Cloak and Dagger

Prologue

"Hey!"

...

"Can you hear me?"

...

Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk...

...

"Who is she?"

...

"...n't just leave her out there to be..."

...

~~~~~

My head hurts. There's a bright light on the other side of my eyelids, but I don't want to acknowledge it. I don't want to wake up.

"Are you waking up?"

My eyes snap open. The voice is familiar, but also foreign. I force my elbows to move, to take my weight and allow me to look.

I'm in a bed in, well, a bedroom. There's a boy sitting at a desk nearby, books spread in front of him and a pen in hand.

"How are you feeling?" he asks. I touch my pounding head, trying to form words.

"S-... sore." I mumble.

"Well, when you're laying on the sidewalk for God knows how long, I can't expect much else."

I tilt my head, trying to figure out just who this is.

"Do I... know you?"

"I don't think so," the boy shrugs. "Somehow, I think I'd recognise a girl like you."

I frown, running a hand through my hair. When my fingers reach the ends of my long side fringe, I smile. The boy smiles back.

"Light, is she - oh. You're awake."

Light ... Oh my god. I mean, he seems rather nice, but...

"My name is Yagami Sachiko. This is my son, Light. What is your name?"

"Ellen... Smith Ellen."

"And how are you feeling, Sumisu-san?"

"Collapse the vowels, Mum." Light advises. "And the 'th' sound is made by pushing the tip of your tongue just between your teeth."

"Smit... Smitz-san." Miss Yagami sounds out.

"My head is killing me." I say. "And I feel sore all over."

Light's eyebrow rises subtly at this comment.

"We called in the doctor to give you a quick examination." Miss Yagami says. "He said you were alright, aside from a concussion."

"Can you tell us how you got to the park?" Light asks.

"I can't even tell you how I got to Japan." I admit. "The last I remember, I was in Australia, and it was two days before my seventeenth birthday... December tenth."

"Well, you can consider yourself well and truly seventeen." Light states. "It's May, Two-Thousand-Six."

I chew on the inside of my lip. In 2006, I was seven.

"This must be terrifying for you." Miss Yagami murmurs, placing a hand on my own. "Listen, my husband is a police officer. He'll do his best to return you to your home, and you're welcome to stay here until then."

"Thank you for the offer, but I can't just impose on you."

"Nonsense." Light cuts in. "I can't let the effort of rescuing you go to waste."

My eyes widen a little. Light smiles; a sweet, gentle expression that's nothing like the images burned into my mind after watching Death Note. Then again, perhaps this is before he finds the notebook...

Or perhaps I've been judged innocent.

"You can consider this your room for now." Miss Yagami says.

"Isn't this, um, Yagami-kun's room?" I ask, gesturing to Light.

"Please, call me Light. This is the guest room, but I wanted to ensure that you would be alright, so I stayed here while I did my homework." As he speaks, Light begins to pack up his notebooks. I sit up and rub my head.

"That's... sweet of you, Light-san."

"No, it's really just the decent thing to do, Ellen-san. Ah, sorry - are you alright with me calling you by your first name?

I can't help it. I giggle. He just seems so normal - so innocent. That's ludicrous. People aren't innocent.

"It's the norm in English-speaking culture, but then... Yes. You may call me Ellen, Light-san."