Death Note: Blood Ties - 3. CULPRIT

Chapter 3: CULPRIT

Jack:

I knew his name started with 'e'. Edward or Ethan or something.

Even if I knew his first name I still needed his last name in order to kill him. What I really needed were school photos. I suppose looking back, killing Joel Robinson in front of the assembly wasn't the smartest thing to do. He was a bully, but now the previous owner knows that someone else at the school has the death note. They've probably figured out that it's someone from the same year as them, too. I frowned, I hadn't ended up keeping the school photos we all got at the start of the year. What I needed was to get someone else's. Or better yet, I could simply ask teachers or students what that dude's full name is.

I couldn't risk the chance they'd tell him I'd asked. I suppose it wouldn't matter if I did get his name, then I could just kill him before he could do anything. What if the person I asked didn't know the dude's name but told him I'd asked? Then I'd be in trouble... I might have to kill him in some other way instead of the notebook.

No, that would be too fucking risky.

Besides, did I even really need to kill him? He's no risk to me now, no one would ever believe him if he talked about a notebook that could kill. Even if he did think I was the one with the notebook and that I didn't have his name, what could he do? Try to kill me by himself? I would simply run away to a safe distance and write his name in my notebook once I found it out, which wouldn't be too hard if I didn't need to be sneaky. I didn't like the idea of killing innocents, but I suppose he's the one who wrote Reece Caldon's name in the notebook but he showed remorse by trying to get rid of it.

Or maybe he'd just been hiding it for later, either way, he probably still had a family like I did. I suppose it was kind of hypocritical to decide to kill drug dealers only, considering I also took drugs. Then again, I never tried to justify what I did with the notebook when I used it. I killed Tony for drugs and money, that's all there was to it. I didn't know if it was right or wrong, but I didn't care either. However, killing a student at school didn't feel right to me. It could also look suspicious if more people knew about the book than that one guy. Part of me wanted to just face him like a man and ask him about it - where did it come from?

Whether I decided to kill him or not I should wait a week first.

The next day I was walking to the bus stop, early as usual. It was grey and cold, like it'd been all month. I kept my hands in my pockets as I walked, the death note was inside my school bag. Should that guy have the balls to walk up to me I'd be ready to kill him if I had to.

I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end and got the familiar feeling that I was being followed. I stopped and turned around. I couldn't see anything but the feeling that I was being watched was still there. I kept walking, then I heard noise. Wing beats? I started walking faster and turned the corner. There was the bus stop, a covered area next to the bus sign. An old man wearing earmuffs and a beanie was sitting on the metal bench, and a lady dressed in business clothes with ear buds in was standing by the street waiting quietly. I walked up and sat down on the bench at the other side of the old guy. I could see other kids from my school that were walking over to the bus stop. I stared ahead, bouncing my knee.

"Hey there." a friendly albeit crackly and frightening voice said to me.

I turned my head. A tall red demon with large yellow eyes, bat wings and terrible sharp teeth smiled at me.

I screamed. I screamed so loud that the old man jumped up and spun around and the chick with the earphones in turned to gape at me. I was lying on the ground staring as the creature stood ten feet from me and watched.

"Are you okay?" the old man was at my side and the lady was looking over, concerned. It seemed like they couldn't see the fucking hell monster standing in plain sight.

"Sorry about that," it said, moving its ugly mouth. "I guess I should have waited for you to be alone before I started talking to you, I just got so excited." The other people here weren't alerted to the sound of its voice either. This must be the Shinigami that was written about in the death note instructions. A god of death.

"Are you okay, son?" the old man asked again. I realised I hadn't given him an answer so I nodded and sat up.

"I saw a spider." I told them. Retarded, I know. The two of them stared at me like I was the kind of guy who'd taken a bad fall off the turnip truck. I got to my feet and walked past the Shinigami without looking at it. Mr Ugly turned but made no move to follow me. I went around the corner and made sure no one could see me, then I waited. The Shinigami turned the corner and walked after me until it was about six feet away.

