Chapter 10:
"Prey"
"Tsk, tsk," came a disembodied voice.
Morph appeared in the blink of an eye and stood next to the Cameron Cross. He leaned on his elbows on the table next to the other and shook his head. The wealthy, son of a movie mogul was spread out most unceremoniously strapped to the very table he raped his victims on, outwitted by his enemy, and had been subjected to a taste of his own sadistic medicine, fainting as as result.
"In the words of one of your beloved science-fiction characters: 'Disappointed, Am I'." He climbed on top of the table and straddled Cross across the chest. It wasn't an attempt to be intimate, but rather to be face-to-face with his most recent contractee, leaning in. "Come on, you idiot. Wake up. You still have work to do." With a flick of a finger across Cross's nose, Morph forced the other to consciousness. Cross gasped, the grit his teeth, as what had happened to him quickly came back to him. Tears began to stream down from his eyes. "Hurts, doesn't it? It should. If my genitals were electrocuted, I'd faint too!"
Cross noticed Morph through teary eyes, looking up. "What the hell! Get off me! Ow!" He hissed them clenched teeth. "I feel like I'm on fire!"
"How did being 'zapped' make your victims feel, huh? I really don't care what you human do to each other. In my mind, you're all the same."
"Help me, Morph!"
"Say, pretty please," the Imp said with a chuckle. Cross hissed from the pain. "It must feel horrible. I saw it all. That Shinigami shocked you in places that even made me cringe. "Shall I take away the pain for you?"
"Yes!" Cross cried out. "Pretty please!" Morph reached back and placed a hand over Cross's crotch without touching. The look on Cross's face showed instant. Cross's head fell back, and he breathed out a sense of relief. "There, I can't have you in pain when I still need you."
Cross looked back at Morph. "Get me out of this and I'll do anything you want!"
Morph smiled broadly. He climbed off. With a snap of two fingers, all four leather straps released, and Cross was able to move. Cameron Cross sat up, rubbing his wrists.
"You and I have a contract," Morph said, holding up the Life Note. "If you want my protection, you'll do what I say. Capture Light Yagami for me. I want him!"
"For what purpose? And what about Minx?"
"My business with Yagami is my own. And you don't have to worry about your old acquaintance anymore, she is of no longer any consequence. She betrayed you for Light Yagami. They left to hunt down this second Shinigami than snuck aboard your yacht with them."
Cameron looked around. "Where the hell is the body of the man I shot?"
"He was the Shinigami. He tricked everyone and disguised himself as a human from Yagami's conscious mind. Shinigami cannot be killed by human weapons, even a bullet to the head. And it passed its notebook ownership to Yagami."
"But I can't be killed by this other Shinigami, correct? I'm under your protection if he tries to kill me with his Death Note, of even if Light Yagami writes my name down on the piece of paper he owns?"
"You are correct," Morph said factually.
"Light might want to made contact with the Kira Task Force and call off the cavalry since he smashed the tracking device he had on him, that nipple ring. I knew there was something suspicious with that thing." Cross sneered. "And that bitch, Valerie!"
"She knows she can't take your life span with our contract," Morph said. "I suspect that's why she left you here and joined Yagami. You betrayed her first."
Cameron growled under his breath. "I wonder if she would go for the Death Note that's in my cabin. I'm still currently her master, but if she retrieves it…You said our contract doesn't erase a contract between a human and a Shinigami, but she could, possibly, return to her realm, hence nullifying our association?"
"That is a possibility," Morph said. "However, your people at the Savant Society won't like it. And like Minx said when she first encountered me in your cabin, the Savant Society are very much aware of me. You'd have to explain yourself. Why you 'canceled' your contract with her and made one with me."
"Explanations will come later," Cross said. "The fight between Light Yagami and myself isn't over. I've been humiliated. And what secrets he knows, his very existence could ruin everything. I don't care what you want him for, Morph. I just want revenge for what happened to Ben.
"Take your revenge, but I will have his lifespan." Morph put a hand to his stomach. "Much like the contract Shinigami make with humans, I also need life energy to live."
"You're going to eat Yagami's lifespan?"
Morph snapped his fingers and a semi-automatic rifle appeared in Cross's hands, the Imp ignoring Cross's question. "Better than that pee-shooter you brought that Yagami took from you." Cross agreed. "But I must warn you, conventional weapons cannot harm Shinigami. So, you must be acutely aware of your surroundings. But unlike Shinigami, I'm not bound by their conventions. I can protect you, if necessary. But capture Light Yagami at all costs! Do not kill him!"
