ANOTHER SIDE, ANOTHER STORY
Chapter Twenty Eight
Fate
"Hey, Steve." Katlynn greeted, emerging onto the middle of the path.
Steven said nothing. He could only stare in awe. Katlynn was there, alive. Impossible! How could this be happening? She was staring at him with a blank sort of disgust and Steven knew this was real but didn't want to believe it.
"You're supposed to be dead…" Steven muttered.
"I lied." Katlynn smirked. "Something you should be used to, right?
A sarcastic and immature remark. Steven felt a surge of rage. How dare her! How the hell was she still alive? She had committed suicide, hadn't she? Not even a week ago!
"You faked your death?" Steven said, asking more then stating.
"Right." She said, shuffling her feet but looking confident nevertheless.
"How? What about your family? How could you just—"
"I killed them." Katlynn said casually.
Steven blinked. "Killed them?" he repeated, as if the words were foreign to him. "You killed your own parents just so you could fake a suicide?"
"Yeah." Katlynn shrugged.
"Why?" Steven asked, outraged.
Katlynn stared at him and he could see that she was enjoying this. "You killed Andrew. You killed Zito and so many other people just so you could keep your Death Note. I did what I had to do in order to defeat you."
"Defeat me!?' Steven laughed and felt himself boiling with fury that boosted his self confidence. "I'm still alive, aren't I?"
"I could've killed you whenever I wanted." Katlynn shrugged.
Steven stared at her. How? She didn't have a Death Note. "Did that hunter break the rules and get another one?"
"No." Katlynn said. "I tried to convince him to. But he refused. So I had to resort to something else."
Everything seemed to click together at once when she said this. "You're the one who broke into my house…" He muttered. "No, that can't be, I still have both of the Death Notes!"
"Wrong." Katlynn grinned evilly. "You have one Death Note, the one you stole from Andrew. I have yours."
"How?" Steven asked, again feeling the rage building up inside of him.
"I found yours in your drawer. I replaced it with a fake. I figured you would use it eventually and figure out that it was a fake but I wanted to throw you off for as long as I could." Katlynn explained, crossing her arms. "There was a problem, of course. You wrote inside of it Dez's name in blue pen along with a few others. I had Ryoku there with me so he copied your signature perfectly into the fake. It took a long time to copy all those pages on your computer, though."
Steven remembered finding his computer and scanner in a mess with a glue stick and a blue pen next to it. Again, it made sense and again he couldn't believe what he was hearing. This meant the Death Note he had down in the hatch under his room was virtually useless.
"You killed all those people at Hazen…" He said quietly. "Why?"
"Ryoku had been watching you for a long time in the shadows." Katlynn said. "He's a hunter, and his cloak can make him invisible even to those who can see him. He followed you around school a lot and gave me information about what you were up to while I stayed in hiding at my house."
"Why didn't you just kill me!?" Steven roared, letting go of his ferocity and secretly hoping that nobody at the picnic would hear him shouting.
Katlynn didn't show any signs of being afraid. She continued staring at him with those wide eyes of hers. "You killed Andrew." She said. "I loved him. I really loved him and you took him away from me. You made me feel more pain and misery then I could ever imagine feeling! So I wanted to make you miserable, and it worked."
Damn her. Damn her. DAMN HER!! None of it made sense. No… It all made sense. She wanted him to suffer. That's why he was still alive. And he did suffer. She could've killed him. He could've been dead because he'd made the mistake of not killing her right away. He'd underestimated her. She feigned her death so that he wouldn't think of writing her name in his Death Note. He remembered telling Zando about how this was all a Chess game and how it had been the other's turn to move. And boy, did she move.
"Why would Ryoku just agree to do all of this for you?" Steven asked. "He could've killed Zando whenever he wanted."
Katlynn frowned. "I don't know, honestly. He just told me that he would do everything he could to help me…"
Steven was struck dumb as he remembered Zando once telling him that it was possible for a Shinigami to fall in love with a human. Could it be that Ryoku had fallen for Katlynn?
But there was still one last thing that he just didn't understand.
"Why are you telling me all of this now?"
"Because…" Katlynn signed. "Like I said, I have you beat, Steven. I want your Death Note so I can continue Andrew's dream. So I have an offer for you."
Steven looked at her carefully. It didn't look like she had her Death Note on her…
"I see the way you talk to that girl." Katlynn said, tilting her head in the direction of the picnic and Steven felt his heart skip a beat. "You love her, right? What's from stopping me from killing her too?"