"My name is Gallu." he said politely. "What is yours, may I ask?"

I did my best to transform my fear into anger.

"There's no need to answer that. You already know my name, don't you Shinigami?"

Gallu gave a small laugh as if he was impressed by my courage "So you must have read all the rules of the death note." he acknowledged.

"'If a human uses the note, a god of death usually appears in front of him/her within 39 days after he/she uses the note.'" I recited. "It's on the fourth page of those instructions. Also on page three 'The human who touches the death note can recognise the image and voice of its original owner, a Shinigami, even if the human is not the owner of the note.'"

"Well aren't you just the little book-worm?" he joked.

"More important," I continued "on page five: 'The human who becomes the owner of the death note can, in exchange for half his/her remaining life, get the eyes of a Shinigami which will enable him/her to see a human's name and remaining life span when looking through them.' That would be when I'm looking at someone's face, right?"

Gallu didn't say anything for a while. He stared and I wasn't able to read the expression on his horrid face but I wagered from how he spoke next that he was curious.

"You sure know a lot about the death note. I certainly wasn't expecting this. Does the ability to know people's names just by looking at their face appeal to you?"

"Of course it does. If I had that power I would be able to kill anyone I wanted, just by looking at them. Using the death note would be that much easier." I thought about the last owner of the death note. I wouldn't even need to find out his name, if I had that power I could kill him today at school if I wanted.

"I feel I must tell you some things." Gallu said. "Just to make sure you understand. I can see your name and lifespan above your face. You are Jack Martin, as for your lifespan, if you accept the deal you would only be able to see your own name above your head. You wouldn't be allowed to see how long you have left to live. Even if you could see your own lifespan you would still have to convert it to human time, it would only look like a bunch of random numbers. Also, you can't see the lifespan of whoever is in possession of the death note either. I could convert your lifespan into human time and tell you how many years you'd have left, but there's no way I'd ever do that." Gallu gave a short gargling laugh.

"So even though you can see everyone's name and lifespan above their heads you wouldn't just tell me the names of who I wanted to kill? I read another rule of the death note which said that 'Gods of death in principle don't do anything to help or prevent the deaths in the notebook', that you just have to follow me until I die and the notebook becomes yours again."

"It has so many rules." Gallu sighed. "I don't even think they're all written down in there...but yes, the notebook you're using was originally mine. I dropped it and it looks like you've found it. So now I have to follow you around until the notebook is destroyed or I see you die. For that reason it would benefit me greatly if you accepted this deal. If you were supposed to live another forty years you would only live twenty. If ten years you would live five. If one year you would live six months. If a day you would live twelve hours." He laughed again. It seemed he had a very sick sense of humour. "So is it a deal then? Getting the Shinigami eyes is painless, a lot like putting on contact lenses." I stared at him quietly for a while.

"Will you tell me how many years I'd be giving up?"

"Wouldn't dream of it. Not that I sleep..."

I closed my eyes for a second and then they opened full of determination.

"As if I would ever do something as stupid as that! I may do drugs and other shit but I'm not going to just throw half my life away! Not except as a last minute resort and if it's the only way!"

Gallu sighed and started rubbing the back of his neck with his large scaly hands.

"Damn, it looks like I'll be here for a while then. At least make sure you use the death note to do something interesting with it, otherwise this will be so boring." I could hear the bus screeching to a stop and turned to run. "Hey wait! Where are you going?" I heard Gallu call.

"Don't talk to me in public!" I called back and then turned the corner, headed toward the bus stop and hopped into the bus before the door closed.

I showed the bus driver my bus pass and then walked on. I sat in one of the empty seats at the back of the bus. I heard wing beats again and tried not to shout out as I saw Gallu pass through the roof and land, standing in the aisle aside from me.

