Puppet-Master

Genesis held up his flute, smiling. Light could practically feel every criminal that stood around them hold their breath in anticipation. He was genuinely freaked out, this time. He had no idea what Genesis was planning, and with his hypnosis abilities, he could make Light do anything.

"I think…" the teenaged murderer mused, grinning psychotically, "I think I'll leave off the literal hypnosis. It's no fun if you're not consciously aware of what's happening to you. I know the perfect song!"

Sprawled on the floor, still immobile, Light could do nothing as Genesis raised his flute, beginning to play. The notes got stronger and stronger as the song continued, and Genesis nodded at Drevan. The other murderer walked over behind Light, reaching out and grasping at air before pulling sharply upwards. Light felt himself rise up off the floor, standing without any effort on his part, tugged along like a puppet on strings. And Drevan seemed all too willing to play puppet-master. Drevan grinned, pulling on nothing, this way and that, and Light felt his arms and legs responding without his consent.

"Dance for us, detective!" Drevan laughed, whipping the invisible puppet strings around, causing Light to do a kind of awkward pirouette in place. The criminals surrounding them laughed as well, and the puppet-master yanked all of the strings outwards, leaving Light standing open in the middle of the hallway, unable to defend himself.

xXx

It was only the first few that hurt, really. After a while, his nerves became almost deadened to the pain, as murderers and rapists and the rest of the crowd took turns beating him, punching, kicking, anything to cause pain. His left eye had long since swollen shut, and blood from a cut in his head was running into his right eye, but he had no control to wipe it away.

Genesis wandered over, wiping at the blood with his sleeve in a mockingly kind gesture. He stepped back, and Light saw another criminal come forward, this one taller than him and heavily muscled, grinning with sick enjoyment. He reached out, taking Light's left hand, wrapping one huge hand around his fingers and yanking them backwards.

Light screamed as he felt his fingers break, felt the bones splintering beneath the iron grip. He wanted to die, he honestly, genuinely wanted to die, anything to make the pain stop. Out of the corners of his awareness he realized that that had been the last criminal, and Drevan came forward, a knife in one hand. With the other, he tugged at the invisible puppet-strings, forcing Light to his knees. He manipulated them more carefully after that, making the barely-conscious teenager lean forward, resting his hands on the concrete floor, fingers spread. It was agony to move the broken ones, but he had no choice in the matter.

Drevan knelt beside him, resting the knife lightly where his pinky and ring fingers met his right hand. "You seem like you need something to wake you up. A short, sharp shock should do it." Light had just enough time to realize what he was going to do, opening his mouth in a hoarse shriek as Drevan pressed down on the knife. The blade went straight through, and Light could feel the sickening sensation as tendons and muscles were sliced, as bones were pried apart. He wanted to be sick, and he would have collapsed had he been allowed, but instead hung limp, the perfect puppet.

Drevan handed the knife off to Genesis, who giggled. "I do so love knives. They're so much fun! And so easy." The young murderer tossed the knife into the air, watching it spin before catching it by the hilt. "I think… that we should watch you do this." The assembled crowd of criminals jeered and laughed, and Genesis placed the knife in Light's ruined right hand, forcing him to grip it with only three fingers.

His hand was a dull, deep, throbbing ache, almost invisible under the searing sharp pains from elsewhere on his body. He saw Genesis lift his flute, and begin to play once again.

He fought the command in the music, but was unable to stop himself from lifting the knife, pressing it to his left wrist for a moment before dragging it up his arm, opening the vein to stain the floor with red. Genesis was laughing, unable to play anymore, and Light collapsed to the floor, finally free to fall.

He barely heard the footsteps coming, someone elbowing their way through the crowd. Then he heard Lind's voice over the din.

"The police are coming!" Lind was saying frantically. "We need to guard the doors, or figure out a way out of here, if we don't want to be locked up again."

"Find something with which to barricade the doors!" Drevan ordered. Criminals began to file away, hurrying to ward off the police. Drevan and Genesis glanced down at Light, who was cradling his arm to his shirt to try to stop the blood flowing from his sliced vein, and exchanged a look.

"He'll die soon." Drevan said, turning away. "No point in watching."

Genesis waved. "Goodbye, Detective!" Both hurried off, and Lind motioned to the hallway beyond Light.

"You'll die unless you reach the cell. If I stay, they'll come back, though. I cannot help you any farther. I'm sorry. Good luck, Yagami Light." He hurried away, to keep the others away long enough for Light to escape the challenge. Light felt a flare of disappointment, but he supposed that underneath everything, Lind was still a criminal. And L was the detective who put him in prison, and Light was the one who killed him. It was double the reason to want to see him suffer.

He forced himself to his feet, biting his lips until they bled as well, trying to keep himself from crying out at the pressure on his wounded right hand. His left arm he kept pressed to his stomach, broken fingers dangling uselessly, well aware that L's customary white shirt was being stained bloody crimson. He was beginning to feel light-headed.

He stumbled down the hall, barely able to make out the numbers above the cells now. 114, 115, 116… He was going the right way. He continued on, his vision blurring into black at the edges. He couldn't pass out now! Not when he was so close!

123, 124, 125… He dashed down the last few feet, more of a stumble than a run, and stopped at cell 128. Curling the three remaining fingers on his right hand through the bars, he tugged, feeling the door give. At that moment, the world spun, and his eyes rolled up in his head. He fell forward and knew no more.

xXx

When he awoke, he realized he was back in the grey room, tucked into the bed that L had been occupying the last time he had seen the skinny detective. He sat up, looking around, and spotted L sitting against the far wall, watching him. He started to stand, and spotted something he hadn't seen in L's eyes in a while.

Mistrust.

That was when the detective chose to speak. One single word. A name. A title. An accusation.

"Kira."

Light flinched visibly. He got up, crossing the room in a few steps, and L stood as well, tense. Light stared into impossible black-magic eyes, and whispered, "L, please, you have to listen…"

"You're a murderer." L said bitterly. "You're a murderer; you said you were my friend, but Kira wants to kill me. Is that how I got here? Did you kill me?"

Worse. Light thought, but didn't speak it out loud. Instead, he said, "You only suspected me. You don't remember everything yet. Please, please don't jump to conclusions until the end. I know you want to look for the answers and solve things, but the answers will come back with your memories. I swear. Trust me, L." The suspicious look didn't go away, and Light added desperately, "If I wanted you dead, I wouldn't be trying so hard to bring you back."

This the detective could not argue with, and he nodded reluctantly. "I… will continue to trust you, Light. At least until… I remember something to the contrary."

Light breathed a sigh of relief. He had dodged one bombshell, but how many more would he be able to avoid? L would remember what Light had done to him eventually, and that would be the end of him.

But what was there to do but go on? His sense of self-preservation was telling him to quit now, before something happened that he regretted. But his conscience wouldn't let him leave without L.

L informed him that he had been asleep for a long time, so he figured it would be best to get on with the next challenge as soon as possible. Staring at L, each trying to measure what the other was thinking, he reached for the door, thankfully with all five fingers, and stepped through once again. Endgame was getting nearer, but at what cost?

Lind, you failure. You could have done something.

Oh well. Shorter chapter for you guys this time, since I'm 9435 words into NaNoWriMo and am so far behind it isn't even funny. T.T But yeah. I love Genesis. He's such a little psycho. But then again, being a reincarnated Shinigami does that to a person.

...I guess this is just a whole massive spoiler for Sinfonia if people haven't read that yet. Damn. XD

Hugs!
Li