Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note or any of the characters except for the OCs.

CHAPTER 8

Valerie

Dear God.

For a minute that felt like an eternity, I was shocked at the scene before my eyes. Too shocked I couldn't even move an inch. I opened my mouth but nothing came out, I could only look at the gory, blood-smeared body lying on the floor.

"Jack." Mello strode into the room in a flash and crouched down before the unconscious body. I watched as the leather-clad blond yanked the man's shirtsleeve and checked the pulse on his wrist.

"Is he...?"

Mello let go of the wrist, his expression turned to somewhat a grim. His gaze was still fixated on the body and I noticed he was no less shocked than I was."Shit..." he muttered, and I learned the truth. Jack Neylon was dead.

I instinctively made a cross sign, and once I could regain my composure I approached Jack's body in steady steps. When I had a closer look, I immediately noted that Jack Neylon was a tall lanky man with long ash blond hair. The body condition was really awful. Behind the cracked round glasses, his eyes were wide-opened they freaked me out; seemingly in total shock at the time he was shot.

I could have passed out at the amount of blood from the gunshot wounds. I had seen many trauma or GSW* patients back in my pre med internship days, but none like this. There were at least fifteen or more of them that had penetrated various vital spots across the torso. The whole sight sent shivers down my spine.

"Did the Mafia do this?" I asked Mello, my voice quivered.

Mello tilted his head, glancing up to me. "There's no doubt," he stated gravely. "Killing Jack bode to nothing in term of profit except for them. After all, no one knows Jack's in New York at the moment."

I mused on his answer, staring back at the dead body. Now I realized how serious this situation was. The whole Mafia business was most likely real. Led by Rod Ross, they would kill anyone who stood in their ways, no matter who and no matter how. I cringed in disgust at the thought.

Then, despite my battling mind, I managed to think about something. I wasn't sure about what I would be going to do, but it worth a try. My medical training and curiosity began to kick in. This is an extremely rare opportunity I simply couldn't miss.

I knelt down beside Jack's body and absently took one arm with my hands, earning a confused look from Mello. "What are you doing?" he asked within a hint of suspicion.

I hesitated before I gave him a response. "I just… I want to give this a try. Estimating his time of death, I mean. Maybe it could clarify a few things?" I replied vaguely. But the second later a thought struck me. "Is there a slight chance that the police would come? They would notice someone has moved the body."

He contemplated for a while. "I guess not... the Mafia wouldn't choose a place that attracts much attention when it comes to business," he mused. Then his eyes leered back at mine. "You sure you can figure it out?"

"Not really... but it will lead to nowhere unless I give it a try."

Mello stared at me for a moment, seemingly gauging my credibility. Finally he gave a single nod. "Be my guest."

Mello

I watched as Valerie's deft hands started working; I was quite impressed by the fact that she didn't faint nor vomit at the horrible sight of the bloody corpse, even though I didn't miss the slightest quiver she made. But in her case, I guessed this was probably nothing compared to dissecting a human cadaver in anatomy class.

She took one of her medical gloves off and carefully placed her palm on the body, presumably checking the temperature, put on the glove back, and then inspected both arms and legs, moving them in sort of motions.

My brain just wouldn't stop thinking at the moment. Question after question kept popping out, and in contrast of my emotionless show-off, actually I was a bundle of nerves.

Jack was dead. Murdered. If Rod really had killed Jack, my theory about Jack cooperating with Rod to find my location and finish me off might be proven wrong. Surely Rod would earn the profit money from the illegal drug trafficking done by Jack, since that meant he wouldn't have to give Jack his share, but I knew that wasn't the case. There's got to be another reason.

The question was… what?

While Valerie continued doing her job, I scanned the whole room and something caught my eyes. Except the cell phone lying next to Jack's body position, the only thing in this room was a brown suitcase, left forgotten on the floor near the corner. Had to be Jack's. I decided to have a look since it might give a clue.

I pulled myself to my feet and crossed the room to where the suitcase abode. I took it and opened the hood, looking inside, hoping to find something in particular...

Nothing. The suitcase was empty.

I rummaged through every pocket, but there was nothing I could find. The suitcase didn't even include any single cloth. Weird. There's no fucking way Jack came to New York bringing an empty suitcase. Unless...

An idea struck my head. If I was correct, that meant Jack didn't plan to stay in New York for a long time. Maybe Jack had wanted to show me something; anything that was once stored inside the suitcase and more likely had been dismissed by the Mafia, and that's why he had intended to see me in person. But what?

