Death Note: Blood Ties - 7. ACCOMPLICES

Chapter 7: ACCOMPLICES

Hannah:

My life had suddenly become a whole lot stranger in the course of only a few days. It was Wednesday morning when I arrived at school late, as I often do, so I had gone to the office to collect a late note, which I also often do. Then two boys, Jack and Ethan started attacking each other, rolling on the floor, fighting over a silly black notebook.

I didn't want to believe it when they told me. There was no way that a notebook could have the power to kill someone just by having their name written in it. It wasn't until I saw the death god of the notebook, a Shinigami, that I believed. Me, Billy and Ethan were terrified at first (Ethan hadn't seen him yet either). It turned out that he was actually quite friendly, he said his name was Gallu. Neither me nor Billy felt that the death note was 'evil'. We also didn't agree when Ethan suggested we should destroy it.

I got the feeling that all four of us weren't living charmed lives, only Ethan seemed to be battling with some deeper moral issue.

Even so, Jack's idea of using the notebook to kill for personal gain was a little...frightening. I didn't know what we should do, or why I was involved, but I was glad that I was. The idea of a death note existing and the fact that we were in possession of it was exhilarating.

Terrifying, but exhilarating.

On Wednesday Jack explained everything to us in an empty classroom while Ethan got patched up in the infirmary. It turned out the poor reception lady had given herself a heart attack from running and trying to find help. Ethan became instantly suspicious and started to question Jack about it but he said he didn't even know her name. It was Mrs Sanders or something, I think. It turned out that she hadn't ended up dying and only went to hospital, so Ethan was able to relax on the knowledge that no one had used the death note on her.

She was in a hospitalised condition and wouldn't be returning to her job at school for a while. I was sure glad she hadn't said anything about the fight to anyone. It was Thursday at lunch time when I met Gallu and realised that the death note was authentic. If it wasn't for Billy and Ethan looking just as horrified as I had I would've thought I was going freaking crazy.

Today it was Friday, and I'd gotten myself to school unnaturally early (especially for me) to head to the same empty classroom in the Visual Arts Block where we'd meet again. I guess that just showed how exhilarated I felt deep down. Gallu also seemed excited at the prospect of another meeting. I walked through the eerily empty school and was reminded of a ghost town. I pulled out my headphones and could hear talking, including the raspy voice of the death god when I was a few feet from the door. I turned the handle and they all stopped and turned to face who'd walked in.

Jack was slouching against the wall while the other boys sat on chairs, Ethan straight-backed and Billy hunched. Gallu squatted on top of the desk in front of them.

Inside their circle lay the notebook... They looked relieved when they saw it was only me.

"You were supposed to get here at seven. It's closer to eight." Jack scolded.

"Fashionably late," I told him irritably.

I swung my bag off and pulled out a chair next to Gallu. I didn't mind him at all, actually, I thought he was interesting and funny. Jack found him annoying while Ethan treated him like any other normal person. Billy was always visibly on edge when Gallu was nearby.

"Well we're all here now." Jack began "So let's talk about the most important thing: what are we going to do with the death note?"

"I say we share it." I called out immediately. Jack raised an eyebrow.

"I was going to let me and Ethan share it, but why would I let you hold it?"

"Why would you tell me and Billy everything and then not share it with us?" I asked loudly. Jack and Ethan seemed to have some strange camaraderie now after their mind games and fist-fight. Boys are weird.

"I decided to tell you" Jack enunciated "cause I had to make sure you didn't tell anyone what you'd seen and heard, and I didn't want to have to kill both of you."

Billy didn't seem like he was going to help me at all in this discussion. He was hunched forward on his seat so that his fringe obscured his face, making it impossible to gauge his emotions.

It was Ethan who spoke next "I say we all share it."

Jack stared at him looking shocked and appalled.

"It's settled." I said before Jack could retaliate "Thanks Ethan!"

He looked away and I might have imagined that warm colour spreading across his face. Billy's head jolted up.

