"Mom?" A little girl squeaked from behind her closet door in a whisper. She was only answered with silence. She could hear the pounding of her heart in her ears as she peaked her emerald green eyes through the crack of the door. Her nightstand was turned over. All the drawers had been pulled out and carelessly thrown onto the floor, leaving her clothes scattered throughout the bedroom. Her mother's paintings that once adorned her bedroom walls had been violently ripped to pieces. Her bedroom door barely hung on the hinges.

Inside the closet, the little girl sat trembling in a mess of clothes and blankets. Her mind battled between escaping the confines of the closet to search for her mother and retreating to the safety of the hole that lay beneath the surface of the fake flooring. Faintly, she could hear the sirens heading towards the house, giving her the courage to leave the safety of her closet. With shakey legs, she slowly stepped past the closet doors, shifted through the mess in her bedroom, and walked down the hallway.

Everything was destroyed. The couches in the living room were ripped up. The kitchen cabinets were broken apart. Even the washing machine had been tipped over. The little girl looked out of the window to see a swarm of cop cars rush to the scene, but they were too late. The attackers were gone and so was her mom.

10 years later

Evelyn White shifted in her seat on the plane. She had been trying to sleep for the past five hours, but she couldn't seem to get comfortable. With a huff of annoyance, she decided to pull out her earbuds and listen to music, instead. The plane was supposed to land in Japan in the next couple of hours. Her best friend, Hana, was snoring loudly beside her, earning dirty glares from some of the other passengers. Part of Evelyn wanted to wake her up out of courtesy to others, but she knew the girl would bite her head off for it. Hana never liked to be woken up from her naps.

Therefore, she left the girl alone and dove into her own thoughts as the music played on. The two were headed for Hana's aunt's house for the next few weeks. Hana used to spend summers there every year until her father's cancer began to worsen. After that, she wouldn't leave his side. He died a year ago, leaving Hana with only her mom and sister. Usually, her sister would be coming with her to visit but she was busy with college and internships. Now that Evelyn and Hana had been friends for a few years, Hana thought it would be fun for Evelyn to come with her to meet her family in Japan.

From what Evelyn knows, her aunt has two kids, the oldest one being the same age as her and Hana. Hana swears that he's a genius, although a little cocky about it. She's seen pictures of him and, to Hana's dismay, found him to be very attractive. Even thinking about him, she can hear Hana in the back of her mind threatening, 'If you even think about trying to hook up with him, I'll never speak to you again." At first, Evelyn thought she was being a little over the top with how protective she was of him until she discovered the real reason behind it. The boy, Light Yagami, has always been the golden boy of the family while Hana has always been the black sheep. He had perfect grades, good looks, and great social skills. Hana had always been jealous of him for how much attention he gets.

Hana, on the other hand, has always had bad grades and hung with the wrong crowd. Her whole family had always harped on her about "going down the wrong path." On one drunken night, Hana finally poured out her heart to Evelyn, saying, "Light has everything. No matter what I do, he always takes the spotlight. The one thing he doesn't have is you." Had Evelyn not known here for years by that point, she would have thought Hana was declaring her love to her. But she knew what she meant. Evelyn had always been the one to see the good in Hana. She never looked down on her. Never ragged on her for her mistakes. She didn't want Light taking her best friend.

Evelyn looked over at said friend who snored loudly next to her. You're all I have, Hana. I promise I won't leave you. She thought to herself.

The two girls sat on their luggage at the airport, waiting for Mr. Yagami to pick them up. "I feel like I didn't get a wink of sleep," Hana spoke up with a yawn, stretching her arms out in the air. Evelyn chucked, "I bet you didn't." Before the girl could respond, an older man called out her name from a few feet away. He had brown hair with streaks of grey, a brown suit, and large glasses that didn't quite cover the exhaustion in his eyes. Both of the girls perked up at Mr. Yagami's voice.

