ANOTHER SIDE, ANOTHER STORY
Chapter Fourteen
Change
Zando lifted his head at the sound of a door opening nearby. He had to wait, just like Steven had ordered, for the sound. And sure enough he heard the voice of Steven say "Come on out." from above.
The Shinigami floated straight on up through the floorboards of the hidden hatch that was underneath a pile of Steven's stray laundry in his bedroom. Steven's Death Note was in his hands.
"Took you long enough." Zando muttered.
"I went over to Luke's for a while." Steven said, setting his backpack down on the floor and sitting down on his bed to take his socks off. "Sorry. I know it's probably horrible for you to stay down there all day."
"It really is." Zando frowned. "When are you going to end this so I can come out?"
"It might take a little while." Steven explained. "But at the same time, I might've figured out a way to finish it all tomorrow."
"Really?" Zando perked up. Steven had told Zando that Andrew might risk coming and breaking into his house while Steven was away in order to search for the Death Note and kill Zando with his Hunter. But Andrew didn't know about the hidden hatch underneath his bedroom floor. So Zando had to hide down there for the whole day carrying Steven's Death Note.
"How do you think you'll end this tomorrow?" Zando asked, eager not to have an excuse to spend seven hours down a dark, cob-webbed hatch every day.
"Well, I've done a lot of thinking." Steven began, setting his glasses down next to him and rubbing his eyes. "Basically, Andrew is forced, as my partner—"
"Wait a second, you're partners now?" Zando interrupted.
"Yeah, we made a deal to work together." Steven said bluntly.
"How did that happen?"
"He denied killing the president and pretended to think that I was the killer but I could tell he was lying." Steven explained. "So I took advantage of that by defending myself and by doing exactly what he secretly wanted, to be partners. And I told him that I was going to be trying to make him trust me while we searched for a third killer, allowing him to get close to me so I can prepare a trap for him."
Steven wondered why he bothered. Zando nodded as if he understood but Steven could tell by the silence after his words that the Death God hadn't understood completely.
"Anyway. That trap might be able to be set off tomorrow." Steven smirked.
"How?"
"The picnic." Steven said simply.
Zando blinked. "The picnic?"
"Yeah. The one that I'm going to with Jennie and my friends tomorrow."
"How is that going to be the chance for you to set a trap?" Zando asked, still not getting it.
"Well, with a bit of acting and well placed movements, I think I might be able to set Andrew up where he'll be alone and I can take him out myself." Steven said. "I won't ruin the fun by telling you everything, though. But I can tell you that you'll be apart of the plan. A big part."
Something about Steven's tone told Zando that he would be putting his life in danger, again. Twice already he'd encountered the Hunter within a week and he wasn't looking forward to seeing Ryoku again.
Steven, however, had a gleam in his eye that showed he was thinking deeply about something. Zando watched him in silence for a little while when suddenly the phone went off and they both looked at it. The phone was sitting on the corner of Steven's bed. He picked it up on the second ring and answered.
"Hello?" He asked.
"Hi…" Said a voice on the other line. A girl's voice.
"Dez?" Steven said, unsurely.
"Yeah. Is this Steve?" She sniffed. It sounded like she'd just been crying.
"Yeah." Steven said, deciding to start the conversation casually. "What's up?"
A sigh. "Nothing."
"Who's Dez?" Zando asked dumbly but Steven ignored him.
"What's wrong?" Steven asked, deciding to skip the boring talk.
Another sigh. "It's…nothing."
"My intuition on women tells me there's something bothering you." Steven said smoothly. "Don't think I can't hear you sighing and sniffing."
Dez coughed out a laugh as Steven lied down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, waiting for a better response.
"Yeah." She said finally.
"Yeah what?"
"I dunno…"
Steven rolled his eyes. "Is there a specific reason you called?"
Dez sniffed again. "Yeah…well…Did Luke tell you?"
"Yeah…He did." And then Steven waited. He wanted Dez to talk first. To say something. It was a different approach to how he usually handled her but he wasn't feeling up to trying too hard that afternoon.
But when Dez continued sniff and cry, Steven said "Why are you crying?"
"I've been crying all day…" Dez muttered.
"Have your parents counseled you at all?" Steven asked but he felt like he already knew the answer.
"No. I haven't told them yet…"
Predictable.
For the next hour, Steven stayed on the phone with her. He managed to get out of her all the basic reasons for why she dumped him and at the end of the hour she had stopped crying and they were talking about other things. Steven found that a good way to make Dez less sad and a bit more reasonable was not lay down too much logic on her at one time and bring up other, more unimportant topics that may even make her laugh in order to get her into a better state of mind. Eventually, however, he managed to sneak the conversation into a topic about a boy named Danny.
Danny had been an ex-boyfriend of Dez's from a while back. He'd liked her for a while but she refused to believe that he did until very recently. And after hearing about some of the things he did, Steven already had a pretty safe basis of judgment for this kid. Within a week, maybe two, Dez would be going out with Danny and, if he didn't miss his guess, they'd probably engage in some sort of sexual action.
