Chapter two. Thanks to those who reviewed last chapter!

Light cannot sleep. Every time he closes his eyes, he hears that noise, that scratching, like (the sound of pen on paper) something trying to reach him through the walls. He finally snaps, opening his window and leaning out to look at the roof. Ryuk peers out after him, his head sticking through the wall.

"What ya looking for, Light?"

Light barely even glances at the shinigami, instead craning his neck to see as much of the roof as he can. "That scratching… there must be something causing it. If I can see what it is, then I can do something about it."

Ryuk looks, if possible, even more amused. "You can still hear scratching?"

Light turns to stare incredulously at Ryuk. "You mean you can't?"

The shinigami chuckles. "Nope. Stopped about an hour ago."

Pulling back in from the window, Light processes this new information. After a brief pause, he laughs quietly to himself. "Outwitting L must be taking more of a toll on me than I'd realised. Look at me, scared of a rat in the attic." He shakes his head at his own foolishness and closes the window, intending to go to bed and forget this madness.

He does not realise that the latch breaks as he does so, nor does he hear the victorious hiss coming from something far larger and more dangerous than a rat.

-x-

Light sighs as he finally arrives home the next evening. L's mind games had been particularly taxing, and Light had wanted to get away and think, but then Misa had insisted that he take her out on a date. The whole process had been thoroughly exhausting. If she didn't have the Eyes, he would have long since disposed of her. He wearily climbs the stairs to his room, trying to formulate the final details of his latest plan. He is considering temporarily relinquishing the Death Note, losing his memories and-

And then he stops.

Something is wrong.

He is certain that nobody has been in his room – none of the traps he set, from the obvious to the undetectable, have been sprung – but that does not change the fact that he somehow feels that his space has been invaded, violated by an intruder. At first, he cannot see anything amiss, and as the Note has been untouched he does not worry. He can hear Ryuk crunching an apple noisily behind him, and when he turns, he sees it.

Pinned to the opposite wall is a china doll, the kind with lacy clothes that young girls sometimes like to play with. Light recalls that Sayu herself had one when she was smaller. But Sayu's doll had most certainly not looked like this.

The doll's white dress is stained blood red in places, and the eyes have been plucked out, leaving empty black holes that seem to stare at Light. As Light goes closer, he sees that the doll's mouth has been chipped away, replaced with a malevolent grin. The nail that holds it to the wall goes straight through the doll's chest, and held in its hand is a tiny china heart.

Suddenly angry, Light tears the doll from the wall. He is sure Ryuk finds his behaviour highly amusing, but he cannot stand to have that thing there, watching him.

Light drops the doll with a cry of shock when he sees the message.

The dress is ripped, exposing the back of the doll. Carved into the china in scratchy katakana are two words.

Hello, Kira.

Ryuk is laughing uproariously, and he only stops when Light shakily threatens to cut off his supply of apples entirely if he doesn't shut up. Light throws the doll out of his window, expecting it to smash. It does not, and he can see its empty eyes staring up at him, judging him. He closes the blinds, but still he feels that cold gaze on him.

-x-

As Light slowly wakes up the next day, he stays for a few minutes with his eyes closed, composing himself. His sleep had been disturbed with images of laughing dolls holding his own bleeding heart above his head. Taking a few deep breaths to ground himself, Light tells himself that it was all a dream, all of it, even the doll he had found on his wall was just a product of a stressed mind and an overactive imagination, and it was not at all related to the scratching sounds from before, that was just an animal…

Such thoughts are shattered when he opens his eyes.

On the ceiling, directly above his head, is another message.

I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE.

Light gives a strangled half-shriek and shoots out of bed, his eyes never leaving the scrawled message. Ryuk is watching him, fascinated by this behaviour.

"Did you do this?!" Light demands.

The shinigami claps his hands with glee. "Nope, not me, Light. That's what makes it even more fun!"

Unable to face the shinigami's laughter and those words on his ceiling, Light stumbles out of his room and down the stairs. His father is already at the table, eating breakfast.

"What's wrong, Light? You look very pale. Are you ill?"

Light's mouth opens and closes a few times before he smiles weakly and shakes his head. "I'm fine, I just slept badly." He does not want Soichiro to go into his room, to see his damnation spelt out on the ceiling.

Light sits down and tries to eat the food his mother has laid out for him, but his hands are trembling and his stomach is twisting in knots. Eventually he just leaves it untouched, instead going into the cupboard where all the cleaning equipment is kept.

I don't know how it got there, but I'll be damned if I don't clean it off.

Muttering a quick explanation about spilling a drink, Light heads up the stairs carrying a sponge and a bucket full of water. He hesitates at the door, his mind already telling him that this must have been a prank, that someone had probably written it there specifically to spook him – but how had they got into his room, and got to the ceiling, which would have been right over his head, as he slept?

Light did not want to admit that the rational part of him was starting to be overwhelmed by the little-boy-terrified-in-the-dark part, but with the scratching, the doll from the night before, and now this, he isn't sure any more.

As Light finally pushes open the door, he sees Ryuk, practically doubled over on the floor with laughter. His paranoia forgotten, Light turns angrily on the shinigami (and how can he be scared of a couple of words on the ceiling when he's got a god of death on his side?)

"What are you laughing at now?"

Ryuk is so out of breath from his mirth that it takes him a few seconds to reply. "Hohoho, Light, when I dropped the Note in the Human realm, I didn't think I would have this much fun!"

Light's eyes narrow suspiciously. "And by that, you mean what?"

Ryuk points one black claw at the ceiling, slapping his knees with amusement. "Look, look! It's gone!"

Light looks, and it is gone. The message has completely disappeared, no trace of its presence remaining. His heart quickens in panic as he climbs up on his bed, as if a closer examination will provide any clue.

But there is nothing, not even a smudge. It's as if the writing was never there.

-x-

Light is silent on the way to the Investigation HQ. He spends most of the journey trying to rationalise the strange occurrences of the past few days.

The scratching had to be an animal – I don't care what Ryuk said, that's the only explanation. And the doll is easy. Someone could have broken into my room through the window and put it there. They must have done it whilst my mother was out, or else she would have seen them. And as for the writing, well, it could have been written in something that fades after a certain time. No, because whoever did it couldn't be sure it wouldn't fade before I woke up… maybe they hid in my room and waited until I'd gone out, and then cleaned it off… but then they wouldn't know when I'd come back to see it had gone… And how did they write it up there in the first place without waking me? They must have been very quiet. Or maybe they gassed the room before they came in, so I was definitely asleep… yes, that could work…

Light doesn't have to be a genius to tell that his reasoning is preposterously weak.

Reviews are much loved. The next chapter will either be up Friday or Sunday - Saturday is completely full, so it all depends on how quickly I get it done.