"You wouldn't…" Steven growled.
"Yes I would." Katlynn said with a smirk and he knew she wasn't lying. "You kill someone I love; it would only be fair, right?"
"You want my Death Note…as a trade for her life..." Steven muttered.
"Yes." Katlynn said.
"You'll kill me after you get it, won't you?"
"Maybe…" She said. She didn't get it. She didn't understand at all…
Steven stood in silence, staring at the bushes. He could see Jennie just barely through all of the leaves talking to Luke about something funny. How could something be funny in a time like this?
"Well?" Katlynn asked.
"Alright…" Steven said quietly, walking toward her with narrowed eyes and reaching into his lower back as if to pull the Death Note out from his pants. Katlynn stepped forward as well, smiling triumphantly. She had him defeated. She had won and she would be taking revenge for Andrew. Of course she would still kill Jennie. Steven needed to experience what it was like to lose someone they loved. And then, when he was grieving, she would kill him too.
Steven's hands shot forward around Katlynn neck and before she could react, he was on top of her with his fingers locked around her throat. She gasped and thrashed around underneath him but she was virtually helpless. She couldn't scream. She couldn't breath. The pain was incredible. No! How could this happen!! How could she not see this coming!?
He jerked her head into the ground a couple times savagely, glaring down as he watched her eyes roll into the back of her head and tears flow down her cheeks. "Die you son of a bitch." He growled. Her legs stopped thrashing and he felt her body go limp underneath his own. Five seconds… ten seconds… She was dead. Steven released her neck slowly and found that there were tears pouring down his own cheeks as well.
Stupid girl… He thought, standing up and looking around to make sure nobody had seen. He picked her up and threw her corpse into the bushes. He continued to kick at her until she was well hidden. Unless someone went tromping through and stepped on her face, nobody would spot her body. To the rest of the world, she was already dead so her real death will go unnoticed.
Steven stepped back onto the path, wiping his forehead and breathing heavily. It was the first time he'd physically killed someone. But it was the only thing he could think of. The real Death Note was in his backpack at the picnic and Ryoku was probably still there and would be watching him carefully to make sure he didn't try any funny business. Katlynn had planned everything carefully, almost clumsily, until the very end. She had been so wrapped up in the power of the Death Note and her emotions for Andrew that she hadn't considered that Steven would strangle her to death. But it felt good. She had caused him a lot of misery. But she was dead. It was over. He didn't know where she had put her other Death Note, but he didn't need to. It was probably somewhere that nobody would ever find it, considering she probably wanted it kept hidden.
He walked back into the clearing, feeling a strange sense of accomplishment. He saw that Ryoku and Zando were both on their feet next to the group of girls and Luke on the picnic blanket.
"Look whose back." Jennie smiled.
Steven didn't meet her gaze. He took a seat next to Luke, who was staring at him peculiarly for some reason, and was looking up at Zando and Ryoku. Zando looked confused but the Hunter, seeing that he was still alive and not moving, understood completely.
"She's dead, isn't she?" Ryoku muttered quietly.
Steven didn't answer, or show any sign that he heard him.
"What happened, Steve?" Zando asked. "Am I saved? What's going on?"
"Quiet." Ryoku said and Steven watched as he raised one of the blades and shoved it through Zando's chest. The Shinigami gave a horrified cry of pain and collapsed onto his hands and knees. "S-Steve! H-help me!"
But Steven could do nothing but stare in horrified silence as Ryoku bent over and picked the dying Zando up in both of his arms. With the blades at rest, he could see that Ryoku's hands were actually very fragile looking but they were holding Zando with ease.
"I figured you would kill her." Ryoku muttered softly to him. "And eye for an eye then…" and that was all he said.
Steven watched as the Hunter's wings spread and he flew off into the sky with Zando. He didn't dare look up. He simply stared at the empty piece of land where Zando had been standing not but a minute ago. The Death God was gone. He was really gone. Even though he'd defeated Katlynn, he felt a sense of loss that he had not been expecting and suddenly, everything seemed a little less bright.
"You alright, Steve?" Jennie asked, touching his shoulder and bringing him back.
"I'm fine…" He lied, his stomach twisting uncomfortably. So much had happened too fast. His brain felt a little short-circuited.
"Are you sure?" She asked.