"Mello," came Valerie's hitched voice, "can you give me a hand?"

I turned around and took a glimpse at the girl who was at the moment apparently struggling to flip the corpse's body. I hurried and knelt down next to her, helped pushing Jack's body so now it lay onto his stomach. She took off Jack's jacket and moved the shirt upward, revealing the back of the body, as she inspected the exposed skin.

"Hey," I quickly said, not intending to waste any second, "I find something."

Valerie yanked the shirt down and finally turned to me. Her hazel eyes stared right into mine, and I could tell from the way they looked she also got something in particular.

"I think I also find something here," she said. "But you go first."

"No, you first," I said, and I watched her face turned into a bemused look. "Ladies first?" I simply shrugged. The corner of her lips slightly curled upward at my lame little humor, but disappeared right before she uttered her next words.

"Well," Valerie began, "The body temperature is low and the whole body is already stiffened. There are purplish marks over the lower body parts−of course, caused by gravitation pulling the blood after the heart stopped pumping. I also checked the eyes and there's a thin cloudy film developed over each one," she explained. She spoke really fast that I almost had a difficult time processing every word. I got the feeling that she was getting… rather enthusiastic?

Valerie only took a brief pause to catch her breath before continuing, "I may not be able to give exact precision, but from what we got here, I'd say Jack has been dead for three hours or more."

Three hours or more? I quickly snatched my cell phone open and checked the time: 2:02PM. I checked the time Jack called me. 9:53AM.

"He's been dead at least three to four hours," I declared. "He was alive at 10 this morning when he called me."

"That one about paying you a visit?"

"Yeah."

Valerie mused on it for a while. "Then he was shot right after he gave you the call... but what does it mean?"

"Now it's my turn," I said, climbing to my feet, "to show you what I got."

Meanwhile outside of the building, Matt was sitting behind the wheel in his red Camaro, buying some time while waiting for his two companions as his gloved nimble thumbs dancing rapidly over the buttons on his game console. His twinkling green eyes, well hidden beneath the orange-tinted goggles, were locked at the screen in full concentration. His mouth mumbling several words among the sounds emitted from the console.

"... Oh yeah—take that... Ok... How about th—ouch, no fucking way, dude... you're gonna pay for—HA! Double combo! Serves you right... Come on, man, kick his ass—YES, that's right... Come one, man, one more, come o—ARGH!"

The console let out a long beeping sound, signaling the drained battery as the pixelated image shut down, thus ending the game as the screen turned black and the glass surface reflecting his upset face.

"Damn!" Matt cursed, tossing the console nonchalantly to the back seat with a soft thud. The goggled redhead growled and slumped deeper over his seat, hissing grudgingly. "Fuck... I haven't even saved the last round! Oh holy motherfucking battery I'm grateful to you, now I shall be bored to death..."

Attempting to calm himself, Matt drew a cigarette from his cigarette box and started exhaling the smoke. He needed nicotin otherwise he would go crazy due to boredom, even more with his one and only game console ran out of battery at the most crucial time and he didn't bring the charger or additional battery packs. A big, hairy, terrible, tremendous mistake.

Blowing the thin smoke to the air, he sighed heavily."Geez, what's taking them so long?" he wondered. His two companions, Mello and Valerie, had left for more than fifteen minutes as he could remember, and the thought only bode to him sulking inwards since he had to wait down here and do nothing but stayed on guard.

The boredom only came to an end when Matt averted his gaze toward the wild shrubberies growing in the front of the building. He squinted his eyes, trying to get a better sight on whatever catching his attention.

There's something among the leaves.

Curious, and pleased enough to find a distraction, he stepped out of the car and approached the thing. When it was right under his nose, Matt's eyes widened below the tinted glasses with recognition.

"Isn't it...?"

Valerie

I studied the suitcase Mello showed me. As what he mentioned, there's nothing inside, resulting to the conclusion that whatever had been stored there, it had been disposed by the Mafia. "But what?" I furrowed my brows, trying to figure out a possible answer.

"Something related with me, for sure," Mello growled as he took a chocolate bar from his pocket and unwrapped it, biting a large chunk with a loud snap. "I've no idea what though."

Before I could think of a reply, Mello's cell phone rang and he answered at the first ring. "What, Matt—"

"MELLO, GET OUT OF THERE RIGHT NOW!"

Matt's voice screeching out of the phone, making Mello instantly removed the cell phone from his ear at the earsplitting decibel voice. Matt sounded excruciatingly in panic. Mello gave me a brief confused look before talking back to the line, "Matt, calm down! What happened?"

