Death Note: Blood Ties - 13. REVOLUTION

Chapter 13: REVOLUTION

Ethan:

I don't know how long we walked. Turning at several streets, I led Hannah away as if being hidden would keep us safe. Eventually it proved too much for her and she insisted on stopping once we came across an empty real estate property. Up until then I'd been supporting her while we slowly and numbly escaped. Now she leaned back against a tree and I took a few steps away to give her space to breathe. Feeling a sudden wave of vertigo I fell to my hands and knees.

The adrenaline rush had served me well in getting us away from Billy's house. Now as it faded horrible realization took its place as I was crushed by the gravity of what I'd witnessed. Billy was dead, he'd been murdered. Jack's death had been suspicious, but it was Billy who'd confirmed it. Hannah and I were the only ones left. No doubt one of us would be this new killer's next target. The image of Billy's bloody corpse flashed into my mind and I heard Hannah throw up from behind me.

I did the same and my vision was shaking. I collapsed forward and we both stayed like that for a while. Hannah huddled over at the base of the tree and me lying in the grass pathetically in a pool of my own sick. It was evening when I finally found the strength to get back on my feet. I approached Hannah where she sat. She didn't look up at me until I extended my hand to her.

"We have to go. We can't waste any more time here."

She stared at me confusedly. "Whoever killed Jack and Billy will be after us next." I saw strength manifesting in the young girl's eyes. Ignoring the fact there was a large stain of puke on my jumper she took my hand and I helped her up.

We were both only teenagers. We didn't know death other than what was depicted in movies and stories. Desensitized we'd always tried to understand what it would be like to be in this situation. I understood now that nothing could have prepared us. We weren't adults. Hannah and I weren't able to fight our way onto our feet because we fully understood or could cope with our situation. It was instincts, from the very core of our being we knew that our lives were in jeopardy.

We had to do what we could to survive. Our bodies seemed to understand that in a primitive way. For that reason we managed to make it to my house hand-in-hand and get ourselves cleaned up. I changed clothes while Hannah cleaned herself in the bathroom. When she was done I brushed my teeth thoroughly while she spoke to me from the other room.

"Your Mum isn't home."

I spat into the sink "Ever since Reece died she's been out of the house a lot." When I finished I went to the living room. I fetched two glasses of water and Hannah thanked me as I sat on the table across from her. Her hand shook violently as she tried to bring the drink to her mouth. She used her other hand to keep her arm still. We both drank and put the glasses back onto the table.

I began speaking "Someone out there has the death note." Hannah was still pale but I could tell she was registering what I was saying. "Whoever they are, they killed Jack and they killed Billy. They will try to kill one of us next. I just don't understand why they're doing it one at a time."

"Somehow they know all four of us." Hannah began "That means they might already know where we live. So coming here was predictable. Not that it matters, since the death note can kill us no matter where we are."

"Running isn't an option." I mused out loud. "We can't even fake our deaths. This killer will probably write our names anyway just to be sure." I looked Hannah in the eyes. "We have to fight."

She didn't say anything for a while. Looking down she traced the circle of her glass with the tip of her finger. Her brow creased.

"Jack had the death note when he was killed. That means it's most likely someone connected to him."

I nodded my agreement. Our trains of thought led us to the same person.

"Emma?" We both said skeptically.

I continued "Whoever they are got the death note from Jack. It could just as easily be anyone else who was close to him. A friend, a parent?"

"I don't think a parent could kill their child." Hannah pointed out "Either way Emma knew that Jack was spending a lot of time with the three of us. She also had a lot of opportunity to get close to the notebook through Jack. As it stands, she's the most likely suspect."

I frowned as I imagined the crying girl. I didn't want to believe it, but then other things began to click in my head as well. The look of fear in her eyes when she saw Hannah, how Gallu hadn't followed me out of the room when I had run off. He had stayed behind… with Emma. When me and Hannah returned Emma had just been leaving. Gallu had not been in the empty art room when we got there.

I was snapped out of my reverie when Hannah whispered quietly "Who is shadow?"

I blinked and looked at her "I invented that alias in order to trap Jack at the front office that morning. That was when you saw the two of us fighting and first found out about the death note. Do you remember when all those vandalisms were happening at the school? That was me, I was doing it to lure Jack out and it worked."