He looked at her and smiled. Maybe he could make this all better after-all. Sure, he'd just been duped by a stupid girl like Katlynn and yeah, he'd just killed her with his own hands…and he would probably never see Zando again but…
"There was actually something…I wanted to tell you..." He said, seeing that Luke was watching the boys play football and all of Jennie's girlfriends were talking animatedly amongst themselves. "I think…actually…I'm pretty sure that…I lo—"
"Ben!!" Jennie shouted suddenly, looking somewhere else and smiling.
Steven blinked and followed her gaze. There was a man walking down the hill bearing a smile on his face and a basket in his hands. Who was this guy? Steven thought, feeling a sense of dread in the pit of his chest.
Jennie stood up and ran to the newcomer and Steven watched as she wrapped her arms around him and planted a kiss on his cheek. Steven's eyes widened and his mouth fell open. He felt like he was abruptly falling backward into the ground and everything in sight was fading. Ben returned the kiss happily and set the basket down on the grass. Luke was also watching, but Steven felt completely alone, watching the two of them in slow motion as they parted and joined the rest of the group talking. He didn't hear what they were saying. Everything had fallen apart and he felt like something was ready to burst inside of his chest in an explosion of pain.
"—and this is Steve." Jennie introduced.
"Hi, Steve." Ben greeted with a smile. "Ben. Ben Armstrong."
Steven said nothing and simply stared up at him. Ben looked a little awkward but shrugged it off as Jennie wrapped an arm around his shoulder and smiled.
Maybe he's just…just a brother… A small hopeful voice said inside his head but Steven very much doubted this as he watched them in shell shocked silence for the next few minutes as they all talked happily. How could this be happening? Was he being punished for murdering Katlynn with his own two hands? No. There was no other punisher but himself now. This—this was just a cruel twist of fate. More than that.
"So, Steve, what grade are you in?" Ben asked with a friendly smile.
Steven forced himself to smile feebly as well. "I'm a senior." He said, as if he was proud of it.
"Ah, I remember when I was a senior." said Ben, looking off into space as if reminiscing some grand memory. It occurred to Steven that he looked a little bit older than the rest of them.
"How old are you?" He asked.
"21." Ben said, looking down from his memory at him with a raised eyebrow.
Steven frowned. 21? Jennie fell for someone who was four years older than her? How could this be happening? No. Maybe—maybe he's just really good friends with her. Hell, maybe he's gay!
But this notion was diminished when he saw the look in Jennie's eyes. She was staring at Ben as if he were an angel. How could this be happening?
Luke was watching, as if transfixed, as Ben got along with the rest of the boys who all returned with their little football and ate the dregs of the remaining picnic food. Steven felt separated from everyone. Lost in his own, little world. He had to ask. He had to make sure.
"So you're Jennie's boyfriend, right?" he blurted out, knowing such a question would seem obvious to everyone else but he had to ask. He just had to.
"Yes." Ben smiled, staring at Steven oddly. Jennie paid no attention to the question and was talking to Sarah Schmidt on the side-lines.
"I see…" Steven smiled but his insides were filled with a poisonous lead-like feeling that clogged his brain. How could he have not seen this? Not once had he ever guessed that Jennie would have a boyfriend. This whole time…hadn't they had at least a little bit of chemistry? She'd been his friend. She stood up for him against Redman. How could this be happening? Repeated over and over in his head. He just couldn't put it together.
And then the pain was replaced with something else—something far more ferocious. It took everything in him to keep it from escaping. Anger and rage pumped and boiled his blood. This Ben. The perfect man. The perfect boyfriend. The way Jennie looked at him, why couldn't Steven be the one she looked at? He looked at her but she paid not attention to him whatsoever. With Ben there, he was nothing. He was invisible.
"I've got to go do something…" He muttered, standing up.
"Where are you going?" Luke asked.
Steven didn't answer. He didn't care that it would look weird to walk away twice now. Nor did he care about giving them a good enough excuse. He didn't care that Jennie loved her boyfriend. He didn't care about what she wanted. She wanted Ben. Steven would fix that.
And when he left, he took his backpack with him. The backpack that held his Death Note…
Luke watched him go with a worried look in his eyes. Nobody else seemed to care that Steven had just disappeared, but Luke certainly did…
Half an hour ago…
It was a lie. Luke didn't need to take a piss at all. He just wanted an excuse to wander off and ADHD himself some space in the forest away from everyone. And he didn't feel like explaining this to anyone, nor was there anyone at the picnic worth trying to impress so a simple excuse such as "taking a piss" was adequate enough.
