ANOTHER SIDE, ANOTHER STORY

Chapter Three

Only Me

The bus started up as Steven waited patiently in his seat, staring out the window in silence while Zito talked to Armando in the seat behind him.

"So, Armando…" Zito started, trying to think of an interesting conversation. "Ever had a girlfriend?"

Armando sheepishly nodded.

"Alright! Did she—y'know—got the smoking body?" Zito asked, making the hour-glass figure with his fingers.

Steven rolled his eyes and started wondering what he would do now that he had Ashley Peter's name.

Anyone could have seen him pick up that Death Note. There was a good chance they hadn't because of the commotion going on with the three heart attacks, but there was a strong possibility Ashley had seen him and there was also a chance that she saw the words "Death Note" written on the cover.

How bothersome… He thought, looking down at his backpack. He'd told himself that morning that he would be testing the Death Note today to see if it really was real. But did he truly have it in him to kill somebody?

The whole bus ride home he didn't talk much. Zito tried to talk to him but he would simply nod or shake his head, occasionally smiling every time Zito made a joke about something. But his mind never wavered from the thought of killing. Could he do such a thing to someone?

His mind took him to the image of his past. The girl… Was she the reason he was so hesitant? Because he'd once thought that he'd been the reason for someone's suicide? Was it because of that incident that his views on death were so harsh? Did he have what it takes to risk killing someone with his own hands by simply writing down their name?

And suddenly he could feel the weight of it pounding down on him. Heavier than anything else he'd ever felt before. Sitting on this bus. If this notebook was real, then he could kill everyone on it. The Bus driver, the students, Zito… Even himself. Just with a simple name…How could something like this exist? This was a devil's book. It couldn't be real. He'd never believed in the black arts or anything like that.

"Dude, you alright?" Zito asked.

"Huh?" Steven snapped to attention. "What?"

"You look kind of pale, dude." Zito said with a raised eyebrow.

Steven smiled weakly. "Sorry, I think I'm coming down with something."

"Ah, that sucks." Zito looked away and Steven stared back down at his backpack, before leaning the side of his head against the window. He had a very disgruntled feeling in his stomach. Did he have what it takes?

They both finished their homework at Steven's coffee table just in time for Luke's arrival as he opened the front door and joined Zito on the sofa.

"Steve!" Luke said. "Drawn anything as of late?"

"Can't say I have." Steven sighed, packing away his math homework.

"I'm gonna play Resident Evil for a while." Zito said, getting up and putting in the Playstation game. In a matter of minutes, the creepy game screen came up on the big screen television that Steven had in his house. He could still remember the day he and his dad went T.V. searching and found this one for a cheap price.

"Oh! Steve!" Luke said suddenly. "Put in the Korn music and match it with the beginning video!"

"Oh yeah, huh?" Steven said, getting up. But before he could even start to think about where he'd left the CD, Zito had clicked "New Game" and Luke moaned.

"No! Zito! We gotta watch the beginning video" Luke said sadly.

"Huh?" Zito said in confusion.

"Remember when we listened to Korn during the beginning movie for this game?" Steven asked, trying to jog his friend's memory. "It matched so perfectly with this song."

"Huh." Zito said and both Steven and Luke got the slight impression that Zito didn't care.

"We'll do it some other time, I guess." Steven sighed, sitting back down.

"Ohhh! But it was so good." Luke exclaimed and started to sing "Don't let them throw me away!" out loud. Steven smirked and watched Zito start the game.

The three boys sat there for about two hours talking, playing, and discussing story ideas. Steven got up and brought in a bowl of chips for them and during this time for them to munch on. Steven finally felt like he could keep the worries of the Death Note behind him and just enjoy life.

But soon Zito got up and handed the controller to Steve, saying that he was going to go home. When he left, Luke brought up the idea to play the Korn song again and Steven obliged, getting up and finding it on top of the DVD player. On his way back he restarted the Playstation 2 and waited for the beginning movie to come back.

And then it happened. Steven pressed play and the song on the CD started up and together both boys started rocking out to the song and the video being shown. Just like last time, it was almost too perfect. The way the beat went along with the movie was wonderful. Steven took advantage of this time to enjoy himself and when it ended, Luke said "Do it again!"

Steven laughed but turned off the DVD. It was good but he wanted to start playing the actual game now.

"Awww." Luke sighed sadly, getting up to blow his nose.

With the absence of both his friends, Steven felt a strange sensation and his eyes snapped to his backpack where the death note was hidden. All of his thoughts about Ashley came back and a horribly crunching feeling entered his gut again.

Luke was there well into dinner time where he stayed for spaghetti and then left for home again. It was a good thing both of his best friends lived only a block down the road, making it easy for them to see each other almost every day. But every once in a while they'd all enjoy a day off just to have for themselves. Though Steven did like being with them, tonight was one of those nights where he dreaded having them there. He wanted to be alone to think. And finally he could.

