Chapter 39: Reminder
"Good morning (Name)-chan! How are you feeling today? I bet you feel like utter crap! I brought two of my 'friends' here with me, mind choosing one who you want to save?"
He heard no response. She was fully awake, that was a fact, he frowned, deducting that the woman already broke.
"It's story time! Do you know these two people here? No, you don't!"
"Myers, Age 19. Mhenzi, Age 20. Their death dates were pretty close, so I decided to simply drag them here!"
Two people tried to struggle. There was a piece of cloth tied to their mouths, preventing them from creating any more noise. Ropes took away their freedom to move, seeing that they were tied up pretty tightly. (Name)'s heart sped up, waiting for the worse, what could Beyond want from them?
"I'm gonna go straight to the point~ These two are lovers, they are pretty in love and are often lovey-dovey with each other, it disgusts me, what's with human connection anyways? But I digress, basically, I'm gonna kill one of them and you need to choose who you wish to save."
"One's gonna die, one's gonna suffer. Either way, it's your fault!"
"So who is it (Name)-chan? Hurry up or I'll just kill both of them, I'm not very patient."
"W-what are you..." You trailed off, not finding any strength to speak and continue your sentence any longer, it already deemed useless asking a question of 'What are you doing?'. Beyond was merciless, he would shrug the question off as 'just finding entertainment.' A man who already gave up trying to reason and create sense will not answer such questions with much sense.
Beyond yanked her hair forwards, trying to shake her head in hopes of creating a fast decision. "Hey! Seriously! Hurry up!"
The girl remained silent, frustrating the crimson eyed male. He yanked her hair harsher, smashing her head into the back of her chair at the same time. "Hurry the hell up! HURRY UP! CREATE A DECISION AND MOVE ON!"
"I won't create one! I-I can't! Why-"
"YOU HAVE TO!"
"WHY SHOULD I?! LET THEM GO BEYOND! DON'T DRAG OTHERS INTO THIS!" For the first time in weeks, she found her voice to scream at him, immediate fear rose up to her chest in fear of angering him. Beyond simply frowned, smashing her head back.
"Fine."
Fear.
'What have I done?'
Screams of agony and pain filled the thick atmosphere as Beyond dragged the woman and wrapped his hand around her fragile neck, choking her to death. The man tied up on the floor kept screaming, begging for (Name) to plead for his death. However, the (h/c) haired girl can't, she wailed and shriek in panic, begging instead for the woman's freedom.
With wide eyes and dilated pupils, (Name) watched in vast pain and guilt as the woman's neck broke, she watched as the woman's eyes lost their color, the male on the floor screamed as she took her final breath.
Who would want to witness your lover die?
"This is what happens when you take too long! Now they're both gonna die."
With a quick stab, the man's heart was broken, literally. Beyond pulled out his knife from the other male's heart and whistled at the bloody mess he made.
"You were all pretty loud. My eardrums almost broke, dayum."
"Beyond Birthday."
"Oooooohhh! She speaks!"
"Is death- no, Is murder a natural thing to you?"
"Death is a part of life. We become aware of it almost every single day. Murder is just a part of it, do you really think it makes a single difference? We don't even care if some stranger gets murdered, it might cross our minds for a few while, but they will be forgotten once again.
Humans are full of greed and envy, they would do anything to have power, to gain money, to gain superiority. Even if it means ending one's existence."
"I don't have time for all that talking. Tell me then, why did you do it? Why the hell did you do it?! You dragged innocent people into this! Just so you could do what? Torture my mind? Torture me?! I'm not going to break!"
"I know you will."
***
"What happened?"
"Eh?"
"What happened to you? I bet there's some deep shit on why you're too focused in torturing me, even killing others."
"Curiosity eh? Nothing ever comes good with that. Remember, curiosity killed the cat."
"Well, I'm glad as hell that I am not a cat."
Beyond sighed, amusement filling his eyes as he looked at the intriguing entity.
