Warnings: Murder, Het OC Pairing, No official characters.
Hiya everyone! :D
Here's chapter 2, I had a lot of fun writing the interaction between the characters and introduced a little more humor than in the previous chapter.
Chapter 3 is in progress, had to find a balance between school and writing but I'll try to finish it as soon as possible :3
Let me know how you like the story so far! 'Cause I could really use some feedback.
And again lots of thanks to SkittleYentl :D
~Shibbey~
Living Among the Remnants of the Dead
Chapter 2: The cold hand of Death.
Jack had never been in this room before. In contrast to the rest of the building it was quite normal. There was just a table and a few chairs in the middle of the room. A fridge stood in the corner and a magnetic board loaded with children's drawings was nailed to the wall. They were in the living room of the orphanage supervisors.
Michael, the oldest of the supervisors and Shanna's half-brother, was talking to two police officers on the other side of the room. It was a big room, so Jack couldn't hear exactly what they were saying.
Joanne and Richard were sitting at the table, listening to the conversation. Shanna and Jack were standing near the door; Shanna couldn't explain what happened because she kept crying, so Jack was still confused. Why was he the only one here, next to the supervisors? And what were the police officers doing here?
Finally one of the officers started walking towards Jack and Shanna. "We thought you might want to hear this first, since you were one of his best friends..." The officer paused briefly when Shanna started crying again. "An hour ago, just after he left school," he continued. "Ronald Maesfeldt died in a traffic accident..."
Jack froze, as he repeated the sentence in his head. Ronald... Died? Shanna put her head on Jack's shoulder and grabbed his hand.
The police officer explained: "Around 3pm Ronald left the school and crossed the street. A drunk driver failed to notice him and hit Ronald at full speed, he died on impact and there was nothing the paramedics could do... I'm sorry."
Jacks' head filled with anger. He just lost his best friend and he said he was 'sorry'? But even though he was so angry, the words ringing in his ears kept him speechless.
"Do you want to go see him?" Michael asked.
Michael was around thirty years old, Jack didn't know his exact age, but that was his best guess. They never really spoke to each other much, even though Michael was a nice guy.
Jack and Shanna sat in the back of the car as they were driving to the hospital.
Jack looked at Shanna and saw that she had stopped crying, but now she was simply staring out the window without saying a word. Not that he had said so much as a word himself.
"Why did it have to be Ronald?" Jack asked with a trembling voice.
Shanna looked at him but didn't say a thing.
"Life isn't fair" Michael said as he looked through the rear-view mirror. "Ronald had a lot to live for, and it's not fair that he was killed so soon."
Those words weren't comforting to him at all, Jack only felt more enraged by it.
When they entered the hospital Shanna grabbed Jack's hand and Michael put his hand on Jack's shoulder. For the first time in years Jack couldn't hold back his tears.
It had only been slightly more than a week since Ronald died but to Jack it felt like everyone had already forgotten him. A lot of things had changed though; Michael started coming around to Jack's room every now and then, and Jack and Shanna talked a lot more.
To be honest, Jack didn't really mind. Michael was like an older brother to Jack now, and even though Jack normally needed a lot of time to connect with people, he already started to like Michael.
Shanna was pretty much her happy self again, even though everyone could notice she wasn't as happy as she pretended to be. Ronald had left a huge hole in the lives of all three, but the rest of the orphanage really didn't seem to care and that pissed Jack off.
When Jack was walking to school again he saw Jonathan further down the street. Normally Jack would keep his distance so he wouldn't have to start an awkward conversation, but this time he decided to catch up with him. Becoming friends with Jonathan again would probably help if Jack ever wanted to find out what that black notebook really was.
"Hey, wait up!'' Jack shouted.
Jonathan turned around and looked surprised. "I haven't seen you all week," he said.
"Well, I just couldn't bring myself to go to school yet.'' Jack answered.
"Oh... yeah, I heard about Ronald. It must have been terrible.''
They continued talking on their way to school, and surprisingly Jack kind of enjoyed it. He kept it friendly for now, avoided bringing up the notebook and casually walked with him.
