The Mello Code

At the first shot, Mello stared in horror, first at Fenian\'s gun, then at the man himself. Fenian recoiled, as if he really had been shot, then held his pistol in both hands, his gaze darting around the room. Deontic stood between them, her hands over her ears. Her whole body stiffened. Salvo pulled Linda back, shielding her with his body. Century shrieked, backing away to crouch by the wardrobe. Mello was unwilling to turn, for doing so would require taking his eyes off Fenian. He yelled, "Guapo?" There was no response and Mello twisted around anyway. He saw Near\'s back in the doorway and his brain finally caught up with what his ears had already told him. The shot hadn\'t come from their room. "Matty!"



The second shot galvanised them. Mello and Salvo both ran, Linda quickly racing after them. Near stepped back to let them pass, his finger in his hair and tarot cards in his hand. They hurtled into the living area to find Luigi sitting on the windowsill, his suit crumpled and his arm outside. Chrissie and Matt were both a few feet away. Matt had abandoned the bags, but his knife was still in his hand. Luigi was eyeing it warily. "Well." Luigi brought his hand inside, the self-loader clutched in it so hard that his knuckles had turned white. Deontic and Fenian had run in behind their peers. Near watching from the corridor wall. "It seems," Luigi coughed, "that quite a few of us brought guns to a funeral." They could hear the sound of the guards opening doors towards them. "Quite."



Chrissie spoke quickly, "He had the gun at his head when we came in. Then he shot out of the window."



Mello nodded, "Right."



Linda dashed forward, but Luigi positioned the gun at his own temple again. The front door burst open and Stephen Gevanni burst in, two Watari guards with him. Near signalled for them to keep their distance. Chrissie continued, "Lu, whatever this is, put the gun down and we can sort it out. Here, give it to me."



Luigi looked out of the window, at the birds and the clouds drifting over a dull sky. "All this talk of feuds and dehumanisation. Funny, really." His voice trailed away, barely audible. "Did anyone notice that my name wasn\'t given? It Matters didn\'t say it and Chrissie said hers was the only one not spoken."



"That was my oversight." Chrissie took another step forward, her hand out. "I thought I was the only one..."



"Carl." Matt smiled. "Carl Tegeder of Liechtenstein, why are you waving a gun around?" He held his hand out and, for a second, it seemed like Luigi would hand it to him. "You shoot your brains out and who\'s going to carry on your research to find a cure for cancer? I need you, dude, the amount I smoke."



Mello was inching forward. He arrived now, with his hand on Matt\'s back. "Cure for cancer? Nice."



Luigi drew his leg up. It had been dangling down into the room, but now he curled it up under himself. "Incidentally, I do speak Croatian. I arrived at Wammy\'s House already fluent in German, Slovene and Croatian. We could have talked, Mello, instead of fighting. Back then, when all any of us wanted to do was go home."



Mello slid effortlessly into German. "Then I wish I\'d spoken with you, Carl. Fenian and I were just discussing, in the other room, how stupid it is to have all been fighting all of the time. Hearing a language from home would have been very nice."



Chrissie made it to the windowsill and hugged Luigi close. "You don\'t want to kill yourself, Carl. This quagmire might not be worth living for, but it certainly isn\'t worth dying for." Behind her, Matt eased the gun out of Luigi\'s hand and emptied out the bullets. "Do you really want to die? Oh, honey. A brilliant scientist like yourself? You are not insignificant."



Mello stepped around Chrissie, staring up at Luigi. He continued, still in the German language. "I\'m sorry. I\'m sorry that I made your life Hell. I\'m sorry that the shit I did carried on into your adulthood. I\'m not worth this."



Salvo murmered. "It wasn\'t all you, Mello. You were as much a vicitim of the system as..."



Mello span around. "I repent." They were mostly all standing there, watching the scene by the windowsill. Only Linda was sitting, looking shell-shocked. Mello\'s gaze sought out Fenian, leaning up against the wall with a cigarette in one hand and a gun in the other. Mello opened his own gun. "It was still unloaded, though you\'re lucky. If it had been loaded, then maybe..." Mello shrugged. He glanced at Matt. "If you knew what this man had been through, none of you would ever point a gun at him." His eyes widened. "Oh, shit. Century."



Chrissie looked up from cuddling Luigi long enough to glare at him. "I\'m sorry, are you talking about the teenager with the gun phobia? That Century?"