"Fine," Jack growled. "But we make a pact! We all have to put our hands on the death note and swear that we will tell no one about this. I mean no one. Just putting it out there, I have a girlfriend and I'm not letting her anywhere near this notebook. You guys have to be the same." He put his hand on the notebook. I reached out and put my hand on top of his. Then Ethan, and then Billy did the same.

"I swear." My voice was controlled and serious.

"I swear." Ethan's voice was calm and assured.

"I swear." Billy's voice was quiet but also sure.

"Good." Jack said "I also swear. No one else will ever know about this. And since we're sharing, let's change ownership to a different person after one week. That means after someone has the notebook they have to wait three weeks before they get to own it again."

Ethan thought, and then nodded "Sounds like a plan." He itched his face behind his glasses.

"First you guys need to read the rules of the death note so you know the important shit. It says that if you don't own the notebook and you're not touching it, your memories of using it will go away until you touch it again."

"Really?" Ethan was skeptical "Does that mean you still have a page of the notebook on you right now?"

Jack pushed off the wall and turned, lifting up his shirt so that we could see. A tiny corner of a page, barely big enough for a letter to be written on let alone someone's name, was sticky-taped to his waist. Then Jack reached into his pocket, pulling out his page of the notebook from within a resealable plastic sandwich bag.

"We'll all have to tape a small piece of the death note to ourselves, under our clothes. This is so we can keep our memories of using it while we don't own it. Just be careful it doesn't wash off in the shower or some shit."

"Wait a minute." I said, trying to understand "Why are we doing all this? Wouldn't it be easier if we all just took out pages? That way we wouldn't have to wait three weeks between turns?"

"She has a point." Ethan agreed "What's the point of taking the death note in turns and transferring ownership after a whole week?"

Jack frowned "There are a few reasons why we need to do it this way. First, we need to make a rule that we can never take pieces out of the death note. This is so we only have to keep track of one thing. If pages end up missing they could be found and touched by other people. Cause as you should all know: each piece has the full power of the book. Second, I want us to take turns so that we know who's killing when people die. We need rules about who we're allowed to kill. Obviously no one from school and no one famous. It should also be people who we haven't been seen in public with."

Jack crossed his arms "If anyone breaks these rules and kills someone they're not allowed to, then we'll know who did it this way. As opposed to figuring out who among us killed them if we all had pages. The third and most important reason is for trust. If we all have pages we will get paranoid and tempted to use them on each other."

I looked around at Ethan and Billy. Would one of them kill the rest of us just so they could have the death note all to themselves? It sounds so vicious, but I can't be sure...

Jack continued "If I thought there was a chance one of you would kill me I wouldn't be talking to you now. You three don't look like killers. But still, this way we can all learn to trust each other."

I didn't say anything, too busy being wrapped up in my own thoughts.

"Sounds fair." Ethan said after a while.

Jack opened the plastic bag and pulled out the page of the death note. He pulled off the other three corners and put the small pieces on the table, as if he were dishing out servings of drugs. He walked to the metal tub sink where students were supposed to wash paint brushes after use. After soaking the paper under the tap he pushed the useless mush down the drain.

"This is as thorough as we need to be." Jack said "Ethan, did you ever keep a page of the notebook with you?"

"No," he said "I didn't think that it would work at the time."

Jack nodded. After going through his bag he pulled out a roll of Sellotape and we all passed it around, taping the small corner to our sides as instructed.

"Make sure it won't be easy to come off. Even if you do lose your memories, we should all still remember seeing each other so it would just mean touching whoever forgot with the death note. It'd be better if we all remembered though, I can say from experience that getting your memories back that way isn't fun." He turned to Gallu, hands in his pockets. "This plan will work, won't it?"

Gallu smiled greedily, opening his mouth to reveal sharp teeth "Should do." Then he laughed.

I pulled my shirt back down after I applied the tape with the piece of note to my skin.

