ANOTHER SIDE, ANOTHER STORY

Chapter Seventeen

Zito

Katlynn was used to it now. Being able to see people's names and age limits above their heads was becoming hardly noticeable anymore. Whenever she sat in a classroom, she saw a lot of numbers above everyone's head but she didn't pay any attention to them. The numbers were long for everyone, after-all, and it didn't say what the numbers meant. Whether they were days, minutes, seconds, she didn't know. So she figured as long as someone's number was bigger than five digits then they'd be okay.

She was a little depressed when she saw that her dad's number showed "4571" which meant he'd probably be dying within the next few years. She wasn't entirely sure though. She'd tried to figure out by following her father around. From the looks of it, the number subtracted by 1 for every sixteen minutes. She tried to do the math in her head but it was too confusing and had decided to just give up and wait.

It was Thursday afternoon and she was looking through all of the Halloween candy she'd gotten. She went out with Andrew and her best friend, Kelly, trick or treating the previous night and had a lot of fun. Even though Ryoku was following her around wherever she went. At first, Katlynn was a little bit frightened of the Death God. It certainly came as a shock when she came out of the shower and he was standing right in the middle of the bathroom.

Katlynn had a small suspicion that the Hunter was a bit of a pervert. But it'd been two weeks since Andrew had ordered him to follow her around, during and after school hours. It was nice to have someone to vent her frustrations on. And whenever she had a question about her homework, Ryoku had a generally good answer. Apparently the Hunter had studied Human text books while living in the Shinigami world in order to further his intelligence about them.

Today she was sitting in her room before school, straightening her hair and staring at herself in the mirror.

"Hey, Ryoku?" She said.

The Hunter looked up from the corner of her room, standing as still as a statue.

"Yes?" He asked.

"Am I ugly?"

Ryoku blinked. "Ugly?"

Katlynn grinned. "Then again, why am I asking you, right?"

"You want my honest answer?" Ryoku said. "All humans are ugly in physical appearance. The way they're so symmetrical is a little…frightening."

Katlynn laughed. "You're so weird."

"Why do you ask me such a question?" Ryoku asked, tilting his head slightly.

"I dunno…" Katlynn sighed. This wasn't entirely true. Andrew had been ignoring her lately. She was so used to being by his side all the time and knowing everything about him that it was a little bit uncomfortable to be cast aside like this, and for a guy like Steven.

"How do you feel about Andrew using you like this?" Ryoku asked abruptly.

"What?" Katlynn glared at him.

"Using you for your eyes." Ryoku said bluntly.

"He's not using me." Katlynn muttered coldly.

"Yes he is."

"Prove it."

"…He made me give you the Death God eyes and he made you agree to shorten your lifespan in half." Ryoku, ever so bluntly, said again.

"He didn't make me do anything." Katlynn growled. "I agreed to do this for him."

"You shortened your life in half for some boy?" Ryoku asked surprised. "From my studies, I find that not very many girls your age would do such a thing."

"That's because not very many girls my age are in love." Katlynn said with a small smile. "At least not for real."

Ryoku stared at her in silence for a few seconds as she finished straightening her hair. "Love, eh?" He muttered, as if the word was foreign to him. "Is that what you think you have?"

Katlynn was starting to get annoyed. What would a stupid Shinigami know about human emotions? She knew in her heart that she loved him or else she never would've shortened her life in half. Besides, she knew that if she didn't then Andrew would be in danger, maybe even dead. He'd told her so himself. And she wouldn't allow him to die like that, even if she still had a hard time believing that Steven would do such a thing. The point was that Katlynn loved Andrew. And always would. No matter what.

Steven sat down at the table in the lunchroom during break that day looking tired and a little bit grouchy about something.

"You alright, Steve?" Jacob asked, sipping from some apple juice. The two of them were alone at the moment.

"I'm fine." Steven lied. "Just having sleeping problems."

In truth, he was anxious. Andrew might have been planning to turn his friends against him somehow. What if he'd already gotten to Jacob and Zito? He couldn't be sure. Steven was positive that he would never tell his friends about the Death Note…But would Andrew? In order to exterminate Steven as a threat? Andrew surely wouldn't mind trying to get a few supporters to spy on Steven where he wouldn't expect it. Only problem was that Andrew would be taking a great risk in trying to turn Zito and Jacob against him. The only way would be to lie to them heavily enough for them to take his side over Steve's. And he knew that Andrew was certainly capable of something like that.

I can't make too many quick judgments unless I see something suspicious…I have to be on constant alert…Steven thought with a dark frown as Zito, Baker and Cameron joined them at the table.

"Hey, Steve." Zito said right away. "Are you going to Andrew's after school again?"

Steven blinked. So quick. Did he dare tell the truth?

"Yeah, tomorrow." He said, pretending to act nonchalant about it. "Why?"

"Well, I was thinking it was pretty cool of you to be friends with him again." Zito began. "And we haven't all hung out together at his house in a while. Do you mind if I join you?"

Steven shrugged. "I dunno, I'll ask him."

"I can ask him." Zito said.

"Alright, go ahead."

"Cool."

What the fuck!?

Steven walked to third period next to Jacob, the inside of his mind roaring with fury. Why the hell did Zito suddenly want to be jolly rancher with Andrew? Did this mean that Andrew had already come into contact with him? Fuck! Or was Zito just feeling left out. He remembered Zito watching him get into Andrew's car yesterday and driving off without him. Maybe it was all just Steven's imagination and that Zito just wanted to join them for round of Halo.