He rounded the corner into the forest, glad to be away from them all, and stopped in the middle of the pathway. There was a girl on her knees looking through her bushes at everyone sitting at the picnic. She looked familiar but he couldn't tell from where he was standing. Her face was in the dark.
Luke wondered if he should say something to her, or at least ask why she was spying on them. But he didn't have to. She looked up on his arrival and gave off a little squeak of surprise and fell onto her butt.
"Err…" He muttered awkwardly, walking toward her. But then he stopped, seeing her face under the shadowy pattern of branches and leafs above. "Katlynn?" He asked, shocked.
"H—hey, Luke." She said nervously.
Silence.
"I thought you were dead?" Luke asked, frowning.
"I was faking…" Katlynn shrugged and Luke had a distinct feeling that she was trying to brush it all off as if it were nothing.
"Faking death?" Luke raised an eyebrow.
Katlynn was staring at him with those wide, brown eyes. Luke wasn't sure if he should continue asking questions or if he should just ignore her and leave. He didn't really know her. Maybe met her once or twice when he still went to school but not well enough to understand why the hell she would fake suicide or how she would get away with such a feat.
"Luke." Katlynn stood up, smirking. "You can't tell anybody."
"Why not?" Luke asked casually leaning against a tree and crossing his arms.
"Nobody would understand or believe you, for one." Katlynn said. "But more importantly, because I want you on my side."
"Side?" Luke repeated. "Did you just decide this? What are you talking about?"
Katlynn shuffled around in small pack that he saw resting off the side of the path. She lifted a small, black notebook from within it and showed him the cover where the words "Death Note" were written upon it.
"Death Note?" He asked, still not understanding. Was this some sort of little kid's game that she was trying to force on him?
"I want you to have this." Katlynn said. "There are rules on the inside."
"No thanks." Luke scoffed, turning to walk away.
"Dez was your girlfriend, right?" Katlynn asked abruptly.
Luke stopped in his tracks and looked at her, suddenly angry. "How do you know about her?"
Katlynn looked satisfied about something as she held the Death Note out for him to take. Luke hesitated for a moment, staring at the bony, white letters on the front before taking it from her hand and flipping it open. Written on the first page in blue ink were the words "Desirea Hungerford commits suicide"
Luke looked at the inside of the front cover and found more, small, scrawled, bony white words in a bulleted format spelling out a list of rules. He read the first one and blinked. "The person who's name is written in this…will die?"
"Yeah." Katlynn smirked.
"So you're telling me…" Luke glared up at her. "No…you're expecting me to believe that you killed my girlfriend?"
"No." Katlynn said bluntly. "This notebook belonged to your friend, Steven, not too long ago until I managed to steal it from him."
"What?" Luke lowered the Death Note. "Steve wouldn't kill…Dez…" He trailed off, thinking about this possibility with a surprising amount of deepness.
"He wrote it in pen so he couldn't hide it." Katlynn smirked. "That was written there when I found it. It was a pain having to copy it into the fake Death Note I gave him but I managed it."
"How do I know you're not just lying?" asked Luke with a raised eyebrow.
"Since that Death Note used to belong to him, you'll be able to see his Shinigami now." Katlynn said. "When you go back out there, you'll see him."
"Shinigami?" Luke laughed. "Seeyah, Katlynn. I don't know why you faked your death or what you're trying to pull, but it ain't gonna work." He walked away, realizing he still had the Death Note in his hand.
"There's a part of you that believes me." Katlynn called after him. "You'll see for yourself soon enough. And you'll try to find me when you do."
Luke said nothing and left the forest. He rounded the corner and froze, once again, in his tracks. Standing above everyone at the picnic, minding its own business, was some sort of humanoid monster. Long, scaly arms. Black, tangled hair everywhere. One visible eye bulging from its socket and a big, clownish grin spread across its face. Luke nearly stumbled onto his ass at just the sight of it.
Death God? He thought in horror, looking down at the Death Note in his hands. No way. Katlynn was…right? But then…
He quickly got up and went behind a huge tree where he dug up some dirt and put the notebook underneath the earth by a stump so that he could find it easily when he came back for it. If this thing was real, he would want to take another look at it later.