"Let's chit chat for a while then! We're going to be here for a long time anyway. I'm gonna tell you my life story and then you're gonna pity me, we're gonna fall in love and then we have a happy ending!" The male said in cheerful mockery, clasping his hands together as he pulled a couch from the other room, sitting down on it cozily.
"-and since L was a piece of shit, he didn't see it coming, or if he did, he refused to acknowledge the fact that A might commit suicide-"
"Who's A?"
"Oh, did I forget to tell you? Well! He was my friend, given that he was also one of us, the earlier generations to succeed L. Anyway, A committed suicide, leaving only a letter of his farewell. He said he didn't blame L since he himself cannot handle the pressure, it was him who made that decision and L has nothing to do with it yada yada, Pfft. As if I would believe a petty statement like that. Even for a tiny bit, I know he blames L, even for a slight second, he blamed him.
You know him... You know who he is.
You weren't dragged into all this ruckus coincidentally, it's safe to say that all this time, you were another pawn sprawled out in the battlefield. You were being controlled, like a puppet."
***
"Good morning! Puppet."
"I am not."
"You are."
"..."
"How easy it is to control someone like you! You even got this far! Puppet! Puppet! Puppet!"
I am not a puppet. How pathetic, all those times you made me sulk in my seat, staring at the floor and the ceiling weren't worth it. All those things you spat out from your mouth were a bluff.
Was I really that desperate that I succumbed to his words?
It must have felt great, amazing even that you had the chance to accomplish two things at once, to inflict pain to L's successor, and to me.
I get it now.
You wanted to drive me insane, to wake up a monster that's been sleeping inside me, inside humans. It wasn't the human inside of me, it wasn't the human who contained fear and bloodlust.
It was the shinigami inside me, that he wanted to wake up. Shinigami, a bringer of death.
I can remember, I do remember everything.
Beyond Birthday, a man who once loved me. A man who sought revenge on me. He wanted- No, that's not it. He needed vengeance so desperately. He was the desperate one, he was the one clinging to his past.
A past that no longer lived in this world.
It was back then, at the shinigami realm. The history I was told I had was all a lie. Dan was lying, that wretched shinigami did not tell me the truth.
He only told me what the truth looked like to him, a perception, perhaps it was how he viewed it, or how he wanted to believe it.
Beyond Birthday was a king. I was a shinigami. The realm of death was once our home, and back then...
Shinigamis did not look like monsters. We even looked like real humans ourselves, excusing our wings and crimson-red eyes.
It was a realm, a past that no longer existed. It only became a memory, until the one fated day, that a new Shinigami King was chosen. It jumbled up everything, leaving the whole universe to a mess.
For how he remembers it was a lie, Beyond Birthday was after me, his thoughts jumbling up with others, creating a ruckus.
I didn't have a father, a mother, nor a sibling. They weren't my blood to begin with, I was only a shinigami created to bring death. Yet somehow...
Somehow...
Humanity was summoned inside me.
The past I thought I had, everything up to now was a complete jumbled up mess. A confusing condition. I wasn't really born from a mother's womb, I wasn't created by a shinigami.
Because one day, I was just...
There.
Standing.
Standing, as my responsibilities filled my thoughts. From the moment my eyes opened, I knew what I was, what I had to do.
In short, I am a shinigami. With our new king chosen, Death was mixed with Life, and somehow... Somehow, it created a human inside of me, it brought feelings no Shinigami was known to feel, it separated me from being what I was.
I'm not a half shinigami anymore.
Nor a full one.
I am a human, an odd human that is. Cast out by society, I know where I fit into.
A world once blank, a world that finally gained color. A world full of danger and risks.
A world where Nate River lives. I fit there perfectly.
From now on, I will live my life as a human. Normality was what I needed. I bet Near craves it too, I'll be glad to hand that over to him.
For some reason, I feel giddy. I feel excited and happy.
What am I even feeling excited for? Perhaps another chance to live with Near? I don't think I was living before, covering myself with a mask and trying to push away my emotions.
I don't think we were both living before.
Ow, what a pain. It took a lot to crack our masks.
No kidding, it broke our masks completely.