"Do you think you're going to end up dating Danny?" Steven asked.
"I dunno." Dez mumbled. "Maybe."
"Do you feel like you might be having some sort of attraction to him right now?" Steven asked. "And if so, do you think that might've been a part of the reason why you really broke up with Luke?"
"Maybe." Dez muttered.
She wasn't denying it. This meant that this kind of thinking had already crossed her mind. Dez liked Danny to some extent. Already, Steven could imagine him taking advantage of her now that she was out of Luke's grasp. But Luke had tried to explain to her that stuff like this would happen if they broke up and as far as Steven knew, she thought that it was ridiculous that Danny would do such a thing. In a way, she was a lot like Catheryne Baker. Trusting people to the point where it is unneeded and even unhealthy for them.
Steven sighed. He was tired of thinking of such things. He had more important matters to attend to in his head and being concerned about Dez wasn't one of them. Somehow he found himself thinking, almost savagely, of hanging up the phone with a cold voice so he could send a message to Dez that he wanted nothing more to do with her but such a thing was heartless and not something Steven would just do out of the blue like that. And Dez was technically still his friend that he owed to help.
"Hey, Dez. I've gotta go, mkay?" He said, deciding to try and get away without sounding like he actually wanted to get away. "My mom's making me do chores now."
"Oh, okay." Dez muttered, sounding a little disheartened.
Steven felt the savage lust turn to shame and sympathy. "Hey, if you ever need to talk you can call me whenever. I'll be there for you."
This seemed to fill Dez's mood a bit as she said "Okay."
Steven felt a little ashamed as they said their goodbyes and hung up the phone. He didn't want to feel like he wanted to get away from his friends but after being on the phone for an hour with Dez he couldn't help but wonder if being friends with Luke, Zito and Dez was all just going to be a distraction for him. But he couldn't cut them off. He had to just keep living normally and acting normally until the time came where he might be able to use his friends to his advantage. He could work his way out of any problem if he put his mind to it, he was confident about that.
"Zando…" Steven muttered and the Shinigami looked up. "Am I…heartless?"
"Heartless? No." Zando said, tilting his head a bit. "…Just demented."
Steven scoffed. "Yeah, maybe."
"Why do you ask?"
"I feel like by having friends, it's a double edged sword when using the Death Note. You can either use them or have them be used against you. In the end that's what it's going to come down to. I might even be forced to kill Luke or Zito…" Steven's eyes narrowed.
"And you're not sure if you're up to the task?" Zando asked.
"No. That's just it…" Steven looked up with a frown. "I am up to the task. If I am forced to take drastic measures to secure my safety then I will kill them…That's why I'm asking you if I'm heartless for thinking such things…"
Zando frowned. Steven had no idea… For the first time, Zando saw a hint of Ryoku inside of him. Both of them willing to discard their "friends" in order to secure their own safety. Only, Ryoku hadn't hunted him because he was defending himself, but rather defending the order of things.
"I think…betraying your friends is unforgivable…However…." Zando smiled. "If you do it for the greater good, then it isn't heartless."
Steven eyed the Shinigami in silence. "Greater Good…yeah, you're right about that much. If they get in my way then they're getting in the way of the greater good that I'm trying to achieve."
Zando nodded with a wide grin. Finally he was right about something that Steven agreed with.
"Nobody is truly heartless, I suppose." Steven sighed. "Anyway, I'm going to go get some more names and faces from the internet." And he stood from his bed, leaving the Shinigami alone on the bedroom floor.
Steven sat down at his desk in second period, setting his backpack on the floor by his feet and looking up to see Jennie go walking by him without a word. It was the next day and he'd been looking forward to seeing her face ever since last night when he'd had a dream about her…
He felt the desire to say "Hi" but decided against it and took out a piece of paper to draw on instead. He would have plenty of time to talk to her at the picnic today. That alone was enough to make him content for the day.
But at the end of the period, Jennie approached him as he was closing his backpack.
"There's been a change in the plan." She said.
"What?" Steven looked up and forced his face to remain calm, as if this news didn't deeply disturb him but truthfully it burned a hole of annoyance in his head.
"I have too much to do for the next couple of weeks, my brother is going to Iraq and stuff and we're preparing for him to leave." Jennie explained. Steven understood. It reminded him of how Luke's brother was going to Korea on his church mission. But he still couldn't help but feel a little annoyed by this news. Now he would have to tell Luke and Zito that the picnic was off.
"I see." Steven said. "Well, wish him my best."
"Hey, I'm not done yet." Jennie smiled. "We're still going to have the picnic, just not for a while."
"Okay." Steven smiled. "It's just a picnic, not a terribly big deal or anything."
Jennie's face fell and he wished immediately that he hadn't said this.
"You don't want to come?" She asked.
"No, I do. It's just…" Steven thought quickly. "I don't want you to feel obligated to make me come or anything just because of that wooden project thing last week."
"That's not why I want you to come." Jennie said and Steven was a little taken aback by this answer.
