Death Note: Blood Ties - 8. DECISION

Chapter 8: DECISION

Billy:

Gallu was right. It did feel strange, if only a bit. Gallu moved his hand away and I opened my eyes. Vividness. I couldn't help the grin that spread wide across my face, revealing my teeth. The others stared at me strangely, worried by my expression but I ignored them. Everything looks so clear!

My vision was so much better than it was before, in comparison it was as if I'd been staring through a film.

"Billy?" Ethan stepped forward, concerned. I could see above his head the name 'Ethan Jones' and then a bunch of random digits, almost like a telephone number. The font seemed like standard print but the colour was a semi-transparent red. When I looked at the name floating above Ethan's head I noticed that it and the numbers drifted about somewhat.

"It works." I proclaimed loudly. I looked at Jack who was staring emotionless at me. I could see his name and lifespan as well. "It really works!" I turned to Hannah and frowned. Even though her name 'Hannah Walker' was printed clearly above her head I couldn't see her lifespan.

Before I could ask Gallu saw the question on my face and spoke "Even with the Shinigami eyes a human can not see the lifespan of another human who possesses a death note. Although considering you can't read Shinigami time anyway it's more of an advantage if anything."

Normally I would be horrified that the terrible Shinigami would be talking to me but I was too busy being amazed at my vision to care.

"Before the bell rings and we have to go to class," Jack began, finally speaking "we should add each other's numbers to our mobiles so we can call if anything goes wrong."

Mobiles were pulled out of pockets. Ethan's mobile looked a bit out-dated. It almost resembled a brick. Jack's phone was a nokia and Hannah's was a black flip-top. I pulled out my silver phone and added everyone's numbers.

As if on cue the bell rang. I darted past Gallu and pulled open the door. Students were travelling through the double-doors to their roll call classes. I stood in the middle of the hall and stared wide-eyed at everyone. So many names! So many numbers! I started laughing and people who walked past either glared or stared at me strangely.

I could hear a sigh from behind me and an arm touch my shoulder but I shook it off and ran to the doors, shoving through a few angry students. When I was outside I could have screamed. Euphoria. I could see every student in the school walking to their roll call rooms.

Blood red names and lifespans were drifting about everywhere. Magic. I realised this would take some getting used to but I didn't mind. I'd just become the most valuable asset for Ethan and the others. With my eyes I'd finally be useful to another person.

"Billy?" I turned around to look at Ethan who stood staring at me warily. "We should probably go to roll call now." My heart lurched when I realised he'd been waiting so that we could go to roll call together. I stared down and my fringe covered my eyes.

I must have looked like myself again, the timid and frightened boy as I tried to conceal my blush. I didn't feel the same though. I was a new William, with a new power. I smiled back up at Ethan with my newfound toothy grin and he recoiled slightly.

"Yeah, let's go."

Hannah:

I sat in Math class boreddd... I hated this subject because the teacher, Mr Larson, wouldn't let me listen to my headphones. Since I obviously couldn't 'actually' listen to what he was saying I was left to day-dreaming. I couldn't stop thinking about how Billy had acted before... It kinda frightened me. He'd completely changed, it went from me hardly ever seeing those eyes to them being wide and manic. I now knew he had pale blue eyes. Pale blue terrifying eyes!

To be honest I had no idea what was going on in that kid's head! I gave up trying to figure out my new friend and instead started paying attention to what Gallu was doing. He'd been pacing around the classroom looking at what the other students were writing.

He noticed me looking and stopped by my desk. He looked up at the teacher who was still droooning on about trigonometry and then looked back at me.

"He's really boring, isn't he?"

I barely stifled my laugh.

"Something funny, Miss Walker?" Mr Larson asked sternly.

"No, sir." I said quickly, fighting my smile. I inwardly cursed Gallu and tried to ignore him. I started scribbling in my book, pretending I was writing stuff down.

Gallu called out to me "I'm going to stay back here, Hannah. Tory and Claire are passing notes. Tory just asked Claire if she likes him, I hope she says 'yes'."

