light as he turned in his sleep, worried that he'd wake back up again, before going back to her work.
Once she'd done that, she reached back into her bag, for the straw dolls, and hung one on each wall of the room; so Light would see all three, as he woke up.
Satisfied with her work, she finally reached in her bag for the jars of of strawberry sauce. She unscrewed the lids, and dunked her hand in, before dripping the sauce all over the papers.
She tried to avoid getting it on herself, but some ended up on the book shelves, light's desk, and even the floor,
Once both Jars were near empty, she looked back at her work, and felt satisfied.
Surely Light couldn't ignore this many messages, telling him to burn the notebook, or else. So after zipping up her bag again, Rosie lightly tiptoed downstairs and headed out the door.
She'd give him time to get rid of the notebook though, after all he might need time to do it safely. So Rosemary would check back up on Light, in three days she decided. As Rosemary headed back to her hotel room, for a good night's sleep, she felt happy, and confident in her efforts that night.
…
Light woke up to the sound of his alarm like always.
He turned on his side, and placed his hand down on the top, before turning back over.
Light's eyes then widened, as he noticed the state of his room, which seemed to be dripping in blood.
"Wha!?"
He gasped, before he clamped a hand over his mouth. If he could, he'd like, to avoid alarming anyone else.
Light forced himself to calm down, before he realised that it couldn't be blood; it was too fluorescent in colour for that.
He put his hand down, and tried to rationalise, but then he noticed the writing.
Warnings, and death threats for him to give up the Death Note, and repent before his soul was devoured, and other horrific things covered the walls of his room.
Light's heart beat faster.
The writing was in English like the Death Note, and the calligraphy bore a striking resemblance. He'd even go so far, as to call it identical.
Had whatever owned the notebook before, come to get him?
"That's it." decided Light firmly.
Even if the Notebook could be used for good, it wasn't worth dying over, besides he'd already helped get rid of so many of the world's worst criminals.
That would be good enough.
But wait what was that?
The red goo had dripped onto his shelves, and even the floor, allowing the person who had been there, to leave foot prints.
Foot prints that matched, the ones from the night before.
Light scowled.
'So this isn't some supernatural apparition, this is my stalker.' he concluded, now furious with the state of his room.
To think he'd almost been caught off guard.
But still the question remained, who was this person?
How did they break in without being seen, yet remain amateurish enough to leave footprints at the scene of the crime twice?
More importantly, how did they know he'd found the Death Note so quickly?
Light was convinced now, this wasn't the person who'd owned the book originally.
But if not, how did they know he had it, or what it was?
"Light, are you coming down for breakfast?" called his Mom.
Light snapped out of his thoughts before yelling back.
"Er Yeah Just let me get ready first."
"Well alright, but hurry up or it'll get cold." she replied, before serving up the other breakfasts.
Running his hands through his hair, Light pushed his anger down. He had school now, and exams coming up, he didn't have time to deal with Rosemary.
Light soon got up, being careful to avoid the sauce on the floor, and quickly tore down all the paper and jammed it into his waste basket. It was a temporary solution, and he'd have to dispose of it properly when he got back from school.
Light looked around in disgust, even with the paper removed, there was still red slime everywhere. What even was it?
Tentatively swiping the slightest drop, on his left pinky finger, Light tasted it. Urgh! It was some sort of sickly, strawberry sauce.
Light hated to leave his room, in such disarray, but he had no time to fix it this morning. He was especially reluctant, as the sauce would be harder, to clean later on.
But the idea of fixing, some idiotic stalker's mess, just enraged him.
Quickly getting dressed, and washing his now sticky, red hands, Light finally headed downstairs for breakfast, with a smile.
Trying to keep his foul mood, from showing on his face, he politely ate breakfast, and even teased his sister before heading out the door.
"Rosemary Green." murmured Light with a small frown. "You have no clue what you're messing with."