Blood and Sugar

Chapter VII: Twilight



A few days after the exchange of the notebook, we had eliminated everyone that needed eliminating, and were currently planning our next move. And we had a new presence among us; it was a shinigami named Sidoh. Kal now possessed the shinigami eyes, which could be traded for half your remaining life span. Sidoh couldn\'t tell us who owned the other notebook, however revealed that two rules written in the notebook were fake; One being that if you don\'t write down any names for thirteen days, and the other being that if the notebook was destroyed, anyone who touched it would die. They were very convenient. With the thirteen day rule, Kira could be proven innocent by not writing down names for thirteen days. And the other rule would deter others from destroying the notebook. And Mello cut a deal with Sidoh; that if Sidoh stood watch over our location, when we obtained Kira\'s notebook, Sidoh could have it.



Kal\'s eyes and Sidoh\'s inability to be seen by humans came in handy when we came under attack. Several soldiers attempted a raid, but Sidoh pulled off their helmets and Kal killed them. After that, we moved to a new location. We were on our way to our new location, riding in a Hummer with heavily tinted windows. The boss was driving, Kal was sitting in the passenger\'s seat. Mello and I were in the back. "Mello, I\'ve been thinking," I said. "Do you think it could be plausible that Kira has others carrying out the killings for him? Like, he has henchman that do the dirty work, but he is the mastermind. Perhaps he doesn\'t have ownership of the notebook. And who knows how many notes there are? He could have sleeper cells." Mello took a bite of chocolate. "I was thinking that myself. If so, that narrows it down some, Kira would have to be a very influential guy."



"He must be a sociopath," I said. "I\'m willing to bet that Kira persuaded his helpers, rather than threatened them. They would be much more reliable without all the pressure on them." Mello smiled. "You are right there," he said. "This reminds me." Mello pulled a folded piece of paper out of his pocket. "A sheet of the deathnote. Keep this on you in case of emergency." I took it and hid it in my bra.



We arrived at our new location at around ten o\' clock at night. The sun was beginning to set, and the air was frigid, it was the tenth of November. The place was a dingy apartment with a main sitting room (beginning to see a pattern here...) and a monitor room upstairs. Mello and I were in the sitting room, he was wide awake, probably on a constant sugar high from the chocolate. I was half-asleep next to him. I would have been all the way asleep if it wasn\'t for a nagging sense of dread I felt in my stomach. It was as though the universe was exerting pressure on us. The luckier we were, the more the universe crushed us, and I felt that our luck was about run out in a very violent implosion.



It was around midnight, and the sun was sinking away into glittering twilight, the yellows and the oranges fading into blues and purples, and to black. The stars twinkled like tiny grains of white sand upon a deep, blackened ocean. The clouds seem to reach out for us from afar, whispy hands trying to grab us and suck us into oblivion. The whole situation was sweetly silent, we were falling, and not sure when we would reach the bottom. The only thing we knew is that we hit it soon, and our collective would shatter like glass into discombobulated fragments as though hitting a solid wall of concrete. We were a fleet of boats, beat upon endlessly by the ocean, about to be crushed by a tsunami.



And just one minute before midnight, when the last trace of twilight faded into nothing, we imploded. We shattered. Members all around us collapsed, clutching their chests, screaming for mercy, Mary Mother of God! They collapsed. Their life disapated and we were the only survivors. Just me, Mello, and two surviving men. Mello jumped up with the true meaning of haste. He grabbed me, one arm on me, one arm to help climb the stairs, and a bar of chocolate clenched tightly between his teeth. He barracaded us inside the monitor room. It was as though I could hear but I couldn\'t process. I heard shouts and gunfire outside the room, and all around us were the debris of death. My palms were sweating, my hair was standing up in end, every symptom of fear encumbered my body and consuming my senses. There was a very good chance that I was going to die right here. Mello pulled out a remote, and my stomach did a backflip. He pressed one button, and the whole building shook. I sank to my knees at the sound of the intense explosion. "Mello!" I shouted. "What on god\'s green earth are you doing?"



"I\'ve blown up the two entrances," Mello said into the PA system. "You\'re not going to be able to get out of this place easily now. That was only a warning, but I\'m going to blow up the whole building next. I can see all your movements through the monitors, so if you don\'t want me to press the button, do as I say." I ran over to Mello. "Don\'t! You\'ll kill yourself! Please for god\'s sake, Mello, don\'t do this." He looked at me, his face seemed calm, but his eyes were completely frantic. I am not sure whether to this day it was the frenetic energy of the situation, or I really meant it, but I shouted, "Mello, please don\'t! I love you!"



He grabbed my shoulders, and kissed me, agressively, with a sense of possession. "There will be another way," he said against my lips. Stinging tears rained from my eyes. "There will be another way. I promise. If I survive, we will meet again one day," He said. And with that, he shoved me, hard across the room. I landed on the hard floor, scraping up my hands and face. "We will meet again one day, Morgan Blackthorne."



