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"Now to horror classics, I'm sure we all know who this man is."
Ray Garraty looked out of the classroom window, he was bored, so bored of this class, when a single black notebook fell from the sky.
"Mr. Garraty, Can you name the prose style being used here?"
"Yes Ma'am."
Garraty walked down the courtyard to the place where the notebook had fallen, it was actually there. He picked it up.
Ray sat in his bedroom, staring at the notebook.
"Death Note?" He opened it up, revealing rules written in English inside it, he wondered what kind of weirdo put that much work into something like this but he read the rules inside it too.
<Whomever whose name is written on this notebook shall die after 40 seconds>
And he didn't believe it, obviously but it made him uncomfortable, he closed the notebook again.
"I gotta go" He swallowed nervously his Adam's apple bumping up and down. He had book-club with his girlfriend Jan.
Beautiful Jan who had taught him that books were things that could be enjoyed more often than not, and who while didn't like admitting this to himself had given him the perfect excuse to attend a book-club, and not be made fun of because of it.
He grabbed his back with the book of the week inside, he placed the notebook there too, for no reason, right? Just to show it to Jan later, she would think it's weird too. Just for that.
He was walking towards the little, sort of classroom they held their meetings in.
"Aaaaah!" It was Jan's voice. He hurried to where the voice was coming from. There he found Jan, correlated by one big man trying to steal something from her. He got to her. "Ray!" "Jan throw it the back, he will go for that!" Jan threw her little purse to the opposite side of the sidewalk, and the man ran after it.
"Are you okay!?" He hugged her, she trembled.
"Yeah just scared that all." He hugged her tighter
"He didn't do anything to you, right?"
"No" She looked down for a moment then stood on her tiptoes. She smiled wide at him, he knew she was still scared but he loved this about her, that she preferred to smile even in moments like this. "No. Thanks to my hero"
He blushed "No, just I knew that from a CSA rip off show, my mom likes to watch."
"My hero" She stated.
"Not true!"
"My hero I say" She unconsciously reached down for her purse "Oh yeah that I don't have it anymore"
"Sorry" Ray awkwardly put one hand behind his neck "Did you have anything too important there?"
"Nah just the book of the week, and some napkins but I really liked that purse."
"Yeah I know, you wore it everywhere" Ray looked to the side, he felt a little ashamed of himself, he thought it was weird, his girlfriend had been the one who got robbed and he was the one feeling ashamed.
"C'mon, let's get going" Jan said, and they walked to the classroom.
"Hi, you two" The club leader greeted them "The last one still has to arrive, so we will wait a little longer, okay?"
"Kay" Jan answered to her, reaching down for Ray's hand, she walked them to the pair of chairs they always used.
"Can you let me borrow your book for this session?"
"Sure" Ray looked for the book on his backpack. "Actually this reminds me, I wanted to show you this."
"What?"
"This" He pulled out the notebook.
"Death Note?" Jan asked, her nose scrunching up.
"I know. I found it in the courtyard at school I don't know who it belongs to, or anything" She nodded along, while she opened the notebook, and read the rules inside it.
"It's very elaborate for a prank, don't you think?" Jan said.
"Yeah, I said the same thing."
<<Ray Booth! Baby!>>
"What the?"
"What is it Jan?" Ray asked her, she had turned to the window, after hearing the guy screaming outside.
"That's the guy who robbed us" She pointed at the window "Look. He's bothering that poor girl now."
Ray looked at the man, as he sneered all over the girl, he wanted to help her, but he wasn't going to go out of his way for it.
Jan hummed "Maybe we should write that dude's name on the book, he keeps shouting it."
"Uh?"
"Yeah, heart it, Ray Booth, over and over, guys like that should die" Jan said looking at Ray now, she sighed, she looked thoroughly tired all of a sudden.
Ray reached for his backpack, pulling out a black pen. "Do I write it or do you?"