I face-palmed and then continued to ignore him for the rest of the lesson.

When school was over I spotted Jack and gave him a short wave as I headed to the gates, he nodded in my direction. He was with a brown-haired girl. She caught the nod and then glared furiously at him. Oopsie. I found my car and unlocked it. I got inside and wound down the windows all the way. When I started the car 'What's Up People?' by Maximum the Hormone started blaring from my speakers and got several disapproving stares from passers-by.

I couldn't care less about what they thought and started driving. I could see in my car mirror that Gallu was flying above me. As I drove it gave me time to rilly think about everything that'd been happening lately.

I didn't like being vulnerable but the more time I spent with those other three and Gallu, the more I started feeling like I may finally have made some friends. It had gotten to the point where I had started to feel legitimately happy whenever I saw one of them. The idea was craaaazy. They didn't know me. We would probably only see each other once a week to hand over the death note and that's it. It's not like we'd be sitting together at lunches or anything...

I wouldn't let myself become confused. We were just four very different people who would be using the death note for our own entirely selfish reasons. That's all. No matter how much I tried to convince myself, I still couldn't fight back that growing and potentially self-destructive feeling that I might finally belong.

The next day I said goodbye to my parents as they left for work. In my room I sat at my desk and brushed my hair in front of the mirror. I could see Gallu staring at me in the reflection from where he stood in the corner of my room.

"Shouldn't you be hurrying or you'll be late for school?" he spoke, observing my slow pace.

"I'm not going to school today." I said calmly as I ran the brush through my hair again.

"You can choose!?" Gallu exclaimed "Then why does Jack and-"

"I'm choosing not to go to school today, even though the law says you have to. I'm wagging." I interrupted.

"Oh," Gallu said as realisation struck. "Won't you get in trouble if your parents find out?"

"If they do I'll tell them I was feeling unwell. They'll believe anything I tell them."

"They just saw you though, and you looked fine when you waved them off."

"I'm a girl, though. So it won't be too hard to convince them." I saw Gallu tilt his head in the reflection and clairified "I'll tell them I'm having girl problems." He continued staring. "Do you have females in the Shinigami place, wherever you come from?"

"Yes, but they don't ever have problems just because of their gender."

"Never mind." I sighed, exasperated. I didn't rilly want to have to explain it.

I finished brushing and put the brush down on my desk.

"You know," Gallu began, "I've noticed that you spend much more time getting yourself ready before school than Jack does. Is that what you meant by girl problems? I've observed that the females at your school put a lot more effort into their appearance than the males do."

"Honestly Gallu, I don't fricking give a shit. I'm only trying to make myself look more grown-up so no one thinks I'm a student." I tried applying the lipstick and ended up smudging my face! Frick. Licking my hand and wiping it off, I stood up and grabbed a handbag. I opened my school bag and took out the death note. I put it into the handbag with a few pens and a bit of money among other stuff.

"Oh!" Gallu jumped up and flew over with new energy and excitement. "Will you be killing someone with the death note today?"

"That's the plan." I slung the strap over my shoulder and exited my room.

"Where are we going?" Gallu asked as he hovered behind me.

"We're going to this park that I know." I said and exited the house.

I locked it with my key and walked past my car and turned right along the street.

"You're not taking the car." Gallu observed.

"I think walking will be a nice change."

The skyscrapers of Brisbane near Kangaroo Point were huge. From where I stood they leered down at the pedestrians with overwhelming size. I was used to tall buildings in Brisbane, however. I waited patiently at the crossing with a crowd of other people until the green walking man lit up and I crossed with the other adults. At the edge of Captain Burke Park there was a jewelers so I decided to walk inside. There were a few people walking about but it was cruisey-quiet.

The only noise coming from a shop assistant who was pointing out diamonds to a well-dressed elderly woman. I started looking around. There were plenty of gold and silver rings and necklaces with an assortment of expensive gems embedded in them. I saw rubies, emeralds and sapphire stones. They were all pretty, but none of them appealed to 'me' directly. I figured all of these must cost a fortune. I spotted a necklace with what looked like a flat gold depiction of an owl, with two purple jewels for eyes.