It was then, that I crept back into myself. There was nothing I could do for him. It was his own clear choice, death or glory. Glory wasn\'t an option anymore, so he had chosen death. "First order, I want all of you to smash the cameras on your helmets," Mello said into the PA. "Throw all your weapons over the railing. One of you hold the notebook, the rest of you back away." Mello took a chunk of chocolate into his mouth. "Good, walk over to the door with the notebook. Take your helmet off," he said. He then cackled a little. He was very good at faking confidence. "You again, Yagami! Maybe I SHOULD have killed you. But it\'s certainly interesting that we\'re exchanging the notebook once again. At a time like this, it\'s easier for me to deal with strait-laced guys like you. Don\'t worry. I haven\'t got any tricks up my sleeve this time either. I won\'t let go of the detonation switch, but I won\'t have a gun with me. And I\'ll also have my hands up, you can check as you come into the room, so you have anything to worry about."



"The only things you can bring inside are the notebook and the mask. Come in." Mello hit a button on the control panel, opening the door. Yagami stood in the light like an aged monument in the dawn\'s light. The door quckly shut behind him. "Bring the notebook and the mask to me. I\'m going to use you as my hostage again." But Yagami did not move, but looked as though he was reading something. "M-i-h-a-el, K-e-e-h-l," he said. "Your real name is Mihael Keehl." I burst out of myself in a panicked scream. Yagami turned around, and looked at me. "There\'s a young woman in here too," he said. "M-o-r-g-a-n, B-l-a-c-k-t-h-o-r-n-e. Morgan Blackthorne. She\'s unarmed, and injured." Yagami turned back to Mello. "If I write your name down in this book, you\'ll die. Drop that switch, and both of you raise your hands." And then I remembered. I began to reach into my bra, but Mello gestured a "no" at me. I couldn\'t panic or ask why not.



"Now! Drop that switch!" Yagami said. He flipped open the notebook. "You can\'t threaten me," Mello said. "If you try to write my name down, I\'ll press the button." Yagami stared him down, bold faced. "Do it, then," he said. "I\'m prepared to lose my life. I\'d happily give up my own life if it means that you\'d die as well." It was apparent now, that Mello was grasping at straws and working with nothing. He wanted to save his life and win all at the same time. "Stop trying to be a hero, Yagami. You might be satisfied with that, but what about your men? You\'re going to sacrifice them too." Yagami\'s eyes clenched tighter. "They\'re my men, they\'re all prepared to face death. I don\'t know how large that explosion of your is going to be, but if there are going to be any survivors, my fully equipped men have the best chance. If I hold on to the notebook, it shouldn\'t get damaged beyond use. To tell you the truth, we just want you and the notebook to disappear. Give it up, Mello, the only way you\'ll through this is to surrender and drop that switch."



"Yagami," Mello said, as he took a bite of chocolate. "You\'ve never killed anyone before, have you?" Mello opened a drawer, and in it, I saw the silvery glint of a handgun. "Don\'t move!" Yagami shouted. "I only have to write down your last name. It\'ll take less than a second." Mello looked apologetically at him. "I\'m sorry, Yagami. You should have just written my name down without hesitation. But now that I\'ve noticed it, you\'re not going to get that chance, anymore." He was looking at handgun, just a few inches from me. I knew what he wanted me to do. And I did it without hesitation. Normally, I wouldn\'t have done it so quickly, but I had to save my own life and Mello\'s. I opened fire on Yagami. It was only maybe a second, but it felt like an eternity. I screamed as I cut down Soichiro Yagami. He was brave, and admirable, but he was on the wrong side. And he had to die. "Get the notebook, Morgan!" Mello shouted, grabbing a gas mask and putting it on his face. It seemed like, maybe in that moment Mello and I would get away, and not have to meet again someday.



I grabbed the notebook. I was clutching the single greatest murder weapon in mankind\'s history. I had to protect and respect its power, and keep it in safe hands. But the door burst open, and the most vivid thing I remember were bullets flying at me, hitting me in the shoulder and arm, the blinding pain, the fall to the ground. I lay in a pool of my own blood. "It\'s all over, Mello, drop that switch!" said one of the men. My blood began to seep into the pages of the deathnote. "...You can\'t have your cake and eat it to..." I managed to choke out. And on that final note, Mello hit the switch. There was flash, but I can\'t remember any sound. I remember the pain, the heat. I remember opening my eyes, and I could see blood all around me, smoke, dust. But Mello was gone. He left me. He left me behind in a storm of violence, pain, and defeat.



They brought me to the hospital. I barely remember it, I was so far gone. I had lost a lot of blood. After a two-week stay in the hospital, I was arrested. Soichiro Yagami did not survive. I arrested for murder, for being Mello\'s willing accomplice, and then Raito\'s plan he needed me alive for; I was also arrested for aiding Kira in the murder of L. He used my shoes and Misa\'s witness testimony. I was locked up secretly, and they wouldn\'t indict me until they caught Kira.



I remember, as they were dragging my almost lifeless body into a car, Mogi said to me, "It\'s a shame your friend ran away on you. I thought you were a nice girl, but you\'re going to jail for a long, long time. You killed Director Yagami, and assisted in the murder of countless others. You\'re about as evil as Kira." Evil. I was evil. I thought I was doing the right thing, but at that moment I believed Mogi was right.



Mihael Keehl left me alone in that building, bleeding to death. I felt betrayed on the worst level. But we were going to the same hell, and it didn\'t matter anymore. My life was over. Nobody was left to save me, and I was incapable of saving myself. I rot, lonesome in my prison cell, a battered, sinking boat, on a cruel, rough ocean, all alone.