ANOTHER SIDE, ANOTHER STORY

Chapter Six

Mafia

Soon many had arrived for the Night Games. Jesse had four of his friends over, including one fat guy that Steven and Luke really did not like. And then there was Justin, who had come home with Jesse and was already causing havoc by being loud and getting in the way of everyone in the kitchen.

"I'm sorry, but he helped plan this." Jesse told them when Steven asked again why Justin just had to come.

When Jesse was out of earshot, Steven grimaced and muttered "Like Justin actually helped. None of his ideas are worth noting."

Zando noticed too that Justin was quite a little bugger. When the Death God had reached out to take the last banana from the basket, Justin had grabbed it first and was trying to play fetch with Jake, Luke's dog, with it. From that moment on, Zando hated him.

"Are you gonna kill him?" Zando asked curiously to Steven when he'd finally gotten away from the group of people in the living room and kitchen. They were standing outside. Steven had gone out to get some fresh air. He'd done it without letting anyone know because he didn't want people to think it was weird that he was going out by himself just to be alone. And if they did spot him then he'd just have to put up with their questions anyway.

Steven smirked slightly in the shadows, watching the night sky grow dimmer over the horizon. "Tonight, probably." he answered Zando in an undertone.

"Oh, really?" Zando asked. "During these night games?"

"Yeah." Steven said. "Justin, I know it's not his fault for having parents that made him mentally retarded and all but even so, he's an annoyance to society and in my vision of the future he's definitely not in it."

"If you kill him by heart attack, though…" Zando muttered. "And the Death Note is at your house."

"I've already thought of both those things, Zando." Steven reassured him. "I brought a slip of paper from the Death Note with me today. It's in my pocket right now. And I know it would be weird if a kid like him just randomly had a heart attack and died. It would look bad if two deaths happened in front of me on the same day."

"I'm not worried." Zando smirked. "I'm just eager to see it happen."

"I'll make up for you recent boredom." Steven told him. "Trust me."

"Oh, I'm not bored." said Zando. "On the contrary, I'm finding this whole situation quite interesting. I've only been with you a day and already you've been taking care of people with much more care than most of the other idiots who've picked up a death note before."

"You're going to make me blush." Steven muttered, eyeing the back door where he could see through the glass pane at all his friends. "I hate that."

"Hehehe, right." Zando scoffed.

Soon dark figures were running outside with pizza and drinks in their hands. Everyone had arrived and was ready to have fun. Eating and hanging out time was over with. People were rived up for the actual night games. Everyone except for Luke, it seemed. He was sitting in the family room looking annoyed about something. Steven felt slightly obligated as a friend and curious as a person to sit down in a seat nearby and ask. "Where's Dez?"

"She's late, of course." Luke muttered and Steven sensed that Luke was about to go off about something. And he was right.

"Her fucking parents are probably holding her up and making her do chores." Luke began and Steven sat back in the chair. "They make her clean her sister's and her brother's rooms along with a bunch of other bullshit and they know that they're doing it. They're just doing it to be evil and it's fucked up."

Steven nodded in agreement. "Yeah, have you tried to talk to her about that?"

"Yeah, but she doesn't really listen. She just says "Yeah" and "Okay" and "Sorry" but I'm starting to wonder if she really takes in anything I say at all or if she just wants to avoid arguing." Luke sighed.

"Should I talk with her, then?" Steven asked. He was kind of Dez's psychiatrist on the side. He'd talked to her when her and Luke had broken up the first time and at first he didn't think he'd made much of an impact but ever since she'd somehow managed to confide in him. And this worked out well for Luke because then he could tell Luke what they talked about. In the end it got her to trust him and it made Steven feel as if he'd helped somehow in someway though he knew it was their problem and would respect his help as nothing more than a favor for them.

"Yeah, I'm going to get her to talk to you." Luke said. "Whenever the hell she gets here."

"C'mon guys!" Bryce shouted from outside.

"Let's go." Steven said, standing up. Luke paused for a second and Steven wondered if Luke had it in him to play the night games. But he stood a second later and they wandered out into the cold night air in silence.

"What should we play first?" Jesse asked as the group around him quieted down.

"Mafia!" Shouted someone and soon everyone was chanting "Mafia! Mafia!"

"So everyone wants to play Mafia?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah!!" Everyone shouted, already running into the grass and starting to set up their seats. Steven took a seat on a blanket next to Luke and Zito. Mafia was an interesting game where everyone got a separate card and there was a narrator. Cameron already had volunteered and was handing out the cards that Steven had drawn to everyone. Steven took the card that was given to him and was surprised to find that he was the mafia. Interesting…He thought, not letting his surprise show on his face as he slipped the card underneath his leg.