When he returned, he took a seat calmly at Steven's side, not paying attention to what they were just talking about but glaring down at the grass around his feet in silence. He had to act casual. He didn't want Steven knowing. But the way Steve was acting, it appeared as though he couldn't see the Shinigami standing over him either. Nobody could, apparently. It made Luke feel strangely forbidden, like he shouldn't be there. The same thought went through his head over and over. If Katlynn was right, then that meant that Steven had killed Dez using that little notebook. But so much still didn't make sense. Maybe he should talk to Steve about it…no. If Steve was willing to murder Dez…
And a horrifying thought struck him. Zito, Andrew, they'd both died… Steven couldn't be behind their deaths, too, could he? No way. But then again, at the last Night games…hadn't Justin fallen out of a tree and died? No, that was just an accident. Steven couldn't be behind that. But then again, hadn't Sean Church died in front of him as well? No. That was suicide. Right? But with horrible remembrance, he thought of what was written in the Death Note under the ground not too far away. It said that Dez would commit suicide and she did. Could the Death Note make people die any way the user wanted?
All of this came to him so quickly it made his head hurt and he was almost tempted to stand up and wander off again. Instead he stuck to picking at the grass around his feet. Every now and then, the Shinigami would speak to Steven but he would give no answer. Obviously Steve couldn't because they were all surrounding him but Luke was willing to bet that he would respond if they were alone.
And then something happened. The Death God bent over onto his knees, as if some invisible force had suddenly tackled him. "Ryoku!" It shouted wildly. Luke tried hard not to stare. What was going on? What was a Ryoku?
"Steve! Help me!" The Shinigami begged but Steven continued to ignore it as if it weren't there. Luke sat there, listening helplessly as the Shinigami begged and kicked but nobody could hear him as whatever invisible thing on top of it held it prisoner. And then Steven suddenly stood up.
"I got to take a piss." Steven said, using Luke's excuse to leave the group. Luke stared at him as he left. Where the hell was he going all of the sudden?
When Steven returned, Luke sensed there was something different about him. He looked forlorn and tired. The Shinigami was still trapped on the ground beside him and Steven took a seat as if nothing odd was happening at all.
And then, a split second later, the Shinigami had blood shooting out from its chest and Luke watched as it flew off—or was dragged off—into the air by whatever invisible thing had snatched him. Luke didn't dare watch it go. He didn't understand what was going on. Surely Katlynn would be able to explain, right? And his urge to see her again for answers intensified.
Presently…
And Steven was gone again. Where to, he didn't know. But Luke saw that he brought his backpack with him this time. And he wondered, almost horrifically, if he held another Death Note in there as well…
Ben is dead, Ben is dead, Ben is dead! Repeated over and over in Steven's mind.
He took a seat on top of a log and released his Death Note, flipping it open to somewhere in the middle and taking a pencil out from his pocket. His eyes were wide and his face pale. He rested the tip of the pencil against the paper and hesitated. Is this right? He asked himself dumbly.
If you kill him…You will hurt her…The little voice in his head warned. But if you don't, then you will suffer…then again, if you kill him, you'll only suffer even more at the sight of Jennie in pain…or will you?
He felt greed and overconfidence swell in his chest. He would be able to comfort her after he died, hold her shoulders and let her cry on him. It would take some time, but eventually, she would see him in a new light and love him just like he loved her. Zando was wrong. You can have love and the Death Note; you just needed to know how to use it!
"Ben Armstrong" Steven wrote, followed by "Benjamin Armstrong" just in case his full name was Benjamin. It didn't matter. Either way, he was going to die in the next forty seconds. He could feel the swell in his chest start to deplete. Now that he'd done it, he felt a sense of finality. It was greedy, what he'd done. He wasn't ashamed to admit that. It would all work out. This Ben guy, he was just another trial for him. Just another person in his way. He had the Death Note. He had the power. Ben wasn't worthy in his eyes. That's all that mattered.
A minute passed and Steven didn't move. He closed the Death Note and slipped it into his backpack, zipping it closed and staring down at his shoes in silence. Then he heard it. An ear-splitting scream of terror and pain rose from the picnic area behind him. The scream shook his bones to the core. It was Jennie's screams of pain and anguish that filled Maplewood Park that day…
Ben was dead.
The ambulance came and took Ben's body away. Jennie, Steven, and a few of her friends went with him. Steven told Luke that he wanted to be there for her and he appeared to have believed him. Sarah Schmidt held Jennie the whole ride to the hospital. Steven sat next to two other girls who had spent the whole picnic talking to each other but were now staring at Jennie in sad silence. Jennie had stopped screaming but silent tears were still sliding down her cheeks. Steven managed to look sad for her but inside he was secretly happy.