"Now we need to decide who's using it for the first week. Then who goes next and what order." Jack eyed the roof, pretending to think before saying. "Well I-"

"No way." Ethan interrupted. "You've had the death note for weeks! I'm the one who owns it at the moment."

"You tossed it away!" Jack exclaimed.

"If anyone should have the death note it should be me or Billy." I asserted. "We haven't had it yet and it's already been decided that we'll be sharing it with you two."

"I never thought I would see people so eager to throw away their souls." Gallu's crackly voice made all of us fall silent.

"What do you mean?" Ethan asked quietly.

It was Jack who answered "The last rule on the second page says that 'The human who uses the notebook can neither go to heaven nor hell'."

Ethan blinked "Are you serious? But I didn't know it would work when I used it! Surely-"

"It is assumed" Gallu interrupted "that anyone who has the intent to kill someone by writing their name in the notebook, even if they doubt the book's authenticity, does not belong in a place called heaven."

Ethan stared and then looked down at his feet. When he spoke next he sounded disappointed "I finally figure out there's an afterlife and then I miss out on it...oh well." he sighed. "At least I know death will have no surprises for me."

"Well I don't care." I said to them "I don't believe in that stuff anyway. What about you, Billy?"

He looked up, shocked that he'd been spoken to. He then looked down again and mumbled "No, I don't mind."

"So if we're over that little fact can we get to who gets to keep the death note for the first week?" Jack pressed.

"I don't mind waiting." Ethan sighed "To be honest, I don't even know if I'll use the notebook. I don't like the idea of killing anyone, even if it means getting money among other things."

"Alright, you can be last." Jack turned away from him. Ethan scowled. "Hannah, Billy, which of you want to go first?"

Billy looked up, his fringe concealing his eyes "I don't mind waiting either." He answered.

Jack smiled "Great. You can be second-last. Now there's just Hannah and me to decide."

"Whatever happened to ladies' first?" Ethan interjected.

Jack grimaced "That doesn't work for this."

I explained "Well like Ethan has already said you've had the death note for the past few weeks even if you didn't technically own it. So it should go without saying that I be first to have it."

Jack gave a low growl, his annoyed sound, but conceded to my logic.

"Fine, Hannah goes first. I'm second. Billy is third and Ethan will get the book last, in three weeks. Does everyone agree?" 'Yep's filled the room. "Right, Ethan give Hannah the death note."

Gallu shifted on the table "It won't be as simple as just giving her the book, he needs to agree to relinquish ownership of it to her."

Ethan stepped up to me "Hannah," he said clearly, as if this were a legal matter. "I hereby transfer ownership of my death note to you."

I stared at him, awkward at the display "Whatever." I took the notebook and held it in my hands. I couldn't help smiling at it. Sooo cool...

"So we're done here?" Jack asked impatiently, checking the time on his mobile "The bell will go soon so we should leave."

"Hold on Jack." Gallu raised a bony hand. We all looked at him. Gallu stood and his bat-wings opened wide. Billy flinched. Gallu stepped off the table and hovered over the floor "Now that there's more of you I feel I should inform you all of something very important. I will be following the notebook so I will end up getting to know each of you quite well in the next few weeks. I don't do in principle anything that will help or prevent the deaths that you write in the notebook. That means you can't rely on me for anything. Just so we've got that out of the way... I also wanted to tell you that alternatively, this means if one of you wanted to write everyone else's names in the death note I wouldn't tell the others or do anything to stop you either."

Jack tapped his foot impatiently "Get on with it, Shinigami."

"Right, well what I really wanted to tell you guys, and you probably won't hear me bringing this up again, is about something called the Shinigami eye deal."

"Oh." Jack said, already understanding.

"What deal?" Ethan looked perplexed.

Another wide and scary smile cracked across Gallu's face.

Gallu:

I stared at the four children gathered before me. I licked my lips, I could already taste half their life becoming mine.

"The Shinigami eye deal. It's mentioned in the instructions for the death note. The third rule of page five. 'A human 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 means you'll never have to be worried you can't kill a human you've seen because you don't know their name. If you ever get attacked by someone and you have the death note you can kill them quickly just by writing down their name after you see it."