"EXPLANATION LATER, GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE RIGHT N—"

"Matt! Just fucking tell me!"

"TIME BOMBS, MELLO!" I could hear Matt's howling voice. "FOUR. FUCKING. TIME BOMBS. GET OUT. NOW." With that Matt ended the call.

Panic and fear began creeping alongside my whole body as I turned to Mello. "Bombs?" I repeated in disbelief, but a loud erupted sound downstairs made me nearly jumped out of my skin and I screamed. That must be the first bomb. Shit, now what?

"Fuck." Mello roughly grabbed my wrist and dragged both of us out of the room down the stairs, similar to what he did back in the apartment, but only this time it was a whole different situation. We were in a building with four bombs, for God's sake!

A second later the second explosion erupted and we were forced to stop midway; a large part of the ceilings and the walls caved into big stony ruins, marching within thunderous thumps to the ground, casting thick dust over the air as well as the visible gold and red strikes of the enraging, ruling fire. Mello and I coughing loudly, feeling the smoke suffocated our chests.

I almost believed that I might have undergone cardiac arrest. I wasn't able to think; my brain wouldn't be cooperating with me anymore. Now that the stairs had been demolished in major parts, there's no way for Mello and I escaping by taking the stairs.

My body grew limp, my eyes watching in despair as the fire started creeping out on the ruins. What are we gonna do now?

More feral tumultuous sounds emitted close by. "Fuck!" Mello swore loudly, his eyes rolling desperately in their sockets, sweeping over the floor we were in as if seeking for something. Out of the blue he pulled me to the nearest door on the corner of the room and broke it down with only one kick. I looked beyond the threshold; turned out it led to a fire escape. I looked at Mello and he did the same, and I knew we had the same idea. "Follow me." Mello jerked his head toward the fire escape before climbing down as fast as he could, and I needed not to be told twice to hurry up behind him.

Outdoor air greeted us as we rushed down the fire escape as fast as our legs brought us. Sweat pouring down all over my body like rain but I couldn't even care less. I sensed the air around me getting hotter each second; the fire was spreading fast and I knew we didn't have much time left.

But when we were only halfway down, a big burning block fell down without warning, almost hitting my skull off if only I didn't retaliate just in time, and in impulse I began to rant trails of numerous cursing in my native language. For a second there I could only stand still, my body tense, one hand firmly gripped onto the railing, one hand clutching to my chest as I tried to breathe in and out, while watching in distraught as the burning block rolling down the stairs before stopping at the corner, destroying the railing near it and completely blocking my way.

Mello

The recent thundering noise from above stopped me dead on my track. I turned around and realized Valerie wasn't anywhere near me. Only when I heard her voice from the stairs above I found her. "What was that?!" I called out.

My voice apparently caught her attention and she peered through the railing, looking straight at me. She opened her mouth but nothing came out; but as soon as I noticed the blazing fire from the burning block in front of her I realized what happened, immediately followed by my loudest swearings. Now what?

I looked back and forth, trying to think fast, what to do to get her out of there, before my eyes settling back at the height distance between my position and hers. It wasn't too high. I had an idea.

"Hey!" I called, "do you think you can climb down here?"

"Climb down?!" Valerie looked down, seemingly considering the height, before looking back at me. "No, I−I don't think so!"

"Hold tight to those railing and bring your body down! I'll catch you!"

"What?!" Her eyes bulged out at my words. "NO WAY!" she bellowed, "I know this is your trick to get rid of me!"

I groaned and running my gloved fingers exasperatedly to my hair. Ok, I knew there was a risk here, but under this situation did she really think I was tricking her? "Listen, I understand if you don't trust me, but look around you!" I hollered back. "You think you have better options here?!"

"I'm not an idiot," she hissed. "If I do that, you'll take it as a chance to escape on your own!"

"If you're not an idiot, then you should know better than that!"

"You're just going to let me die down there!"

"Unless you're eager enough to die, missy, I'M NOT!" I snapped, my voice raucous in desperation. I had to make her believe me. "Do you want to die or not?!"

Valerie

I glared daggers at him before sweeping my eyes back at the height between us. Mello looked deadly serious. But remind me again who he was? How he had been treating me? What situation he had gotten me into? Even amidst this chaos and confusion and frustration, I knew the consequences. He could've manipulated me to take such risk so that I'd meet my end here, to his advantage since it would mean one burden down. But the fire in front of me only spread wider, almost reaching the spot where I stood, and I knew I had to decide.