Closing his bedroom door, Steven sat down on his bed and faced the cover page of the Death Note in his hands. This was it. The moment of truth. What was he going to do?

The next morning, Steven sat amongst his class mates during first period, History. Mr. Page was teaching the students about how the British King was treating the colonies in America poorly when suddenly his voice was drowned out the by intercom.

"Please excuse my interruption, but we've received some distressing news." said the voice of Ms. Beeson. "Another one of our students died last night from a heart attack."

The class room gasped in shock and suddenly everyone in the whole school was listening.

"We regret to inform you of the loss of this student. She went by the name was Ashley Peters and was a senior this year. She will be missed." Ms. Beeson's voice went on. "It is unknown what is causing the recent heart attacks, if there is a cause or if it is just a coincidence. But the school board is working hard to discover what is really going on." And then her voice abruptly died out.

Mr. Page looked down at all the student's, his eyes wide and his voice was quiet. Everyone else was talking to each other about the recent death except for one.

Steven looked down at his hands, his eyes wide. These hands, he thought…He was a murderer. He'd killed her.

And then his eyes traveled down to his backpack where the little black notebook lied hidden. The Death Note. It was real. It had to be. He'd written her name on the front page: Ashley Peters and thought of her face as he did so. And now she was dead. He hadn't written a cause of death because he wanted to make sure that she would die by a heart attack and she had!

The three Mexican Students wrote their own names foolishly in the Death Note as a joke and died exactly 40 seconds after that by Heart attacks. Ashley had seen it happen. This was it. The Death Note was real. He'd seen it with his very own eyes.

He was a murderer.

That's all he could think about for the rest of the day as he made his way to and fro between his classes. He'd tried hard to keep his attention on school work but it was nearly impossible. He'd been the reason for a girl's death. This was it. If he was found with the Death Note now with the names written inside he would become suspicious. He must not let anyone know of the Death Note's existence. It was his and his alone. Nobody would find out if he was careful.

But how careful did he have to be? He'd keep it from his family, his friends, and from everyone at school. Did he dare even bring it to school anymore? Should he cover up the letters "Death Note" on the cover page with a marker or a piece of paper so that in case people did see it they wouldn't think anything of it?

No. He could keep it at home. Keep it locked away and never take it out again. Never again would he use the Death Note. It was a weapon, probably the most dangerous weapon in the world. Sure a Nuclear Bomb could wipe out cities. But this little notebook could wipe out a nation. A country. Even a world, if he dared to. But no…

He never would. This thing was evil. The Death note…

But why not use it?

Steven wondered this for the next week as he went to school, did his work, hung out with his friends, and went out to have fun. The entire time he wondered why he couldn't use it.

There were certainly a lot of rotten people in the world today. Everywhere he went he heard side conversations. Girls wanting to go to parties and get drunk and have sex. Guys being perverted and twisted. Rapists on the news. Murderers. Conspiracies. Hackers. Pedophiles. Everyone these days seemed to be a bad person.

Would the world be better off without these people? It certainly seemed so. A perfect world seemed impossible. A utopia could never exist… But maybe. Maybe with the Death Note it could exist. And maybe Steven could deliver that world to them.

But did he have what it takes? A seventeen year old High school student with bellow average grades, a select group of good friends and an ambition to be an author? Did someone like him really have what it takes to change the world? To control death and use it?

What was he thinking!? That's what the other voice in his head would say whenever these thoughts occurred to him. Every night he seemed to argue with himself, twisting and turning in his bed as he tried to rid his mind of the Death Note. But he had it and it was with him. He would never be able to ignore it.

This was his burden. Or was it a gift? Which was it truly?

The weekend had come and gone and before he knew it he had lived through five days of school. The Heart Attacks had stopped and people were beginning to forget, or say that it was just a passing thing and was only coincidental. Steven remembered on the fourth day of school, people were thinking that there would be another heart attack announcement over the intercom but it never came.

Steven was still having trouble deciding what was best. It was a horrible feeling, being alone with a decision that nobody could know about except him. Especially when that decision could change his entire life along with everyone else's. And nobody would ever know…

He never talked with Zito or Luke about the Heart attacks. He was sure they knew about it but it probably wasn't very important to them. Just a horrible coincidence. That's what it was.

And then, after two weeks of going to school, Steven entered the bathroom and stared into the mirror. It was empty of students because it was during third period and he was in the 700 building outside where there were fewer classes of students who need to go to the bathroom. He'd gone not to take a piss or anything like that. He just felt hot in that classroom and it was clouding his concentration.