Mello swallowed, looking guilty, while, against the wall, Fenian\'s gun quickly disappeared. Luigi gasped. "Oh my, I\'m sorry. I forgot."



They all looked at each other across the room. Each face blank with the need to stay calm and not show a weakness in such company. Each evaluating the other. Deontic walked shakily back towards the corridor, but stopped before she reached it. "Are we done destroying each other yet?"



Near frowned. "Luigi isn\'t going to kill himself. He wouldn\'t have fired out of the window to attract our attention first. He is bluffing. It was a distraction to stop Mello and Fenian killing each other."



Deontic cast him a withering look, but it was Mello who spoke up. "Fenian."



"Mello." Fenian glared back.



Mello threw his gun at Matt, who caught it and pushed it into his pocket. Mello strode across towards the Irishman, their peers parting to allow him through. "I\'m prepared to grow up, if you are." He held out his arms. Fenian clutched the gun in one hand and glanced around at everyone else. They merely watched, bewilderment flickering in several eyes, while their expressions remained neutral. "I bullied you. It wasn\'t the gameplan I made out it was. Not at first. I can trace the psychology. I survived a massacre and God was not there to rescue me. He did not stop it. I kept the faith anyway. I came to Wammy\'s House. Bigger children bullied Matt and I. I hit back. I watched on the television as my country was torn apart. I learned, from those three situations, that the violent people always win. I was taught that winning is all. I clung to the winning because, well, it filled my life and gave it and me a purpose to still be alive. I\'ve been angry. I\'ve been fucking angry. At God, at my parents, at my grandparents, at my aunties, uncles and cousins, at the priest, for not stopping what happened in the war. At Milosevic, Tudman, NATO. At the kids who bullied me. At Near for beating me. At L for dying. At Kira for killing him. I was angry because it was covering deeper emotions. I was scared fucking stupid. As Luigi said, all any of us wanted to do was go home, but I had no home to go back to. I took it out on you. I scarred you. I\'m sorry."



Fenian nodded, though the gun was still held tightly, down by his thigh. "The day they took me from the orphanage, I overheard a conversation that made me realise that I was leaving Eire. As I was getting in the car, I grabbed a stone out of the ground. It still had fucking soil on it. It was in my pocket the entire time we were at Wammy\'s House. Each time I touched it, I told myself that I was fucking going home again. I promised myself." He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out the packet of cigarettes. He reached in again and pulled out the stone. "I still fucking have it. I could replace it with a billion stones now, but I keep it. I dunno why. Probably out of fucking respect for the kid who picked it up."



Mello nodded. "I wish I\'d also respected that kid more." His arms twitched and Fenian hugged him. "You know something, Liam? I wish I had got to know you. I think that we think very much alike, only you didn\'t take it out on the other kids."



There was movement in the corridor and the two men stepped apart. Deontic was back with Century, his face hidden beneath a curtain of hair. Fenian hurriedly concealed his gun again, turning so that his back was firmly to the wall with the gun sandwiched between. "Century, I\'m sorry, man. That was stupid."



Mello opened his mouth to agree, but Luigi called out, "Yes, Century, most improper. I\'m sorry."



Century looked embarrassed. He looked around and then headed straight into the dining area. Mello stepped back to watch him grab a handful of lollipops from the box and place one into his mouth. Mello smiled at him. "I\'m sorry too. Fenian and I have agreed to grow up." He saw the serving table. "Is that Death by Chocolate?"



Century immediately walked over and picked it up. Mello\'s eyes widened, as it seemed that the teenager would throw it straight at him. But instead Century just glowered, then lifted it to read the tag on the underside. "Yes. It is." He held it and Mello walked across, reaching out cautiously. Century looked from it to Mello\'s face, a little smile flickered into being. "I wonder if it actually works?"



Mello danced backwards. "Don\'t."



"What do you think I\'m going to do?"



Mello shook his head. "I don\'t want any now."



Fenian rolled his eyes. "Century, just put the fucking cake down. Everyone else, Deontic\'s gone to a lot of fucking trouble to provide us with dessert. Let\'s eat it." He turned. "Luigi, Carl, are you alright, man?"



"I do feel rather silly, when..."



Fenian nodded sharply once. "Well don\'t. Come and sit down at this table with your foster brothers and sisters. Let\'s all prove that we can behave like civilised human beings, even without Hal or Ann to keep us in line. Then, let\'s see where we go from there."