During class Jack's mind kept wandering again. He hadn't thought about the notebook ever since Ronald died, but walking to school with Jonathan brought it all back. The first time Jack saw it, Jonathan was carrying it in his schoolbag. If I could only get him away from his bag for a while I could take a look…
It didn't take long for Jack to come up with a plan; Jonathan couldn't swim, so he had swimming classes immediately after school every Tuesday. There was no way he would go back home just to drop off his bag, so he would probably have it with him, or leave it in his locker at school. The first thing to do is find out where he leaves it.
Jack was startled by the sound of moving chairs when everyone in his class got up and started leaving the room. He then noticed that he had been staring at Jonathan's bag the whole time. Jonathan had obviously noticed, since he was looking at Jack with a cocked eyebrow.
How do I know if it's real? Jack thought as he ran home. I know I've read it somewhere. He kept thinking about a certain article that said something about a 'shinigami.' Now Jack wasn't exactly an expert in Japanese, more precisely he didn't speak Japanese at all aside from the standard words like 'arigato' and 'banzai' he had picked up watching movies.
"Oh, hi Jack!" Shanna shouted from the other end of the hallway when Jack ran through the front door of the orphanage.
How the hell did she recognize me so fast from all the way over there? Jack thought. He didn't have time for her right now so he ran up to his room immediately. As he arrived at his door he felt in his pocket… it was empty.
"Dammit!" Jack yelled. "Shanna still has my keys."
When he walked back to the staircase, he saw Shanna leaning against a wall one floor down, with a giant smile on her face. "Forgot something?" She teased as she held Jacks' keys in her hand.
"Give me my keys." Jack growled while holding up his hand.
"Oh aren't we grumpy again, you forgot the magic word." Shanna answered as she walked up to Jack's floor.
"Give me my keys, please?" Jack said with a frown on his face.
"You'll have to catch me first!" she yelled, and she suddenly ran off.
"I don't have time for childish games!" Jack yelled as he ran after her through countless hallways. Jeez, when does she ever get tired? He thought.
When they ran back down to the bottom floor Jack finally caught up with her and he quickly tackled Shanna.
"I'm not giving you anything!" Shanna yelled as she was rolling around the floor laughing.
Michael opened the door of his office and looked into the hallway where he saw Shanna on the floor struggling to keep Jack from getting his keys.
He lifted one eyebrow and said: "Shanna… could you please keep it down? If anybody hears you they're going to think you're crazy."
Neither Shanna nor Jack looked up as they continued to fight while Shanna kept screaming and laughing.
"I guess it's already too late for that." He said to himself as he looked into the other end of the hallway and saw that half of the people on the bottom floor were staring at the two idiots on the ground.
"I've got 'em!" Jack yelled and he jumped back to his feet with the keys in his hand. His happiness suddenly faded when he saw everyone staring at him, so he awkwardly walked away with a fast pace.
"That was the first time I saw a smile on his face" Michael grinned as he helped Shanna up.
Back in his room Jack suddenly remembered what he had to look for. "Shinigami, shinigami, shinigami." He kept saying to himself as he went through the piles of articles on his desk.
Then he heard a voice behind him: "Shini-what?"
Jack quickly turned around. "Mia? What the hell are you doing here? How did you get in here? And how the hell did you even know where I live?"
Mia pointed towards the door of Jacks' room. "Your door was open… and to be honest, I followed you here."
"Go away." Jack said with a straight face. "The fact that you followed me home is creepy enough, and sneaking up on me like that isn't exactly making it better." Jack gave her an angry face. I don't have time for this. He thought.
Mia looked surprised; at least Jack thought that was her surprised face. It was hard to see through all that black make-up.
"Wow, I didn't know you were such a prick. I yelled a few times on your way here because you dropped your phone but you didn't hear me."
Jack stayed silent for a moment. "Oh…" He tried to apologize but that all he could say.
"You're welcome." Mia said. She put Jacks' phone on his desk and walked away.
"I didn't know you had a girlfriend." Someone laughed from behind Jacks' half-closed door. He didn't have to turn around to know it was Shanna who was teasing him.
"Would everyone please just leave me alone?" He shouted, and without turning around he kicked his door shut.
After fifteen minutes of searching his room he had found the articles he was looking for. He was sitting on his bed with his laptop trying to learn as much as he could. "I have to find out if that notebook is real tomorrow…"