And so he stared at his reflection for about a minute. Steven looked over his spiked back hair and his eyes which looked strangely sunken. Was it because he'd not been getting enough sleep lately? His nose which was a little small and his bearded chin. Was this the face of a god for utopia? Yeah right, he thought. A god is supposed to be handsome, muscular, and emotionless. Steven was not emotionless. He wasn't exactly buff like Luke or Jacob. And he was far from handsome.

But he'd killed a girl not too long ago just for an experiment. Why had he done that? If he really didn't want to use the Death Note, then why did he bother finding out if it was real or not? Was it because he was just extremely curious? No. He wanted to use it. He liked thinking that maybe he could have a little control. He'd never been able to control his life perfectly and have everything he wanted. But with the Death Note he could. He'd be able to control his, and everyone else's life if he wanted to. He could do whatever he wanted with it. With the Death Note he was truly free.

"Yes…" He muttered finally and a smirk flickered across his face. "Only me. Only I can use it…" Steven glanced around the bathroom. Nobody was there. Nobody would be able to hear him. And quite suddenly he started to laugh under his breath.

The Death Note. Only he would be able to control everyone and everything. It was a gift! There was a reason he found it. Only he would be able to use such a thing. Anyone else would throw it away or use it for their own greedy purposes. Anyone else would be evil with it. Only he could destroy the evils in this world. Only he could use the Death Note for the good of the world.

But he would start slow, of course. Steven didn't need to take care of the whole world right away. He could get practice in. Get some experience. He could start by taking care of Hazen. And Renton City. But who could he kill? Surely a wide spread of deaths over a city would arouse suspicion. But maybe if people knew that there was someone out there dealing out heart attacks and death…then people would stop doing bad things. They would notice that only bad people are dying. And then when it starts to spread throughout the world, then everyone would stop doing bad things and his utopia would become a reality.

But there would be many who did not believe this was right. Steven knew this. The government would try and find out who he was. The School Board would surely become suspicious. Maybe he shouldn't kill so much, spread it out a bit. Make it less suspicious. But then his utopia would never happen. He would have to risk it. Nobody would be able to narrow it down onto a teenage boy in Hazen High School. Or maybe…

Maybe he could make them take notice that all the deaths seem to happen at Hazen. And then if anyone got involved in trying to find out who was causing the deaths, he could kill them off until people were afraid of trying to find out who was dying and then out of fear for death, they would stop doing bad deeds and stop trying to stop him. His dream would become reality. To be rid of this filthy world.

Ever since he was little, Steven always liked to think that he was of some importance to the world. That he would accomplish something great before he died. With this Death Note, he could accomplish something far greater than anything he could dream of doing without it.

The little voice in his head that questioned him before was gone. The Death Note had swarmed all other reasoning from his mind. This was what he was meant for. To cleanse the world of evil. It sounded dramatic but in his head it felt right. It was something he had to do now and nobody would be able to convince him otherwise. Nobody else had killed with it like he had and experienced the sensation. Nobody else knew about the Death Note except for him. And that is how it would always remain. He didn't need to know where the little black notebook had come from. Sure the rules had been written in English by someone. It was possible that there was someone out there who knew about this Death Note and would catch on if a widespread of heart attacks started to happen. What if that was his downfall?

Steven thought long and hard about this as he washed his face in the sink and glared back up into the mirror at his own reflection. His glasses lied discarded on the counter, allowing him to stare into his own bare eyes with a face of malice he'd never seen before etched across his face. He liked this look. Maybe he should consider getting contacts? No, his eyes were sensitive and he hated thinking of putting something little on it with his finger and having to take it off every night for every day for the rest of his life. Zito might be tolerant to do so but he certainly wasn't.

As the day wore on longer than ever, Steven sat through his classes as usual. He made sure to study people's actions so that he could remember if they were worthy of killing or not. Killing people in his own school would definitely draw attention to Hazen. Ideas of the future came to his head where he would be able to use this to his advantage somehow though he wasn't able to come up with a complete plan for it yet. His mind was very scattered all day long and soon he decided that he didn't want to be with his friends after school that day. Zito was going to be hanging out at Luke's house instead, it seemed. Steven made up an excuse that he had a lot of homework and didn't feel like hanging out today.

When he got home, Steven got inside first and set his backpack down on his bed in his room where he took a seat, unzipped his pack, and grabbed the Death Note in his hands.

"Now how do I do this?" He wondered out loud. "Who should I dare kill? The school will take notice. I wonder what will happen…" He smiled. "Who cares what happens right now. I can't be caught at the moment. I'll have some fun testing out what I can and can't do for the next week or so…"

It was odd. Steven usually didn't talk to himself. But something about having such an immense power made him burst with the desire to brag. How juvenile. He'd have to stop himself from doing such things from now on.

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