Dead or Alive

Chapter 4: Where are you? (2)

'Well, that's what they are saying on the Dollars' homepage.' She says this much softer, as if she didn't want anyone to hear it.

I'm not sure exactly what happened after that. Everything just went still and time itself seemed to stop. Izaya... is dead. No, it couldn't be possible. That guy is way too persistent and annoying to just die like that. My mind went blank and I couldn't think of anything as my thoughts stubbornly latched onto only one sentence 'Izaya can't be dead'. Somewhere far off I could hear the sound of someone calling my name, but the voice was too distant; seemingly intangible. I couldn't move my head to look for the owner of the voice; I couldn't even move my feet.

It was only when I felt a hand on my shoulder shaking me that I started to sense the things around me. It was Tom. I look up, not knowing what to think. How did he die? Did someone kill him? If so, then who? How? And where?

'Hey, you alright? I was kinda worried when you suddenly stopped like that. Even now, you don't seem very well...' Tom keeps worrying about me... He's one of the very few people that would actually worry about a monster like me... He would probably even be one of the few people that would cry for me after I died...

I, once again, remember my dream. How there were so many people that seemed worried at my death... And how one person tried to give up his life in exchange for mine... Well, it was just a dream. But it felt so real... So true... like it actually happened. Of course, that's not true, and even I know that...

'Shizuo?' He asks again. He looked at me, concern obvious in his eyes.

'Oh, it's nothi-' And that's when I notice it. That familiar scent that used to irritate me so much. It's coming from way ahead. Forgetting everything, I start running towards it. You aren't dead. You can't be dead. You damn flea. You are alive, you understand me? You are alive, 'IIIIIZAAAAAAYAAAAAA!'

I keep making turns, and even if I end up in the middle of a crowd, I don't slow down. Behind me, I can hear Tom's numerous protests, but it doesn't stop me. 'You damn flea! Like hell you are dead! I could never kill you! You can't die that easily, you bastard!'

'Hey! Shizuo! Wait! Where are you even going?!' Tom called from behind me as he tried to catch up to me, only to fail.

'To Shinjuku to his apartment to beat his ass! Where else?!'

And without saying another word, I continue on my way to his house.

I finally reached his apartment after about half an hour. I waited for a while outside the apartment, trying to catch my breath, and then continued on inside, and into an elevator. I pressed the button to his respective floor (I knew the floor he lived on because of that one time I had gone after him to beat the shit out of him for trying to kill me by sending some guy who had gone nuts after me) and waited for the elevator to arrive at that floor.

The door soon opened with a ding that indicated that we had reached and I stepped out. I didn't have to waste much time searching which house was Izaya's, since there was only one flat on the entire floor. The door in front of me was closed, but I was sure that if I rang the bell, no one would open it like last time, and I was not having any of that shit today, so I just kicked the door open. I guess I put too much force in the kick, because it kinda broke... completely... Oh, well, can't do anything about that now. Might as well get on with what I came here for.

'Oi! Flea! Where are yo-' But I stopped mid-sentence when I saw all the boxes and the packing. I couldn't understand what was going on. Why were there so many boxes here? What happened to all his stuff? And that's when it hit me, like a light bulb appearing above my head. 'Ah! I see! So you're running away, are you?!' I see now... he first spreads rumours about his death so that no one is suspicious about his absence, and then leaves. He may even be plotting something, for which he thinks it'll be safer to be further away from Ikebukuro for. That flea...