"Kill them quickly as in find the time to write down their name and then wait forty seconds before they die." Jack was clearly frustrated at the idea of me trying to convince the others to take the deal.

I stared at him. Above his face I could see his name in English. 'Jack Martin' and then below it his lifespan in Shinigami time: '99602225'.

"I'll start with you Jack." I told him. "You once almost accepted the deal when you were in a tight situation. If that situation ever arises again you might want to be better prepared for it. Especially considering the fact that I will only be with you for one week out of every four that pass. You never know."

Jack thought about it. I watched silently as he considered.

"I did almost accept the eye deal. That would've been a mistake if I had because I ended up fixing the problem anyway. I don't want to be too confident in that one power. I can still use this if I ever need to figure out someone's name." He indicated to his head with his thumb. "But yeah, if I'm in a really bad situation you have my permission to bring up this deal again."

I groaned "So that's still a 'no'?"

"I want to spend my retirement on the beaches of some tropical island at a five star resort after I've got money for myself with the power of this notebook."

"I suppose I expected this answer from you. Moving on." I turned to look at the boy with the glasses. Above his head was the name 'Ethan Jones' and his lifespan: '68610973'.

"Ethan," I asked. "What is your answer? Do you accept the Shinigami eye deal?"

"Never." He said. His answer was so quick that it surprised me. He seemed more adamant than Jack was when I'd first told him.

"Don't bother to bring it up later, either. I would never make that deal, even if it seemed hopeless. It's almost like giving up completely and letting myself get caught or killed. It'd be like half-quitting, giving up half my life for the insurance that I wouldn't die before then. What would happen to the life I give up I wonder? It would be added to yours, wouldn't it? That would explain why you're telling us this since you've already said you don't want to stop or help us in any way."

"You're quite smart. Almost as smart as Jack I'd say." I told him. Jack smirked. "Which would explain why you outsmarted and caught him." Jack scowled.

Ethan continued "If we ever encountered someone whose name we didn't know we'd only need one person with the Shinigami eyes in our group. Even if they weren't there at the time we could just take a picture of the person and send it to them. Not that my phone has a camera… there's still no need for all of us to throw our lives away."

"That's true. Did you know that someone who has the Shinigami eyes has vision beyond perfect in the human measurement regardless of their previous eyesight? You wouldn't have to wear glasses anymore."

Ethan hesitated but remained firm "Obviously I didn't know that, but I stand by what I said. The answer is no."

I sighed. If they all ended up saying 'no' I could be in trouble since I can't use my death note to extend my life while they have it. I turned to the only girl in the room. 'Hannah Walker' was above the numbers: '82927009'.

"What do you think, Hannah?" I asked her. She was still and looking down at the desk in front of her.

"I would want to accept this deal," she said "but" My smile vanished. "I can't." she said simply.

"Would you care to elaborate on that?" I asked, getting annoyed.

"Truthfully... I could die the very next day. I could be hit by a bus or I could get sick. But I can't risk losing that future option. I'm not overly thrilled at the idea of getting married and having children but what if I... fall in love some day? It doesn't seem likely to me now, I know I know, but the fact is I don't know what will happen in the future. I can't risk the regret. I also don't want my parents to live to see their only daughter die. So, that's my answer."

"How very unfortunate." I wasn't trying to hide my irritation now.

If I didn't get at least one of these kids to make the deal with me I might end up running out of years before they did. Now there was only one left and he had by far the shortest lifespan of them all. 'William Taylor' was above the numbers: '22281937'. He'd been silent throughout most of this meeting and still hadn't said anything since I brought up the eye deal.

"Billy?" as I'd heard the other humans call him for some reason. He looked up and his eyes became visible.

They were wide and his smile curved up his face in that same wicked way that Jack's had after he'd sent Vincent to his death. He looked straight at me and then he spoke.

"Yes. I'll do it. I'll make the deal with you."