The Whispering Voices

Chapter 2

Interesting.

Very interesting.

"Mr…" Near trailed off, digging for a name.

"Alexander. The name's Derek Alexander." Derek said, smiling down at the small boy.

"Well then, Mr. Alexander. I accept your offer."

…

Nothing is more useful than silence.

~Menander of Athens

…

Near was quietly shuttled away from his former home, all of the paramedics successfully bribed to report young Nate River's absence from the crime scene at arrival. The car he was in was obviously one of high standard, the heated leather seats warming his bottom. It also had a barrier for privacy between the driver and the backseat. The car, no doubt, belonged to whomever Mr. Alexander had been speaking about, though Near had an idea.

Quillish Wammy. According to the press, the old man is a very wealthy with shares in just about everything. He'd started out as an inventor, which quickly was made into the fortune he owned today. It was rumored that he owned a considerable chunk of the entire world's business. He also, apparently, had a heart of gold. Mr. Wammy started an orphanage long ago that rapidly spread worldwide, becoming a large chain. Near, of course, knew everything from his date of birth (May 1st, 1933) to his blood type (B), but had never heard of the special orphanage he possessed. Though it was probably better the public did not know of the special orphanage.

A soft knock on the window next to him drove Near from his thoughts. The door opened, revealing (of course) Quillish Wammy.

"Excuse me, my dear boy, but could you perhaps move to the far seat? I am not as young as I used to be." Mr. Wammy smiled down at the boy. Near shivered imperceptibly at the cold wind as it blew in through the open door and quickly moved away, allowing the old man to sit down and shut the door. The older man raised his eyebrow at Near as the car began to move forward.

"Is there an issue, Mr. Wammy?" Near asked, his voice as emotionless as his face. The older man smiled warmly at him again.

"I'm glad we can skip the introductions, Nate." Wammy sounded pleased, "That means I can go straight to business." Near sat motionless, silently watching and waiting for him to continue.

"Very well then, I shall start explaining how the regulations at Wammy's House work." Mr. Wammy said, clearing his throat, "Wammy's House is, at its most basic level, an orphanage for the gifted, whether it is creatively or academically. While at the Wammy House, there will be other gifted children such as yourself whom you will compete with for the number one spot on exams. You will be tested thoroughly and will be taught an expansive set of skills that will be required once you are old enough to live out on your own. You will be settled with a roommate unless you reach the number one position, upon doing so you will be given the option to move into a room of your own. Wammy's House is much rather like a school than an ordinary orphanage, and so you will be given a schedule along with a set of rules that must be followed. They are not optional. Understood?" Near silently nodded his head, twisting a piece of his hair as he ingested the information.

"Because I respect the privacy of all the children at Wammy's, I tell them they must create their own alias as to not be discovered. Though you may speak your true identity to any you wish, it might not prove be a great idea." Mr. Wammy warned, "Nate River, what would you wish to be called?"

Near watched the old man look at him expectantly and thought carefully. If he was to create an alias, he had to choose carefully. Making it too close to his real name would make it easily solvable, but he wanted to give the other children a challenge. If one was incredibly clever, then they could possibly crack it.

"Near." A voice whispered in the back of his head, "Near. Near. Near."

"My name shall be Near." Near said as the car slowly pulled to a stop.

"Very well, Near." Wammy nodded and rummaged through a bag he'd brought in, taking out a heavy wool coat in his size and handing it to Near, "I thought you might be cold on the walk inside, so you may want to put it on." Near glanced outside through the tinted windows and saw heavy snow falling, obscuring his view of the house. Looking disdainfully at the coat, he shrugged it on. The door opened from the outside and Mr. Wammy stepped out, Near shuffling right behind him into several inches of freshly fallen snow.

As Mr. Wammy walked several steps in front, Near stood in wonder of the soft, fluffy material coming from the sky. Though he knew it was snow, he'd never been outside the house to actually experience it. His mother had been terrified that he'd get sick, having a weak immune system, and forbid his playing outside. Nate had not wanted to go out anyway. There were always too many runny-nosed children playing outside in the snow, laughing and starting snowball wars and making snowmen and snow forts and everything a child would do in snow. This was true now.

Near took several quick steps in the snow to catch up to Mr. Wammy and walked beside him, grabbing his hand. Near did not want to have the other children throw snowballs at him, after all. Nobody would risk shooting a snowball in the direction of Mr. Wammy himself. The man in question did not react, but merely continued to walk. Together, they passed through the tall, foreboding wrought-iron gates that surrounded the property of Wammy's House.

Almost immediately, a fast snowball appeared out of nowhere and hit Near dead on in the face, the force making him fall into the snow. Laughter burst out all around him as he calmly wiped the wet snow from his face with cold fingers and stood back up.

"Nice shot, Mello!" a young boy's voice, not much older than his, called out. A boy with short red hair and strange orange tinted sunglasses, near the front of the group of children laughing at Near, high-fived a girl with blond hair reaching down to just above her shoulders, a cruel grin on her face.