"I don't understand. What's going on?" Zando asked dumbly.

"Just wait…" Steven muttered under his breath as everyone settled down and Cameron started to explain the rules.

Basically, there was about twenty or so people and each person has a card. Most of the cards were only considered Citizen Cards and if someone had a card like that then they were normal. But then there was also a mafia card, and angel card, and a detective card. The trick was that nobody was allowed to know who each other was except for the narrator. Each turn, Cameron would request that they all slept and then would ask the angel to rise and point at the person who they would want to save, including themselves if they wished. Then came the detective, who would point at the person that he thought was the mafia. And then finally the mafia, who would point at the person who he wanted to kill. Then they would all wake and Cameron would tell them a story based on who chose what. If the mafia chose to kill someone who the angel was saving, then that person wouldn't die. And if the detective got the mafia person right, then he would be able to exploit it to everyone else but if he got it wrong then the mafia would surely kill him next. And Steven was the mafia. How ironic…

By the end of the game, there were only five people left. The Angel had died, the detective had died, but Steven remained the mafia and was smirking for he'd won. And when the game ended there were calls for another game but Steven did not like this idea. From past night game experiences they would probably have to end by 11 or 12 o clock that night and it was already 9:30. And the best part about night games was running around in the dark, not sitting on their buts playing a card game.

"I say we start playing Last man standing." Steven said, standing up and stretching.

"Alright." Luke agreed.

"No! Mafia!" Justin cried, pounding his fists into his knees, trying to be more dramatic than what was necessary.

"That kid is bothering me." Zando muttered. "Will you hurry up and kill him?"

Steven rolled his eyes and looked at everyone else. They all ended up agreeing to start playing Last Man Standing and Justin's cries of Mafia were soon drowned out.

"Let's do it!" Jesse announced. "Who wants to be it?"

"I think you should, Jesse." Bryce said.

"Yeah!" Came a couple shouts of agreement.

"I'll be it!" Justin perked up.

Steven smirked. Justin being it didn't matter. But it did put a damper on his plans. "No, I'll help be it." He said, stepping forward. "If you don't mind?" He added, looking at Jesse.

"Alright, me and Steve are it." Jesse said.

Easier than I thought. Nobody was even listening to Justin… Steven thought as he and Jesse went inside and everyone else ran to hide. Then again, who would listen to him?

After just a minute of waiting, Steven, Jesse, and Zando all stepped back outside. Jesse immediately ran to the left and began searching.

"What happens now?" Zando asked.

Steven frowned as he went and searched in the right side of the backyard instead. "If he finds him…" he muttered to Zando. "Then Justin will be it. That doesn't matter. The reason I decided to be it was so that I would know when Justin was it."

"Why does it matter if Justin is it?" Zando asked.

"Because once he is it, I can trick him into searching in a certain direction and kill him with the slip of death note paper I have in my pocket." Steven said. "But I have to make it look like an accident, of course. And I want to see it happen with my own eyes but be far away enough so that nobody will think that I saw it actually happen."

"Why couldn't you just let him be it, then?" Zando asked.

"Because three people being it would be too much for the beginning and Jesse had already volunteered which means it was either me or Justin. Besides, this way works out much better. Now I can find Justin on my own and start my plan without anyone else interfering. If I wasn't "it" then I would have to hide and the chances of my plan happening go down the drain…I chose the easiest way, basically."

"How are you going to find him?" Zando asked curiously.

"That's the easy part." Steven smiled wickedly.

And then came a cry from somewhere distant. Jesse had found someone. From the sound of it, it was Cameron or Bryce. It would be much easier if Steven found Justin first. So it was a race after-all to get the advantage.

And so Steven made his way into the depths of darkness inside the forest. He ducked in order to avoid branches hanging overhead. The shadows pressed against his eyes and he saw constant shapes moving all around him but when he looked to see what it was, nothing was there. Every sound, a cracking twig, the rustling tree leaves from the wind, caught his attention. Zando remained behind him in silence, watching apprehensively.

Steven could see people running. Jesse was chasing someone. It wasn't Justin, though. Steven knew that if Justin had been caught he would be yelling for his life. Steven ignored them and continued his search. The more people Jesse caught then the more people there would be to search and the chance of Steven catching Justin himself became more unlikely.

And then Steven saw something and he forced himself not to scoff. Justin was sitting crouching behind a tree with his back to him. Steven could see his ass-crack shining in the moonlight. The sight was funny and pathetic at the same time and Steven almost felt ashamed to have won so easily. Justin's stupid hiding place would be the end of his life.