"Understood," Cameron Cross said. "Now, let's go hunt for our prey!"
And the pair left.
Misa had fallen asleep on the bed in the cabin, having a wonderfully, erotic dream.
Remembering Light in pink speedos was enough to give her sexual chills and to have him sitting in Jacuzzi with its savagely bubbly water next to her tickled her with a native lust. And that Light agreed to don a fetish nipple ring despite it was actually a GPS tracker for the Kira Task Force was enough to send her loins into overdrive!
She imagined Cameron Cross, with his own animal magnetism, and strong fierceness, and then where Light, the love her life—both were stimulating and attractive.
And for them to collide in a vision that only an overly sexuality active woman could dream. A woman of such insatiable want. An anomalous sexual embrace by two seemingly polar opposites in an act of pure unadulterated heated lust. It sent shivers down her spine.
"Oh, Light…Oh, Cameron…" She moaned seductively in her sleep. "Oh, yessssss!"
Light held his gun at the ready and checked every room he and Valerie came to. When they first started out, he asked to see her true Shinigami form and she had showed him. He hadn't admitted it openly, but he found her Shinigami form strangely erotic. No winder Cameron Cross had kept her close. Her real name was Minx, but she looked nothing like a cat.
Every room was empty, even those the belonged to the crew. And then they searched the Bridge, there was no one at their stations. It was like they were on a ghost ship.
Light had a bad feeling and it was confirmed when the pair reached the Radio Room. The communications paneling was all smashed. Not even with Light's skills at creativeness—like when he invented that bomb for his desk drawer in case anyone decided to snoop around and accidentally found the Death Note—could he piece it back.
Light swore as he threw down the receiver to the radio. It smashed against the floor and bounced at his feet. "Why do this?" He looked around. "And where is every body?"
Valerie crouched down and touched something on the floor near the Steering Wheel at the main controls. She stood up with a tinge of red on the finger tip if her right index finger. "I don't think we are going to find them, Light," she said.
Light looked at her finger. He didn't have to ask if it was blood. Then his eyes widened. "Misa!" Light bolted off the Bridge and ran down the nearest corridor heading for the lower decks. Valerie followed him. But before he get near their cabin, Light was sent hurtling back by some unseen force, and landed hard on the floor on his back. He groaned in pain.
Valerie said, "Light, are you okay?" crouching down.
"He'll be all right," said a voice. Light and Valerie looked up to see T.K. standing in their path, near Light's cabin. "And, so far, Misa Amane is safe. She is sleeping, and I have temporarily placed a barrier around this area, so she remains out of your reach. Why not let sleeping dogs lie? She is of no consequence at the moment."
"Who the hell are you?" Light demanded, sitting up. Valerie at his side.
T.K. tilted his head slightly and gave a devilish grin. "Trust me, you wouldn't wish to meet me the likes of me in a dark alley. I came on board to meet you, Lord Kira. Your exploits are the thing of legend. While you may be familiar with the Savant Society, I hold no allegiance to them."
Valerie gasped, as if with revelation.
T.K. opened his arms. "Allow me to reveal my true form, and while you have touched my Death Note, and even hold a piece of it on you, you are not the Owner. That is reserved for another. And he, would like to meet you…"
With what could only be seen as something from a cartoon show, T.K. poked two fingers into his eyes, and ripped the skin away from his body—like it was merely a covering. What stood before them was grotesque, something that would haunt even the hardened soul.
The Shinigami wore green and black camouflage Army fatigues, black boots, with an old style World War One English-style Battle Helmet. His face was a complete skeleton. He had a left arm that was completely cast in metal with a three fingered claw.
And he had one nasty, unique feature in his chest. He was actually two Shinigami-in-one. The Shinigami had a symbiotic relationship with another creature, a kind of gooey echo-plasmic, pink thing, that made a home in the Shinigami's torso.
Light felt sick to his stomach just looking at the Shinigami.
"We are called Rage," said the Shinigami. "But let us dispense with the trivialities."
Suddenly, there was a sound from near the stairs that lead up to the upper decks.
Cameron Cross can running down, only to halt at the bottom. He pointed a semi-automatic rifle at Light Yagami. "Found you, you son-of-a-bitch, and you, you she-devil traitor!"
Cross could not see Rage.
"How did you get free?" Valerie said.