I must be out of my mind.

Gripping tightly on what's left of the railing, I swung one of my legs to the other side as careful as possible. I looked down to Mello to see he had readied himself to catch me. I brought my other leg over the railing and tighten my grip once both of my legs were now hanging in the air. "You ready?!" I called out.

"Yeah. Now let it go!"

I gulped. I could almost swear my heart was going to jump out of my chest. "You sure this is gonna work out?!"

"Just let it go, dammit!"

That's it. I squeezed my eyes shut, and after taking a deep, deep breath, I let go of the railing.

It happened so fast.

First I felt falling down in acceleration, the wind rushing upwards in a swift motion, followed by a hard bump into something soft yet firm, and the next thing I knew I found myself staring right into two bewildered blue eyes.

"You ok?"

I nodded after a momentary pause, still panting in heavy breaths and shaking uncontrollably, not being able to come up with verbal response. Mello acknowledged this and put me down. I hurriedly reached the nearest wall to support myself. I'm alive,I couldn't believe it. I'm alive. I'm actually alive.

"If you can walk already, let's move. We don't have time."

"Yeah, yeah−just… just give me a sec here−"

My words were cut off with a grumbling noise from above and Mello and I looked up. To my horror, the burning block from before somehow had rolled over from the corner and falling down to our position in great speed. Mello harshly pulled me aside just in time before the burning block fell down in a loud clanking sound and continued to rolling over the lower stairs to the ground. Trail of blazing fire emerged on every area the wood had contact with, and so once again we both were trapped.

"What the fuck?!" Mello roared. I was staring down at the fire surrounding us, my eyes were as wide as plates they almost jumped out from their sockets. My shoulders slumped down. I couldn't say a word. So this was it? After all of this shit, we're going to die here? I was going to die here, in a building full of fire, with the company of a criminal?

"… hey! Hey! Listen to me!"

I quickly snapped out of my trance and looked over to Mello. "What?" I asked, already feeling pessimistic and helpless.

He rolled his eyes and barked a scoff. "The height range between here and the ground isn't too great−we can still make it out," he asserted. His lips forming a thin line. "But we need to jump."

"Jump?!" I shrieked. I gazed down at the distance between where we stood and the ground before looking back at Mello. "Easy for you to say, but I'm NOT jumping off a place 10 foot above the ground!"

"I never say you're doing it on your own." And before I could reply, Mello had already scooped my entire body and held me tight within his arms, ignoring my protest as he scooted over to the edge where most of the railing were already destroyed. I wildly clawed my nails onto his jacket in reflex.

"Wait−what do you think you're doing?" I glared at him in utmost horror. Then a thought came across my mind and the anger I struggling to suppress resurfaced back. "I knew it−you're going to throw me off, aren't you?!"

"HUH?!" Mello turned to meet my eyes, looking genuinely offended. "I'm trying to save both of our asses here! Have some decency, would you?!"

"I don't care, you bloody monster! Put me down right now!" I started to slap and punch and kick him everywhere I could reach. Mello tried to dodge them all, not much of a success while he's struggling to keep me still.

"Don't tempt me to actually throw you off," he growled in a threatening tone. "Unless you wanna get us both killed, stay still."

"MELLO! Put me down or—"

But before I could finish my sentence, he had taken his position, and a split second later, precisely when the final explosion blew up, we jumped.

*GSW = Gunshot Wound

A/N: I love putting them into lots of troubles. MUAHAHA.

Anyway, Merry-Late-Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! (it's New Year already in Indonesia :))) Actually I planned to update on Christmas but I've been away on a holiday trip with my family and didn't bring my laptop with me, so I decided to update right on time with the first day of 2016 (woohoo!) I had a blast writing this chapter, so I hope you guys enjoy it as well! Consider this as my late Christmas/New Year gift to all of you dear readers/reviewers/favoriters/followers :*

I'm sorry I can't reply each of your review personally at this time, but no worries, I will soon. As usual, do not hesitate to let me know what you think of this chapter. Enjoy your holiday! Happy New Year!

Coming up next...

"... he didn't mean to harm anybody. He only did what he had to do under minimal options."

"Yes, including threatening to kill me."

"She was terrified. And we both know we're the reason, and that we have to fix it."

"Then you fix it, genius. I'm done."

Matt rolled his eyes and folded his arms. "Can't you just at least be nicer to her, for one fucking time?"