"That was… pretty smart." Hannah complimented briefly. "Does our murderer even know that much about us as well?"

"Not necessarily. Everyone at school heard of the vandalisms and shadow. This person is probably trying to get us in trouble with the school, maybe so they can find out our names?"

The fact that whoever he or she is knew about shadow makes it seem even more likely that the murderer is a fellow student. Surely a teacher wouldn't act on this kind of mentality?

"So whoever he or she is… is trying to frame us… with a crime… that we actually did commit?" Hannah slowly pieced it together incredulously.

While she gazed off in her own thoughts I silently frowned at the table. There was enough evidence in my mind to convict Emma. I didn't say this out loud to Hannah for another reason. I wanted to see her and be absolutely sure that she had the death note before we did anything rash. Even so, I thought to myself dejectedly. What's the point of catching her if I'll just get killed after I do?

If Emma did kill Jack and Ethan, she has the death note and we have nothing. No means to convict her, to stop her or to protect ourselves. My mind worked furiously as I analysed our situation. I sat bolt upright when inspiration struck me. Hannah noticed and looked at me oddly.

"Did you come up with something?"

I rose from the table "Yes. I'm heading out."

Silence.

"Huh?"

"There's somewhere I have to go." I turned and headed off to the front door. Determination cementing my resolve.

"Wait! Where are we going?"

I turned to look back at Hannah who'd stood up as well "I'm going. You have to stay here. There's no point in both of us dying if this doesn't work."

Turning my back on her yet again, I reached for the door handle.

"Ethan!" I felt her body crash into me from behind. My eyes widened and I remained still as she held onto me. "I can't be left alone right now." Her voice was muffled through my shoulder. I turned around to face Hannah and wrapped my own hands around to embrace her as well.

"Hannah." She looked up at me and I saw that her face was full of fear and uncertainty. "You have to do everything you can to survive." I told her.

She continued to stare at me with those pale green eyes of hers. I leaned forward and kissed her. Instantly she became stiff before I felt her relax into me. Feeling her hands travel upwards until they became entangled in my hair, she kissed back. My own hands traveled to her waist as our lips moved against each other's. My heart was hammering, I was almost sure she would be able to hear my pulse. For some reason I knew hers would be beating just as fast.

I really cared about Hannah, I had for a long time. It seemed that by some miracle, for longer than this nightmare, she'd cared about me too. While we became lost in our first kiss I began to slightly lift the bottom of her shirt...

There was a faint ripping noise. Hannah jerked away from me, looking at me with a sharp expression. Her face registered a few emotions to me. Shock which became betrayal until eventually her expression became dazed and lost focus.

I stepped away from her. She blinked and stared at me, recognition dawning on her face far too slowly. I was out of the house before she could say anything, and I was sure she wouldn't follow. Walking away from my house I passed a garbage bin which had been carried out early by the neighbours for collection next morning. Opening the bin as I passed, I slipped the tiny piece of the death note attached to the tape in, then continued walking. Since Hannah isn't currently in possession of the death note all her memories would have vanished when I removed that piece of paper from her body.

I did feel bad, but it was the best way to keep her safe. She would probably still remember seeing Billy's body which is why I didn't tell her where I was going. It would be a hassle for me if she called the police and they intervened and got in the way. At least if she was killed she wouldn't spend her last moments in fear of her life. I fixed up my glasses, pushing them up the bridge of my nose. All that was left was up to me. I knew exactly where I needed to be: Jack's house.

Emma:

I lowered my mobile phone and pocketed it after I blackened the screen. My Mummy had just texted me, asking to know where I was. Apparently Ethan had stopped by at my house to see me. Not that it mattered, I'd left her a message explaining exactly where I was. Soon Ethan would arrive. My third victim would come to me to be slaughtered. A wicked grin stretched across my face while my feet tapped impatiently on the concrete floor. The noise echoed throughout the brightly lit abandoned warehouse.

I could hear the noise of the rain on the metal roof. It muffled the liquid onslaught in a satisfying way. This warehouse was one of the many owned by my Daddy's shipping company. It wasn't being used so I'd been given his permission to play in it for a while. It seemed like the perfect setting for Ethan to be confronted by the girl who'd been responsible for killing two of his friends. Whether he knew or suspected I currently owned the death note I did not know.

