A Year of Jubilee [The Death Note Fanfic]

Chapter 36

She lifted her eyes to him. "Did you kill my mother too?" she asked, voice trembling.

The shinigami chuckled. "Oh, please." He waved a dismissive hand. "Another shinigami got her, I'm sure. You talk like I have a personal vendetta against you, or something. Then again—" His expression became serious and he leaned closer. "I do, now."

Whatever anger Jubilee had been feeling seconds ago vanished in the wake of sudden terror as the demon began to advance on her. She scrambled backwards. A few feet behind the demon Light stood, watching her silently and with an emotionless expression, but she paid him no attention as she tried to get away.

"Seventy years may not be much in the light of eternity," the shinigami was saying, his voice a low growl as he took step after slow step towards her. "But I don't much appreciate anything being taken from me...especially not on account of a measly human such as yourself." He stopped and gave her a dry smile. "It's a bit of a low blow from the man upstairs. I'd very much like to see your time on on this planet come to a permanent end—even if you are bound for that place—just so you can tell Him, for me, that He doesn't play very fair."

"Get away from me," Jubilee whispered. She was vaguely aware that she was cowering and on the brink of tears.

"Well, that's not very convincing," scoffed the shinigami. "I don't know where you people get the idea that you can just tell me what to do. You humans have always been a ridiculously prideful yet pitiful bunch. Bossing each other around and playing god when you're practically nothing but ants." He stepped closer to her, and she felt the air grow even colder. "Even now, you see...you want to control Light and the circumstances of the world, just as much as he does. And you'd kill me in an instant, if you knew how to, because I stand in the way of what you want. So how are you any better than him?"

Jubilee felt the light and color around her snuff out as the demon crouched down to her level and continued, "You're not. You see, the problem is that all you creatures think of yourselves as victims, when in reality your situations are really your own faults. I think you know that deep down, don't you?"

Jubilee shook her head vigorously, as much to refute him as to clear the memories of Chicago night lights, colorful cocktails and strangers' beds that suddenly filled her mind.

The demon reached out a clawed hand for her. "Oh yes you do," he went on. "You might tell yourself otherwise—that me and the other powers that be are the cause of all your problems, but you know what? I only ever had access to you because you left yourself wide open to me. Let me help you remember." His hand closed over her eyes.

Instantly the world went dark. Then, a memory filled her head.

She was nineteen years old. Her father's body had just been buried, and she knelt before the fresh grave and her mother's, alone. Rain poured down on her from a bleak, gray sky. The minister had left hours ago. There had been no one else at the funeral. She had invited no one.

"Why?" she whispered to the ground.

Only the sound of the downpour answered her. The world was silent save for the dripping of rain—a heavy, sorrowful noise that seemed to match her grief.

Tilting her head back she suddenly screamed to the sky, a long, piercing wail that ripped her throat raw.

"Why?" she demanded the clouds above her. "Why did you take them from me?!"

Sobbing, she curled herself into a ball on the ground, and cried long and hard. The rain continued to pour down onto her, drenching her to the bone, as if the heavens were weeping along with her. But she felt no comfort from it, only coldness and a desperate sense of being utterly alone.