Sure, it's sad that Jennie's sad but…I'll be able to comfort her in the end and everything will better in the end. The Greater Good, right?
When they got to the hospital, they all took a seat as Ben was taken away to who knows where. Steven tried to take a seat next to her but the damned Sarah Schmidt never left her side. Maybe I should kill her too He thought savagely, knowing that killing Sarah on the same day Ben died would surely overwhelm Jennie so he could never do such a thing.
"I'm sorry, Jennie." He told her finally, sitting across from her in the waiting room.
Jennie nodded, not really appearing to have heard him. Not the reaction he wanted but good enough. Steven looked down, wondering what he could do. He imagined this scene in his head slightly more romantic. You're a fool, the wicked voice in his head said. You don't love her; you only care about yourself…
Shut up, He told himself, closing his eyes.
"Why are you here, anyway?" Sarah asked him, bringing him out of his trance.
Steven stared, not expecting this. But this was perfect. A chance to make himself look better. "I care about Jennie, too, Sarah." He told her.
Jennie looked at him from behind her tear-glazed eyes and he looked back into them. Everything fell apart all at once. Steven realized, with a horrible, plummeting feeling, that the little voice in his head was right. He was a liar. He didn't care about Jennie, not really. If he really cared about her, he wouldn't have made her cry like this. She didn't know he was the reason behind it, but she didn't have to. It didn't matter what she knew. Steven was the reason she was sad and he didn't care about what she felt until now, looking into those eyes of hers.
"Thanks you." Jennie sniffed, smiling feebly at him.
And Steven felt sick. He couldn't even return the smile. He simply stared at her, horror-struck. He didn't deserve her, not after this. He'd let his emotions get ahead of him. Stupid, immature emotions. He was supposed to be the god of the new world, not a sniveling little brat who killed everyone that annoyed him. He wasn't Andrew, for god's sake!
You can't have the Death Note and Love… Zando's voice said in his head and Steven realized that he was right. He couldn't have love…
About an hour later, Jennie's parents came and picked them all up. Steven met them but said nothing as the two girls and Sarah Schmidt were dropped off at their respective houses. Steven was left sitting alone in the back seat with Jennie after giving her parents directions back to his house.
This was the perfect moment to talk to her and comfort her but Steven couldn't bring himself to do it anymore. "I really am sorry, Jennie." He muttered, seeing that they were getting closer to his house.
"I know." Jennie said. She had managed to stop crying on the ride home at last but he could still hear the sadness in her voice. "What were you going to say to me before, at the park?" She asked suddenly.
Steven blinked. She'd remembered after-all. But even this wasn't enough to clear his conscience. He looked at her and their eyes met again. He had to chose the Death Note. No matter how badly he wanted it, he couldn't have her. He had to let her go. He didn't deserve her and he wasn't meant for love. He was meant for something much greater…
"I was going to say that I hope school starts soon so we could hang out more." Steven lied, his gut twisting. "But now that I think about it, with Kira out there still, I doubt it will."
"Kira…" Jennie's voice cracked. "Do you think he's the one who…?"
Steven knew what she was going to say before she said it. "I don't know." He lied again. "I guess it's possible…"
"Yeah…" Jennie sighed.
They said goodbye when they got to his house and even though Steven did hope that he would see her again, he never would. He watched as her and her parents drove up the road and out of sight before going inside and walking into his bedroom, dropping his backpack on the floor and collapsing into his bed. Zando was gone. His room felt strangely empty and abandoned without the Shinigami's presence and he wondered if he'd ever see him again.
He took out his Death Note, previously Andrew's, and held it up to look at the front cover. "The Death Note…" He muttered. "I wonder who else could've made it this far…"
Across the nation at this very moment…
Mr. Redman's footsteps echoed off the hardwood floor as he made his way down the long, white hallway underneath the White house. He knocked on the door and a voice on the other side answered "Come in."
The door opened and Redman entered into a large, dark room where in the middle was a big, crimson sofa where four boys were. One of them was sitting on the left side with one leg up on the sofa. The second boy was standing behind him sucking on his thumb. The third was hanging off the back of the opposite side of the sofa like some sort of creature afraid of sitting normally. And the fourth boy was sitting on the couch in front of the third, upside-down with a pen sticking out of his mouth. They were all staring at a massive television screen that gave off the only source of pale light in the room that cast down upon each of the boys making them gaunt and ghostly.