"That was kind of rude, you know." he said to me. I looked around, but no one had noticed him landing.

I did my best to ignore him by staring out the window. He kept talking however "I know you said I'm not to talk to you in public but no one can hear me other than you, so it doesn't really matter. You're the one that actually can't talk to me while we're near other people."

I sighed and put my head in my hands hoping Gallu would see it as a sign that I wanted him to shut up. He didn't. "It seems like I'll be here for a while, the rules are that I follow you around until you die or transfer ownership of the notebook or if it's destroyed, I'm pretty sure I've actually already told you that... anyway, listen. What I really meant by that was I thought it would be a good idea for the two of us to get along as best as we can. I didn't ask for your name because I'm stupid but because it's polite."

Gallu talked the entire trip of the bus, he talked about the death note and people and Shinigami. He had comments on everything he saw. God did he talk. For a monster I was quickly realising that Gallu wasn't actually that scary. While I sat in class that day he asked me three times why I wasn't talking to him before remembering that I wasn't supposed to and apologising.

It wasn't until lunch when I sat by myself that I asked him through my teeth.

"Gallu, does the death note work on Shinigami?"

He looked at me and then said "No, it says so on the first page. 'The human whose name is written in this notebook' not 'Shinigami'."

I sighed "That's a shame."

"You don't have to be rude about it!" Gallu said defensively. "I only thought it would be a good idea that we get to know each other! You could have just told me to be quiet."

"Please be quiet."

"That wasn't nice enough." he said stubbornly. I sighed again.

Then I looked up and saw him. The dude with the dark hair and glasses. He was far off but I could still see his back as he walked towards the science block.

"Do you see the boy walking away from us on the other side of the quadrangle, with the black hair?"

Gallu looked "Yeah, I can. I'd need to be closer to see his name and lifespan though. What about him, do you want to kill him?"

"He had the notebook before I did." I told him.

"Did he?" Gallu said with much interest. My eyes narrowed as I watched him leave.

"I'm not sure yet if I'm gonna kill him or not. He doesn't know that I have the death note."

"Not yet." Gallu said absent-mindedly.

"What do you mean?"

Gallu looked me straight in the eyes "A Shinigami can only be seen and heard by those who have touched that Shinigami's notebook, regardless of whether they own it or not. If that boy turns around right now he'll be able to see me standing with you, alerting him instantly to the fact that you're the one in possession of the death note."

My eyes widened. I hadn't thought of that. Now I didn't have a choice, I had to kill him and before he saw Gallu.

"Get out of here quick, before he sees you!"

Gallu seemed a little taken aback by my sudden urgency "Actually I'm supposed to stay where you are."

I cursed and jumped up, hurrying behind the Creative Arts Block. Gallu lazily followed me behind the building.

"Are you crazy, what if he'd seen you?"

"Relax," Gallu said with aggravating calm. "Just be thankful he wasn't in any of your classes today."

"Do you seriously have to follow me around everywhere now?" I asked him in disbelief.

"Well..." Gallu thought. "I don't really enjoy being here at this school, it's pretty boring so after you've shown me where you live I could probably just wait for you there, unless you were planning on killing someone with the death note, I'd like to be here for that."

I frowned "It's settled then. I'll ditch school, get you home and then you'll wait for me there."

"Sounds like it'll be boring." Gallu interjected.

"It won't be any more interesting following me around, at least while you're at my house you can watch TV or something. I promise I'll try not to kill people while at school if I can avoid it."

Gallu deliberated for a moment "Alright then."

Now that Gallu knew where I lived he didn't hang around all the time which was a relief. He tended to wander off or 'investigate the area' as he called it. When he came back he'd talk about interesting people he'd stalked and the things he'd seen. He didn't bring up the eye deal again.