Getting closer but still not something I'd rilly want. I'd never gone looking for jewellery before considering it was always so expensive, but now that I have a death note a lot more things have suddenly seemed within reach to me. I bent down to look at the jewels on a bottom shelf and that's when I saw it.

A silver moon shaped cutting hung from a small, delicate chain. An onyx, just larger than a pea, was sitting inside the crescent moon. I looked at the price tag next to it, $6,799. I frowned. That was more than what I had in my bank account.

"Can I help you?" It was the assistant who'd been talking to the old lady before. He looked only a few years older than me. He had brown hair cropped short and freckles on his cheeks. A name tag pinned to his chest referred to him as 'Gus', but it only had a first name and nothing more. When I looked up I was sure he'd be annoyed at me, only asking for assistance as a way to disguise the fact that he'd want a broke young girl to vamoose and leave his shop. I was surprised to see he was smiling kindly at me though!

"Gus?" I asked feigning surprise. "As in Gus Jacobs from Brisbane State High School?"

"No, I didn't go to Brisbane State. My last name's Benson." He told me.

"My mistake," I smiled sweetly. Gus Benson. "What can you tell me about this necklace here?" He looked at what I was pointing at.

"Oh, yes. That one I do know a bit about. He pulled out a key on a chain around his neck and opened the glass case. Reaching in he pulled out the necklace to show me. "It's actually a locket. Pure silver with an onyx in the side, but you don't have enough money to pay for it do you?"

I stared at him sheepishly "It's a beautiful necklace."

He smiled again "We get a few girls who come in here to look around. I don't really mind it myself but the manager will get angry if he sees you in the shop."

"It's okay. I was just leaving anyway." I said to him.

"Take care." he said in farewell.

I exited the shop and stared down at my feet as I walked. I crossed the street to the park and walked to the nearest bench. It was under a large tree with thick long branches and was facing the street and the jewelry shop. I sat and kept looking down. I could see the shadow of the tree's spindly branches across the grass in front of me. A large winged humanoid silhouette landed in the tree and it shook slightly, although to passers-by it would appear like nothing more than the wind.

I knew I was staring at Gallu's shadow and that he was above me in the tree. Gallu's head popped down next to mine, I turned and realised he was hanging upside down like a bat!

"So," he asked expectantly "Are you going to kill someone with the notebook?"

I opened my handbag and reached for the death note. I pulled it out and placed it on my lap but didn't open it. I pulled out a ballpoint pen and gripped it tightly. Gallu could see my hesitation.

"What about that guy I saw you talking to in the jewelry store? Did you get his name?"

I stared at the death note in my lap.

"He knew I didn't have any money before he showed me the locket." I said aloud.

"What?" Gallu asked, confused.

I didn't look up. It seemed like Gus must have just been a genuinely nice person. Could I kill someone like that? But if I don't kill him on the grounds that he was nice to me that just means I'm playing God and deciding who should live or die based on how they've treated me. That didn't seem right either.

I already had his name. Gallu's words from earlier kept circling through my head. I never thought I would see people so eager to throw away their souls. Ethan hadn't known the notebook worked and used it out of rash anger. Jack was perfectly happy with using the notebook for himself but he killed drug dealers.

Could I kill an innocent human being for something like money? It didn't sound right at all.

"Are you going to tell me what you're thinking?" Gallu demanded impatiently, swaying the branch he was dangling on.

"Gallu, if you break that branch in front of all these people walking by..." I didn't finish the threat. He hmphed and flipped off the tree, landing artfully in a crouch by my feet.

I stood up and turned, walking deeper into the forest to clear my head.

"Where are you going?" Gallu called after me and then muttered darkly. He took to flight and followed me. The more I thought about it... the more it felt like I was coming to the right decision.

Gus:

It happened instantly. In a single tick of the loud clock that hung up in the store above the counter. One moment I was standing in the store, several things on my mind. I was stressing about college, work and moving out. I couldn't stop worrying even if I hid it from the customers with kind smiles.