"Why then?" He asked.
"Because we're friends, right?" Jennie smiled again and Steven felt a little relieved.
"Really? I had no idea." Steven joked and she smiled a little wider.
They talked their way out of the room and outside where they split paths and Steven went into the lunch room feeling both happy and moody at the same time. So Jennie considered them official friends now and not just acquaintances. That was good. At least he wouldn't have to worry about awkwardness between them anymore.
When Steven was done ordering his pizza from the line and sat down at their table by Jacob and Zito, he noticed Andrew and Katlynn approach them just like yesterday. Steven expected something like this to happen. Andrew believed that Steven believed him when he'd handed him a piece of notebook paper to touch and tell him it was a Death Note paper. Since the paper had probably been a fake, and since Steven could not see the Hunter behind either of them, it meant that Andrew would be telling him that from now on he would be keeping his Death Note at home along with his hunter. This was, of course, a lie. It also furthered his belief that the Hunter was probably following Katlynn and not Andrew. Katlynn had the Death God eyes making her valuable to Andrew in their little game. And it was also probable that Andrew didn't trust Katlynn's acting abilities completely and would want the Hunter to watch over her in order to keep and eye on her and tell her what to say just in case.
So Steven played his part and gave Andrew an alarmed look at first before shaking it off. Andrew, however, said "Steve, want to go talk about that thing I told you yesterday?"
"Um, sure." Steven said, giving Zito a sly eye while he picked up his pizza and backpack. Zito winked, understanding, while Andrew looked between the two of them, obviously confused.
"You didn't tell him, did you?" Andrew asked immediately as they walked outside.
"Of course not." Steven said, nonchalantly taking a bite out of his food.
"Then what was with that look you gave him?"
"He was wondering why we were talking outside. I had to tell him something." Steven shrugged. "Don't worry, it was a lie. I told him you wanted advice on some issues."
Andrew frowned, looking like he didn't like this plan but decided to push it off without another word on the matter. Instead he said "You're probably wondering why Ryoku isn't with me."
"Ryoku?" Steven repeated.
"The Hunter Shinigami."
"Oh, that's his name, is it?"
"Yeah. I decided to keep him at home with the Death Note just to be safe." Andrew sighed.
Just as he'd predicted. It wasn't until that moment that Steven felt a surge of anger. His plan to trap Andrew into his death today would no longer work since there wasn't going to be a picnic with Jennie anymore. He forced the rage not to appear on his face and looked at him with a small frown.
"You don't trust me, do you?" He asked, remembering the lines in his head.
"Not completely." Andrew said.
"That's why you're keeping your Death Note at home…" Steven shook his head sadly. "Well then, have there been any deaths that neither of us wrote in our Death Notes?"
"Yes. Thirty." Andrew said.
Steven blinked and took a step back in surprise. "Thirty? Are you serious?"
"Yeah." Andrew pulled off a look of morose that would have convinced him if he didn't already know the truth. "It seems like this other "Kira" is killing off mass amounts of criminals, and some of them aren't even ones that have committed any truly bad sins and were only scheduled to stay in prison for a few more months." He went on.
Steven saw right through Andrew's plan. By killing so many people who weren't even on Death Row was a ploy to try and make Steven's anger increase against the third Kira. Luckily he didn't have to play that part.
"Well that's disappointing." Steven sighed. "I wasn't going to start doing that until all criminals who were on death row were dead. But looks like this guy's doing that for us."
"Should we do the same in order to keep up the appearance that Kira is getting more dangerous?" Andrew asked and Steven saw a glint in his eye.
"Unfortunately, yes." Steven sighed. "If we don't then someone else might end up noticing that there are two different styles of deaths taking place and they'll think that there is more than one Kira at play. We don't want that. We want the world to think there is only ONE Kira."
"I see what you're saying." Andrew nodded but Steven knew he'd already thought of this.
"Anyway…" Steven sighed. "What should we do now?" He asked this because he wanted to see what Andrew's response would be, obviously, so he could get a better idea on what Andrew might be planning.
"I dunno." Andrew shrugged.
"We can't keep meeting like this every day during break. It was probably a mistake to do it again today." Steven sighed, glaring at the door as if it was its fault.
"How do we do that?" Andrew asked.
"It's obvious we can't meet each other after school. You still don't trust me which means you don't want me coming over, right?" Steven looked at him curiously out of the corner of his eye.
"How about I come over to your house then?" Andrew asked.
Steven chuckled. "Now that I think about…why should I trust you if you can't trust me still?"
"I suppose you can't." Andrew's face fell into a frown. Steven could have said yes and have him come over but in doing that, Andrew would simply bring Ryoku the Hunter with him and achieve his goal. And if Steven had done so then Andrew would think that he didn't trust him. But by saying "Now that I think about it" it made it sound like Steven hadn't actually considered not trusting Andrew until that moment. Andrew must be feeling mighty stupid for putting this on himself but he truly had no idea what kind of mind game Steven had him trapped in.
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