Hana ran at him with full force to bear hug him, leaving Evelyn to carry her luggage. Once she reached the two, Hana began her introductions, "Sochi, this is Evelyn. Evelyn, this is Sochi." Hana spoke in Japanese, a language she had been teaching Evelyn for a few years now. Although Evelyn wasn't quite an expert yet, she was capable enough to keep up with most conversations. She raised her hand to shake his. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Yagami. Thank you for letting me stay with your family."

He shook my hand with gentleness. "It is not a problem, Evelyn. We are all glad to have you hear. Hana told me that this is your first time out of the U.S." He said it more as a question rather than a statement. She replied, "It is."

"Well, Hana will have to show you all of the best places to visit in Tokyo," he said as he grabbed both of the girls' luggage. They followed him to the car and slipped into the back seat while he loaded the suitcases into the trunk. During the drive to his house, Hana pointed out different places she wanted to take Evelyn to after they got settled in. Mr. Yagami listed various cafes and restaurants that he enjoyed. By the time they reached the house, Mr. Yagami and Hana were laughing over memories spent at some of the locations they pointed out.

"We're here!" Hana exclaimed. Without waiting for Evelyn, she jumped out of the car and ran inside. Evelyn slipped out of the backseat and offered Mr. Yagami to help with the suitcases. After being turned down for the third time, she gave up and walked up to the front door. It was already opened, but she knocked anyway out of politeness. An older, gentle lady looked over Hana's shoulder at the girl standing in the doorway and waved her hand. "Come on in! You must be Evelyn." Instead of the formal handshake like she did with Mr. Yagami, Mrs. Yagami pulled her in for a hug.

"I am. It's nice to finally meet you. Thank you for letting me stay with your family." Evelyn repeated the same lines as she said to Mr. Yagami. Before the woman could respond, a young girl around fourteen came running down the stairs, leaping into Hana's arms. "Hana! I haven't seen you in so long!" The girl screamed.

"Sayu! You have gotten so big! When did you grow up?" Hana replied with a big smile. Sayu grinned widely, her arms still wrapped around Hana's waist. "Me? Look at you miss high-school graduate." Hana beamed at Sayu's words. She liked being recognized for completing high school since her family always worried that she would drop out. Sayu looked over at Evelyn and waved. "Hi! I'm Sayu."

"I'm Evelyn. It's nice to meet you." She waved back at the young girl. Hana glanced at Evelyn before turning back to Sayu, asking, "Where's Light? I'm ready to get all of the introductions out of the way. If I hear Evelyn say 'It's nice to meet you' in that fake tone one more time, I'm going to barf." So much for politeness. Hana lasted a total of five minutes of holding back her snarky remarks.

"He's upstairs studying, like always. I can go and get him," Sayu replied before running back upstairs. Mr. Yagami followed her with our suitcases, letting the girls know that he would be putting them in the spare bedroom. Mrs. Yagami had everyone move to the living room so that the girls could sit down and relax after their long plane ride. Mr. Yagami and Sayu joined them after coming back from upstairs. Behind them walked in Light, who was even more handsome in person than he was in the pictures.

Evelyn attempted to look anywhere else as she felt Hana's eyes boring into the side of her head. It was a look that said, "Don't you dare even think about liking him." Light gave Hana an awkward hug with a "nice to see you" before walking up to Evelyn to shake her hand with a "nice to meet you." Although he put on a charming smile, he looked like he was masking an "I don't want to be here" face. It was all in the eyes.

"Nice to meet you too," Evelyn replied to him. Hana made fake barfing noises to showcase her annoyance with formalities. Evelyn couldn't blame her, though. Even she was getting tired of the 'nice to meet you's.'

Evelyn and the family all sat down and had dinner while discussing old memories, Evelyn's vague background, and Light's plans to go to To-Oh University. During the entire conversation, Evelyn avoided discussing her family in too much detail. The only person who knew about her troubled past was Hana, and even she didn't know the full story. It was just a can of worms that she wasn't ready to open yet. Maybe it'll never be opened.