The bespectacled boy must have gone to my ex's house. He'd have asked Jack's parents where I lived, told them he was worried about me. I laughed and that noise also echoed in the large empty space. All that was inside the dusty metal and concrete building was a small plastic chair that I'd carried inside. I sat in the middle of the room, facing the door. My legs were crossed and my hands rested casually in my lap.

The death note was lying under my hands. In my right grip, I was armed with a pen. The feeling of the death note resting atop my legs was a comfort to me. With it, all of my dreams would come true. Gallu had been following me around ever since I left school today. In my opinion the Shinigami was nothing short of an irritation. I'd managed to order him to leave me alone while I waited, waited for my next victim.

I couldn't wait to see his expression! Would he look surprised? Afraid? Or better yet, would he put on a brave face while his voice cracks and his knees shake? I wonder if he'll beg? Or maybe he'll try swearing his undying loyalty to me?

I didn't usually like being uncertain… about anything. With this death note my victory is assured. There was no way Ethan or Hannah could stop me, which is why this kind of uncertainty entertained me. The uncertainty of what kind of doom Ethan will enact for me. The reason I hadn't killed them yet was because I knew the two of them were no threat to me. After killing Jack I'd planned to leave the others alone provided they'd fallen for my set-up.

It was the damn god of death that forced my hand with the mention of the Shinigami eyes. I hadn't needed to kill Hannah or Ethan because I noticed neither of them possessed these eyes. If they had, my deception would have been revealed when I exited the art block today.

Considering I didn't know if Billy had that weapon or not, I killed him anyway for good measure. Since after killing him it would become obvious to the other two that they were being murdered, I'd decided that in my frustration I might make a game out of it. It was so obvious Billy had been a cutter anyway. Now the other two would be running scared and alone. Or so I thought. Instead Ethan had the audacity to approach me himself, and for what reason?

Soon, it will all be revealed. Soon, he will walk through that door and come face-to-face with death itself. Several more minutes passed and the building tension had almost driven me crazy. I heard a noise from behind the front door and I knew that my prey had finally arrived. Slowly the door was forced open and Ethan made his way inside. He stepped forward out of the rain and pulled off his glasses. He cleaned them with the sleeve of his jumper before setting them back into place.

I smiled at him calmly as he looked at me. His name was clear to me above his face. Ethan Jones. Giving up half of my life was a trivial sacrifice for this power. I didn't fancy growing old, and I figured I might as well leave a pretty corpse.

"How nice of you to visit, Ethan." His expression was firm and level-headed. I tilted my neck, becoming curious. "After I deal with you I can face that sleazy bitch Hannah who's been hanging around my boyfriend, girl to girl..." I'd imagined many scenarios of how this would play out with Ethan, but I hadn't expected something like this. He was just calmly standing before me, with neither antagonism nor fear. He just seemed resolved to something. "Oh, I see." I spoke out loud. "You came here to die." The rain outside was the only thing that could be heard for a while.

"I'm not the one who is going to die, Emma."

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! REALLY?" He seemed completely unaffected by my outburst. I stared at him for a moment longer before closing my mouth.

The hand holding my pen twitched "Then show me how you plan to stop me, Ethan Jones!" The death note was flicked open before I bent over and my pen darted to the page. I instantly began scrawling his name down but then stopped.

'Ethan J' was written in a messy scribble on the paper and I looked up to see the boy was still not moving. Why? Why was he so confident? He wasn't even trying to stop me from killing him.

"I don't understand you."

He looked at me calmly and I gasped as I felt my body seize up.

"You are already dead, Emma King. You are the second and last person I will ever kill." I hazily recalled trying to get to my feet before the chair was knocked over and I fell forward into blackness.

Ethan:

My expression didn't change as I looked at the young brunette face-down on the floor in front of me. I reached into my pocket and scrunched the piece of paper which had Emma King's name written on it. A page from the death note. I tossed it towards a corner of the room. I became aware that I was no longer alone when Gallu fell through the roof above and landed beside me. His large bat-like wings retracted and his face cracked into a hideous smile.