Cross smiled broadly. "I think you know who. And now I'm protected from the Death Note. I can't be killed by you. My lifespan is safe." He stepped closer and pointed the weapon at Light, since it was not a threat to Valerie. Rage remained static. "You're coming with me, back to the Savant Society, Yagami. I'm sure they're going to have a lot of questions for you. And if you're smart, you'll fall in line like a good little soldier. The reign of Kira is over. And you stop eyeing that gun on the floor, Yagami."
Light hand had been slowing reaching for the Colt as he sat on the floor, but now he brought his hand back. "You're making a grave mistake, Cross. You have no idea the forces you're tangling with." Light stood on his feet. He brushed off his backside. "I'll give you one chance. Join me and become a minion of Kira. Kira will rule this world. Or perish like the insignificant pion that you are."
Cross burst out laughing. "You're been watching too many science-fiction movies, Yagami. There will never be no "empire" of Kira. Kira is nothing but a minnow in a sea of sharks. The Savant Society wanted me to observe you, but now I'll do them the flavour of eliminating the threat of your existence!"
Rage growled. "I so detest interruptions!"
Suddenly, the Shinigami inserted two fingers of its right hand into its hollow eye sockets, plucked its head off its shoulders—whereas the echo-plasma took over—and swung it back like a bowling ball, and launched it's "head" through the air.
Valerie threw herself to Light and forced him down as Rage's head came jettisoning towards them.
Cameron Cross didn't know what hit him. And Cross's body exploded like it had been hit by a bomb.
Blood, tissue, and bone, were ripped apart. And when it was over, his remains covered the corridor, plastering the walls with dripping fluids and excess pieces of flesh. Cameron Cross's head stuck to one wall attached with wet goo, but then slid to fell to the floor, covered in crimson, his eyes forever open in shock, at the moment of the surprise impact.
Rage's head returned to him like a boomerang and he reattached it to his body. Rage cracked his neck.
Light was sick immediately, vomiting. And he almost fainted with shock. Valerie had managed to cover him during the impact and made sure Light didn't receive any debris.
Rage said, "And before you ask, I didn't kill him for you, Light Yagami. I killed him for me. I also killed the crew and disposed of their bodies, if you were wondering. I also dismantled the radio. But I have not come here to kill you, Light Yagami. Only to deliver a message—an invite, per se."
Light wiped vomit from his mouth. He pushed Valerie away as he got weakly to his feet. He refused to look back at the carnage Rage wrought on Cameron Cross, but he could smell it. The smell of a dead body were not new to him and when he became a police officer, he would have to get used to them. But this was far different. Nevertheless, he stood straight, proud.
Light said, "First of all, you didn't need to hit me that hard on the back of the head to get my attention, nor strap me to that insidious table in Cross's secret room. You could have easily just touched me with your Death Note, forcing me to hang onto it until I retained my full memories, then explained the situation to me. I hate theatrics. Often the simplistic route is the easiest."
Rage gave a throaty chuckle. "But where would be the fun in that? I could have had some fun with you, pretending to be a female and didn't some ghastly things with you, instead of the image of that person I took from your mind, but I'm not that kind of Shinigami—like Minx with Cameron Cross."
Light gave a sideways glance to Valerie/Minx. The image of the Shinigami and Cameron Cross engaging in sexual relations, human and god of death in her other form made Light cringe. He turned back. "Rage, is it? You have my attention, but I will not be frightened or subdued." In truth, he was terrified. Rage could murder him in an instant. He raised a clenched fist. "I am Kira. And I will not be summoned like some lowly peasant. Tell your benefactor, Owner, Master—whoever—if he wishes to meet me, then he issues me the invite directly, not by proxy."
Valerie looked stunned that he would talk to Rage like this. Light saw her glance from the corner of his eye, but he was determined to take charge of the situation.
Rage suddenly laughed. "You are a bold one, Light Yagami. But he did say that you are extremely strong-willed, and if you reacted any other way—to kill you. You acted exceptionally as he described. You are correct. Lord Kira could never be summoned like a lowly peasant. I was testing you. For the moment, allow the invite to stand as it is. But he will be in touch."
"To whom is he you refer to?" Light demanded.
"You will be made aware of him soon enough. Just note, he is aware of your lineage, and your family ties to the Savant Society, and their association with Shinigami, whom, he himself was once a member. And that you are a member of the Kira Task Force. As you may or not be aware, a group of individuals left the SS and branched off to form their own league. They believe Shinigami should be allowed to engage as nature intended, while the Savant Society operates to control and restrict Shinigami actions to preserve human kind. This shadow group is known as the League of Darkness, and they know of you very well."
