Death Note: Blood Ties

Chapter 3: CULPRIT

Jack:

I knew his name started with 'e'. Edward or Ethan or something.

Even if I knew his first name I still needed his last name in order to kill him. What I really needed were school photos. I suppose looking back, killing Joel Robinson in front of the assembly wasn't the smartest thing to do. He was a bully, but now the previous owner knows that someone else at the school has the death note. They've probably figured out that it's someone from the same year as them, too. I frowned, I hadn't ended up keeping the school photos we all got at the start of the year. What I needed was to get someone else's. Or better yet, I could simply ask teachers or students what that dude's full name is.

I couldn't risk the chance they'd tell him I'd asked. I suppose it wouldn't matter if I did get his name, then I could just kill him before he could do anything. What if the person I asked didn't know the dude's name but told him I'd asked? Then I'd be in trouble... I might have to kill him in some other way instead of the notebook.

No, that would be too fucking risky.

Besides, did I even really need to kill him? He's no risk to me now, no one would ever believe him if he talked about a notebook that could kill. Even if he did think I was the one with the notebook and that I didn't have his name, what could he do? Try to kill me by himself? I would simply run away to a safe distance and write his name in my notebook once I found it out, which wouldn't be too hard if I didn't need to be sneaky. I didn't like the idea of killing innocents, but I suppose he's the one who wrote Reece Caldon's name in the notebook but he showed remorse by trying to get rid of it.

Or maybe he'd just been hiding it for later, either way, he probably still had a family like I did. I suppose it was kind of hypocritical to decide to kill drug dealers only, considering I also took drugs. Then again, I never tried to justify what I did with the notebook when I used it. I killed Tony for drugs and money, that's all there was to it. I didn't know if it was right or wrong, but I didn't care either. However, killing a student at school didn't feel right to me. It could also look suspicious if more people knew about the book than that one guy. Part of me wanted to just face him like a man and ask him about it - where did it come from?

Whether I decided to kill him or not I should wait a week first.

*

The next day I was walking to the bus stop, early as usual. It was grey and cold, like it'd been all month. I kept my hands in my pockets as I walked, the death note was inside my school bag. Should that guy have the balls to walk up to me I'd be ready to kill him if I had to.

I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end and got the familiar feeling that I was being followed. I stopped and turned around. I couldn't see anything but the feeling that I was being watched was still there. I kept walking, then I heard noise. Wing beats? I started walking faster and turned the corner. There was the bus stop, a covered area next to the bus sign. An old man wearing earmuffs and a beanie was sitting on the metal bench, and a lady dressed in business clothes with ear buds in was standing by the street waiting quietly. I walked up and sat down on the bench at the other side of the old guy. I could see other kids from my school that were walking over to the bus stop. I stared ahead, bouncing my knee.

"Hey there." a friendly albeit crackly and frightening voice said to me.

I turned my head. A tall red demon with large yellow eyes, bat wings and terrible sharp teeth smiled at me.

I screamed. I screamed so loud that the old man jumped up and spun around and the chick with the earphones in turned to gape at me. I was lying on the ground staring as the creature stood ten feet from me and watched.