Justin screamed when Steven grabbed both his shoulders and let out the "Wemo Cry" as his friends dubbed which was basically a high pitched shriek.

"Steve!" Justin said in relief. "You scared me."

"Yeah, and you're it now so stop sitting there like a dumbass." Steven told him, turning to walk away. "You wanted to be it, right?"

"No." Justin said dumbly.

"Well then make yourself useful." Steven said. "See that big tree over there?" He pointed to the tree where the swing was. "I saw someone hiding up there. You should go check and see for yourself." Steven knew he wasn't putting up a whole lot of common sense in what he was saying, but it wasn't like he needed to with Justin.

"Why me?" Justin asked with a frown.

"Because you're way buffer than me, dude." Steven smirked, laughing evilly inside his own head. "But then, if you don't want to…you probably couldn't do it anyway…"

"Yeah I can! Watch!" Justin said, running toward the tree.

Steven watched him go and some of the satisfaction that his plan was working showed briefly in the smile that stretched across his face at that moment. Nobody nearby would be able to see because it was so dark outside and if anyone had heard their conversation then they would think that Steven was just messing with Justin. He wouldn't be blamed for anything to happen once Justin actually got up the tree…

Steven ran up the hill toward the barn and stopped. Bryce and Luke had both been caught it seemed and were searching for hiding people nearby. He waited until they were both out of sight until he hid around the corner and removed and pen and slip of paper from his pocket.

"You doing it, now?" Zando asked with excitement.

"Yup." Steven whispered, writing down a brief few words before closing the paper in his fist and slipping it and the pen back inside his pocket.

No going back now. This was it. The end of the annoying little prick that was Justin Tatcher. It was a shame that he had to be born under such circumstances but that didn't change the fact that he was a shame to the human race and definitely not someone Steven wanted in his dreams for the future. People like Justin did not belong in his ideal world…Along with many others.

Steven went and rounded the corner, pretending to be going on the prowl once again only he was counting the seconds inside his head to when Justin's death would arrive. And when he walked down the grassy slope he heard it. A cry from the big swing tree. It was a familiar cry of surprise and fright followed by a crack of something big. Steven saw what appeared to be Jesse and Bryce standing ten or so feet in front of him stop in their tracks and look at the tree. He followed their gaze and watched in time to see a figure fall from the tree and land with a thud just out of sight.

"Who was that?" Jesse asked in a hushed voice.

"Justin?" Bryce questioned.

The three of them walked into the darkness and peered down at the body that lied there before them. Justin, with a couple of branches lying on top of them, was as dead as Sean Church had been earlier that day.

"Whoa…" Steven and Bryce both exclaimed.

"What happened?" Jesse asked worriedly, bending over near Justin's body. "How did he…?"

"Is he dead?" Steven asked with a gulp.

He already knew the truth. Steven had written that Justin would slip climbing up the tree and would hit ever branch on his way down, on the little slip of Death Note paper. And once he hit the ground, he would have a heart attack and die immediately.

But before Jesse or Bryce could answer his question, two more people came through the bushes looking confused. "What happened?" asked one of the newcomers who Steven recognized as the voice of Cameron.

"Justin, he fell out of the tree…" Bryce said, looking stunned.

"Oh my…" gasped the voice of a girl. Before Steven could figure out who the girl was Jesse stood back up wiping his forehead and looking around at them all.

"He's not moving…" Jesse murmured fervently.

"Go get your dad." Steven said. "Get an ambulance over here. Something…"

"Right." Jesse said, already heading out. "Bryce, Cameron, you guys get Justin. Let's…carry him back to the house."

There were no voices of disapproval. The twins picked up Justin's corpse and carried him out of the forest and down Luke's backyard. Steven followed and saw that the girl who had joined them was none other than Dez, Luke's girlfriend.

"When did you get here?" Steven asked.

"A couple of minutes ago." Dez said. "Where's Luke?"

"I don't know…um…" Steven looked around, pretending to look nervous and shocked at what had just happened. "You should go tell everyone what happened."

"Okay." Dez said obediently and traipsed off back into the forest alone calling out people's names while Steven headed back up to the house. In the darkness no one could see but there was an evil smirk on his face.

"Nice kill." Zando complimented him as they headed toward the back door where they could see light shining and the figure of Luke's dad on the phone standing over Justin's body which was lied about on top of the kitchen table.

"Thanks." Steven said. "I told you I'd make it interesting for you."

"Kind of a brutal way to kill someone, though. To get beaten up by a tree and just die of a heart attack afterward?" Zando went on.

"Doesn't matter. He's dead now." Steven said. "Worse things happen to better people… And I'm going to put an end to that."

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