"You did it! You know Ethan, I was rooting for you all along. Jack had a horrible taste in women, that Emma girl was a bitch!" I looked at my fallen enemy for a moment longer before I glanced at the towering seven-foot tall Shinigami beside me. "So? How did you do it?"

"I didn't do anything, it was all Jack."

Gallu's yellow eyes fixed on me confusedly. "You must have noticed that Jack was counting the pages of the death note."

He blinked at me "Yes, I was aware."

"That means Jack was aware that Billy had taken pages out before he had confessed it himself."

"Oh. Meaning?"

"Jack wasn't trying to keep us from stealing pages. Instead he was looking for a way to be a step ahead without us noticing." The scaly red demon remained quiet as I continued "When he was aware that pages were being stolen it meant he could take a page for himself. It would be undetected. If anyone found out the blame would fall on the person who'd stolen the pages to begin with. This way he was covering up his own crime by mimicking another's."

"Wow. He must have been sneaky to have taken a page and hidden it without even me noticing. To think how harsh he was on Billy too. That kind of compulsive and paranoid behaviour definitely sounds like something Jack would do."

"He'd hidden it in his room and since I knew what I was looking for I checked all the places where I thought he would hide it. It was the only conclusion as to why Jack would have known pages were being stolen but not said anything, because he'd taken a page for himself." I walked past the Shinigami who eyed me as I stepped over Emma's body.

Plucking the death note from her cooling grip I held it tightly in my hands. I walked back to Gallu.

"You had already written her name before you walked inside the warehouse."

"Yes. The moment I saw you sitting on the roof I knew it had to be her. So I wrote down her name."

"If that's the case you didn't even need to walk in at all, you could have just waited."

My eyes narrowed as I looked ahead to the open doorway.

"First of all, I needed to see her."

"Why?"

"To make a decision. I wanted to see what this book had done to her. I wanted to see how it had influenced her. This notebook does change people. I may be happier now that Reece is dead, but I'm just a human. I have no right to judge others. I'm not a Shinigami."

"Then what's the second reason?"

"Even if she had killed me it wouldn't have changed a thing. She was already dead before I entered the building. If we had both killed each other the ownership of the death note would have been cancelled out."

"That's true." Gallu confirmed.

"In that case. You would have taken the death note, since it had no owner, and returned to wherever you came from. The Shinigami realm."

He stared down at me quietly. "It wouldn't have changed a thing, because I've made my decision. Humans aren't ready to have this power, it only corrupts. Sooner or later I would have turned out just like Jack or Emma."

"So you mean…?"

"I'm returning possession of the death note to you."

"Are you sure, Ethan? If you do this your memories, as well as Hannah's will disappear forever."

"Hannah has already lost her memories. I'm ready for this. A chance at a normal life is the best thing we should ever ask for." Gallu went quiet again as he analysed me. I half-expected him to laugh again for no reason, but this time he was strangely serious.

"You know… it's weird, but I actually kind of like you, Ethan. You're not like Jack or Hannah, but for some reason I really like you too. You know, as much as a Shinigami can like a human." I smiled despite myself. He looked up to the roof "I would have never suspected that dropping my death note would have led to this. I must admit, it was very exciting and interesting watching you all use my notebook for your own purposes and reasons. The story I have for Ladon and the other Shinigami won't be as tedious or embarrassing as I feared it would. It'll be a worthy tale to tell when I return to the Shinigami realm." Gallu went quiet and I began to mentally prepare myself for what was to come. This is it.

Soon I was going to lose all my memories of the death note, I would have to deal with the shadow dilemma and the shock from seeing the things I saw today. I wouldn't be alone though, I would have Hannah there beside me. An uninfluenced and no longer alone Hannah. I'd made sure to get rid of the letter I'd written and left in my drawer several months ago for the police for if I'd been killed when the death note was first retrieved from the small forest along the school oval. I'd failed at disposing the notebook then, but now I knew I was doing the right thing.

I held out my hand to the Shinigami and he stared before reaching with a long red bony hand and taking the notebook from me. As my mind hazed over I heard him mutter "bye" before taking flight and leaving me to resume my previous life.

My wonderfully boring and now love-filled life.