"F.A.T.E.'s." Redman greeted, saluting them.
"How many times do we have to tell you that militaristic greetings bore us?" The boy standing said, turning to face Redman. He had long, messy black hair and looked like he was suffering from some sort of disease."
"Sorry, A." Redman apologized.
"It's fine." A said, "Just don't do it again."
"What do you want, Red-dude?" The upside-down boy asked, not looking away from the television screen. They were watching an old kid's show. Batman was fighting the Joker on top of a building.
"No doubt, you heard about the incident at Hazen High School?" Redman asked.
"Of course." A sighed. "You were there. What info. You got for us?"
Redman walked over and stood in front of the couch to face them all. "I gathered that none of the students at Hazen are suspicious of being Kira."
"Have you?" The boy sitting somewhat normally on the couch asked. He had long white hair and only one of his eyes could be seen underneath his bangs.
"Yes, F." Redman said. "At first, I was curious about one boy in particular. But after hearing his testimony I decided that he is actually quite the opposite of Kira. He was friends with some of the murder victims and survived the Hazen massacre."
"Shouldn't that make him more suspicious?" F asked.
"I agree." The upside-down boy stated. "You're saying he wants to catch Kira just as bad as we do?"
"Indeed, E." Redman said, keeping his calm composure. "I talked to him, he's definitely not Kira. And if I am wrong and by some chance he is, I have a plan that will work out both ways for us."
"What is it?" F asked.
"He joins our investigation." Redman smirked.
F, A, and E all looked at Redman as if he were crazy. The littlest boy, however, continued to cling to the back of the sofa and stare at the television as if entranced by it.
"Is he really that smart?" E asked.
"I don't know." Redman shrugged. "We could put him through tests of course."
"What's his name?" F asked.
"Steven Douglas Leitch." Redman said, taking out a folder that he'd been holding the whole time under his arm. "17 years old. Senior. Bellow average grades, but…none of you were exactly known for good grades when you went to school either."
"He's older than all of us." A observed.
"Age matters not." squeaked the littlest boy on the back of the sofa.
"I don't like this idea." E mumbled, biting the pen in his mouth.
"We can test him." F reminded him.
"Seems like a waist of time."
"He's a survivor of the Hazen massacre and has strong feelings against Kira." Mr. Redman said. "He's intelligent as far as I can tell and—"
"There are thousands, maybe millions, out there with strong feelings against Kira." E said, glaring at the television as Batman delivered a punch to the Joker's face. "What makes this kid so special?"
"Because out of all the kids I picked him." Mr. Redman said. "You four have a lot of power, but I'm afraid you can't decide who wants to help. Next week I'll approach Steven and ask him if he would be interested in joining our investigation. And if he does, you four can decide one what to do with him until then."
"That's the authority I like." A told him with a thin, sickly smile.
"That is all." Redman said, turning around to leave. When he was gone and the doors closed, the four boys all looked at each other.
"Maybe he could be worth something." The small boy said, clutching tightly to the edges of the sofa. "Redman does have sensitive tastes…"
"Too sensitive. I hate him." E grumbled. "And since when do you give a damn about this investigation, T? You sit back there mumbling to yourself all day. Annoying."
"Better than listening to you complain." A coughed.
F, A, T, and E all fell silent as the T.V. show ended. F picked up the remote from the side of the couch and flipped it to a news station. "We've been watching Kira in silence for the past few months." He said. "We sent the investigation team to Hazen because of what happened and right when we announced that they were clear of suspicion, 80 percent of the school's students and all the teachers and employees died simultaneously. Ever since then, have there been any other suspicious deaths?"
"I'll look into it." A said, coughing again and pulling a laptop out from underneath the sofa where he took a seat on the floor in the shadow of the couch and flipped it open.
"We need to have utmost care with this." F said.
"No shit, Sherlock." E grumbled.
The Fates, that's what they were called. A secret cluster of four boys locked away in a dark room underneath the white house itself. Very few know of their existence. What is their purpose? Why do they investigate Kira so tirelessly? Who are the Fates?
On the television screen, there was a list of survivors from the Hazen massacre being shown. On that list, F saw the name Steven D. Leitch with a picture of him. F stared into Steven's eyes in silence, remembering everything Redman told them.
"Are you Kira?"
Part One
END