Insanity's Ideals ~Prequel to Deathnote~

Chapter 3 ~Instructions~

With the old wise tale about catching a cold while standing out in the rain humming in the back of my mind, I stared down at the book with my one seeing eye. The book emitted something-- an evil aura. I opened it and stared at the first page. It was in English, which meant I needed to translate it.

“The human whose name is written in this note... shall die.” I whispered, the gears of my head turning. Humans were so sick and twisted, coming up with a thing like this. Yet humans are a sick and twisted race, so something like this being created and existing; it had all the right to be in this world. It belonged in this messed up world.

Still... to come up with something like this-- no, the human mind that comes up with this idea. They must really be interesting; someone that I could study without losing my hope for them. I could test that person in so many different scenarios. Endless possibilities to help me unlock the secrets of the human mind.

Then, coming to the realization that the note may be ruined if I don’t get out the rain, I snapped the book shut and headed inside. But not before tucking in away in my backpack; I’d rather not have to explain to my mother about a book whose purpose is something I’m still not entirely certain of. The rain had begun to pick up, just as the weather forecast had predicted early this morning. Although I could not recall if they said the rain would worsen into a thunderstorm. Whether it did or didn’t did not concern me or even draw much of any of my attention.

“Hello honey! How was school?” I heard my mother shout into from the kitchen. Glancing, I noticed she was preparing dinner for us. My brother was going to be apprenticing for a job at the local police department; it was his dream to be a detective and solve crimes, which meant he was going to be back pretty late. He was an average child and student, with an average GPA and grades. He was 13, only two years younger than me, but he had a lot to learn.

“Normal,” I responded back to her, heading up the stairs to my room. I wasn’t in the mood to chat lightly with her-- there was something else that had sucked up all my interest. My backpack felt heavy, a heaviness that was more than just weight. I knew my mother was probably not even paying attention to my behavior; I was always like this. I did not like to be bothered by people, especially when I had found something like this note.

Finally making it up into my room, I closed the door and turned the lock. It clicked, indicating that the mechanism had worked, that I was all alone in the room and none could bother me. I didn’t want anyone to see me, to watch my mind in motion. I sat on my computer desk chair and reached into my backpack, extracting the notebook. Flipping it open to the first page, I stared at what I thought was the instructions. Instructions to kill.

I cursed under my breath at the sight of the instructions. It was all in English, just like the first phrase was earlier. Sighing, I grabbed another spare piece of paper and began to translate it slowly. After about a few minutes take their tool, I had it translated and readable. Looking at the paper, my eyes scrolled the ‘instructions’.

The human whose name is written in this note shall die.

This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person’s face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.

If the cause of death is written within the first 40 seconds of writing person’s name, it will happen.

If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.

After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

“So... even a simple joke could be this elaborate?” I sneered. “Humans... are so much fun. So sick and twisted, but nonetheless amazing. Even idiots can be of use if I work about it correctly. But still...” I trailed off, turning my attention back to the book on my desk. What was this feeling that was building inside my mind? This curiosity... Did it mean that I really wanted to try it? Did I... as both a human and an aspiring mentalist, want to try to kill somebody for the sake of knowing? Was it a need to learn that was tugging at my heart... or was it an ideal that I had been forming in the back of my mind for all these years I had been studying and researching?

The Deathnote... did I have the nerve to even place the tip of my pencil against its cursed pages? Lowering the pencil, my hand trembled slightly. The lead tip hovered over the paper pages, I felt a bead of sweat trickle down my neck slowly. Pulling the pencil back, my eyebrows furrowed together. Whose name would I even write down? Who’ll be the first to supposedly will die by hand? I couldn’t think, my head was beginning to ache and throb painfully. The pencil fell out of my hand and clattered onto the floor, the probability of the tip now being broken high.

“Ai! Hurry up and come down to eat dinner so you can get to your Prep classes on time!” My mother’s shout made me jump. What was wrong with me? Getting so worked up over a dumb prank.

“Hai!” I called back down to her, gathering my backpack up again. I was about leave, unlocking and opening my door, but I froze. Turning back, I looked at the Deathnote. On an impulse, I strode back and tucked it back into the backpack with all my other belongings. Closing my door behind me, I let out a small smile before heading downstairs.