"Now, settle down children." Mr. Wammy called, silence falling immediately over the crowd, "We have a new student that will be beginning tomorrow at Wammy's and I expect you to behave nicely with each other, meaning no throwing snowballs at his face." A few giggles sounded through the children again as Mr. Wammy relaxed, smiling. He then turned to Near, "Would you like to introduce yourself?"

A sudden thought crossed before him as he was about to answer.

"Experiment." The voice from earlier called out again. The voice had it right. What if he were to create an experiment where he didn't speak to the other children at all? It would be interesting to see how the adults here dealt with it as well…

Near silently shook his head at Mr. Wammy, who turned to the blond-haired girl.

"Mello, since you seem do adamant as to play with Near here, wouldn't you like to give him a tour of the House as well?" he asked innocently, though Near knew it was an order. The girl cussed ferociously under her breath in what sounded like German.

"Do I have to?" She whined. Near was slightly surprised when he realized the voice was much too deep for a female's, despite it being before puberty and that it must be a male. A simple mistake, surely. Mello must be used to being mistaken as a female by now. Mello scowled again when Mr. Wammy raised an eyebrow at him.

"Fine, I'll do it!" he spat out, grabbing the red-heads arm and pulling him as he walked towards Near, "Matt, c'mon! We're showing this sheep around. The faster we finish, the better." Near blinked in shock when Mello took hold of his arm roughly and began to drag him as well.

…

Several hours later, Near was settled into his room with a girl, nearing her sixth birthday, whom he shared the living space with. The girl's name was Linda, and she appeared to be of the very friendly, yet very naïve, type. She's also a very talented artist, and so her side of the room was colorful and filled with arts and crafts of all kinds. Near's side, however, was still blank and white, as he'd always preferred. Linda repeatedly asked him if he wanted her to 'liven' it up a bit' with some of her paintings, but Near sat quietly until she eventually subsided with all of her questions and went to bed.

Glancing at the clock, he decided it was late enough that all the children would be asleep and he would be free to do as he pleased around the House without being interrupted. As silent as a mouse, Near creeped out the door and down to where he remembered the library to be. As he walked among the bookshelves, he found what he had been looking for. The small computer situated next to a large window that allowed moonlight to filter through.

He climbed onto the chair and booted up the computer, only to find it locked because of the time. Near frowned disapprovingly as he broke through the computer's security as if it were child's play. His lips twitched upwards at the thought.

Child's play.

He'd made a joke.

His small fingers flew across the keyboard as he hacked into Wammy's House extensive fund. He searched online for what he might need in the near future and bought it using the money he'd recently acquired. He was about to shut down the computer right before an extra thought came to mind and stopped him.

"Go ahead." The voice said. Near could hear the smile behind the words. After making the few final purchases, Near shut down the computer and, as silently as he came, crept quietly back to his room. He fell asleep quickly that night, but that did not mean he would sleep soundly.

His world erupted into bright light and screams.

(A/N): Yeah, totally not my fault I updated this like twice in three days. Come on, it's the muse, I tell you! I should be writing out what I'm going to say tomorrow morning, because they're recording my Presidential Candidate Speech. Derp. No chance in hell I'm going to win this, though. Seven other people also want to join in and three of the seven are insanely popular and will get the support of their 'friends'. Oh joy. At least the teachers can't say I didn't try. The teachers, other than Mrs. B (damn you, Mrs. B!), all love me and enjoy my wonderful presence in their classes. Alright... they don't like me THAT much, but they still like me better than most of the others students and like to talk to me about special academic opportunities, as they call it. I don't mind because it's nice to be on most of the teacher's good sides, not to mention they don't bug and call on me when I don't raise my hand like most other students. I'm actually allowed to listen to music in most of their classes, though I'm only allowed with one earbud in. Plus it has to be like, super quiet. But still, hearing music in the background actually helps me focus on what the teacher is saying, and since the teachers all love me, they let it slide. I get real pissed off at the others kids in my classes when they tell me to take it out though. It gets really annoying when they whine all the time. I mean seriously. I listen to music in class and still get A's while they're getting C's and D's. Sure, some kids just don't learn as easily as I do, but it doesn't mean they can tell me what I can and cannot do. Especially when they should be minding their own damn business and listen to the teacher instead of bugging me.

Crap. I ranted.

Oh well. Review anyone? Favorites? Likes? Dislikes? Constructive Criticism? Come on, I can go on forever! Also, I have been playing around with adding a few OC's in the story, though not my own. It'll be a few chapters before I decide to insert any of them in yet, since I want you guys (whomever is reading this) to have time to register stuff in, but if I don't get any then I'll just keep them out.

Real name, alias, age, appearance, personality traits, 1 Special Skill (Music, art, intelligence, etc.), date of birth, quirks (they CANNOT be perfect, so give a ton!), and some sort of background history. I beg you not to make them like any of the characters in Death Note because that'd just be boring. I am not planning on making this a romance, and so there will be no pairings between the OC's and the characters along with in-line character pairings.

Also, be warned. There will be a chance that I will kill off your OC, so try not to get too attached. Probably wont happen, but still.

Until next time!

(Damn, that was long...)