A week went by without me using the death note but I was thinking about using it on another drug dealer once I ran out of weed and money. I didn't want to make a habit out of killing people however, so I was still unsure about it. I made sure to keep buying drugs from my other usual sellers in case they were in contact with Tony's boss in any way. I bought them with the money I'd made Tony leave for me so that it wouldn't look suspicious that right after he died and all his drugs went missing I'd stopped buying. Just in case they were told by Tony's boss to mention suspicious clients. I was heading home from the bus stop when I was stopped by some guy.

He looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties. He was unshaven and had long and messy brown hair. It was his eyes that I noticed first though, the sunken and purplish colour that mine also had. From regular drug-taking, probably the more hard-core kind - snorting and shooting up needles and what-have-you.

"Jack Martin. If you wouldn't mind I think we should talk about a few things."

Was this about Tony? Did they suspect I had something to do with his death? I twitched then tried to calm down - there was no way they could connect me to Tony's death.

"Well I'm on my way home, if it's the same way you're going, talking is fine." I went to move on and he started walking with me.

"I was actually sent here with unfortunate news." The man said. "One of our sellers, Tony Macmullen died a week ago." My hand clutched my strap tighter, the death note was inside my bag. I hoped I wouldn't have to use it, but just in case...

"That is unfortunate, man. I'd known Tony for a while, he was cool. I never knew who he worked for though, only that they supplied the weed and he sold it. He must have told you the names of who he regularly sold to, but I'm still curious as to how you found me. I don't even know your name."

"It's Vincent, Vincent Lowery. Martinez likes to make sure he's got a general idea of who he's selling to. Tony mentioned his clients, one of them he said was a kid who went to Brisbane State High School. He also said that you lived down this street."

Maybe Tony was a little too nice of a guy? I hadn't realised that when he asked me questions about myself he'd been trying to find out about me. I'd always assumed it was small-talk, and granted at the time I hadn't known he actually worked for a gang boss. I realised I had no idea how powerful this drug lord was. I smiled, I'd already fooled this guy into giving me his name plus I knew half of his boss's name already. Martinez. I had to make sure that I didn't become overconfident just because of the death note. After all, Martinez wouldn't have sent Vincent here to tell me Tony died because I'd known him for a while. It sounded too polite for a drug lord.

Maybe they still wanted to sell to me so they're telling me there'll be a change in who I meet with. I couldn't imagine this Martinez guy being incredibly powerful if he depended on the money of a school student. There was also the fact that although Tony's drugs went missing the value of it all couldn't be more than five hundred dollars. So even if they found out the drugs were stolen, why would they care?

"The reason I came to tell you Tony died was because Martinez thinks one of his clients forced him to take drugs which killed him and stole everything he had on him at the time."

I stopped. Vincent kept walking for a few more steps then stopped as well when he noticed I wasn't next to him. He turned to face me.

"Are you suspecting me?" I asked, a laugh in my voice. His expression never changed, and the way he looked at me. He does suspect me. I couldn't keep the fear off my face. "I'm still in school, man!" I shouted.

"Tony was said to have died from a drug overdose, but he hated marijuana. He never took drugs he only sold them. Tony was very meticulous with his work so that it was borderline obsessive. He met his regular clients weekly to sell to them. We sent stand-ins to each one of Tony's clients last week, but of all of them you were the only one who didn't bother to show up. Even though you, like Tony, had never missed a meeting, ever. Tony died straight after he sold to you over a week ago, but when he was found dead he didn't have your money with him. In fact, he had no money on him. This kind of punches a hole through the idea that he died from something like a drug overdose. I think it's also suspicious that even after I told you Tony died you didn't ask how it happened, like you didn't care."

Fuck!

I didn't say anything at first. I'd never thought I could be found out like this. The more Vincent spoke the more it made sense that I was the killer. I had to play dumb, at least for a little while longer. If Vincent convinced himself any more that I killed Tony Macmullen he might just end up forcibly taking me to this Martinez. I have to kill him and then I have to get home and find Gallu.

Then I'd need to start dealing with this drug lord.