All of that vanished as if something washed it away. My mind became hazed, but at the same time I was clear and focused. I knew what I had to do. Nothing else mattered to me, all of my other problems were gone like smoke. I felt slightly blissful in this new freedom.

The only thing that held me to this world now, was this one last thing I needed to do. After that second passed and my eyes glazed over I approached the jewelry case that held the silver and onyx moon locket. I realized that I had been in a conversation only moments before when the fat lady made a startled noise at my sudden change in character.

She started questioning me about something. It was so insignificant. All that concerned me was the locket. I gave her a response without looking back to calm her down, but the tone of my voice alerted her even more.

I used the key around my neck to unlock the case and remove the locket. In the back of my head I was idly aware that I wasn't allowed to take jewelry outside the store. The voices behind me became more panicked and I heard the alarm sound from inside the store as I headed out. Loud enough for the police station three streets over to hear. I started jogging across the street and into the park. I didn't know what it was, but there was some kind of force pulling me deeper into the trees.

I continued running for a while until the alarm was muffled through the canopy and woodland around me. I traveled across a bridge, over a stream that some ducks were swimming in. I couldn't shake this dream-like feeling.

That's when I saw it. It was almost like it was glowing. A tree, opposite the bridge. I hurried over to it. There was a hollow in the trunk. I raised the necklace still clutched securely in my hand and then placed it into the tree.

The great power inside of me continued to urge me further along and so I complied. I ran back the way I came, although taking a different route. I didn't know what I was supposed to do or where I was supposed to go next. All I knew was that this strange new force would guide me and tell me when I got there.

I could see light ahead. Across the road was a police car by the store. I emerged from the forest and I could hear patrons yelling and then an officer calling out as he ran towards me. I could tell it was here. The force would then tell me what was next; what was the next thing it wanted me to do? Nothing, It said. I fell forward and died.

Hannah:

It was getting dark and I was walking home. Gallu hovered beside me as I stepped closer and closer to where I'd started. The silver and onyx moon locket jangled around my neck as I walked. I slid it under my shirt to keep it hidden, the metal was cold against my skin.

Gallu turned his head to face me while I walked.

"So, in the end." he said "In the end you decided to kill that guy, Gus Benson?"

I was quiet for a moment but then I spoke "I thought a lot about it, Gallu. A lot about what I'd be giving up... Not just my soul, but my innocence and my humanity. I'm not some little girl who goes to school any more... I'm a murderer." I clutched my handbag. "This death note has given me power, and now I am no longer a victim. I am a predator..."

Gallu continued to stare in silence so I continued "At first I thought to myself, 'what is the right thing to do?'. But that's just it, isn't it, Gallu? Right and wrong are idealistic notions created by people as a means to control. It's true they have some purpose in society. They keep people from killing and stealing. They keep away chaos. But in all honesty... This world that preaches about good and evil is only fooling itself. How come only a small fraction of the world has more money while the rest of it has none? How come wealthy people are allowed to buy a second car when there are people like dying in poverty?

"It's hypocritical. Modern society created these rules to benefit itself. It's just how humans are. When I do die, what difference will it make to me if I did what was morally correct? A conscious is only a burden that way. I'm not afraid to kill because in the end... every human has the capacity and tendency for evil inside them. As for Gus Benson... I'd say the rule 'nice guys finish last' would apply. If I'd never found the death note I would continue to live in my fake world of right, wrong and reason and be comfortable. The death note has opened my eyes! No one ever came to save me in my pain, so I won't be merciful either... For once, I'm in control of my own destiny and I won't be limited by the silly preconceptions of right and wrong." I stopped talking.

"That was quite a speech," Gallu responded. I gave a slight nod. Another wicked smile curved over his face.

"You know, Hannah. I think I'm starting to like you."

I laughed "I already like you, Gallu. You're very funny. Just try not to make me laugh when I'm in class or around other people, 'kay?"

"Sure, I'll try." We walked the rest of the way in silence, and I didn't stop gripping my handbag.