But there was no doubt about it. He would have to tell Andrew that Zito wanted to come tomorrow which meant that they wouldn't be able to discuss their plans with Kira and the Death Note that day. It threw off their schedule but that didn't matter.

At least Steven would be able to keep an eye out for them. If he let them be alone, Andrew would surely take advantage of it and show Zito everything about the Death Note and try to pull his mind games to turn him against Steve.

But if Steven went with them…what if this was all Andrew's plan to trap him? What if Andrew had somehow orchestrated the perfect trap to get Steven in trouble and maybe he and Zito really were plotting something.

Steven was so paranoid and confused that when Mr. Mjelli scolded him for not cleaning the floors properly he yelled at the teacher and stormed out of the room with his backpack in a fury.

"Steve! Steve!" Jacob called, rushing after him as the bell rang a minute later. "What was that all about?"

"Nothing. Just leave me alone." Steven grumbled.

He turned the corner to abandon Jacob only to find himself faced with Jennie a few feet down the hall from him. His heart did an uncomfortable leap and he literally felt his brain go dead for a few seconds from the shock.

She must've seen the dark look on his face because when she walked toward him, she had a frown too. "You look mad." She said, almost matter-of-factly.

"Just feeling sick." Steven said, clutching his stomach and forcing a weak smile. "Had some bad — err — cereal this morning." It didn't feel right lying to Jennie and in truth it did make him feel a little bit sick.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Jennie said and she left him there feeling stupid, frustrated, queezy and confused all at once. He continued on toward his fourth period, hoping that he'd be able to clear his head a little bit.

But every time he tried to clear his head, too many thoughts intruded in at once and his brain felt fuzzy and contorted. He wanted to just forget about all of this but he knew he couldn't do that. In the end, it came down to how much he trusted Zito.

But did he trust him? He certainly didn't trust Andrew with Zito and he had no idea what Andrew could possibly be planning or if he was planning anything to begin with. Zito was his friend, one of his best friends. He had to trust him…

Or did he? The Death Note was the most important thing right now. Defeating Andrew as well. Did he have time for trust? No. If he put 100 trust in anyone but himself then there was a chance he'd be screwed over by them. He had decided on that months ago. No. He couldn't chance a trust with anyone. Not Zito. Not Jacob. Not even Luke. He was alone in this.

After lunch, Steven approached Andrew like they usually did to discuss their daily business with taking care of criminals. But today he was going to talk about something different.

"I can't come over tomorrow." Steven said.

"Huh, why?" Andrew asked, his face falling and Steven saw a hint of anger in his eyes.

"Zito wants to hang out with us tomorrow. We won't be able to do any business with the Death Note." Steven said.

"Oh…" Andrew frowned. "Well…why don't we just hang out at my place then? No business. We can just play video games and stuff."

The softness of his voice told Steven that he was trying to suggest that they were friends now and for a brief second or two, he actually believed that he wanted to be friends with him. But this was Andrew the manipulator. He had already played the "I hope we can be friends" card earlier and now he was using it to try and convince him to come over tomorrow despite the fact that they wouldn't be doing business.

"Sorry, I have other stuff to do tomorrow." Steven said.

"Bullshit." Andrew snarled.

Steven frowned. Did he dare? Yes he did.

"Do you actually think that we can be friends?" Steven asked with an almost sarcastic smirk on his face. "We're partners with the Death Note. That's it."

Andrew said nothing. Steven turned and started to walk away.

"I thought we were becoming friends…"

Steven stopped for a second, turning his head slightly and saying. "We can never be friends…" before continuing to walk away leaving Andrew standing in the middle of the empty hallway in silence.

Steven slammed the bedroom door behind him and sat down on his bed, running his fingers through his hair and releasing a huge roar or frustration. Zando emerged from the floor holding the Death Note and looking somber.

"I was sleeping." The Death God mumbled.

"Let me see that." Steven demanded.

He handed Steven the Death Note and he flipped it open roughly.

"What's up?" Zando asked.

Steven didn't bother answering. He had a plan in his head. But there was still one flaw with the plan that he needed to fix before he went through with it, luckily for him, there was a way to solve the problem and get the results today.

He took out a pencil and wrote on the first page "Richard B. Cheney gives Michael Brown his glasses during the funeral for George Bush. Five seconds later, they both die of Heart Attack."

He then raced toward the television and turned on the closest news station. He watched as the funeral for George Bush took place. He waited, knowing that in less than forty seconds he would be able to see if this little test had the outcome that he'd be hoping for.

And to his amazement, Steven watched the man he recognized as Dick Cheney, take off his glasses in the middle of his speech and hand them to the head of FEMA, Michael brown, who took them and held them in his hands as if he wanted nothing more than to hold them for him. The crowd stared at the scene in confusion as Dick Cheney said no more and, abruptly, the two old men yelled out and collapsed onto the floor clutching their chests and gurgling foam from their mouths.

People in the crowds screamed in terror and a loud chant of "Kira! Kira!! Kira!!" was heard from the distance. A reporter ran up to the camera and shouted to look away and announced that the President and Head of FEMA were both dead.

Zando looked at Steven as he watched the scene unfold and he wondered whether or not this was the outcome he wanted. Without a word, Steven turned and walked into his bedroom, sat on his bed, and to the Death God's amazement, he watched as he cried into his pillow.

The Shinigami had no idea what to do. "Your face is leaking." He said, looking down at him curiously. "Are you okay?"

Steven sniffed and looked up at Zando with a grin. "I've won."

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