Chapter 2
Nina woke up on time in the morning, took a shower, got ready for school, made a pot of coffee for her dad, grabbed her things, said bye to Kira, and hurried out the door. She jogged down a block and sat on a bench to wait for the bus. If she went down another few blocks she could go to Anne's house. She was nervous though, and would wait to talk to her.
After a while, the bus stopped in front of her and when she got on she noticed that the bus driver's number was getting dangerously low. She had what was called shinigami eyes; the eyes of a death god. She was born with them so she could see people's names and how much time they had left. Though she had had them all her life she still couldn't figure out equation needed to convert a person's number into perceived time. After giving him an uneasy look, she went straight to the back where Anne was sitting with a big smile on her face. Nina couldn't help but smile when Anne did. "So?" Nina asked as she sat next to her. Nina pulled her laptop out of her bag and the two of them traded places, so she was by the window, as it booted. When she got settled she pulled up the folder and hesitantly opened it. "What do I need to see first?" She asked. Anne was still smiling. "That one," she replied, pointing to a file labeled 'EVIDENCE'. She double clicked it and pulled it up. Pictures. She wasn't sure she was ready for this. Especially since that dream she had last night. She opened the first image in Irfanview.
Mercifully the first photo was of the broken window. The point of entry. She could still remember the sound of that glass breaking; tiny crystal shards that glittered in the kitchen floor. She shuddered and Anne put a comforting hand on her shoulder. She took a deep breath and pressed the spacebar reluctantly. Merciful again. Another photo of the glass. She pressed the spacebar more reluctant than ever; the glass had to run out sooner or later. Blood. Still okay. It could have been anyone's blood. Spacebar again. Instantly she regretted it, and slammed the computer shut. Anne jumped and hugged Nina's shoulders awkwardly.
"It's okay, Nina," she whispered, "you can do this."
Drawing from Anne's strength, Nina nodded determinedly, still not trusting her voice. Slowly she opened the laptop back up knowing what she would see. Her mother, lying dead in her own blood, sprawled unnaturally in the hallway. She saw a lot of those as she went on through the rest of the photos.
The rest were more crime scene photos and evidence: a footprint, clothing fibers, things like that. There was a picture of the driveway where there where tire marks on the pavement.
She looked at Anne when she had finished going though all thirty-seven. Anne was still smiling, though she had a careful look in her eye now. Nina forced herself to smile back. She couldn't see any thing good. None of it could be used now. It was too old. Anne smiled even bigger.
"Did you see them?" She asked excitedly. Nina smiled warmly. Only Anne.
"Yes, Anne, all thirty-seven of them," Nina sighed. Anne looked confused then realization lit her features.
"So you didn't," she said, smiling again, lager than before. Anne reached over and pressed the arrow keys, navigating to about halfway down the list of photos and chose one, pulling it up in Irfanview. "This one," she said matter-of-factly. It was one of the tire marks. Nothing special. "See?" She said, "and this one… and this one… and this one too…" The window. A trampled area. The house. What? What was so special?
That's when she saw him, in a picture of the house. Someone was sneaking in the background. "Go back," Nina instructed, and Anne complied, flicking back through the pictures with the suspicious person craftily sneaking around the place.
Nina copied and opened the image that he was closest to the camera in, with one of her favorite editing programs. Deftly, she zoomed in, cropped the image, and used a new feature: Rerender. It could sharpen the blurriest of images to viewable content, and since the DPI of this photo was so high, it worked wonderfully. Now it looked like she had intentionally taken a picture of the sneak.
"Recognize him?" Anne asked, surprising her and bringing her out of her concentration.
"His name…" she said looking at the blurry red letters only she could see, "is Andrew John Meeks". Now they had an acquaintance. She was glad once again that she had the powers of the second Kira, Misa.
She felt the bus stop and looked around. They were at school already. She would have all day to think. She gave the driver's number another glance and wrote it down on a scrap of paper before she forgot it. She also made note of the exact time. She never missed a chance to try as conversion. Anne saw what she was doing and raised an eyebrow.
"The driver?" she asked looking back over her shoulder, "seriously?" Nina just nodded. "After I find out what time he died, I can try another conversion," she said in a low voice, not that anyone was listening, but still…
Anne nodded "I'll see you after school then!" she yelled cheerfully over the sound of the crowd in the hall.
Nina pushed and shoved her way to her locker where she stowed her bag, laptop and all, and grabbed her books before checking the lock and rushing to class.
She didn't see Anne for the rest of the day, as was the norm, and all her classes passed without a hitch. All except for her last class, World History. She was forced to take her time on the test and when the bell rang she was the only one still working on it, though she was nearly finished.
The last question read: The man who wrote the 95 thesis's name was what? Now what was his name? Ah yes Martin Luther.
She finished her test and turned it in before sprinting down the hall to her locker. She didn't want to miss her bus. After she got her locker opened, she grabbed her bag and ran outside just in time to be the last person on the bus before the doors closed. Anne had saved her seat so she flopped down by her, completely out of breath and listened, the whole way to the bus stop, about Nathen.
After Nina had walked home from the bus stop and tossed her bag by her bedroom door, she grabbed up her sketch book from her desk and sat on her bed to draw a picture of Kira sitting on her bed. When she was finished, she decided, out of boredom, to ink it and dug around in tote by her bead for her favorite ink pen. She searched for about five minutes then she checked her pocket book. It wasn't there either. Finally she dumped out her bag, she had left by her door, on her bed and froze, completely forgetting about the ink pen.
On top of every thing she had dumped out was a black notebook with the words DEATH NOTE written in creepy handwriting on the front cover. She had seen a notebook like this only once. She had been doing research on Light, the man who could kill criminals if he knew their name and face, and the second kira, Misa, who could kill if she only saw their face. Then there was the third man that somehow got a hold of Kira's powers, but he was caught. In the captured man's possession was a notebook just like this one that if you touched it you would see a monster. She had seen it on video. Whenever any of the police touched it they would go into hysterics and babble about seeing a monster.
Nina wanted to touch it, but she didn't. She wanted to learn the secret but she was afraid. Anyone would be. She reached out but pulled her hand back. What would happen if she screamed and babbled? What if while she was in shock someone found it in her possession? The FBI would recognize it. No. She wouldn't scream. Kira could touch it and was still sane. She could do this. She was a true believer of Light. Of Kira.
She took a deep breath and picked up the Death Note. She could see the monster in her vision though she was staring at the notebook and she forced herself not to look. Not yet.
When she had collected herself, she let out her breath and looked up at him. She knew him. The real Kira. Light Yagami. She had seen pictures of him. Though as a monster he did not look quite the same. He still had human features but they were distorted, making him look like something from a horror movie.
His skin was grey with a bluish tint, like an old corpse. His face looked like someone had pulled his cheeks back so that the skin was tight on his jaw and revealed his teeth that were more like fangs than anything. His clothes looked like a mix of robes and average clothing. In some places the clothes seemed to be growing from his body and appeared to be made into his skin, like he had melted onto his odd attire. His hair was a light brown that, despite his garish appearance, looked rather soft, and the skin that was visible on his arms was covered in scar-looking ridges that were shaped like feathers or scales.
She took another breath when she remembered how.
"Kira," she said not like a question but just stating a fact. He grinned.
"Well, aren't you going to read it?" he asked in a voice that didn't exactly seem to fit his body.
Nina looked back at the Death Note, a thousand questions swimming in her head, and opened it up. 'How to Use' it read.