After dinner, Hana and Evelyn decided to retire to their shared room. Jetlag was getting to both of them, and, from what Evelyn could tell, Hana wanted to escape the talks of the oh-so-great-Light. When making their way to the bedroom, Evelyn spotted something unusual. It was a piece of paper stuck in a door. Figuring it just got trapped there, she decided not to pay any mind to it and got ready for bed.

A few days later

Hana had been dragging Evelyn to many different places around Tokyo. From cafes to clothing shops, Evelyn was worn out from all of the running around. Hana, on the other hand, never seemed to run out of energy. Over the past couple of days, Evelyn had become more comfortable with the Yagamis. She hadn't seen Mr. Yagami since the night they arrived. Ms. Yagami explained that he was the chief of police and had been working on a time-consuming case Light also never seemed to be around, either. Whenever he wasn't at school, he was in his room studying. The most they saw him was at breakfast and dinner.

Evelyn had noted that the paper that was lodged in the crack of the door belonged to Light's room. Weirdly enough, the paper was in the same place every day. She thought it odd but never commented on it. The last thing she wanted was to let on to Hana that she had been paying attention to Light.

When they got back from shopping, they noticed nobody was home. They carried the bags of clothes they bought earlier to their room upstairs and decided to watch some TV in the living room. Settling onto the couch, Hana grabbed the remote and began flipping through the channels before stopping on the news. "When did you begin watching the news?" Evelyn questioned, looking at Hana with disbelief.

"Since Sayu told me about some crazy killer who's been running rampant in Japan."

"I remember you telling me how morbid it was being interested in serial killer cases," Evelyn said. For years, Evelyn had a fascination with serial killers. Not in an 'I want to be pen-pals with them' type of way but an 'I want to solve a mystery' type of way. She read about Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, and the Zodiac Killer among many other crazies.

Hana got up to grab a bag of potato chips for us to share. She continued the conversation in the kitchen, saying loudly, "It is morbid. I'm not like you. Reading about cannibals chopping people up is not my thing. But this serial killer is different. Supposedly, he kills with heart attacks."

What? Evelyn thought. She has to be joking. "Heart attacks? Really?" Evelyn said in a deadpan voice as if telling the girl to at least make the lie believable. "No, I'm serious," Hana continued. "They are calling him Kira, like for killer."

"How creative," Evelyn mumbled before sneaking her hand into the bag of potato chips. Hana slapped her hand away. "Ow, what the hell was that for?"

"You are trying to make me sound crazy right now so no chips for you." Hana put the bag on the other side of her to make her point. Evelyn rationalized with her, "Look you are telling me that someone is going around giving people heart attacks. I mean, come on. What is it? He's taking away their blood pressure pills?" Evelyn joked with a brow raised.

Hana glared at the girl before explaining, "No. Apparently, he isn't even there to kill the person. It's like he's just wishing death upon them and they die."

"How can you be sure he isn't there?" Evelyn retorted.

"Because he's killing criminals simultaneously from all over the world. Maybe it's God punishing them."

Evelyn sarcastically reasoned, "Or maybe a gang of prison guards decided to rise up and exterminate all blood pressure medicine." This earned an eye roll from Hana. The two sat back in silence and watched the news. To Evelyn's surprise, the news anchor began talking about Kira's recent killings. One being a petty thief and the other being a man charged with sexual assault. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Could someone really kill with a heart attack? I'm sure there is a good explanation for this. Maybe Kira is slipping something in their drinks. Then a question popped into her head concerning a statement Hana made earlier. "If Kira is killing all around the world, then how do you know he's in Japan?"

As Evelyn grabbed the bottle of water sitting on the coffee table in front of her to take a sip, Hana replied, "Sayu said that some guy named L played a trick on him, somehow exposing that Kira is in Tokyo. I don't really know all the details." After taking a moment to process what Hana just said, the name 'L' sent a wave of dread into Evelyn's body, causing her to spit up the water she was sipping.