"Oh my God. Are we actually gonna do it?"
"Sure, why not? it's just a notebook, and who takes it, he might actually drop dead" It was a joke, notebooks didn't give people heart attacks, but what if they did, would the world really loose much if a criminal who bothered girls in the street, didn't anymore.
"Let's both do it" She grabbed the pen, and wrote Booth in that nice gentle handwriting of her's. Everything she ever did reminded him of strawberries, and warm sweaters somehow.
Then he grabbed the pen too, writing Ray, boldly, and quickly on it, it felt fitting. Jan giggled for a few seconds, then turned back. Ray didn't.
He kept staring at the window, counting forty seconds down. He knew nothing would happen afterwards, but he kept counting, he needed to see. He got to 39, he sighed and shook his head, he was probably dumb, if he was actually expecting something there.
<<Aaaaah!>> A loud groan resonated through the window.
"R-Ray" Jan said, she looked pale holding both hands up to her mouth "Look." He turned back to the window, the guy was holding his chest with the strength of a man who was seeing his life pass before him, he clutched his chest as he fell in the ground, belly up in front of the girl, she screamed and ran away. Ray Booth coughed once more, then fell flat in the ground. He was dead now.
"Hey, guys sorry for being late... What are y'all looking at?"
Ray thought he could pass out.
Ray walked Jan back to her house in silence, he was sure it had all been a coincidence, because it couldn't not be a coincidence, but what if it wasn't, he couldn't focus on anything. They passed the sidewalk.
"Jan do you think we killed him?"
"No!" She blinked rapidly as if she were trying to conjure up a reason why that just wasn't possible "He just died, it doesn't have anything to do with us! It's not possible! It just isn't!"
"But-"
"Let's not talk about it, I still feel bad about it" Jan ended the conversation like that. Ray held her hand on the way, silently, he didn't know how to make her feel better, but he wanted to try.
"Let's talk tomorrow, okay?" Jan said as they arrived to her house, she squeezed his hand.
"Yeah."
"Bye." She hugged him, and went inside her house.
He let himself fall on the bed, his room felt too gloomy for him right now. He closed his eyes and rolled to his side.
"So, you found my notebook?"
"Ah!" Ray jumped up on his bed. A guy with a scar, and an apple laughed at him.
"Am I really that ugly?"
"Who are you!?"
"Just the person who used to own the notebook you own now."
"A..." He couldn't finish that thought.
"A... Shinigami?" He rolled the apple around his fingers "Yes, The Shinigami who used to own the Death Note you are using now."
Ray breathed raggedly, gripping the sheets beneath him.
"The Death Note? Are you here to pick it up?"
"Are you not listening to me? I said I used to own it, I don't anymore, the moment it fell, it was owned by The Earth, and the moment you picked it up, it was owned by you."
"Why?"
"Why, what?"
"Why did it fall?"
"Gravity." Garraty looked down, he wanted to beat this guy up.
"Why did you drop it?"
"Because I can" The guy took a bigger bite out of the apple, the juice dripping down his chin.
"I'm bored, that's all. Don't think yourself special I dropped it because I was bored, and wanted to see if something amusing would happen, you just happened to be the one to pick it up."
"What do you want?"
"I just told you, I want to be amused" He shrugged "And apples, these are nice too."
Ray allowed himself to breath and calm down, he sat up on the bed. "Do you got anything in mind?" He sneered to the side, feeling way too bitter.
"Nah. I just want to see what a human would do with a Death Note."
"Do you really think seeing a kid running around with a killing notebook is going to be fun?"
"Very, very fun" The guy took a big bite off the center of the apple. Ray held the need to laugh under his breath, back.
"Hey" The guy turned to him "Do Shinigamis have names?"
"Some do, some don't."
"Do you?"
The guy smiled widely, the scar stretching over his skin "Peter McVries" He offered Ray his hand.
"Ray Garraty" and Ray took it.