Light didn't know to be nervous or not. And he hated not have a proper name of this other.
"But don't fret, Light Yagami," Rage said. "You are in no danger from us. Your true enemy is the Savant Society, for which Cameron Cross was a member. Once his death is known, you may be hunted. His parents, the Cross-Median Family, are staunch members of the SS. However, after it is learned of what Cameron Cross and his cohort, Benjamin Lakes, were engaged in on this yacht, I believe this entire incident will be hushed up, so not to expose the Society as a whole."
"Prudent," Light agreed.
"However, whether you like it not," Rage continued, "you must relinquish the Death Note page and scrap I gave you and return to your previous mindset, doing so will allow you to forget everything you have learned here. It will safer for you. When you do again regain a Death Note, then everything you have learned here will be restored. That is the revivify nature of the Death Note."
"'Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity', to quote Martin Luther King Junior," Light said. "But everything that has happened here—all the death—questions will be asked. The last thing I want is more suspicion on me in being Kira. I spent nearly two months locked up in a cage to prove my innocence. I'm just now only regaining some of that freedom back. And now all this? L is going to crucify me! This was supposed to be nothing more than a simple vacation, but it turned into a blood bath with me as a prime suspect."
Light mistakenly looked back at what used to be Cameron Cross and immediately turned back around. And Rage's silent "partner" was also turning his stomach. He needed to get out of this corridor and get a breath of fresh air. The stench was beginning to make him physically ill.
"No, you will not, and neither will Kira," Rage said. "The crew were all sexual deviants, along with Cameron Cross and Benjamin Lakes, and were all secretly being investigated by varying law enforcements agencies. The official story will be, how you and Misa Amane managed to survive, is, you hid in your cabin, while pirates stormed the yacht and disposed of everyone onboard."
"Pirates, in this day and age?"
"Stranger things have been known to happen. There are many dissidents in this world, Light Yagami, and those that care nothing for the laws of any country. The Triads in Chinese, the Yukaza in Japan, groups of people who use the internet for desertion, your kind is full of criminality, and even insanity. I'm surprised your species has survived this long without wiping yourself out."
"We have come to the brink many times," Light said, "but human kind is resilient."
"But something will need to be done about this mess," Light said, gesturing at what was left of Cross. He put a hand to his nose, the smell was getting worse. "And what about you, Valerie? Oh, forgive my lapse. Along with the rest of the crew, you will 'disappear' like that rest, and revert back to your true form." Light turned back. "I couldn't have come up with a better plan myself. And it still leaves an aura of mystery which people enjoy, like the Mary Celeste, all those an American merchant brigantine, with all lives lost, a mystery in its own rite, minus two survivors—whom of which, were knocked unconscious in some freakish manner, but who still managed to remain hidden from the brutal onslaught that afflicted this vessel…"
"You are truly a remarkable human, Light Yagami, intelligent and devious," Rage praised.
Light smirked. "L will still suspect me, no matter what—that's just the kind of person he is—but I'll have no reason to murder anyone." He extended his arms like an innocent man. "There will be no evidence to connect Kira, either, and L will have to conclude fowl play by some other sinister means. I will, however, have to explain why I had to damage the GPS device I was wearing—the one L forced me to wear to keep an eye on me…" He put a hand to his left chest, where his shirt was half covered in blood from when he ripped the nipple ring out. He thought for a moment. "But, this can be easily explained. I said, I did such because there were 'pirates' on board." He laughed. "And they had already smashed the yacht's radio, so this was the only way I could think of to get a signal out. L will be suspicious, but the rest of the Kira Task Force will accept this without hesitation. They are so easily manipulated." Light laughed again.
After a few more details were ironed out, moving above deck to get away from the rancid smell, Light said, "We have the particularities settled, but how will I explain all this to Misa?" He said it mainly to himself. Rage had reverted back to T.K. Valerie stood next to Light. "Misa will be devastated. Cameron Cross was a major financier for her movies. And when the Cross-Median Company learns of this, there will be an investigation. Cameron Cross, eldest son of the Cross-Median Family, killed by 'pirates' while vacating on his yacht. That's essentially what the media headlines will say. I will still have to answer to L, but I'll handle it. Let's just hope Misa doesn't screw things up. She's notorious for foiling my plans."
To be continued...