Hana looked at her with worry. "Are you okay?" Evelyn didn't respond. Her face had gone pale. L? He's here in Tokyo? Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit. I need to flee the country. How is it that the one time I leave the country, I end up in the same city as L?

12 years earlier

Evelyn watched as her mom paced around the hotel room, pulling at her hair. The little girl sat on the bed confused about why they had to leave England, leave Gramps. Although she didn't understand the situation, she felt a jolt of terror running through her body. She finally spoke, "Mom, why can't we live with Gramps anymore?" Her mother stopped in her tracks and looked at the little girl with pity.

"Eve, you can never speak of Gramps again. You can never speak of Wammy's House. Do you understand?" The woman said it in a serious but tender way. This only confused the girl more.

The little girl began twirling her apple-red hair, a nervous habit she picked up from one of the children at the orphanage. "But why, Mom? Did he do something bad?"

"Listen to me, baby. He's dangerous to be around. Whatever you do, don't speak about him again. Don't tell anyone you know him. Never mention his name or the orphanage. And no matter what, stay away from L."

Present time

L. This can't be real. L can't be here. I need to leave Japan as soon as possible. "Evelyn? Earth to Evelyn," Hana called out to her, waving her hand in front of her face. Finally, she snapped out of her thoughts and regained normal breathing. "Is everything all right?"

Evelyn didn't know what excuse she could make to Hana. There wasn't a good way to tell her that she needed to leave the country before L found her. "Hana, I don't know if I feel comfortable staying in a city where a serial killer is on the loose." It wasn't really a good excuse seeing that Kira was only killing criminals, but it was the only one she had at the moment.

"He's only targeting criminals from the looks of it. We shouldn't have anything to worry about," Hana reassured her. Evelyn could see the worry behind her eyes. Hana never failed to see through her lies.

"I just don't think I can stay here. I'm going to go to the airport and buy a ticket back to the States," Evelyn decided to finally drop the bomb, her heart pounding. She knew that Hana would ask too many questions.

A moment passed before Hana spoke up again. "What? Absolutely not! We just got here! No way you are going to bail just because of some crazy dude. You aren't his target, Evelyn."

Evelyn began twirling her red hair, never fully breaking the habit from her younger years. She stayed silent for a while, allowing herself to process her thoughts. If L is here, then he's probably investigating Kira. He doesn't even know I'm in Japan. He probably doesn't even remember me. She looked at Hana, who finally turned the channel, probably figuring that it would keep freaking Evelyn out. Maybe I can stay. I doubt L will ever find out about me anyway.

Taskforce Headquarters

Two men sat on couches facing the monitor screens, watching the two girls in the Yagami household. Mr. Yagami, one of the two men, sighed. "I should have warned them about Kira being in Japan. I didn't think about how terrified they might be."

The other man, much younger than the chief, crouched with his knees pulled up to his chest. His wide eyes never averted from the screen. He replied, "Yes, that would be rather unnerving to discover." He took a bite of the piece of cake before him, pondering the scene before him. Evelyn White. Where do I know that name from? The detective thought to himself.

He opened the laptop on the table in front of him and searched her name. He scanned through many files but could not find any record of her before 1996 when she was found alone in a house that had been broken into and raided. According to the police data, her mother went missing. The criminals were never found and neither was the woman's body.

He looked back to the monitors where the two girls sat in silence watching a drama, abandoning the news after Evelyn's panicked conclusion to leave Japan. What the man found odd was that she seemed to panic after hearing his name brought up in the conversation. He examined the girl's features closely, hoping to jog his memory. Perhaps he was involved with the case of her mother. Surely, I would have remembered such a case, seeing that it was never solved.

Her unnatural-looking red hair and bright green eyes stood out to him. I know that face, but where-

The orphanage.

Immediately after coming to this realization, he typed out a message on his computer and clipped the investigation files from 1996 before sending it to a certain grey-haired man. The message read: I've found her.